Category Archives: Everyday

This Past Week

Another week has come and gone… quickly. We had some beautiful days this week; one of them even got into the 60s. My daughter and I visited the Chicago Botanic Gardens on Wednesday. Not too much was growing yet. We saw lots of Snowdrops, a lone crocus, and a few iris reticulata.

Can’t wait to see what 26,000 tulips looks like. You can see they are barely starting to emerge from winter hibernation.

One of my favorite gardens is the English Walled Garden. It has cozy spots to sit, sounds of trickling water (not yet though) and lots and lots of flowers sooner than later. Today, you can see the architectural elements of this garden. Oh, we found snowdrops and 3 tiny iris reticulate here too.

I find the Japanese Garden inspiring, peaceful and beautiful. It is on a manmade 2-island plot which is connected with 2 different bridges. Cherry blossoms as well as lilac rhododendron will soon be in bloom in this garden.

On Thursday I walked around our yard to see what I could see. The crocuses are fully in bloom. The magnolia buds look to be plumping up.

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Dolly news! I bought a new Ann Estelle to dress one of my new outfits in. The other outfit is being worn by my Ann Estelle model. One 10″ AE (I have Sophie) is enough for me, so my doll will accompany this ensemble. These are for my brother-in-law’s wife’s good friend. Her and her husband generously put us up this past summer for a family reunion. I was so touched by her hospitality; she didn’t even know us and was very welcoming. I think these will be decorating the bedrooms of her little granddaughters.

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I am still working on a set of hat knitting patterns (one written pattern–4 hats) for 4″ Amelia Thimble and Pukipuki. I want to test them out first. It’s been so long since I started writing the pattern; I want to make sure that it all makes sense.

I wish you all a beautiful weekend. I’m afraid this next photo sums up ours, weatherwise. Not quite a big snowfall (I hope), though flurries with lots of wind is forecast.

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Thank you for stopping by, my friends! ❤

Hello, Hello, and Hello!

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Aww, it’s been oh, so very long!!! I am sorry! I’ve had so much going on with my health since September. I’m not ready to get into it all right now, but maybe in the future or in little bits. Not sure what I’m comfortable with putting on the wide open web. I am healing and feel good right now. Please add a comment to this post or send me an email. (I added a contact form under the tab at the top of this blog.) I’d love to hear from you.

Truthfully, I haven’t been interested in my dolls and creating things for them over these past months, so many other things to worry about. It wasn’t until my website hosting expired two weeks ago that I started to miss all of this. Trying to find a new and affordable site for my small business (which I didn’t), then figuring out how to get my patterns for sale on Ravelry and posting about that on Facebook. Well, all the love and comments from that post and subsequent posts rekindled my love for creating and my dolls. I’ve missed you all very much!

First up is getting some unfinished patterns (finally) finished and published. I’ve gotten rusty at the process; there are quite a few steps, but I am trying. Adding to my brain being rusty, Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop are barely working on my laptop. They’ve updated and are charging a subscription price now. *sigh*

I want to wish all of you a ‘lucky’ St. Paddy’s day! Here is my little Fairyland PukiPuki named Sugar looking as pixie-ish as she possibly could. (Photo from 2014)

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Bye for now. ❤ Sending you hugs from me.

This and That

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Hello to you all, my friends. How are you? I’m doing great, staying busy.

Today I spent the day doing something I’ve been wanting to do, but yet, kept putting off because I couldn’t decide on colors. What I did today was dye yarn, and I decided to simply start and let the colors speak for themselves, which they seemed to do just fine. I dyed 5 skeins and was so into what I was doing that I forgot to take pictures.

I’ve also been saving avocado pits for dyeing, so I also dyed a cotton tank. It ended up being the palest shade of mauve-y rose. I think it will make a nice neutral layering piece. Once again, I forgot to take photos, sorry. I will share later, I promise.

Last weekend my husband and I brought our daughter back to school. Gosh, it feels like weeks have already gone by since she’s been home, not a week. How does that happen? Anyway, she is all moved in and has even started classes. Her apartment is very nice this year. The cluster of 3-story buildings are only about 6 years old. Each apartment has a washer/dryer, two bathrooms, high ceilings, nice kitchen and living room. She loves it, however, she is trying to adjust to the noise. She is on the first floor and her window has gotten banged on early in the morning and she hears people outside on the sidewalk. I suggested ear plugs. 🙂

Here is a photo of her cute bed. She made the two pillows in the front, and the braided garland and tassel garland hanging on the wall. The doily on the front pillow was crocheted by her great great grandmother and the rosebud cross stitch picture is by me. She brought another rosebud which wasn’t hung at the time this photo was taken. I think it’s really nice how she has things at school made by her family.

I also wanted to make something for my daughter as she started school this year. This was my first pair of socks made with self striping yarn. Even though I started each sock with yarn from the center of the skein the stripes are reversed. Live and learn! Luckily, the quirkiness of the pair is being embraced. The yarn is Knit Picks Felici sock in the Golden Hour colorway.

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One evening while knitting these socks, as the golden hour was happening the sky actually looked golden and seemed to be lit from within. It was magical.

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Good news! I finished all of the dresses for my 2018 Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes. There are 23 in all. I’m a bit burned out, so this will be the extent of dress sewing for a little bit. However, I love looking at my little dress shop when I am working in my sewing room. They’ll be here until mid November.

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This past week I started an ensemble for Ann Estelle. The fabric is a teeny tiny Japanese ballerina print. Isn’t it adorable? I am knitting a lilac mohair cardigan to accompany the dress and possibly a pearl headband. After being away from doll sewing for about 6 months it is good to be back. I’ve missed it.

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