Congrats to Wendy J.

Congratulations to Wendy J.  Her number was drawn so she is the lucky mama of Amelia Spring!

Amelia Spring

Amelia Spring

Let's have some fun today shall we?

This is Amelia Spring...she is a DFH Jewelwing.

Her skin is mocha, she has pale green eyes and her hair is a mix of light and pale green yarn.

We are going to sell her to one lucky mama or papa for $1.00 USD  yep you read that right.

So how do you enter?  Simple...

- Just comment here under this post.  

One post per entrant...duplicates will be deleted

Make sure we have a way to contact you if your name is chosen

Want to add to your chances of being chosen?   

Here are some extra steps you can take.

- Go back to our FB page and Share our FB post for this sale 

- Pin any one of these photos from this blog post to your Pinterest

Once you have done either of these extra steps,  come back to this blog post and comment to allow yourself the extra credit.

Each post is worth one entry.

Amelia's new mama or papa will be chosen tomorrow (5/22) at 6pm central US time.  

The lucky mama will have 24 hours upon notification to contact us and finalize the purchase...otherwise another mama or papa will be chosen.

Congratulations Colleen R!

Congratulations Colleen R!

You are the winner for Analise...she will be coming home to live with you

Analise

Meet Analise....

She is the very first DFH doll to be made with this new body style.

She is 14" has beige skin, brown eyes and her hair is orange/yellow hand dyed mohair.

We have been working on changes since the release of the Sprites, our 12" new style body.  Its been a lot of trial and error, but we think you all will be very happy.

First off,  the dolls sit fantastically. 

 They have super floppy arms that allow a full range of movement.  They are made as one long piece of fabric sewn for the arms that is stuffed and sewn directly to the muff through the body.  This makes them super sturdy for rough play yet super flexible as well...the best of both worlds.

 

Their feet are like our Sprite feet,  well formed and perfect for wearing all sorts of stylish shoes.

Their bodies are not super slender like our Sprites,  They have a bit more weight to them.  

We also added a little extra detail :)

Over the past several months, we have had many customers ask us about adding butt cheeks to our dolls.  We have decided to go ahead and make this feature a basic feature of the 14" size.

This new body style will only be available as an RTG (Ready to Go) purchase.  It will not be an MTO option.  Our old body style will remain as an MTO style...so those of you who prefer that style,  will still be able to get them.  

We are so excited about these guys.

We decided to launch them in style with a giveaway...

One lucky family will be the very first recipients of this sweet gal.

Analise has beige skin, brown eyes and her hair is hand dyed mohair in hues of orange and yellow

To enter for the giveaway,  just follow the directions on our Rafflecopter app below...they will automatically tally your entries for us.

Good luck everyone! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Visiting Hours

You all have been watching the shop come together slowly.  I am sure you all are as excited as we are about this.

With the new shop coming along and just about ready for a "Grand Opening"  we figured it is time for us to establish some sort of system as far as dropping by the shop goes.

Since most of our work happens in the back of the shop, we are not always able to meet and visit with folks coming in.  We thought it best to set up visiting hours

Our new Visiting hours will be...

Thursday mornings from 9am to 2pm central US time.  

So here is how it will go...

Every Wednesday afternoon we will put up our preview pics of the RTG's ready to go to new homes.  Folks with Dibs will be able to choose who they want and message us...same as it always has been prior to moving into the shop.  

On Thursday, during our visiting hours,  local folks can drop by and pick out any doll they might want from the group that has not been Dibs-ed.  Local folks can also come by during these hours and place an order for an MTO on site.  We will be able to walk you thru your options and show you samples of the options.

We feel as though setting these hours will allow us to actually spend time visiting with folks who come in and have things feel like its just a retail space.

We look forward to meeting more folks in person...

MTO's

Good morning!

Well, we went in and made the changes on the MTO offerings.  Here is a link to the page in our shop  

MTO's

We went thru and first eliminated all the mohair as it is not used a whole lot for these.  Next, we kept every natural color option we had available.  

You will notice we have kept some funky color options.   

Take a look, we think you will be happy.

MTO's will be released Friday morning.

MTO's

Good morning all,  I figured it best to post this info here so you all can read it over.

Many of you know we were seriously sick a couple weeks ago.  It kind of threw our schedule off a bit.

Anyway, a few weeks ago we asked you all for feedback on what colors should stay as MTO options.  We appreciate everyone who jumped in to let us hear your voice.  After looking it all over, it appears as though the natural colors have it.  I have to agree, we do not tend to do a whole lot of natural color dolls for RTG so that is definitely something we need to provide for those of you who want it.

So,  we have decided to keep all the natural colors...blonde, brown etc and eliminate the funky colors from the options.  

I am releasing a whole new group of MTO's today, well, they will be up in the shop by the time this post is shared.  You will notice no changes have been made just yet to the options.  We thought it would be good to let you all know what changes are being made then have one more release with ALL the options so folks who were planning on it can get the funky colors one more time.

That's all the info I have to share for now,  have a great day.  

MTO Listings

Good Morning!

Good morning! I can finally say I am alive! :) 

Its been pretty much a whole week...wow! I am fine and able to get back to work. It is a day of working from home for me...I just get way more done in my quiet corner of my sewing room...and boy, do I need to get some things done.

I want to thank everyone for all your patience. I will be focusing over the next few days on getting all caught back up again...yes, I will indeed be taking it easy...not overdoing it. However, since I am the one who sews all the faces on the dollies and I have not worked seriously in a week, we have a HUGE group that need that done so they can ship to their new mamas. One thing this recent bout has illustrated to me is a need to make it so things do not come to a screeching stop if I am unable to work for some reason. The ladies depend on this income to support their families. Ah, nothing like a serious hiccup to illustrate what needs to be changed :)

Again, thanks for being patient with me :) I promise we will get it all back on track...hang in there. You all are awesome.

Have a great day!

Time For a Check In

It's been a while since I gave you all an update on how we are doing,  I figured now would be a good time.

The new year has begun and its already a busy one.  Our team has jumped right back in to the swing of things with a vengeance.  We have new faces helping us out in the shop and we will be bringing in some more as soon as we can find them.  

We are extremely thankful for the new help,  our little shop has grown even during the "slow" season... between Christmas and New Years.  Its amazing and absolutely wonderful that we have been able to touch so many lives by making something whose sole purpose is to bring happiness and comfort into folks lives.  Thinking about it just makes me smile.

Now for the basic news update...

Our MTO's have been a huge hit and we will continue to offer them...we have decided to reduce their numbers a bit and release them once a week.  This is so we can focus on the other things we want to make...it all comes down to time and energy distribution.  Both of those are finite and we need to make room for different things.  As we add more folks to our team, we can readdress what we need to do and maybe increase as we go.

This means that Fridays will officially be our MTO day.  I will both Tweet and post on FB when they are up.

We have found out over the past few days that we will have to eliminate some options.  Apparently the ability to keep adding choices whenever we want is not really an option...who knew?  So over this week, we will be culling out the yarns to what we can have.  What this means is that some RTG's will definitely not be able to be made as an MTO...sorry.

Speaking of RTG's,  we will be bringing their numbers up over the next few weeks.  You will start to notice an increase in the numbers this week actually.  I will be asking from time to time for your input on colors.

You will continue to see the Ponies and Unicorns each week...as many as Christine can make we will put up. 

We have a bunch of other new things we are dying to bring to life for you so you will start to notice them come along bit by bit.  We're pretty excited about this...just in case you couldn't tell.  Keep an eye on the RTG uploads...of course.

Critters...you will start to see some new Critters in the lineup...No better time than spring to introduce new fluffily pals.  Wouldn't you say?  Again as we add more folks to help out,  these numbers will increase.  So they will be small at first but just hang in there...more will be along soon.

Now,  while we are on the subject of new things...we have decided to call our newest body style "Sprites"  

This would be the new body style I created for my girls this year.  These will begin showing up in the RTG uploads soon.  I am beyond excited about these guys.  Seriously, they are pretty awesome.  Some will have weft hair and others will be yarn hair.  They will vary on price depending on the type of hair they have and what accessories they have. I'll have more info on them as soon as we have our first few ready to upload.  

These will not be made available as MTO.

We are starting off 2013 on a very busy note.  We are now making between 35-40 or so dolls each week, plus the Critters.  We would like to increase the Critter numbers to at least the same amount as the dolls and perhaps increase the number of dolls as well.  We also intend to have regular clothing uploads as soon as Carrie is in full swing.

We have some things in the works to reach out locally a lot more.  Can you believe that there is only a tiny handful of folks in the DFW metroplex area who even know we exist?  With a local area population of over 6,600,000 (this is just the DFW metroplex area), I think they need to know about us and what we do.  Don't you?  They will be overjoyed to find out we are here in their own back yard.  

OK, that is all the news I have for today.  Its time for me to get ready to head to the shop and then bring my littles to their art class...ah yes, back to the busy schedule of work and kiddos activities.  

Have a great day all,  Peace

Congratulations Jamie W!

Congratulations to Jamie W!  She is our first winner for 2013!

First giveaway of 2013!

Let's kick this new year off the right way, shall we?

So, what is it going to be this time?  How about a free 10" MTO?

Yep, we are not only giving you a chance to win a totally free 10" Little,  we are also giving you the chance to design it how you want it to be.

The rules are pretty simple...just follow the directions on the Rafflecopter widget below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This giveaway will go from today 1/2/2013 and end on 1/7/2013 which is the day the winner will be chosen.

That's all for now,  good luck everyone!

Happy New Year! The kick off for 2013!

Let me start out by first saying Happy New Year!

2012 was a busy and crazy year.  We brought on some awesome mamas to help us and we took the biggest step of our lives with this little business of ours when we moved into our shop.

I don't think I need to say that moving from our house to a separate physical location has been a huge deal for us.  To say it changed everything for us would be an understatement.  We have had to spend a great deal of time getting used to the new dynamic.  I'm not really sure if we are completely used to it now or not.  Its completely different getting up in the morning and going into the shop to get work done.  This part alone is weird to me as its been within arms reach 24/7 for the past 4 years.  

Having an actual shop location has also brought us some other great benefits as well.  Since we now have a "brick and mortar" space, for the first time since we started making dolls, we have been able to negotiate better prices on some of our materials.  Yarn alone has always been a huge cost,  we have always had to purchase our yarn at retail prices.  Thanks to our new shop, we have finally been able to work out wholesale discounts.  Our savings is good news for you guys,  as we are able to pass this on to you.  You may have already noticed the lowered price of our MTO's, this is where they will remain. 

You will also notice with the first RTG upload of 2013,  that our RTG prices too will be lower than they have been.  I will leave the exact amount as a surprise for Preview day.  

Going forward, our goal is to grow this little business of ours.  

To reach out to even more people and introduce them to the quality and artistry that is Dragonfly's Hollow. We will be hiring more folks to work in the shop to help us make more dolls as well as  Critters, both RTG and MTO, and clothing as well as whatever new creations end up being dreamed up in the process. 

2012 was an amazing year,  we look forward to 2013 being equally amazing...and we are thankful that you guys are along for the ride.

Have a wonderful and happy new year!

Good Afternoon all...

Hey all, sorry its taken me so long today to get online and post.  Suffice to say I am a little single minded right now trying to make sure we get all the dolls out so they can make it home in time for Christmas.

We will not be doing an RTG doll upload this week.  

We are focusing our energies on getting the Christmas MTO's out the door.

We do indeed have ponies...and we have decided to put them up randomly over the next few days.  We will post on Twitter and on Facebook when they are going to be posted...we will give you at least a 10 minute heads up on them.

MTO's -  all the MTO slots we will have available for the week have been released in the shop...its just easier for us this way.

...and, one more thing we are doing...

We decided that we wanted to have some fun...so we released 15 Little MTO slots that are priced at $150 and 5 - 12 inch MTO slots that are priced at $165. Its just one way we are saying THANK YOU to all of you :)

 Those of you on Twitter, that code is valid for these too :)

MTO's

Peppermint - a Giveaway

Meet Peppermint

She is a Critter by Dragonfly's Hollow

She is 8 inches tall by 10 inches long.  Her skin is cotton velour and she is stuffed with pure, clean wool

Her mane is a mix of bulky weight yarn and hand dyed dread yarn.  Its all 100% natural wool.

Her face was hand embroidered with cotton floss.

In the spirit of giving this season, we have decided to give away this sweet Christmas themed Critter.  

The giveaway will run from today 12/12 and end on Friday 12/14 at midnight.

Click the link below for exact details as to how to enter

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good Luck Everyone!

Congratulations Rachael A!

Autumn is coming home to live with you!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thank you so very much to everyone who entered!  

We will be starting a new giveaway tomorrow...so be sure to hang around 

More Choices..Wefted Mohair

We have received many requests from folks asking that we make wefted mohair an option for MTO's.  We agree it is indeed a natural option to offer.

Made from the hair of an adult mohair goat, it looks and feels exactly like real hair.  It only comes in natural hair colors and we have chosen 6 of them for you... Auburn, Blonde, Carrot, Light Warm Brown, Deep Brown and Dark Brown.

Talia has Auburn weft

Rory's doll has blonde weft

Lisa has Dark Brown weft

We are offering them for 14 inch size in two body styles either our regular 14 inch body or an Amberwing.  What's the difference between the two?  Well, they are both about 14 inches tall but the Amberwing is more slender than the regular 14"  and they have pointy toes...fairy toes.   

14 inch dolls will come wearing a regular dress, panties and wool felt shoes.

An Amberwing will come wearing a printed fabric petal dress like the one below, with panties and wool felt shoes.  

Wings are NOT included...we intend to begin offering those as a separate item in the shop shortly.

Prints will vary and will be chosen by us based on what we have available at the time.

We have created a separate listing for this...to avoid confusion.  Here is a link...

Wefted MTO

There will be 5 slots made available each week.  They will be announced the same way we announce all the other MTO's

The first set to be released are currently available in our shop.  

We are pretty excited to offer this as a regular item...we hope you all like it too.

Autumn...A Giveaway

We wanted to do something special throughout the month of December...something to help bring in the spirit of giving and happiness.  

With that thought in mind, we decided that each week this month, we will have something special to give away to a lucky mama or papa. 

Just our little way of saying thank you to all of you for everything you have done for us over these past 4 years.  

So without any further chatting...let me introduce to you 

Autumn

  

Autumn is a 14"girl.  

She has golden skin, teal eyes and a head full of autumn colored rainbow dreads mixed with some gorgeous varied ginger bulky weight yarn

She is wearing an adorable dress with wool felt shoes and yes, she has undies on :)

This giveaway begins today 12/4/2012 and ends Sunday 12/9/2012

So, how do you go about getting entered into this awesome giveaway? 

 It's easy.

Below is a Rafflecopter entry form.  It has two steps that MUST be completed...

First: "LIKE" our Facebook page
Second:  COMMENT on this blog post.

You will receive one entry per each of these steps.  You also have the opportunity to receive 3 more entry points.  These are optional...

Follow us on Twitter
and
Tweet about us on Twitter

These two steps are not necessary, but they will add more entry points to your name.

This giveaway is open to all folks all over the world.  We will cover the shipping costs, but you will be responsible for any taxes or customs fees.

Upon notification, you will have 24 hours to respond, if we do not hear from you within that time frame, another winner will be chosen.

OK, that is all,  good luck everyone!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

All About Yarn...

Many of you recall we used to offer our yarns for sale.  

This was originally intended for Mama Made folks so they could purchase the yarn they wanted to use for their hair...over time, we had many other folks purchase our yarn for various reasons.  

As our own production picked up we had to pull back a bit on the yarn due to the fact we just could not keep up with what we needed for our own dolls as well as keep up with items folks wanted to order.  

We also were unable to offer the bulky weight yarn we used so we had to send folks off to a different location to purchase that.

Well, with the new space, we are finally able to have Lindsay dye up more yarn each week so we can finally be able to offer it for sale again...with many more new options as well! 

This means that as soon as we have the listings posted, you will be able to go to our online shop and purchase our hand dyed Tsunami (dread), nubby and Boucle yarns.  These will be made on an as ordered basis...so it will take about 5-7 days  from your order time to ship time.

These yarns are the exact same yarns we use for our dolls.  They will be available in the combinations we use every week.

We will also be offering Brown Sheep yarn in bulky weight.  Once again, these are the exact same yarns we use to make our beautiful combinations.

These will be sold by the skein and are ready to ship on order. 

We're pretty excited to start offering this...it finally means we can help our Mama Made folks get the exact hair color combination they wish to replicate...or create their own unique look.

Over the next week,  Robert will be uploading the yarns into the shop.  We hope to have them all up and available by the end of the week...there is a LOT of yarn to upload, so as you can well imagine, it is a daunting task.

We are working on being able to offer even more yarns...as they come available for us, we will add them to the list.

Local area folks,  you can come by the shop to purchase in person.

A New Phase for DFH

Four years ago I set up a little Etsy shop and put my first doll up for sale.  I had made dolls for years and only given them to family and friends.  This was a whole new thing for me.

If you were to talk to me back then about what my plan was, I would have told you I had no idea.  I really had no plan...I intended to make dolls as I felt like making them and put them up as I finish them.  No direction, no intent, no plan...just me, my sewing materials, yarn and some wool...no pressure.

Here we are four years later...wow!  

This little hobby with no plan has morphed into a full fledged business.  A business with a team of dedicated folks who have all become like family.  A team of folks who depend on this income to help care for their families and who have dedicated themselves to doing the absolute best they can physically do each week.  

We went from making one doll at a time to making between 30-35 dolls each week.  That is some amazing growth.  

Now we are moving into a whole new phase.  We have found a new home for DFH.  A few months ago, the shop had taken over half of the downstairs of our house.  It was even starting to spread out into the entry hall.  Robert and I sat down and began discussing the fact that it was indeed time to move the shop into its own space.  It was a time that had finally come.  

We started out looking to find a good studio space..just a studio space.  It had to be a special space...kind of cozy and located in a good lively area.  It had to be wide open and have plenty of good light.  We went around Denton searching and I have to say many of the choices did not fit our criteria.  We were beginning to accept the fact that we might be searching for a long time.

As fate would have it,  our agent, Mark, was heading down towards Locust St in Denton to a location we were to look at in a couple hours.  As he drove thru the TWU campus and onto Oakland St, he saw this adorable building with a "For Rent" sign in the window of one of the shops.  He stopped and called the number.  As it turned out, the owner of the building had the adjacent shop, so she came out and let him in to see the space.  He promptly called Robert on the phone and told him to "get down here right away".  When we arrived they were out front talking.  We said our hellos and walked in.  It was love at first sight.  The space was amazing.  So clean and wide open the light from the big windows was wonderful and the ceiling had the original tin tiles.  I fell in love.  

We were able to work out a deal with the landlord and her husband (who it turns out started their business in their garage 20 years ago...when it grew too big for their garage, they stumbled on a space for rent in that building.  They ended up eventually buying the whole building...yes they are pretty wonderful people) 

Anyway, we worked out a deal and signed the lease papers...DFH had a new home.

Its a perfect location for us.  

Right across the street from TWU,  where we see folks walk by all the time.  The library and the square are a short walk down the road.  

For the first time in four years, the shop is not in my house.  I have a whole front room area that is wide open.  Don't worry, the littles have taken it over for now with boxes and play houses and toys all over the place. 

We have spent the past couple weeks moving in and getting settled.  Lindsay and I have decided on our  seats.  Ironically we are in the same set up as we were at the house.  Just a different setting and different chairs.  

Here is a picture of the hand sewing area with it's comfy chairs.  

As you can see, the kids have all made themselves at home.  

Robert has been so busy assembling everything and adding this piece here and that piece there...every time we come up with something we need moved or installed to make things easier for us,  he is right there working away setting it up. 

We are still settling in.  

I am sure things will move around a bit as the months go by and as we come to feel more at home in the new space and get a feel for the best layout.  

Here is another image of the other side of the space.  You all have seen these cubbies earlier.  This is where we store the dolls as they move thru the pipeline to completion.  

See the ceiling tiles?  Aren't they so cool?

 

In the far back we have built out a small kitchen area.  This is where the yarn dying happens each week.  

Robert still has some racks to install but for the most part, this area is done and functional...and LIndsay loves it.

One super exciting thing about the shop, we will be able to offer Mama Made sessions for folks who wish to come by and spend a Saturday with me in the shop and create their own Mama Made. I am pretty excited about being able to do this finally. 

Now in the very front of the shop is a bonus area.  

One that we were not looking to find at all.  It is a perfect store front.  I believe this was meant to be.

You can see in this image,  its the very front of the shop.  

It's a pretty big area, wide open and waiting on our finishing touches.

 These giant windows will soon have big displays in them.  One will be a mossy forest scene and the other a back yard scene.  I am so excited about these.  We will be able to set up dollies and critters in these displays all throughout the year...and change them out frequently for the seasons!  Our amazingly creative friend Jim is working away on these for us.

That doorway heading into the back studio will have a giant 3 dimensional tree with cubbies in it.  This will be the entrance to The Hollow.  

Once again our friend Jim will be building my tree for me.  Did I mention I love our amazingly talented, artistic friends? :)

The right side of the shop area will  have dolls and critters for sale.  I want this area to have a small play area so mamas and papas can come in and let their kiddos interact with the dollies as they choose their new friend.

The left side of the shop will have Mama Made items and yarn as well as various other natural handwork kits we can find and stock in the shop.  Did I mention we will also have yarn? :)

The shop is not yet open to the general public.  It is however open for pick up for any mama or papa who wants to come by and pick up their dolly or critter in person.  We hope to have the shop set up and open to the public within a month.

This is a whole new phase for us.  I have run the gamut of emotions already from near panic to sadness to excitement over what is to come.  Today we have a local reporter coming by to interview us about the shop and what exactly is DFH.  

The last four years have been amazing...I am looking forward to seeing what the next four years will bring.

CONGRATULATIONS to the WINNERS!

Announcing the winners of our 7000 FB fan follower giveaway!

First Prize......Our sweet Girl and her adorable dolly

winner is...

Ariel Carina Wiles

Second Prize......One of 2 FB VIP codes worth 20% off

Amber Menifee Pembleton

Second Prize......One of 2 FB VIP codes worth 20% off

Miahannah Genag

Third Prize......One of 3 Dibs! codes 

Antoinette Peters-Armstrong

Third Prize......One of 3 Dibs! codes 

Kelly Grabowski Hall

Third Prize.....One of 3 Dibs! codes 

Kathie Leavis

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE WINNERS!