Waldorf-y Not-So-Knotty Dolls

Sam's mom, Memaw, bought Ailey one of those little blankets that has a bunny head attached to the middle and it rattles.  For the longest time, she didn't care anything about it.  Then, about a month or so ago, she got very concentrated on it and started carrying it around all the time along with two other blankets.

Now Brea has begun to grab at her blankets lately, so I thought it would be good to get her something like Ailey has, but I wanted something more like this:

or this:

After seeing how much they are, which isn't bad, of course, I decided that the construction was easy enough for me to attempt, instead of buy one. :)  I've had a stash of that type of fabric for a long while now and really didn't know what I wanted to make out of it.  I googled to see if there was a free pattern or tutorial and I found this one:  Knotty Doll Tutorial  and Knotty Doll Pattern

So, I was determined to make it myself now that I was armed with pattern and instructions.  I decided to make three, one for Ailey because I knew the moment she saw it in doll form she would want one and continually take it away from Brea (she's done that with the 3 stuffed animals that are Brea's), one for Brea, of course, and one for my niece Lauren because I still owe her a birthday present from the first part of last month.  That's right, I rock my mad aunt skilz with late birthday presents. :)

The main construction of them, body and head didn't take very long, but I hand-stitched the head on and then hand-stitched the hat on the head.  That took some time.  When I put together the first one, Sam looked at it and asked where its face was and I must admit, it did look rather creepy without a face.  I went ahead and embroidered one on and then I decided that there needed to be some sort of a border around the hat because it looked more like a do rag.  So, I hand-stitched a ribbon border on as well which equaled more time.  Oh, and my fingers are pretty sore where I held the needle.  Here's what they looked like before the face:

The hands and feet are not knotted.  I couldn't get the knots small enough and the dolls looked like squatty bodies!  Not quite the look I was after. 

Here they are with faces:

Nicknames

I like nicknames.  I think it is because I never had one.  Dad used to call me and my sister puddintang #1 and puddintang #2, but because it was the same name, it doesn't count. :)

So all my kids have been given nicknames, except Brea, until now....

Braden's was punkin for the longest time and then I started calling him Braden-boy-o.  Not super creative, but it stuck and it works.

Ezekiel has a few that are variations on his name: Zekey, Zekes and Zekers.  Zekers is my favorite.

Ailey.  Well, Ailey has MANY.  First it was Ler-ler, which morphed into Ler-lu.  Then, I added Dooterbops, which I then further broke down into doots and dooters and sometimes bubby-doots, while still using dooterbops on occasion.  Sam and a few others call her Gracie because Grace is her middle name.  She knows and responds to them all.  She's already a multi-tasker. ;p

Brea is still a work in progress.  I call her Brea-boops sometimes and am trying out Boopsy/Boopsy-Doopsy and today decided to add in Scoochamadooch, which will be made into variations such as Scoochamadoochers and shortened into Scooch most of the time.  At first, I was at quite a loss because it seemed that I had used up my girly nickname arsenal on Ailey, but I feel I'm on the right track now....maybe.  Gotta give them more time to settle in.

Absenteeism

Main Entry:	absenteeism
Part of Speech:	noun
Definition:	state of not being present
Synonyms:	absence, defection, desertion,skipping, truancy
Antonyms:	attendance, presence

Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition 
Copyright © 2011 by the Philip Lief Group. 

Yep, that's what would describe the state of my posts lately.  Non-existent.  Well, in my defense, I haven't really wanted to blog lately.  So, that's not so much a defense as an excuse.  Works for me!

I know I'm waaaay overdue for a major update, one of my monologue-y kinds, not to mention I've got several that I need to finish and actually post.  I'll get around to it.  I will!  I have several that are about the kiddamaroos.  They could inspire a book to tell the truth.  Maybe a novella.  Anyway, they are in the works.  I've been caught up in projects as of late and I feel like I've gotten a lot done.  Plus, DOING stuff keeps me from falling asleep!  ADHD, much?!  I would say so.  Okay, so I'll start with all the projects I've been doing.  Here we go!

 I figured out how I wanted to hang all the single frames I had stored up.  I actually have more, but I do have a plan for them...along the same lines.  I spray painted them all either cream or black.  I do actually intend to put pictures in them.  I wanted to get them up on the wall first so I could see how I liked it with sticky tack and then I got lots of the picture hanging command strips.  Love those things!  I really abhor putting holes in my walls.

 Zekey had to get in the shot and then the silliness really shone!

I painted the two end tables I had and put them in place of the huge square coffee table I did have in the living room.  I like them better and they double as storage!  Yay!

This is an entertainment center that my mom's friend gave us.  It was a gold/yellow color and I painted it to match the "coffee tables".  It took a while and I actually got a lighter color than I intended, but it is done and its staying that way for a while!  I'm going to hang curtains over the two openings and its going to be our homeschool station.  I'll take a pic when its all said and done.  The computer armoir is also going to get the same paint treatment as the bookshelf and coffee tables, but it'll have to wait because I'm tired of painting for now. :)

 This is a stack of fabric diamonds that I cut using my self healing mat from creative memories scrapbooking paraphernalia and a rotary cutter I got a while back, but hadn't used yet.  I want to make both the girls a rag quilt.  The one that I had planned and "drawn" up on the computer was ambitious to say the least,  especially considering I've never made a quilt before.  Yeah.  So, I got to looking at how to make a much simpler quilt and came across one that had a diamond pattern and decided that's where I was headed.  I then learned through much googling that instead of using the poly, cotton or bamboo batting that I'm familiar with, I could just use cheap flannel as the batting.  I never could understand how the higher loft batting translated into those really thin quilts that I prefer.  Now, I know the "secret".  I know, I'm late to a lot of knowledge parties.  Oh, well! 

Then in my internet wandering I came across rag quilting.  I've seen them before, of course, but I didn't know that what they were called.  A lady in my co-op told me that she was doing them because they were so easy, but I really didn't look into it until this last week.  So, I've decided to do a diamond rag quilt for each of the girls. I'm going to applique ladybugs, birdies and flowers and possibly dragonflies to some of the diamonds. I think it will totally fit in with the shabby chic-y look I'm going for in their room.

Okay, this is telling on my ocd-self, but I nearly don't want to mess with the stack because its so nice and neat and straight-lined.  Yeah. :)

This is one of a set of shelves that Sam built me quite some time ago.  It sat in our garage, primed and ready, just waiting for me to finish painting it.  The other one is a rectangle and is almost painted black.  I ran out of spray paint and have to go get some more.  I don't know where, exactly, I'm going to hang these, but I'll find a place!

I have a mirror project I'm going to do, you know, when I have time.  I also am sewing some little dolls and when they are complete I'll put pics up.  I've already finished the one I gave to Ailey, but I want to take a pic of all three.  I'll also explain why I even made them.  There are also a few more projects waiting in the wings.  I know, shocking.  I'll hopefully get them on here as I go along.  For now, this is a start!

Cowfolks in training

We went to Academy and picked up some hats for the kids.  The boys are lovin' being "cowboys".  Ailey got the only pink hat with sparklies they had...no surprise there. Its more of a Manhattan Jazz hat.  Brea was just lovin' the photo shoot.

 

Finger Suckin' Good!

Brea, following in the footsteps of her older siblings has found the need for extra oral stimulation, as my mom would put it.  She kept trying to suck on her hand and would want to nurse longer only to spit up excessively because she was overly full as a result.  Finally, about a week ago, she found her groove.  She likes to suck on the two middle fingers on her right hand.  Those are the same ones my sister Sara sucked as a baby.  I can't imagine why none of my kids followed in my footsteps!  I sucked the first two on my left hand, upsidedown. :)  Anyway, here is the cuteness of it all:

Luna Eclipse

No, I didn't spell my title wrong.  Over Memorial Day weekend we picked up a particularly large, fat caterpillar and decided to bring it home with us from East Texas.  We put it in a small container and Braden added some extra leaves for it to munch on.  Only, it didn't munch on them.  It started folding itself up in the leaves.  I didn't really know what to make of it.  I thought we were going to have a HUGE butterfly on our hands from the size of the caterpillar, but I'd never heard of one folding itself into a cocoon of leaves.  When I showed Sam, he said he thought it was going to be a moth and not a butterfly.  Well, we went ahead and brought it home and put it into the hanging butterfly garden that I bought more than a year ago.  I had bought the caterpillars online to go with it, but they didn't survive, so this was our first go with the "garden" a.k.a. cage. (Don't you love how companies try and make something sound way better than it actually is?)  While trying to put it into the cage, I accidentally dropped it and it started shaking like a maraca.  Well, that creeped me out a wee bit....

Well, it hung for weeks with no sign of life.  I finally heard a scratching sound late one night and thought it was another kind of bug that had a death wishmik, and went searching for it for a bit until I figured out that it was the cocoon.  Then, my friend Ali came over and she inspected it thinking it might be dead, but decided not so much when it started shaking and scratching yet again.  A couple of days later, I just happened to look up and noticed something hanging on the side of the cage and got it down and this is what we saw:

Isn't it pretty?  Its called a Luna Moth.  I texted Sam about it and said I would prefer that he release it with the kiddos.  I'm not so much into large flappy things around my head. :)  I had told the kids that once it hatched, we would not be keeping it as I didn't want to mess with feeding it.  AND, because I didn't know when this not-so-little-guy had come out, I didn't know if he was starving or not.

So, Sam got home and we waited a little longer til the evening to release it because we were hoping the birds wouldn't get him.

Sam is amazing.  He just reached in there and scooched it on out.

It took a while for it to decide it wanted to leave the table.  It flapped around a bit before it got its air legs and got itself going.  Sam did say that a bird narrowly missed getting it.  After all that was said and done, I wanted to know more about it because I'd never seen a moth like that.  I didn't get a pic of its body, but it was beautiful.  It was fuzzy and white and the texture reminded me of a pipe cleaner.  I found these pics online:

Anyway, after reading more about it, I found out that it doesn't have a mouth at all!  It lives for 3 days and its sole purpose it to find a mate and reproduce.  Craziness!  The no mouth thing really got me.  I also felt really bad after reading that because I don't know exactly how long it had been hanging out in the cage ready to fly before I glance up there and also because apparently they are rather rare and even endangered in some areas.  That got me to thinking that it probably wasn't gonna find a mate around here since we are some 6 hours away from where it was supposed to be.  Oops.

Yer Crackin' Me Up!

Rolling over

Brea rolled all the way over onto her belly this evening.  She's been rolling from side to side for a while now, but today she made the flip.  Then, she got upset because she was face down and her arm was stuck under her. :)

Rolled Flower Giveaway Take Two Winner!

After a grueling process of writing each of the numbers down on a sheet of paper, then cutting them up, then folding them into fourths and then putting them into an empty wipes box (hey, I use what I have available!), I had Braden pull a number out.  After telling Zekey that I did not need another number taken out and hearing his audible disappointment, I unfolded it to find the #5!

Congratulations to Kady!!!

I've sent an email to you.  Please contact me within the next 24 hours.  If I haven't heard from you by then, I'll draw from the box again.

Thank you, everyone, for entering the giveaway.  I'm glad to find some newcomers in the comments!  Welcome!  Of course, I'm always glad to see my girls who support my frequent whims on here!  Reina, those shoes are super cute!  You should take a pic and post them.  I think you would love them, too, Nessa, knowing your love of interesting shoes and all.  Yes, Nersa, I think you should do a giveaway!  I'll enter. :)  I need to check to make sure I'm a follower.  Don't know if I ever did that or not.  Kristina, I would send you one just for examination purposes, but you might find youtube just as helpful... ;)

I don't know if I'm going to do another giveaway next week yet or not....we'll see.  I may need to come up with something else to giveaway....you know, switch it up a bit.  I'll ponder on it over the weekend. :)

Rolled Flower Giveaway take two!

I'm woefully late on this post, since I was supposed to have it up yesterday!  Sorry about that!  Here it is.

If you tilt your head to the right, you'll have the right view of it. :)

Again, there is an alligator clip and a pin, so you can wear it in your hair or on your clothes.

I've christened this one Ragtime Doll.  Its probably not era appropriate per say, but its a nod that way and that's what it makes me think of (or for those of you who prefer correct grammar usage - of what it makes me think. ;)

Rules of entry:

Tell me why you want to be the receiver of this bow-pin and who you are giving it to.

That's it.  Pretty simple!

Today is the start date and I will choose a winner on Friday via a random choosing process. (i.e. random.com or one of my kids pulling a name out of a bucket :)