Easter Scene Created by Kairi

We made an Easter scene, and the dolls in the picture are (left to right): Tony (a Kish doll with short brown hair and a cowboy hat), Annie (an Ashford Drake doll with short brown hair and tennis shoes), Betsy (a Kish doll with braided hair and a blue hat), Red Rose (an Ellowyne Wilde doll), Bailey (with straight red hair), Amalie (a miniature baby doll, in the pram), Malia (a Madame Alexander doll on the swing), HoneyBee (the small doll sitting in front) and Bailey (a Bleuette with blonde hair).  Also in the picture, a yellow bunny that jumps when you push on his tail (by Red Rose's foot).  The dolls all have baskets and are hunting for Easter eggs!
-- Kairi

New Fabric: First Project

We were at Britex fabrics in San Francisco recently, and we loved seeing all the wonderful fabrics!  We bought a few remnants and I bought a 1/4 yard of a pricy boucle fabric that has me very inspired.  I plan to make a jacket for Ellowyne, but decided to start with something more familiar, to get a feeling for the fabric.  The fabric is naturally frayed, with little threads hanging off of it, making it tricky to work with.  I made a jumper for Olivia (one of my 12" Kish dolls) because I've worked with this pattern before, and I hand sewed it, because I wasn't sure if the loose threads and open weave would give me trouble with the sewing machine.  The end product turned out cute, and I learned quite a bit-- I think the next project will be better!
-- Janet

Olivia in her new dress

Announcing: Baby Amelia

We attended the Bluebonnet Bebes of Houston (www.bluebonnetbebes.org) Doll Show this past weekend and found many, many fun things.  The best new member of our collection is Amelia, a 10" reborn baby doll made by Dianna Matthews (www.ddsheavenboundnursery.com).  A reborn baby is a vinyl baby doll that has been taken apart, painted specially to make it look more real, and often has rooted hair and eyelashes to make it look even more real.  We have fun pretending Amelia is a real baby, with Janet being asked to "babysit" sometimes.  We are taking very good care of her, and below are two pictures of Amelia.

Amelia, a Reborn Baby

Amelia, close up

Doll Diorama Fun!

The Junior Doll Club (www.acdream.com) had a real fun activity this month-- each girl picked a Kelly doll (Kelly is Barbie's little sister) and created a room scene around that doll.  Each girl had a doll, a shoebox and the run of boxes of trims!  Kairi picked a Kelly in a flowered dress and had brought a few Kellys from home, so she created a sleepover scene that was inspired by the flowers in the dress.  Pictures of Kairi's and other rooms are below.

Kairi's Sleepover room

Kairi's sleepover room

African Animal themed room

Easter themed room

Meet a Doll Fashion Designer: Durelle Brown!

In November, the Junior Doll Collector's Club (www.acdream.com) invited Doll Fashion designer Durelle Brown to our meeting!  She told us about the clothes she has designed for Marie Osmond's dolls, and also showed off some of her Ellowyne Wilde fashions!  She then helped us all make an awesome handbag for our dolls!  You can see some of Durelle's work at  http://demi-divasbydurelle.50megs.com/chic/sales.html.

Janet, Kairi and Durelle

American Girl Store Trip!

Our Junior Doll Collector's club (www.acdream.com) visited the American Girl store in Dallas, and Kairi and Christine posed with Kanani in the picture below.

Ugg Boots

At the Modern Doll Convention, Janet was lucky enough to take a class on how to make Ugg Boots for 12" dolls!  Betsy models them below:

Do you like my new boots?

A day at the beach

Our dolls like to visit the beach (just like we do) and enjoy playing in the sand.  Below are pictures of Janet's doll Betsy (a Helen Kish 12" Bethany doll) and Kairi's Bailey (a 12" Ashton Drake doll).

Betsy doesn't have much luck building a sand castle!

Bailey enjoys the beach!

Betsy is burying Bailey in sand!