Christmas 2022

 It’s the day after Christmas and I am again reminded of how fast the seasons come and go😢 I was late in putting up the tree to begin with this year. I wanted to leave it up for the twelve days of Christmas, but will have to take it down because of the pic below.

 

 

Holly really believes the tree is filled with surprises just for her. She just turned a year old December 1 and she can be a little stinker when she wants. She loves to tear things up and looks at it as being a game. So the tree has to come down today, but next year I will but it up on a table.

I enjoyed having my old bears nestled in among the Christmas decor this year. I just love old things, but especially stuffed bears!

 Beatrix bear is my favorite, but I love them all. She is more tattered and torn than the others, but still she is adorable 🥰 I feel tattered and torn. I have not been doing to much art, but I still have hope that in time my need for the creative side of life will resurface. I try to start things , but just can’t seem to finish anything. The loss of my two Sons has been hard. I lost my first Son Jared to a motorcycle accident and my youngest Son Brandon to a drug overdose all in the span of six years. When my youngest Son passed I cried for a solid six months. I am a Christian so I have hope that we will all be together again some day, but that does not stop missing them or the emptiness that engulfs me at times. My faith is my strength and I hold tight to it. This season more than any other I thank God for Jesus. I can’t imagine a life without the hope of eternity. I will say this year I found moments of joy and was thankful to feel that feeling. Lilly and I were baking cookies and started judging our decorating skills and the next thing I know we are rolling on the floor laughing so hard and we could not stop. I needed that!

Having fun playing dress up!

Lilly was playing with her Barbies and I just had to see how the little vintage dress would look on my doll.  I love ❤️ it! I have not made her arms yet, but had a arm from another doll, so I just pinned it on. I love the look of this, so tomorrow I will try to create something similar. Fun!

A New Doll in the Works

Really trying to keep it simple with this doll. In my opinion I have a tendency to overdo it. So as I make her I keep reminding myself to stop and just let it be. There is beauty in simplicity and I have a need to find that with my dolls. Dolls have taken me down many paths of artistic discovery. I have alway enjoyed pieces of art that have a lot going on. I think my new direction may have something to do with this past year. The pandemic has given me time to rethink my likes and dislikes and why. 
 

Butterfly Dance

 A hot day here in sunny Florida, but the butterflies do not seem to mind it at all😊. I woke up this morning and went straight to work on the pattern for these little dolls. Still not the shape I am looking for , but some parts are good, so it’s back to moving lines and and stitching. Legs are too thin.

As I was taking out the garbage this morning I looked up and saw a pretty little nest. No bird to be seen ,so I took a closer look 

Pretty little eggs!!!!

Let’s see if I can load a video to blogger!

 

It did not work earlier, so here goes another try😱

My Mermaid Pattern

 In the next couple of weeks I will be adding some pictures from the past. Pictures I have posted up on Instagram and never posted here. I don’t know why, but for a number of years now, I have had a passion for rag dolls. I sold this mermaid a few months ago. She was made using the pattern I have in my shop.

I loved being able to use some of the old linens and a tatted doily I had had for years. The crown was a beaded Christmas ornament.

It’s Time To Blog Again!

 Yes I will be switching back to spending some of my time here on the old blog! I am back to making dolls. My focus is on embroidery and trying to make a pretty face. I am also trying to experiment with different fabrics for my dolls. The above is Osnburg. I love the fabric for its natural characteristic, but the weave is too loose for me. I stuff my dolls with wool and when stuffing it pulls apart at the seams so that’s not going to be an option. But overall I love the look that I am coming up with. I wanted it to be a little bit more simple with focus on hair and clothing, I have reworked my body pattern a number of times but still have not come up with desired effect, so I’ll just keep on working on it till I get it.

Lilly has been trying her hand at a little sewing on the old hand crank sewing machine and doing a really good job at it. I have two treadle sewing machines and two hand-crank sewing machines so this past week we have been cleaning all of the machines and giving each one a much needed oiling. I love Jones sewing machine for sewing my dolls because the stitches are so tight and small. I pieced one of my patterns and messed up, so I grabbed a seam reaper, the stitches were so tight I could not get it apart.It is an amazing machine!!!!! 

I really doubt many will visit this blog, but I like it here and here I will stay! I can load as many pictures or videos as I please. I will still post on Instagram but I find myself spending more and more less time on that platform. 

Mermaid Painting

I added this mermaid painting to my store yesterday. The inspiration came from a painting I found on Pinterest. I love the colors of this one and the misty feel it has. Do you dream? I do! Maybe she is dreaming of the rose garden she will one day plant. I have yet to plant mine, but I can dream✨✨✨12x16 stretched canvas.

A New Painting

I have been in the studio painting these past two weeks. The painting above is a vintage inspired 8x10  on canvas board.I like painting painting pictures this size as it’s easy to find frames. The board will fit into most photo frames if the glass is taken out. I painted two at the same time and this one is in my shop. I decided to keep the other as the Mary ended up resembling my mother😊

Bunny Love ❤️

It’s all about rabbits this summer and learning there personalities. Rabbits are a little on the messy side, so we are trying to find creative ways to make it work. It is summer right now and I would not even consider putting one of these sweet little things outside. The jersey wooly does molt and I have one right now that is really losing his coat in a funny way, but the new coat is coming in fairly quickly. I spend lots of time online looking at all kinds of things rabbit, but enjoying every minute.

This is Pearl and she is a real doll baby! She is a talker. She purrs and honks and makes all kinds of sounds. It is so funny! I am thinking I need to make her a little crown for photos after all she is a little princess. Princess Pearl!

Spending Time With The Woolies

There is not much going on in the studio lately because the rabbits are growing so fast and we are trying to spend as much time as possible with them. Each Rabbit has its own personality and it is so much fun to watch. It also takes time to learn how to care for them. I spoke in the post above how I spent two years looking for the Jersey Wooly breed here in Florida, I would run across breeders, but only to find out they no longer had them. I am thinking it probably has something to do with heat and wool. I am learning so much about them on Facebook groups. Sir Precious and Puddin are now 14 weeks and both soft balls of fluff, supposedly they will lose this baby wool, but that has yet to happen. I am not sure if that will change how they look or not, but we are so enjoying getting to know them!!!!

Lots of Bunny love ❤️ 

Two years of searching for a Jersey Woollie

We added two little balls of fluffy sweetness to our family this past week. I have been searching for two years for a Jersey Wooly ( Woolie ). I saw a picture of one on Pinterest and thought it was the cutest thing ever!!!! I ended up getting two and we can not get over their little personalities. Adorable is the word that keeps popping in my head. I can’t help but wonder why it was so hard to find one because they are just so sweet and full of personality! Not much breeding of JW here in Florida. 

 The Gray ball of fluff is named Precious 

 Lilly is holding Puddin and yes Puddin is lying on her back

 Puddin in a basket

As you can see Puddin is a ham

Tiny Rabbits

I am having so much fun making these tiny rabbits! They are all hand stitched, so I can carry them anywhere to work on them. They are stuffed with wool and then painted with acrylic paints. It does take a while for them to dry, but I love the way they look after the paint. I have always loved little character rabbits, so I am pretty pleased with the pattern and will soon add it to my shop.

This little rabbit is all dressed up in her period attire 

I have everything needed to hand sew them right by my lap in case I find a moment to sit down and stitch.

This one is a boy for sure! I love how each one takes on there own personality!

Did I mention that I just love them! 

Making a pomander

The gadget used is called a lemon zester ! I thought it was!

I also would like to mention that I use a gold sharpie marker as it does not show up as much as some colors for drawing on the design. 

In My Shop

I  added this little 5x7 floral painting to my shop this morning. I am painting a series of vintage inspired small paintings. I have wanted to do this for a long time. I love and collect small paintings. I call them vignette paintings because they are so cute nestled in among my collectibles. Just another pop of color for the decor! I painted five all in a similar design and will be selling four. The reason for painting so many at one time is I am at the same time creating an online class, so it takes that many times to get the instructional the way I want it to be. I have decided the class will be 12 paintings, so more painting will be added to the shop as I continue on this journey. To go to my Shop just click on the mermaid on the sidebar.

A Summer of Mermaids

Just stopping in to add more pictures for those who purchase the pattern. Each Mermaid will look a little different in comparison to the one before, but they are all being made with the pdf in my store. In the instructions I share how I do the faces and even show how I change it if I feel it is not going in the direction that I want. I have just started another one and should have those pictures here next week.  

Mermaid Adornment

Another mermaid is finished! she is also made from the same pattern in my shop. I need to get out my camera and try to get some better picks, but I just love the convenience of my phone and tablet and it is hard to go back to the other! 

In My post on Instagram I told how when embellishing the dolls I like to imagine they adorn themselves with all the treasures they find under the sea. If I were a Mermaid how would I wear those things and this would be it. Lots of shiny sparkly things would be key to my Mermaid adornment. I will be posting some more pics of her in my next post. 

Busy Busy Busy

I love being busy, but when you are tired you are tired and need rest. I find rest is not in the picture for me anytime soon. Too many things I want to do, too many things I need to do and always the things you must do!

I started out this spring with my want to do list of being outside and doing some gardening and planting a few plants that were being neglected in there root bound pots. I did get that done, so now maybe they will thrive when the roots have somewhere to go.

Another thing on my want list was to do another cloth doll and a PDF pattern for my store. The cloth doll turned out to be a mermaid. Lilly loves mermaids so it inspired me to try to create one. The first pattern was ok, but needed lots of tweaking. The first face was flat, but the end result was a face with a little bit of a profile and that does look so much better especially from a distance since an Art doll is really for display only.The Mermaid in the pic below is the pattern I designed. She has wire in neck, arms and tail, so she can be positioned in different ways and I love that for display purposes. Have I ever mentioned the fact that I love to tear fabric. Funny, but true. I even decorated one of my work tables with strips of torn fabric. So it is fitting that one of the design elements is a rag fin ( torn strips of fabric).   

The Pdf is finished and in my store. I decided to go ahead and put it in even though my summer will be filled with making more, but I will be using the same pattern for them. Every doll I create takes on a life of its own. I show that in the tutorial. I started out with one face and towards the end felt the face did not go, so I changed it. I also show step by step the drawing of the face, but really each face will look different just by positioning the eyes differently or further apart. It is always so much fun to see what face appears!

Lots of pictures in the tutorial. I spent just as much time taking pictures as the making of the doll.

Will There are more mermaids to make so that will help to keep me busy busy! I will post them here as they are finished. I am calling this the summer of the mermaids and really having so much fun making them. I love to embellish and this project is great for using some of the vintage things collected. 

A Tiny Fairy Soft Doll

A lot of doll making going on in the studio. She is about 10 inches in length and wing width about 4 inches. I started out wanting to make a doll with lots of stitching, but with lots of hand-stitching means lots of time. But exploring the soft doll has been lots of fun and I am not finished yet. I have spent lots of time making patterns sewing them up only to find failure and back to the drawing board. I do feel like I am making progress though. I just listed this one in my store. 

If she does not sell she will find her way onto my Christmas tree. 

Back to the studio there is another doll to make!