Finch Express office...

I am finally back home and am sharing with you some photos I have meant to take but had time to do the scene. This little aged greenhouse from Hallmark I created about 8? years ago, when Hallmark sold these little greenhouse structures in their stores. I took one and aged it into a witches greenhouse but when my Felix Brownie and my Realpuki bjd's came along, it now has become my little Wren & Marigold's Finch Express office. Here Wren has her pumpkin briefcase, her mailbox that is an in/out box - a pumpkin of course, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin blotter for her desk and so on. All of these items were made by Tori West of MiniMotion, wonderful artist in paperclay.
I did all of the exterior and interior stonework and made all of the books and the book easel, a friend made the potion cabinet which Wren uses when she needs a potion to make the mail travel faster and pixie dust won't work! I am also working on the pumpkin house for her and Marigold, it is coming along slowly.
On this structure, I aged it completely with paints, and also used transparency and glass paints with liquid lead to create the stained glass effect on the windows. Enjoy the pictures!
Lisa

Pumpkin House progress..what I'm working on...

I am currently working on Wren's little pumpkin House, and have been sketching and figuring out how I wish this to look. So I've started with a circular floor, made of paperclay.

The floor will look like a stone floor in the pumpkin house, and be round. This will be the place where Finch Express is located, and where Wren and Marigold take care of all the mail for the dolls in the Pumpkin patch at Pumpkin Hill. So I was thinking of a cross between a Tudor cottage with vines, thatch roof, timbers, crumbling stone but with full size shrubs/flowers about as it is a fairy house dwelling. Perhaps a lookout finch, or little finches with baskets on their sides strapped carrying rolls of mail and packages to the inhabitants of Pumpkin Hill. As well as mice mail carriers. 
I am working on one of the birds, and he is coming along nicely. He is going to be made of paperclay as well as the floor and exposed stonework on the pumpkin house. 

I was especially surprised at how well his features came out in the paperclay. His feet will be made of wire. Hopefully big enough for one of the mice postal workers to ride on his back. 
On another note, Wren has been sewing rose petals for a new dress for herself.

I am hoping to bring home a companion Realpuki from Denver Doll soon for Wren, she is very lonely and has been telling me about a friend she wishes to come and live with her. Also, she has become demanding of late and said she needs a pair of wings. 
Back to the drawing board to see if I can keep up with the ideas I need to create!
~Lisa

Felicity in the morning....

I haven't been posting very much lately with the dolls, but yesterday, early in the morning as the sun was beginning to come up, I found Felicity in the parlor, attending to her correspondence, with Marigold Finch, waiting to fly her tiny missives to Finch Express to the dolls they were intended for.

It was early morning, and the sun had not yet risen, so Felicity had lit the candles on the desk and had just finished writing and sealing her letters when I came in. After that, it appeared she had gathered up her basket and was going to go check on the hens and gather eggs.

Enjoy the photos!

First day of school......

The Tinies of Pumpkin Hill began their first day of 'official' school with their new Professor, Wallace. After he had settled in and got to know his students, Wallace felt quite at ease, and quickly interested the most unalert brownie fairies and entreprenuer mice in literature. Dixie being the official tiny blogger of the Patch, she wasn't sure she was going to like homework, but surprisingly, found she liked it.

As you can see, Wallace provided alot of composition notebooks for essay writing and lots of research books on birds, as he thought it would interest the tinies to study about birds, since their postal carrier, Marigold Finch, is a small bird with pretty amazing sorting abilities. Wallace explained a little bit about their study program, and rules and so forth.

More pictures soon, as the new school gains more students!

Progress on the dollhouse Restoration....

The dollhouse restoration really came a long way today- the top two bay windows were painted and adhered to the two windows on the 2nd floor. Now I just have the middle window to finish and install. Lots has been going on today- it was a rainy, cold, wet and dismal day- no better time to work on the dollhouse than a day like that! Dixie was in her room blogging, Minuette was in the kitchen washing the dishes- yet again- she loves her kitchen. April Mae was trying on costumes for Halloween- she was hesitating between a princess dress and skeleton costume- which she finally squeezed into. Maizie was on the floor in the parlor reading spooky books and looking thru old halloween bags stash for decorations...and I have prepared the tinies for yet another tiny anthro- a polar bear who is making his way to us from ....drum roll, the Wylde Bunch at the Treehouse from Miranda Wandering ! Wallace has a mind to probably open an ice cream shop, so we will have to see. Where Wallace will reside is a tricky situation, but Dixie seems open to it.
Also new in the Pumpkin Patch- if you haven't seen the badge to the right- Dixie has a Facebook page all her own- where updates on the blog and new dolls, new friends will be posted about. Imagine- a doll, having other doll friends on Facebook. Well, if you're a doll, be sure to friend Dixie Hill on facebook- she would love that. She already has over 12 friends so far!
Wallace will be arriving next week, and we are hoping too- that Miss Hitty will arrive as well. Miss Lisa's Sybarite Slipper has arrived, and so have her new shoes and new wigs...

these two wigs are from Facets by Marcia, and are a synthetic mohair...the white one looks so Marie Antoinette, and the ringlet one reminded me of Keira Knightly in the movie 'The Duchess' about Georgiana Devonshire. I have been toying with the idea of making a loose gown like a gaulle that the dresses of the Petite Trianon were based one, with a high waisted sash, in white. The shoes - the court pumps and court mules fit her wonderfully. I love looking at this doll and she models so beautifully on the large scale Bespaq. Perfect, perfect.
I will have more on the dolls and Halloween later....I have been playing catch up with my photos, and have had to draw back some from the ATC trades I was doing, as I just couldn't keep up. I am hopefully going to be finishing the pumpkin house for Halloween display, and Marigold Finch and Wren can possibly get some mail delivered soon as well.

I'm a busy little 'bee'...

Hi there, Dixie here . Yes, that is me...sigh. Miss Lisa has gone over the top on Halloween preparations, don't you think? I am dressed as  a BEE. a Honeybee, she corrects me. My wings are detachable and came off of a current extra Halloween Chelsea. My costume goes to my knees, but I'm adorable, a tiny bit of honey cuteness, so I can pull it off. I settled on the bee costume because I like my antennae. headpiece....I have been falling down on my blogging duties, (so has Gracie) but hey, alot of new dolls have arrived, and I haven't yet checked out this new diva in the One Sixth Scale dollhouse  nor this Harry Potter character from Tonner that showed up either. I've got alot of interviewing to do....so my costume is appropriate- I am so busy like a bee! And that's my new dog, who thinks he is a King, but really he's named Duke...after John Wayne. I like John Wayne movies. So Duke is my new doggie...

Autumn, Candlelight, and a little blogging....

Autumn is coming, and in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene, I was bored one evening so decided to play with the shadows, candlelight and my favorite pumpkins. I even dragged out my Wizard of Oz wicked witch and a little Bespaq table I had aged & customized with spiderwebs...since we have no power, the fireplace mantel was the perfect spot to drag out my candlesticks and candlelabras, and play with 'Elegant' halloween placement.

I took some time when my netbook was re charged (we are running off of generator power from the RV now, until Power returns later this week) and did some re-arrangement of the blog. I've added some artsy art doll and Halloween art links- I will be adding more, these are some of my favorites from Art Dolls only .  I also purchased Stampinton's Art Dolls magazine and have been enthalled with the artistry of some of these dolls- no rhyme or reason, but the art behind the dolls is fascinating and fabulous. I have put a few things on my list to create- one is an art doll, some ornaments, and possibly a marionette &/or a marionette theater. I have been entrhalled with Patricia of The Magical Marionette theater and how they perform, plus create the marionettes. One of the new boxes to the right will feature some links to marionettes, Patricia's blog, and also the Czech Marionettes, which are art forms within themselves. A doll on strings that performs! lol...One of the things that fascinated me as a child was Mr. Roger's puppets, I loved Henrietta and the King, and how he did the different voices, with the train running around the castle and throughout the magical village...So one of my future projects this year will be to create a marionette, possibly from Puppenfimo or paperclay. I am currently working on finishing my art doll- she is made of paperclay, and some halloween pumpkin ornaments, all made of paperclay! Yes, I am creating again, even without power. I seriously think candlelight has been inspiring me- there is something very tranquil about lighting candles, and seeing the light from their soft glow, that sparks my creativity. Also, if you are doll lover as I am, the dolls seem to have their own kind of magical whimsy in candlelight. Tasha Tudor had magnificent art for a reason, and I think it was because of beeswax candles....nutty I know, but hey we're all a little nutty here in the Pumpkin Patch!lol

I hopefully will be posting more photos as I make progress on my doll, and please enjoy the links- I encourage you to browse them!