Still Plays with Dolls

Still alive

I am recovering from a dentist visit yesterday. For some odd reason it gave me a terrible ear ache. I have made so many things I want to post about....and I got a new camera (which I must figure out how to use!)

Is it still an advent calendar if it isn't for Chrismas?

My son has been asking me since the middle of September when we are going trick or treating. I decided, since no matter how many times I answered this it was still a mystery to him, to make a Halloween advent calendar. I wanted to add some embroidery around the gravestones to look like grass and things but I simply ran out of time. I suppose there is always next year!

Nothing New

I have no crafts to post today (although some are in the home stretch!) but in the hopes of training myself to post more often I thought I would post a book off my Summer reading list.

I am not at all sure why I create a Summer reading list. I probably read less in the Summer as all of my children are home...I think it may have something to do with all the kid's summer reading programs. I just want to join in. Too bad Barnes and Noble won't give me a free book if I read ten!

The book I finished this week is called Finding Nouf. I have no idea how to pronounce the name correctly but in my mind I have been saying it to sound like poof. If anyone knows anything about the correct pronunciation I would love to know. That way I won't look too silly if I tell someone out loud about the book.

The book is set in Saudi Arabia and is about the death of a young girl. I don't like to give away too much plot in book reviews so I will keep the details limited. It isn't a particularly sad story, not like you would first think from that sentence. The biggest thing I got out of the book was learning about the lives of the women there.

It is written by an American who lived in Saudi Arabia. Throughout the book I wondered what it would have been like if it were written by someone who was a native...but the book gives you a very good look at some of the customs there. And the story is interesting...although I found it a bit of a backdrop to the characters.

I have to mention that I was up until the wee hours last night finishing this book. I haven't done that for a while. so it was pretty good!

Long time...

I told you I wasn't very good at this posting thing. It doesn't help that I always forget to bring my camera everywhere. I will have to write a post about my latest obsession with spinning wheels since my mother and I went to wool day....

Anyway, I wanted to stop by and leave a quick link for you. As I mentioned before, my partner in doll love is my mother. She collects antique dolls and makes her own reproductions as well. We love to find out information about costuming. This site is just amazing. It has wonderful patterns and information about the clothing. They are patterns for people not dolls, but it has so much wonderful information about what each piece was used for. I am planning on making some bonnets for leelee and I to wear in the garden this year. I can't use any images from the site itself, but how boring is a post without a picture! so here is a bonnet so you can get the idea...

Ummmm...

So, I wasn't kidding about that forgetting to post thing. I read so many interesting blogs and the people post almost daily and I have to say I don't know how they do it. I am just not organized enough!

I have been working on dolls but not of the human variety. I have started putting some things in a new shop so my focus has been on things of this nature:

my first attempt with oils...hmmm, a lot of practice ahead!

My cutting table is very messy, as you can see in the background:

Those are not attacking dinos. My mother bought my youngest son the dino wall decals for Christmas. I thought they would look great in his room. He thought they would look great on the slider. Oh well. They get a lot of comments!

I have a lot of WIP:

My husband finds these piles disturbing so I had better get to work!

Hello, old friend

Some of you may know me from other places. I am not sure why I have this need to start a new blog every year but I do. I want to dedicate this one to doll making and doll making alone. So if you are looking for my adventures with other crafts, my family, or life in NH you may not find a lot of that here. Although some may creep in.

This year I am learning to make Waldorf dolls and also how to paint with oil paints on reproduction dolls. I love all dolls, but antique dolls seem to be my big passion this year. I think I got that from my mother. She collects dolls and is having a lot of fun learning about them now that she is retired. She and I spend a lot of time reading about dolls, going to doll shows, antique shops, flea markets, auctions, museums, etc. We love talking about dolls and do so all the time. My mom has recently started taking classes in making her own porcelain dolls. They are her favorites.

Not me. I love cloth dolls. New and old I suppose. I remember reading the Little House books when I was a girl and falling in love with prairie life. I thought that all you needed in life was a pa, wide open spaces and a trusty rag doll. Maybe a covered wagon or two.

When I was about five or six, my grandmother gave me a doll for my birthday. One of her friends had made her and the love was instant. She had a little wardrobe and blond yarn curls and beautiful dark eyes. I took very good care of her and her little fabric body never even got close to dirt.

Today I look at my kids and all of their plastic toys. They get broken and we buy another one. Everything is noisy and jumbled together and they just seem to have so much. So with my youngest son I decided I was going to make better choices in toys. And less choices. I wanted quiet, sturdy toys that would inspire him to use his imagination. And this opened a whole new world to me. It flooded back memories of my own childhood loves. It also made me start making dolls again.

So, if you can get a glean of me from that jumbled introduction then I hope you will join in my journey. I plan to post about my journeys through doll making and share any tips, ideas etc. I come across. I would love to meet some doll making friends.

Thank you so much for stopping by. I have to warn you that it takes all I have to get one post in a week but I will try to do at least that!