doll's are fun for everyone!

when i saw the monster high c. a. cupid doll, two things struck me; wow, i want those wings, and, she would make an awesome noa. so, after a month of stalking the local walmart, i finally got my chance and picked one up.

even though it's never a good idea to start a project late at night, i went ahead and did it anyway. i removed the face paint, washed and boiled the hair, and then covered it in a stocking so it would lay flat. i also attempted to remove the leg paint so the doll would be completely white, like noa from skydoll. by "attempted", i mean, wasn't really able to completely and that it's still a work in progress.

today, i gave her a haircut, and painted her face from a couple of different inspirations. i decided to keep the really long piece which had made up cupids heart shaped headband, alluding to a tail. still a bit more work to do with removing the leg paint, and then sewing up some clothes. yay!

by now you're probably wondering what the heck a noa is. well, it's the main character in canepa/barbucci's skydoll, a comic from france which i absolutely adore. if your second question is, what's monster high, you probably don't have a daughter under the age of 12. it's a group of dolls based around characters on mattel's webisodes about the children of monsters, and accepting everyone because of their differences. i just think they're awesome, from a doll collector's viewpoint of course. they're so posable and really neat. (but, i have watched all the webisodes since getting my first doll, ghoulia yelps, daughter of zombies.)

the second (well, really the first chronological one) doll i created, is a skeletonized pegasus/unicorn girl. i went to work on it before i saw cupids wings, but once i did, i knew they'd be perfect. they're a backbone with the ribcage forming a heart, see, it goes perfect with the skeleton appendages.

...

there are times when i lose faith in small businesses. i thought that they had to have more humanity, more caring, a greater respect for their workers than big business. that their charming shops were a reflection of their owners. that they couldn't possibly be bad to work for. that because you could put a face to the position of power at the top, and that they could put a face to you, their worker, that they couldn't possibly treat you as less than nothing, as a doormat, as someone they could disregard, whose life outside of work doesn't matter. i lose faith because i have been that person far more often than i like. that because i choose to be nice, to be generous with my time and ideas, that i like to be helpful that it means i can be pushed around, be lied to, be cheated and robbed of my workers' rights, to be shushed. for all that big business likes to be bean counters, to see its workers in terms of numbers, i have never been treated with such disrespect and inhumanity during my time working for them that i have experienced in the occasions i have found myself working for a small business. i don't understand the greed, the lies, the selfishness that i come up against. it pains me to have my faith crumble and turn to dust. it turns my empathy to antipathy, and i wonder if life will always be an uphill battle in the workforce and that hard work, a love for what one does, ultimately counts as nothing.

can-can

best in show sounded better than 1st place, so that's what i went with. i was being inspired by the more daring and colourful of the victorian tastes, as well as guavas. because the eyepatch is worn on a 3-dimensional surface, you can really see the beetle green backing fabric and deeper pink sheer ribbon peeking through from underneath the top layer; it made me think of petticoats and crinoline, which i love. this is one of my favorites.

in all their variety

i was searching through my ribbon drawers to find material for my latest eyepatch, and started sorting them a little better (purple in the pink drawer! peach which should be in the orange drawer! is this brown?!). the aubergine ribbons looked particularly lovely, so i had to take a snapshot of them. i love the dusky cornflower running into deepest amethyst, with the areas of mauve and fuchsia playing amuck along the borders. so many colours get filed under one name; there's such diversity to them, they're all deserving of being distinguished.

here's a sneak peek of my 5th eyepatch, it has something to do with ribbons...

buzzzzz

finally found the pearls needed for the head! here's my honey and bee inspired eyepatch; a golden glow which is so warm compared to the weather outside.

i'm still contemplating which one to work on next; i guess it depends on the materials i have on hand.

honey bees are worth more than gold

i've found my new favorite drink, uji shimizu and cold almond milk; matcha, sugar, and milk, whisked to a frothy green. i tried it hot last night, and it was okay, but today i made it with cold milk and it is so very yummy!

i've started work on another eyepatch. the theme with this one is honey, and more specifically, the honey bee. i never really liked honey until i came to the south and tried the local tupelo honey; it's very sweet, similar to simple syrup or agave nectar. that was about seven years ago. i've since acquired a taste for acacia, sourwood, star thistle, and winter white honeys, as well as an appreciation for the bees which create them.

it's difficult to imagine what will happen to the honey bee in the future, and it's hard to not jump in and try to save them once you learn of the bad husbandry they've fallen under. a couple of years ago i read this controversial post about the honey bee, and it made me think. i've since learned more from radio casts, books, and magazine articles, but everyone needs a starting point. however, the book which made me love the honey bee was chalice, by robin mckinley. you may think it's hard to love an insect, but it isn't, not really.

i'm not quite finished with the bees on my eyepatch, i'm looking for black fresh water pearls for their heads, the ones i do have, being drilled in the wrong spot.