DollsArtCats

This is delightful! https://www.davidmbird.com/gallery

First of all, Mom sent me this GORGEOUS doll shawls that she knitted--and it fits and looks wonderful on it's intended recipient! And Spring is definitely coming (a good thing as winter started in October last year with snow. The weather can still prank us, but it was 60 degrees today. Here is the cat from a couple of days ago, actually outside :D We have those little prairie buttercups now: A nice sunset (my brother takes excellent sunset photos, I always think of him when we have nice ones:) J says the fish at Herrick Lake (where we went for a windy walk today) are probably all asleep--we didn't see any sign of fish or wildlife there since normally it's snowy. Here he is keeping his hat on. Hard to believe in a month or so everything will be greening up, right now it looks very wintery still: It will be great to be outside in the yard again!

I'm still poking at this thing--it is more done than before, and I redid the whole thing (All 8x10 inches of it) in acrylics instead of oil. But sometimes I think I love photography way more than painting things by hand--you get the fun and color of an image right away, and little surprises, too, like the spot of opal reflection at the top of this silly pic of some homemade potpourri. The textures are so fun!

All from today. These are the midwest's version of mountain ranges :D

I found the Flickr of a fellow DoA member and there are wonderful, spooky photos galore! Milena likes the "sleeping" plates of dolls and uses them to make such memorable photos, her Flickr is a wonderful visit! https://www.flickr.com/photos/dollsofmilena/

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...

My order from Goblin Market came! The big horns are surprisingly clean (they are 3d printed), the medium ones are just about perfect as is, ready for paint, and the little ones have a bubble but I was planning on using paper clay to reshape them a bit anyway. It's a lot of horns for 20 USD plus shipping. I've been sewing; hopefully this shirt will be done tomorrow and the intended recipient can model it. It's another one of those simple Soom Super Gem male shirts, this time with just a faced open neckline, no collar. The shape of the collar facing is right, but the fabric needed to be something very thin instead of the thick velour of the rest of the shirt. Design on it is yarn trim (usually used for knitting) plus an applique made of printed cotton. Hems need finishing, and snaps in the back. Two random photos from yesterday--a cloud joke: "I'm a tree!" And a squirrel eating mulberries in a tree in the front yard--I am sorry it's not more...

It was a bit wet in Naperville this weekend :o Paddleboats don't care about rain: The lilies do look good with rain on them: Dragonflies hunker down in the rain: And it does make the flowers bloom!

Apparently some crazy guy and a kayak went out to the Kilauea lava river where it goes into the ocean, and took some footage. The audio is kind of fun.

I was wandering around the Internets looking for photos from this year's Dollscar in Moscow (I think it was on the 16th and 17th of June) and I was not successful--but I did find Nekophoenix's wonderful Flickr! Go see all the pretties here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/necofenix/with/40073568021/

This is David Broach's portrait of Lance Cyril Mountain in the Sept. 2016 issue of Juxtapoz; and of course this is a ridiculous way to show a photographer's work-- but my scanner won't do much better--you should go find it yourself on the newstand and flip through the magazine. David Broach is a regular contributor to Juxtapoz. I love his artist portraits. For Mountain, David Broach had the brilliant idea of showing the artist with a whole collection of his works together--the combination of colors, textures and the artist himself is so gorgeous--even the pegboard looks great.  Here's another shot of Lance Cyril Mountain and his dog Dirtbag, and if you look in the magazine you can see how wonderfully soft and silvery Dirtbag looks, and how LCM looks like some kind of steampunk wizard in all of the oilfield equipment. Here's Broach's portrait of Camille Rose Garcia: It's kind of a shame the photo ended up on the fold, but at the same time I like ...

It's very difficult to photograph butterflies because they are so...flappy. It gets easier later in the season, when the phlox is in bloom, and they are concentrating on feeding; but right now they are in constant motion. The cat is also interested in butterflies: This would have been a good shot if I had been closer and the cat had been further away: So I went inside and found a less wiggly subject, the inside of one of the purple tulips on the table: Then I did a lot of weeding, worked on Chalyss' cloak, and ignored the dishes and laundry :D

It's a collection of photographs of people, places and things from 1860 to around 1915 (volume 1) and it was put out by a German publisher, Konemann (there are umlauts over the o, I know there is a keystroke combo to do this in Windows but I always forget how). The author is Nick Yapp; I picked the book up off a Barnes and Noble sale table, so the chances are good you can get it on Amazon. (I have the multilingual edition, the original is German). I use it for costume refs--the photo above, besides being an ingenious way to teach kids to swim, shows the white shoes, removable collar and cuffs and dickey shirt front of a 1900s middle-class gentleman. And of course there are wonderful photos of people at work: I think this image is a bit older, the 1890s maybe. There is a later one of a beauty pageant c. 1913--I love all the dresses: and there are lots of street scenes, this one of a "street chemist" c. 1870 I would not drink those free samples). And there are lots of ...

This beautiful image comes from artist/photographer Cristobal Valecillos-- he spoke with Hi-Fructose and said: “My art form involves an innovative concept of using raw cardboard and paper, born out of a desire to create art without generating waste. This led to my inspiration to use everyday materials that are around us and craft something beautiful with them,” he says. “My goal is to show people that fashion is not only about consuming and wasting; we can bring forth inspired art into the world by recycling. Rather than creating waste, I am converting it into beauty, and I am reminded that we can express ourselves in extraordinary ways by using the most basic elements.” Go check out his series "A Cardboard Life" on his website and look at the "Behind the Scenes" video (2:38). Also, what would we do without hot glue guns? hehe!