Rainy day activities today...

Yesterday the weather was beautiful! 70 degrees, sunny, just perfect. I mowed the lawns and did some running around on errands, so today I can work on a new little wrap around bib for my shop.

My friend and neighbor Kathy just called and asked me to care for her cat JJ for a couple days. Her son is undergoing cancer treatment and has been put in the hospital... she needs to be with him. Please add their family to your prayers.

I am currently going through a process of prototyping, trying to come up with some new items for the Etsy shop.

I was up until the wee hours of the morning adding a banner and doing a policy profile for my Etsy shop. It will do for now, I'm sure it is a long term fine tuning process. I also have posted one of my dolls for sale.
Check out my progress...  My Etsy Link

I have a new friend on Etsy who is Irish born, who now lives in Leicester, UK. She does fabulous knitting. She has been a wonderful mentor to me on Etsy. You should read Margaret's profile and check out her shop 'JaminaRose' -  Here is Margaret's profile  - I think she's wonderful. She reminds me very much of my email buddy in Canada, Suzanne, she's a sweetheart too.

I also am going to bring some of my dolls in from my workshop so that I can take pictures and hopefully get them online too. Also my Mom has a couple more sweaters she would like to get in the shop, as well as some cotton knit dish cloths.

I just spoke with my beautiful almost-daughter-in-law and my wonderful son. I miss them so much... It just made my day! I could not have done a better job myself, had I chose a partner for him. He is so smart to have picked her. She literally is the daughter I never had and I feel so blessed by both of them.

I'm going to go and get creative.
God bless your day!

Good morning world!

Today is another family day, but plan to get back in the creative mode tomorrow. If you haven't checked out some of my dolls, please check the archive on the right of this post. You can leave comments if you like in the comment space at the bottom of the page of the chosen archive. I'd love to hear from you. To my Etsy friends - Welcome, and thank you for all of the support. Everyone have a wonderful day! 

My one-of-a-kind dollies

That's about all I'm going to post today, going to sign off and  spend some quality time with family! I hope you enjoy looking at my babies. My problem is that we had a flood here in 2007 and I lost a lot of documentation (saved the dolls and supplies) And I have had several computer upgrades since the last doll I made in 2006. I have lost a lot of pictures and so I guess I'm just going to have to think about making some more dolls - actually I'm getting more excited about it all the time! I know I still have some pictures.... someplace, like on the original drive that I saved. But like all things, that will take time too. As I run across them I will post them. I have about 125 doll molds not including my own sculpts. But right now I plan to get some of my embroidery and sewing on Etsy (and this blog), as well as some of the dolls I have in my personal collection. But today seemed like a good day to actually post some of my creations. I hope God blessed you with a beautiful day.

"No Hunting Molly" - The 2nd doll I ever made

My mom said this doll reminded her of me when I was little.

Obviously I was a lovely child! LOL 

This little sweetheart is an original sculpt of Dianna Effner.

She is 24" tall 

Once again the costume design is mine.

I was inspired to make her "No Hunting" outfit after watching a bunch of our local hunters running around like a bunch of 'keystone cops' when a herd of 16 elk showed up in a field across the street from our house.

My only thought was "My guess is that... it's not going to be an elk that dies today" they were so beautiful and thank God nobody got shot... elk or man

Unfortunately I wasn't the one blessed with the natural occuring ringlets... that was my baby sister Jo

Isn't the moose button cute?

"Haiku" - December 31, 2000

"Haiku" was a birthday gift for my baby sister Joanne. 

"Haiku" is 24" tall and weighted to feel like a real baby.

The original sculpt by Frances Lynn of Bella Bambina Originals.

I designed the dress pattern myself, and now I can't find it!

So she is truly a one-of-a-kind dolly.

"Colleen - of the Emerald City" - A tribute to those Northwest Girls

Colleen came into this world as the original sculpt "Nadia" by PCF Studios.

I designed her to have a bit of a Northwest Flair.

She reminded me of a friend's little girl in Bellevue Washington in the mid 1980's

"Anne Shirley" August 2003

Another lovely sculpt by Dianna Effner - her original name was "Willow" - She is 24" tall and I designed her to resemble my favorite character from the book "Anne of Green Gables"

"Su-lin" - An Asian child and her dolly

"Su-Lin" was made from the original Donna Rubert sculpt "Chyna".

She is 24" tall and her dolly was hand made by me.

"Highland Eden" - One of my first dolls

"Eden" is a 24" doll originally scuplted by Donna Rubert. 

I love the little Thistle button

With my mother's maiden name being 'Cannaday', a highland doll seemed an obvious choice to be one of my first dolls

"Estela" - January 20th, 2000

My little Spanish Dancer ~ another Michelle Mastell Sculpt. 

Estela is 22" tall.

"Little Snow Feather" - A labor of love with Mom & Dad

The Powhatan name given to her at birth was "Matoax" or "Little Snow Feather." Her public name was "Pocahontas"

She was made by Maxine Heidloff with her trusty assistants Barbara Heidloff Corl & Allen Heidloff

"Little Snow Feather" was sculpted by Michelle Mastell of Faces Past She is 22"
The Grandma & Grandpa dolls barely visible to the right were made by my mom Maxine Heidloff.
I made the little cutie to the left.

Her cape has over 250 feathers - and my Mom and I made her costume of a supple white suede and seahells

The Base was made by my Dad, Allen Heidloff, from a round from a tree on our property in Vernonia Oregon. He then added a support for the doll and covered the top with a white rabbit pelt 

"Princess Madeline" - July 2004 - A gift for Alex from her "Mamah" Sandi

My sister Sandi had me make a doll for her Grandughter Alex.

Sandi chose her eye & hair color & style and the type of costume she should wear. 

The doll is 12" tall and named Madeline an Original Sculpt by Dianna Effner, one of my all time favorite doll artists.

She's from Dianna's "Little Treasures" series.

Her Apron and cap were made from an antique dress that I had found in a thrift shop many years before.

Kinda of a lazy day...

The weather is what I call perfect.... 60 and only slighty overcast and no wind.... should be outside doing something. This afternoon I will be mowing - again.

Alex will be going to her Grandfathers on Wednesday night to help him get ready for the family camp-out. I just finished Jake (Alex's little brother) an embroidered New Orleans Saints logo on a white sweatshirt. I miss him, haven't seen him in a long time.

I miss my Scott & Derya so much too. I think they are in Arizona right now. Didn't want to bug them with a phone call while they are out having fun, but when they get back hopefully it will be a big marathon phone call so they can fill me in on all their adventures.

Met a very nice lady online today from Etsy, she offered words of encouragement and hopefully a friendship will develope. Well I think I'll try to figure out a few things about blogging and see if I can't get some pictures posted.

God bless your day