Mood:  accident prone

Got Baby Ariel re-measured last night, but there hasn't been time to sew for her since. Wow. Some of those measurements were waaaay off ! I usually employ a narrow tape measure that retracts into a disc of sorts - it's convenient and thin enough for dolls. But after a third doll has to be completely re-measured and the original numbers are off, I'm starting to think that tape's messed up. I'll have to check it later.

After chain-sawing dangerously low-hanging tree limbs - the all-summer rains have made the trees and lawn grow like crazy - we decided to go out. Besides, Beloved Hubby felt bad when I got clocked by a good sized branch. Only a couple of scrapes and one small bonk on the head. Ironically, the smallest of the scratches hurt the most ! Once I was out of the shower (‘cause hauling limbs and holding the ladder in 90 degree heat is sweaty work !), nothing hurt at all. Until I nearly fell over an upturned chair in Dearest Son's room ! Grrrrr....

Since I got to choose our venue, we hit the bookstores ! I got to see the first issue of the new Barbie Collector and the latest Fashion Doll Quarterly, but bought neither. Is it just me, or have doll magazines - especially fashion doll magazines - really gone downhill lately ? All I saw was gush for the latest and greatest and price guides in between full-page doll store ads. Which also double as price guides.

BC was too many Mattel photos, not much article, with a single Marirose dress pattern that looked a bit involved - I have some experience with her patterns, from Vintage Clothing for the Fashion Doll. As usual, her stuff looks absolutely perfect but mine always leaves a bit to be desired. So I'm not exactly jumpin' up and down to get more of her patterns right now. The magazine lacked other projects or ideas, but had a surplus of  ‘hey, you don't have this $280. "Barbie" MAC lipstick, so you'd best get on it !' blurbs. Even the vintage articles - stuff Mattel wouldn't make money on - were more ‘this is worth $xxx now. Do you have one in YOUR collection ?'. Meeting/fan club/con coverage was also mostly ‘aren't you sorry you weren't here ?' than anything else, and most of the other bits and pieces were already out of date - like how to sign up for the Dallas convention. And does a true Barbie Doll Collector *really* need to shell six bucks to be informed of how to tell a butt-marked #1 1959 doll from a back-embossed ‘1966' one ? There's plenty of books and reference for that (shoot, I even have some of it on my website, but without lavish photos !), but there it was, even with the photos, it was still rather dry and boring.

Today was the first time I'd actually held an issue of FDQ in my hot little hands. The pattern for Tonner's Ellowyne Wilde - a Goth Lolita dress - was intriguing, but I have 90% of the basic style already, for both Barbie and Elphie sizes. Plus, while Ello is the same height as Tyler Wentworth, the bodies are different, so they can't share clothes or patterns without alterations. So why shell $10. for a pattern I can't really use ? The Tonner articles were friendly, if not particularly witty ("10 Things I Learned About Tonner - they really, really love dolls !"  my snark : how long did that take you to deduce, Sherlock ?), and the paper dolls were pretty, but most of the issue was a wash. My dolls are lucky to have shoes, much less hats made of doll hair, and drooling photos of doll accessories just don't do it for me. Plus ‘Rubber Stamping on Fabric' ? Umm, I just spent six hours making a great doll dress. You really think I'm gonna muck it up with a *&^%$ing stamp pad ?! And glitter ? Pssshshhh !

It just seemed like most of what I looked at were glossy photos. Nothing new or inspiring, unless you count the hopes that wallets would be opened and credit cards would be extracted. It's sad when you're still holding the magazine in your hands in the store and you're bored by what you're barely leafing through. Maybe I'm getting jaded. Or maybe I know the patterns won't be nearly as perfect as the photos. Or I'm simply tired of the ‘buy, buy, BUY ALREADY !' pressure that radiates from the magazines. If I wanted that crap, I'd get a two-inch-thick copy of The Knot or Bride's. Those things should come with handles sewn to ‘em. They're huge !

I did find something interesting - well, Beloved found it for me. A wonderful sixth-scale bass guitar ! Wow ! It looked more in Elphie's scale than Barbie's, but either way, it was six different kinds of cool. There were four varieties, but I preferred the electric bass Fender. It came with tiny picks, a stand, a strap, and a tiny cord and some sort of transmitter or amp that fit on the strap. It was a bit pricey at $20., but I'll definitely go back for it as soon as I can. I forgot to write down the manufacturer, and for some reason, every photo I've found shows it out of package and only one mentioned the maker and distributor, making it kinda hard to find online.

Here's a link if you wanna see - it's still out of the packaging, but if you look close, you can see those cute, tiny picks - >

http://www.fenderusa.com/store/enter.php?a=_098176pqikzhmxcf82oidf22&product=0999325000

So, pretty soon, you may see Elphie strummin' a new bass guitar !

Over dinner, I was telling Beloved about my quandary over the white-spot-legged California Dream Midge that the flea market seller had last Sunday. If I decided to shell the $4. for her, should I keep her original - i.e., not perfect, but definitely herself - or do I make her perfect by scrapping another doll ? It all gets down to whether or not I can deal with a damaged doll in Chez Insanity, really. Some folks can accept imperfections in people but it better not come near their doll collection ! And others have no problems with their dolls bearing damage and wear. We're all different, after all. Beloved listened attentively, and gave me his thoughts. He said my entire collection was a haven for slightly damaged dolls, even the ones bought new usually had some small issues, so if Midge wanted to wear pants all the time (like I do when I don't shave !), that'd be up to her. And me. But he kind of figured that Midge, like me, wouldn't want to sacrifice another doll for vanity, we'd rather deal with what we came with. And the others would just have to adjust if she wanted to wear a skirt now and then.

Can you believe *this* is the guy my parents thought wasn't good enough for me ?! In my experience, not many folk would put this kind of thought into any hobby that wasn't theirs. It's also sweet how he's accepted a new doll into the house without so much as a raised corner of one eyebrow. So, yeah, if the seller still has her, California Midge will be arriving, spots and all, to Chez Insanity Friday or Saturday next.

It's easy to be happy when you have my life ! :)

Posted by dorriebelle at 10:56 PM CDT

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Mood:  a-ok

It's funny to find myself in August. It seemed like July would be around forever. But the circus has to end sometime, or the town'd have to find something to do with all the elephant poo. Where I'm from, there's a competition amongst the average Joe & Jane to get to the gate first the day after, to clean up after the State Fair. Folks find money and prizes and sell the animal leavings to gardeners.

Other metaphors aside, I decided to print off the last pages of the pattern catalog this morning. Turns out, my little project only used about 1/3 of the cartridge. It was well-used before I started, and more than a third remains. So I'm happy I have it all, but a little sad it's all done with. This Big Summer Project only cost about $15., including the library printing. I redid the catalog while putting in the new sheets, freeing up some document protectors, so I only needed about half the package. The big cost was time, of course, but I learned a lot. Mostly about digital image manipulation ! And how ridiculously obsessive I get. I now look at the catalog/photo album and squee with happy. I used to shrug and push it out of the way, while looking for more important stuff.

One other thing I learned was that folks can't seem to get enough of creating ways to dress Barbie up as Scarlett O'Hara (Gone With The Wind) or Marilyn Monroe. I have six different sewing pattern versions of the green ‘Barbecue' dress and four of the white halter dress from Seven Year Itch. Three of the strapless pink gown from ‘Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend' in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, although you can say she's Madonna performing "Material Girl" instead. Somehow, I ended up with a copy of patterns for every.single.gown. Vivien Leigh wore, even if it was for two minutes, on screen in GWTW. I even have patterns for her ‘shimmy' (chemise).  You know, the one Rhett knows what she looks like without. It's weird because I have no intention of sewing any of ‘em - well, maybe that super-easy one from a German pattern magazine - but I can't ditch a single one, either. Nor can I stuff ‘em in the Lord Perry folder I use to keep over-complicated patterns out of sight = out of mind, but not deleted. I want ‘em where I can see ‘em, even though I have zero intention of using ‘em. Makes no sense to even me, but there it is.

Ironically, I want to make a halter dress for Elphie. Since she'd be the least likely to actually want something like that ! It'd be gorgeous on her, though, in the right fabric. And goss knows I got plenty of fabric, some of it somewhere just has to be ‘right' ! Sheer numbers, ya know...Maybe this time I can tweak and increase and proportion a Barbie pattern to the right size for Elphaba. Long as it's not pink, she can't really complain !

I'm hoping that I'll get to sew later today. For now, though, I'm gonna re-measure Baby Ariel, see if I can get those pants right this time ! I'm starting to  think the narrow tape measure I used has stretched or something.

Posted by dorriebelle at 5:28 PM CDT

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Mood:  lazy

And so, another month begins. Dearest Son returns to school soon, and another summer begins to slide into autumn. I'm starting to wonder if we'll have a Fall this year, since we didn't have much of a summer !

Took ‘FlashGordon', our mini USB drive, to the library this afternoon. Printed off the 24 pages of pattern catalog that were mostly outline. Library printer did quite well on them, no lines or anything. Maybe the toner was low when I printed the test images. In any case, I only have 29 more pages to print, so I may just go ahead and print ‘em here at home. All the new pages are now in the catalog, and I really love leafing through it. I'd do it for my other doll patterns, but I don't think I'm ready for that much work again !

Went ahead and sewed a test pair of Baby Ariel Doll Shop Deluxe pants tonight, cut from a leg of blue work pants Beloved Hubby cut to make shorts. Didn't turn out very well. Crotch and legs were off, and ankles were extremely tight. So I get to re-measure tomorrow. Not sure why I'm surprised, Baby's bent legs were gonna be hard to fit anyway - and DSD has fitting issues even with straight-leg dolls ! Heck, I don't know what I'm whining about. Everything I used was recycled, and it only took about an hour or less. I just hate to throw my finished item away. But I still have another leg ‘o pants to experiment on tomorrow !

I think I'll aim for that. I'm pretty darn tired right now ! :)

Posted by dorriebelle at 12:01 AM CDT

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Mood:  surprised

Another ‘not much doll' day. Ended up not sewing anything at all, yesterday or today. Spent five hours of today finishing, sorting, and storing laundry. As of this moment, the only dirty clothes in the house are on our backs. There was quite a backlog.

Made a decent soup from the remnants of a lemon pepper deli chicken for lunch. Next time, though, I'll  have to use a less picked-clean chicken ! Beloved Hubby and I about had it down to bones alone Saturday.

After all that ‘Suzy Homemaker' stuff, I deserved a break. And I really got one ! Guess what I found at Neighbors Thrift ? A white 1968 Barbie case ! It was dirty, and in a bit of rough shape, and rather on the high side for a thrift store, but it was within my spending budget and I wouldn't have to wait and worry about shipping.

Cleaned it with some out-of-date baking soda and water, very gently. That pulled up some of the stray ink marks and part of the general surface dirt. It seemed a bit brighter afterwards. It was up on the section of Studio wall reserved for it before it was completely dry. Happy !

Spent some time in there puttering. Noticed that the closet light switchplate was pretty dingy and discolored.  Since I have to hit Mal-Wart for prescriptions tomorrow, I'll pick up a new one then. If I just get a plain white one - to match the one Beloved replaced on the main light switch - it'll only be pennies. I rarely like the fancier ones anyway.

Slowly, the Studio is becoming the place I want to be, even more than in front of the computer. Much as I love playin' with m site, most doll-based message boards have lost their charm. Haven't visited Prego in over a year, since the last dust-up, and of the remaining dozen, there's either too few participants or are chiefly claimed by dolls I don't care for. When the only way to be part of a group is to gush admiration for dolls you don't like, why do it ? When I instead gush over their new outfits, it seems so hollow. Maybe because I'm doing it not because I really feel it, but because I want to belong so much sometimes.

That's why I never started a doll message board of my own. Figured no one would care about my tightwad ways when it was more fun to laud the six $150. dolls purchased last month and sigh over eight more. Plus, I get to have my say on the main site, as well as here. It's more than I'd ever get at Prego.

Posted by dorriebelle at 12:01 AM CDT

Updated: Thursday, 2 August 2007 2:56 AM CDT

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Mood:  lazy

Whew. Got all the dishes - long neglected - washed last night, so I seem to be in a rare ongoing cleaning mode. Today I cleaned up the living room, trashed with toys, polystyrene packing from the sound system, and various bits of snack food. This mini-mission accomplished, I went on to vacuum the entire house, ‘supervise' Dearest Son's room cleaning, sweep all the non-carpet floors, and take out trash. I even got some laundry done, just not put away. I ran out of steam !

During a lull in the clean, I got Baby Ariel measured for Doll Shop Deluxe. Patterns look a little weird, but outfitting a baby figure must be like customizing a uniform for a bag of Jell-O. I've never sewn baby clothes - even my younger dolls have simple toddler figures, and Baby Chrissy wears real infant clothes. Printed off a pair of pants to try later. I'm kind of warring with myself - I need to finish the Rio project before I start something new, but I really wanna make something for Baby. And I promised Son I'd take him to Dollar Tree today, so I have to make up my mind already. If the flash flood thunderstorm that just erupted doesn't make my decisions for me. (sigh)

It's just one of those days. Don't take it personal. (breathe) It's just one of those days. Don't take it personal. (breathe) It's just one of those days. Don't take it personal. (breathe)

Posted by dorriebelle at 7:39 PM CDT

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Mood:  bright

We're almost out of July. I can't help but feel I should go buy some more, so we don't run out. I like to keep my pantry full of July, if I can !

The traveling flea market that sets up at the county fairgrounds is here this weekend. I go about every second or third go-round, although I rarely find anything. It's good for a walk. Didn't go yesterday, because I was consumed with finishing the pattern catalog (YES !!), but it's usually a Friday-Saturday-Sunday event, so I figured I'd go today. I think I'm a bit 'down' now that the Summer Big Project is done. It happens sometimes. When I saw there were only four cars in the parking lot, I knew something was amiss. The signs were still up, though...

Turns out, the few folk who were there were packing up. Despite the large banner signs, the flea market is only on Friday and Saturday now. There were maybe five shoppers and four vendors, storing their unsold misc. One of the few sellers there had dozens of Barbies. But I didn't buy a one. For one thing, most were boxed up, and I didn't wanna prowl through them if I didn't have serious intentions to buy. For the second, they'll be back in two weeks. I guess they have a circuit or something. For the third, she was waaaay too expensive. While most weren't more than five years old, they were all tangled hair and bland cheap clothes, with the occasional inked-up face for fun.

Not one was worth the $4. each she wanted. I can only assume she yard-sales ‘em for pocket change, ‘cause these wouldn't even make me ask 'how much ?' much less reach for the wallet, unless I wanted to get into serious customizing - by starting with a bare, no-paint face ! Even with that, once a Bic ballpoint pen gets into the vinyl, you can darn near forget it. All the acne-treatment work isn't worth it for a doll you can still find brand-new for $5. at most Family Dollar stores. You'd think she'd at least brush their hair while she's standing her booth, but nope.

Of course, her biggest ‘value' was the special car sets. She'd arranged two random dolls in various Barbie or knockoff vehicles, no trading allowed. I saw Family Dollar thin plastic sedans, a one-side-faded Sea Doo jet ski, and several remote control Mattel Jeeps that'd seen better days. If the floor of my Studio looks like a used car lot, her sales table looked like a junkyard. A vehicular Point of No Return. Plastic roll-bars broke free of their moorings. Cars with missing tires hid behind other cars. Remotes leaned forlornly against wheels that no amount of batteries would ever move again, and broken ‘pop-up picnic sets' in the back of mini-vans were denuded of stickers and folded at bizarre angles that weren't part of original Mattel designs. Whoo.

She had two VW Beetles - complete with a blonde Mackie face Barbie and a blah Ken, she expected $14. Or $10. for just the car. Wow. I thought the $5. at GoodWill for each of the two I bought was a bit much. One unfortunate Beetle had its hood inexpertly painted with nail polish by its previous owner. Yikes. It really looked *bad*. Of course, no seat belts, side mirrors, or rear view mirrors existed on either of them. The other Beetle, packed in a box, was the same virulent pink featured on a Barbie case I had as a kid, and I nearly got sick just looking at it.

I found a freckled Steffie-faced Midge among the rabble, but again, $4. was a bit much, and she was hiding her white-spotted legs (fairly common on late 80s dolls) under a long red skirt. She may well be California Dream Midge, her eye paint was especially vivid, and her freckles were happily evident. I'd consider getting her in two weeks, but I'd have to find a replacement body...grrr. Hate to pay $4. for a doll who needs work, then more for supplies ! I think I'll think about it. After all, I have two weeks.

Found a yard sale, but not much there. Dearest Son gained a nice Urban Outfitters shirt and a baby monkey in a blanket puppet, as well as a free half-bottle of Cars bubble bath. I got a strip of gold sequin-edged white tulle, ruffled and sewn to elastic. It'll probably become a ballet tutu for Baby Ariel, it's about the right length and size. Also a jute tie-belt that'll fit the My Size Barbie girls. Not bad for a buck and a half.

I think I'll give the ReAnne doll a pass. I've gained four new or new-to-me dolls this month alone, so I need to slow it down. At least wait until August to get her !  By then, I'll know if it's another ‘oooh, new doll buzz !' or if I really want her. I mean, heck, I haven't even measured Baby Ariel in DSD yet !

Posted by dorriebelle at 4:41 PM CDT

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Mood:  celebratory

Whooo-hoooo !!! Break open the champagne and the carpal tunnel wrist braces, I am done ! All the pattern images are scanned, resized, grey-scaled, sharpened, cleaned, posted on a labeled ‘canvas', and saved, even backed up on a CD. Only thing left is printing ‘em all out, but I don't wanna do that until we have another ink cartridge ready to go. I've 65 pages to print out, which I'm sure will kill the cart we have. And probably make a serious dent in the new one, too ! Beloved Hubby says we'll pick one up late next week, so I'm all excited.

Didn't finish until right at 3 this afternoon. Only took about four hours to finish, which included re-scanning a few. While I was darn near overjoyed to be done, I was restless. Went to the Studio - the poster backdrops I sprayed last week needed to be put away. Still intend to affix ‘em to foamcore, but the spray adhesive Beloved got me stinks, and daylight was disappearing fast. Decided that the Dollar Tree cardboard triptych/school project display would make for good temporary storage.

After that, I decided to consolidate the NRFB dolls to a single shelf, instead of a Princess Leia doll shrine (FAO's "Jabba's Prisoner", "Ceremonial Gown", and the slave girl action figure) and a boxed Barbie display (brunette Disco Barbie, altered-box Japanese Barbie, and ‘Enchanted Christmas' Belle). This way, I'd have a free shelf to set up a ‘room' for Elphie and Fiyero. They've been uprooted since the display shelf they sat on fell, tumbling them down four feet on top of the My Size Barbie girls and Baby Chrissy. It was so much fun, trying out different furniture and accessories. Elphie is now reclining on a jewelry-box ‘fainting couch', and Fiyero's keeping her company from an upturned black wire candle holder from Dollar Tree. The table Beloved made has a mirror mounted above it (pushpin and small framed mirror from yard sale) and it's crowded with the matching chair, a laptop, a Sailor Moon Luna figurine, and a few ‘magazines'. I still wanna tweak it some, but I'm sure they're more comfy on the bookshelf than on the display one.

While shuffling around boxed dolls and the Tonner folks, I rediscovered another neglected project. While we were moving our stuff in, Beloved painted ceilings. The Studio had been a nursery, complete with glow-in-the-dark plastic stars and planets up above. As you may guess, I've had lots of these things in my past ! I even poked holes in a set and hand-sewed them to some curtains. Hadn't done anything with these, since the ‘tack' stuff rarely works, and tape works even less. But these were *nice* ones. So I heated up the short pins Mal-Wart uses to attach price tickets to fabric, poked a hole in these, too, and used the pin to hang ‘em on the walls. A soft Sailor Jupiter doll who came from a UFO Catcher game (that's kind of like a crane machine in Japan) holds a spiral galaxy in one gloved hand. When I turned off the light tonight, it looked fantastic ! Even Beloved thought I did a great job with them. He's probably quite glad I didn't want to put them back on the ceiling !

I also redid some floor storage. With the two new VW Beetles, it was getting clumsy underfoot. I already had a red My Scene convertible (TRU), a purple ‘Real Friends' remote control sedan (yard sale), and Elphie's jeep (GoodWill). A bit of shuffling, and now they're together and out of the way. Even now if it looks more like a miniature used car lot than it did yesterday ! A wall-display unit (Dumpster-dived) makes a romantic doll archway, but it's rather big. I mean, Elphie and Fiyero could dance in it ! Or it'd be a neat dinner terrace for some Barbie-size couples. It's now in front of the ‘Swan Lake' castle (yard sale), acting as a sort of ornate gateway. One day, I'll have to use that thing in a photo. As usual, I have the most incredible imagination and the best of creative intentions...and the follow-through of a frozen sloth.

After that, I sorted through some patterns lying around, put up a recycled cup hook for my MP3 player - I lost it a few days ago, and don't wanna tear the place up looking for a matchbox with headphones again - and did some general tidy work. Cheap-serged the 10c strip of blue-with-silver-glitter-stars fabric I bought Thursday, hung up a few print-outs. Now all I need is that 1968 "World of Barbie" white case ! The hunt continues...

Oh, yeah ! Before I shuffled the shelves, I touched it up a bit. The shelves are an inexpensive flat-pack bookcase that Beloved's Uncle gave us. It's pretty battered, but still solid. The faux-woodgrain had peeled up in several places, mostly from taped-up newspaper articles that we removed. It's not so bad, but the peeling revealed the pale pressboard beneath. No way to fix it, but a brown Crayola marker makes the damage less noticeable. Especially if a bit of black marker is dotted in and wiped down. ‘Posters' salvaged from Dollar Tree calendars also hide some minor damage.

So it was a pretty busy, very satisfying Saturday ‘round here. Hope your day was as great !

*Ps - here's a link if you wanna see the 'Real Friends' car. Mine was a buck at a yard sale, but otherwise identical ->

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://hondamobilia.vtec.net/images/S2000/img_050319-9016.jpg&imgrefurl=http://hondamobilia.vtec.net/s2000.htm&h=427&w=640&sz=112&hl=en&start=20&tbnid=Y0uG-Q9e0pk7dM:&tbnh=91&tbnw=137&prev=/images%3Fq%3D%2522real%2Bfriends%2522%2Bcar%26start%3D20%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D20%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN

 Heckua link, eh ?

Posted by dorriebelle at 11:22 PM CDT

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Mood:  a-ok

Whew ! Sometimes, I can't stop myself. I'm already a day ahead of the pattern catalog image processing. There's only 27 images left to do. I may just finish tomorrow, if it's a boring day. I'm so close to finishing, I literally can't stop. If I have a slightly restless night, I'll label it ‘insomnia' and crop/clean a few more overnight, until I literally fall asleep in the chair. I get so obsessed over the most minor things.

But, when it's all done, there'll be 94 new sheets in the album I'm using as a catalog. Beloved Hubby, who's been amazingly patient while I'm obsessing, said that if I found someone with a more complete or comprehensive selection of cataloged patterns, I'd probably attack. He may be right. Again.

Our bank gave Dearest Son a balloon and offered me a choice of measuring spoons or a scraper spatula. I took the spatula, a green one. All embossed with the bank's name, of course, but freebie score ! Some folks can't grow plants. Others can't keep fish alive. I keep melting or losing spatulas.

Finally cleaned the stickers off the yellow Barbie VW Beetle. We were out of Goo Gone, so I used baby oil to remove the sticker residue. It takes a lot more elbow grease this way, but the Beetle looks like it's had a wax job ! It's parked next to the green VW Beetle, so the floor in the Studio is beginning to resemble a miniature used car lot.

DMIL gave me another pair of wrecked pants to cut up for fabric. Score ! It's like velvety silk ! Got it all cut down and saved the elastic waistband. They're great for securing the bag outside the trash can, so it won't slip down. All the trash cans in the house have one - the smaller bathroom cans use waistbands from some of Son's old clothes ! - except the one in the Studio. It has one now !

Tonight, Beloved and I did the grocery shopping. I love Back-to-School sales ! We got some of what Son will need next month and a few art supplies for him. Crayola markers, just 88c ! And Beloved insisted on getting me the good document protectors for my pattern catalog. I normally buy the cheapest. But he said all my work deserves to be preserved and displayed well. So the good pack of 50 went into the cart. Since 94 printout sheets will use 47 of ‘em, there won't be many left for pattern piece storage !

I didn't even go near the doll section while we were out. No need. I'm seriously re-thinking the ReAnne doll, and I don't really need anything else. Besides, I just visited TRU and Mal-Wart on Thursday, while Son was deciding what to get since nobody had BumbleBee. So I was sort of shopped out when it comes to dolls. I did get myself some Provolone !

Posted by dorriebelle at 12:01 AM CDT

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Mood:  happy

What a busy day ! Woke up late, but got Dearest Son ready for his last day of Summer School on time. Even got to spend a few minutes with Beloved Hubby this morning. I made him a bag lunch -  a bottle of water, a ham on rye sandwich, and for fun, I tucked in a packet of Son's LEGO fruit snacks. But the morning was only a moment of quiet happiness. From then on, though, it was go, Go, GO !

Finally got the printers at the library to work with me - and ‘FlashGordon', our mini USB drive. Sadly, they have printers crappier than ours. No kidding. Two printouts were so blurred, I printed them at home just to see if my photo-editing was worse than I thought. It probably is, but the file was good. For some reason, their laser printer does worse on pattern envelopes than our Brother inkjet. The mostly-white outline stuff printed fine, but anything that used more ink was riddled with lines and was fuzzy. So, it looks like I drain an ink cartridge rather than run to the library. Luckily, I only printed a few images, from the variety I brought to test with. Library fails.  

Son earned enough tickets for the Transformers Bumblebee he wanted. Unfortunately TRU didn't have it anymore. So we hit Mal-Wart. Nope. He picked out a remote-control ‘Chub City' VW Beetle, but he hasn't played with it much. Still, he handled the disappointment better than I would have at his age. I once cried - in the store ! - because a book I saved up weeks for was out of stock by the time I had the cash. I was thirteen at the time ! I wasn't bawling, just teary-eyed with disappointment, yet my parents were ‘so humiliated', they walked out and left me there. Ah, memories. I eventually got the book, but the spine was so cheap, the book fell apart a month afterwards.

Our shopping trip was fun, but took a lot of time. I wanted him to be able to look at *everything*, and he did. We also needed a few groceries. I also learned that the notebooks that are 40c at the ‘low-town' store are 20c at the M-W uptown. Hmpft. I did find a small remnant I liked, variegated dark blue fabric with glittery silver stars and dots...an inch over a quarter-yard. At the low, low price of 10c, you know I bought it ! All the nice fabrics I saw there are gone - bought up since the last time we went. That store is losing its fabric section after Christmas, so nice prints don't linger long. I suspect there's serious fabric hoarding in some area homes... my stash hit ‘SABLE' several years ago. (SABLE = Stash Already Beyond Life Expectancy)

If you want a Fiona or other Shrek Princess doll, now's a good time to snag one. Our M-W has ‘em on markdown to $15. The Snow White one is especially lovely, but that may be my brunette bias talking ! Got a second look at the ReAnne (Magical DoReMi) doll while at TRU, and I'll probably go back for her this weekend. Our store still had the three they had last weekend, and as long as I don't get the one with the smeared mouth paint, I'll be happy. It's funny that the 4 inch one is $5., but the 11-inch is $7. Maybe it's because the smaller one comes with a DVD ? They're about done with their shelf re-do, too. Lots more dolls = lots more happy !

The book I imaged today for the pattern catalog was a real bear ! It took sooooo long. The one tomorrow is similar, so I got my work cut out for me. I also have to re-scan some of the ones from Doll World later this weekend, because I wasn't worried about the pictures when I scanned the pattern and directions. Now I need the pictures. (sigh) Why is a ‘quick fix' never quick, or a real fix ? It's just a quick way to end up in a real fix !

So that was my day. Waiting for Beloved to call, so I know he's on his way home. That way, dinner will be close to table-ready when he arrives. Too bad I haven't cleaned in three days. I'm sure he'll be glad when this pattern catalog imaging project is over, too !

Posted by dorriebelle at 4:59 PM CDT

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Mood:  lucky

Another quiet day. I didn't play any movies on the new sound system ! In fact, I didn't do much at all today. Edited two of the remaining books for the pattern catalog, and refigured how much I have left to do. Six more books. If I keep at my current rate - or even slow down some ! - I'll be done before month's end. I'm sure it'll be a relief once I'm finished, since you won't have to read about it anymore !

Beloved Hubby, while tired, watched my image editing last night, and gave me a couple of much-appreciated tips and new tricks. He showed me how to use the ‘paste as transparent selection' tool, and while it was fun, the images weren't moveable once pasted. When I ‘paste as new layer', they can be moved around until I save it off. I commented that, while this new skill wasn't as good for my pattern book project, it was great, because I'd be able to use the same skills to paste doll images on unusual backgrounds.

So I tried that today. And learned a few things. First off, what I was doing wasn't removing the background. Since I had black/gray images on a white backdrop going on top of a white canvas, it looked like I was. Nope. I pulled up my directions for ‘How to Put Doll Image on Internet Backdrop' that I'd cut/pasted from a chat board. Hmm. Clearly, the author has a more recent version of PaintShopPro than I have. We have 5.03 (read : ancient) and there was no such thing as an ‘erase background' tool anywhere on ours. Looks like that happened in 2004 - and we've had this one for so long, I can't remember when Hubby and I *didn't* have it.

I looked up PSP's home page. They're up to PSPX, and I can have it for the low, low upgrade price of $60. ! Not happening. Not this month. I toyed with downloading the free trial, but why try something I can't have ? I'll get spoiled by the new features and end up resentful when the freebie expires. So, more on a lark than anything else, I pulled up Google and typed ‘erase background in Paint Shop Pro 5'.

And got a full walk-through on how to create transparent GIFs ! That's what I was trying to do. As it turned out, I had the capability to make the background transparent with just three directions ! Reduce the colors to 256k, choose ‘Set the Transparency Value to the Current Background color' from the ‘Colors' menu, then place the image on the canvas using ‘Paste as Transparent Selection' in the Edit menu. I could even edit the image and see how the transparency would look ! Who needs a 'background erase' tool ? I have something just as good, if not better, already !

Spent the next three hours playing with it. I snagged images and posted numerous edits of dolls on ‘em. I ended up with one that looked like a long parade of cheesed-off bridesmaids walking single-file down a beach and off the frame. I'm not very good at it yet - there's still some tell-tale marks that make it look like a cut/paste, and I'm not sure how to improve it without taking too much off the image - but soon, there'll be some wild images for you on the site !

I would have one for you now, but remember how I said I'd been playing for hours ? Well, PSP glitched on me and locked up. I'm still waiting for it to finish shutting down. I'm giving it five more minutes before I do a full computer shut-down. It's starting to worry me.

Update : Had to shut the computer off the hard way, but most of my 'work' was saved - so I added an image of Fiona, a transparent .jpg on top of a background of stars. Busy backgrounds hide the more obvious lines until I can get more practice. As it is, I tweaked the saved Fiona image for 20 minutes ! It's a cut/paste of the same photo used on the doll review page - the one of her out of box, in her gown.

This coming from a woman who's all flustered about learning the new sound system. Next thing ya know, I'll be too scared to program a VCR, and I've long been the only one in the family who could ! Man, I'm getting timid in my old age...

Posted by dorriebelle at 11:51 PM CDT

Updated: Monday, 2 May 2011 9:59 AM CDT

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