back to life, back to silliness

These days instead of gearing up for a semi-cold weather run I have been donning pj's and practicing Pilates. Bentley thinks I am his personal play yard. One day several months ago, Mandee came over and literally forced me to craft. This was somewhere in the September - October period when I was a little girl interrupted. Before she left she gave me the makings for this little doll. Well, yesterday we finally made her. Isn't she lovely. As of late I am no stranger to yarn hair. And my new favorite trick for yarn hair is just to stick a wad of yarn in the sewing machine and sew it together (to what you ask, to nothing, just to itself)! Then you have your own nice little part that you can very easily hand stitch onto the head. Trim up the hair and and stitch it down to form a cute do. Not the best instructions I guess, I could do better if anyone really wanted to know. {Oops, in adding that link I just noticed your comment, Mindy about making a mermaid for Z. All I did for that was draw a silly mermaid and then cut it out about 1/2" larger. Then I just cut the picture in half and used those as patterns for the fin and body. Not the best way to make a doll, but it worked I guess. This doll below is from the Martha Stewart Kids Mag Sept/Oct 2004 issue, just incase you have that lying around the house. It's not online, but I did find this. It may not be the best instructions if you don't already know what you are doing. I have gotten myself into many a crafting disaster attempting to follow MS instructions. I find they are a little too vague for the novice. One such disaster involved my sisters and I attempting to make a sugar cube house at Christmas. Very funny. It ended up looking more like a demo site than a serene winter scene. Well, that's not much of an instructional, but I'm not a doll making expert. I am dying to do a little instructional on something fun though. Like building a stretcher for a painting or canvas rug making. hmmm}
Today we had another fun visit from Mandee and crew. We cracked up watching the excitement on Bentley's face over this lolli-pop. And even more funny, Bentley's interest in the sign Ellie put on the playroom door. (not intended for him)

I had fun chatting with friends today about Christmas preparations and traditions. I liked Sarah's idea of reading the kids a Christmas story every night by candle light. I think I'll try that this year. That means a trip to the library tomorrow! I love the library! And since Chris is MIA tonight, I have a stack of Martha Stewart Holiday issues to keep me company. Yay! I'm so excited for Christmas. I'm so thankful that I'm finally unpacked and settling in, emotionally and physically. So glad to be back to the real me. Happy me!