Beautiful teeny things.

Just a quick update from my (truly dreadful) phonecam, as I finally managed to get Flora into some clothes:

Isn't that little dress the sweetest? Flora's also got her own baby doll now and a little "trunk" with her important treasures. The dress is from The Bead Loom Gallery on Etsy. 

A room of one's own.

Flora came with me this morning to "help," which to her meant re-organizing the paper clips so that they weren't all higgledy-piggledy in my desk drawer. Put them down, sweetlet, and show us your new travel case. 

Isn't it nice? It's vintage, still needs a bit of cleaning, but she likes it very much and is proud to show you her very own tiny house.

Of course, it isn't furnished yet, as we only just got it from eBay, but it's still a good play space. She's gone back to her very important clipping work, and bids you all a lovely evening.

Robert Tonner is trying to give me a heart attack.

I mean, I mean....well, LOOK at her!!! You can pre-order this stunning doll at Tonner online.

AIR GUITAR!!

Robin's rockin' in the free world!

SPRING BREAK!

It's Spring Break here at Pitt, and Martie's wearing her....wait a minute..."Study Zone" shirt? Hunh?

Maudlynne: Martie, your shirt's on backwards.

Martie: What? No, it isn't. Oh, darn it! You're right. Hang on.

Much better! Party on, y'all!

The very short, incredibly true story of the lost faery in the Mountain of Chaos.

Way back in October 2011, I posted about a tiny 7 cm glow-in-the-dark fairy I got, from Donny Harijanto of Dream High Studio, all the way from Indonesia: a microfae named Flora.

Isn't she gorgeous? Here's how teensy she really is, against my hand, which is average size:

The photo is terrible, but you get the idea. YEEEPS! I was so worried that I'd lose her, she's so very, very small! 

And of course, that was promptly what I did, for a year and four months! I lost her!! AIEEEE!!

See, her lovely box is also small, and in the utter clutter that is my house, she just......disappeared. I tore the place up (well, more than it already was) looking for her. After a few weeks of looking and hoping, I kinda gave up, and figured that as long as she was somewhere in the house, she'd turn up. Then I just tried to keep an eye out, with occasional bouts of mini-recon searching.

A couple of weeks ago, my loverly husband, who was trying to straighten up the place (ultimately futile, but we can't surrender to the chaos! That way lies "Hoarders!"), brought to me a pretty little pink box (that he hadn't looked into) and said "Do you need this, or should I throw it out?"

IT WAS FLORA! 

There she was, all safe and snuggly in her sturdy little box, looking up at me with an expression that said "What? I wasn't lost, I knew exactly where I was. Hrmph!"

Faeries are such capricious, secretive little beings. 

This is mine, and this is mine.

Maudlynne decided that her space in my office was going to be on this shelf over my computer, from which point she can see everything that's going on, and also who's at my door, so she can warn me. I told her I don't need a warning, as everyone up here is very nice, and the students are actually welcome. She seems unconvinced of that last.

She has also gone through my stuff, and taken my itty-bitty Lalaloopsy and a pen, neither of which she's planning to give back. I suppose I could give her some paper, too, before she snitches the good letterhead to draw and write on.

It's MINE now. No backsies.

What's up there?

So I'm at my desk, working away, and I look over at the girls and see this:

There is nothing in the corner where they're looking, except wall and ceiling intersections. NOTHING. I think they're trying to fake me out. Or spook me. @_@

That's Martie, of course, and our little girl in green is my Ruby Red Strawberina, with the baby from the Mardi Gras cake (back in February). I think they got tired of sorting the pile of papers I put them to work on. I don't blame them. If it was interesting, I'd have done it myself.

My new office assistant.

Taken by my lame, grainy phone camera. She's a Kim Lasher Fiona, for whom I waited a little over a full year after I'd ordered her and put her on layaway--and I have to admit that that annoyed me so much (and I was so broke!) that I had decided to sell her. Everyone else had the same wait and the same idea, though, so there was a little glut on the market, she didn't sell for a month on Bay, and meanwhile, I got a job, and kind of attached to her. It wasn't her fault she took a year to arrive, the poor thing. She reminds me of Grumpy Cat, whom I adore.

Her name is still Fiona, because it suits her, and I call her Fee. She's very serious about doing her job, it seems. I may set her to work drawing some pics for my bare office walls.

Say hello to the nice peoples, Fee!

Over 50,000 views!

Wow, y'all, DBB has gone over 50,000 total views! THANK YOU to all who come by to look at my beautiful dolls and their adventures. Martie is thrilled!

Flowers for all our lovely readers!

The Wilds of the Workplace

Martie: Hey, Maudie, where did you go a minute ago?

Maudlynne: Martie, do you know what "schmutz" means?

Martie: No, why?

Maudlynne: Charlie said I had "schmutz," then took me into the kitchen and rubbed a wet paper towel on my face.

Martie: Oh, that just means you...

Maudelynne: AAAAIIIIIEEEEEE! What is that horrible noise?!?

Martie: Don't be scared, Maudie, it's just the phone.

Maudlynne: The what? AAAAAH, there it goes again!

Martie: Just answer it.

Maudlynne: Answer what? What does it want? I don't know what it wants me to do! It's getting angry!

Martie: Calm down, Maudie! Here, I'll show you.

Martie: Just say "Hello."

Maudlynne: I don't know about this, it looks hungry.....HELLO?!?

Martie: Don't scream, Maudie, just say "Hello."

Maudlynne: Oh. Okay. Hello? No, this isn't Charlie. It's Maudlynne. MAUDLYNNE! M-A-U-D....Well, I don't know who you are, either! Dean who? Dean Ofnursing. What kind of name is that?

Martie: Okay, let's just take a message before we get Charlie fired.

Maudlynne: I'm glad you knew what to do, Martie. This whole "office" place is really weird.

Martie: Weirder than home?

Maudlynne: Uhm. Well, no. Fewer cats, though.

Tee Gee Eye Eff.

Man, it's been a busy week at work. Then I get home, and *plotz*snore*snzzzzzz* -- but I did manage to get a pic of Martie with a beautiful bronzed woman in our 1st floor student lounge:

This is called "Caring." We also have "Angst" and "Solace" on opposite ends of that space. Maudlynne really wants a picture with "Angst" (go figure!) so I'm going to try to get that on Monday.

Tonight, though, we are all spending the evening with a heating pad, because the girls are cold and my back hurts. Have a good night!

Fun at the office, with a new friend.

And here we are at Charlie's office! One of these days we'll take this sign down. For now, it still makes Charlie smile, and so it stays. Come on in!

Charlie's my name. Advising's my game.

I landed a full-time job! I'll be the undergraduate academic advisor at the University of Pittsburgh's highly-ranked School of Nursing, beginning Tuesday, January 22nd.

I could not be happier to have gotten this position. For the first thing, we need the money! But more importantly, I'm so happy to be starting this job. The staff I met at my interview were really nice, and sharp, and asked me interesting questions. The school is ranked #7 in the nation, and turns out top-notch nurses--some of whom, in years past, were my Student Support Services students before they transferred into Nursing. I'm also looking forward to working with students again, especially with a different population that will keep me on my toes. I'm actually excited about my first day! Imagine that!

I'm especially glad to have gotten this job despite the fact that I had only roughly 25% of my hearing on the day of the interview. I've mentioned that I've been ill for most of the autumn through to early winter, and over the Christmas holidays I got a middle ear infection that made the doctor say "Oh, my goodness!" when she looked into my ear canal (I took my husband with me to the doc's to be my hearing; I only caught about 3 words in ten). The left eardrum ruptured and the right ear was completely congested. I hoped like mad that the antibiotics would work in time for the interview, but....no.  I did tell everyone I met with that I had a ruptured eardrum, so they kindly spoke up and were very patient when I asked them to repeat themselves. I must have looked sufficiently serious throughout, because I was working so hard to hear what everyone was saying.

Now, for dolls Behaving Badly, this means Good Things. Martie is as excited to go to work as I am, and I'll expect a few office hijinks for her and her dolly siblings. I'll be out of the house, which can only be good for DBB and my photography (and the dolls). And, with a good steady job in these tough times, I'm just going to be a lot happier with the world.

So, huzzah! New adventures await!

Martie's ready! LET'S GO!

I'm gonna buckle down and concen...ooooh, shiny things!

Popular demand has spoken, and I'm working on a "Meet the Dolls" page for DBB. I have no idea why it's going so slowly aside from my finely-honed ability to be instantly distracted by sparkly things on the Intartubes. I spent most of yesterday evening reading about Scientology and how utterly jacked up it is, which is certainly not news to me, but I'm enjoying reading all the dish. Today I'm getting pulled away by The Purse Forum and Ancient Egypt sites. Tomorrow it may be hand embroidery patterns and the Black Plague, who knows? I just love learning stuff.

And now Robin offers you a Gummi Bear!

New year, new ideas, new dolls (I hope!)

I'm still recovering from this ridiculous ear infection, can you believe that? One ruptured eardrum, one seriously congested inner ear. I went to a job interview last week with only about a quarter of my usual hearing; thank goodness it was in a nursing school, so all I had to say was "My eardrum is ruptured, please forgive me and perhaps speak a bit louder," and I got four or five "Have you seen your doctor? Do you have an otolaryngologist?" (Type that five times fast....) VERY nice people. Plus, if the other eardrum had ruptured, I was surrounded by nurses and one building away from a major hospital. Score!

I think I need to add a "Meet the Dolls" page to this blog. Whatcha think? Most of the folks who come here know Martie, perhaps Elizabeth, and a few of the others, but clicking in from an outside link might appreciate some background info on these vinyl and resin characters of mine.

My one blogging resolution for 2013 is to get back into posting here more often. I've been sick, off and on, since late September, and trust me, that can grind a person down. BUT--things are looking up, I think, so I'd like to reflect that here.

Besides, Martie's getting grumpy about the lack of attention. Here's an older pic to pacify her. I made her entire outfit, except of course the shoes. And the cat hair.

REVIEW: Harmony Club Dolls "Lyric"

You may remember that in October, I wrote a review of Harmony Club Dolls special edition doll "Summer." If you don't remember, click the link--I'll wait here while you read it. *hmm hmm hmm la la la* Good, you're back! Harmony Club has recently released their own designs in a new doll, and Karen of HC asked me if I'd like to review one of these dolls. Yes, indeedy, I said, and shortly afterward a great big box arrived on our doorstep.

Jake is, of course, our resident Box Inspector.

IT'S ALIVE!!

I'm recovering slowly from the THIRD major respiratory infection in as many months, so I've been continually sick, more or less, since late September, including a major bout of pneumonia. That'll drag a person down, y'all. Trying to recover and hoping like crazycakes that 2013 will be a GREAT year, for you, me, our families, and the world! ONWARD!

Meanwhile, have a lovely seasonal pic of Martie in the snow:

Make new friends, but keep the old.

Hello, everyone! This is our new friend, Addy Walker! Well, actually, she's not new (except to us)--she's an original 1993 Addy American Girl from Pleasant Company. She belongs to Charlie's daughter, who got her for Christmas that year. Wow, that makes her 19! She's been carefully stored for years, re-discovered just a couple of days ago, and is now here for a spa treatment and a new dress made just for her. Addy will make a lovely Christmas Princess, don't you think?

Sparkly!

Got the tree up (which wasn't hard, it's short and permanently attached to the stand) and lighted (also not hard, as the thing came with lights attached--oh, hush up, I just don't like to fuss over that stuff) and decorated! That is a cute angel at the top, but somehow I couldn't get her in frame. I will remedy that later, because she's adorable.

Happy Countdown-to-Holidays from Martie and Terri Lee! 

Oh, and some Gundams hangin' out on the table. They look fierce, but they're actually pretty quiet guys.