Friday was a very scary day.  I thought it was just another very windy, rainy day.  It got really dark, really fast and stayed that way all day.  It was very windy, but we'd had days like that before, and nothing more than a few leaves or a stray branch being the worst.  But Friday, we got more than just a few leaves blown around!  I watched from my kitchen as the large tree in front of my house weaved around like one of those crazy flailing-arms balloon men used to advertise stores. The wind howled and my ears even popped a few times.  Then... CRASH!

Around my area of geography (Ottawa, Canada), we had not one... not two... but three tornadoes touch down around the area!  One of my neighbours actually spotted one of them as she was coming home from work, and many people later posted images they took from their phones of the twisting chaos.  There was a lot of damage done: hundreds of trees were pulled up by their roots or broken off like twigs, telephone poles were knocked over (like dominoes), roofs were pulled up, sides of the houses were ripped away, there were even a few trees sprouting a car!  One of the main generators for the city was damaged... in fact, many folks are still without power as I type.

I was luckier that some. In the aftermath of the tornadoes, some folks homes looked like a doll house, where each level was open on the sides. Others lost their whole house!  Some were much luckier and all they lost were a few shingles, or some siding, or a window.  I was one of the luckier ones.  I My bedroom window was completely smashed and the winds ripped everything inside the room around like a child having a major tantrum. Many of the items were even pulled out of the window and flung around the yards of the neighbourhood. Even some of my bedding was gone.

In my last post I mentioned my lovely dolls I had been working with. Sadly, my lovely ladies and their stuff was right under that bedroom window. The dolls, along with the little box holding clothing and accessories, the set up I made of a lab for my doll, and even my camera I was taking pictures of the dolls with... all wound up outside in the muddy, wet yard.  Everything was stained, broken or just not usable in some fashion.  I might be able to rescue one or two bits of clothing, but pretty much everything I had for my dolls was stained badly, ripped beyond repair, or simply lost from flying off somewhere.  The saddest part was that both my dolls were also just as bad.  One doll lost her hair, an eye, and an arm, as well as soaked and stained from laying in the muddy water for so long.  The other doll I found impaled on a large branch of  tree that fell two yards away... both legs and and her head was long gone.  I cannot even post photos of the damage because the camera I have had for years was smashed and sitting in a puddle... it's broken beyond repair.

I'm thankful that I didn't lose any more than that.  My window has been covered for now and will be repaired within the next few days.  I thankfully have no water damage to the inside of my bedroom other than on the bedding itself, and a few stained dirt spots on my rug.

I have no money to replace the damaged items, including the mattress... or my dolls.  I guess I should count my lucky stars... but I am very sad that I am not able to continue to work with the dolls I love, nor can I afford to buy a new one any time soon.  It may not be until long after Christmas before I can think of buying a new one.  And I have no idea when I'll be able to afford a new camera... if at all!

I'm very bad at writing.  Actually, I write well... I'm just bad at keeping it up.  As you can see it's been 4 years since my last post.  A lot has happened since, been in and out of hospital for numerous issues, though the main one was to have my thyroid removed.  While I have recovered nicely from that I still have a few issues that are still being dealt with.

Seems I have also been diagnosed as being Autistic.  Doctor says I should have been diagnosed with this decades ago, but sadly there is nothing she can really do for me now.  Not that this is life threatening or anything, but it does help explain why certain things happened during my youth and while growing up.  So basically I have yet another medical condition that I have to "deal with" and not have anything done to make things better for me.  I'll just chuck that onto the ever growing "things I have to deal with, but no one wants to do anything to help" pile.  This pile is now quite high and can get overwhelming quite often.  Sigh.

Anyhoo... onto a happier topic.

Two years ago a friend from out of town gifted me with an American Girl style doll for Christmas.  It's an Our Generation doll, similar to the AG but half the price and various other slight differences.  I like her as she is a red head, has very straight hair, green eyes, and she came with a set of glasses... looked just like me when I was younger.  So I decided to give her my nickname as her name (Krynne) and thus began my latest distraction.

I've since made Krynne a crocheted dress, and collected a few outfits & accessories for her, including a cute little Harry Potter outfit (complete with wand).  I'm currently in the middle of re-arranging my bedroom to set up a desk for a sewing machine.  I mistakenly believed that doll clothes wouldn't be too expensive and nearly had a heart attack when I saw the prices of stuff!  Just a simple pair of shoes for the doll can run up to $50!  I also realized that my taste in clothing is a lot different than some others, and nearly everything made for these types of dolls was just 'meh' in my eyes.  I figured that sewing my own might cost less... but even that was pretty expensive finding all the materials.  However... I figure if I'm going to spend the money, I might as well have something nice and what *I* (and Krynne) want instead of something that was "just okay".


I now have a few patterns collected.  Each week I'm able to get a new freebie from the amazing Pixie Faire website!  Each Wednesday people can go onto the site to vote on 4 selected patterns, and the winning one is then offered for free on the following Friday.  So far I've been following this weekly since January of this year, I only missed a few weeks in February when I went away (that will be another blog story later).  Some of the patterns are not quite what I hope would win, but I've been learning how to alter patterns in order to turn them into things I like.

My latest project is creating a Star Trek uniform for Krynne.  It is part of the cosplay collection Krynne wants to have.  I figured the easiest to start with would be that uniform. There are so many characters I want to create for her from various genres... such as Dark Phoenix (from the X-Men comics), Green Arrow (from the latest TV series), a Klingon in full warrior uniform, Maleficent (from the original Disney Sleeping Beauty, the 12th Doctor & his tardis (Dr. Who), and Alucard (from Hellsing Ova).  Told you my taste was odd!  As well I'm also hoping to create a realistic looking space suit for her.  I know there is one out there from the AG site, but I can't afford the $75 (plus shipping to Canada) for it (never mind the fact it isn't even available to be sold to anyone outside the US), so I'm researching the NASA site in hopes to recreate my own for Krynne.

So far I've managed to collect a few special trinkets for her, and I'm always on the lookout for something cool and new to add to her "stuff", but not run me out of money doing so.  Now that Hallowe'en is coming up I'm trying to find a doll sized skeleton to add to her laboratory... and a few other things one has in a science lab.

Hopefully I can write more often... now that I remember this thing is here!  Laterz!