Author Archives: Cindy Rice

About Cindy Rice

My wonderful husband, my beautiful daughter, and I live in northeastern Illinois with our two sweet chihuahua boys. For as long as I can remember I have loved dolls and making things. I got my first Barbie when I was only three years old! My mom sewed for my Barbie dolls and taught me how to use her sewing machine when I was only seven. I cannot believe she let me near that needle, but she did. Not having enough money for my clothes habit in high school and college led me to start sewing all of my own clothes. There were so many fabric stores around back then and fabric was so inexpensive. I would wait for the 99 cent pattern sale and go crazy. Sewing for myself continued well into my 30’s. (I even made my wedding gown and bridesmaid dresses.) Shortly after I got married I left my full time graphic design position and started designing cross stitch patterns. I called my company “The Lilac Studio” and sold my botanical patterns at trade shows, through distributors which sold to retail shops, and mail order. My most popular pattern, “A Bouquet of Pansies” sold 5000 copies and won a J&P Coats Golden Needle Award! I was also featured in various cross stitch magazines and designed special projects for the magazines. When my daughter was born I didn’t have the time needed to cross stitch and design patterns all day long so I let my pattern design business slip away. And then I started discovering dolls again and I now had an excuse to start buying them. The only problem was that they were for my daughter and not for me. I soon discovered all of the adult collectors out there and decided I would be one of them. I started small at first, collecting Mattel Kelly dolls. Soon I collected over 100 Kelly dolls! After Kelly, I discovered Helen Kish’s Riley and Tonner’s Ann Estelle. I have since learned to knit doll sweaters and love an excuse to knit so most of my doll outfits include a sweater and/or hat. I love creating miniature outfits for dolls and enjoy sharing them with others. Currently I create doll ensembles for Ruby Red Fashion Friends, Kish Bethany, Dianna Effner's Little Darlings, Wilde Imagination's teeny tiny Amelia, Kaye Wiggs BJD, Boneka 10", Linda Macario's Penny.

30 Days of Daily Blogging— Done & A Giveaway X 2

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I’ve just completed 30 days of daily blogging! It didn’t start out as a goal or anything like that, but it is an accomplishment for me nontheless. I guess I started blogging day after day in September because I had gone 9 days without a blog post and was wondering if it would get easier if I made it a daily habit.

It did get easier, but also took a lot of my creative energy, so less time and energy for actually making new things. This past week I started preparing my post in the evening which solved that dilemma, but it is harder for me to write in the evening. I also noticed that looking back so often on my past creations stopped me from looking forward. It kind of got me stuck in the past. Like, “Oh, that was so cute.” or “I should make something like that again.” This kept me from moving forward at my usual pace. Funny how that happens…

I’m not sure if I will continue blogging daily or not. Any comments out there?

Anyway, thank you to my readers for reading along! I appreciate all of you!

As a thank you, I’m having a drawing for a free online Craftsy class. Actually I have two of them to give away. Craftsy sent me a “thank you” email to forward to three of my friends so they can get a free class. My first “friend” was my husband, he picked a photography class, and my second and third friends are two of my readers. All you need to do is leave a comment and tell me which class or type of class that you would pick and you will be entered. Don’t worry, you can change your mind later.

The drawing will be Sunday night, October 11 2015, (9:00 pm CST), so you’ll know on Monday, October 12th (check my Monday’s blog post) if you are one of the lucky recipients for a free online Craftsy class. If you win I will forward Craftsy’s email to you. You can click the link in their email which will take you to the Craftsy site where all the classes will be free until you choose one. (This is how my husband said it worked.) You will need to sign up for a Craftsy account to get the freebie.

You can go here to peruse Craftsy’s online class list. This drawing has no monetary value, it’s a freebie, so if you don’t want a class, but want to comment just mention it in the comments.

Also, I would love to hear your comments about my daily blogging this past 30 days. Like, dislike?

Thanks so much for reading!

The Colors of Fall

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Yesterday afternoon I was walking around in our backyard letting my little guy (dog) sniff, sniff, and sniff. I was being a very patient mama. He hates taking serious walks on his harness, but loves to casually walk around the yard. Since he’s a little chihuahua he needs constant babysitting when he’s outside, wouldn’t want anything to happen to my baby. Anyway, I was noticing all of the colors in the leaves, even the decaying leaves were interesting to look at. So in the evening, when the sun disappeared (right before a crazy downpour), I captured some of fall’s beauty close up.

Way at the back of our yard we have an old oak tree. The leaves don’t turn red or orange, but are interesting all the same.

Weed trees and other weeds that grow in the back are interesting too, althoughI have no idea what these are.

Pretty maple leaves… from two different trees.

I’ve been enjoying apples from our tree again this year. The deer, wasps, and bees love them too.

The largest melon growing in my little melon patch is about the size of a grapefruit, not sure if it’ll be edible, probably not. There are quite a few more that are even smaller.

Our deck is filled with tiny leaves from our skyline locust tree. Walking on the deck all I hear is crunch, crunch, crunch.

My favorite lobelia flowers are still going strong wherever they happened to pop up.

No frost yet here in northern Illinois, but the palette outside is starting to turn from green to golden, so probably soon. How about where you live?

Enjoy your day!

Thank you for stopping by and au revoir for now!

Remnants From Yesterday’s Work

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Yesterday was a fairly successful day. I put the finishing touches on Sugar’s first Christmas set, completed the embroidery on Gina’s mohair Christmas sweater, completed the Santa hat to accompany the mohair sweater, and worked a bit more knitting Millie’s mohair Christmas sweater.

I took these photos this morning from yesterday’s work.

Today I hope to finish Gina’s sweater by sewing on the button beads and stitching up the underarm seams. I also need to add the little belt loops for the ribbon waist tie on the dress and figure out the perfect color of tights. Maybe I will finish knitting Millie’s sweater and/or start sewing her dress. We’ll see.

Have a great day everyone!

Bye for now!