DollsArtCats

 It's black in overhead inside light, and a deep, deep purple in sunlight: So very fancy! I regret that I had to cut it from it's parent plant, but the rest of my iris are still sprawled from the storm, though blooming still: These are the ones my friend Andy brought up in a suitcase from Kansas, and I am so pleased and delighted they manage to survive here! Some of the are just so elaborate: I love all the colors! The black iris name is supposed to be "All Night Long" and is from (I think) a breeder in Oregon. It came in a small box as basically a small root, and I was worried for it, but I planted it in a sheltered spot last fall and it made it ok under a pile of peat moss. Now it's looking quite healthy and, fingers crossed, will put out more blooms next Spring.

 When we moved here from New Jersey, the only thing that got broken in the 11,000 pounds of household goods that we shipped-- were the toes on this plaster caterpillar. Just the front toes, even. This was in 2012, and I said that I would fix the caterpillar in a month or so, once the other stuff was unpacked. Thirteen years later, I finally got around to fixing his toes with Apoxie Sculpt and touching up the paint to match his back toes. It was Caterpillar Spa Day. Cat's iris is still teasing me--it's added more buds, but not opening yet! (It's also slightly out of focus, to add to the mystery.) You can see I need to touch up the paint on my siding. Maybe in a month or so... The rest of the yard is looking a little more put together--the dish is water for chipmunks and bees, the upturned stock pot is over an outdoor outlet that powers the bubbler for the water trough for the birds. There is a still a lot to do. (I love the chipmunks, but they do complicate gardening).

Monarch butterflies! Butterflies are so hard to photograph--they are nervous and flighty when you get close, and move contstantly. There are some other oddball bugs flying around--this one seems to be trying to chat up my window decoration: I'm sorry, she's not going to date you, Mr. Fly. And we have bebe tomatoes! Fingers crossed they will continue to ripen... My neighbor Ed grew the start in an old coffee can, and brought it over as a sad little root with 2 leaves-- I am amazed it survived!

2020. What a sucky year, but there are good things too. The mask supply is now almost adequate, since I ended up supplementing my unsatisfactory ones with purchased ones. The one I am wearing here I bought from astro artist Aldo Spadoni via Redbubble, and it's comfortable and fits: (red dwarf planet, a bit hard to see in the folds) Everybody masks up in Illinois, even the illegal fireworks cartoon characters: It's a flyer--unlike all our neighbors, we do not buy fireworks. We have no need to, when everyone else has them. And shoots them off EVERY DAY.  -.- The weather has been pretty good--the garden in back went from this in May: (when I could still pretend I was in control of it) To this in July: The baby foxes are big now: The baby Bad Bird that eats the other birds is bigger too :p And we have butterflies on the echinacea (I need to plant a lot more after moving the hosta) And we have bunnies, here is one pretending to ...

The bees are working extra hard to stash away pollen for the winter. I planted a lot of things that are late bloomers just for this reason, but the dahlias haven't set any flowers--they went in late, though. I might do some squash next year just for the flowers...some of the things I planted this year were meh, like Bergamot. It grows fabulously here in the wild and mildews horribly in my yard. The morning glories look great. I always wish I had planted more, but they are fussy about location. They like compost and sun and I haven't got a lot of sun. The bees like these too: They don't really like their photos taken but they are hungry enough this time of year to let me get close: (That is mint that this bee is on) We have lots of other bugs--I kind of like the cicadas, they have a cool paint job, even if they don't look too bright: I think the cat is looking forward to it being a little cooler so we can spend more time outside: We have these guys o...

Yes, we have them at last. It must be summer :D (Two birbs, pretending to be sunflowers) Bonus Queen Anne's Lace And a bee on the rose (Rugosa variety)

So pretty!! I'm trying to find out who did her face, she looks amazing!(Edit--it's Bangarang, UK Aesthetics ) She is an old classic Soom Beryl on a later body, probably a Special Order Dia when you could still get her as a standard.  It was warm here today--compared to LA it was fine, though. But I left my cat on the porch by a window and look what happened: (Outside there are real sunflowers, planted by the birds).

Little Miss Thistle was originally a bit of a mistake. Akutenshi and I spotted what we thought was a Minifee Moe at a doll show, and split the cost. It turned out that only the bottom half was an actual Minifee, and the head was..dubious. So I went to the Den of Angels MP and found a Minifee head (a Nanuri 2016), a head that had proper marking and magnets where they were supposed to be. So Thistle has a face. Her head is sort of a 7-8 for wigs. The size 7 wig here is a little tight, and an 8 is too large. The Moe body is adorable, but smaller around than a Minifee body--the top here fits my old Luts Shushu well and Thistle is barely in it--it's pinned in the back. Her waist is tiny, too. Here are the Moe body measurements on the Den of Angels Wiki: https://denofangels.com/doawiki/index.php?title=Fairyland_MiniFee#Moe_line Thistle's body is the smaller M line at the right side of the chart. She has tiny feet. Magnet feet, which want to drop off. My plan is to mak...

I bought a Dollmore doll body from Solen on Den of Angels (a very nice transaction) and she included this adorable stretch dress and bolero as a gift! Though it's sized for the larger Dollmore body, like most Dollmore clothes it has a lot of stretch so you can fit it on lots of people. Including Ashley, my pyromancer (a Soom Snow White). So just for fun, I did a mini-photoshoot yesterday afternoon before the thunderstorms came in. After the winter, it's soooo green! All the rain has made the weeds lush. Most of my weeds are interesting and fun (though there is some poison sumac mixed in there--I have to keep an eye out for "leaves of three" when I weed). Here are some New England Asters. (I would buy these): Where I have some rotting timbers, I have this low creeper--maybe Spurge? I have some black raspberries that should be ripe in just a couple of days, so I will have something to put on my cereal. They look good now, but they aren't ripe...