DollsArtCats

Yes, that is an oil painting--it looks so photographic partly because it's so reduced from the original. If you go visit the artist's website, here , you can see on the splash page a painting that looks a bit more like what you would expect a (very tight, controlled) oil painting would look like. You can see a bit of the artist's "hand" in how the hair strokes go. I am a big fan of his, I also love his color sense! The website is a pleasure to visit and mostly work-safe.

I got a request to try EID hands on the Granado body and I was "Nah, won't fit.." I was so happy to be wrong! Iplehouse sells hands as option parts so you can get some different poses for your girls. Here is the page at Iplehouse . The hand shown is an Iplehouse WS hand on a Nuevo NS body. I think Iple NS is close to the Granado NS.

I regularily read the local police blotter, mostly because we live in a diverse, densely populated suburban area that seems remarkably free of serious crime, so we get reports of Police Chase Bicyclist, Snowmen Vandalized, Man Arrested for Drunk and Disorderly Outside Shannon's Bar, and Lawnmower Stolen off 59th street. But it seems every 6 months or so the local Kohls get hit with Young Persons in their 20s Shoplifting x items, including a vaccuum cleaner, which neither J or I could quite wrap our heads around. How do you stuff a vacuum cleaner into your pants? I also think of Kohl's as being that sleepy, pleasant midrange store somewhere above a Kmart in smartness and slightly less tony than J.C. Penneys, with unexciting work clothes, some amusing household items, and a few really cute boots. It's not somewhere I would ever really shop, much less consider shoplifting from. So... I needed some sheets and some pillows that were not cat-infested for my sister, and since I...

The pond, bubbler free and frozen once more; it's cold enough that Norm across the street has set up his hockey rink, and it's frozen--year before last he put it up and then it was unseasonably warm, so he didn't put in in last year. I think he figures that he will put it up and it will get warm again to spite him, or be cold enough to be an outstanding skating rink, but either way it's a win/win. I think he still needs a small zamboni to keep it smooth. My sister came for Thanksgiving and we sat around after dinner playing with a 3d doodler--it squirts out ABS and it's both cool and difficult to control. My sister has more patience than I do and she figured out how to build upward with the help of a skewer--the things that looks like someone starting a pen are my attempts, and the things that look like things are hers. I think I will save my doodles for applique on some hapless doll's outfit. :D

Anyway, no matter what you are serving, may you have a Happy Thanksgiving!

If you are a Den of Angels member, solarsenshi is selling a gorgeous Granado Jaden head here . She's asking basically her cost plus shipping, for a very limited, sold out head. The new Granado NS is a translucent Normal Pink and if you want a matching body for the head, I would recommend getting one at the next body ordering period at Granado; the sale runs Dec 1st through the 3rd, mainland China time. (Granado has a handy clock in the corner of their website front page to keep track of their current time). I would be all over this head if I hadn't just brought home a Galena and a Dia, because Things seem to Happen to the molds at Granado--which is why I don't have a Granado Taya here. Sigh.

OK I did look at coats on Ebay, I did laundry and dishes, cleaned out some drawers and cut my hair, but mostly I did the bear thing and thought about sewing stuff. I also ate cake and looked at the Steampunk book my brother sent me. I thought about wrapping stuff, too.

My brother sent me a pair of steampunk goggles (and an amazing book to go with them). The zip-up sweater that I am wearing is what happens when you go to the " Click this to feed shelter cats and dogs " and of course it turns out there is stuff that you can buy to also support the shelters, and I found a Nepalese patterned hoodie and well, here it is. It kind of says "crazy cat lady" but it's super soft and has made one successful trip through the wash already. My friend Prae sent me some hair models as well--this one is from RuntimeDNA and is designed for Victoria4, the model is called "Anfa" and like all her models is super easy to use. The character is Fu-minn's Ami from Renderosity.com And finally it is baking season! J has his method of keeping everything organized in the kitchen. Post-its in our kitchen means that some kind of treat is coming: Here it is! Raspberry chocolate torte, super chocolatey!

J did a lot of shopping today, while I worked to retrieve the bubblers from the pond. The photos above are from a later trip in the evening to Jewel-Osco, where someone took a lot of time arranging the crab legs in the display. The Buddha's Hand looked interesting, but I think everyone in the store had picked it up and smelled it, so I passed on buying it. It was warm enough today to work outside without a coat, so I took advantage of it to carry out something like 30 gallons of hot water to defrost the pond. Or at least to defrost the pond enough to pull out the air stones and the tubing of the bubblers, because I didn't want them to go through several freeze and thaw cycles and have the pins at the top crack off, as they seem to want to do even with normal use. Since the pond was frozen solid, it took a while; but the pond looked pretty cool with leaves embedded in different layers and air bubbles trapped here and there. I was too wet and muddy to take a photo, though. I a...

Yes, they make them, even if they are out of stock. I was looking on Amazon for something else (the Charlie collectible figure) and I saw these. I also liked the Supernatural phone case with the text of the standard exorcism on it (in case you needed a prompt, though I see Sam now just has it recorded on his phone for playback).

K sent me these glasses from hottopic.com--they came with Cas smashed, though the image of him was fine and he was sitting in a pile of shards, which seemed sort of appropriate. I took the box and packaging to my local store and they swapped out the set for an unbroken set from the shelf with absolutely no hassle, which made me very happy. These glasses will only hold paint water and pencils, and will never be in the dishwasher. I had to do a lot of other strange projects today, including some ant control (they come in when it's cold outside) but I did a first pass on my Soom Dia's face. I need to go over it again with a magnifying glass, but it's coming along. She looks really different from the bulk of the Dias I've seen painted, possibly because I am not the best painter, but she looks the way I wanted her to.

I ordered her back in August, because I could see that Soom was gradually letting the "always available" Special Order dolls dwindle away, and I decided that if I messed around too long and didn't get a Dia I would kick myself later, since she is the last of the older Soom girls that I don't have. I also blame Sicktress and her boy Dia "Haru" for making me fall in love with the sculpt. Dia does make a gorgeous boy. So here she is--I got the shipping notice on the 17th and she is here TODAY. I think at this point someone at customs at O'Hare knows what these doll boxes are and just tosses them into the outgoing bin "for that crazy doll lady in the suburbs". Here is the box: I keep the shipping manifest now with the Certificate of Authenticity, though I also write what doll it is on the shipping papers, since Soom just marks them "doll" and I tend to forget which doll came when (a terrible thing to admit). Here is the inside of the...

Because I need to figure out who still needs clothing, and because I wanted to do an inventory, I took out all my Soom girls and tried to take some reasonable photographs. It was made tougher by the fact that it was overcast outside and I am still learning the quirks of this new camera. I took a lot of photos and only about a third were even reasonable. But here are the girls, all with papers exept the Original Beryl in the back (but she has the original body blushing and a SDink faceup, plus she has the right amount of wear and yellowing for her age, so I am pretty sure she is the real thing-- plus she came from another Den of Angels member). From left to right: Monthly Doll Mermaid Cass Wish Upon the North Wind Cuprit, modded by Charie Wilson, (used to be owned by AntiqueLilac ) La Melinite Cass Special Order (modded by Krowbar ) Soulmate Cuprit (ordered from Soom directly by me) Soom Legend Gneiss (ordered from Soom by me) Free Choice 2012 Beryl (hooved) Soom Galena Sweet W...

It's early to be this cold--I had to unplug my bubblers because the pond froze solid even with them running.