Tuesday, December 30, 2008

A Doll Sling for James

Just as with a real baby, a sling is a must for carrying around your doll.

I had to (really, I just had to!) make James the sling after we went to the library and he wanted to take his doll, but all he had for carrying was the Moses basket bed. So he lugged that thing around with his doll and two blankets draping out of it.

I have to say, either way, there are few things more satisfying in life than watching your child play with a (and love) toy you made them. So sweet.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Wishing You Yuletide Cheer


Here's the doll I made for my niece, all dressed now. She wishes you all a happy holiday, good company and much cheer. We celebrated the Solstice on Sunday with a feast- lots of family, tasty food and presents. Santa came that night and brought a few more goodies. I can't wait to show you all the dolls I made for James and Leland. These dolls are fun! We're taking it easy this week, visiting with friends and family- and watching it snow and snow and snow! Best wishes to you and yours!
Posted by Picasa

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Yule Tradtions and Naked Dolls

No- naked dolls are not the Yule tradition I wanted to show off. I'm working diligently to clothe them. Here's the doll I made for my niece keeping watch while I sew her dress. It will be done tomorrow even if I'm falling asleep in my Figgy Pudding (which IS one of our Yule Traditions.) After I get her dress done I just have to sew clothing for James' doll and I'm done- whew, just in the nick of time. Next year I am starting earlier, I swear. I'm sure I've said that every year, maybe I could predate a blog post that says "GET TO WORK ON HOLIDAY GIFTS!"anyway...

 

What I wanted to show off is the ornament I made for Michael. One of our holiday traditions that we started when we first got married is to make each other an ornament each year.
 

In April of this year we got five hens (ha! or so we thought.)As it turned out one was a rooster. As it also turned out our big black menace...err dog found chickens running around in the yard sufficient motivation to push open our screen door. So just when we were asking ourselves what we should do about the rooster- she took care of it. I learned how to pluck and butcher poultry and the resulting meal was quite tasty and well earned and this is the wishbone from the rooster with "wish" embroidered behind it. Yes it's a little odd. I think it'll make us laugh when we pull it our years from now.

OK, the doll is getting impatient. She's just staring at me. I better go finish up.
Posted by Picasa

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Sling Instructions- Done!

I've finally finished writing out my instruction sheet for the ring-slings I've been selling. Having no instruction sheet to give out has really held me back on even wanting to sell any slings, but now finally they are DONE. Whew. One thing off my plate. Still yet to be accomplished- finish sewing gifts for Solstice.

 

I'm feeling a little discombobulated with the holidays approaching. I have a custom apron order to sew, dolls to finish for the kids and no decorations up yet. My husband moved his office into the back of our house a couple weeks ago and that's just been a bit odd. We're working out the kinks still. Leland is getting in molars and just screams at anything that doesn't go his way, and being that his way is the fickle way of an 18 month old, screaming happens a lot. As my grandmother would say- good thing he's cute.
 
Posted by Picasa

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Making the Holidays Meaningful

We're really focusing on cutting the stress and enjoying our family this year for the holidays. The gifts we're giving are simple, handmade things like cards or baked items. We decided to make our own little family the priority then look outward. This way the neat things I've wanted to make for my husband and kids or the fun activities we want to do don't get buried at the bottom of the list. So my kids are getting mama made dolls and my husband can read, and just might read this blog, so he doesn't get to know what he's getting. A link to a really great guide that talks about avoiding the Holiday Hype came in my email today, and I thought I'd share it: Commercial Free Childhood's Holiday Guide

Thanksgiving
There's also a section on their website with lots of fun and creative ideas for Gifts in a Shoebox that you can put together possibly with things you already have. I'm thinking for my niece I'll make a shoebox kit of the Paper Dolls that James and I had so much fun decorating.

We started things off yesterday with an advent calendar- I was going to get complicated, but instead I took out the calendar that I forgot about last year and wrote little activities on the back of each flap, so when they open the flap it says things like "pancakes for breakfast" or,"make cookies."

We also swapped family advent calendars with my siblings and my mom, but I'll post about that later.

 
design by suckmylolly.com