Sure, I know that Prince George is going to be making his first Royal Visit on the other side of the world. He won't be anywhere near Ohio, but I can hardly to enjoy his visit via the wonderful invention of photography. In other words, "the gutter press". Since his birth in July, I've been nuts about him. Besides the fact that he's an absolutely adorable baby, he is named after his great-great grandfather, King George VI. Well, I've spent money buying scrapbooks that other girls made during KGVI's reign, so I thought this was the perfect chance to make a book of my own.

I've ordered first-day covers of New Zealand and Canada stamps (yep, already got an order in for the Kiwi cover of the Royal Visit stamps!), a friend in Aussie-land was kind enough to send the Prince George stamps from Down Under, and I have my grandmother going through every issue of Hola! magazine for any photos of the Royal Baby. She's even got the dates of George's Royal Visit on her calendar --- in hopes that the Miami papers will run some articles. The local papers around here are, frankly, lousy when it comes to Royal news. :(

So, I'm counting down until April 7th (and the following weeks). Just for fun, here are some photos of the pages in my Prince George scrapbook. Just click on the little ones to see them at full size (They are in chronological order.)

It's a sure sign of Spring. A week ago Saturday the first skunk came out of hibernation around our house. They are so cute. They look like cats. They can have such beautiful patterns and colors. The question is: How can anything that cute smell so bad?! This was one of the worst skunk experiences that we've ever had. He must have come out of hibernation late Saturday night, because very early on Sunday morning (about 1:20am), he was out eating bird seed that had fallen from the feeders --- and he sprayed the house near the front door. It wreaked all night. We were all sick to our stomachs, and come morning everything in the house smelled like skunk. The worst thing was that it was only about 12'F outside, so it was too cold to open all of the windows before heading out to church. Elizabeth and I had a good laugh, because we found (only once we were at church) that our Bibles smelled awful, too. How embarrassing.

Another one came out again this past Saturday and sprayed just as we went to bed. It was not quite as bad this time, though. So, I guess that Spring is finally arriving. Today is supposed to be our first warm day. We've still had nights in the single digits, so it's kind of hard to realize that Spring is so close.

We had an enjoyable St. Patrick's Day. We made muffins in shamrock wrappers. And (to get ourselves in the right mood) we've watched an "Irish" movie every evening for the last week. We ended with The Quiet Man, last night! Can't beat that. Elizabeth and I have been keeping busy. We're working on bringing out a new kind of wool doll. Not to mention keeping up with the other things that we've been making. More later.

Elizabeth and I have been working on setting up a Weebly site called Peppermint Toes. It is all about our cats: photos, stories, facts. And, of course, Sammy gets his own page. I've been working on it all week, loading photos and getting some of the individual pages on. We're also working on getting some new pictures of the kitties. You know how it is . . . you take a ton of pictures when they are kittens, but after eight years, well, you kind of slack off. I got a really cute photo of Samwise yesterday. Oh, boy! So, here it is. Also, be sure to check out his page by clicking here. There is a photo slideshow on the page, and you'll get to see him as a kitten --- and there was never a cuter kitten!

We really want to make one of those cute little "photo books" filled with cat pictures, so I am in the middle of doing a class to use Adobe InDesign. Knowing how to use Photoshop means that part of the battle is won, but a new program always takes some concentration. On top of that, I'm also in the middle of a how-to-type course. :) Keeping busy.

It's finally finished! A needle-felted doll of Lord Elrond as he is played by Hugo Weaving in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Adventure. I've been working on this since the Fall, and he is actually Elizabeth's Christmas present --- which she has known about all along. ;)

He is the largest doll that I've made yet, standing at a very lofty 11-1/4" tall. Of course, weight goes hand in hand with height, so he is also the heaviest of the dolls that I have made. He weighs 4-1/4 ounces (including jewelry) and took approximately 69 hours of felting to complete. There is another five hours of work (on Elizabeth's part, as she's the jewelry expert!) in his crown and jewelry, so that brings him to 74 hours. The second longest doll yet.

Because of his regal robes, height and weight it was obvious from the start that Lord Elrond would need some form of a stand. So, Pop and I came up with an ingenious idea which ended up working very well. I took some of Elizabeth's heaviest jewelry wire and made what looked sort of like the top of a doll stand. This is wrapped around his waste and comes down behind his right leg. This is all hidden by the back of the dark purple tunic. We then bought a dome with a wooden base and a doll stand, removed the "stand rod" part of the doll stand and screwed that into the wooden base. Now, Elrond's wire stand slides into that rod on the base and he can stand in the dome on his own. All that said, none of that shows in any of these pictures. :)

Elrond is made of merino wool roving, while his variegated robe is a merino/silk blend. His skin is cotswold roving. Elizabeth made the jewelry from gold-colored jewelry wire, and his pin has two crystal studs in it. His hair is dark brown mohair.

Elizabeth has told me that she would like to write a "guest" blog entry about Elrond, so I'll leave the rest to her. :) I've added photos of Elrond into the Fogleberry Gallery page, including a shot of him without the over-robe and jewelry. I'll also have more photos on his page at our website, but that may take a few of days. On to the next doll! Actually, it's already started!