What's been going on in my life!

First of all my best friend came to visit all the way from Minnesota!  It was the first time I had seen her in two years and boy, was I excited!!!  We had a great time together!  We went out and ate at our favorite restaurant the first night she was here.  The next morning I dropped her off to visit with a friend of hers who is like a mother to her while I went and did my grocery shopping.  Then that night we went to another friend's daughter's wedding.  It sure was hot at that wedding!  The reception tables were set up outside!  We went out for a little while, but opted to stand up and eat inside in the air-conditioned building!  Then the next day, which was Sunday, she went to her old church and then we met for lunch along with some of her other friends.  Afterwards I hugged her goodbye and another friend, named Diane, took her to the airport to go back to Minnesota.  It was such a great weekend but passed way too fast!

Hopefully I will get to fly up and visit her before too long!

This is a really neat little piece!  It is only about 2 inches tall.  It was carved by my great-great grandfather!  It is a little ball inside a little cage.  My Great-Aunt Doodle had it in her wot-not cabinet and took it out so I could take a picture of it!  I just love it!

As I have mentioned before, My Great Aunt Doodle makes porcelain dolls.  Above are some dolls that others made and she made the dresses for.  Aren't they gorgeous?!  She does such excellent work!

The dolls above are wrapped in tissue paper and sit atop the cabinets in Aunt Doodle's sewing room.  She calls them her mummy dolls!  They are dolls that she has yet to make outfits for.  She has so many dolls in her house.   She has two beautiful, huge glass cabinets in her living room full of dolls she has made.  They are beautiful and I love looking at them!  It's like being a little girl again and dreaming of dolls!
I have always wanted to make a porcelain doll, but Aunt Doodle's doll classes were always during the week days when I had to work.  Several weeks ago she asked me if I would like to make a doll!  I was so excited and immediately told her yes.  So she told me to come pick one out.  She is nearing 80 and no longer teaches class during the week and so has quiet a number of dolls that have been poured into molds and soft fired, but not cleaned up and painted and completed.  I went over the following Saturday thinking I was just gonna do 1 doll.  I wound up with 5 dolls I am working on!  She is so sweet to let me do 5.  I have been going over there every Saturday and working on them.  She is teaching me so much and it is so wonderful to have this one on one time with her.  I seem to learn a little more about my family history each time I go.

This is the first baby head I worked on.  This picture shows it before I started to clean it.  Her name is My Princess and she is sleeping.  She has a porcelain head and hands and will have a cloth body.  I have already gotten her body sewn and waiting for when I finish her.

Here I am cleaning My Princess' head.

Here is My Princess after I cleaned her and she has been fired a second time.

And here is My Princess after I have painted her and she has been fired a third time!  I still have to put a little more blush on her cheeks and glue on some eyelashes.  Then I will have to put a wig on her and I think she will be ready for her body.  But I am not sure.  I have to see what else Aunt Doodle tells me to do to her!

 This leg and arm are soaking in water getting ready for me to clean them up.  They go to a doll named Victoria Rose.  Isn't that a pretty name?

Here are some of my doll parts before they have been cleaned.  Looks odd doesn't it?

These are doll parts after they have been cleaned and had their second firing.

This is Aunt Doodle's kiln that she fires the dolls in!  

This is Victoria Rose's head.  She looks a little spooky right now, but she will look beautiful when I finish her.  I have not painted her yet and she will have glass eyes!  How exciting!

This is Elsbeth.  She is all porcelain.  There are a lot of steps in making her.  After she was cleaned and fired, I had to put this wash all over her and then she had to be fired again!

Here is Elsbeth and all her body parts with the wash on them.  I also am making two little tiny dolls with porcelain heads and hands.  They are here also with the wash on them.  They will have cloth bodies, also.  In the upper left corner of the photo you can see part of My Princess head and her hands.

This is part of Elsbeth and the heads of the tiny babies after they have been fired again and I have painted on their hair and Elesbeth's face.  Now they will be fired again!

These two dolls are my Aunt Doodle's Elsbeth's.  I just love them!  I especially like the one on the right.  Her dress is so beautiful.  I might crochet a dress for mine, though, as I have patterns for some that Aunt Doodle let me borrow and copy.  My Elsbeth's coloring is more like the one on the left.

This doll is My Princess that my Aunt Doodle made.  She is so pretty.  I can hardly wait to get mine finished!

The two babies with the real hair are like the tiny ones I am making.  Mine will have painted hair, though.  I took several pictures of these but could not seem to get a really clear picture of them.  This one was the best.  Once again notice the beautiful gowns they are in that my Aunt made!

This is another one of my Aunts dolls that she made.  I think she is so beautiful!  My Aunt dresses her dolls in clothes of different periods right down to their under clothes!  It is amazing!  I have put other post on here about my Aunt and her dolls.  Check the side bar to click on them.

Besides working on my porcelain dolls on Satrudays I have been crocheting.  I made this purse for my friend's 88th birthday.  She just loved it!

I also made this thread holder to carry my crochet thread in when I go somewhere.  I made it a little larger then the last one I made and I made it purple and gold which is my son's school colors since I often take my crochet to his football games!

I have also been making rings with crocheted roses on top.  I have sold a few of them and am working on lots more!







Here are some more of my rings.  Such beautiful colors of thread!

I am still crocheting baby items.  Above and to the left are a hat and booties set.  I just love the pink and white together!

I also crocheted this lovely little baby Saque'.

We have had other stuff going on also this past week.  My daughter's cat, Apollo, had his eye taken out last Tuesday.  He had gotten hurt in that eye 6 years ago and had been blind ever since.  But the eyeball got infected and swelled up and had to be removed.  It looks pretty awful now because of the way the vet sewed it shut.  When he gets his stitches out on Wednesday of this week it will look much better.  We love this cat and are so happy that the surgery went well and he is doing so good!