Hey everyone!
This past week was a break* from school, so we headed to Arizona to visit family. Bella and Panaba came along because the scenery seemed like it would fit.
There was only time for photos once during the trip, but I think they came out really well. Outdoor photos always seem to turn out better for me for some reason.
I picked out some of my favourite ones for the blog, but you can see the rest on Flickr: [link].
We went hiking out in the desert and brought along a picnic, so since I had Bella's blanket with me and one of the antique miniature cups I found recently, I figured she could have a picnic too. :)
Because I hadn't planned this before we left, we had to make do with what materials were around. So Bella got a real tiny sandwich made from some of the ingredients we used in our human-sized picnic, and some water in her cup.
She's wearing her dreamcatcher tank top from crazykimochi (everyone agreed it was the most 'Arizona-ish') and her jeans that I made for Mali many years ago. It was also quite a bit colder than we were expecting, so she has on a jacket from goodbyeyouhellome.
As usual, this picnic is a shoe-free zone, because shoes are the worst. ;)
They day before we went for the hike, I'd picked up a small bag from a weaver at the Arizona Renaissance Festival so I grabbed a few cranberries to put inside. They can be... weirdly shaped pomegranates or something. The bag barely fit two cranberries, so I'm not sure what it's meant for at human scale, but it works perfectly for Bella.
I haven't spent very much time sharing information about the character's in Bella's story (it used to be Mali's story, but let's face it, Bella is the star), but Bella is a bit of a wanderer, so finding her in strange places - like sitting under a tree in the desert - it not uncommon.
Since Panaba has become part of Bella's world, it's been fun trying to think up scenarios between the two of them. Panaba is a bit of a greedy sneak thief, so incorporating that aspect of her into a picnic was pretty easy!
When I first found her name, I checked online to make sure it didn't mean anything horrible, and found a 'name meaning' site that had an eerily similar definition to how I wanted her to be. It seems like that site is gone now, but I managed to salvage a few keywords: ambitious, organized, practical, successful, selfish, and materialistic.
That makes her come off a little worse than intended, but hopefully there will be more chances for you to get to know Panaba in the near future.
Still, the best way to get Panaba to stop stealing food, is to thoroughly distract her. Seems like the cactuses did the trick!
I hope you liked this little look into Bella's life, if you want to see more of the photos, please check out my Flickr album.
I'm hoping to have some more sewing updates for you all soon too. I got some cool fabrics in Arizona that I'm dying to try out, but commissions first! Hope you're all doing well! ♥
*'break' might be a strong word as I still had a lot of work to do, but at least I didn't have to go to campus. :p
