Waiting for Kara at Ni'Chalet's (Photostory)

The lighting isn't so great in this photostory.  I will explain why at the end.

Karla, Kara's sister is waiting for her at Ni'Chalet's.

Racquel is trying to salvage a window display that is going horribly wrong.

"This is not working.  I need that blouse!"  (Racquel to herself)

Tanisha has enlisted the help of her big sister, Robin, to find an outfit for an upcoming banquet she's attending.  Little Courtney, Robin's daughter, is along for the ride.

"So do you think you want to wear a long gown or a regular dress?"  (Robin)

"I think a regular dress.  I want to still look sexy, not old."  (Tanisha)

"Lil' sis, you have a lot to learn.  You can still be very sexy in a long gown."  (Robin)

"Are you doing okay over here?"  (Lynn)

"Yes.  I'm just looking."  (Raven)

Ian and Raven stopped by Ni'Chalet's to pass some time before going to the movies.  Of course, this was Raven's idea, not Ian's.  He wanted to stop by the video store. 

"What are you looking for?"  (Ian)

"I'm not sure.  I'll know it when I see it."  (Raven)

"We should probably leave soon so we can get a good seat."  (Ian)

"Miss are you doing okay?  Do you need help with something?"  (Lynn)

"Oh, I'm just waiting for my sister.  She should be here any minute."  (Karla)

Racquel is making a call to find out where her other shipment is.  She is very low on merchandise after the holiday season and there have been multiple mishaps with her latest shipment.  Ordinarily, she would make this call in the back, but it's pretty busy in the store right now.  

"You ladies doing okay over here." (Lynn)

"Do you have any more dresses in the back in her size?"  (Robin)

"I'm sorry.  All we have is out on the floor.  We should be getting in some new dresses next week."  (Lynn)

"Ok. Thanks."  (Robin)

"Is there anything else we can do in the meantime?  I need to get these window displays, done"  (Racquel)

Robin suddenly notices that Courtney is not beside her anymore.

"Where's Courtney?"  (Robin)

"She's over there."  (Tanisha)

"Courney.  Over here, please."  (Robin)

Courtney heads back to a glaring Robin.

"You can not walk away from us like that.  Someone could snatch you up and we would never see you again. Your dad would kill me if  that happened."  (Robin)

"And grandpa would be very, very sad."  (Tanisha)

"I just wanted to see the shiny bags."  (Courtney)

The shiny bags that caught Courtney's eye.

"I don't care.  Stay with me or aunt Tanisha at all times.  Now hold my hand and stay close."  (Robin)

In the midst of Courtney's chastisement, Ian and Raven are leaving the boutique.

Not because of the chastisement.  It's just almost movie time.

"So what's up?  Are they going to be able to do anything?"  (Lynn)

"They keep saying the box is in transit, and I keep telling them it's lost.  They finally agreed to ship out another box.  I guess they think I'm trying to get extra merchandise without paying for it.  So now I have to figure out what to put on display with the limited merchandise I have." (Racquel)

Kara has yet to show up, so Karla steps outside to give her a call.

"Where are you?"  (Karla)

"I'm sorry. I had a client drop in at the last minute."  (Kara)

"And you couldn't just tell her to make an appointment and come back?"  (Karla)

Cheryl and Becky have just entered the store.  They were dropped off by Bridget after the Open House.  Bridget couldn't stay.  She had to run and pick up her kids. 

"Welcome to Ni'Chalet's?  Can I help you find something?"  (Lynn)

Racquel resumes working on the window display.  She was able to get part of the Tim Gunn display up.  Some of the other pieces are in the lost box.  (P.S.  There are white and brown display tables in my Etsy store.)  One last thing.  Those boots are the best boots I have in my entire collection!

Epilogue

So why is the lighting so poor?  Well, when I set out to do a blog post, I was excited to show off the new sofa I made.  Then I realized I needed to make an adjustment to a couple of the sofa legs, so I decided to move on to building the Chef Mickey dio.  It wasn't flowing like I wanted it to, so I did what I could and stopped.  I still had three boxed dolls sitting there and I decided to just show the new Kara doll and the growing Chelsea doll for the blog post.  I didn't want to show the Kara doll in her pitiful looking roller skating outfit, so I got her dressed.  Which led to me wanting to do a short story with her and Kara.  Normally, this would be a quick story at one of the local restaurants.  After working on Chef Mickey, the last thing I wanted to do was setup another restaurant.  This led to me thinking they could do a quick stop at Ni'Chalet's.  Well Ni'Chalet's was in a state of disarray after months of stealing clothes from her shop and not putting them back.  It's also located in an area of the doll room that doesn't get great lighting.  I had no desire to lug the studio lights from the dining room to the doll room.  So.......I decided to move the entire Ni'Chalet's boutique to the center island in the kitchen.  There's not the best lighting there either, but my studio lights were just a stone's throw away in the dining room.  (Don't ask me why I had energy to do that.  Sounds really crazy now that I'm reading it back).  After moving the whole boutique and restocking her clothes and adding new displays that called for additional deboxing,  then wanting to showcase dolls that we haven't seen in awhile, I could only muster up enough energy to pull in two studio lights.  I needed the third one, which wasn't far away, but hell, I was just too tired after all that.  You see Kara never showed up.  I was in the midst of getting her dressed before I moved the whole boutique and dressed everyone else.  Even Ian has on a newly deboxed outfit.  I couldn't even finish getting poor Kara dressed.  LOL.  All of this, just to show the new Kara doll.  

On another note, I finally got to use my two LIV window displays I picked up at Walmart a couple years ago for $6 each!  Cafe Mickey is just about done.  Danielle and the family have made it there and they are waiting to be seated.   The sofa is a cream suede with earthtone pillows.  I have a feeling it will be snatched up pretty quickly.  I hope to have that ready to show by tomorrow.  Have a wonderful day!