Year Of The Dolls

When some of our company left to go back home while they were here for our Christmas get-together, it was such warm weather that they didn’t think to take their coats with them. They didn’t discover it until they were home. Home being about a three-hour drive from here. After being informed of this dilemma, I was on a mission to find a box big enough to mail three coats.

I’ve had some dolls and doll parts boxed up in the garage for quite a while. One of the boxes was just the size I needed for the coats.

(Actually this scenario is a repeat of last year when I needed a box to mail something else. That’s when I came across the Renuzit dolls and decided to make them up to put in our craft sale last Fall.)

I brought all three boxes in, dumped the contents on the daybed in my sewing room, packed up the coats in the largest box, and made a trip to the P.O. to get it mailed off.

Now what to do with these doll bodies and parts? Most of these have been around for almost as long as I’d started working for W-M in 1987. Yes, really! We’ve toted them around with us for years. It was time to do something with them.

At first I thought that I would just put them in the next yard sale. But then I started looking through the pattern leaflets that I had stored along with the dolls. Well, I thought, why don’t I make a few of these up and see if I enjoy the process and how they turn out. After all, they are kind of cute.

There was only one doll this size, so I worked this one first.

Then a couple of the eight little Cindy dolls.

There are four pillow dolls. They just have a half body to fit into a skirt/pillow form. Curiosity got the best of me, so I started one of them. And crocheted. And crocheted. And crocheted. Boy are these yarn-eating dolls! But that’s ok, I certainly have the yarn for them. 🙂

Here’s the first one finally finished.

Ok, I have to admit that she turned out really pretty. Worth all the time that I spent crocheting her.

In between making this one, (because I would get bored crocheting all those ruffles), I crocheted an outfit for another of the Little Cindy dolls, in addition to a couple of little bear outfits that I saw in a magazine that I picked up at the last estate sale.

The knitted bear is actually a UFO that I started knitting last year. I love his little overalls.

I have to admit that I’m having fun with these dolls. I’ve started another pillow doll in yellow. And I have three more of the little bears to make outfits for. They’re just the right size to be used for an ornament. Actually I have a couple of larger bears that I have patterns for as well. They may be included with all these finished dolls one of these days.

As long as my interests in these dolls last, I’ll keep working on them. Hopefully I’ll get most of them worked up this year before I fizzle out.

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Baby Shower

My great-niece is having another baby. Her first child, a boy, is already in grade school so she hasn’t had anything relating to a baby in quite a while. Plus, this baby is a girl. So she needed a shower.

The shower was held at my Sis’s house this last weekend.

Even though there were quite a few that came, they had enough food to feed an army! It reminded me of when I have a family get-together — I get carried away with the food.

Here’s the cake

The pictures on top are of the baby. The one on the left is very clearly the baby’s profile of her head. The pic on the left is supposed to be her face straight on, but I had a hard time seeing that. Actually if looks better in this picture than it did in real life.

We had to play a few games before gifts were open. One of the games was tasting baby food to see if we could guess what flavor it was. Some of it was really nasty-tasting and some of us made some terrible faces.

Another game was writing down the baby’s name and making as many words from it as possible in three minutes. I came up with three, and one lady came up with 28! Wow!

We had to guess how many jelly beans were in the jar. I guessed way over.

And of course the little pink clothespins on our clothes and if we said the word “baby” anytime during the party, it was taken away from us by the person who heard it first. Of course, I lost mine almost immediately.

So needless to say, I didn’t win any of the games. But we all had fun anyway.

Then it came time for Mommy to open gifts.

She got a big variety of nice things including a crib, mattress, and changing table,

and a little swing. There were lots of baby clothes, diapers, and even a picture hand-painted by one of her aunts to hang in the baby’s room.

I love the picture. (No, it wasn’t from me.)

It was a fun afternoon. Now we just need to wait for that baby to come. They are going to induce labor next weekend because Mommy is having some issues with blood pressure. She only has a few weeks to go anyway. Can’t wait to meet her!

Shopping Spree

Sis came over yesterday, but we opted out of estate sale hopping because there was only one going on anyway. Instead, we decided to go shopping.

I had given her a top that I bought at the mall for Christmas. She wasn’t happy with the way it fit, so wondered if I would be hurt if she exchanged it for something else. Of course I wouldn’t be hurt — I want her to have something that she’s happy with.

So off to the mall we go. She found something she liked and I found two things that I liked!  And everything was on sale! Woo Hoo!

After buying our goodies, we got a coffee and relaxed for a bit. Then we decided we would “run over” to Hobby Lobby just to see if they had anymore Christmas stuff on clearance. (I had gone over there the day before and they had all their Christmas left-overs 90% off!! Yes, I came home with several bags of stuff.)

I couldn’t believe how much more was gone in just one day! There was still a lot to go through, however, even though most of it was picked over pretty good. Sis found some decorations that she’ll use for next year when she puts up her “big tree” and I found even more goodies to craft with than I did the day before.

I also found some cute scissors with the handles shaped like a butterfly. Since they weren’t on sale, I used the Hobby Lobby app that I installed on my “new” phone and found a 40% off coupon to use for the scissors. (Finally my new phone is starting to pay for itself. Ha!)

We were already close to Michael’s, so we decided to see if they had any Christmas left as well. So off we go. Sis found a few more decorations. The only thing I found was some grab bags marked at $4.00. Most of them had old flowers, but one sack had two boxes that said “metal lantern” printed on the side. Sis talked me into buying the bag by telling me that she would pay half. So, yeah, we came home with it.

 

Isn’t it cute? Not bad for two bucks. Neither one was damaged, so Sis took one and I kept one. I’m not sure what I’ll do with it but my mind keeps thinking, “decorate it for Halloween, maybe?”

After getting back to my house, we just had time to have another cup of tea and coffee before she had to head home. But what a wonderful time we had shopping, talking, and getting the bargains!

Christmas and Birthdays All Month

We started Christmas early this year so we could have our family all together. This rarely happens anymore because the family is strung out all over the state. They all came to our house on Dec. 15th.

We had our big family get-together with everyone here except Daughter #2 and her Hubby. I fixed a big dinner after telling myself that it would just be soup and sandwiches this year. (I always get carried away.) In addition to the big meal, I had baked the week before making dozens of cookies and some fudge. (I actually did cut down on the goodies.)

Son and family came to spend the weekend with us. Then on Sat., all the rest of them showed up. The one I was most looking forward to seeing was our new little great-granddaughter.

She’s walking now, a little wobbly, but she learned quickly to watch her step when she had to go up or down getting from the kitchen to the sunroom. There’s a slight step down and she only fell once. After that she was very careful. She’s so smart!

After eating our big dinner, and Baby Girl is eating real food now,

we headed outside (it was a beautiful day!) to take some family pics. We always say we will do this, but time gets away from us and it doesn’t happen.

I’ll just show a few of the many pics that I took. We wanted to get everyone in as many groups as we could. Here’s our oldest one and her family,

The two boys from Daughter #2 who wasn’t here,

Son and his family,

Grandson #4 and his family,

Mom and Dad with two of our three,

And Grandpa and Grandma with ALL of our grandkids and little Baby Girl.

Just a note here. I’m a tall woman, but you can see that everyone here is taller than me except the two little ones. Yes, we have tallness in our family!

Then to the happiness of the youngest grandson, we headed inside to unwrap gifts. We started with the youngest and worked our way to the oldest. Everyone got one gift apiece and we waited for that person to unwrap their gift before we went on to the next one. That way everyone gets to see what everyone else is getting.

Baby Girl was first,

I think someone was getting tired, but she didn’t fuss at all. She’s such a good girl!

It was so much fun having everyone here and hard to say goodbye when they left. Son and family were going to spend one more night, so it wasn’t like all of a sudden we had a quiet house after all that activity. That helped.

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Christmas morning it was just Hubby and me. We had a gift for each other which we exchanged. The gift he wrapped is on top of the stack.

He’s not a pro, but he gets the job done.

I thought it was kind of clever, however, because it was a little box with a beautiful necklace and earring set inside.

He’s been wanting this little drill-looking gadget to inflate tires ever since he saw it in a store several weeks ago. So. . . . .

We were invited to Daughter #1’s house for lunch that day.  After cleaning up a bit, we spent the next few hours with them; so we didn’t have to spend the whole Christmas Day by ourselves. It was a nice visit and we enjoyed ourselves very much! (She fixed a taco soup that was soooo good!)

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My Sis and I had our Christmas with each other on Thurs. after Christmas. She came over as usual and we went to one estate sale. Didn’t get much, but had fun anyway.

After coming back here, we took our gifts and some goodies into the sewing room and had our little party.

I love the socks she gave me — they have popcorn on them!

We started getting silly and I took a “selfie” with my camera. I couldn’t see where I was aiming, but it didn’t turn out too bad. LOL!

We actually had time to craft a little before she headed for home. It was a wonderful day!

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As I’ve mentioned before, we have lots of birthdays in the last few months of the year. In Dec. alone we have five! It’s hard on this old woman to remember all of them.

My Sis’s birthday was on the 5th and I blogged about that one. Two of them are on the same day, the 11th, so they got cards with money in them on the day of our Christmas party. The last two are the two youngest ones. Baby Girl was born two days before Christmas and Grandson #6 was born two days after Christmas.

Since we weren’t going to get to be with them on their birthdays, I had gifts to give them to take home so they could open their gift on their day. I remembered to give one of them their gift, but I let the other one get away without their gift. So I had to mail it to them anyway. (I’m losing it!)

Now it’s New Year’s Eve. Hubby and I will spend the evening doing what we usually do. We may be up until midnight and hopefully I’ll get a New Year’s kiss.

So, I’ll see ya’ll next year!

Sis’s B-Day 2018

Sis’s birthday was on a Wed. this year. Her family had a party on the weekend so everyone could be there. She said “everyone was there, even people I didn’t know!” Some of her son’s girlfriend’s relatives were invited whom she had never met until that evening. She was glad to get to know them and “everyone was so nice and we all had a wonderful time.”

Her birthday continued on Thurs. when we got together for our weekly meet. She didn’t want to leave her house because she was expecting a package and didn’t want some low-life stealing it off her porch, (which is happening more and more at this time of year. Yes, it’s sad, but it happens.)

So instead of running to the only estate sale in town this time, I went over to her house and we had a little party. We had coffee, (some of her gifts she received from her family was some favored coffee) and I brought some pastry to enjoy as we drank that delicious coffee.

She showed me all of her Christmas decorations that she’s been putting out including her little tree and the elves climbing up the ladder that she bought at an estate sale last year.

Then it was time to open my gift to her.

I found a card for her that said just the right thing.

Sis loves pumpkins and I bought this one from my brother-in-law who makes them. It’s a little late in the year for pumpkins, but she said that’s ok because she loves it and she can think about how she wants to decorate it next year.

I gave her an apple towel that I bought when we went to the little Christmas in the Country craft show a few weeks ago. She decorates her kitchen in apples. She hung it on the oven door right away.

But the last was not the least, because I gave her a little necklace that I saw on a mannikin at the mall that I knew she would love to have! She loves snowmen. It’s so cute and it was on sale, so I bought one for myself as well.

After the mailman came, (no package wouldn’t you know), I took her out for lunch. Afterward we went through the tote of yarn that she bought at the last estate sale. (I’ve already mentioned mine in the previous blog.)

I helped her to sort it and roll some of the partial skeins into balls. She was surprised to see all the yarn she got.

I took a craft kit to work on when we finished with all the “partying” that we were going to do, but instead, we just sit and talked and reminisced until it was time for me to leave. It was a fun day, and I think Sis enjoyed it.