Merry Christmas!

I just want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a blessed new year! ^-^


Here are a few pics of Kisa in an outfit I made for her, inspired by the Russian sarafan. The dress and blouse are knitted, and I wove the trim on my Mirrix loom :D

Happy Birthday Ringo!!!!

Today my little man is 7 years old. It's hard to believe, he still acts like such a puppy! But it is true. For his birthday he got a special, warm new bed! I have been looking for a bed like this for him for ages, but there are certain requirements I had (it has to be washable, has to be made of cotton or bamboo, has to actually be long enough for Ringo to fit when he stretches out, etc), and no beds ever were quite right. But I got lucky and found this really nice organic cotton one, it's perfect! The only thing is, it only came in pink. But it's a pale pink, and Ringo doesn't care. He likes this bed almost as much as laying in my lap. Almost. But not quite. Still, he is really enjoying it, and it's so sweet to see ^_^ He also got the new bamboo mats/blankies, which you will see on his bed, they are really soft and nice. Oh, and also the little bamboo owl toy, you can see in some of the pics. So, Happy Birthday, my little angel puppy  And of course, here are some pics of Ringo:

No, I am not spoiled at all! Do you think I look handsome in my new bed?

This bed is nice and warm, I don't think I want to come out right now...

When Ringo is sleeping in his new bed, usually you can only see this...

...or this :P lol

And of course, I had to get a nice shot of Ringo's nose!

Kisa's Christmas Present

Kisa got her Christmas present a little early - it is a pearl necklace and matching hair pins (actually they are a child-size pearl bracelet and earrings, but don't tell her that, she thinks they were really made for her :P ). I took a few pictures of her with them, so I thought I would share them with you ^-^

Ooh, are these for me?

How do I look?

New Illustration: Saint Francis of Assisi

Saint Francis of Assisi
4x6"
Ink on watercolor paper
©2011 Debi Cady

Saint Francis of Assisi preaching to the animals. St. Francis is the patron saint of animals, the environment, Italy, merchants, and stowaways. His feast day is October 4th.

The original illustration is my Christmas present to my mom, she loves Saint Francis ^-^ And, of course, I had to add a dachshund! lol And a kitty too :D

This illustration is now available in my stores on Cafe Press, Zazzle, Red Bubble, and my deviantArt Print Shop.

Also, over the next few days, I will be adding a lot of new products to all of my stores. They should all be posted by early next week, as long as I don't run into any problems, so be sure to check them out! ^-^

And, just in case I don't post again next week (which is a distinct possibility), I hope you all have a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Ringo's Sniffy Expedition

With the nice, cooler fall weather, we have been taking Ringo outside more often for walks and "sniffy expeditions". Usually I forget to take my camera with me, so I mostly take pics of him in the house. But, for once, I actually remembered it! So here are some pics of Ringo on a sniffy expedition ^_^

Kisa's "Falling Leaves" Dress

I made a new dress for Kisa last week, finally took pics today. I call it her "Falling Leaves" dress, because the colors remind me of the leaves when they change color in the autumn. I think she looks really pretty in it ^-^ I actually would like her to have different shoes with it, but this is the only pair I have for her right now. I am planning to knit some shoes for her out of the same yarn, so I will post another picture if those work out. For now, this is it:

Kisa

In August I found a wonderful doll artist in Russia, she makes porcelain BJDs. I commissioned one, and she just arrived yesterday! I have named her Kisa, and I think she is so gorgeous ^-^ So I just wanted to post a few pics of her here.

With Alyona ^-^

Waving hi - I took this pic to send to her creator to let her know that she arrived safely ^-^

I am just totally in love with this doll, she's so delicate and sweet. I have a lot of plans for her! If you'd like to see more of this artist's dolls, you can check out her blog, JR Dolls (the site is in Russian, but even if you can't read it, it's just fun to look at the pics). I wanted to post more pics of Kisa in different outfits, but some of the clothes I got for her didn't fit :( Most of the stuff I made did, though, so I will post more pics soon ^_^

New Illustration: Santa Dachshund

"Santa Dachshund"
Digital Mixed Media
©2011 Debi Cady

The full moon shines as an English Cream Santa Dachshund and his squirrel elves bring presents to all the good little dachshunds of the world in their rabbit-drawn sleigh.

This is my new illustration for Christmas. I think it kind of goes with my Gingerbread Dachshunds illustration that I did last Christmas. ^-^

This illustration is now available on my store at Cafe Press, Zazzle, Red Bubble and my deviantArt Print Shop. One thing about the Red Bubble store, though, I am having trouble uploading the files for this illustration on their site, I'm not quite sure what is wrong. So right now you can only get shirts and stickers with this illustration from that site, but you can't get cards or prints. I will keep trying, hopefully I can figure out what is wrong so that I can change it soon...

Just in case I don't get the chance to post again this week, Ringo and I would like to wish everyone a very Happy Halloween! :D


10/31 Update: I finally got this illustration up in the  cards & prints section of my Red Bubble store :D 

Another Interview

Another interview I did a while back was just published on a blog, Meet the Makers. It's a pretty cool blog, she interviews artists from all over the world, and with many different styles, and shows some samples of their art and stuff. So I thought I'd share the link in case any of you want to check it out ^-^


Edit: This interview is also on Pea Brain's Ideas, Pea Brain's Ideas on Wordpress, and Designs by Hafapea.

Zazzle Shopkeeper Of The Day: Interview with Debi Cady of DebiCady

Zazzle Shopkeeper Of The Day: Interview with Debi Cady of DebiCady

A little interview I did for another blog, they were nice enough to post it ^-^ Thought some of you might like to check it out.


~Debi :)

The Face of Ringo

I was taking pics of an illustration I finished (for my next book), and when Ringo saw the camera he wanted his picture taken - no surprises there. I had it on macro, and zoomed in quite a bit, so this was the resulting picture:

New Doll: Alyona from "The Scarlet Flower"

I am so excited right now, because I actually made a doll!!! This is something I have wanted to do for many, many years. She is a knitted doll, and I wrote the entire pattern myself - normally I just alter existing patterns, but I couldn't find one in this case. Oh, there are a lot of cute knitted doll patterns out there, to be sure, but none of them were suitable for this project, because I want my dolls to look similar to my illustrations. So in the end, I decided to write this pattern myself, it was my first time doing something like that. I feel like God was guiding me the entire time (I always pray before I start a new project), because all the pieces turned out right on the first or second try! I was so surprised, and I feel really blessed that that happened, I was expecting to have to remake everything several times before I was happy with it. I'm glad that I didn't have to, though!

Anyways, my first doll is inspired by my illustration of "The Scarlet Flower" (Аленький цветочек), which is like the Russian version of "Beauty and the Beast". I named her "Alyona". Actually in the story the main character does not have a name, she is just "the merchant's youngest daughter". But there is a film version of "The Scarlet Flower" from the 1970s that I like very much, and in it they call her Alyona, so that is where I got the name for my doll. 

She is made of 100% bamboo yarn, and stuffed with fiber fill made from corn. Her headband is made from swarovski pearls and crystals, she has a swarovski crystal "ring" on her right hand (to represent the ring the beast gives her in the story), and she holds the scarlet flower, made from swarovski crystals and a glass bead, in her left hand. She also has "nail polish", a little feature that I like to give all the girls in my illustrations. She is about 8 inches tall. Well, enough with the descriptions, let's get to the pictures!

Alyona with my original illustration of "The Scarlet Flower". In person the illustration is much darker, especially her dress, but in this picture it looks kind of turquoise because I used the flash when I took it.

Closeup - before I did her hair 

Nail Polish! 

I love this kind of shoe, I think they are so pretty! So of course, I had to make them for Alyona ^-^

The lace trim on the upper part of the sleeves is a variation I made of the "Torchon Edge" which was originally printed in 1891. The cuffs have gold-trimmed picot edging.

Closeup of Alyona finished - her headband is made of Swarovski pearls and crystals.

The ring from the Beast - a red Swarovski crystal.

Closeup of the back of her hair - for some reason the color looks kind of purply in this picture, but it's actually a dark reddish-brown. 

A full-length shot of Alyona finished - she did not want to stand up at first! 

I took this picture of her in the sunlight, and thought it was pretty, so here it is!

I cut a lot of her hair before, but she still has a ton!

The Scarlet Flower - made of green and gold Swarovski crystals and a pretty little red glass heart.

The ring in the sunlight.

Took this picture right after I finished rooting her hair, I hadn't made her clothes or "painted" her nails yet...

... And as you can see, she had way way too much hair at first! lol

Well, that's all for now. I had so much fun making Alyona, I am trying to decide which of my illustrations I want to make into a doll next!


Update: You can now commission Alyona at my store on Shop Handmade ^-^ If you have any questions, feel free to email me.

Ringo and the Knitty Dachshund

I have been meaning to post this for several weeks now, but I've been pretty busy and I keep forgetting to do it! In June I knit a stuffed dachshund (using a pattern by Alan Dart). I didn't have any regular dachshund-colored yarn at the time, so I decided to just make it funky. I am calling it "sunset brindle" lol Anyways, I made it according to the pattern, and I think it's pretty cute, although in the future I plan on changing a few things about the pattern, because I think there are a few parts that could be improved (the back legs and tail shape, nose needs to be longer etc). But I took some pics of Ringo with my knitted dachshund, and wanted to share them with you. Ringo thinks that I should give him the knitted dachshund, and honestly, if I didn't think he'd destroy it in five minutes (when it took a few weeks to make), I would give it to him. But I know it wouldn't last long with the way he plays, so it isn't going to happen. Poor, deprived Ringo :P haha