Inspired?

Where do you find inspiration every day? Especially when things are not going so great. Today I found it on Twitter. I don't spent too much time there but a tweet from my friend Jessika Hepburn stood out this morning. It was a quote from an old Carole King song Beautiful.

You've got to get up every morning With a smile in your face
And show the world all the love in your heart
The people gonna treat you better
You're gonna find, yes you will
That you're beatiful as you feel

Jessika's tweet was shorter of course. But since I got more characters available on my blog I went ahead and looked up the complete song lyrics.

 

And don't forget to visit youtube and listen to the song. It will make you feel better instantly!

Thanks Jessika. Hope you all have a beautiful day!

Summer is here!

How do you know that summer is here? You  know when the most delicious strawberry-rhubarb pie appears in your kitchen! Just look at my photo. Oh this yummy most crispy crust with red gooey deliciousness oozing out everywhere. When it came out of the oven it bubbled and looked like it was breathing.

I hate to say it, but I did not make it. My husband is the most amazing piemaker. And I am not just saying that because I love him. There is proof: He won the Blue Ribbon for his pies two years in a row at the Weld County Fair. The little old blue haired ladies didn't like it one bit. Never believed  that a guy could beat them at their game.

So he stopped entering his pies for judging and joined the Weld County Board for a couple of years to make peace with the ladies. You know, Board members are not allowed to enter in the Fair. Probably saved the dude's life...

The first pie of the summer was quite short-lived. I am sad to say we gobbled it all up in less  then 24 hours. Hope there will be many more this summer.

What's your favorite summer food?

The Winner of my 700 FB Fan Giveaway

The winning comment of my 700 FB Fan "Mystery Bag"  giveaway is comment number 11 by Devon. Thanks so much to all who participated.

Devon said...
Oh what a cute giveaway,,yes please add me to the giveaway,,also I am having one over on my blog come check it out..
www.devonstitching.blogspot.com

May 21, 2012 11:10 AM

Winner will be notified today and must claim their price within 3 days!

Purple Pixie and other Flower Fairies

I have enjoyed my little excursion into the world of miniature dollhouse dolls. In the process I had a chance to teach my daughter how to sew a doll dress and a pair of tiny pixieshoes. There was a lot of footstomping and sighing. When in life do we learn patience? I remember not being the most patient person as a child myself when I was learning to knit. I would get quite mad about dropped stitches and come crying to my mother to fix it.

Pink Flower Fairy on Sofa

How do you teach a 11-year-old that the skills I have now took over 30 years to be perfected? She gets so frustrated when I am trying to teach her. If you have some good tips, please share them with me. I thought chosing a small project like a tiny doll gown would be a good start. Maybe I was wrong?

Time for a nap after a long day of playtime.

Anyone hungry for some stew?

At least we got to have fun getting the old dollhouse downstairs and cleaned up. We took some pictures of the new dollhouse people to see how they would fit inside. Hope you like the dolls and the photos.

Dollhouse People

It's been a long time since I made a dollhouse doll, that is, except for my miniature pocketdolls, who can also live in a dollhouse. I am talking about 5-6 inch dolls. I am not sure why but whenever work on that particular size my hands start hurting. Something about the way my fingers bend when I sew on the heads and limbs. Today the thumb on my right hand hurts.

But small dolls are perfect for using up small scraps of fabric. Since I am almost out of skinfabric and my new order will take a while to get in I am using up the little odds and ends of materials that I have collected in bags. The family is appreciative too. They get tired of coming across bags of scraps in every closet of the house...

This tiny baby was very tired afte being born yesterday - so I put her right to sleep. ;)

700 Facebook Fans Giveaway

Tuesday May 29th, 2012:
Comments on this post are closed now! The winner, Devon Hanna, will be notified. Please, contact me within 3 days to claim your price!
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I am glad to report that I returned safely from my big trip with my daughter's 5th Grade Class. It was soooo much fun. But I must tell that story later. I will write about my adventures with Celeste on the NaturalKids Team Blog in a short while. As soon as I am caught up on sleep, laundry, and sore muscles...

While I was gone my Fanpage on Facebook made it to 700 fans. Thanks so much for joining and supporting me! As a little "Thank You" I want to do a Giveaway for a little surprise package.

Do you like surprises? My favorite thing as a child was to go to a little stationary shop where they sold an item called: Die Wundertuete. In translation that means a Mystery Bag.

If you want to enter in my GermanDolls Mystery Bag drawing, please leave me a comment this week. You will have until next Monday 27th of May, Midnight to leave a comment here on this blogpost. Please, don't forget to leave me your email address, so I can contact you if you are the winner.
Note that my blog has comment moderation and I will remove all doubleposts, so there will be only ONE entry per person!

And have fun anticipating the contents of the bag. ;)

Celeste and the Field Trip

Meet the Celeste. She will be joining me and my daughter's 5th grade class on a trip around Colorado this week. We have various stops planned for hiking and sightseeing. I will share the photos on the NaturalKids blog in a couple of weeks. This post will be part of a new series by NaturalKids Team members showing folks where we live.
In case you didn't know: The NaturalKids Team is a group of sellers who specialize in creating Natural Toys, clothing, and childrens' products. Please, visit our site and support this awesome group of stay-at-home mom and pop shops.

Here is Celeste waving Hello & Good-Bye for now...

Muttertag - Mother's Day

I thought a little German lesson on the word "Mother" might come in handy on this day...

• Muttersprache: mother tongue, note that it's Vaterland, the fathers own the land - the moms the language
• Muttersoehnchen: mama's boy
• Mutterkuchen: placenta
• Muttermilch: breast milk
• Mutterliebe: a mother's love
• Muttererde: the original earth a plant was grown in, that you must use when planting a potted plant
• Mutterschaft: the state of being a mother
• Mutterschutz: the act of protecting women who are pregnant and cannot be fired in Germany because of their pregnancy, pregnant women can keep their job for up to 3 years after giving birth.
• Mutterschutzgesetz: laws protecting mothers, see above

mutterseelenallein: the state of feeling totally lost and forgotten by all souls on earth - even your mother, kind of how I felt on my birthday this year when none of my 4 sisters from Germany called me since my mother was not there to remind them...

Seems like I can still smell the bouquet of fresh cut lavender I gave you when I was a child.

I miss you, Mama.


I hope all you mothers have a good day today! And please do call your mom.

Babies Moving out

For a little while it was bit sad over here. So many babies hanging around the house without a home to go to. But I am happy to report that 4 babies have been "adopted" recently so the doll "orphanage" its emptying out a bit. ;)

The baby from my last post moved to the UK yesterday. Safe travels, little one! Hope you enjoy living in merry old England. It will be quite a change from Colorado...

Another doll has moved to the East Coast. A third will find a home just around the corner. Gal number four is still waiting in the wings. Adoption papers were signed but her destination is not clear yet.

It is always hard to let go of them. Spending all that time making them, one does get attached to the babies. But it's also good to let go and be able to have room for new dolls. Our house is small. After all, that's the reason I started selling my dolls. Many years ago my husband got tired of all the dolls hanging around the sofa. He said:" Honey, why don't you sell a couple on Ebay?" And that's how my little business got started.

Since then I have sewn many dolls. I lost count of how many. But I am sure they are all living happy little lives somewhere in the world...

Boy or Gal?

I just finished this little doll. I call this baby since I can't seem to make up my mind whether it's a boy or girl. Baby has tan skin, brown eyes, and black soft curls. She is only 10" inches tall. I find that the smaller the doll the harder it is to put together. But this one turned out so cute I may have to make more of them...

Here is baby in her pink shorts before I sewed on the hair. I guess pink indicates a girl...

But then I changed the clothing on this doll. Now the doll is wearing a diaper with zoo animals, brown velour pants, and a matching zoo shirt. For trips to the zoo with her new mom or dad I figured she could use a warm hat. So I put on a cute blue pointy cap.

What do you think?

Sunny in Frog Pocket Dress

frogdress closeup 2, originally uploaded by germandolls.

They say "It's not easy being Green". But I think in this dress it is easy and fun!

Happy First of May!

My friend Kim Nijsten from the Netherlands inspired me with a photo and post about flowers this morning on Facebook.

"Happy 1rst of May!
Convallaria majalis
in Dutch: lelietje der Dalen
in French: Muguet"

I love these little flowers. In English they are called Lily of the Valley. In German their name is Maigloeckchen. In translation that means little May-bells. I think that describes them perfectly.
I remember when I was little I would go for walks in the woods with my family this time of year. We'd visit the forest on weekends in search for the pretty little white flowers that smelled so good. We were not allowed to pick them, just smell, because they were protected by law.

I just spent this weekend working in the garden with the family. A neighbor gave us a batch of Maigloeckchen last year. They have grown in nicely in the shaded area right next to the house. I can look at them from my window.

Lilies of the valley like moisture and shade.  There is not much of that to go around in Colorado. We carefully pulled out all the weeds around them to give them more space to grow. Then we mulched the bed with woodchips that we had received from the Greeley Cleanup program this weekend. This will help preserve the much needed moisture.

I think my little flower friends are very happy now. So am I - looking at them - remembering my childhood in Germany.

Thank you for Maigloeckchen! They make me smile.