Along the Shore

This spring, Mr. BTEG and I began to search for beach glass during some of our trips to the lake shore. Some of the pieces of glass are so tiny, that my 12" dolls can have their own collection.

I wanted to have the glass in the sunlight, so that the light made the glass sparkle, but this also made my photo not turn out as well as I would have liked. I guess I'll just keep trying to improve.

Here are some other interesting pieces of glass that Mr. BTEG, the Dancer, and I have picked up.

You can tell the part of the bottle from whence these pieces of glass came.

Some of the pieces of glass still have letters on them. This was probably part of the words "One Quart."

This glass has gotten extremely cloudy with time. I'm thinking the S. was part of U.S. Not sure what the W could be.

I like cloudy pieces of glass as something different from the plain clear pieces.

Not sure what this is, maybe from a Pyrex bowl. I couldn't get a good shot of it, but whatever this was, it was genuine.

There are lots of pieces of pottery or tile that wash up onto shore. There are also lots and lots of shells, although not very many large ones, due to being fresh water.

I have several pieces of very pretty blue glass. The dark blue is one the rarest, if not the rarest color for a beachcomber to find. I find it interesting that there are so many shades of blue.

Do you have any fun plans for the summer with your dolls?

6/26 I'm adding a picture of an ornament that I bought, made from beach glass, driftwood, shells, and I think some pottery.

#SNAPSTAR Green Stand, and Barbie Comparison Photos

Boy, November really got away from me. I've been trying to get my Vitamin D intake and light box use at the right balance, and there were just too many days where I wasn't up to doing as much as I did during the summer. The BTEG family has also been busy with other things, including making six homemade pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving, but I'll talk about that after the doll stuff.

In the comments of my previous post, Rachael asked if the green stand would work with other dolls. I promised her I'd check the stand with one of my Cu-Poche dolls and let her know. I didn't think it would take so long, Rachael!

Looking at the two stands, you wouldn't think a doll could use both, would you? However, note that both stands have a round peg at the end, and that they are close in size.

Yes, my Cinderella Cu-Poche can actually use the green stand! Now, the green peg is very close to being bigger than the hole in the Cu-Poche back, so it's not a perfect fit, and thus the doll can fall off the green peg very easily. Then again, I haven't done a lot of photography with the white stand yet, so maybe Cu-Poche dolls don't stay on those that well, either.

Since the green stand does work with Cinderella, you know what I had to do.

I green-screened her onto a beach on my beloved Lake Erie, from a picture I took a few years back.

Here's some other examples of green screens I have done. These two are from last Christmas.

 I put Poppy skating into this picture of me taken on the ice many years ago.

And here are Madeline and one of her friends driving down a snowy road.

Lastly, here's a picture from the first chapter of my storyline, which I really need to get back to. I had to dress Hunter in clothes other than his customary green top, which would have disappeared right along with their green background. I do have blue screen capabilities too, but not a nice blue backdrop, at the moment.

Also in the comments, Dana asked if the #SNAPSTAR body could be used with a Petite Fashionista. Unfortunately, the answer is no. Dawn is very much shorter than the Petite Fashionista and the Skipper body, which I threw in for further comparison.

If you'd like to hear about the BTEG family Thanksgiving, continue below the fold.

Grocery Giveaway Submission

Xanadu is giving away some doll-sized grocery items (in various scales) at her blog. She asked that you post an interesting pic of your dolls on your blog, and link back to her giveaway post. For some reason, I read it as her wanting pictures of tiny dolls, so I killed two birds with one stone. My Cu-Poche girls are enjoying a day at the beach relaxing, with a LORI patio swing that I've been meaning to share. It came with the lemonade pitcher, two glasses of lemonade, the tray, and the "grass" rug for the swing to sit on. Unfortunately, Little Red's big hair made it impossible for her to sit on the swing, so she's lounging on the grass with her lemonade.

This is really made for the mini LORI dolls, and similar dolls like the mini American Girl dolls, but I thought the Cu-Poche girls might look cuter with it. I think they do, except poor Little Red can't sit on it!

I have a huge backlog of new purchases to blog about, so stay tuned! I just finished up a nice new roombox for the photography. It doesn't take up too much space on my worktable, but it's large enough that I can feature a few dolls or items in it at a time. I finished covering the floor last night; I took this photo the day before.

Meg Checks Out the Beach and Hangs Out at the Park

I decided to have Meg's first photo shot at a local beachfront park. It didn't go as well as I wanted. The water was very choppy yesterday and the tide was high, so there wasn't much actual beach, at least where I was at. But I think just doing it, even if it didn't turn out perfectly, was enough for me to plan a next time.

Meg is wearing Barbie capris (on her, they are just jeans) and a top that I made for her.

Meg spends some peaceful contemplation time before we head down.

The waves crash on the shore.

Driftwood is very common on the local beaches. Meg leans on a piece for support as a wave covers her feet.

The park is named Veteran's Memorial Park, and so there are several memorial plaques for those who came from this little town, and died in service to their country.

Meg found a good place to perch behind a 105 Howitzer cannon that sits in the park. This is probably an original shell painted over. She also lets her feet dry off.

Meg reads the names on a WWI Memorial. Some of those names can still be found in the community.

And my favorite shot of the day. Meg just looks so happy to be outside in this nice weather.

I liked being outside in the milder autumn weather too! Meg and I will be going out again.