Alice in Wonderland doll and the giveaway!

Here are the photos I promised. This little girl dressed up like Alice in Wonderland playing with her white rabbit is one of my latest pieces.
She is one of my larger dolls - she sits about 14" tall. If she were standing she would be about 24".
She is a OOAK sculpted from Cernit. I needle felted the rabbit - my first try - took me a whole day!
I sewed all of the clothing. I think I spent more hours on the rabbit's little tiny stuff than on her outfit.
For those of you that are not familiar with one-of-a-kind dolls just know that everything is done from scratch. I work from the inside out when I sculpt. I have a set of drawings of kids of different ages. I use them for all of my measuring. I am not the sort of artist that can just do things from the top of my head. I need dimensions to work from.
Then I sculpt the head, arms and legs, paint them, make the body, attach everything together, make the clothes, make the wig, make (or sometimes buy) the accessories, and then SOMETIMES take it all apart and remake what I don't like!!!!
Then you have to find someone who wants it. I think I will start making dolls that I want to keep. That sounds a little easier.
Oh, yes, if you comment on her (Facebook comments are accepted also) I will do a giveaway (another set of 8 of my greeting cards) a week from today. !
One more thing - she will be available from The Dollery.

Getting Kenisha ready for the show!

Getting Kenisha ready for her long trip to The Dollery for their 13th Annual Doll Show! I wrap her limbs and her neck with strips of batting, then wrap her up with bubble wrap and tissue before packing her into her sturdy box filled with packing peanuts.
I always worry about breakage.....so far so good.....let's hope she makes it!

Weekend retreat

We took a weekend trip to the UP and enjoyed a Couples Retreat! It was a wonderful weekend - came back refreshed and now I have to work hard this week because we may go up there again next weekend!

Alice doll

Here is one of the pieces I am working on..almost finished...she will be available through the Dollery. I will have more pictures next week! She sits about 15" tall - the rabbit is about 14". I needle felted him. He is dressed in a suit coat, vest, shirt and tie! He has a vintage clock in his pocket.
The little girl dressed like Alice in Wonderland has a blue silk dress and a white Swiss dotted pinafore.
I will do another give-away next week when I post more pictures...stay tuned!!

Love my laundry guy

I really love my laundry guy. When I married him almost 36 years ago I had no idea he could do laundry! But that's what happens when an organized person doesn't do his homework and ends up with someone that is always trying to be organized but never really gets there.
Okay, so, I was there once. During the first years of our marriage when we lived in Seattle I baked, sewed, cooked, DID LAUNDRY, crafted, did art, decorated, painted, laid tile, shingled. You get the picture. Oh, yes, I was having a few babies at the same time.
For instance,we moved into a travel trailer while we built our first house. 28 feet. I bought a straw bale and MADE straw wreaths (they were the greatest thing) and then decorated them with corn husk dolls THAT I MADE. And, yes, I did it all in that trailer.
So anyways, I have always been a little weird.
My laundry piles continued to grow. There would be no end.
We moved the family to Minnesota and my organizational trend ended. It not only ended but it got worse the older I got. The laundry piles continued to grow. There would be no end.
The arts and crafts also continued. As did the babies. I can't believe what a busy life I have had. And so blessed.
But back to the laundry. Somewhere along the way it started a long slow descent. As the kids got older they of course pitched in and then they were responsible for their own. I finally got it down to everyone doing their own!
Where my laundry guy comes in......he found out that if he was going to have clean socks and also not lost socks then he better do his own laundry too.
It's sort of his fault anyways. Whenever life got me overwhelmed he told me to go make more dolls. (The dolls started in the mid-90's in case you were wondering)
So that's what I do. And our laundry gets done by my handsome and hardworking husband.
Who knew when I got married at 18 it would turn out so well.

Speaking of Hannah...

This is for Becky who thinks I am a fun mom because I have all these girls over for a birthday party.
You don't know Hannah - she gets what she wants because she does all the arranging.
In fourth grade I forgot about her school conference (been there done that too many times) so she got the papers from her teacher and sat down to go through them individually with me.
She also was her own tooth fairy (a week of waiting was too much for her..). I did have to have a lesson on truth telling after that...
She reminded me of her upcoming birthday for probably a week in advance. I hemmed and hawed many times.
Finally the day before I gave her my full attention and told her NO SLEEPOVER. I hope I am done with them.....
So it was decided that she could have as many friends as she wanted as long as they found their own way here and it would be from 10 am to 4pm.
I left for the evening and she proceeded to bake her own birthday cake. She did it from scratch and told me it didn't turn out. It tasted like Play-doh and could I please pick up a cake mix for her?
She called all her friends, reminded me to buy her a gift and made a second cake.
Now today I find out she arranged her next year of piano lessons with our neighbor.
I think my parenting days are coming to a fast end here. Oh, that's right, still have the teenage years to get through....

Happy Birthday Hannah!

Happy birthday Hannah!

I taught the birthday girls to make wool bracelets.



Here is what they made!

Happy Birthday Hannah!

Rain, sunflowers, ears and lunch.

Looks like I am the only one enjoying this rain around here. After five days in Phoenix the rain actually feels good! Let's hope it doesn't stick around too long.....
We had a marvelous trip (as usual) and got to see two of our long-away living girls and one new grandbaby! Well, she is not so brand new anymore but new to us!! And what a doll - loved her immediately. Now that sounds pretty lame but it was true!!
You will have to see my Facebook page to see some sunshine pictures.
My studio is humming again, nothing like getting right to work. The unpacking can wait. I am going to get on a roooooolllllllll and produce like never before!!!!


Nice ear huh?? That's what happened this morning. Now the second one better match the first one. Hope nobody checks too closely.
And now I got sidetracked again - I promised my DH he could have lunch soon. Better get off this and into the kitchen.....
And, no, I don't know why one sunflower grew so much taller than the others.

Felting!

Yesterday I made a long overdue trip to see my friend Detta. When I drove up I didn't think it was her place since the yard was full of tall trees. I just remember an open field.....man that time flies.
Anyways, she owns Detta's Spindle. I was in the mood for some Merino wool to do some felting. She has so many fibers! She is well known for spinning dog hair.
So Hannah and I came home with a bag full of COLORFUL wool....yummy!!! I hope to make some sweet little doll clothing with it.....! In the meantime I made a couple pair of real baby booties and a few bracelets. I know my girls will have fun with it so hopefully they can use it all up!

Cernit, Living Doll and Fimo

Cernit has changed - it is very pink and sort of well, different. I guess they took out the bad stuff and a new company is producing it. I have only a small amount of the good Cernit from months ago.
When I bought the new Cernit I also bought Sculpey's new clay called Living Doll and some Puppen Fimo.
I mixed 2 ozs. of Cernit with 1 oz. of Living Doll for my first sculpt after many months of not sculpting.
So far it is okay to work with. It appears to not show seams too bad and right now I am doing lots of scraping away and no bubbles are showing.
I don't know how translucent it will be.
I may try the Puppen with Cernit next.
Stay tuned....
(This is a boring blog entry if you are not a sculptor of polymer clays.....sorry.)