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Friday, October 26, 2012

Green Christmas Elf Doll ready to Go!

                            Green Christmas Elf Doll 12 inch 30cm :: GermanDolls Online Shop


{this moment} - First Snow

Here is my "special moment" of the week. Please, feel free to share your's.

based on Soulemama's {this moment} series  - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.
 
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Thursday, October 25, 2012

Great NaturalKids Team Giveaway

when? this weekend Saturday, October 27th
where? on soulemama's blog
what? you could win a collection of Natural Kids Team toys and items valued at over $1,000

Included will be one of my little pocket angel ornaments. So darling...




Don't miss out and enter in it!

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Monday, October 22, 2012

Getting Old...

I have a hard time admitting it. But I guess one is getting old when checking out large print books from the library.

I went to the library the other day. I had just finished the John Irving novel  In One Person. It's about transgendered and bisexual people. I liked that book a lot but it kind of left me sad and depressed. I love John Irving as a general rule, but this one was very tough to get through. The book had 400 something pages too. Night after night I'd fall asleep after about reading 25 pages. Was it the sad content or my failing eyesight? I even lost a competition with my daughter in who would finish the book they were reading first. Cost me a $1. So I told the nice ladies at the library I needed something to cheer me up.


I wanted to read something in large print and a book that was funny. Success! I checked out Can't Wait to Get to Heaven by Fanny Flagg. It's the story of an old lady named Elner Shimfissle. She is my new hero. I hope to grow a little bit more like her every day.

Maybe time to get some reading glasses?

Friday, October 19, 2012

Wagon full of Babies

I have been working hard on my first big order for the season. After 5 days of making little ones my hands are cramping up, just a little bit. But wasn't it totally worth it?

I made 34 little miniature pocket babies. They don't even all fit in my little wagon.

                                               Now on to some bigger dolls...

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Getting Ready for Winter

I cannot put in words how glad I am that fall has finally arrived. It was sunny yesterday as we worked outside raking the leaves and cleaning up the yard. It wasn't exactly cool. But no more scorching heat. I am so very thankful for it!


I am also thankful for the first fire in our woodstove and being able to curl up with a book by the fire.
I am excited to get the warm comforters and flannelsheets out of the closets and get our beds ready for the cold nights.



I am thrilled to put up the last of the harvest from our community gardenpatch. We have never tried pickling peppers.

So this is kind of an experiment. We had good luck growing all sorts of peppers this summer. We harvested tons of bellpeppers, Jalapenos, and some really hot peppers called Scotch Bonnets. Unfortunately not many people around us seem to care for hot food. That's why we decided to freeze and pickle the extra produce. We used this recipe our daughter randomly chose from the internet. The jars look so pretty. You are supposed to let pickles sit for a few weeks before you can eat them. Even if they don't taste good I think it was well worth the effort.

Do you have any tips on pickling for someone who has never done it?

Friday, October 12, 2012

this moment

My moment of the week is finally finishing a set of 8 dolls. I made one from each skin color I own. I hope you enjoy my little rainbow of dolls!
 
Can't wait to finish them and dress them up!
 

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Perfect German Potato Salad

Hello, October! Time for some beer and brats for the German Immigrant doll maker. Oh well, the brats in this nation are not my thing. To my German tastebuds they are either too salty, or too dry, or too fatty.  Please, if you do find a good bratwurst point me the right way. I have tried and tried. I sampled about every kind of sausage from the regular grocery store to the high end whole food stores in a 100 mile radius. In my opinion there are no good sausages in Colorado. How come?

So I'll stick with the beer and some homemade good old German Potato salad. I think it's about high time I share my mom's secret recipe. Who the heck had the idea to put Mayonaise in a potato salad? Not only is it bad for you health it is wrong - just wrong!

We harvested 15 pounds of potatoes from our community garden patch. What better thing to do than make a salad from them? Right from the ground they went into our tummy.



What you need for this recipe are the following ingredients:

1-2 pounds boiled potatoes, with the skin left on if they are new
1/3 cup chicken broth
3 tablespoons cider vinegar
5 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 garlic clove, crushed in garlic press or cut up finely
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
chives

3-4 sliced radishes
2 tomatoes sliced into wedges
1 sliced hard boiled egg (optional)

Scrub the potatoes and boil them whole or cut into evenly sized chunks. Cover with water and put in a pinch of salt. Boil for 15-20 minutes until tender when stabbed with a fork.
While the potatoes are boiling prepare the dressing. Mix broth, vinegar, salt, pepper, crushed garlic, and vegetable oil.


After the potatoes have drained, add them still warm to your dressing and toss it.

Is this a transformer, fertility god, or a really a potato?

All the other ingredients are optional. My husband swears the radishes are not. They add a little zing. Our daughter loves the chopped eggs. Our son is a great fan of chives. So everybody is happy.


It had been a while since I made this dish. When I do I miss my mom intensely...Thank you Mama for teaching me to make the perfect German Potato Salad!

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Stocking up for the Holidays

I am sorry to say that I have not spent much time on my Blog lately. My time has been consumed with planning and meetings for my new website. It was supposed to be launched September 1. But the date keeps getting pushed back. I am getting a bit weary and frustrated. But all good things take a while. It's true for dolls and hopefully true for websites.



Whenever I have had a bit of downtime I have been working on small things such as doll clothes and little dolls for the shop. It's common knowledge that children like to find doll clothes hidden in their Christmas stockings or hanging from a Christmas tree maybe. Small dolls are a big hit every Christmas too. So no worries, Santa! Ther German elf is busting her chops to get things ready for you.