Gifts from friends! :D

One of my lovely friends from Ravelry sent me a gift all the way from Germany (please correct me if I am mistaken Aurinel!).



I was expecting the USS Enterprise D (Star Trek Next Generation), but not the lovely wee socks!



They were part of the careful cushioning to protect the model, along with some beautiful bits and balls of yarn in some gorgeous colorways.



Simon Oliver claimed the socks, and wanted to show them off. :)



I've made the image of him pulling on the socks my header image on the Family blog. :D I think a BJD with a pile of yarn is a suitable header.

I apologize for my shaky hand with the tablet. It's been so long since I've used it (I don't have ANY art programs on this laptop) and my hands are so shaky anymore. :(

Lucas, Robbie, and other backstories.

I was brainstorming with Osaka/Allister this evening in regards to where Robbie gets his beautiful hand-knits. Obviously some of them would be from his mother (since I have some GORGEOUS hand-knits from Mom) but with as much as I will be knitting for him over the years it makes sense for there to be more than one source. There are also stylistic differences in my mother's knitting versus mine so it would cover that as well.

Allister hit upon it by remembering a detail I'd been brainstorming last time I touched on Robbie's story regarding his relationships and how Christopher Owen happened. I don't think I included this detail in my summary though.

Lucas is the name of the trans boy that Robbie was seriously dating before the accidental pregnancy. Lucas was entirely pre-transition and closeted. I have a sculpt in mind for him, and I know he ties in with Lishe!Mom as either a sibling or a first cousin. I was leaning towards Lucas being the "other" daughter in their family of mostly boys, possibly even making them Middlest like I was, with two older brothers, and a younger brother, and Lishe!Mom as the baby of the family.

I would only likely have Lucas and Lishe!Mom out of all the kids, and MAYBE some of the brothers if I can get the type 1 Chiwoo and type 1 El that I would still like to have. This really hinges on my being able to track down unmodified type one versions of El, Lishe, Soony, and Chiwoo.

So, Lucas is sibling to Simon Oliver and Owen Sebastian's red-headed Mommy. Which means, that Lishe!Mom is Aunt to Christopher Owen (and aware of this). Lucas confides in her after he has the baby and then runs away to transition. He didn't really NEED to run away, as his family is incredibly supportive, but he didn't know that when he did it, and while things are a bit awkward, the only one he told about the baby was his sister (making her SWEAR not to tell the family), who helped him to take care of the baby until he left it on Robbie's doorstep.

Lucas and his sister are very close, and I'm trying to decide if I want them to be identical twins (I'm leaning towards Delf Nihal for Lucas) or stick with him as the Middlest child, which speaks to my own experience. I REALLY LIKE TWINS.

Anyway I had to tell you that so I could tell you this! Lishe!Mom knits, and she makes lots of gorgeous things for her brothers, and for Robbie, because she adores her Nephew and is excited that Robbie lets her be in his life. Robbie knew her (and most of Lucas's family) pretty well because they were dating pretty seriously. He has chosen not to reach out to the family because in the note Lucas left, he told Robbie that he'd kept the baby a secret and NOT to contact the family and make things even harder.

So, many of Robbie's beautiful hand-knits are from Lishe!Mom (and I REALLY need to figure out the names of her and her family).

Also I learned/figured out a bit more about Soony!Mom. I kind of knew that she was raised by her Grandma (and Grandfather), and grew up calling them Mom and Dad. She was the result of a teenage pregnancy if I recall correctly, but I don't know or remember if I've written that out anywhere or it's just head-canon. I also determined that Grandma/Mom is Korean, and Grandfather/Dad is white, so Soony is at least bi-racial. They married and had their one and only daughter fairly young, so Grandma/Mom is a young Grandma.

So I stewed on that a bit and determined that Soony's teenage mother was 14 when she got pregnant, didn't say anything to anyone, and concerned mother took her to the doctor when she was about 4 months along because she'd been having troubling symptoms, and was beginning to show. No one thought she was pregnant, because while she was hyperactive and social, she hadn't really shown any interest in dating and she was only 14 so her mother thought it might be something like cancer, since there was growth and pain and fatigue, and alarming symptoms.

At the doctor's office the did blood tests, and general checkup and announced that she was about four months pregnant and her mother freaked out. She demanded to know who the boy was, and how this happened, and what in the world was going on. The daughter mouthed off, said some hateful things (threatened abortion, that was her first reaction, despite it being past the legal threshold) and told her mother that should could try and figure out who the dad was when the baby popped out.

She (teenaged mom) never came around, and after the baby came she signed her over and her parents legally adopted her, named her, and raised her. Teenage!Mom (who will someday get a name, but she's mostly a distant background character) did finish Highschool and promptly moved away. Soony resembles her, but looks more asian, like her Grandma/Mom, so they suspect the father was asian, but they aren't sure exactly which background since their daughter has refused to ever name the father (he isn't even on the birth certificate).

Soony is aware of all this and has no strong feelings about her mother. She doesn't remember her being around, but there are family photos of her in the home, and she is talked about mostly by Grandpa/Dad who misses her dearly. Grandma/Mom never really had a chance to work things out with her, and they haven't spoken at all since she moved out with no warning after Highschool.

Soony is incredibly well adjusted considering, and had the sex talk very young, so that she could be well informed and hopefully prevent history from repeating. In fact it was after several years of her not dating (or appearing not to be dating) that Grandma/Mom told her that it was actually okay to date, and she wouldn't chase off boys, she just wanted Soony to be happy, healthy, and safe. And that is when she politely corrected that no she was in fact dating, and yes her parents had actually met the person she was dating, and it was Lishe, whom they had assumed was just her best friend.

Once her parents got over their surprise they were very happy for her, and when the girls got married (and after the BUT WE WANT GRANDBABIES talk) they did the invitro fertilization so they could have the boys.

In discussing with Osaka/Allister, we determined that on one of Lishe's visits to see her Secret Nephew, she found out just how close Robbie lived to Christian (his best friend) and with some bold encouragement from Robbie met up with Christian and Sebastian so that Lorelei could meet her brothers.

So that explains the knitting (Robbie never picked it up, his artistic focus is on graphic design and illustrating) AND quite how the first interaction between Christian and his sons went, and ties together a bunch of different elements with a nice neat bow. I just need to focus on Lucas and figure him out some more.

Theoretical doll plans for 2015, get a Delf Nihal (Alacarte/Mychoice/whatever) for Lucas, get Crobidoll Tori for Owen Sebastian, bodies for Crunchy, Kakashi, and Ro, and if I happen to see them, try to get any of the El, Lishe, Soony, Chiwoo dream crew. Which brings me back to, I need to find work, and also sort out whether I'm going to do Spring Semester, or aim for Summer Semester at TCC.

I made like three things in a week. :D

I made some things! Some of these things went smoothly and happily, and one of these things made me angrier than I can even express in words.

Luckily, they all turned out beautifully (frustration aside), and the recipients seem quite pleased.

Rowan got some lovely fingerless mitts.



October got a cute little hat with the some of the leftover yarn from Rowan's mitts.


Robbie got a perfectly scaled down cowl, which was a stitch for stitch scaling using fingering weight yarn and size 1 US needles (worked exactly to Human scaled pattern).


This was my first successful scaling down. Now I feel a little more ready to MAYBE tackle some of the beautiful baby and toddler sweater patterns in the knitting books I've gotten over the years for my Yo-SD sized dolls.

Osaka/Allister helped me to figure out both the weight of yarn I needed to use, and the correct needle to get the right gauge, so I will probably ask for her help in doing that to size down the baby sweaters.

I want to make a very particular sweater from one of the books but I don't have the book in front of me so I can't easily recall the name of it.

My next project I think will be a Ravenclaw scarf for Robbie though, because he would be Ravenclaw. Which is funny to me, because Ro (also a self-doll) is definitely Hufflepuff, I sort as a Gryffindor, and 11 year old me would have most definitely been a Slytherin. @_@

I think when I get Ro back onto a body he will get a Hufflepuff scarf and a hat with a Badger on it in house colors. I also think I want a Draco doll (I had someone in mind but that company is temporarily discontinuing production), and he will need Slytherin colors. Zephi may get Gryffindor colors. Someone will at any rate.

It should be noted the Hogwarts theme is partially what's gotten me back into knitting. All of the above projects have been made for the Hogwarts at Ravelry group, and while my hands and ache a bit from the cowl, over all I feel much more productive.

Crafting for Sanity.

Now that Ed is safely settling in, my mind is clearing a bit. I've been really stressed since my seasonal job ended, and having that layaway almost finished looming over my head was more than I could bear. I'm glad I was able to finish it out and get him safely home, and now I'm stressing over finding new work.

I was wanting to do spring semester at TCC, and I might yet, but I also want/need to see if I can get on Medicare through Virginia. Theoretically I should qualify because I am bi-polar, and also the no-income, but I've been having a hard time navigating the various websites to put in the right information.

I need to get to the DMV and have my license corrected since I did get that letter, and I meant to do it as soon as I got my last Target check, but the weather has been hateful, and I was too stressed out to stop at the DMV after I mailed things out last Monday.

I'm glad that things are mailed out, paid off, etc, but now I'm worrying about other financial things (my phone bill is overdue, I need to find money to pay for the storage unit for February, medicine, etc), and finding work, and trying to figure out school.

Somehow with all of this stress I managed to miss several doses of my thyroid medicine (not days in a row) and it's made me very unstable, both emotionally/psychologically, and physically.

I took a little walk today with Osaka to try and get feeling a little better, and now I am migrainey. The walk was pleasant, as was our brief chat during the walk, but physically I feel incredibly weak, and psychologically I feel incredibly fragile.

I'm frustrated, because I know I have a bunch of things I NEED to do in short order to stay on the schedule I've set for myself (be in England in about 2 years) and I keep fumbling for which task should be first, so of course I'm trying to do bits and pieces of each all at once, and none of it is happening. X_X

I've been hiding in my DS for awhile and now I need to put my feet firmly down in reality and be productive. I'd like to start by making some proper clothes for Ed, or knitting something or ANYTHING that will engage my hands and my mind. I've got fabric and sewing stuff OUT, for Ed, for Avery, and others, and I've got my knitting stuff easily accessible, and I've been meaning to go and introduce myself in the Hogwarts Ravelry group and knit some things, meet some goals, get crafting, and I'm just so damned overwhelmed.

I firmly blame my thyroid (combined with being bi-polar) for making me even less stable under stress, and my stress for making me miss doses of my thyroid medicine. A wicked cycle.

HELP. I think I will start by making Ed a shirt. ANY shirt. I might also knit him a scarf, and try out that handwarmer pattern Osaka's got.  The Bluefairy hands are beautiful, small, and delicate, so I may need to further size it down, and I need to check if his thumbs are pressed against his forefingers. The mitts won't work if his thumbs don't have that gap. @_@

Please send thoughts of sanity, calm, and clarity of thought my way.

Welcome home Edward Elric! (and Happy Birthday)

Alright then! Official arrival of Edward Elric!




He needs a faceup, and the correct eyes (probably 14mm, as 16mm looks HUGE), and more clothes.



He's still beautiful though. His non automail leg is a bit kicky, and I had to change the s-hook in his head (too large) and then put that on a kid delf neck donut, but it works. :)

I will be making him a red hoodie this afternoon, and also possibly painting up my Kaiju, while Osaka/Allister works on his face if she can get her migraine under control.

I'm not sure what to make for trousers for him. I'm leaning towards jeans but I'm not sold. I do have some nice black stompy boots for him though, so once I settle on something for pants he will be good, pending faceup. His wardrobe can be rounded out later if I feel the need.

I'm also pondering a blond fur wig with a braid sewn in to better capture the manga/anime hair look, but I do like this wig quite a bit.

Happy Birthday Ed! I know that his birthday is sometime in winter, but I don't recall if the anime or manga give a specific date, so until I find otherwise, I'm gonna go with today, January 17th.

Preparing for Ed.

Well two of the packages I mailed out on Monday have safely landed in the respective places in Texas. Now I'm just waiting to hear back from the person who bought my Littlefee Rachel faceplate.

Mom, when you get the items I sent to you from Faythe, please let me know if the item I included for Steadfast suits. If it doesn't, please send it back as it will fit one of mine, and I will make something else for him.

Ed is still floating about in the postal system. His tracking hasn't updated since 3:24am EST today. I'm a bit nervous about this, but trying to be level-headed and reasonable.

To compensate, I've done some stress sleeping, and tried some active posting on Ravelry and Den of Angels. I will be MUCH calmer once Ed lands with me, fingers crossed that it's in the morning and he is undamaged.

I've posted a series of emotional response images of Ed in The Waiting Room thread on Ravelry, including this one, with the following message:

"Bah! Ed apparently slept in lockdown in Florida. I’m imaging he caused a ruckus of some sort when his impromptu Florida vacation was interrupted. He was released at 3am and tracking has not updated since. e_e;; ED, GET YOUR BUTT HOME!"


In positive news, I did sew some boxers for Ed last night so that I can take photos as soon as he gets here.

If I can scare up some red material in the right weight, I might make him a red hoodie with his signature image (the flamel cross) on the back. I don't have black fabric paint so I might.. either do an iron on, or a carefully stitched detail applique. Never done that WELL so, I'm nervous about trying that method, but it could look cool.



It's kind of a bunch of detail to try to stitch down. So.. I will have to think about my best option.

I'm thinking my Ed will probably wear more modern clothing. His red hoodie in place of the signature coat, dark jeans or pants, and stompy black boots. I never really liked his black outfit that he wears under the coat anyway. @_@ I COULD make it, but why make something I dislike?

Kaiju Arrival! Ed took a side trip to Florida.

My Kaiju came today~! I took some comparison photos between mine and Allister/Osaka's little Kaiju. It looks like each one is slightly different, as is the nature of tiny beautiful handmade items.




The tail on mine curves slightly differently, and there is a tiny little bit of flash on one of the front paws.




I don't know if it shows well in photos, but Allister/Osaka's little guy is slightly more of a Jade green, and mine is more translucent/pearlescent and minty in color.




And for size comparison, the last photo is next to a pair of MSD tennies. These guys are tiny and adorable.

Once I've got mine painted up I will post photos of him again. I need to figure out exactly who he belongs with. :3

This was a pleasant surprise, as I thought this might arrive tomorrow or Saturday instead.

Ed took a side-trip to Florida by accident (he was mis-sorted at the post office of origin) but should theoretically arrive tomorrow, MAYBE as late as Saturday. I'm hoping for tomorrow. @_@

And I've realized I have the perfect light blue material to make his boxers so I may do that this afternoon so that I can do photos IMMEDIATELY upon arrival.

Bluefairy Automail "Edward Elric" Jerome is paid off.

Ahem, I think I forgot to announce that I finished my layaway on Ed on Friday. I got my last check from the seasonal gig at Target and with the Holiday pay there was enough to cover it, and a bit left for groceries etc.

I was really nervous about it but I think that's because this truly finalizes everything and I'm pretty much always nervous about the last payment of a layaway. I was on edge until I got the confirmation via private message on Den of Angels that the seller had received my final payment and would message me with a tracking number once she'd shipped him out.

According to my DOA messages I paid for priority shipping, and the seller is also in Virginia, so in theory I could have him the day after she ships him.

I don't recall if she had a "strange" shipping schedule like mine (all of my threads say that items will be shipped on Saturdays). I do know that I will be sending out some packages later today (Monday) including sending Narsha to her new home, the LTF Rachel faceplate, and a box I meant to send to Faythe before Christmas with Mom's gift in there.

I'm hoping that when Ringo and I get back from the Post Office (and then the mall) that I will have a private message that he has been shipped. Or maybe in the evening. :) The seller has mostly been responding in the evenings.

I have some gold eyes on hand that will work for temporary eyes, and Amelia will be giving up her wig for him, so all I need to do is whip up some light blue boxers and get a faceup on him when he arrives. He will eventually get proper clothing but I will be happy with him being able to sit around not completely naked.

I am REALLY excited about this. Nervous and excited.

Robbie, Marek, and to a lesser extent Avery backstory

In randomness, I got a glimmer of backstory from Robbie this evening. I have known since before he had his body, that he was doll-type me. I also had him as a single father initially, and later as the biological father of Christopher Owen, with Marek(an unknown) as second Daddy.

(Nothing graphic, but this does contain discussion of sexuality, and implied acts.)

Marek has had a few different incarnations in my mind, but nothing in resin form yet. I know a few things about him, which have stayed the same, but as Robbie has developed, aspects of their story have changed.

One constant is that Marek considers himself Straight, and is initially baffled by his attraction to Robbie, and it takes some time for him to act on it. Even after committing to a long term relationship (sometime in the future) he still considers himself straight with Robbie as the sole exception.

I envision him as a slightly more muscular taller man with coloring like Bear, but an adult. Golden eyes, and dark golden hair, possibly with facial hair. I won't know for certain until I figure out who his resin form is supposed to be. I think it will likely be when I track down an doll I've been meaning to get or something like that. He could end up looking like anything. It's WHO he is that is important.

Anyway, I learned how Robbie and Marek initially met. Robbie got Christopher Owen when he was about two months old, I think. Maybe three months at the very oldest. He was essentially left on his doorstep in a car-seat with a note saying "This is yours. He's your problem now." The birth certificate was included, and Robbie knows who the Mother was but she has pretty much disappeared from the face of the planet (for now). I know more about that, but that's a different backstory.

So, Robbie suddenly has an infant son to care for, which his family helps with quite a bit initially, but he decides he needs to take a cooking course if he has a child to raise. Robbie works from home as a graphic designer and software programmer, until Christopher Owen enters his life, and eventually goes on to publish a series children's stories about Gay parenting and the little kids that are a part of it.

At this cooking course he meets Marek who has a job that requires quite a bit of travel. I have no idea exactly what he does, just that he is gone quite a bit. They end up working together as some of the more serious students in the course because Marek is passionate about cooking (it's his big hobby), and Robbie is serious about learning some basics and not so basics so that he can cook nice meals for Christopher Owen as he gets older.

They end up getting along really well, and hanging out outside of the class, in which Robbie, being me talks quite about about himself, self exploration, figuring out who he is and what he wants and admits that he might be bi-curious. He's only had one "serious" relationship, which ended abruptly in pregnancy. This added up later (when Christopher Owen appeared), but when she disappeared he was crushed because she was the only girl he'd ever really been attracted to.

Marek is a good listener and finds it an interesting concept (the bi-curious) but he's never been attracted to men at all, and is quite content not to be in a relationship because of all the travel he does for his job. After a time Marek realizes he might have a crush on Robbie, but because he is decidedly straight, tucks it away in the back of his mind and throws himself into his work.

When the cooking course ends, Marek takes on additional work and is gone for about a year, but he stays in contact intermittently through email and facebook. He asks after Christopher Owen, and finds himself absurdly jealous to find out that Robbie has an on and off relationship with Avery (because Avery doesn't like to commit).

The next time Marek is in town he decides to show off some of the cooking skills he's been polishing and invites Robbie over for a meal and to catch up. Robbie gets a babysitter, since he and Marek had always ended up talking for hours, and they end up discussing relationships, and invariably, Robbie admits that he has realized he is very definitely gay, and he isn't really sure why things worked at all with Christopher Owen's Mother.

Marek ponders this, and they hang out a few more times before Marek is about to go away again for awhile and he decides to admit that he has a crush on Robbie, and has had, since shortly after they met. He explains that he is pretty sure he's straight, and he has no idea why he is attracted to Robbie, but asks if Robbie is currently in a relationship, and whether he would be willing to experiment so that Marek can close the book on the crush or try to, and they can get on with their friendship.

Robbie agrees. It's not hard, he feels very comfortable with Marek, as he has been there for him as a friend since shortly after he became a surprise father. They don't go all the way that I am aware of, before Marek leaves for an extended time again, but they do some experimentation, and it changes their friendship. Marek continues to keep in contact, and Robbie continues to do his own thing (with Avery mostly), as there was no expectation of a relationship, and things stay in flux for awhile.

I do know that even after they are firmly in a relationship Marek continues in his high-paying high-travel work, and he gives Robbie permission to see his on again off again person when he isn't around as long as he ONLY sees them, and they use protection. Avery is okay with that, since he doesn't really do commitment, and knowing that he can continue to scratch that itch with Robbie as long as Marek is away is all he really wants, and doesn't have the same risk associated with an anonymous hookup.

Timeline-wise Marek should already be here in Resin form, but since I can't seem to settle on a sculpt for him, he has come and gone in my head. I had just about given up on him until he spoke up this evening.

Allister/Osaka and I were discussing how Rei (one of her lovelies) doesn't do ground meat, and Marek piped up that he makes homemade sausage and that cooking is his passion/hobby. Then everything kind of fell into place. Nothing is firm until he is in resin, as they have a mind of their own.

It should be noted that almost every single one of my dolls is some aspect of myself and I think that's why it's been so hard to pin down Marek. He's the part of me that is GAY but has been both romantically and sexually attracted to very specific women(but in reverse). Robbie represents much of what I could have been if I had been born in the correct body. Avery is all the bravado and confidence condensed into one cocky, VAIN, beautiful man.