2012 in review


Praising God for a wonderful year 2012 and praying for His continued leadership and blessing in 2013!

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 4,700 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 8 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

Thanks to all my readers for your continued support! God bless!!! 😀

Savin’ the World: The Incredibles


This is one of my very favorite movies; in fact, it was the inspiration for my Superheroine doll outfit. So, I though I’d share a little about this very cool movie 😀

Pictures were again taken by me on a digital camera.

The Incredibles: SPOILERS THROUGHOUT

Superheroes used to be popular and respected, defenders of law and justice.

However, some years ago, based on complaints, the government discontinued its Supers program and sent all current Superheros and Superheroins undercover, giving them secret identities and expecting them to live quiet, unobtrusive lives. Included in this sweep were super-strong Mr. Incredible (with secret identity of Bob Parr)…

…and super-stretchy and flexible Elastigirl (now Helen).

Fifteen years later, they are married and have a family, with kids Violet, Dash, and Jack-Jack.

But Bob, yearning for the old days, is not satisfied working his boring desk job.

And the kids are struggling to hide their superpowers and fit in at school.

When contacted about an opportunity to get back in his Supersuit and work a secret job for a company, Bob readily agrees.

However, he soon realizes he has stumbled upon a dastardly plot.

Captured by the villainous Syndrome, he has no hope of escape.

That’s when the rest of the family (except baby Jack-Jack, who is being babysat by a naive friend)…

…with help from Superheroine costumer Edna…

…must step in to help.

Attacked by Syndrome…

…they must find alternate transportation. Helen (Elastigirl!) stretches into a boat shape while Speedster Dash runs as fast as he can to propel them through the water.

Once on land, Helen ventures into Syndrome’s hideout to find her husband…

…and the kids are discovered…

…and chased through the jungle by merciless guards.

Violet utilizes her powers of invisibility and force fields while Dash uses his speed, both to escape, and to take down as many villains as possible.

They meet up with their parents and the whole family makes a stand as they are attacked in the jungle…

…until Syndrome catches the whole family.

Escaping through the use of Violet’s force field, they head home only to find the Supervillan has released his nearly-invincible OmniDroid on the city. He plans to heroically stop it and set himself up as the ultimate Superhero, but the machine quickly rages out of control.

The Parr family works together…

…with help from fellow Superhero and family friend Frozone…

…to destroy the OmniDroid and save the city.

Furious, Syndrome kidnaps Jack-Jack and nearly escapes, until Jack-Jack shows his powers of Shapeshifting and causes the villain to drop him. Bob throws a car at Syndrome’s plane and the villain loses his grip, his cape sucking him into the propellors.

The Parrs’ house is destroyed…

…but they are saved by Violet’s force field.

With everything set right, the Parrs are closer than ever as a family, and ready to save the world at a moment’s notice.

Superheroine


Superheroine doll

We recently watched the Disney Pixar (animated) movie “The Incredibles,” which I really liked.  That movie was the main inspiration for this outfit 🙂  So I created this superheroine and an outfit for her–she has a backstory, family, superpowers, all that… 🙂

To start with, there’s the superhero staple–a spandex supersuit!  I made that out of a dark blue sock that had a great stretch to it.  It’s all one piece.  Then i took the silver corset and halter top off of the Sci-fi girl‘s outfit, because I felt it would look better with this outfit.  (You can read more about how I made the silver corset and top here.)  Red plastic boots (which I didn’t make) complete the outfit.

Group photo!


Here, at the end of the summer, are all 17 of my dolls 🙂

Sci-fi girl


Sci-fi girl

This is an original design I had a lot of fun with 🙂  It is largely based on characters from Star Wars.

There are several parts to this outfit:

White pants (from the store)

White long-sleeved top (handmade)

Silver corset with skirt parts (the silver stuff for this came from the bodice parts of some store-bought doll dresses; I cut up, like, 4 dresses to get the parts I needed)

Silver halter top (also store-bought, this was originally white but I used silver glitter glue to make it match with the corset)

Belt made from a strip of elastic

Store-bought grey shoes

Lightsabers!  Made from chenille wires and foil

1. Just the corset

2. Hair down (I like it this way!)

3. Hair up for action

1.  2.  3.

UPDATE: I moved the silver corset and top to the Superheroine doll ‘cuz I liked it better  with that outfit 🙂

FYI, here’s how the Sci-fi doll looks now:

A bit more Jedi-ish, don’t you think? 🙂

Resources


First off, any and all creative ideas I get come from my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Everything I do is for His glory.

For me, making doll clothes has been an exercise in resourcefulness.  I get an idea, then I go hunting for supplies.  Mostly, I just use whatever we have around the house 🙂

However, I had a lot of help in actually making the outfits–in the form of some great websites that contain movie pictures, instructions, tips, and a lot more.  The following websites have been especially helpful.  I an extremely grateful to them for having these sites up and putting so many useful things on there.

LOTR Costumes (very thorough)

Molendrix (great doll dress patterns)

Costumer’s Guide (lots of screencaps)

Very Faery (on Arwen’s dresses)

Padawan’s Guide (Star Wars characters)

Fit for a Queen (good info on Star Wars females)

Wardrobe Door (Narnia Web’s comprehensive site)

I hope you are inspired to creativity, thriftiness, and resourcefulness, as I have been!

~ Soli Deo Gloria

Obi-wan outfit


Obi-wan outfit

Obi-wan Kenobi is probably the favorite Jedi in our house 🙂  Since my brothers had this GI Joe-type Army man and weren’t playing with it too much, I decided to see what I could do with it, and ended up re-costuming it as the Jedi master.

The outfit is based on what he wears in “Star Wars: Attack of the Clones.”  The shirt is made of a coarse material and the vest out of part of some socks!  The pants he came with, so I didn’t have to make them.  Belt is made from a strip of elastic colored black.  The boots aren’t quite right–they should be brown and in a cowboy-like style–but that seems to be an ambitious project I’m not going to attempt now 🙂

The lightsaber is made from green chenille stems and a bead covered with foil.

The dolls


Most of my doll costumes are patterned after movie costumes.  The movies I mostly use are “The Lord of the Rings” series, “The Princess Bride,” and the “Narnia” series–3 of my faves.

I also like to make back stories for my costumed dolls.  The dolls wearing the LOTR costumes I got from Hobby Lobby–they have nice long, thick hair.  The brunettes are supposed to be Aragorn and Arwen’s daughter; the blondes, Faramir and Eowyn’s daughter.

The black-haired dolls model “Princess Bride” dresses as well as other, non-movie outfits.