Finally finished

Aloha!  And welcome back to another issue of my blog. I'm pleased to say that Best Friends. is finished. I completed it today. I called the friend who commissioned it to let her know that it was FINALLY finished and I would be sending it to her this week. I wouldn't be surprised if she didn't believe me. She's been waiting for it for a year and a half now. I have to give her credit; she's been extremely patient and good natured about the delay. Now that I've completed it I can continue work on another commission she's asked of me: two portraits: one of Neville Longbottom and one of Ron Weasley. I forgot to ask her though at which age does she want these portraits done. Should they be of them when they first started at Hogwarts or at the end of the films?

I've finally finished Woman to Wed? and now am reading the second book in the series Best Man to Wed? This one is about Poppy, who is cousin to the groom. She fell in love with him when she was 12 and always dreamed of marrying him. And of James, older brother of the groom and also Poppy's cousin. As I've just started the book not much has happened other than the angst between the two characters. Poppy is NOT very fond of James and if you are familiar with Harlequin's you already know what is going to happen.  So why, you might ask, do I still read then? It's how they eventually resolve their disagreement and realize they love each other that always has me reading the books. Besides, Jordon is a good story teller.



Once again I am sharing another Boots paper doll. This one is from August 21, 1955. I especially like this one due to the fact that the young lady is running. My favorite of the outfits presented is the one with the rolled up jeans. So reminiscent of the 50's teenager. I can't help wondering what she is running to. Perhaps a date off panel that is picking her up. Has she snuck out of the house that is perhaps on the other side of the covered bridge? Are there still covered bridges?? One of those things for me to look up on the internet. I've always associated them with the East Coast. I don't know if there are any in other parts of the country.


I've been trying to organize my paper doll collection. Especially the newspaper ones by date and year when possible. It makes them easier to find now that I'm adding them to my blog. For today's blog I'm also adding the Boots strip that accompanied the paper doll. There were two strips that were with it: Boots and Babe and Horis. I've separated the two strips and I'm also sharing the complete sheet with both the paper doll and the two strips.

You can see what I had to work with in dividing them up. From experience I know it is difficult to scan the strip and the paper doll to make one image. Much easier to take a photo of the entire sheet especially if you don't want to damage any other part of the paper. The sheets are often times extremely fragile and tear easy. I have a few in my own collection that I  had to be extremely careful with when I scanned them. The down side of taking a photo is you end up with a not so straight image. I just hope the outfits fit the doll should you decide to print them out. I don't know which newspaper these were in.

I haven't shared one of my paper doll sets in awhile. This one, named Rowena, has costumes from the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries. I love the medieval time period. One of my favorite books, and still is, was Ivanhoe. I created her in 1984. I've recently updated her. I redid her face and the border. I kept my original ribbon border but added corners to it and a background image; in this case a Norman doorway. Other pages have a knight and castle, thatched cottage, 12th century church, and King and Bishop. The fun part is I can also make her into coloring pages featuring, not only the different outfits, but the various backgrounds and I can add more should I desire to do so. Thank you Photoshop!!

As you can see with the original image part of her braid is missing. Well the original was on tracing paper taped to the paper and it, unfortunately, tore. But thanks to Photoshop I was able to repair the braid. Back in the 80's that was the only way I could make the clothes fit was by using tracing paper. Now, however, I do have a light table. Two in fact. One full sized one for larger drawings and one for smaller projects, like my paper doll sets. So now I am able to use plain drawing paper. Much easier to erase on.

I will finish up this issue of the blog by adding the coloring page. Enjoy! And I hope, if you should decide to download her and color her, that you will E-mail me at Kleiaa@aol.com and send me your color scheme, which, with your permission, I will feature on this blog. The castle and the knight I found as clip art
I found the knight here: http://nolichuckyroots.blogspot.com/2010/09/thrifty-thursday-clip-art.html and the castle here: http://karenswhimsy.com/medieval-castle-pictures.shtm Clip art is an artists best friend. :)

Until next time....

Yellow hibiscus NDennis 2007

ALOHA!!