PrettyTiny Film Company -- random pix (Nov. 22)

[Lejays17]

They really shine against the black background.

My favourite is peek a boo & also the last one.

[Alliecat]

Thanks, everyone!
All the plants are kind of a lot of work; aside from the repotting & bug patrol, it's a little over an hour of watering every 5 days (lots of terrestrials besides the orchids) but it's sure nice to have green growing things in the house in the crummy weather.

... and the one where Robyn looks like she's getting stabbed by a leaf

Heheh, I saw it as the plant being friendly and reaching out to connect with her as she is with it, but, OK

And yes, the dark backdrop makes for quite striking flower photos! What did you use for lighting? It's a great set-up for bringing out the beauty of both flowers and dollies!

Just the camera flash I was quite surprised it turned out so well! I dialed it back a half a stop or so for a couple of shots. It made me wonder what other setups I could do with a black background.

[Loona]

Earlier today I stumbled upon some lovely orchids in a homeware store, and I immediately thought of you (before I started thinking about whether I ever managed to comment on these pictures - nope, I just found my response in my drafts  ). They were dropping their blooms and were heavily discounted as a result, and there were some that looked tempting (and so did an "indoor ivy"), but I didn't have time to start looking up care instructions for them (I did it for the ivy, because I love ivy, but sadly they made me decide against buying it), so I didn't buy any. Coming home to read your latest post mentioning how much time you spend with your plants, has made me realise I made the right decision. It made me re-count the number of pots I have (which is almost 50 even if I don't count 'temporary' ones like some seedlings I plan to trade or give away), and think about the time *I* spend with them. Impulse plant-purchases are not what I need

I really like how you coordinated the colours and matched up the flowers with matching girls! Lila's ombre hair is still gorgeous, and while it doesn't match, it being lighter on top creates a cool ombre effect also with the even lighter flower. The mini Oncidium looks wonderful (and I love the fact that it has a fragrance!), and Robyn looks gorgeous with it. It adds to the picture that the flowers are little, so they work well with her scale-wise. The picture in which she's behind the flowers, and the pot is not showing looks like it was taken while she was taking a stroll in a botanical garden
Crystal getting ready to give one of the Phal flowers a hug is beyond cute! I remember how it brought warmth into a dark (not only sun-wise) day back when I saw these photos first, and it did it again also now (but luckily today wasn't dark in any way ). Her dear, loving ex-pression as she looks at the flower... awww :3

[Alliecat]

Earlier today I stumbled upon some lovely orchids in a homeware store, and I immediately thought of you ... It made me re-count the number of pots I have (which is almost 50 even if I don't count 'temporary' ones like some seedlings I plan to trade or give away)...

Oooh, that's a good way to get orchids for cheap, when the stores discount them as the blooms drop.  If you get them between then and when the store finally kills them, you can get a good deal if you know what to do to save them.  Many of mine are rescues. What all do you have in your 50 pots?
Glad you liked the photos too!

So, winter hit with a bit of a blast, dumping a foot of snow on the weekend.  Monday I spent 3 hours digging out, including an hour trying to start the snowblower, which hasn't been needed in several years, so of course it was no surprise that it didn't start.  Sometime I'll have to get that dealt with.  Power shovels are only good for light snow with a tailwind...
Anyway, today I got motivated enough to emerge from my cave and take some pictures.  It was "only" -3 but my fingers & toes were frozen by the time I was done.  Bleepin climate.



Petra being a snow princess.






She's so cute.



Catalina got the rest of today's shoot, because I wasn't doing another wardrobe change.  I suppose the people who drove by may have wondered what I was doing crouching in my driveway...






The snowplow pile, about 3.5 feet high.



Then we went in the woods.












Light's going and one of us is frozen.  Time to go in.

Thanks for looking!  

[Elfy]

The woods shots are pure magic.

[davidd]

Snow Queen Petra is lovely, and you caught her out there when the light was just perfect. Catalina, however, makes the snow day look like a FUN day! It is the brief windows like this, sunny with no wind and fresh snow, that we THINK of when we think of snow. Unfortunately, as you know all too well, these perfect snow moments are relatively uncommon.

I have not fired up my snow blower yet this season, either. I should probably change the oil and make sure there’s fuel in it before I actually need it.

[neon_jellyfish]

Ooooh these are marvelous! Somehow, the world always looks like a good, friendly place in your photos, despite everything.

[dargosmydaddy]

I'm shivering just looking at Petra, but Catalina's lovely warm snowsuit is AWESOME!

Sending weather commiseration... just way too cold lately!

[Lejays17]

Petra makes a wonderful snow princess.

And Catalina looks like she was having a marvellous time in the woods.

[Loona]

Petra being a snow princess. (...) She's so cute.

...and the cold never bothered her anyway She looks regal in that dress out in the snow, but, just like dargosmydaddy, I too am shivering just looking at her

That red rosy set looks like it was meant to be for Catalina! Daesani rocked that outfit too, but on Catalina it turns into something that is on a next level! Maybe it's her darker skin tone and red lips. It looks like she's in her element out there, enjoying the snow. The shots in the woods, with the light passing through the trees at an angle, are otherwordly!

What all do you have in your 50 pots?

I believe the majority of my plants are still succulents (and therefore plenty of pots aren't too big, so that number isn't as enormous as it sounds), those were the plants I loved the most all my life. I have 10 pots of various cacti, 5 pots of Aloes (3 pots out of which are the good old Aloe vera - I can't give either away because of emotional reasons. One is the plant my parents brought me when they first visited my apartment after I moved out, one is the "Mama" plant of that plant, that came to live with me after my mother died, and one is a little Darwin Award candidate whom I found during repotting. She was  a yellowy transparent sprout growing inside one of the pots in a circle, surrounding the pot like a snake. She clearly came out on the wrong side of the pot, LOL. I felt sorry for her, and planted her, hoping that once she gets actual light, she'll turn green and eventually starts to grow normal. Which she did), 2 Haworthias, 2 Gasterias, Mizzi, the Euphorbia trigona who demands individual recognition because she's around my height now (and thorny and poisonous. I'd rather not upset her ), and some other succulents of various kinds. Several of them are rescues in the non-shop way: I found them as a single leaf or part, broken off either in a shop (by a careless bypasser - I'd never break off a plant part like that - in a shop or elsewhere, no matter how much I liked the plant) or in the streets (obviously not locally - 2 of them came from Italy like this. They re houseplants sold in shops here, but street vegetation over there).
The first non-succulent came to live with me when my mother's plants needed rehoming after her passing. That's how I came to live with 3 Yuccas, and 2 plants I have never managed to identify (I suspect one is a Croton, and the other one *slightly* resembles a Monstera, but it is much smaller, and the concave parts of the leaves are more regular and vawy, a lot less ragged). And in the past 2 years or so, I've deliberately added some non-succulents, because it bugged me how plant-barren the apartment is if you exclude the windows (all of my then-plants needed plenty of light), and you can't really find succulents that do well in worse light conditions. I also realised that I don't *have* to have succulents only. I never not liked other types of plants, I just... didn't really consider them for some reason. The first plant I got with this intention was a Pothos from my mother-in-law - I noticed how it grows eagerly in her house, even in darker spots, and asked some questions  which led to her cutting 3 pairs of leaves for me to root and then plant. The 6 leaves have now grown into 16, and she seems to be feeling OK next to my desk, about 5 metres away from the nearest window. I have since got another Pothos (a variegated variant), a spider plant, a Monstera Monkey Leaf and a Sansevieria, who all seem to enjoy living a bit further away from the window (though not as far as this Pothos). They are all plant swap rescues (I wrote about these swaps in your Pic-A-Week thread) - the unplanted Sansevieria was brought to a swap (in a bottle with water) for at least 3 times (first by the original owner, then the organisers took her home and brought her to future swaps, in hope someone'll take her) before I felt too sorry for the - by then visibly worn&torn - plant and took her home. She is recovering fine and is starting to look nice. She isn't the only "leftover bit noone wanted"-type of plant swap rescue either - I also have a Syngonium who came to me as a single tiny leaf left in a bowl of water on a swap that I felt sorry for and decided to take before the organisers threw it into the trash during cleaning up (now she has 4 leaves), and a Tradescantia pallida who was left behind in a similar way. This latter is actually a plant I will likely rehome once the plant swaps restart (she looks great now, so she won't get left behind again), I don't feel that much of a connection to her (I actually planned to rehome the Syngonium too once she got stronger and more plant-like instead of the leftover single leaf, but I've grown to like her), she's both too fast-growing and too fragile for my taste, and she requires plenty of light, while I really don't have any space left for such plants in my windows. Oh, this reminds me there are also the two Hoyas - who are both suckers for the sun, but they had an exceptional pass into the window crew because I really wanted a Hoya.
(oops, sorry, this really turned out to be a crazy plant lady-post, and much longer than I planned - I hope you don't mind  either the length, or the excessive use of Latin - I've always been a Linnaean plant namer, and thus I don't even know the Hungarian, let alone the English names of most of my plants :3 )

[Alliecat]

Thank you for all the nice comments, everyone
Yep, when you're plastic the cold doesn't bother you anyway!
I feel a bit bad that that snowsuit apparently has real fur on the hood.  I got it from a French seller who had so much neat stuff, and I never even thought to ask -- duh!  I don't like looking like I support fur for "fashion".  Just didn't think.

Ooooh these are marvelous! Somehow, the world always looks like a good, friendly place in your photos, despite everything.

What a lovely thing to say.  Thank you!!    Indeed, the dolls' world where everything is nice, is a great place to visit often!

(oops, sorry, this really turned out to be a crazy plant lady-post, and much longer than I planned

Heheh...  What a great collection!  You should do some dolls-with-plants photos.  It was interesting to read about them all.  And nice that you have some that have emotional connections.  I'm a bit that way, like with my first-ever plant (spider plant), first orchid, the Christmas cacti...  I remember where a lot of them came from.  I tend to go by the Latin names for many of mine as well.  People will say "no, it's a [common name]" and I'm like "NO, it's a [Latin name]."    As I read, I was thinking I'd suggest a sanseveria to you as something that doesn't need a lot of light, then reading on, chuckled to see you already have one!  The plant swap sounds great!  I also have to root every fallen-off cutting!!  I put them up for sale on the community facebook now & then.  
I was thinking today, looking out the window at the snow & bare branches, how 'dead' everything looks here so much of the year.  I mean, we have a lot of conifers (mostly spruce) so the woods actually do have a lot of green all year, but, it's not the same.  I was thinking of wonderful tropical Hawaiian gardens (where I was 2 years ago, >sigh< ) and all the lovely things I could grow if it was warm all year.  Having plants in the house is great, but, it's not quite as nice, you know...?



Valentine friends.

[Elfy]

That's so sweet sharing the flowers. I do have a question not doll related, though. Where do the deer that love to rampage through your garden go during the winter when all their food is covered by snow, given that you live on an island?

[Alliecat]

Where do the deer that love to rampage through your garden go during the winter when all their food is covered by snow, given that you live on an island?

They continue to wander the same territory, in the woods and through yards, eating ... whatever deer eat in the winter. Bark? Spruce needles? Grass blown bare by the wind... seaweed on the beach... If we got a lot of snow, like the 2015-16 Winter From Hell when there was about 9 feet by the end of the season (total, not all on the ground at once!!), some would die. But a lot of winters, there are thaws between snowfalls and the ground might be bare much of the winter in many places. It was here, mostly, till the big dump last week. I had 4 in the yard the other night.

[Loona]

I tend to go by the Latin names for many of mine as well.  People will say "no, it's a [common name]" and I'm like "NO, it's a [Latin name]."   

This. So very much this. And I've also stopped caring about being labelled 'snob' as a result.

I totally agree about how it isn't the same when you have green on the outside - though conifers are among my favourite outside plants, so I'd totally be OK with the setup you have over there. Sadly, our height above sea level and the resulting climate result in mostly oak/similar deciduous forests here, conifers are a small minority among all the other trees that seasonally shed their leaves. Seeing the leaves turn green and fall has always made me depressed, so other than their lovely appearance and often deep green foliage, I'm sure conifers have won another good point in my book by being evergreen. Plus I adore how they look surrounded by snow.

That photo is adorable! I love how they gaze tenderly at one another.

[Alliecat]

...our height above sea level and the resulting climate result in mostly oak/similar deciduous forests here

So do you get some nice fall colours?  Yes, you might like our winter 'green' woods.

.............................

Okay.... so this is why at 2 a.m. my article for news deadline is not done and sent, and this is where my evening went, instead of going to bed early to catch up on sleep for tomorrow's magazine interview... but...  >shrug<

So yes, probably some polish is needed here, and there's GOT to be an easier way to do it than the tutorials that didn't quite work with my old Photoshop and thus the "one minute" effect took 3 hours to figure out, but... I think it's not bad for a Very First Try.
Tinkering with an older photo to present... the franchise Disney doesn't yet know they need:
JEDI PIRATES!!!!!!
Woohoo!