Lelan's Trio Today

I worked on them all day yesterday and this is how far they were along as of last night :o) Two older kiddos and one baby. Just like three siblings :o)

Here is a closer look at the baby. No button joints, all the limbs are firmly sewn into the body. She is weighted and sits up sweetly all on her own.

I will have more images tomorrow :o)

Lelan's Trio :o)

Here are your first set of images...first here is the tan skinned girl.

This is her as of this morning...all assembled and ready for her face and hair :o)

This next image is the Light tan skinned girl...she will be assembled today

and finally here, is the light tan skinned toddler doll...she too will be assembled today

More images tomorrow :o)

Lissa's Girl

Here she is all finished and ready to go home...she just needs a name :o)

Today, I am wrapping up work on a 12 inch little girl with peach skin and yellow blonde hair (like Serafina's) for my shop and starting work on Lelan's trio. The little shop gal should be listed tomorrow morning and I should have some images of Lelan's first kiddo tomorrow here on the blog as well :o)

Lissa's Girl

She's all ready for her defining touches :o)

Charlene's Cutie and Lissa's Beginning

A perfect little sister for Max :o)

I love the hair colors you chose...excellent choice


She is ready to go home... I like Meadow for her name...what do you think?

This is the beginning of yours Lissa,

All the pieces laid out...including the little weighting sacks :o)

Here is where we are as of right now :o)

Charlene's Girl

I know I have been silent lately, its been a busy week. Between chatting with folks abotu the details of their custom orders, working on various dolls as well as day to day life around here...whew :o)

Anyway, here are some images of Charlene's little girl and her clothes...

Here are your two sweaters for Max and our yet to be names gal. Max's sweater is green and navy blue...the colors in the image are not too great I know.

Our girl's ensemble...

Here she is as of right now. She will be assembled today and her hair put on...hopefully she will be complete and ready to go home by tomorrow :o)

Kelsey's Girl

This is Kelsey's little girl...she is finished and ready to go. I had fun using the denim with the embroidered horses on it...as you can see :o)

I have opened up my customs for November today. Its already busy.

Sunday's Work

Here is an image of Aisha's finished girl...she turned out gorgeous with her multiple ensembles :o)

Kelsey's girl...as of late yesterday.

Continued working on her today and as of right now, this is where she is...

The lighting is not the best, I know. She does look cute though...even with half her hair :o)

Aisha, here are some images of you girl...

Here she is as of this morning. The rest of her hair will be put on today and her outfits sewn.

Aisha's Girl

Here is the first image of your gal as she is being made. Today she will be assembled the rest of the way and hopefully her hair will begin to be sewn on. I will have more images tomorrow.

Wednesday...

Its been silent around here lately I know. I finished Katie's little guy and he is on his way home already. I worked on a few shop dolls the latest of which is Reed...the little blonde boy in the image with Miles and Ethan.

I am beginning work today on Aisha's girl. I should have some pics tomorrow morning of her progress.

Katie's Guy

As of this morning....

All he needs is his clothes and of course a little red on his cheeks :o)

Any thoughts as to a name for this little guy?

Katie's Guy

This week has flown by. It looks like the weekend will be rainy...which is good. I like rainy days, I get lots of things done :o)

I started working on Katie's little guy yesterday so here is the first image of him.

His head and arms are already attached and will be sewn into the top opening of the body. I realized I didn't have any sage green interlock knit fabric so I guess I will make a trip to the fabric store today sometime...always an adventure :o) I never seem to leave without lots of fabric.

Today he will be assembled the rest of the way and have is features sewn on then his hair...he will have light brown loopy hair like Ethan :o) Hopefully I will have this all done by tonight so I can focus on his clothes and sweater tomorrow :o)

Speaking of sweaters...I am also working a sweater for Halle :o) who is going off to her new home in South Africa as soon as its ready.

Other things...I am wrapping up the clothes for a shop doll. Its a 12 inch little dude with strawberry blonde hair and freckles. He should be in the shop tomorrow...I'll post pics here.

Busy, busy, busy

Science Anyone?

I thought I would take go ahead and post a neat thing that we all have done in the name of learning science. This Website Hometrainingtools.com is where we got ours long ago. This is a link to the kit we used.

This was great for out various aged kiddos. We didn't have teens back then :o) We tested and swabbed everything we could find. To out horror, the handle to our cookie jar was more laden with bacteria than the dog's mouth :o) Once the bacteria grew, we were able to use a microscope and look up what it was exactly. This was such an eye opening thing, all the kids remember it...to this day we do NOT have a cookie jar :o)

I highly recommend this

***************************************************************

On another note, today I start working on Katie's little guy. He's gonna be a cutie :o) Watch for pics tomorrow of his progression.

Thanks!

Wow. The response has been wonderful. You all are so great. You are taking my breathe away with some of the wonderful things you are saying.

My shop would not be what it has become were it not for you all. Thank you so very much. I love that the little people I make are so loved and the best part...to hear about them being dragged around...yay! I love seeing dollies dragged around and dirty and stained :o) Its right up there with toddler giggles and finger paint stained hands.

I decided to post this little excerpt today from my all time favorite story as a child The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams. Its also the whole premise behind my dolls :o)

"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but Really loves you, then you become Real."

"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.

"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."

"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get all loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

Here's to many adventures and "real" little friends :o)

Anniversary Giveaway!

OK Guys,

This very day, September 1st, marks our one year anniversary on Etsy. Its been a riotous year filled with surprises and lots of orders :o)

To say "THANK YOU" to all our friends and to celebrate this momentous occasion, we have decided to have another giveaway.

Meet Fae.

She is a 16 inch little pretty made the same way as our shop dolls are made with all natural materials. She is stuffed with clean, carded sheep's wool from Pennsylvania. She has organic cotton light tan interlock knit skin, light brown eyes and light to medium brown straight hair (made right here in the US) that is capable of being styled in many different ways...as we will show in future images :o) Her limbs are securely sewn into her body yet fully moveable and posable.

She is without clothes...why you ask? well that is all part of the giveaway :o) What she wears when she comes home to you is entirely your choice :o)

To qualify to win this gorgeous doll, you must follow these steps...

1) Be a blog follower

2) Go visit our Etsy shop and look over the past sales and recent listings and check out the clothing available.

3) Enter a comment to this post where you describe your favorite ensemble

Its that simple. The giveaway begins today and will end on Wednesday, September 30. The winner will be chosen and announced that day.

You can enter more than once but be realistic :o)

That is it for today, looking forward to reading your posts...good luck to all and thank you from the bottom of our hearts for such a wonderful year

Peace

We're Back!

We are back home! We had so much fun with friends and other things it was hard to return. But it does feel good to be back in our home :o)

I have some things to get caught up on today...lots of things :o) so this posting is going to be short. Tomorrow is my one year anniversary on Etsy so be sure to drop by to see what we are doing to celebrate.

See you all then...

Vacation

We're going on vacation for a week. Yay!

I'll see you all when we get back...It will be my Etsy 1 year anniversary so I suppose we will have to come up with something awesome to celebrate :o)

See you all around the 31st

Peace

Good Morning...

I am still here. I know I haven't posted much over the past few days, its been busy around here.

I am still working on new dolls, I am officially all booked up for custom orders for September...I will post new opening for October in a couple of weeks. I am still, as always, working on new cuties for the shop :o)

Here is one of them...her name is Serafina

Saturday Celebration

I am pretty sure I have said numerous times already that the month of August is huge around here...birthday wise. We have three kiddos who celebrate on the 6th (Rory), 8th (Connor) and 20th (Shannon). Its a busy month :o)

Yesterday, we had our celebration for both Rory & Shannon..we had a backyard party with a bounce house/water slide rental for the kiddos to get wet and have a blast running around and playing. Us adults sat around and enjoyed ourselves visiting, while the older kids wandered around or hung out together...doing whatever it is they do :o)

It was a great, relaxing day with awesome friends...My younger kiddos were so tired they went right to sleep, and for the first time in...forever...Rory actually slept in :o)

I would have pictures to post, but after downloading them this morning I realized that everyone was moving around so much, they are very blurry :o) I guess that proves they all had fun :o)

**********************************************************

On another note, This is Halle.

Today, I am working on a boy doll. If he turns out half as cute as he is in my head he will be irresistible :o)

The Gnomes go to....

Ok, we tallied up the comments and we had a total of 47 comments if I discount my own test post :o)

Rather than go with names, we went with numbers...in order of comments posted. Rory got to pick the number from 1-47. She chose 6...because that's how old she is...any surprise there?

So the winner of the gnome family of four giveaway is...drum roll please :o)...

Very Verdant

Congratulations.

Thanks so much to all of you who participated. This was fun and we will be doing this again. September 1st is our one year anniversary on Etsy so we will be doing something huge for that...keep your eyes peeled :o)

************************************************************************************

On another note, I am beginning to post new items again in the shop beginning with opening up the custom orders for September. I am also working on new dolls, all those lovely little folks are finally getting out of my head :o)

This little gal is one of the latest ones...I names her Ava because she reminds me of a precious little friend of ours :o)

Thursday :o)

I cannot believe how quickly this week went by...or is going by. Wow!

This week was the official start of all the schools around here. We're taking it slow. I have lots of plans and ideas for some really neat things to do, I will try to share as many of those as possible with you all. Most of it involves outings to the Memphis Zoo and Botanic Gardens as well as museum classes and lots of time outdoors and with friends.

On another front, the gnome giveaway ends tomorrow. We will print out all the names and put them into a hat and then have Rory pull one...that will be the winner. I will post that result tomorrow and notify the winner.

I finished another custom order yesterday too. She turned out adorable...of course. Here she is...

I am working on my shop items. I hope to have some pics to upload to flikr tomorrow sometime...they will show up in the slide show on this page. Sort of a preview.

Busy times :o)

August B-Day number 2 and Kalani

August is a birthday strewn month around here...three of our kiddos were born this month...different days and different years but the same month :o)

Today is number two for the month. Connor is officially 12. He opted to go a bit low key this year :o) He is having some friends over to play video games, D&D and just hang out

Happy Birthday kiddo :o)

This is Kalani. She was a custom order I just got finished. She turned out cute so I had to share her image :o)

Renee's Gal etc...

Here is Renee's little gal. She is all finished and ready to go to her new home :o)

I am finally coming to the end of my extended custom orders list...whew! One more doll to complete for Laura then I can focus on shop dolls galore until the end of the month. I have so many in my head right now its getting crowded :o)

On another note,

the giveaway was kicked off and its going great. Keep posting :o) I thought i would include an image of the gang from last night :o) The girls decorated Rory's cake themselves :o)

Happy B-Day Baby & Giveaway

Today is Rory's birthday! For those who do not know...she is the baby around here and she isn't such a baby anymore :o( She is officially 6 today.

Giveaway....Giveaway...Giveaway

Now in honor of the fact that it is her b-day, I am having a giveaway that will begin today and end Friday the 14th.

The subject of the giveaway...this really soft hand knit blue gnome family of four

How To Enter:

First, become a follower of this blog

and

Second, post a comment on this post....its that simple :o)

The winner will be announced on Friday the 14th in the morning CST :o)

Thanks so much for helping us celebrate.

Ashley's Mer-Faerie

Started work on her yesterday. This is where she is at right now. I have just begun attaching her hair. The final piece are the wings. She looks very cute so far :o)

Monica's Doll and Wardrobe all finished

Wow! This was a huge amount of work...but soooo worth it :o)

This little doll has a wardrobe to beat all wardrobes :o) I think it rivals my own kiddos doll wardrobes :o)

I played around with Picasa in order to be able to show off all the items. So here we go...

I got to style her hair differently and dress her up in every one of her outfits...how fun :o)

This was the most fun photo shoot I have done :o)

Today, I will begin work on Islamoon's special mermaid :o) photos tomorrow...

SALE!

I am cleaning out my stock of dolls and gnomes.

I am changing things up in order to be CPSIA compliant. Basically, as of the 14th of this month, I will need to attach labels to my dolls providing my name and location. My current dolls in the shop do not have these labels attached, so in order to prevent myself from performing surgery on them to attach the new labels, I am having a hugely discounted sale :o)

I am offering an extra discount for all of my blog followers...

$10.00 off of any doll and $5.00 off of the gnomes. Just either convo me and I will change the listing for you or go thru the checkout process and I will refund you the money.

I will be stocking new dolls on or around the 10th but I will no longer be making the gnomes or gnome families. I will however, sell the instructions to make them still :o)

So drop by the shop and see what we have, convo me if you have any questions or would like something held for you.

Monica's Wardrobe...part two :o)

Been working on these all day here is what is finished so far. Look them over and let me know your thoughts. If you would like anything changed, send me a note...if you think they are all great, send me a note :o)

I am wrapping up the raspberry sweater. I also have two pairs of shoes finished. Tomorrow I will finish the frog print outfit as well as three shoe pairs. After that, all that's left is the green sweater.