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!

Fall Festival

This past Saturday my town had it's annual Fall Festival. They have crafts, food, antique cars, lumber jack contest, games for the kids, and music. It is an all day event. A friend of mine and I had a booth in it this year. This is the first year I have been in it in years!

Below is a picture of me and the baby booties, hats, and bonnets I had for sale.
Here is a close up of my booties and hats.
This is a picture of my two Christening sets I had for sell. I sold both of them to a lady who goes to my church. Her daughter-in-law is having a baby girl in late February.
In the upper part of this picture you see some ribbons that my friend made. She embroidered the different school logos on them. Also there is a bonnet I crocheted. In the lower part of the picture are some little Japanese bags I made to sell.
These are some scrub tops and little pajamas my friend made.
These are some pillowcase dresses my friend made.
Here are some jumpers, diaper bags, blankets, bonnets and little slips my friend made.
This is one side of our booth. It is my friends canopy and "Sew On & Sew Forth" is what she calls her business.
We did not sell very much stuff, but we had a really good time seeing and talking to lots of friends that we don't normally see very often. The crowds just weren't very big. In the past few years the fair that comes to town yearly has been coming the week of the Fall Festival and a lot of people go to it. I really wish they would schedule it in October like they used too!

Amber and Keith spent the day with me at the festival. Keith actually sold a pair of baby booties for me! I had gone to get us something to eat and left him in charge. He said a lady told him she did not have any babies. He told her they make great gifts and so she bought a pair! I was so proud of him!

Crochet

It is so strange how I go through these phases. Sometimes I will be in a fabric mode and make lots of quilts and other little things out of fabric and want to buy lots of fabric. Then other times I might be in an embroidery mood and want to do nothing but embroidery. Right now is my crochet mood. I have been crocheting for several months now. Whenever I go anywhere I am always wanting to look at the crochet thread and yarn. Fabric holds no interest for me right now. Isn't that odd?! Maybe I am just odd. Before you know it I will be in a mood to do something else and put down the crochet for a while.

I have really been enjoying the crochet, though. I have found some blogs where the ladies do gorgeous crochet! They are not American and although some of them I can translate the language on it is still hard to understand some of what they say or the patterns they post. But I have been able to look at the pictures of some things and figure out what different words in the pattern mean.

Here is a picture of the latest pair of booties I have crocheted.
This is a sachet that I got off one of the blogs I was telling you about. I just love it!
Here's a side picture of the sachet.
This is a little bracelet I made using purple and gold, our school colors here.
I am going to put some crocheted flowers on this bracelet.
This is a coaster.
Not really sure what this is. I think it kinda looks like leaves and will probably put a crochet flower in the middle of it.
This is a rose I crocheted out of size 20 thread. I just love the size it turned out.
This is a purple rose I crocheted out of size 10 thread. The color in the picture is not it's true color. The picture does not do it justice.
And here is a little loopy daisy.
I have lots more crocheted flowers and I need to take group pictures of them and post them.

Right now I am crocheting on a baby hat, booties, and sweater that a lady ordered. I hope to finish it this week.

Everything else here is going good. My son's football team has won every game they have played so far. They have played 5 games. Last Friday was the big game against our rivals across the river. Every year it is a big event. The stands were packed and it was so hot I was about to melt! We were so excited we won. It was the first time we have beat them in four years. We have a new coach this year and he has really done a lot with the team. I am not a football person at all. I am not a sports person at all. But I have enjoyed going to these games and am finally learning some about football. I still don't understand the downs thing. My husband has tried to explain it to me, but it just doesn't make sense. At least I have learned how to tell which team has the ball!

I sang in church again yesterday. I was more nervous this time then the last time. I think it is because my husband was there. Last time he was not there. This song also had more low notes and since I am high soprano and my mouth was really dry I kinda had a problem with that. Still after church everyone came up and told me how beautiful I sang. It sure made me feel good. But I sing for the glory of God and I know to Him it is perfect no matter how bad I think it is.

It is another Monday morning and I feel so sleepy. I could have just stayed in the bed. But, alas, I have to get my son to school and go to work. Ugh! I hope you all have a great day and week!
Diane

Good Monday Morning!

I hope everyone is having a great Monday Morning! I did not want to get out of bed this morning, but once I did I am up and ready to go. Things here have been pretty much the same. I know I lead such a dull life compared to most bloggers. I just take care of kids, go to work, take care of the house, take care of my dad, go to church, and do handwork, of course. As I've said before I have been crocheting a lot lately. I'm making baby booties and such to sell in our annual fall craft show. Below are a few pair of booties I have finished recently.
This one is a Christmas T-Strap:
This one is just a plain white one that will work for either a boy or girl:
These are done in antique white:
These are some of my favorites! Christmas booties:
This is actually made from a 1946 pot holder pattern. But I decided not to make it into a pot holder. I just use it as a doily on my dresser.
Remember a while back I put this picture of my great uncle, James Frank Dumas, on my blog? I have been trying forever it seems to get his military records and find out exactly what happened to him. He lungs got messed up in the Navy and he died just 8 months after being discharged from the Navy. He was only 23 when he died. Well, I finally got his records. They did not tell me what happened to him, but at least they tell me what ships he was on. I am sending off to get his medical records now. I don't know if I will be able to get them as they say most medical records over 50 years old no longer exist. And it has been over 60 years since he got out of the Navy.
I went up to visit my great Aunt Doodle (his sister) yesterday and take her a copy of the records. She enlightened me a little more about him. In his records it shows where he was put into the hospital twice not long after joining the Navy. This was a puzzle. The length of the hospital stays were pretty long. Well, when I told my aunt she told me that he had gotten the mumps and chicken pox not long after joining the Navy. So that explains those hospital stays. I am determined to find out exactly what happened to him in the Navy to cause the damage to his lungs. I just need to find out more information about the ships he was on. If anyone knows how I can find out information about the Merchant ships that the Armed Guards were on please let me know.

Has anyone ever gotten an email from this site, SeoBlogReviews.com wanting to pay you to do review of different websites on your blog? I got one today and just don't know whether they are legitimate or not.

I am off to get my stuff together to leave and take my son to school and then go to work. Hope you all have a great Day!!!
Diane