While working with this week's crew I was aware of what a miracle takes place when putting the babies together with their bodies. All the time, in the plastic bags and on the trays, I only know the babies as a pile of parts.

Here is Holly with her body there behind her head. That hand seems to be reaching out asking me to work on her next but at this point she is only a personality of hand and eyes. After the hour of magic - finding a body of the right size, inserting doily joints, sewing in the strings, putting in the filling and bag of weights and tying the limbs and head to it, suddenly I can meet the new personality hidden in all those parts.

This was the scene when I left the studio last night. Sweet and Sassy now known as Jimmy, sitting next to Blaze Dear. I felt Jimmy's jammies were a bit too big but a very hot day ended before I could find a smaller pair for him. I remember when I put together the Sweet and Sassy kit a couple months ago I did not feel very good about the resulting Cindy. I thought she was like a child from the wrong side of the tracks. Here, Jimmy is just what I can easily love. I do not know if thinking of him as a male makes him more acceptable to me or if this kit really contains a different personality than Cindy. I like this guy!

I took the suggestion by Cordelia and Susanna that the pups would be best photographed with a grey background and look how right they are. Thanks Ladies! I took down the backdrop to move the gray area up into the usable place and feel that now the animals will get this background. Mr. A is eager for the pups so I will pack them first this morning. Thank goodness the studio is actually cooler than the house. The blankets arrived in yesterday 's mail just in time to wrap the dogs in.

Here you can see the new doggie blanket in the background and how wrong photographing the pups before it would have been. Enough confessions. Am off to pack puppies.