Category Archives: Effner Dolls

Alice is “Flower Picking”

My new Little Darling, Alice, is proving to be quite a dreamer and a lover of flowers. I brought her outside for her first photo shoot and all she really wanted to do was meander through the garden and pick pretty pink flowers to match her dress. Since this is her first time out in the garden I let her take her time, then it was down to the business of modeling her new ensemble.

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I must say that Alice is a natural at modeling with her sweet expression and sincere brown eyes. What do you think?

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Alice’s “Flower Picking” ensemble will be available tonight (June 20, 2016) at 7:00 pm, CST, at cindyricedesigns.com. Look for the details on the “Shop What’s New” page.

Introducing . . . and Naming Her

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Exciting news! I have a new Little Darling! Her name is Alice; she is a number one sculpt painted by Nelly Valentino. I’ll let Alice’s photos do the talking. You can see how beautiful and sweet she is. ❤

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This girl was meant to be Alice. When Nelly emailed me her first photos, I showed them to my daughter. My daughter, who also named my Lucy, said she looked like an Alice. Well, I wasn’t sure, so over the course of the next couple of days we both thought of several other names: Dorothy and Dot (both names after my mom), Tulip, Lilly, Susan. We then took the scientific approach (ha ha) for naming this girl because we just couldn’t decide. My daughter wrote all of the names on a piece of paper; I closed my eyes and pointed to a name. My index finger landed between Alice and Dorothy. Okay, now we need a tie breaker. She took the two pieces of paper, one with each name on it, in a different hand and told me to pick a hand; I picked the right hand. So, you see, even after all of the fussing she was meant to be Alice.

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Lucy has been generous to her new sister and has given up her next outfit, so that Alice can model for you ASAP!

Soon, soon, very soon . . . Alice will model it for you. Right now she is enjoying her new home. I think she’ll love it here, don’t you?

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Everyone enjoy your day! Bye for now!

“Sunshine Darling”

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My Little Darling, Gina, is here to show you what I completed for her this past week. This color palette was totally outside my comfort zone—no pink, blue, or anything in the purple family. If you look back at my past photos most of what I make contains one or more of these colors.

This ensemble started out with the yarn. I pulled a skein of melon colored heathered wool out of my stash (probably on a cloudy day) and HAD to knit a sweater with it ASAP. It is not orange, but a wonderful shade of melon with flecks of very subtle pale lemon-y yellow throughout. I happened to have this lovely fabric by Sandy Gervais (Moda Fabrics) in my “recently acquired favorites” stash. PERFECT!

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(Please pardon my horribly wrinkled backdrop. It’s on my “to do” list for ironing.)

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Aren’t the colors in this fabric fresh, bright, and summery? I love this fabric (even though it contains no pink, blue, or anything purple)!

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I wanted to mimic the open feeling of these roses as depicted by the fabric’s designer. I used tiny seed and Delica beads sewn onto the sweater first, and then made bullion stitches around the bead clusters.

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Gina requested a flower cutting basket (just like Lucy’s) out of natural hemp. You can see the ensemble with my first flower cutting basket here. These crocheted baskets are perfect for a bouquet of long stemmed flowers.

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The bouquet isn’t attached to the basket, so the Little Darlings can also hold the bouquet separately.

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Gina’s wide brimmed hat is crocheted with three different fibers and edged with a matching melon colored cotton. A hand made wool felt bow decorates the under side of the brim. She is sunny day, spring/summer ready!

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Gina enjoyed our sunny day outside during her photo shoot. We found a shady spot underneath the apple tree for some great shots.

“Sunshine Darling” will be available Sunday, May 22 (2016), at 7:00 pm, CST. Go to the “Shop What’s New” page at cindyricedesigns.com at 7:00 for more information on this one-of-a-kind ensemble made for Dianna Effner’s Little Darling dolls.

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