Owl from Recycled Old Clothes

I like her!! She's about 14" tall.

Small Sock Doll For Audrey.

I made it with removable clothes, as Audrey will be five soon and is getting to the age where she can actually dress dolls as well as undress them.

Ta Dah!!! Table is Clean Again, FINALLY!!!!!

Long Tail Monkey

Will I EVER tire of making sock monkeys?! No, I don't think so. I wish now I had kept track of all the sock monkeys and sock dolls I've made in my life, so far! Combined, it would be over a hundred, I'm sure.
    This latest one is bound for the gallery fairly soon. I guess there's no hurry, because I don't think we'll be open again until after the New Year. I can't remember if we'll be open on the 30th and 31st or not.

Patriotic Cat Girl Finally Finished!!

As I recall, she was half done last spring when my cousin was visiting here!!! Bad, bad, bad me!!! But, she is now done and as you can see from the pictures, she's having a jolly good time down at the gallery!!

She would have behaved herself, but Robin M. egged her on.

She was being well-behaved until Robin suggested she ride the horse.

Baby Monkey Girl

She's made of an orphan sock wears a skirt made from a vintage handkerchief. She's very soft and huggable.

More Crittters

How many more will I be able to make by Sat a.m? Not a whole lot more, I'm thinking!!

A Toy Society Christmas--so far.

The Toy Society World Wide Christmas Drop will be next weekend, December 18 and 19. I have four toys made, so far. Last year I dropped 30 toys, but I won't be doing that many this year. I hope there are enough new members so that we still reach our goal of 300 toys dropped.  For more information, see the Toy Society's blog: http://thetoysociety.blogspot.com/

Another Wonderful You Tube Video

Silent Monks Singing Halleluia


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCFCeJTEzNU

Merry Christmas!

If you love animals, you'll love these videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04Msip7PCf4

http://www.wimp.com/lionesstrust/

OMG!!! Her legs aren't the same length!! or Playing God

Oh, well, she'll have "surgery" later. Right now, I just want to finish her and get some clothes on her. That will hide her "disability" until I fix her. I can always use the removed leg for something else; it's fun playing God. Everybody should try it, on a small scale and on nonliving forms.

Started a Cloth Hitty Last Night at Doll Club

Wasn't planning on painting her face/shoulders, but I goofed on her mouth. Used a too-wide Micron marker on her mouth and it was BAD. I'm happy with her now; think she has an old-fashioned countenance.

Cute Pincushions, almost good enough to eat......

.....but not quite.  They will be off to the Six Rivers Gallery very soon. These are fun to make; pattern available from Pieceful Designs.

Latest Doll In Progress--UFO from LONG Ago!!!

Date written on her back is 2008. Note to self: No more signing dolls until they are ALL FINISHED!!!!!!!!!

Someone Else is Making a Pegwooden or Grodner Tal Doll

http://www.atticbabys.com/2009/05/grodner-tal-work-in-progress.html
I've got one started, but she is still in a VERY primitive state.

Striped Monkey Boy!

He now resides at Sixth Street Gallery until someone can't resist him and takes him home. Perhaps he'll be under a Christmas Tree this Christmas.

Another Funny Cat Video for your Enjoyment

Courtesy of one of my Facebook friends:

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DX3iFhLdWjqc&h=636c1

snowing here

Earliest snow I can remember here, and we've lived here 44 years!

Cute Desk at a Rummage Sale, and Funny Cat Video

Thank you, Monte Methodists, for having such great rummage sales!!! WHERE do you get all this great stuff!!!???

Also:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KswnjMa-MQ
This is SO funny!!!

Merry Christmas to Me!

I just bought this doll for myself for Christmas. She's a Robert Raikes miniature African American Hitty doll, 3.5" tall, a "factory sample," which is a completed doll sent to the Raikes company for approval before they produce a lot. Unfortunately, the Robert Raikes Co. isn't operating right now. Hopefully, when times improve, they will open again, as I love his dolls. I have a full-size Hitty (6.25" tall) and another of his wooden dolls that is about 12" tall. His company made really nice wooden dolls.

Some Very Cute Doll Stories

tp://www.dandelionfair.com/stories/

Audrey's felted T Bear

I made this bear a few years ago. When I find the book, I'll give you the title. It might have been Felt It but I'm not sure.

Rebecca's Denim Crazy Quilt

http://inlinethumb49.webshots.com/47408/1084155738043399186S600x600Q85.jpg

So cute Mary Jane Shoes for Baby or Big Doll

http://shwinandshwin.blogspot.com/2010/11/pleated-mary-jane.html

These are so cute! Take a look at the tutorial!

Hitty Pinafore for Ronald McD House

The Hitty Girls, a yahoo group, is donating a doll house, Hitty dolls, and doll clothes to a new Ronald McDonald House being built near where one of the members lives. This is my contribution: a crocheted pinafore.

Another Hitty done, this one is small

She's a Bitty--just four and a half inches tall or so. She wants clothes!! And I need to refinish her shoulder; I had to shave a little off to make it look better. I call her my sampler doll, as her body is pine, her arms are basswood, and her legs are butternut. I need to remember to drill the leg and armholes BEFORE I carve. Her body is a little skewed. But I love her anyway!

Jane has clothes!

Considering she's been waiting about a hundred years for something to wear, I think she's probably pretty happy, even though she looks PO'd. I named her Jane after one of the dollhouse dolls in Beatrix Potter's children's book A Tale of Two Bad Mice. That was one of my daughter's favorite books when she was little and I just bought a copy for my granddaughters at Powells Books in Portland a couple weeks ago. It's a great story! Audrey loved it and I read it to her twice (at her request) and LaMont read it to her again.

Kids love repetition of stories they like. I so much prefer interesting stories like Potter's to some of the later Dr. Seuss. The first Seuss books were good: Bartholomew and the Five Hundred Hats, To Think that I Saw it on Mulberry Street, If I Ran the Zoo, etc. The later ones got a little boring (for me) to read and read and read, although I did like Green Eggs and Ham.  When my daughter was ten and having a birthday sleepover, we heard all this ruckus in the kitchen at 4:00 a.m. There they were, six little girls fixing green eggs and ham  for their (early) breakfast!!!

New Blog: Thursday Morning Knitters

Lots of our knitting group members wanted a place to post pictures of their projects, so I made a Facebook Page for us. However, most don't DO Facebook, so I made this blog for them: thursamknitters.blogspot.com

Come on over and take a look.

Not Pleased with Big Screamer, plus Caroline

I've decided I'm not that crazy about Big Screamer. He looks like one of those T Day balloons in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade--you know: those big ones that float over the parade, on long wires?

So I'm rethinking if I can change him some way to make me like him better, or if he will reside in the "parts" basket until I think what to do with him.

In the meantime, I have acquired two sets of real dentures, and I think I'll try a paper mache head when I get the time. I have Dan Reed's Screamer books, and I think I'll try his method. I think maybe it's the huge eyes I don't like on Big Screamer, besides the roundness of his head. I want something a little less predictable.

And on another front, I finished a Hitty head/torso from a piece of turned pine, that was originally destined for a railing or something, I guess. I bought it at a yard sale. It was difficult to carve--it wanted to splinter every time I made a move, but I eventually prevailed:

Two Toy Society Drops near Ocean Shores, WA

Did these two drops Saturday on the way to Ocean Shores to see the Sea Pals Quilt Show. Left Little Striped Guy at the Gull station at Hogan's Corner and the Little Raggedy Girl at the Ocean Shores Convention Center, where the quilt show was held.

I have made probably 40 toy drops for the Toy Society, but have only heard back from one finder. The finder does not write to me--he/she sends an email to the Toy Society. Sometimes finders even send a picture of themselves, or their kids, with the toy. However, only a few actually send an email. It really doesn't matter whether they do or not, but when they do, we appreciate it.

Big Screamer is a Rocker!

He now has a Mohawk, and you can bet he'll have piercings, too, rocker-dude that he is. I'm going to start looking for a guitar for him, plaid shirt, ripped jeans, etc. This is getting to be fun. But that tongue needs to be shortened for sure--he looks like a cameleon after a fly!! And he'll definitely get some ears, too.

Big Screamers Mouth Lining and Teeth

I can't help thinking he/she looks like a big puppet or a small version of those big balloons that float about the Thanksgiving Day Parade!! Oh, well. It will be what it wants to be--that's my basic philosophy--sorry, Arlie Berryhill.

Big Screamer is Coming Right Along.

Nose job

Big Screamer got a little work on his/her nose today; the eyes are covered with plastic wrap to protect them from the clear spray I use as a sealer. The heads take so long that by the time I'm done with them, I feel like making the body simple and fast. HOWEVER, I estimate this one will be close to four feet tall, so I'm got to think about this.
My friend Karla says, "Use PVC pipe." but I'm not sure yet. Heads are always my favorite part and I kind of run out of steam after that.

Largest Screamer I Have Ever Made.....

.....is in progress. He is very large; this time I used a styrofoam ball about as big as a round watermelon for his head. Screamer 1 has a gourd for a head and Screamer 2 (ie: Screamer's Cute Baby) has a hollow plastic ball (about the size of baseball) for a head (the ball was covered with PaperClay and cloth, after the hole for the mouth was cut out). Both of the first 2 Screamers have the plastic eyes that are used in porcelain dolls; this one has one of those clear plastic Christmas ornaments for eyes--the kind that pop apart--half for each eyeball. I painted them on the inside. That's fabric from an old cotton knit jacket I had for his skin, and PaperClay for his lips and parts of his nose; the center of his nose is styrofoam covered with cotton knit from an old garment.