Creative Week 23

I've had a pretty good creative week.

I made Martha a chair as have had to put the crochet one on hold, plus I think it is going to be too small for her.

As long as she doesn't eat too many donuts she should keep fitting it!

Clipper chose some red wool so I could knit her a red top.

I also made her a red skirt with some trim to bring in the greens.

I finally got round to making the NZ girls their matching underwear!

A few more items for Clipper's 'Mix n Match' wardrobe:

I finished three more TRDs and they tried on their dresses.

This one told me her name immediately: Miss Edie Brooks, whom I have already introduced in a previous post.

I did some nature dying of fabrics which I have also written about in a previous post.

I've been making some 'matching' Autumnal dresses for my little dolls that aren't packed away.

Little Gem was the first to get one, so she changed out of the spring/summer dress she had on into this.

I made one for Mini AG Kit

The two girls together.

I then made one for Mini AG Julie.

Gigi (who I really want to rename)

and one for Patch.

Here are the girls together.

I also want to make one more for Madeline, who has been much neglected of late.

Martha also got one.

I didn't do any bigger doll knitting this week, despite my best intentions, as I just didn't feel inspired to.  Maybe this week I will.

I sewed three pairs of shoes, for the final three dolls that didn't have any.

I chose colours that I haven't made before.  The girl in the middle will get a pink Tee knitted to go with her shoes.

This afternoon I faffed around with a shelf, on my desk, as haven't had any dolls out on display for ages and miss seeing some. 

I've since put up some fairy lights around the shelf, to add a bit of 'twinkle' factor on dull days and nights.

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This coming week I want to make an Autumnal knit dress for Hazel (my little wooden doll on the bottom shelf), and a dress for Madeline, who is currently sitting in my bedroom.

I want to work on my TRD Journal, as this is way behind.

Knit a pink top for one of the TRDs.

Knit something for the Sasha/Gregor/Schoenhut dolls, if so inspired.

I will try and stick to this list to start with, and then once I have achieved this, might deviate... we will see!

Car Boot Loot.

I am supposed to be downsizing my dolls, but as many of my readers already know, I am completely hopeless at that task!  I just like them all too much, and although I have managed to get rid re-home  some of them, I've also gained some!  So a big failure!  I have still got to post about my doll finds while in NZ - hopefully that will be tomorrow.  I thought I'd taken photos of them, but it seems not so will have to do some.

Anyway, today I went to our local car boot sale.  I haven't been for a very long time, as it is always usually full of very pushy people, and full of tat.  Whether it is because it is mid-term break and some people are still away, or whether things are changing, I'm not sure, but it was much more pleasant today and some good stuff was on sale.  I even found some dolls that took my fancy.  I limited myself to a certain amount of cash, which amounted to ten dolls, which seems a lot, but in my defence, they are small, were VERY cheap, and I could have bought more, but stuck to my self imposed limit.

This is the bundle I found.  Plus a little container with some little plates, glasses and bits and pieces that I thought would be useful.  Amongst them is a vintage Skipper, Ideal Pepper doll, a little doll who I think is from the Strawberry Shortcake family, an eighties Brownie doll and a Disney doll who is the most modern. She looked like she needed rescuing as she was lying on the ground looking rather dishevelled.

Two little Native American Carlson dolls.

Another wooden Polish doll to add to my collection.  I love wooden dolls of all types.  She has rather a posh velvet frock on.

A monk, because I felt sorry for him.

He needs a bit of an eye job, but not sure I'm capable of such a task!

This goofy, who I think is probably vintage.  He is jointed, and looks to be quite a character.

These girls have had a spa - and perhaps a bit too much tipple, but the looks of them!

The girls have all found something to wear, I even found shoes to fit almost all of them!  The little pink girl is wearing her original dress.  

The Life Boat

The LifeBoat Project has begun, and there are those that made the lifeboat, those that are clinging to the sides, and sadly those that just couldn't reach it.  

Having to thin down a beloved doll collection out of necessity, and one that has helped distract from various issues over the last almost 10 years is very hard indeed.  A lot of soul searching and head over heart has had to take precedent which is not easy to say the least.

Starting with the Sasha dolls:  At present I am hoping to keep all my boys.  I have quite a few dressed in costumes in a permanent display.  The others I hope to use for my stories should I eventually get back to writing them!  I have also got my permanent Sailor display and my Mini Me and Mini Sister pair.   I would quite like to set up the 'Rose Hip Chicks' in a display as well...but that might need rethinking who is staying and who is leaving!  I am also hoping to keep my toddlers at this stage.  Two are involved in a couple of the above displays and the other two I hope to keep incorporating in my stories.  

A lot still rests on just how many appointments I will need for treatment and the mounting costs involved. 

A lot of props will go as well - partly to continue to raise funds, and partly to just give me more room to breath!  As mentioned in previous posts I have two sale pages - one for Dolls for Sale and the other for Props for Sale.  This is still a work on progress and going is slow as other things also need to be done.   Plus I keep thinking 'but I might want to use that'. 

I am planning on going through my doll clothing and of course have quite a bit of my own handmade clothing available in my Etsy Shop 'Muriel Makes' 

I have already sold all but three of my American Girl Dolls.  Two I am keeping, one of which was a very special surprise gift from my son and few years back and the other whom I use for modelling the dolls clothes I make for my Etsy Shop 'Muriel Makes' .  The third, Kaya, is for sale.  

At present I am planning on keeping all my Schoenhut dolls if I can - they are hard to get in the UK and it is a relatively small collection.

The Other Dolls:  I need to really start reviewing these as well - they should have taken precedence in some ways, but value wise they are generally not on the same scale, so an awful lot would have to go to make up the equivalent sadly.  But I will be reducing them significantly, as all funds raised will help. 

I also plan on keeping most of my 'other' (in other words non-Sasha) boy dolls. 

If only we could win something on the lottery instead!  But with my track record of never winning anything even when I put all my raffle tickets in one pot, there is not a lot of chance of that.

I do know that aside from my childhood dolls, there are five dolls who will never leave:

Henry

Peggy Sue

Lewis

Hitty Madge

Hazel Bleuette

I want to get back to my stories as well, but at the moment it is just not especially likely. 

Just so this post isn't completely picture free...

Peggy Sue seems very relaxed about it all, secure in the knowledge that she isn't going anywhere!

The Sheer Magnitude

Some of these have gone already

A 'few' of the Sasha dolls (Photo taken earlier in the year)

How to work out who I can bear to part with is incredibly hard.  

Boys and Dolls

For those who know me, they know that I have a special affinity for boy dolls.  I am not sure how this came about, perhaps because I had two boys of my own, or maybe because I taught predominantly boys, or maybe because I used to like to climb trees, ride on skateboards, go tramping and hunting with my Dad when I was a child.  I also played with dolls - there was no 'right or wrong' pushing towards one thing or another  - I was given a choice.  Whatever the reason, there is something special about boy dolls, but also dolls in general and people should be free to play with them, enjoy them as they wish, without being made to feel that they are being childish, or whatever.  Women playing with or enjoying dolls can often be ridiculed, but boys and men can often experience this even more! Dolls can be good therapy, they can be calming, they listen to your troubles and worries without passing judgement, they can be a good source of historical interest, inspire creativity, whatever and wherever your interest may lie.  

Both my boys were allowed to play with dolls as and when they chose as well.  One enjoyed playing with them more than the other and he enjoyed playing with them right up until he was about 10 or 11 years old. This may be in part because he was home-educated until this age, so didn't have the peer pressure of 30 other children his age in a classroom that told him it was 'wrong'.  Other home-educated children seemed to be much more tolerant of one's interests and games.  I have fond memories of him dressed up in his great grandmothers felt hat, pushing a push chair up the street with 'Baby' his cabbage patch boy doll in it.  Him and a friend of his used to play with dolls in the garden - both action man and barbie type dolls - they used to get up to all sorts of adventures and imaginative play together and I remember the excitement on his friend's face when for his tenth birthday we gave him a girl doll - dressed in safari clothes.  He had never had one before and was thrilled.  

Yet when my son was asked by my husband's friend what he would like for Christmas one year and he said a doll, my husband's friend was horrified.  'I am NOT buying your son a doll!' he exclaimed. Of course whatever he did end up giving our son for Christmas is forgotten as it wasn't what he really wanted, so wasn't as memorable.  Very sad to see that he was so prejudiced and of course this was carried through to his own son when he had one.  He was not allowed to play with dolls and pushed very firmly in one direction.  Now his son  may never have wanted to play dolls, or 'home corners' (another of our son's favourite games) but the important thing was, he was never given a choice to make that decision himself.

My friend Jesse in New Zealand who has the blog 'A Boy Doll Diary'  which features Angelo and his friends, wrote a brilliant post on this subject with links to videos as well and it is worth reading and watching. You can see it here:  'More about boys playing with their dolls'

I must go through my photo albums and see if I actually took any photos of my son and his friend playing when they were young.  I don't think I did, as the focus was them enjoying themselves and the camera often wasn't to hand like it is now.  Most of his dolls and teddy bears are currently packed away in the loft, but 'Baby' and Brian'   stay down and sit together on the top of my wardrobe.

My son's 'Baby' as he called his Cabbage Patch boy.  I made him a load of clothes, which we still have packed away somewhere that include little cloth nappies and various outfits.

I introduced 'Brian' his Waldorf boy a few days ago.