Summer...

 

July has started out most beautifully upon the heels of a hot June.  My hennies are happy in their yard, which is overgrown with daisies that I refuse to mow.

Anza and company are pleased with the clippings of the volunteer ash trees that come up too close to the house foundation.

The flowers are blooming.  The birds are singing.  Breezes stir the aspen trees and afternoons stretch long and pleasant when we are not at work.

Olivia and I made some Felt Wee Folk, with instructions from Salley Mavor's book, and we also constructed a house for them, with no instructions. We used an old cardboard box and torn up egg cartons.  We have much furniture to make.

We have had some tea parties with fancy cups and tiny sandwiches.

We have both made watercolors.  Olivia's is the cottage.  Mine is my chickens.

The cats take comfortable afternoon naps.

And I have been reading Tasha Tudor's writings, both for grownups and children, and admiring her way of life and her philosophy and her watercolor artistry.

I have resumed my Smitten quilt.

And the Fluffy Cat has emerged from her self-imposed solitude to explore the craft room in her summer hairdo, purring all the while.

This is what my life should be always, not just on a rare few days off.  I refuse to concede that, as most Americans do, my life should consist of frantically rushing to work for most of every day, sometimes as much as 60 or more hours a week, rushing back home to prepare a terrible dinner for myself and Olivia which is usually pre-prepared junk if we are lucky or cereal if we are out of everything, falling into bed exhausted, and then getting up the next day to do it again and again.  Life should not be about being so stressed every day that you cannot enjoy your life at all and wish the misery would just end.  Life should not cause the loss of health and vision to the extent that you can see a future where you can no longer even experience those things that you enjoy the most in the world.  I opt out.  I will no longer kill myself with overwork and enslave myself to the wishes of everyone else in the world who happens to come along with a more assertive personality than I have.  I will not watch my child grow up in the blink of an eye with a single parent who can never even have the energy to do anything fun.  I will never go for years again with zero time to enjoy my life.  I will live in poverty before I ever do that again.  This is is my line in the sand.  I will enjoy my life and I will have time to do so.

Goat Goings-on

 I had to euthanize my friend Josie goat on May 14th.  She had a tumor that was giving her a lot of trouble and it finally became too much and it was time. She was always such a good little friend.  

Anza was desperately lonely and I had a big decision to make, whether to send her to another home with goats or whether to get a few more goats to keep her company.  In the end, I decided on getting a few more goats, because I could not imagine not keeping Anza.  She has been a goofy friend for ten years and I didn't want to let her go!  So we made the tough decision to find a few more goats.  We were able to locate a Nigerian Dwarf breeder who was downsizing her herd and was able to sell us two does, ages 7 and 5, mother and daughter.  The first few days were a bit rough.  Anza was confused, the new goats were confused, and there was some goat posturing and squabbling, but now they are getting along ok and Anza is back to eating well and acting like herself.  The new goats are fun and sweet.  Snickers is very bossy and absolutely is herd head!  Anza is a bit  put out by this but has adjusted.  

New girls:  left is Hope (5) and right is her mother, Snickers (7)

Anza, being silly!

Hope and Olivia

Snickers and Hope

Little Lou II

 I painted this girl with acrylics from a porcelain kit from Allfordoll on Etsy. She's Little Lou II and is about 11 inches high. I washed her face off and repainted her about five times until I was more or less satisfied but I think with more practice I can do a better job. I made her dress from a pattern by Nedra, but I didn't feel like doing the pleats so I just gathered it and used some 1930's feed sack material to make a play dress. I'm happy enough with this girl. I can't decide whether to call her Lou or something else. I have a second kit to make up, which is the regular Little Lou. I already started her painting.

Sketch

 

It's been awhile!

My life has gotten so busy and not much fun lately.  And I have purchased zero new dolls in two years!  Yikes!  And hardly any craft time.  But hopefully it'll get better soon.  Here are some photos from recently just for fun.

Kitten from work, soon up for adoption.  

Sunrise on a September Monday morning.

My goats, lounging.

A fairy house that Olivia made in our back woods.

Spring has sprung here, finally!

Flowers are blooming, birds are singing and the lawn needs mowing, badly.  I am charging the dead battery of my riding mower so I can hopefully do that chore later on today!  I have been sewing a smidgen but not much.  This dress is the prize for a contest on Our Little Darlings, but sadly, there are almost no entries!

My baby is turning 4...

Four years has passed fast.  My bright, beautiful, imaginative girl is turning four in a week.  She asked me for a doll to be friends with the rag doll that I had made when I was a teenager that she plays with all the time.  That particular doll is named Lizzy and I had given it to my mother after I made it.  She saved it all these years and when I had Olivia, gave it back.  I scrounged the internet for the pattern and successfully found it and made a friend for Lizzy. This doll is unnamed.  I'll leave that honor to Olivia.  I hope she will enjoy her.  Olivia loves to imagine scenarios with her dolls and has a running dialogue with them most of the time!

Chloe Grace, painted by Joyce Mathews, in an overalls outfit that I have made as a prize for a photo contest on Our Little Darlings.

Penny and Pansy

These are the other two from April Norton, Penny and Pansy.  They are 8" tall and porcelain, and are lots of fun to dress, as they wear the same size as Kish Riley and I have tons of patterns that fit them.

8" Tiny Dianna Effner dolls by April Norton

I'm terribly behind on posts.  These cuties arrived in December.  I have two more now that I have not even photographed! These are Piper (left) and Poppy (right) and are about 8" tall. They can share clothes with Riley Kish and also with the 8" Heartstrings Dolls sold by Jo's Doll Shoppe.  These little porcelain cuties are made for me by April Norton, a Canadian porcelain doll artist who does phenomenal work!  I am looking forward to eventually ordering some larger dolls from her.  I have also gotten Penny and Pansy and very much need to photograph them, too!







I have also received Helen Kish's hand-painted Desiree Silver Froth who I will share soon and I have a new little travel trailer to talk about!  So hopefully more posts will be coming soon!

Sweater Weather

It's been a warm fall so far, but today is a little cooler, so Chloe Grace (painted by Joyce Mathews) is wearing a hand-knit sweater over her romper.  The sweater pattern is from the Etsy Shop Sewsallday and the romper pattern is from the Etsy Shop Buttonsnbutterflies.






I made matching shoes!  I used Sissy Lingle's pattern and tutorial and it was great, as usual.




I will likely list this outfit in my own etsy shop in the near future!

Boneka Effner Repaint

 

This little doll came to me with very unremarkable painting.  I repainted her a while ago (several tries before I got her just right) and have finally managed to photograph her.  She is difficult to photograph well!

A new love, Sylvia Natterer dolls!

I saw a few of these dolls on etsy, modeling clothing, and I adored them so much I ordered one from the UK. They are really hard to find in the US but I think a few shops carry them.  I ordered from Petalina and found their customer service to be great and given the good exchange rate lately, it was a great transaction.  I have since ordered a few more little sisters to go with her but they have not yet arrived.  Meet Brigitte, designed by Sylvia Natterer for Petitcolin.  She is in a dress that I made for her today, but I eventually will photograph her in her original outfit, as well, as it's very pretty.

Dorothy, painted by Dianna Effner

I had asked for Dianna to paint me a dark haired, blue-eyed doll and she painted me Dorothy!  Isn't she perfect?  I received her in April but it took me this long to get her outfit sewed together.  Underneath there is a full undergarment made of cotton batiste and on top is a pinafore with the tiniest chicken scratch I've ever done.  I have to felt a Toto to go with her as soon as possible but I wanted to share a photo or two before then.  There are  more photos if you click through to my Flickr account.

Farmette Update

I haven't posted about my critters around here in a while.  I am down to just three chickens from my original 11.  Three of the Buff Orpingtons are still hanging on and still doing well and laying eggs, surprisingly, even though they are now 7 years old as of June 1.  The three remaining are Prudy, Ivy and Buttercup.  Poppy was the most recent one to die, and I just found her in the nest box one evening, after having been completely normal the rest of the day.  Once she passed on, I decided to order more chicks because I don't think that the three I have left will realistically last too long.  So here are the new girls, being brooded in the house for now.  I have three Speckled Sussex, two Black Australorps and two Buff Orpingtons. The Orpingtons are by far the friendliest!  They are all named:  Nancy Drew, George (short for Georgia in the books) and Bess are the Sussex; Anne and Dianna (from Green Gables, of course) are the Orpingtons, and Lucy and Ethel are the Black Australorps.  Lucy and Ethel came upon their names first!  These photos are from when they were just a few days old, on their first outing.  They are now about four weeks old.









And I have been sewing, for another niece:




Mama Hen block from Lori Holt's Farmgirl Vintage book.  :)