Day of the Dead

I have recently finished a couple sweet little Day of the Dead Bride and Groom dolls for a friend of mine who has been so amazingly supportive when it comes to my insane ideas.  Not only does the poor girl have to work with me, she puts up with me 'borrowing' ideas from her for my school project (um, p.s. I just stole -borrowed- another from you for class tomorrow), she doesn't make fun of me when I ask waiters/waitresses what is the most super fantastic thing on the menu that they would absolutely recommend I order, she endorses my Bad Day Cupcake days at work, and she doesn't tell me I'm being annoying when I ask her several times if she really likes her new little Bride and Groom. 

Day of the Dead Bride and Groom

The Day of the Dead Bride and Groom were a little bit of a challenge for me, and fortunately enough, I loved it.  They are both about 12" instead of the normal 17" the rest of the dolls have been so far.  That doesn't sound like a big difference, but it made their arms and legs that much smaller and a little trickier to work on.  I figured it out easy enough and they ended up taking a little less time than a normal sized cloth doll (duh Chelsie).  The real challenge was painting them.  I don't know much about Day of the Dead, if there is significance behind the decoration or color, or anything else.  I Googled a couple pictures and went from there.  All in all, I'm pretty pleased with them, now it's weird working on a normal 17" doll again.  The Day of the Dead couple are available in my Etsy shop at http://www.etsy.com/shop/ThePhinaProject  (just keep in mind that everything is custom and no two dolls are alike).

In my screen printing class (which I absolutely love) I started talking about The Phina Project with a couple friends, one of which had a Day of the Dead wedding.  She asked if I could make a Day of the Dead couple for her.  I have been working on them amid the craziness of my life, and I am quite please with the result.  They are the regular sized dolls I have made in the past (17") which made them a little easier to work with and I applied some suggestions and feedback I have received a long the way.

Between classes, homework, work, and 'The Project' I have started to feel like each day is a day of the dead for me.  Fortunately, as I mentioned, I have some amazingly supportive people in my life who keep me laughing and chugging along.  I try to remember: Things could always be worse...like poor Jerry here:

Moral of the story:  When you start feeling as though you're having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day of the dead, just remember things could always be worse.  Always.

The Potter Thief.

My wonderfully supportive friend, Leslie (who is quite possibly one of the biggest Harry Potter fans I have ever had the privilege of meeting), ordered a Harry Potter doll the moment she saw him on the blog.  She has been excited all week to get him and he just arrived today. 
(Tangent:  When I went to the Post Office to mail Harry to her, the postal worker stood him up and danced him around, all the while talking in a British accent worse than mine...which is saying something very, very sad.  I asked if Harry would be okay in what I was about to send him in and the postal worker looked at me with a worried look on his face and told me that I had better poke some holes in the packaging so Harry could breath.  He was quite convincingly concerned about my rudeness surrounding Harry's comfort, it was rather fantastic.)  
Sorry, back to my main story...Where was I?  Ah, yes: Leslie has been excited all week to get him and he just arrived today.  I don't think she got to have him to herself for 5 minutes before a cute little thief discovered the mini HP.







She text me a little later to let me know that Gabey (the cute little thief) was sitting in bed watching Part 1 of the 7th Harry Potter and asking the doll why he lets Snape be so mean to him.  The image of a concerned 4 year-old who is obsessed with Harry Potter deep in conversation with his new little friend totally and completely made my night.

Thank you Leslie and Gabey for being so super fantastically awesome!

Cloth Dolls

The Ray Doll.  Full of life and adventure Ray is talented and loves to travel.

The Potter Doll is brave, magical and has a strong faith in family and friends.

I just can't seem to resist sharing the HP love...I constantly have this song stuck in my head.

The Jaylee Doll is full of hope, love, and an unquenchable sense of wonder.

For information about the dolls, please visit The Doll Project page (found on the upper right hand corner of my blog).

The Lady Mouse is kind and considerate and is constantly looking for ways to learn and grow.

The Buccaneer.  A master of teamwork, the sea, and awesomeness.

The Ninja Doll.  An advocate of choosing right over wrong and a gentlemen to boot.

 I had the Ask A Ninja song stuck in my head the whole time I worked on The Ninja Doll (aka: Roger).  Please remember to say 'Thank you' when you walk through automatic doors, for they are actually gentlemen ninjas.