Sunday Story - The Prince & the White Cat

The Prince & the White Cat

Some time ago I included this illustration in a post called Wonderful Weddings.  I think these lovely paintings are the work of Jose Ortiz and as with all my 'Sunday Stories' originally appeared in Once Upon a Time magazine.  After posting a series of selected illustrations on different topics I received a request to include the full stories. This is one of my favourites.

I'm still using a borrowed laptop (my son's) as I've confirmed my own PC problem is not recoverable.  The last automatic windows update wiped out my ethernet adaptor. It seems I'm not the only person this has happened to.  If you are lucky you can roll back the change, but in some cases like mine the adaptor is destroyed completely




To get the laptop working again I'd have to reload the operating system, but as it is almost 5 years old I'm taking it as a sign I need a new one.  The only reason I'm hesitating before buying one is that Windows 8 seems to have a few problems and a new release is due to come out later this year.  I'd like to wait until that happens but my family want me to have my own laptop again so I may have to get one sooner rather than later!

Here is the story:
 

Taken from Once Upon a Time children's magazine. Issue #141 dated 23 October 1971


Through a glass - lightly

My husband thinks this photo is a bit daft but I find it quite effective.  I'm always the one with the camera taking photos of everyone else.  I never have any photos taken of me (I'm not vain but I'm a natural historian and recorder of the progression of time. In a way this blog is an attempt to catalogue my memories.).  When I saw how well this door was reflecting the scene outside I decided to take a self portrait.  I like the slightly indistinct results - its almost like a painting. 

The garden has been glorious now winter has finally released its grip.  These flowers are finished now but I loved them when they were in full spate and looked like a waterfall of blossoms.  Now the briar rose has taken over so it is still an equally colourful corner.  

When the flowers grow in such profusion its lovely to be able to bring a little bit of the garden inside.  I always think of my mom when I do this.   She loved arranging flowers and filling her home with them.

Meet Clarissa

I hope my friends in the blogging community will forgive me if I post something today but don't visit anyone in return. My PC will still not connect to the internet.  I've tried everything I can think of without success.  I'm borrowing my son's little netbook to do this - but have promised I will use if for just the time it takes to put up this post and not hog it completely!

The inspiration for Clarrisa

 This is the first of three paper dolls I am hoping to make based on the beautiful illustrations by Janet & Anne Grahame Johnstone.  I've decided to give my dolls names and chose Clarissa for this one.

  

 

The illustrations I've based her outfits on are all show here.  They are all taken from two books I've had since childhood - A Gift Book of Nursery Rhymes and A Gift Book of Enchanting Fairy Tales both illustrated by Janet & Anne Graham Johnstone.

Clarissa was my first submission to OPDAG (The Original Paper Doll Artists Guild).  The theme was Babies and Children.   At first I wasn't sure if it was OK to post dolls sent to OPDAG in my blog, but then I noticed Miss Missy had posted her lovely Heidi Fairy Tale Doll - one of my favourites from that issue of the magazine - so I felt it would be fine for me to do the same.

  

This is the version of the doll I submitted.  I realised afterwards it is a bit of a learning curve.  Because it was winter and just before Christmas I decided to experiment and use more wintery seasonal colours.  My sister and husband liked the finished effect, but I think for OPDAG it was a mistake and I should have stuck with the lighter more traditional colours like the alternate version shown at the start of this post.  In the magazine my dolls are allocated a quarter af an A4 page, so reduced down in size the darker colours meant a lot of the detail is lost.  

Still it was exciting seeing something I sent in printed in the issue!

If you want to colour in your own version here is the original pencil sketch.  (I actually always prefer the pencil drawings.) You will have to add tags to one of the dresses - apologies for that and I hadn't added the hat at the time I scanned it.

Maybe I should hold my own colouring competition with a prize for the best entry!
 

For this issue of the magazine members were also invited to send in outfits for a 'dress a doll' theme.  This one was called 'Dress the Kids'.  I sent in a selection of outfits for two of the dolls provided.  I won't be able to include the dolls here but you can see one of them on the cover of the magazine at the OPDAG Paper Doll Studio site.  Apparently there was an enormous response and although about 150 outfits were included in the magazine none of mine made the cut.  These are my dresses - I decided I'd put them up on my blog anyway as I was quite happy with them even though they were not selected. 
  

Putting a post together on this tiny little PC has been more tricky than I thought!  Hopefully I'll have something more permanent sorted out soon so I can get back to life in bloggyland properly.  I'm really missing the interaction with everyone!