Story: Leaving Is The Hardest Part

    Regina heard Henry's feet clomping around upstairs; amazing how much noise a small child could make early in the morning. She almost smiled, but her face caught on a sudden wave of anxiety. This was the last time she'd be hearing his racket for two weeks! She quickly finished tying on the new swimsuit that she was trying out for the conference/mandatory work retreat.

    A strange object appeared in her doorway, followed by a tiny face and a much less tiny voice.

    "Mom...I brought you my pool noodle. The hotel will have a pool, right?" Henry looked up at her excitedly, "You can play with your friends from work!"

    Regina blinked at him, startled, "Oh...that's...very thoughtful, Henry...but I don't think they will let me bring a pool noodle on the airplane."

   Henry looked crestfallen, so Regina changed the subject, "Okay, dear, maybe they will have pool noodles at the resort? Anyhow, let's get you ready for kindergarten. Remember, you're going to stay with Granny afterward so be sure to pack your toothbrush into the bag I set out."

   "Granny! Yay!" Henry dropped the pool noodle and dashed off, leaving Regina sighing at the long foam tube on the floor, "Henry!" But while she would usually scold him for leaving things lying around, she picked it up herself this time. It really was sweet of him to think of her and wish her to have fun on her trip.

    After chasing down errant shoes and finally getting the correct toothbrush into the correct bag, Regina and Henry made it to kindergarten.

    "Regina, Henry, welcome. Go ahead and join the other children on the playground, Henry. We'll go inside in ten minutes."

    "Miss Frye, guess what? My mom is going to fly!"
    "Wow! Like a bird?"
    "No, like an airplane! And I won't see her again for a really long time!"

"Bye, Mom I love you."

"PLAYGROUND!"

"Hi, Henry! We're playing 'animals'! Want to come slide?"

"Don't worry, Ms. Mills, I'll make sure he is safe at school, and I'm sure he will be quite safe with his Granny."

   Regina nodded, but glanced back, "Of course, but I'm a mother. I'm going to worry anyway."

She watched Henry play with his friends for a moment longer, trying to reassure herself that leaving was perfectly fine. He was so young! But he was in safe hands with Granny and Miss Frye and the rest of her town friends and family. 

    Regina tried not to worry as she finished packing. 

She tried not to text Henry, Granny, and every single person in town as she waited for her flight. 

She tried not to wonder what Henry was doing during the entire 8 hour plane ride...

   ...but of course, that is exactly what she did! 

Costume Shopping

I only have a few dolls out right now, but they wanted to try on some costumes since it's almost Halloween! They managed to find a few that they liked. (be sure to check out my Instagram for more pictures of their adventures!)

Andrea: "That dress is perfect on you Anya!"
Anya: "Thank you! You look amazing as well!"

Melody: "HI LADIES!"

Melody: "Do you like my costume? Saving lives is so sexy! Also this floaty thing has room for candy! The only downside is that I have to run everywhere in slow motion."
Anya: "Oooooh candy!"

Melody: "OH ANYA I LOVE THAT MOVIE sing the song!"
Andrea: Oh no...

Andrea: Now I'll never get it out of my head! At least Anya has a good voice!

Introducing the Twins

     Hi, all! It's been quite a while since I last posted here, I know! I've had to put away all of my dolls this summer due to the heat and losing three air conditioning units in a row (whew, that was bad!). But I found a really sweet pair of dolls recently, and I couldn't resist grabbing a few photos of them with my phone...
    

"Hi, I'm Kasidy, and this is my brother, Avery! He's a genius, and also a doofus."

    Meet Avery and Kasidy! They're twins. Like most siblings, they're quite different, but they love each other just enough to torment each other constantly without really meaning harm. They live together, currently, while Avery works through his first year at architecture school and Kasidy works full-time at a popular amusement park.
    They both had today off, so they decided to take a break from studies and housework and go to the neighborhood park for some much-needed outdoor fun.

"Avery! I wasn't ready for that picture! Gimme that phone!"

"Hey, now I wasn't ready...!"

"Okay, now I'm ready!"

They're currently the only dolls I have out, and I don't have any other doll things (clothes, accessories, rooms, etc) so they may spend a lot of time outside this summer! Hopefully it won't be too long before I can dig their friends out of storage. 

My other news is, I now have an Instagram! I'm lightwavesdolls. I've never had a smartphone before, so this is very exciting!

Happy New Year from the Lightwaves Production Team!

  Even though Lightwaves hasn't officially started shooting, the cast has started to get to know each other during pre-production. Carina organized a New Years Party to help with that, along with a photoshoot.

 

Jennifer: "I feel kinda awkward being the only one here besides the host, Mom.
The photographer keeps following me."
Carina: "Don't worry, other people are going to show up. Have a little faith."
Jennifer: "I hope you're right."

       She was right! Eventually, other guests started trickling in. The photographer quickly snapped pictures, eager to impress these possible future TV stars. First, a complete stranger.

"My name is Felicity. I was told by the casting director to be here...this is the Lightwaves cast party, right?"

     Felicity and Jennifer struck up a conversation by the appetizers. Four more guests arrived, in shimmering, metallic gowns. Carina was delighted, it was the rest of her bar staff from the show, in matching outfits! All aside from Melody, who was dressed all in silver.

Melody: "I hope we're not late! We swung by the Costume department to pick out some evening wear! Those are our new uniforms!"
Carina: "I hope you got permission!"
Sarah: "Of course we did...we did, right?"

     Next, a Cadillac SUV pulled up and these guys piled out, reluctantly shoving each other into line for the photo, laughing and mostly good-natured carrying-on. 

Sam: "So, this is where the party's at, right?"

    Andrea walked in, alone. Melody rushed over to get in the photos with her.

Andrea: "Mel...is that my necklace?"
Melody: "I was keeping it safe for you!"
Andrea: "It was in my jewelry case!"

Melody: "Come on, smile! We look hot tonight!"
Andrea: "We sure do!"

    A blonde woman stepped up to the door in a magnificent ball gown. Sam walked over to help her get the door open, and she walked in. The room fell silent as her skirt billowed across the floor, and then people started to recognize her. It was Celeste, who would be playing the firefighter!

Celeste: "Hi, everyone! Happy New Year!"

    A few more unfamiliar faces showed up. Clearly, the casting director had been busy!

"Just point me to the champagne, darlings!"

"Am I at the right place? I thought Charlene said this was going to be a costume party?"

"I can't find my glasses."

    Carina was kept busy trying to corral everyone into a group photo. She finally gave up on dragging the boys away from the banquet and managed to get some of the women in one place...

    But then Jennifer had an idea. She texted the casting director, who texted everyone else. Within minutes, people started making their way into the main hall. The boys were still nowhere to be seen, but...

Success!

Happy New Year everyone! May 2017 bring you love and lovely doll things!

The Boiled Dolls Update and More

Update on Celeste and Ariel, the dolls destined for the boiling pot:

Celeste's before and after turned out pretty well. The haircut is still horrible in the back, but maybe I can salvage it further with some careful trimming if I get brave. At least it all sits on her head like hair is supposed to now.

I'm really getting some attitude from her. I think she'll be a fun character to play with and develop. I've always thought of the doll as a character from a story I wrote back in college, so I'm thinking I'll stick with that. With some little alternate-universe twists.

Update on Ariel:

Her hair came out so nice! For an older doll who spent more than her fair share of time in the bathtub, I think she looks great!

I've decided that she won't be a part of the Lightwaves LA photostories, at least not as a main character. As fond as I am of that doll, her eyes are a bit...scary. It's difficult to photograph her at an angle where she doesn't look like she's a zombie out for brains.

And now for the "more"...here's the first "cast photo" for Lightwaves LA!

(wow Erin actually photoshopped something!)

These are, of course, just the first six ladies. From left to right, Celeste, Andrea, Jennifer, Carina, Melody, and Barbara. I feel a little silly making up a fancy picture with them all in their random "whatever is in the barbie tub" outfits, but I wanted to dust off Photoshop and play around with fonts.

The idea so far is that these people all live in Los Angeles, and the story is centered around a nightclub called Lightwaves LA. It's going to have a much more adult tone to it than most of the other stuff I've done, and some probably mildly controversial stuff. I feel a muse to create and these dolls seem to be telling me their characters and what they want to do. I need to do it and not worry about what other people will think! Granted, at the time of this post, I have 0 followers to worry about...but I'm a worrier sometimes.

Anyway, the shopping news right now is that due to a seller error, I had to cancel my big M2M order and re-purchase them (more expensively! grrrr). I can't wait for them to get here!

The Cast of Lightwaves: The Ladies

Andrea

Carina

Jennifer

Melody

Celeste

Barbara

Anya

Kasidy

Felicity

last updated 8/20/2017