Shoes and stripes. :D

I was sewing most of yesterday. I whipped up this lovely striped jacket, which is finished, except for a zipper.

I made the sleeves extra long to account for future mods to Ro's arms.

I also, re-enforced the lace holes on a pair of doll sneakers. I pulled them off Ro's feet and noticed that one of the holes was almost torn through. I decided once I'd finished on shoe, to do a comparison so you could see how it looked before.


And then of course, the finished product! These shoes are bound to last a very long time now. :) Over time, I will eventually re-enforce all of my sneakers, but only once they need it.

Thanks to Christy for giving me an eyelet tool and appropriate hammer. <3

~Pink~ Star Visor

I spent today with Christy and Rissa. It was really nice, and I had fun. We hadn't seen Rissa for awhile due, to her being busy getting ready for her baby, and trying to sell her house, before she and the hubby move to California, to his new duty station.

At one point during the day, Michael let us know that he really liked Ichigo's visor, and would like a pink one for his Ken. So when we went by the JoAnns we kept an eye out for something fun pattern-wise. After some looking we found a very cute marble print with stars, and got a little bit. Michael had asked for some glow-in-the-dark beads instead of the decorative buttons, and we ended up getting some really cute star buttons he liked as well. Below, you see the result. :3



I'm hoping to give it to him tomorrow. :3 Michael is a very sweet kid, and I'm glad to make something he'll enjoy.

Singer - Old Sewing Machine

I promised my mother pictures of my defunct sewing machine.

I tried looking through my old posts and e-mails but I can't remember when I bought this baby. I got it at CHKD, a local thrift store that donates to a Children's Hospital. I paid all of $10 for this gorgeous antique machine. I know I bought it while Nick was on deployment, and shortly after Ginny and Amy moved here. I was at the thrift store with Rissa, and Christy, and Ginny, Amy, and Ti joined us there. Do any of ya'll remember when it was? I know it was cold and we were all wearing our orange sweaters. Hmm.


The photo with Ichigo is to show just how much smaller it is, than the average sewing machine. Anyone with an MSD/DOC and a sewing machine should be able to scale it from that.

It's not currently running, and I'm not sure what it would take to make it run. I love it though. I love how small and simple it is. I love that it folds up, and that it's tiny, dainty, and green. It's just, one of the cutest little sewing machines I've ever seen. LOL. It has all the femininity and grace that I lack. I love it. <3

Star Visor

I made Ichigo a visor today.. well sort of today. I started it yesterday and wasn't happy with it so I put it away, and slept on it. Picked it apart today, three times, till I was happy with it.

I thought of doing some dangling chains and charms but it doesn't fit with the pattern I thought, so I've tucked the idea away for a later project. I'm not sure at this point if I'm done with it but the pattern is a little too busy to add much more to it. Hmm, tell me what ya'll think.





I may make another, but I need to re-work the design I think. I'm not really satisfied with how it sits on the head. I'd like to make one in orange with black accents. *ponders*

I love rainbows.

I found this star necklace in one of my doll drawers. I can't remember where I got it, but it's Ichigo's now.


And if you're wondering what that scene behind Ichigo is, have a better look:

I whipped up this wallpaper today, inspired by my love of rainbows, stars, and bright colors.

All about Ro.

I was explaining how the older Dream of Doll bodies have these hands, that are hand shaped, but rather lacking in detail compared to the rest of the body sculpt. Their newer hands are very pretty and more realistic, but Ro is back on a Dream of Doll boy body, that happens to be older.

Ti traded bodies with me. She put her Mel on Ro's Dollmore body, and gave me, Mel's type 2 Dream of Doll body. I miss the doublejointed arms, and the hand posability, but I think with newer hands, I could get the wrist posability back. I may end up selling this type 2 though, and moving up to a type 3 body.

Below I have the original entry about this, in quotes.

"So, Ti did something incredible today. She read my entry, venting about Ro's body, and offered to switch his and Mel's bodies. Mel has a type 2 body, which has increased wrist flexibility compared to Ro's original body, and it's got the short and stocky look that I wanted for him. It's also not RIPPED which is nice and makes Ro a more realistic version of myself. And as it turns out, she's always pictured Mel taller and slim, and LOVES the femmy hips on the Dollmore body. The only thing I don't like about the Dream of Doll body, is that the arms are not doublejointed, and the wrists are not as posable as the Dollmore body. So I think I want to find a way to carefully mod his arms into nicely doublejointed arms. I liked that Ro could touch his face, since it's something that I do alot. Also I definately want to replace the default hands.

So we swapped them to see how we liked them, and both Mel and Ro immediately started looking smug. Neither have shown much personality in months, so that's saying alot.

You can see how much thicker the body looks just from this shot. It makes Ro look less pinheaded too, which is nice.

This one was to show how much easier it is to pose Ro, when his legs aren't going all wonky on me. Ichigo wanted to play too.

And here, we have the Dream of Doll on the left, and the old Dollmore on the right. I think the Dream of Doll one looks much more proportional in a headshot like this. I still may eventually give him a different body, but I think this one will work for awhile. Definitely if I can get replacement hands, and make the arms doublejointed."

For the last photo blogger is gonna try to cut it off, so you may have to right click and 'view image'. But basically I like this better than the original type 1 body, and better than the Dollmore body for most things, but I'm annoyed that Ro can't touch his face anymore, and his hands are ugly now.

Dollies

I was talking with Faythe/Anne today and realized that I haven't really posted pictures of the dolls together on here. The littlest ones aren't included because they are over at Christy's for the moment. From left to right we have Ro, Elli, Isaac, and Ichigo.

And I have no idea where Elli's shoes are, which is why he's wearing just socks. Isaac is a bit camera shy, and tends to faceplant when I try to take his photo, which is why I have Ichigo helping to hold him up.

M&M

I love bright colors!

I went out with Christy and company yesterday, and we visited the mall. I was going to get a Build-A-Bear, but they didn't have any that I wanted (and didn't already have). So we looked around, and I found this lovely rainbow stripedy hoodie at Hot Topic, for half off, and it was only $30 originally, so I went for it. It's not really flattering over clothing but it doesn't look too bad with a t-shirt over it. And I knew the odds of me finding something that I liked as much as this one, again were slim.

And one of the hoodie, without me in it. ;D


I'm not sure if you can tell, but I trimmed my hair. I want to take it just a bit shorter but I just wanted it short enough to style for now. It was flopping all over the place, that long, and refusing to spike up. Hmm, now I really want to shave it and cut it properly. I also want to bleach in two stripes on the mohawk part, on the outer edges. I picked up a 'chunking' kit a bit ago, and I've just been waiting for the right time. I don't want it to look sloppy. e_e I'm also feeling frustrated and bored with my everyday look.

It's been awhile since I've posted up any photos, I realized. I've put on a little bit of weight, from stress and erratic eating habits. @_@ I can see it in my face, which is why I haven't wanted to post photos.

Rainbow baby

So, does anyone else think that these eyes scream Ichigo? The delicate threading in the rainbow iris is just gorgeous in person. I think I may make these his default. They soften his look a bit more, than the really pretty dark pink eyes he usually wears. They're also a spot on match for this particular shade of sherbert wig.


And in regards to Valentines Day, I hope those of you who celebrate it, have had a nice one, and continue to do so. It's nice to see all the love and fluff on my friendslist, for serious. Ya'll have helped to brighten a holiday that I've never really enjoyed. Though the main thing that really made my day, was these beautiful rainbow eyes arriving safely! Thank you, once again

thesaraghina!

Valentines Day

My parents got divorced about a decade ago. I was thirteen, and it was finalized right around Valentines Day. Not on the exact day, but close enough to shake us kids up. I can only imagine what that has done to warp my mother's view of the Holiday.

It's really weird to be in her place. I'm only in the early part of my own divorce, but it's surreal all the same. I'm not bitter about it though, surprisingly enough. I thought it would be excruciating, to see Nick, and Ti doing something for Valentines, but it's not bothering me, the way I thought it would.

Today feels like any other day to me. I hope that those of you who celebrate, have a great one. <3

Hooray for Undershirts!

It occurred to me, after yesterday's undershirt fiasco, that the too-small one might fit a Little Junior. It does. It's very snug, and annoying to get on, but it fits.

I realized this while I was sewing up a new one. I've adjusted the pattern again and this time, success! Ichigo's head is easier to remove, and he's the most barrel-chested of all my boys, so I tried it on him first. It's snug, but fairly easy to get on and off.

Then I got it onto Ro, and decided to show him and Elli both wearing them.


I'm glad I finally have the pattern the right size, and also very glad that the first shirt is not going to waste. I think the shirt makes Elli look more his character's age, than the simple white tee-shirt I had him in. Elli is supposed to be 15, just very short and slim. Ro is supposed to be stocky, and of average height. Currently he is tall and slim and flamboyant, but I'm hoping a Latidoll body will work for him. I'd be going with the 'stylish' torso, cause Ro is supposed to be like me, and I'm not ripped.

Ro's Body

I'm getting frustrated with this pattern. It's for an undershirt and it's too small. I enlarged it a bit, but it's still too small. I managed to get the black one I made onto Ro, with alot of fighting. If I ever remove it, I'll have to cut it off him. You can see in this picture, that it's snug, but not exactly HOW snug.



Ignore the messy desk, and look at his torso joint. This shirt is so tight, it might as well be painted on, with some slight texture. It makes his jeans look ridiculously loose, which they are not. They just fit weird on that AWKWARD dollmore body. I hate it from the torso joint down. The chest is okay, the arms are okay. I love the hands, and the posability of the arms.

I HATE his lower torso part and everything below that. It's shaped awkwardly, he has girly hips, and weirdly (BADLY) designed legs. His weird little penis sticks out oddly and makes it look like I've caught him at an inappropriate moment. It makes his fly pop open by default. His knees are constantly popping out of joint, turning around, and it's not the stringing. I check the stringing, the elastic is straight, not twisted, or anything that would normally cause that annoying leg stuff.

This body has been nothing but HATE since it arrived this time last year. It shipped quickly, the resin matches great, but aside from that.. I HATE it, so much. I want a different body for him so badly. At this point I'd even go for a Dream of Doll body, which I hated enough to sell in the first place. The resin wouldn't match though. I'm hoping a Latidoll body would be a good match. I hear their resin is very light the way Dream of Doll's used to be. They are supposed to pose well, and I LOVE the body design. Problem is, that I don't want to sell the old body until I can buy the new one, and I can't buy the new one till I have the money from the old one. Also, I can't think of anyone who would WANT this awkward femmy boy body. *sighs heavily*

I love Ro so much but this makes it so so hard for me to want to play with him. I don't want to sell Ro, but I'm so jaded about his body troubles. I love his little face, I love those Dollmore hands. I just want a nice, masculine body, that poses well. Preferably one that all his clothing will still fit on.

Sneak peek, and drawing questions.

Thanks to batchix, for the size suggestion for my canvas. It makes a huge difference, I think. This is at 53%, an 8x10 300dpi canvas. It's so much easier to draw like this, for me anyway. Zoom out, rough sketch the shapes, then zoom in and smooth the lines to the shape I like. Woo!

I love Painter X by the way. It's smooth and easy and I have yet to see how it's different from Painter IX but I look forward to the subtle differences. The pencil is smoother I think. It's easier to get a feathery look, like for his lashes. I have no idea why I never asked about canvas sizes before. Next I want to learn layering tricks to make coloring easier. @_@

Currently I add new layers and use the airbrush, then erase around the lines, but that gets messy and after several layers, the original lines become blurry and hard to see. I need to figure out if there is a way to select the negative space inside the lines and make it color inside the lines by default. I know that's possibly in Photoshop but I don't use that so that's no help to me.

It's been a long time since I've been able to draw anything I'm happy with, and even longer since I've gotten something finished, with color. The last thing I was really pleased with, was a portrait of Ro. And I drew it about two years ago, right around the time Nick and I moved to Virginia Beach. It was this one:


I like the soft colors and shading I can do with the digital airbrush, but I need to figure out how to clone the lines and and do color fills. Shading is the easy part, keeping my lines, is the hard part.

Self Portrait

This is the first self portrait I've drawn in four years. And the first digital work (not counting something I did in October of Ichigo) since before I went on anti-depressants. I wouldn't say that it's a breakthrough, but I think that it says alot about how I feel right now.. And maybe shows that not using it won't necessarily eliminate drawing skills.

I need to learn to draw bigger. @_@ Sans piercings because they're hard to add in, in that teeny scale. Hmm. I kind of miss drawing.

I would have colored it but I seem to have misplaced my Painter 9 disk, and I don't like painter classic for coloring. ;_; Speaking of, I need my software disk back Ginny! As soon as reasonably possible please. :3

I think my fever broke.

I think the worst of my flu is passing. I'm beginning to feel more lucid at any rate. And with my lucidity, I'm feeling angry again. Which may sound dumb, but it's like, when I was passed out from the NyQuil, I wasn't having to deal with anything really.

And now I'm at the point that I'm watching Nick and Ti interact and I just wanna punch her in the face. I don't pretend that I always treated him right, but I feel like I was respectful to him. And she really isn't. I don't think she even cares, and that makes me even more angry.

Our divorce is not about HER. I mean, that's one of the reasons but she shouldn't have any sort of say in any of it. And I resent her for thinking she has a right to say anything about it. When I try to talk to him about things she's always there butting in.

I wish I didn't have to stay to sort out the papers. I wish there was a magical "everything is done" button I could push. I don't want to screw myself in the end, but I am SO tempted to jump a bus back to Texas and just throw caution to the wind. I'm not going to do that, but I just wish, we could get things moving faster.

I just want it all to be done. I want to get started on putting my life back together NOW. Ugh. This is the worst time to be impatient too. So I'm gonna go take a shower, and find something to channel my rage into.

Hooray!

So I made this shirt for Ichigo, um on February 1st, before going out with Christy, Neil, and Michael. It's made of flamey goodness!

Hooray for flame shirts! -15 coolpoints on Gaia. That's okay though cause Ichigo looks awesome anyway.

Ugh. ;_;

I think I have the flu.. or a really NASTY cold. But generally one does not have a fever with a cold. So it's probably flu. It's kicking my butt. ;_; I need to go to the store and buy soup, and juice, and more kleenex/puffs/tissue. Also cough syrup.

I slept really fitfully most of yesterday, and some of the day before. I think I'm a bit dehydrated. I've mostly lost my voice as well. The only reason I'm awake right now is because I was tired of laying in bed. I'll probably go back to sleep shortly after posting this though. Ugh.

So, this is why I haven't been as talkative lately sorry!

Good night, gone WEIRD.

Okay. @_@ So, last night I went out with Christy, Michael and Neil. We had a lovely dinner at Golden Corral, and then walked over to the Walmart (which was right next door) where I bought a piece of luggage. It's cute, I took a picture, cause that's easier than describing it. I think I want to go back and get the smaller one to use as my carry-on as well. It was on sale for $30! And the littler one is on sale for $25. I used part what Nick gave me from the tax refund.



All in all it was a rather nice night until when we were pulling into the back entrance of their apartment complex, a guy ran a stop sign and crunched/crashed into us. Michael was completely outraged. None of us seem to be hurt though, thank goodness.

To help Michael calm down, and be sure he wasn't hurt, she walked him home (we were already in the complex). And then it just got surreal. As they were exchanged contact and insurance information, I was looking in the car for Christain's (Christy's Link boy) glasses, which flew off in the impact. I found them, and after I'd placed Ichigo and Link on the roof of the car, the guy came over and showed me a picture of his son. He'd been asking after Michael shortly beforehand (who is nearly six) and then showed us his son, who is in the hospital for a disease that has no name, and is genetic.

I can't recall all the details as clearly now, but my saying that his son was cute, spurred him to flirt with me. It was WEIRD. He mentioned that he'd been in Iraq and his wife cheated on him, and that he'd been on a date shortly before he hit us. I told him my husband and I were divorcing for similar reasons and he said "Oh you're single? It's a shame we had to meet under these circumstances. My name is James!" And it just got really weird from there.

Eventually in the course of trying to figure out if Roger (Neil's car) could run, we learned that James had a couple glasses of wine, and would really prefer if we didn't call the cops for an accident report. At that point I remembered that I had my camera with me, and took pictures of both cars, for evidence, if needed later. I wasn't sure what I should do call-wise, and ended up not calling. The guy was very certain that it was his fault, and apparently is a mechanic. He offered to do all the work to fix Roger for free, or buy the car outright if he wasn't fixable.

I'm REALLY glad none of us were hurt, and much less importantly neither were the two dolls we had with us. It's much more important that the people weren't hurt, and I know that, and agree with that. I'm just also glad that neither doll was broken.

And on that note, I'm tired and I'm going to go to sleep soon.

Sick, or bad food?

Ugh. I might be coming down with whatever Nick and Ti have. I'm rather annoyed because I've been very careful to keep to myself, wash my hands more frequently than usual (which is saying alot, because I am germ-phobic) and stay out of the sneezing/coughing path.

I was hoping my chest congestion was because I ran out of allergy medicine, but I'm running a fever now. It's mild, but I tend to run a little cooler than most people at about 97 degrees, and I'm at 100 degrees right now. I feel rather cold, but don't want to spike my fever, so I'm just wearing pajama pants, my thermal shirt, and warm socks, rather than like, a hoodie over jeans and a t-shirt.

Hopefully after a good rest I'll be fine. I'll be getting a little travel sized thing of dial soap to keep in my purse though. I have plans to get out of the house tomorrow and I don't want to change them. If Ti is any indication, I have a couple of days before I get to the "NO BEING AWAKE" part. I'm popping vitamins, drinking juice, and will live on soup for the next week.

There is a chance my feeling yucky could be connected to dinner tonight, which was takeout from a place accross the street that tastes good, but occassionally makes some of us nauseous. I'm hoping so, cause I really dislike being sick, and I've been careful to minimize germ exposure.