A Rough Cut of The Anderson's Remodeled Home

This is yesterday's post. Blogger was down when I went tried to post it.  I roughed out what the Anderson's permanent home will look like.

The furniture will all probably stay, but the living room table and all accessories are subject to change. I am just getting a feel for it all. There may be wallpaper and/or new curtains. I put in the window to the left, so that one will stay. It overlooks my backyard.  There is a small piece of wall behind it that will be cut away.  The window on the right will probably be covered with foamcore to make a wall.

There will be a sofa table.  Not sure that the little desk will stay.  There is a wicker basket underneath with Ciana's toys.

Leslie is about to tackle some hair before work.  She just needs to get that red ribbon changed out.  I have to do a little work to this leather chair.  It is one of my rejected pieces from a couple of years ago.  I managed to sew the seat cushion together backwards. Once I fix a few things, it will be fine for this family.

The door on the left goes nowhere. The bathroom is hidden behind there.  It will remain an illusion.  If you recall, I originally had their bedroom in this area.  I started making them another bedroom, but it may be donated to someone else, like Roderick, or the Redmonds.

The great room overlooks the kitchen and dining room.

The view into the kitchen/dining room.  The kitchen island will be completely redone. It is currently made out of 2 dressers that I need for someone's bedroom. I will probably make one from wood. The counter tops will probably be marbled contact paper made of black/white.  You know the one.

 I will add a window scene and a curtain.  I roughed out the counter area to the left.  This will probably also be made of wood.  I will try to find/make a piece that has storage underneath.  She needs a place for dishes. Of course the walls will be fixed.

There will be an area rug under the dining table.  I will also try to add a nice floral centerpiece.  I can't wait to create some food that will be served here. Since they will use it for everyday use as well, I won't dress it up with dishes and a table cloth until they entertain.  And they will be entertaining.  I think Leslie is thinking about inviting Rod and Danielle to dinner.  There will be a small patio area.  I don't have a lot of space out back, although I could borrow a little space from the table just beyond.  I may add a small grill and patio chairs.

I still have a ton of work to do, but this home is ready to use for videos.  It will probably be the next scene for a quick photostory . Danielle's house is just to the left.  The Taylor's home is just to the right.  I can see Antoinette popping up at the patio door for some morning coffee and a chat on the weekends.  I started working on the Taylor home yesterday, too.  I probably would have finished putting their kitchen and family room back together, but I can't put my hands on their sofa.  It's not with the other neatly stored furniture. Hmmm. 

I am off to post the blog for today.  Make sure you take a look.  It will feature limbe doll sandals.

I Made You Guys Breakfast this Morning

I think I am a little late, so you and your dolls may have to eat it tomorrow.  I fixed pancakes, eggs, and turkey sausages.  We can say they are pork, if your dolls prefer those.  Sorry about the syrup.  Putting them on the pancakes would have ruined my beautiful work.  This plate will be listed in my Etsy shop after I finish this post.  Of course, rarely ever do our dolls eat alone, so a second plate is available upon request at a discounted rate. 

My ultimate goal is to allow people to customize their own doll breakfast from a list of breakfast items.  So far on the list are pancakes, waffles, eggs (scrambled, fried), bacon, sausage, hash browns, grits, assorted fruit, bagels, toast, and donuts.  This may take awhile.  In the meantime, I will list ready made doll breakfasts. 

Just a reminder, this is 1/6 scale food for your fashion dolls.

Danielle knows this is way too much food for her.  

Maybe she is practicing for that faithful day when she cooks Roderick breakfast.

New Video: Auntie Paulette Visits Danielle and the Boys

Yeah, a new video is ready. It is a nice simple one.  It will give you a glimpse into the redesign of Danielle's home, which is so far from being done.  Now that I am leaving rooms up, I will actually make and install doors and windows.  I have to do a total overhaul of Danielle's kitchen.  Parts of it will get repainted.  There is a laundry room just off the kitchen which is being worked on.  I still have to put up pictures, put in some area rugs, add some more greenery, add some tables, etc.  All in due time.  Danielle and those boys are getting quite a bit of camera time lately.  Hope you enjoy the video.

Double-click to see Full Screen view

Wig shown here is by limbe dolls

Mattel must pay MGA $310 million in Bratz case

Seems like the $88 Million that the jury awarded MGA for the Mattel lawsuit was just increased more than 3 fold.  Mattel's request for a retrial was also denied.  You can read the details at the link below.   All I have been able to say since reading the article is "whoaaa".

Mattel must pay MGA $310 Million

An Unnoticed Feature in the Mattel Refrigerator

This morning I got an email from Mattel offering me 15% off on my next on-line purchase. I had to just go take a peek.  No I didn't buy anything.....yet, but I headed straight to the playsets to start.  There I saw the current refrigerator that Mattel has available.  I never really liked this refrigerator.  It is way too pink and with it being see thru, it might be difficult to transform.  I did take a closer look at it because of the title "Barbie Treats to TV Fridge".  What does that mean?  Can the dolls watch TV from the fridge?  Well there isn't a TV, but there is a 'yogurt maker' inside the fridge, which is fully operational once you put the batteries in.

Why did I stop to read about the refrig that I never really cared for?  Well, I bought this fridge about a month ago, because it was on sale at Target for $9. I have yet to take it out of the car, along with one of the two fashionistas I bought, that were also on sale.  I have contemplated taking it back to the store on several occassions. Of course, returning a Barbie item that I don't already have, has never happened.  Especially one that was on sale.

A fridge with a working yogurt maker makes this less than appealing item a lot more interesting to me.  It will definitely be staying now.  It will probably stay in the car until I figure out who needs a yogurt maker.  The answer just came to me as I was typing.  I think the dancer in the Studio Dreams group, would be the perfect candidate for a yogurt maker fridge.

I really have to start looking at those playsets a lot closer.  I am now noticing that Mattel is doing some interesting things with some of their playsets. 

Darius and Nikki Modeling the Redesigned, Newly Designed Accent Chair

Here is the latest Accent Chair, that will be listed in my Etsy Shop right after I finish this, my 3rd post of the day.  I am hopeless when it comes to slowing down.  It is 3:30pm, which means there is still too much time in the day and I may be tempted to do 4 posts today.  I promise not to post another one until after midnight.

Here are Darius and Nikki.  I just love this couple.  I wonder if they are celebrating something.  I see champagne and glasses.

The new design was actually a 'happy accident'  I forgot to put the cushion on the chair before I added the seat fabric, which meant I had to add it on top.  I like the new design.  I will probably still offer both designs for the same price.

So I'm off to either make clothes for Julian, or do a video.  See you tomorrow.

In case you missed post 1 and post 2, click the title to view them.  I Stopped by Target Today....Just Looking.  and Sharing a Lighting Tip .

Sharing a Lighting Tip

I am constantly working on improving my photos.  I asked a couple of people, who had really nice photos, about their lighting.  Both mentioned "Daylight" bulbs.  I finally bought a couple yesterday from Home Depot, and I can't wait to shoot a video with them.  I did a couple test shots and here are the results.  By the way, I bought 100 watt flourescent daylight bulbs.  Make sure your lamp can handle 100 watt.  You could probably get away with a lower wattage.

 With the camera on the proper settings, I had to do very little photoediting to these photos.  They could use a little more tweaking, but all in all, I am happy with them.  This was taken with just one lamp, whereas I normally I have to use 2-3 lamps for even something as small as this.

It is very important to have your camera setup correctly prior to taking pictures.  I haven't used the auto setting on my camera for quite some time now.  I played around with the (P)rogram button on my camera awhile ago, and was happy to have more control over how the pictures were turning out.  Of course, the more I experiment, the better I get.  Last night I took the shot below with the same lighting as above, and look what happened.

This is a case of incorrect camera setting.  On most cameras there is a "White Balance" setup.  In the program mode, you may have different choices, such as flourescent, tungsten, daylight, open shade, etc.  My camera was set on tungsten, prior to taking this picture.  As I mentioned above, I was using flourescent light bulbs.  I changed my camera setting to flourescent and here is the result.  No photoediting was done to either photo.

Of course, if you choose to use the Automatic setting on your camera, the daylight bulbs will still make a huge difference.

P.S.  This is the second post of the day.  You can see the first post here.

I Stopped by Target Today....Just Looking.

Well, we all know what that means.  I stopped by to see if they had any of the Barbie Basics 2.0 Target Exclusives.  Someone had posted several pictures of Barbie in white jeans.  I was reminded that they were the Barbie Basics from Target. Thank goodness, this Target didn't have any.  But as I strolled down the Barbie aisle, not really expecting to see anything new, I spotted a few new "I Can Be" playsets that looked interesting.  They had 3 that I wanted, but I only got one.  I just couldn't leave without it.

Image Courtesy of Mattel

It is the "I Can Be" Baby Caregiver set for $20.99.  The baby is a totally new sculpt and a little older than the other babies.  The baby drinks and wets!!!  Barbie can actually lift the baby up and down, too.  The baby accessories are very well made from what I can tell.  Of course, there weren't any AA sets on the shelf, for any of the playsets.  I started wondering if Mattel even made an AA set.  This morning I searched the internet and found the AA set on Amazon for $20.99.  Yes, I bought it.  In order to get the free shipping I had to add a little something else.

Image Courtesy of Mattel

I have to get busy now. People need to get married, so they can have babies, so they can get new baby stuff.  That could take awhile.  I don't know if I can wait that long.  Maybe there needs to be a slip up somewhere.

Image Courtesy of Mattel

This was the second thing I purchased on Amazon.  I knew that I would get one of these sets because I wanted the cute hair care products.  I chose this set because I do not have a little Kianna doll in my collection. She is really cute here.  I only have one Kara doll, so now I will be able to swap heads with my other one.  This set is only $17.99 on Amazon, whereas they are $19.99 in the store.

So the Caucausian baby care set will more than likely be returned to the store. Even though these were unplanned purchases, I am really happy that I got them.  No remorse here at all.  Good prices, no tax and no shipping makes me very happy.

One more thing....

This was one of the other sets in Target that I wanted.  In this set the Chelsea doll actually "grows".  I don't know how it works yet.  Now that I think about it, I will probably swap out my Baby Caregiver for this set. The giraffe table and the other accessories are worth having.  Of course there is not an AA version of this set, seeing how the AA Chelsea version are the S.I.S. kids.

Sweet Potatoe Pie My Mom Would Be Proud Of

Sweet potatoe pie has always been my favorite pie.  My mom, like a lot of moms, make a mean sweet potatoe pie.  Of course I would only get it at Thanksgiving time, which was fine with me.  I just recently learned to make a healthy version of sweet potatoe pie.  This sweet potatoe pie is the first addition to my "Southern Cuisine" food that is currently available in my Etsy shop. 

Hmmm, I wonder if Danielle has fixed that pie for anyone in particular.

I made two sweets and one apple. 

That lattice top is as difficult as it looks.

But the finished product is worth the work.

31 Days to Better Sleep

Look what showed up in my email this morning.  How ironic.  I thought I would share it with you, in case anyone else has sleeping issues.  There is a link to the article at the bottom.  Spark People is a site that I discovered about 8 months ago.  It is primarily a site that helps you focus on your health.  It has a food tracking system, wonderful articles, recipes, and a great support system.  I don't frequent the site like I used to, but I signed up to receive daily emails on certain topics, sleep being one of them.  Another one being high blood pressure.  Last year I had high blood pressure as a result of my illness.  I was on several high blood pressure meds until I decided to take myself off of them, once my illness was under control.  My blood pressure was back to normal until many months later it shot up again, almost over night.  I was about to concede to my doctor's request to go back on medicine.  The next week (I kid you not), a Spark People email came that talked about lowering high blood pressure.  The first thing they talked about was "baking soda" and how high the sodium count was. Ding ding ding! I had just recently started brushing my teeth with baking soda, because it is a natural whitener.  I immediately stopped using it, and my blood pressure returned to normal within a week.  Can you believe that?  We always used baking soda to whiten our teeth growing up.  My blood pressure now hovers aound 99/68.  That my friends is better than normal!  Thanks Spark People.  Had that article not shown up, I would probably be taking a blood pressure pill.

http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/motivation_articles.asp?id=901