Lovely Saturday

Its Saturday! Lovely Saturday.

Saturday morning house cleaning is fixing to commence soon. Only 1 load of laundry to wash up. Although there will be more laundry later today as my husband and 3 oldest boys will be home from a week at Camp Joy with their laundry bags in tow. They will be brown(er) from the sun, tired, happy and full of stories from the week that I can't wait to hear.

I have to make some doll heads today. I am completely out. For some reason I dislike starting doll heads but once I get the first one made and find the groove of getting wool wound tight and firm, I don't mind making them at all. Today I will have a helper to hold the string as I tie it off and that is a great help.

I must think of something for dinner tonight and for lunch tomorrow after church.

I have 2 dolls and 2 doll outfits to get ready to mail out Monday morning. Although, truth be told I probably won't get them ready until Monday morning.

I also need to pleat a bishop style dress and ready it for smocking. I've had a doll idea rolling around in my head for awhile that I plan to execute this week. Interestingly enough, I usually make a doll and then plan her clothing. I usually have to mull the clothing over for awhile and sometimes end up making her a couple of outfits till I find what is right. Last week I planned the doll around a top I had knit and this week I'm doing the same. I've figured out all the clothes (even knit up the cardigan yesterday evening as I visit with a good friend) and now I have to make a doll come into being that will match the clothes. I wonder if other doll makers operate this way?

There is nothing that has to be done rush, rush today. Lately, I've been mentally making myself slow down and enjoy the process of whatever work I happen to be doing, instead of mentally hurrying all the time. I think its a lesson in patience.

Its a lovely Saturday. :)

As the children played out in the kiddie pool this week, I sat in my sewing area and listened to them while working on dolls and doll clothes. Its been miserable hot here in southern Missouri and the kiddie pool was a good way to help cool off and chill out.

This is Susie. She is the first doll that I've attempted to do brushed hair on. I like her style of hair. I want to play with different types of mohair and see what kinds of different looks it will have.


Mia is the start of an idea I've had. I want to do some dolls that are dressed all in hand knit clothing. Mia's clothes took some time, but she was worth it. Once I got started knitting for her, I didn't want to stop.


Yesterday was a day of sewing up some doll clothes while listening to the Canadian Tenors.


Its fun to sew and sing loudly at the same time. Try it...you'll see what I mean. It makes me feel as if I haven't got a care in the world.
I hope all my friends are weathering the heat well. It sure has been HOT! Everything here is dry and covered with a layer of dust. I was driving down the dirt road yesterday and all the weeds, bushes and leaves need a good rain to wash all the dust off.

Have a great weekend. :)

Finding that elusive blogging groove once again

Blogging is one of those things in which I have to find a "groove" and get into it. Lately, I seem to have lost my groove. I was thinking last night that the only way to get my "groove" back is to actually start blogging again. Funny how things work sometimes.

July is always a ridiculously busy month for our family. Actually it starts in June, when we pack up to leave home, to camp on the outskirts of a not so distant city, but distant enough that we have to pack up and sell fire works in the heat. The first Monday after the 4th of July starts "CAMP" season. For three weeks people are coming and going from my house and every time they come, they bring a MOUNTAIN of dirty laundry in with them. The third week of camp all my teens are gone to camp and my husband works down there that week (and sometimes second week too) as a counselor. This is my husbands 14th year down there. To say he loves it would be an understatement. My husband loves teens, always has and hes good with them.


I went to visit my son, Kevin and his wife and my sweet grand daughter Penelope on July 9th. They live a couple of hours away. Livie went with me. What a sweetie Penny is! Kevin and Lauren are pretty cool too :)


On July 13 my first grandson was born. Patrick. He is the sweetest baby. A doll really. Its a good time of life for me. I no longer have a baby but my children are having babies. This grandma gig is a sweet deal.

Last week I traveled the highways once more and went for a visit with my daughter and her husband. I went by myself. It was nice to see them (she is expecting a baby in February!!!!!! my 3rd grand baby this year) and I can't ever remember getting so much uninterrupted knitting time since I learned to knit. I knit several doll sweaters and started a pair of doll longies. (doll pants :)) All knit with gorgeous yarns which make taking the time to knit worth it for me. I am a slow knitter who is working on getting faster.

Speaking of dolls, there will be an update in my shop this Friday, July 29. I worked on two dolls yesterday. I tried a new hairstyle on one...sort of a "brushed hair" look. Lots of doll makers do it and it is really the cutest thing. So I'll be working on dressing dolls today. Both dolls will be in the shop on Friday along with a few new doll outfits.

Have a nice day, Friends. :) Our God is a good God.

And the Winner Is,...

Kelly from "My Short Bus Life."

I used Random.org to generate the number. I couldn't figure out how to get a picture of the generator onto my blog. I put in "1" in the first box and "25" in the Max box and it generated the number 12.

Congrats Kelly!
You can email me at folkydot at yahoo dot com.

Me and My Mary Janes part 2

I have this fascination with Mary Jane shoes. I've been searching the web over trying to find a pair of purple MJ's and in my search have come across some pretty cute Mary's.


For your viewing pleasure....
Are these not totally awsome? I would so wear these if the words "Lucky" and "Girl" were removed from the shoe. Love the red gingham and the cherries. Nice chunky sole. What more could a girl want?



Now these Mary Jane's remind me in a mild sort of way, of a Japanese Garden. So many colors and a nice pattern. These would be cute with a deep blue pleated skirt that falls right to the knees and knee high socks. I wonder if they are as comfortable as they are cute?




I could almost hear the "Hallelujah" chorus being sung when I found these shoes. They are all leather and look like they might last for years and not only be comfortable and dependable but practical and sensible. I have become my mother...I just used the words practical and sensible when describing shoes I like.

I'm a grandma AGAIN!!!

My oldest son, Johnathen and his wife had a sweet baby boy early this morning.

Patrick Marcus Wilson. He is a sweetie. Born at home, weighing in at 8lbs 2 oz.
God is good.

Celebrating with a Give Away!

I've made 100 sales in my Etsy store! Wow. That feels pretty good.

So because I'm happy about it and would like to say "Thank you" to those who've looked, bought, critiqued, encouraged and advertized my little store, I'm giving away a 12-14" doll outfit.


This little outfit is like 3 outfits in one. Cute cherries and red and white polka dots make up the reversible smock. White peasant shirt and denim pants.

Leave a comment and on Friday, July 15th I'll draw a name.

Also, when I get to 300 "likes" on facebook, I'll be giving away a 9" doll. More on that later. :)

Mrs. Billet

I loved elementary school. It was fun with all the getting of new clothes, pencils, crayons and erasers. The familiarity of walking the school halls, going to the gym/auditorium for various events and playing dodge ball on the play ground were good things for me.

In the second grade I was placed in Mrs. Billet's class. She was a good teacher. I remember learning to write in cursive in her class room.

One morning as we children flooded into the room and into our seats we all became uncomfortably aware that Mrs. Billet sat at her desk with her head down on her arms weeping rather noticeably.
We all sat in silence wondering what to do.

One boy, Burt was his name, ventured up to her desk and asked her what was wrong.

Mrs. Billet sat up, straightened her shoulders, ran a hand through her hair and blew her nose.

"I will tell you." she said.

"Last night as I was driving home from school, something ran out into the road in front of my car" (seeing the shocked looks on her young pupils she quickly interjected) "I'm so thankful it was not a man or woman or a boy or a girl or a cat or a dog, but I ran over a chicken."

And with that she laid her head in her arms and began to weep again.

Burt stood there wondering what to do. He decided to sit back down.

We all sat and waited.

And waited some more.

Finally gathering her strength, Mrs. Billet, sat up again and took a deep breath. Very seriously she said to the class, "Children, I hope none of you ever have to know the horrors of killing a living thing."

I really didn't understand what all her fuss was about. I was familiar with chickens dying. Our neighbors, the Watson's had butchered a bunch of chickens. They'd chop their heads off, (and what horrifying fun it was to watch the eyes blink on a body-less chicken or watch a headless chicken run a few paces) dip them in boiling water and pull the feathers off. Chickens dying were a fact of life to me.

On another occasion we came to class and she handed all of us a piece of paper and told us to draw a big beautiful tree. When the assignment was finished she tearfully told how some men had came to her mothers house and had had to chop down a big beautiful tree that she would swing in when she was a girl.

Now, that I could relate to. I, too was a lover of big beautiful trees, especially of the Weeping Willow variety and would have been sad to lose a beloved tree. There was a beautiful Weeping Willow tree in the neighbors yard that we played under a lot in the summer.

Years later, my mother and I were looking through school pictures and we came across my class picture from the 2nd grade. I told my mother that Mrs. Billet had been one of my favorite teachers and she commented on what an emotional woman she was. Apparently when my mother had went for her parent/teacher conference Mrs. Billet wept about some troubles she was having to my mother.

She still goes down in the teacher hall of fame for me. She was real people and I have decent cursive hand writing because of her.

Finding my Groove

We are home, recuperating from fireworks. Lots of laundry to do (the weather isn't co operating today :( ) stuff to put away and just in general getting the house whipped back into shape....and all the while I have this new toy waiting patiently on my sewing table for me to play with.

I'm wanting to get down there and clean up my sewing area a bit and then sit down and sew and sew and sew and sew and sew...you get the idea.

Fireworks went well. Nothing too much out of the ordinary. We did have on person shoot a bottle rocket into the tent. Aside from the bang giving me a good scare, it really annoys me when people do that.

Today I have to beat a path to the grocery store and have a birthday party to take Livie Lou to this evening. I want to organize my knitting basket and also clean off my dresser.

We still have to unload the campers.

I don't think I'll get to my new machine today.

There Is No Place Like Home

We are home from selling fireworks.
So. Glad. To. Be. Home.