PixxieHobbits

Cleaning out the camera for our upcoming trip, I stumbled across several photos of early doll photo-shoots taken in the backyard. We didn't have as many dolls then, and I felt nostalgic, so I decided to share a couple here. We found a little fairy's ring of mushrooms in the backyard so we took the kids out to play around it. Here was Hope, laying in the ring and making a wish. And Descole brought his dragon, Fractal, out to play with them. Amy sat with Jasmine and Chris on the picnic blanket. Meanwhile, Link found a big leaf to relax under while he lay back on the blanket. That is, he did until Chris stole the leaf and ran off laughing. Of course, then Chris had to come back and apologize to Link. Being the quieter sort, Thomas just posed nicely to have his picture taken. So did Jasmine, but she put a little more pizazz into it. It's pictures like these that remind me how much fun it can be just to take a little group of dolls into ...

We leave tomorrow night to start our vacation, so I thought I'd better put up a post or two before we go. I'll be leaving the laptop at home during this trip so no posts until we get back. It's been a bit of a busy week, so I haven't had a lot of time for posting, but I've got a moment now. In honor of our upcoming trip, I decided to post a few more pics from our last trip. Our grandparents live outside of Aberdeen, South Dakota; and in Aberdeen they have a little place called Storybook Land. We used to go here when we were kids so we decided it was time for a nostalgia visit. Basically, this place is filled with statues, buildings, and such of storybook creatures, characters, and settings. Above is Rapunzel's castle, complete with knights, Rapunzel, and the prince, hanging on for dear life from her hair. Some of the other characters to note are Paul Bunyan and Babe, the blue ox... Humpty Dumpty... One of the Billy Goats Gruff and his troll...

A while back I bought some of the "world's smallest" toys. I saw them on vacation and decided to look closer online. I ended up ordering a few different things, and Brick and Aerrow decided to have a look for themselves when the toys arrived. Aerrow sat impatiently on Brick's lap while they opened the first thing: some tiny toy soldiers. It wasn't long, though, before Aerrow started an all out war. Brick might try to act stern sometimes, but he can be a bit of a big kid when it comes right down to it. He joined right in and made short work of taking out some of Aerrow's army. That made Aerrow angry and he threw a fit, kicking over all of Brick's men. "If you can't play nice, you can't play at all. You need a time out," Brick cleaned up the mess and put Aerrow in lockdown. "You can just sit there for a while and think about what you did," Brick instructed. "Fine," Aerrow continued to p...

I realize it's been a while since I last posted any pictures from our vacation, and we have another trip coming up, so here are a few photos of the sunset in South Dakota that we saw one night while we were visiting. This was looking out the window at our grandparents' house. I loved the colors from this angle, but the window screen made it difficult to get a really clear picture through it. I should've probably gone outside, but if you know anything about South Dakota, you know the mosquitos are as big as airplanes and going out at this time of day is the same thing as entering a real war zone. Guess I'm just not quite ready to sacrifice a pint of blood for the sake of my craft. And a final shot. Later that night after dark when everyone else was up in bed, my sister and I thought we saw a bat at the window. The bugs were swarming it thick as glue and we heard this strange clicking sound, so we went to investigate. There, along the lower sill, a little c...

Every 99 years there is a total solar eclipse and this year it was time once again for that event. Lucky for us we live in the perfect spot to see the totality (where the sun is completely covered by the moon and everything goes dark). Of course, we're big on our dolls, so we've been planning for a long time for them to see the eclipse, but first they would need some protective eyewear. So, after making a glasses pattern, I gathered my gear: doll, elastic, construction paper glasses, glue stick, and scissors. Firstly, the glasses need to be glued together. If they aren't two layers thick they'll tear too easily. The next thing to do is cut little slits in each side for the elastic to go through. I grabbed a craft knife and quilting board for this. Lastly, slip the elastic through and tie it in place where it fits snuggly around the doll's head, and you're done. We made glasses for several dolls this way and they were ready for the eclipse....