Pumpkin Baby Number 2, 2010

I told you about my addiction to cute little pumpkin patterns... So here is Pumpkin Baby number two for this year! This doll even has a little nose. I normally don't do noses. Maybe I will have to get away from my purist ways. I love how this doll turned out with nose. What do you think? Nose good or bad?

First Day of School Germany, 1971

Well, my dad made it a little closer with the camera on this particular occasion. You can actually recognize faces...This picture was taken in the same spot as the last one I shared with you. Again the kids are lined up on the cobblestone mini plaza in front of my parent's Business/Home in Langenlonsheim.

On the very left is my sister Christine, holding her Schultuete, on her first day of school. Children in Germany receive a cone shaped box with candies, school supplies, and toys when they start elementary school. The girl on the other end of the line is the neighbor's girl, from across the street. The three kids in the middle are my sister Sabine (covered up by my fat head), Susanne (the tall blond with the blue miniskirt, and me.

I remember the blue skirt I am wearing in this picture only too well, since my my mom bought 4 skirts of the same color, in varying sizes, and same material. My mom really liked putting us in matching clothes. Awe, look at the cute Seckler Sisters! Only, for me that meant I had to make my way through all of the different sizes of a particular outfit. This particular blue skirt, the one I am wearing here, was made of wool and really itchy! Being the youngest sucked big time in that respect...Also check out the dorky knee socks with sandals! What a hoot!

The car that provides the background for this shot was one of my favorites! It was a cute little French Renault. Unfortunately it was never big enough for our growing family. What was my father thinking when he signed that contract? We pretty much had to pile on top of one another when going places as a family. I don't think the torture lasted very long. The car was not as reliable as it was cute. It broke down a lot, and luckily was replaced by a VW Van at some point.

Oh the times before car seats and buckling children in. How in the world did we survive our childhood?

Etsy Frontpage: Fame but Famine

As I was about to leave the house for my son's baseball practice last evening, all of a sudden I got 3 messages from various Etsy-friends letting me know that I was featured on the frontpage. Wow! I got so excited. I was really hoping for a sale or two maybe. Well, what can I say. Nothing much came from it. Google Analytics tells me this morning that over 700 people checked out my store. Nobody bought a thing. I can't help but feel a bit discouraged today...

Fall Fun

Today the temperatures are in the 90s again...Sigh! I wish I was in charge of the weather. I am German after all. Even after living in Colorado for all these years, I can't get used the heat. I miss my gray German rainy days. According to my sisters' reports, it's been raining a lot in good old Germany. Not fair!...

So I continue dreaming of fall. I got the cutest new fall fabric in today. But I have not washed it yet. Do you wash all your fabrics? I wash every single piece of fabric that comes in. For one thing, to preshrink it. It's not like the dollies would complain about their clothes getting too tight after the first laundering...But you never know who handled it, right? I can't wait to cut into this cute new fabric. Maybe tomorrow? But for now I have been focused on making more little Pumpkin Pocketdresses. I so adore that cute fabric. Luckily I got a big stash of it. Hope I never run out!

Now which color do you prefer? Green or the wheat color? I love both so much!

Name this New Fall Baby

I have another baby without name. Please, help find a name for this little cutey pie! This could be a boy or girl doll. Nope, I don't make dolls that are anatomically correct. Somebody actually asked me to return a doll once so I could attach a you-know-what. I refused. Waldorf dolls are all about the imagination!

No noses, no ears, sometimes not even a face...So I'll leave the gender up to your imagination, too!

Can't wait to hear your name suggestions for this cute baby. Baby is ready for the fall in her sweet warm sweater, knit by Elaine, the best knitting granny , I know on Etsy! My new doll purse/boy bag goes really well with the knit cable design. I think this doll will have lots of fun collecting acorns and treasures from nature with her new doll owner.

What's in your Bookshelf?

Here you get a peek at the bookshelf I keep in my studio. It has a lot of great books on sewing, knitting, crocheting, and doll making. Do you have a bookshelf in your sewing room? Any recommendations for me?

End of Summer Blues....

this summer

we

visited family
played baseball
ran track
took dance lessons
gardened
swam
read lots of good books
cooked delicious food
visited museums
got the coolest face painting ever
learned how to crochet
had so much fun together



now it's back to school


I can't help but feel a little blue today after my brandnew middle schooler walked off refusing to have his picture taken

they grow up way too fast...

Helen - a Sweet Ballerian Doll

Enjoy the new photos of Helen. I dedicate her to all the sweet ballerinas - little and big - for their hard work and dedication.

Family Business

This is a photo of the old Seckler house in Langenlonsheim, Germany. For the first six years of my life, I grew up in this house. It was built in 1789, and was located on the main street of Langenlonsheim. My family, parents and grandparents on my father's side, lived on the first and second floor of that house. My parents ran the small business, you can see, at street level. They sold everything from newspapers, pencils, and postcards to home decorating products such as paint,wallpaper, and carpets...

The advertisement on the building depicts a character holding a paintbrush. He was known as "Krautolmaennchen". (in transl. the little Krautolguy) The ad says:" Do it yourself with Krautol." If you haven't guessed it already, Krautol was a brand of paint. I am sure being around paint all the time really fostered my artistic sensibility...

This picture, like most of the pictures from my parents photo album, was taken in front of the family business. My dad must have taken it from the other side of the street, in order to get the whole storefront into the picture. I think, the car was also very important to him. You can't see the features of the people, but you could easily make out the car model my parents were going in debt for that year if you tried...I deduct the picture must have been taken in the year 1966/1967. I don't have an exact date and can only tell by the number of children. The two kids on the left hand side of the car are my two oldest sisters, Susanne and Christine. On the other side is my mom holding my sister Sabine. She was my parent's third daughter born in 1966.

Name the Doll!

I just finished this new Asian Doll. She turned out really sweet. I just went blank when trying to pick a name for her. Any suggestions? Ideas? I went through all the different names of kids I know who have been adopted from China and other parts of Asia. I didn't think they fit. Please, leave your name suggestion in the comments section if you have a good idea. =)

The Harvest

If you have been wondering what happened to our garden patch, you must wait no more. Here are pictures of our giant plants and the fruits of our labors. The corn is huge! We harvested the first ears of corn about a week ago. I could not believe that we really grew it. Everybody was amazed at the size of the ears which had nicely filled in with the most delicious tasting sweet corn kernels. Who says you need fertilizer to grow giant corn? You really don't!

Now the squash and green beans are another story. Was it a success? Well, the final verdict is not in yet. Stan, the gentleman farmer you see in the picture below, insisted on ordering a pumpkin variety from Italy called Zucca Barucca. According to Stan's favorite Italian cookbook, Zucca Barucca makes a great filling for pumpkin raviolis made from scratch. I see more big projects in our future...

Zucca Barrucca. Zucca Barrucca. Just say it a couple of times. Sounds good, no? Like a magic spell almost. The only problem is that this pumpkin takes 101 days until it matures. Our squash is only halfway there. We may need some magic here. Will it make it before the first frost hits? It would be very sad, since we have tons of beautiful squashes on the plants.

I don't even want to think about the beans. The beans were probably the least successful of our trio of plants. We definitely planted them too late. They had trouble growing since they were crowded out by the huge squash leaves that hogged all the sunlight. Hmm, did anyone notice that it said on the package to plant the squash 18 inches apart? Nope, we missed that, trying to follow the Three Sister Garden instructions, which called for planting the squash plants closer. I suppose the Indians didn't grow fancy schmancy varieties from Italy. After all it's a New World food, and what do Italians know about squash? Maybe next year we will figure it out.

New Banner Revised

Since people pretty much agreed that the third one was the best one with a different kind of font, I did that one over. I picked a font called "Hurry Up"! I think it's really cute. Hope it speeds up the sales numbers. LOL Thanks so much for all your help!

Which Banner is Best?

I have been contemplating a new banner for my etsy shop. The old banner I have been using on Etsy, I had originally made for my Ebay shop. Since the person I bought the template from was not in business any more, I clipped, shrunk, and messed with it - until it finally fit in the format that Etsy requires. If you look carefully you can see that the letters are not very tidy...But I loved the font the person had used and could not find it anywhere. Too bad.

I thought it was time for a new shop banner. I am getting a bit tired of the same old same old. But now I find it's not that easy to make your own banner. There is a reason why people get paid for this sort of thing...I will put the three versions up for discussion here. Please, if you have a moment, check them out and tell me your opinion. Which banner do you like best?

1.My Old Banner

2.My Lotta Baby Colorful Banner

3.My Happy Customer Photo Banner

Please, leave a comment and vote for your favorite banner!

Creating New Dolls

I have been feeling very creative this week. Despite the heat I made two dolls. Amazing! Oh the things one can get accomplished when getting up at 4 am in the morning...I highly recommend it.

Meet little Esther. She is a new African American doll I just finished. I love sewing ethnic dolls. Unfortunately they are not as popular as blond blue eyed baby dolls. "Adoptions" sometimes take longer...But then again that's not so bad because I get to play with her for longer. =)