Creative projects

I've been busy with a few projects in the past few days, and they will likely take up much of my "free" time in the next week, so just wanted to give you a glimpse of what I'm up to and let you know why I may not be posting too often in the next little while.

First of all, I found a deal to get a free 8x8 photo book from Shutterfly, so I'm frantically going through pictures of our Florida trip to put together a book in time to cash in on this deal.  I love having photo books as mementos of vacations, but putting it all together sure takes a lot of time and effort!  Especially when you vacation with grandparents, who are prone to taking a LOT of pictures!  However, the advantage of having someone else take pictures as well is that I'm actually in a few (usually I'm just behind the camera).

My next project is painting the little wooden peg dolls that I ordered for Annika's dollhouse, and that arrived today!  The mail came just before lunch, and I made the mistake of showing Annika the unfinished dolls.  She was very insistent that I paint them immediately and it took a little while to get her to understand that it would take me a while to paint them all, and I wouldn't be doing it before lunch (at least she seemed to understand that it was something just I would be doing, and not something for her to help with). :P  During her quiet time I started working on one of the little girl dolls, and here's what I've got so far.  I want to add some polka dots to her dress yet, and then put a top coat over the whole doll to seal and protect it.

It's a bit of a challenge painting these little dolls (it doesn't look like much detail, but it's small and it's hard for an unskilled painter like myself), but I really enjoy it.  This picture is close up, so you can see all the little imperfections, but from a distance they're not so noticable.  I think she's pretty cute so far.  Even still, I think I'm going to get a fine-line paint pen and maybe some good, fine brushes to make it a little easier.  I've got 7 more dolls to go, so I've got my work cut out for me.  Annika has requested that the next little girl be blonde and wear a blue dress.  Hmmm, sound familiar? :)