Category Archives: little darlings

Introducing . . . and Naming Her

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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“My ‘Blue’-ming Garden” and Away with the Blues

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I am happy to say that my mood is no longer “blue” and the sun is shining for the second morning in a row. Thank you for all of the uplifting and helpful comments the last couple of days. It’s been fun hearing from you.

I picked a bouquet yesterday with creeping Charlie (yes, it’s a weed and my husband didn’t think it was funny), phlox, and forget-me-nots.

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The title of Lucy’s ensemble was quite easy to come up with. Outside of the obvious, it’s blue, and everywhere I look outside I see shades of blue/blue violet blossoms.

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Here is Lucy! She is all ready to stroll around the SUNNY garden paths and collect some flowers to make mom a bouquet for Mother’s Day.

This ensemble ended up having more hand made pieces than what I normally make for an outfit; it was quite labor intensive. As I was working on this outfit for the Little Darlings, I felt it needed a hat, and then I felt the sweet little crocheted slippers would be perfect… so I went with it, and just kept on creating. Do you like it?

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The hand knit and embroidered mohair/silk lace weight sweater really is “light as a feather” and so soft. The motifs that I embroidered on the sweater coordinate with the dress print.

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Lucy’s crocheted hat is made with three colors of cotton and two different weights. I wanted it to have the feel of a straw hat, so included a camel color. It is delicately embellished with cotton lace, silk ribbon, blue blossoms, and seed beads. I fussed with the bow to get it to lay “just right”. Everything is carefully hand sewn to this hat with Fray Check added to the ribbon edges. I love how this photo shows off Lucy’s cute profile.

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Lucy’s flower cutting basket is crocheted with hemp. Her flowers can lay in the basket or she can hold them. They are secured with a clear band and silk ribbon.

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I love these girls in ballet styled slippers. Their legs are so graceful. I made these soles out of a matching tan to pick up the natural colors in the hat and basket.

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Gina’s drop waist styled dress is simple and perfect for a garden stroll.

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Lucy had to have matching panties… a hand dyed and tied silk ribbon to match her dress!

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Lucy’s “My ‘Blue’-ming Garden” will be available tonight (May 3, 2016) at 7:00 pm CST, cindyricedesigns.com , link is on the “Shop What’s New” page (at 7pm).