Category Archives: personal

Plant Nerdiness Immersion!

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I had a wonderful time at the Gesneriad Convention! It was 5 full days of not thinking about anything but beautiful plants. I learned so much and met a ton of fellow enthusiasts.

I entered several pieces into the show- first time ever. Firstly- Miss Siningia, a lady pillow doll. Look, she won a blue ribbon!

Also, 3 plants; they won ribbons too! I was entering into the novice class which means I have never participated in a plant show before. I was the only entrant and I won this giant pink rosette- it all makes me silly happy :-)

Here is my blue ribbon plant-

I won’t overwhelm you with flower photos but these were some of my favs-

This is called Smithiantha ‘Ode to Peter Shalit’. It has beautiful leaves that are velvety plus such a gorgeous flower.

Below is a Streptocarpus ‘Dale’s Flock of Sparrows’.

There was a sales room with (probably) thousands of plants, and almost every talk I went to had giveaway plant material. I now have a bunch of new plants plus cuttings, leaves, and tubers to plant up and hopefully grow. It was such a treat to spend almost a week focusing on my other passion. I hope I can go next year!

Is Been an Unproductive few weeks

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I started working on the mermaids but nothing was working out so I put them aside for a while. I decided that I needed to work on something very different and so, as you can see in the photo, kitties! Also, some summer shirts for me.

I haven’t actually been getting a lot of studio time either. We’ve had guests, and then a family member in the hospital for tests. It’s really disrupted all my ability to focus on my work and that’s life. This coming up week I will be immersed in my plant hobby- completely nerding out with all the other gesneriad enthusiasts at the annual convention. That’s all to say that I won’t be finishing up any of these kitties until after July 6. See you then!

And Now it is November

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I am in mourning for our country and democracy but will not bore you with my angst. I will try to keep this space positive. It will be a challenge.

I pulled out my bin of tattooed men parts, right after I cleaned up the tiny world mess- and it was a huge mess. And then several things happened to distract me.

Firstly, 2 of my kids came over and we rearranged my studio. Now that I’ve been working a while, I knew it wasn’t the best layout. Here are some new photos-

Rearranging everything untied my organizational knot. I got a lot of things stored away and am feeling much better about my space.

The next distraction was that I discovered that my houseplants had thrips. If you are a plant-nutter like me, you will understand my anguish. I spent many, many, hours dealing with that mess. Some plants didn’t survive :-( Now I am keeping an eagle-eye on my house jungle.

I was doing some doll work through this all- just very slowly. Next up was cleaning up my garden and bringing plants inside (without new bugs I hope!). That’s when I decided that I needed to put up a window plant shelf. That involved actually painting the windows which I had been procrastinating about. Here is where I am at with that project-

I’m getting there. I really had to do this now because the weather is cool but not freezing yet. I can still open the windows, but in the summer it would have been too hot. So the studio is still a messy project but progress is being made. And I finished a tattooed man!

I don’t know what this imagery is actually called- it is skeleton Christmas.

So hopefully, more will be coming soon. Take care of yourself.

Chicago Living

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Things are slowly settling here although it will take a while more- I go from being energized to hang art and shelves, to just wanting to enjoy what we’ve got so far. Here are some of the latest projects-

We built a plant wall- it is a work-in-progress as we need to find all the perfect plant stands and the plants have to settle in and grow.

We had wallpaper put into our entryway. This star ceiling was after the first day-

And then it was done!

Just how I imagined it.

A beautiful full moon over the lake. This is right out our window.

Meanwhile, in my studio… wallpaper in the entryway there too.

The weather has been beautiful, I’ve been making myself some shirts, and generally slowly moving forward. so far, so good!

I finished my Quilt

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This was a project that was easy to work on in little spurts for the last few years. I just went back and the first in progress photos were from August 27, 2021.

August 30, 2021- testing out the block design.

September 2021 I was working on the border-

And then I got swept up in the prep for moving. No time for fun projects. At Christmas 2022, I packed up a bin full of things to send to Chicago because my kids were going to drive a truck. So, I didn’t see it again until the end of April 2023.

This is the backing that I made in our first AirBNB-

Putting all the layers together at the end of May.

And then I started quilting in June.

At the beginning of February, I found the binding that I knew I had somewhere, and so it was time to finish this quilt!

I wanted to get photos before we moved out of our rental- it had the perfect porch to take the photos!

Front-

Back-

The story behind this quilt is that it is full of nostalgic fabrics for me! The fabric eras start with the 1960’s, my mom’s dresses and caftans, my neighbor’s Marimekko curtains, 60’s and 70’s Indian print fabrics- skirts, a halter top, more curtains, Indonesian block printed fabrics that my Mom loved to sew with in the 70’s. There is fabric that I got in High School that I loved so much that I hung it up in my college dorm room. Marimekko scraps that I bought at a yard sale in the 70’s. There are also some 80’s and 90’s fabrics that I could never part with. I really can never get rid of beautiful fabrics! So many memories and so much history!

We’ve finally moved in!!!

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I have a lot of catching up to do, over here in blog land. Now that we have moved into our new place, I can finally get my life back in order- sigh of relief!

2/25-

2/26 :-)

and 2/27-

Boxes and wrapping paper everywhere. Little by little it will get done. Last night was a thunder storm and the view was incredible!

20 years

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Today is my 20th year of blogging. This past year has been sporadic because of the great upheaval of moving and (hopefully soon) resettling. Hurray- we have a move-in date!

This was the first photo that I posted back in 2004-

The first post is a mess- repeated 4 times and the photo is very NOT right… ah, the olden days.

Blogging has been a joy. I always thought I’d do it whether anyone read it or not. It is my “filing cabinet” documenting every doll I’ve made since then. And, all the steps that took me to where I am now. It is a true online diary. I met so many interesting people, made friends, was inspired, and had so many opportunities because of this blog.

Thank you to anyone and everyone who has been any part of this journey. I love and appreciate you all!

What A Week!

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The last week has been very exciting. I haven’t sat down at my desk until today!

We closed on our soon-to-be new home:

That’s the lobby :-) Our kids all had to come see. We had a little celebrating:

We sat out in the garden and admired the view. Yep, that is where we will be!

Now it is figuring out contractors, doing paperwork, picking colors, etc., etc., etc. There will be loads of mirrors to remove and floors to uncover. But, we are so excited! Putting our lives back together has begun!

Hello From Chicago!

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It’s been a while! We got to Chicago on April 3 with the kitties. We spent 2 months in Airbnbs- one month each so it wasn’t too terrible but really, it was enough. So, we have found an apartment and we will stay here until we find our next home. We moved in on June 1 and all our stuff arrived on June 7. We have spent the time since, setting up, sorting boxes, and all the rest of what you do after a move. I am working on getting my studio set up again. Also, acquiring all the necessities for shipping since I left that all behind. Baby steps to getting back to work. Once I have my new shipping label printer figured out, I will be able to re-open my etsy shop. I do know where the post office is so that’s a step in the right direction!

While I was in studio limbo, I had a few projects to work on. I worked on some summer clothes and some quilts. I had 2 quilt tops done but not backed or quilted. Here is the big quilt, laid out on the floor of an airbnb, getting basted together.

The apartment for the first week-

And then our stuff arrived- and that is just the beginning of the moving-in day.

This is going to be my workspace- I just have to figure out how to make the space useable-

It is all coming along. I have to get back into practice doing my blog and all the rest. We are settling in, even the kitties. They have their condo even if we don’t have ours yet 😸

I’m Moving so I’m having a Sale!

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I am living in chaos right now- so many boxes and bins!

This was last week maybe? There is a lot less recognizable stuff and more taped up boxes.

I have no idea when I will be back to work. We will be out of the house by the beginning of April and into some kind of temporary situation. Then we wait for things to happen.

Anyway, all that said, I don’t want to put my finished work into storage for who knows how long. I am post here first for my blog friends- a 25% off code at my Etsy shop. MOVING25

The sale will include all the dolls and the Tiny Worlds, but not the patterns. The sale will go on until I am too busy to ship anything else out- sometime towards the end of March. Help me lighten my load!