My finished Christmas projects...

From the gorgeous book below, "Itty-Bitty Nursery" by Susan B. Anderson



my niece June's teddy bear and blanket...






and my niece Elaina's tea set

They were SO much fun to make! <3

Christmas...

I'm knitting gifts for my two nieces from the book
Itty-Bitty Nursery... can't wait until they open them
so I can update you with a photo of the finished work!

The winner is...

Diane at Crafty Passions [http://dianobe.blogspot.com/]

Thank you for your comment Diane ~ It made me smile :)

This little bear in on his way to your house ~ let me know when he arrives!

My very first Give-Away!!!

I'm so excited!!! This adorable little jointed pink bear can be YOURS...

Enter to win by leaving a comment on this post by Friday, November 21st.

Be sure to leave your email address or a link back to your own blog, so I can contact the winner!

The winner will be chosen randomly by one of my adorable daughters <3

a little elephant...

Dans la grande
forêt un petit
éléphant est né.
Il s’ appelle Babar.

In the great
forest a little
elephant is born.
His name is Babar.

this little piggie went to market...

this

little

piggie

stayed

home

black bear, black bear what do you see?

I see

an adorable

black bear

looking at me

a little bird told me...

I made him jointed, both

his wings and feet move!

I'm going batty...

Something I'm working on...

Happy 18th Birthday beautiful girl <3

Happy Birthday Char <3



Bri's tattoo sketch



Bri's tattoo


Joey's tattoo (Charly's brother)

We miss you SO much beautiful girl <3

A video from Noodle & Lou's blog

A SHORT LOVE STORY IN STOP MOTION from Carlos Lascano on Vimeo.

It's a PARTY!

Vanessa, over at A Fanciful Twist [http://afancifultwist.typepad.com/] is hosting a MAD TEA PARTY!!! I've had an incredibly busy month and wasn't able to make plans to attend, so I thought I throw together a last minute, albeit small ~ but FUN, tea party here to party, PaRtY, PARTY with Vanessa and all the other party goers today!!! A few were invited and all RSVP'd, but after Alice arrived... well, the room WAS a bit small... *sigh*... but I can attest to the fact that Alice enjoyed herself VERY much :)

Miss Charly Ann Daniels

We love you and miss you more each passing day <3

*this post references a very beautiful girl I wrote about in my very first blog [see below]
~ she's an incredible girl who is very loved <3
I think this video was taken just after Charly and my daughter, Briana, met in '99 or '00 and it was shown as a trailer just before church service started ~ www.flipsidechurch.com

A Party at Fanciful Twist!!!

I'm SO excited! A Fanciful Twist is having a Party... a MAD TEA Party ~ June 28th!!!

I am also thinking of making something to sell and something to give away for the PaRtY as it seems like the perfect reason to make some things to share <3

Stay tuned for more PARTY updates!...

curious ...& curiouser

It's finished...

The purse I started yesterday (please see post below) is done ~ and it's so So SO cute!!!


up close...

and in the the bedroom (I made all the purses [neutral crocheted bag on the shelf, lunch pail with black flower at the bottom of the shelf, the Hello Kitty purse and the "straw" knitted purse with embroidered flowers], the top hat [paper mache'] and the mattress and bedding in this room)... the floor of this room is made from popsicle sticks that I glued down, sanded the heck out of, whitewashed with watered down acrylic white paint and then painted with a satin clear gloss... the shelf is made from scraps of wood and bits of miniature molding around the top and bottom - also whitewashed. The victorian looking picture frames hanging on the wall are from the local scrapbook store - I just bought stickers from Belle & Boo [www.belleandboo.blogspot.com] and am going to hang them using these frames! They're going to be adorable!!! <3

I just got a new book...

I love knitting - it's a newly discovered passion... and I just bought this book ~

and I'm trying to make the purse on the front cover - it's SO cute! But instead of making it large for me, I'm making a small version - with a few alterations - for my dollhouse doll <3

Here's my progress so far...

Happy Mother's Day

I babysit my two nephews, Robert who is 5 years old and Michael who is 2 years old, every Saturday morning. Today Grandpa, Aunt Betsy, and two of my girls helped me make a Mother's Day gift from the boys for their mom, my sister-in-law... I printed the inside frame, message and the boys' names and the year in Microsoft Word and printed them on white cardstock. I then painted the boys' hands with black acrylic craft paint - Robert said he thought it tickled and Michael threw a little fit (I should have done it when he took his morning nap). All in all, I thought they turned out really cute, but the photography of the finished product leaves something to be desired (sorry...)

knitting... tiny socks!!!

I'm sick with a cold/sore throat/cough virus, as is my 10 year old and my dad :( ...

and I'm just not feeling like working on my dolls at the moment - but, I did learn how to knit socks this week!!! They fit my dolls - and they're my first attempt, so I'm really, really proud of them... I included a penny so you could see how small (and thus even cuter) they are <3

Julie... aka PinkParisMatch

Okay... I just realized that I totally blogged about Julie in my last post and did not say - Julie, aka PinkParisMatch (http://juliebergmann.typepad.com/) who is one of my BEST friends and an InCrEdIbLy AMAZING Artist!!! She made this fairy house for me for my 40th birthday - gorgeous! and I love fairies!!!

You have to check out her site - she does paper mache', ATC cards, photography - yes, she did my 19-year-old's senior pictures... beautiful. Her talents are seemingly limitless and her artwork is gorgeous.

BlackEyedSuzie & Yoshida Style...

I am an admirer of Miss BlackEyedSuzie's dolls [http://blackeyedsuzie.typepad.com]

and this one might be my favorite - though they are all beautiful...

A couple months ago Miss Suzie posted a blog about a new book she'd purchased called "Yoshida Style - I was curious and intrigued!!! So intrigued, in fact, that I recently received my own copy in the mail (I found it on eBay) and I LOVE this book!!! The entire thing is illustrated in such detail - though ALL of the book is written in Japanese (and though I took a year of Japanese in college and "Aced" the class - that was many, many moons ago and I can not read nor understand a thing this books says... BUT the illustrations for EACH and EVERY step are done so well, it's incredibly useful even without understanding the text.
[a little side note that I know will make my friend Julie shake her head... but the dolls are all anatomically correct and pre-teen in age - that's not disturbing to me (much) but the fact that the author dresses them provocatively kinda freaks me out - so I've taken the liberty of "re-dressing" some of the photos (in case my girls - ages 10 and 13 - decide to browse through it) because I think girls should dress and act like girls...

okay, I'm getting off my high horse now - and please, please don't take offense - Julie disagreed with my prudish-ness but STILL loves me]

Thank You SO Much Miss BlackEyedSuzie

for sharing your incredible talent

and your wonderful finds <3

I just finished knitting this little blanket for my niece -

she turned one-year-old last month and I'm

very, very late in sending her birthday gift...

I found the teddy bear in Lake Arrowhead - so cute!

and the blanket's significance? My Grandma Peg, when

she still had her eyesight, would knit a receiving blanket

for her new grandchildren... she passed away several years

ago, having lived a long, adventurous and wonderful

life into her 90's, and we still miss her terribly -

the blanket is in honor of my grandmother's tradition

and a loving memory to share with my niece <3

I miss this girl...

I miss this girl... this is my firstborn, about a year and a half ago with her friend Carl that she met at CSUN while attending college and living in the dorms - she'll be 20 this summer and is now living in Wisconsin with my sister... my daughter is going to be a nanny for a year while she decides what it is she wants to do... the girl is amazing - a talented writer, a gifted artist and an incredible singer... she can do most anything to perfection if she just sets her mind to it - it's the setting her mind part that she struggles with... I gave her an early birthday present and am eagerly awaiting her first song - did I mention she can sing AND write songs?!?!?... I miss this girl.

I found a new YARN shoppe in Claremont - WOW!!!

There's a new yarn shoppe in town (http://phebies.com) - and it's heaven on earth!... It's in the "packing house" in the Claremont Village - upstairs... I hadn't been to the new addition to the Village since it opened last summer - and it's incredible! There's an art gallery downstairs, a children's art gallery/class, a children's "Young Chef Academy" (http://www.youngchefsacademy.com) and SO much more!...

my dolls...

I made her a little black t-shirt - I crocheted the edges of the neckline and sleeves... then I made her a pair of flaired pants - and crocheted the hem to match the t-shirt details... and added a crocheted flower to the pant leg... she has white socks on, though you can't really see them, and then I made her a pair of black clogs - I LOVE my black birkenstock clogs - when I was in college my friends called them my "keebler elf shoes"... whatever! they are comfortable!!!

She looks like she's "steppin' out" in this picture...

she's made of polymer clay and her shoes are made from paperclay... her arms, elbows, legs and knees are jointed... I found the tiniest spacer beads at my local bead shop.

and this is the beginning of my next doll <3

fingers and toes

sneak peek of my first doll's fingers and toes...

still working on clothes and shoes before I post the entire doll...

he's SO cute...

bree-nana's trac'r boy...
throw the ball grandma... throw it!!!

my three girls...

the "must have" bathtub pic of my girls...

I had both these pictures blown up to poster size

and for Mother's Day I'm having them framed

- one to hang in my bedroom entry way

and the other to hang in the kids bathroom...

I took these in 1998... where has the time gone?!?!?!

a little black purse <3

an "arty" photo of a little black purse for my doll...

the same purse in my non-"arty" photo

what a doll!

I love dollhouses - SO much! And I have three daughters - each with their own dollhouse... and I have my first dollhouse my father made me when I was 9 years old - and three more in kit form that I'm going to put together... but I want my dollhouses to have dolls - so I decided to try and make my own - in one inch scale... I'm finding the hardest part is the face and hair - this is my first doll - the body is complete - but this is her head in progress... yes, I crocheted the hat she's wearing - it has ear flaps!!!

art

charly edited this picture last summer of herself and bri from their photo shoot "dolls"... beautiful <3

The name of my blogspot

My 19 year old daughter, Bri and her best friend, Charly, both had cell phones, and when they weren't chattering away to each other on the phone, they were texting one another... they had fun coming up with new signatures on their cell phones to surprise each other - Bri would be Bill and Charly's signature became Ted... my daughter would be Jack and Charly's signature became Sally... they thought they were SO cute - and they were...
Charly passed away September 18th, 2007 at the age of 17 of a terminal illness - Cystic Fibrosis.
Bri and Charly had an instant bond and had been kindred spirits for nearly eight years... both were creative, artistic, dreamers... they shared a love of music, Hayao Miyazaki's films and dreamed of one day going to college together and living as roommates on the Northshore in Hawaii... they loved Disneyland and the fantasyland rides Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland - they'd love to fly to Neverland or fall together down the rabbit hole to Wonderland...
and the signature on Charly's phone last September - "curious" and my daughter's - "...&curiouser"