Bailey is back as a brunette!

Finally I have got around to finishing Bailey's hair 'do'!  You'll recall last week we saw her with plaits and rollers....I was hoping for a particular look....erm, that didn't happen! When I took the plaits out the back was really quite nice, except for the ends which were still straight as I couldn't plait right to the ends.  But the curls at the front were too big and full.  I'd obviously put far too much hair into each roller.

I didn't photograph her like that, the girl had suffered enough, but I decided to pour more boiling water over her head and start with straight hair again.  And that is where we've stayed!  I have cut the front into a straight blunt cut fringe and then I cut the length straight all the way around.   I did wonder if I should trim the fringe a little shorter, but for now I'm going to leave it as it is.

Here she is all ready to go to the Chat n Snap!

Nuria wanders by..."Hey Bailey, have you done something to yourself? You look different!"

"Have you got a new beret?"

"New blouse?"

"It's your hair, isn't it?  You've dyed your hair! It's lovely!"

Please welcome Kidz n Cats Grace!

Well it was only a matter of time before I brought a Kidz n Cats doll to live at my house, thank you to Dee, Jenni and Jessica for enabling me!!! :)

So on Thursday, Grace arrived from My Doll Best Friend in the UK, she got here really quickly because I only ordered her on Sunday!  I could see straight away that she had potential and thought I'd just change her wig, maybe I'd tone down her lips a little as they were quite pink!  However, never content to just do the bare minimum, I ended up giving her a full makeover.

Firstly I removed her wig, it wasn't a bad wig but it was a little bit shiny and 'synthetic' for my liking, so it had to go.  I already had this Monique Gold Roxie in mind for her, the colour is Nearly Black and the size is 8/9 inches.   Then I decided to tone down her lips.....but I thought I might as well add some blush....OK, maybe I'd remove the whole faceup and start over!!!  So off came the original paint, leaving the tiniest trace of her eyebrows so that I could redo them in just the right place! 

Next I thought "maybe it would be nice if she had glass eyes!"   So I cut through the 'pate' on the top of her head, removed her head from her body,  and cut into the little 'pockets' that hold the original acrylic eyes in place.  I removed those 'pockets' altogether, just leaving enough for the eyes to 'sit' on.  The eyelashes came off with the removal of the acrylic eyes.  Once the eyes and lashes were removed, along with all the original makeup, I sprayed  her face with a coat of Mr Super Clear Flat, this gives a nice base surface to work on and to build up the colour.  And that was it, I gave her a new look using artist quality chalk pastels and watercolour pencils and I sprayed MSC between stages as it helps the pastels to adhere to the vinyl.   Now all she needs are clothes of her own!

I hope you like her....I think her name might be Sian, but not entirely sure yet!

The humilliation!!!

Poor Bailey, could it get any worse!!!!

Yesterday she got the hot water treatment and a pop sock over her head......it dried very quickly in the sunshine, but it looked very flat.....it was lovely, soft and shiny though...thanks to the addition of a tiny drop of argan oil rubbed in before it was dry:

No peeking Bailey, I'm not done yet!!

So this morning I spent ages plaiting small strands of hair and having separated the part that I wanted as a fringe, I decided to add some curlers in the hope that she'll have some soft curls at the front once it's dry:

She's now back in the sunshine again, so hopefully soon I will be able to see the results of all that plaiting!!!

A feeling of deja vu!

This week I decided I'd take a short break from sewing, having just finished a string of commission outfits, and start rerooting Bailey again.  You'll remember that we've been down this 'root' before (yes, pun intended) and Bailey went from being a brunette with badly falling hair, to a rerooted mixed mid blond, but not liking that and feeling that she had waaaay too much hair, I cut it all off to just stubble and wigged her.  However, I was never quite happy with my wig choices, so decided to reroot her again.

The changing faces of Bailey:

Poor girl!  Really been through it since coming to live here in Spain with me!

The hardest part was removing all the tufts from her previously reroot.....I really had knotted the hair in tightly, I obviously wasn't planning on doing her all over again when I first did it!!!  However, I eventually got all the plugs out, and two hours later and one very saw right hand, she was bald and ready to go. 

I'm afraid she wouldn't let me take a photo of her this time round (she's got quite bossy since she's settled in here!) so this photo is from last time!!

She doesn't look too happy back then and she looked even more annoyed this time!

Anyway, to cut a long story short.....she is now finished and waiting for her hair to be washed, cut and styled.  I've told her that if she doesn't behave herself then her hair will remain like this until after Hallowe'en, when she can be dressed as a witch!

This is her "I'm not AMUSED!" face I think! 

Although Bailey has a double (sometimes treble) row of plug holes making a parting in her hair, it's not actually centre part, it's slightly over to one side, (as can be seen in the 'baldy' photo above) although unfortunately, not a side part either......sort of an 'in-between' part....so I haven't made her into a full centre part at the back, although I did think about it.  It wouldn't have been straight and would have to have been placed at an angle to the part on top of her head.....I do still want her to have a fringe though and have also been thinking of adding some little curls using the boiling water method that Jackie R told me about......but all that will have to be decided!

I will take more photos tomorrow, hopefully Bailey will look happier by then!

A little 'nature' girl.....

Tanya likes to be 'at one' with nature....
She has a pet otter called Walter whilst other girls have cats or dogs
She likes to walk with bare feet, even on the prickliest of grass....
And she loves to wear flowers in her hair......

(Outfit is one I made some time ago for a taller doll, but thought I'd try on this one!)

Early risers....

Isn't it amazing how easily kids can get out of bed when they are going somewhere nice but find it so hard to come out from under the duvet when they have to go to school! ;)

The three Little Darling girls, Ellie, Finn and Reece,  were so excited to be going to the beach so early to watch Brendan fish.  

It was still dark when we got up and walked across the road to the beach, the clean up crew were just passing by, picking up any rubbish left by beach goers at the weekend....they come by every morning about this time, the crew pick up rubbish and put it into sacks whilst being followed by the tractor who collects all the sacks.  They are always friendly and jolly for the time of day!!! :)  The girls were fascinated to see them so busy!

The girls set their towel on the sand and whipped off their socks and shoes.....Ellie was still a bit tired, so she laid down on the towel whilst Finn and Reece waited for the sun to rise.

Once the sun was on it's way up, it rose very quickly.....Ellie suddenly became very 'awake' calling the other two to see the sun coming up....

In the meantime, Brendan caught his first fish of the day, Ellie was really interested...."Can we take it home for a pet Mum?" she said

Thankfully though, as it wasn't a fish that we fancied eating, it went straight back into the sea!

Soon the girls were excited to see that the sun was just coming up over the horizon.....the sky started to change from very dark, to grey, to orangey red as the sun rose further!  Finn watched the whole time, not wanting to miss a second of the start of a new day!

"Here it comes!" she calls to the other two!

That was their cue for the girls to enjoy another day at the beach!

You never know, next year I might even make time to sew them some swimwear....and remember to bring their buckets and spades to the coast with me! ;)