germandolls

Hearts for Vanessa Auction

2012-01-30T09:22:00.000-08:00

Please, make sure you visit this wonderful auction on Hyena Cart. It is a fundraiser for Vanessa Giasi and her two young daughters. Vanessa recently lost her young husband. A great number of dollmakers and crafters have come together to support her family during this time of trial. So please consider bidding on the wonderful items donated by many artists.

Bidding on one of my popular trademark pocketdresses starts at only $10. The auction will last 3 days from today through Thursday. So please, go and make a bid. I am really hoping this auction will be a great success for this young family. Thanks so much for bidding and thanks to the people who organized this amazing event!

Coupons for my Fans

2012-01-26T03:54:00.000-08:00

I love those coupons you can make on Etsy. What a wonderful feature. So I made one for my Facebook Fans. Are you a Fan yet? Please stop by my page today and become a fan today. You never know when one of these coupons might pop up...

Have a lovely day!

Guess What Tool!

2012-01-24T08:45:00.000-08:00

Have you ever seen this tool? I thought I share about it in my "Tools of The Trade" series on the NaturalKids Team Blog today. Hope you get a chance to pop over and check it out. I love this little tool. It's so pretty and useful!

Hope you have a great day crafting and making art! And if you are not a Maker of things, I hope you get to enjoy the art created with this beautiful tool!

The Wrapping Matters!

2012-01-23T08:43:00.000-08:00

I just can't help it. I am a terrible fabric addict. I was almost out of this precious hearts fabric I like to use for my Valentine's Day dresses. So I went on an on-line hunt for it the other day. I was very happy to find more of the fabric in 3 different places. One on Etsy and two on Ebay. All sellers were very helpful and nice when asked questions. But I have to say I would order from one fabric seller again because it was a real joy to receive the package. The wrapping was so incredibly cute. The yardage was wrapped in a protective plastic bag and had the cutest little bow with heartshaped buttons.

I just don't get it when people carelessly stuff something in an envelope without a note or anything. I take great care when I wrap and ship my dolls out. I suppose I expect that people would take the same care when I purchase something. But often they don't...What is your on-line shopping experience? Worst and best one? Please, tell!

So thanks so much angl1952 on Ebay! You are doing an awesome job. I will definitely shop with you again.

Pastel Babes

2012-01-20T14:06:00.001-08:00

Pastel Babes 1, originally uploaded by germandolls.

Just finished these cuties today. They look great tied to a baby shower gift. All kids love these in their pockets...

A Book you need a Hardcover Copy of...

2012-01-19T03:51:00.000-08:00

On Mondays, Tuesdays, and often Wednesdays you can find me on the NaturalKids Team Blog. Please, take a minute and visit the NaturalKids Team where I regularly blog, and do read the book review I wrote about one of my favorite children's book. If you haven't read this book already you must get it. If you don't have kids, that's no excuse either. Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo is a wonderful book for adults and children above the age of 9

Little Lovelies for Valentine's Day

2012-01-18T04:52:00.000-08:00

I could really use a new camera. I have not been able to get the perfect shot of my little ones arranged in a heartshape. There is always one little one who doesn't want to stay in line or the lighting is wrong. Good thing I have until February 14th to get my photo right....Any suggestions on how to improve my photo? Or what camera to get?

We Shall Overcome. Some Day!

2012-01-16T08:50:00.000-08:00

For 3 years now I have been wanting to finish an African America Doll and post it on Dr. Martin Luther King's Birthday. This year it looks like I will finally make it. I have been working many hours last week to complete a set of 4 ethnically diverse dolls. Two of them are custom dolls that will be mailed out to their new homes on Wednesday. The two other dolls will be listed in my shop today and tomorrow. So take a peak and enjoy!

It's been 16 years since I got my MA degree from the Free University of Berlin. I wrote my Master's Thesis on the History of Advertising and the changing image of African Americans in Advertising. In my thesis I discussed early ads for escaped slaves and ended with the hopeful ads from the Civil Rights period. I believe it was a pretty good paper. Back then I had hopes of publishing it some day. Well, I didn't. Hopefully somebody along the way found my work useful in their studies of the American society.

I named her Rosa after the famous Rosa Parks.

On this Martin Luther King Holiday one may ask have things really improved since the Civil Rights movement? Yes, the US has actually voted an African American into the highest office of the Nation. As a scholar of the Civil Rights movement I was elated when this happened. But almost every day now I read about elements in society calling for acts of violence against the elected leader of this country. It makes me wonder will Dr. Martin Luther's Dream ever come true? I want to believe that some day we will be able to overcome all our differences and live in peace. I don't think we are there yet...

Happy Martin Luther King Day!

Doll Finished

2012-01-15T11:37:00.000-08:00

I just finished this sweet little girl. Remember the discussion of hair colors from few days ago? Everyone agreed that the medium blond was the best choice. I named this little gal Mia. Mia has lovely mocha skin, blue eyes, and is wearing this cute dress with French phrases. I made her Pocketdress from an adorable Japanese fabric. I have precious little of this fabric - so she is a true treasure!

I hope her new owner will fall in love with her!

Just working away...

2012-01-12T09:48:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I put a finished doll in my Etsyshop. I am kind of feeling sad about it. What is a dollshop without any dolls in it? Who will wear all those cute clothes in my shop? Maybe time to cut down on the doll clothing production. It's hard to juggle these decisions at times.

I have a number of custom dolls I must get finished and out to the folks who ordered them. I don't like to keep people waiting so long. I don't like it when I owe stuff. Do you ever feel that way? Does it stress you out to owe people? Whether it's money or a completed doll. I don't like that feeling very much.
So I have decided to cut down on offering custom items. I will order two custom slots per month - at the most. Is that a mistake? On the one had I like to make custom dolls because it gives me an opportunity to communicate with my customers and find out what they like. On the other hand though I get frustrated not being able to created freely. I feel a bit like a dog on a leash not being able to run to the park...Does that make sense? LOL

Dolls in Progress...

2012-01-11T04:29:00.000-08:00

Slowly some sweet babies are coming alive. In this picture you can see 4 different heads in the skin colors I offer. I have a pink flesh color, a yellowish beige color, mocha, and a dark chocolate brown. It's always interesting to me how different colored fabrics seem to have different stretch. Or is it just my imagination?

If you look closely you can detect that the dark brown fabric always ends up being a bit more lose and stretchy. Not sure why that is. I did everything the same.

Now off to decide what hair color to choose for a mocha doll. I have a request for golden mohair by a customer. I have never done this combination. I am not that daring a person. I usually go with black for brown hair for that skin color. But why not? There are a lot of blond children with darker skin out there. So tell me which of the two you prefer:

Is it the golden golden girl?

Or the medium blond girl?

When I first looked at the yarn I was sure it was the bright golden color. But now I am thinking the lighter color looks better...Decisions. Decisions.

Great Feedback

2012-01-08T05:56:00.000-08:00

Nothing makes me happier than getting great feedback from a customer. Often receiving a nice comment will make me blush, smile, or even cry....Here is a comment I received on Etsy yesterday.

"I purchased the 12" custom Waldorf doll as a Christmas present for my two and a half year old daughter. The doll is truly a masterpiece. Made only of natural material she gives the feeling of warmth to the holder. She has a presence that is life like I keep waiting for her to speak. Her hair is beautifully curly and lovely to touch. I purchased the Rosepink Velour Nightgown and she looks perfectly dressed for say or night. My daughter loves holding her and sleeps with her tucked under her arm. At 12 inches she is the perfect size for little girls to hold and love. As my daughter said when she opened her Christmas box, "I'll take care of her Mommy. I love her". Overall I give her a 10 out of 10. I have looked at a lot of dolls and this one is very special."

Jan 7, 2012 Waldorf 2012 model custom doll, Dress Your Baby 12" custom doll, waldorf style doll by GermanDolls

Thanks so much for the wonderful feedback, Hanah!

Working on Some Doll Heads

2012-01-07T14:24:00.000-08:00

After the Christmas rush I was quite tired and worn out. It was high time to clean up my little one-room studio and get organized. I could not see the workbench any more for the piles of fabric and notions hither and yonder. Then I had to do the pesky paperwork. I swear I'd rather be making dolls than keeping track of receipts...

Next I thing I figured I was all out of dollheads. Had to start some new ones from scratch. This is the perfect activity for the first week of year if you ask me. Here is how they all start those little lovely children of mine.

Each Waldorf style doll, small or big, starts out with a wound ball of wool. It looks so easy, doesn't it? But if you ever tried you might find that it takes quite a bit of patience and skill to get perfectly round globes of wool. Even the littlest of my babies has a tiny ball of wool inside their head - all handmade! So please forgive me when I get a tad impatient with people asking me for a discount. I know $10.50 for a tiny baby may seem a lot of money to some folks. But you must understand that each little one was created with care and lots of love - all wound up in this tiny ball of wool. You cannot put a price on that really. Unfortunately I must!

If was a rich gal I swear I would give them all away for free...I'd give one to each kid I see crying in the street. I'd give one to each adult too, just because...they are so darn cute, and we all remain children at heart.

It's New Dawn. It's New Day. It's a New Year!

2012-01-05T04:57:00.000-08:00

I hope you all got off to a good start to the new year. 2012, imagine that. I remember being in highschool and thinking the year 2000 was so far far away...The older you get the more it seems like time is speeding up. Can somebody please stop pushing that fast forward button!
The time between the years is an odd time. I am feeling a tad melancholic and sad. So not inspired to write. Please forgive me for skipping a whole week of blogging. I had to catch up with taxes and all the not fun things that come with owning a business.

Slowly I am getting all caught up now. The little rascals are back in school. I miss them. But I am glad for the peace in the house.

I wanted to share a photo of a beautiful sunrise I took the other day. Oh, how amazing the sunrises are when you live out West. No picture can really capture it. But heck, at least I tried..

New Year's resolutions, anyone? Mine is to keep trying. Trying to do my best in everything I do. That's all we can do. And maybe sometimes we accomplish a little piece of that greatness...

It's a new Dawn. It's a New Day. It's a New Year!
Happy New Year to all of you!

Why would you use a Bobbin Sidewinder?

2011-12-28T05:59:00.000-08:00

Yes, I have seen this gadget around sewing machine shops for many many years. I often stared at them and wondered what they were for. What is a bobbin sidewinder? My mother certainly never owned one. Why would you buy a $100 gadget that does something your sewing machine already does?

But the more I thought about it during the course of this year the more I thought this gadget may be a very useful thing to own when you sew a lot.

Me, figuring out my new gadget...

Now here are my top reasons to justify the cost of owning this little machine:

1. In some sewing machines - especially older ones - the bobbin thread process actually uses the same guides as the sewing process. Luckily in my machine it does not! But for those folks: here you are working on a project and are getting low on bobbin thread in the middle of it. It's very annoying to have to set your project aside, unthread the top thread, change the settings on the machine, wind new thread, change setting back, and then you get to go back to your project. Despite the fact that I have a better sewing machine with a get-up to wind thread apart from the sewing guides, I still find that I have to unthread because I don't own that many spools of the same color thread. Being a small business I can only afford to keep so many spools of thread around... Sigh! So I mostly end up unthreading the machine and then rethreading it when I am done winding the bobbin. Big pain in the neck!

2.On days when I sew a lot my foot gets really tired of pushing the foot peddle. Believe it or not: I sometimes get problems with my ankle from it. I get cramps in my foot and the ankle really hurts...The sidewinder means less peddle pushing. Just push the little switch and you are back in business with the bobbin.

3.Why burn up the motor of your wonderful high-class sewing machine to do this low-class job? Does the queen do her own dishes? Pffff...

4. Lately my machine's bobbin winder has been giving me a bit of trouble. It sometimes creates horrible little nests of thread when winding a bobbin. What to do with those nests? They are really for the birds and pretty much wasted thread. Could it be my fault because I am pressing down the presser foot unevenly or could it be that my bobbin winder is actually breaking? I am afraid to take it to the sewing shop to find out. I have read on various sewing websites that it costs $100 plus if this mechanism actually breaks on your machine. So one might as well invest in the sidewinder.

5.Now I could actually sit down and wind a number of bobbins for the next project because it's so fast and easy. I could tell my 10-year-old to do it for me.

So you can imagine how very happy I was when Santa brought me a Bobbin Sidewinder. It's really easy to use and works so fast from what I can tell. But I will let you know how it goes...

Thank you so much, Santa! I think my new toy is the best in the house. Shh. Don't tell the kids or they will all want to play with it. LOL

Merry Christmas - Frohe Weihnachten

2011-12-24T09:36:00.000-08:00

Wishing all of my friends, blog followers, and customers Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!

Thanks so much for all your support in 2011!

Cookies at the Last Minute...

2011-12-23T05:17:00.000-08:00

Finally...I closed my Etsyshop, and I am slowly getting caught up with family duties. I baked Christstollen three days ago, and yesterday we made some Christmas cookies. Despite the hurry and being totally stressed out at the countdown to Christmas, our baked goods turned out fabulous.
My favorite recipe of all is actually a Swiss Christmas cookie called "Baseler Leckerli" (Lecker means yummy. Little yummy cookies in translation). Sorry if this recipe comes too late for your Christmas preparations. Maybe you can use it next year. But frankly if I had not gotten to make them with the kids this week I would have done it after Christmas. They are too good to be skipped for a year. For me they are the next best thing to the Lebkuchen/ Gingerbread I miss from Germany...

Ingredients:

wet ingredients:
1 cup honey
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup butter
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 nutmeg, freshly grate is best
1 egg beaten

dry ingredients:

3 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon soda

other:
1/4 cup of finely chopped candied lemon peel
1/4 cup of finely chopped candied orange peel
2 tablespoons of Kirschwasser or orange juice

3/4 cups finely ground filberts or hazelnuts

Melt butter in a saucepan and add honey, brown sugar, and the spices to it. Heat this mix and stir it until the sugar has dissolved and all is well mixed together. Beat the egg. Add it to the ingredients in the pot. Be careful that the mixture is not too hot or your egg will get cooked! The mixture in the pot should has to be cooled down before the egg is added! Pour it in a medium sized bowl.

Sift the flower and add the salt and soda to it.

Chop the candied orange and lemon peel and soak in the Kirschwasser or Orange juice for a few minutes.

Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients in the bowl by the tablespoon stirring it until all is incorporated. It's going to be a heavy sticky dough. Next stir in the candied fruit. Last add the ground hazelnuts. Place cookie dough in the refrigerator for at least an hour. I like to rest it overnight...

Roll out the cookie dough on a lightly floured surface to about 1/4 of an inch of thickness. We like to use small cookie cutters. We usually get about 200-250 cookies from this recipe. You bake them on a greased cookie sheet for 6-7 minutes at 400 degree Fahrenheit. You know they are done when the edges turn lightly brown. It's best to work with 3 cookies sheets and have them ready and rolling.

I guess the biggest hassle for me each year is the hazelnuts. In Germany hazel- or filbert nuts are sold shelled in a package like you would buy any other nut. In the US I have to buy whole nuts in the shell each year. Good thing is I have my personal little Nutcrackers...The kids crack the nuts for me, and I grind them in the food processor. It's quite a mess and takes a bit of time. I dread the process each year. But once the cookies fill the house with their awesome smell, I know it was so worth it.

The Jesse Tree

2011-12-21T05:15:00.000-08:00

Every Christmas our church sets up a Jesse Tree during advent season. In his article about The Jesse Tree and its' origin Dennis Bratcher talks about how Christians have tried to include the tree symbol in churches these days.

While nearly everyone has a Christmas tree, there has been reluctance in some circles to incorporate Christmas trees into the church sanctuary, arising from suspicions about the pagan origin of the symbol. However, since the Christmas tree has become such a part of Christmas celebration around the world, it seems more important to give it some clearly Christian meaning.
(quoted from Dennis Bratcher)

Bratcher also talks about Jesse Trees as a way to keep time like an advents calendar. People use the trees to hang ornaments and tell Christian stories. Our church has had a Jesse Tree for many years. But it's completely different from the ideas described on the Christian website I found.

Our youth director collects the names of children in our community who are in need. The Jesse Tree is decorated with pretty gift hangtags with the name, age, and the item a child wishes for for Christmas.
Our children are often surprised at what these children ask for. What kid would ask for clothes for Christmas? Blue Jeans or a sweatshirt? We are not rich, yet richer than most that we do not worry about having basic clothing items...

Each year our children get to pick out a boy and girl to buy a gift for. Then we go shopping for the gifts together as a family. This year our daughter picked a little girl named Michaela whose tag said: 5 years old needs some shoes size 13. I have never seen my daughter struggle this much with the task of buying a gift for the Jesse Tree. I guess it was harder this year because she wanted a pair of new boots for herself so badly. Since her old ones from last year still fit her we had told her "No". The idea that her parents were spending $25 on a strange child was hard to grasp. She kind of left the store sulking.

It's hard as a parent not to cave in and buy my kid some boots too. But this was not a trip about buying stuff for ourselves. It was about giving to other people who have so much less than we do. Once we arrived home and my daughter started wrapping the gift, she got more and more excited about giving this gift to the little girl. By the time we took it to church to place it under the tree she was all smiles and happy as a lark!

I think it's such an important lesson to teach kids: Often there is more Joy in Giving than Receiving! Merry Christmas, little Micheala!

Today is the Day!

2011-12-16T05:13:00.000-08:00

I keep saying that to myself. Today is the day I will bake some Christmasstollen. Or maybe start some cookie dough for the kids to mess with. But then another day goes by, and all I do is catch up with my orders. On top of that we are having a Christmas Party on Sunday. Got to shop for treats and clean house. I really could use some Elves here.

I sighed a big sigh of relief when I got this last custom doll finished and in the mail. Looks like she arrived safe and sound. At least one thing I don't have to worry about now...
Please, keep your fingers crossed that the family won't toss me out in the streets for being the world's lousiest housekeeper!

Piles of Packages

2011-12-14T04:35:00.000-08:00

This season has definitely been the craziest for me ever. Each morning I have been packing 4-5 packages to ship out. I am just so glad I don't have to stand in those endless lines at the PO. They are getting longer and longer each day.

But then I had a small disaster yesterday. One of my packages got stuck in a shoot at the PO. I had to go to the counter after all and ask for help clearing the shoot so I could put the rest of my mail in.

My theory about it is that each post office has different-sized mailshoots. The one downtown has the biggest one. Makes sense, right? The bigger the Post Office the bigger the shoot! But my mailcarrier didn't think so. Her theory was that the shoot was just too full to accomodate my package and that's why my package got stuck in there. I think I may have to stand in line after all. Or sit by my door each day and wait for my carrier to pick up my piles of packages.
Meanwhile I have not made much progress on my Christmas presents for the family. How does Santa do it? Does Mrs. Santa and the Elves ever get a present?

Last Night at The 2011 Nutcracker

2011-12-10T07:30:00.000-08:00

Everybody was so excited for the first performance of this year's Colorado Dance Theatre Nutcracker edition...

Featuring over a hundred local kids. Unfortunatly I didn't get too many good shots of the many different character's. Since I signed up to help with make-up I got only two photos for you.

Junior CandyCane

A very excited Clown

I apologize for abandoning my blog this time of year. When I am not shipping orders you can find me painting clown faces this week. I wish there were more hours in the day. But isn't that how we all feel this time of year. Hope you are having as much fun as I do this season!

Ella in her Teacups Dress

2011-12-07T13:15:00.001-08:00

Ellen 1, originally uploaded by germandolls.

Meet little Ella. She is ready to attend your tea party. I promise her manners are impeccable and she knows how to sit still.

Arctic Cold

2011-12-05T10:30:00.000-08:00

Brrr. It is so cold here. We had a low of 7 degree Fahrenheit last night (about minus 20 Celsius, my German friends). The only comfortable room in this house is the living room, next to the fireplace. This is the time of year when doll making is the most fun. I want to make myself a little cocoon with the wool I am working with. Too bad I can't. I need it all for stuffing the dolls.

In the mean time we also had snowfall number 3 and 4. Only 22 more snowfalls to go. Great!
Meanwhile the children had fun using the icicles for props. Remember that TV show "Whose line is it anyway?". I used to love that show. My favorite part was when the actors were presented with styrofoam props and had to make up a little story with them.

My kids did this with icicles this week.

The boy pretended to be a saber-tooth tiger from Iceage....

The girl faked having a snotty nose from a really bad cold. LOL

I don't like going outside when it's this cold. But I am glad that the temperature are more winter-like and the freakish hot weather has finally come to an end....

On My Workbench this Week...

2011-11-30T15:40:00.000-08:00

So the little elves are getting busy for the dash to the finishline. Where did November go? I don't have a clue. Between finishing last custom dolls and getting a few new nightgowns in my Etsyshop I barely get out of my little studio. I love that new kitten fabric. Isn't it the cutest thing ever?

Good thing I put up a lot of pesto for the winter. When I get in a pinch I can pull a few cubes of pesto out of the freezer and make a delightful meal in a flash. The kids love it, and soon after I can go back to my workbench. Now I just need someone to do the dishes and laundry for me...

Other than that I have to keep up with my two posts per week on the NaturalKids blog. I hope you get a chance to pop over there and read my latest contribution about why I am agains canned food. Not like I have time to waste on cooking beans these days. But let me tell you, they taste so much better than what you buy in a can.

So I am sorry for checking not in much this week. I hope I'll do better once the workbench get's less crowded and the elves finish the long list of items Santa ordered them to make. Good thing the elves love their job. ;)

Cyber Monday Sale in my Etsyshop

2011-11-28T07:26:00.000-08:00

Hi peeps,

Sorry if I got this up a bit late today. I am just so darn busy with the dolls and Thanks giving was a bit stressy too this year. But I am slowly getting caught up.
So I just created a coupon code for my shop. In case you were wondering and hoping for a sale in my shop. Here it is:

Sale is only thru today! So hurry up and get the items you had your heart set on!

Winner of the 500 FB Fan Giveaway

2011-11-27T11:55:00.000-08:00

The winner of my 500th fan FB giveaway is Emily Strickland. Congratulations, Emily!

The winner must contact me within 48 hours of this announcement. You can reach me through my Etsyshop via conversation or send me note on Facebook.

500 Facebook Fan Giveaway

2011-11-26T06:13:00.000-08:00

Okay, peeps. I am near the finishline here of reaching the 500th FB fan. Looks like some people are fickle. They drop me, but luckily soon a new person gets on. I find it so very confusing...I kind of get upset when somebody quits my site. I really wish I knew why they do it. Reminds me of the days when I was a kid playing in the sandbox. Suddenly one of the kids will say to me: You are not my friend any more! Wahhhhhhhhhhhh! I guess I will never know why they don't like me any more. I wish they told me when they don't like something I am doing.

Anyways, to one lucky kid who remains in the sandbox to play with me: I have decided to give you a $50 shopping spree in my Etsy shop. One kid will be declared the winner of the 500 Fan Giveaway. So make sure you are still a fan when I hit that number. One lucky person will get the some free dollclothes or will be able to use the $50 towards the purchase of one of my handmade dolls. Please, note that I cannot make any more dolls for this calendar year. My schedule is fuller than full. But tell your friends about my Facebook page because I am only 6 people away from 500 fans.

Thanksgiving Alphabet...

2011-11-24T07:35:00.000-08:00

Things from A - Z I am grateful for:

A - Air -good mountain air to breathe
B - bread - Fougasse, French bread fresh from the oven
C - Colors - all the colors of the rainbow
D - Dolls - being able to create and sell them
E - Electricity - because when you are in the midst of a storm-induced power outage you really learn to appreciate it!
F - Friends - on Facebook and other places
G - German Accent - I have a sort of love-hate relationship with that one. Some days I get tired of telling people where I am from. But it sure make for interesting conversations, too...
H - Harvest. Of course, what would be more appropriate on Thanksgiving Day? We harvested lots of veggies and got to grow our own watermelon in our community garden patch this year.

I - The Internet and being able to connect with people all over the world
J - Jobs. I am glad my husband has a job and is able to support the family. I pray that each person who needs a job will find one this coming year.
K- Kids. My kids make me smile all day. What would I do without them?
L- Lemons. Because when life gives you lemons, you just make lemonade with them. And we have this saying in German: sauer macht lustig. (sour things make you laugh) so don't lose your sense of humor no matter what!
M - Marcus. My husband, though often he does drive me nuts.
N - Nuts. I love all kinds of nuts. Coconuts. Walnuts. Pecans. Hazel Nuts.
O - Origami. I think paper crafts are so cool.
P - Pizza. I know 90% of kids say that when asked for their favorite food. I like making Pizza from scratch with fresh veggies grown in my garden.
Q - Questions. It's good to have a lot of questions and look for answers all the time. Makes us smarter. It's the people who have all the answers that do scare me...
R - Recycling, reusing, re purposing.
S - Safety. The children say, they are thankful that we live in a country where people are fairly safe from political unrest.
T - Tomatoes from the vine. Okay, it was weird how we had tomatoes to eat from our garden until the end of November this year. Freaky!
U - The movie UP. It's a favorite in our family. The most UP-lifting kid movie I have seen in a while.
V - Verwandtschaft = the German word for relatives. I do miss my family from Germany and hope to make it home soon.
X - X-Factor Show. I hate to admit it, but I do love that show. So much better than American Idol because older folks can be in it. Not that they would ever win in this culture focused on youthfulness...
W - Wool, soft and warm to stuff my dolls with.
Y - You, the people who read my blog.
Z - Zeit - the word time in German. I am grateful for the time I have to create and write.

Now quick do your own alphabet and tell me what things you are grateful for.
Happy Thanksgiving!

Please Check it out! Post about Waste Land

2011-11-22T03:26:00.000-08:00

I was so excited. I wrote this long - and what I thought to be engaging - article on the NaturalKids Team blog about the movie Waste Land. Honestly, I spent a long time on this piece of brilliant writing. With the result that I got ONE single comment.
So please, if you see this, can you go on over there and read my post. I would much appreciate you taking the time. Hopefully it will inspire you to watch that awesome documentary.

It's about hope. And who can live without that? So I am hoping you drop me a note.

Promise you are not wasting your time!

Etsy Treasury

2011-11-20T13:22:00.000-08:00

I was featured in this cute treasury today...

Thanks so much, Maggie!

International Shipping of GermanDolls Christmas 2011

2011-11-19T05:23:00.000-08:00

It has come to my attention that there are longer THAN USUAL delays in shipments to various parts of the world. Let me give you an example: My last package to Germany took over 5 weeks. Not sure why customs all over the world has taken it upon themselves to hurt small businesses in such a way. Do they sit there and roll the dice on whose package makes it through? Is there a system? Or maybe it's the Postal Services' fault? I am not sure who is to blame here. I am sad I have to make this announcement. Almost as sad as Duke when he found out he wasn't allowed to come to the baseball game this summer...

Dear International Customers,

I just want to let you know that I dearly love you people in Canada, Australia, UK, Belgium, and other places I normally ship to. I don't want you to walk in my Etsyshop and buy doll clothes or dolls - all hopeful that your items can still arrive on time for Christmas. To save you from disappointment and myself a huge headache, I went ahead and changed all my listings to US shipping only.

Of course, if you still want to order because:

a) you are an optimist and know good fortune will lead your dollorder to your house on time or

b)you have connections in customs or know the Postmaster General in person or

c) it's not really a Christmas present and you don't care when it arrives you just WANT IT

In those cases you can contact me, and I will gladly make you your own personal listing to purchase now.

Love,
Your Faithful German Dollmaker
Ulla

Key-ing - An American Sport? Schluesseln - eine Amerikanische Sportart?

2011-11-17T08:18:00.000-08:00

The word keying had not been part of my vocabulary at all. I guess my high school English teachers didn't know about it, it never came up in any of the novels I read in college, and when living in England I never heard this term either. It must be a new kind of "sport". Let me explain this to those of you who are complete innocents like me or those of you who are foreign to these parts:
Keying is when somebody takes a key and makes a big fat scratch on the paint of your car.

Das Wort "keying" oder schluesseln in direkter Uebersetzung war mir nicht bekannt bis vor Kurzem. Keying oder "schluesseln" bedeutet, wenn jemand einen Schluessel nimmt und damit einen riesigen Kratzer auf Deinem Auto hinterlaesst...Seufz.

Why am I talking about this? Well, a couple of days ago my son's 7th grade basketball team had a game against another school in a little town about 1 hour's drive from our town. Emotions had been hot, since our team won the last game against this team in a close game during overtime. I guess I did not realize how hot people were, until we visited their gym two weeks later, thisTuesday night. From the get go everything seemed rigged against us. There were strange calls. Refs calling fouls on our kids and a few discussion ensued about the running of the clock. Despite everything our team managed to win.

Warum erzaehle ich davon? Vor zwei Tagen hatte unsere Basketballmannschaft ein Spiel in einer kleinen Stadt ca. eine Stunde Autofahrt entfernt von hier. Die Woche davor hatte unsere Mannschaft diese Mannschaft besiegt, und die Emotionen waren ziemlich hochgefahren. Mir war nicht bewusst, wie hoch, bis zu diesem Revanchespiel am Dienstag. Von Anfang an schien das Spiel zu unseren Ungunsten zu laufen. Da gab es ein paar Fehlentscheidungen der Schiedsrichter und merkwuerdigeUnstimmigkeiten mit der Stoppuhr...Trotzdem gewann unsere Mannschaft das Spiel.

It often boggles the German mind how people get so worked up about youth sports in the US. Not that I don't enjoy cheering for my kids and watching their games. But when I see how out of control parents get here, I fondly remember the days of my youth when I was on a table tennis team in Germany. My parents never went to the matches and could have cared less about the results. They were happy I had some safe place to be and get some exercise. I think my coach was the only person who ever got worked up over our team's losses.

Ich finde es wirklich befremdlich als hier lebende Deutsche, wie sehr sich manche Leute ueber die Spiele von Jugendlichen aufregen. Natuerlich seh' ich gerne zu wenn meine Kinder spielen und gewinnen, aber ich verstehe nicht, wenn Leute so vollkommen ausser Kontrolle geraten. Da bekomme ich direkt nostalgische Erinnerungen an die Zeiten in meinem Tischtennisverein in meiner Jugend. Meine Eltern kamen nie zu den Spielen und interessierten sich kaum dafuer. Die waren nur froh, dass ich ueberhaupt Sport machte und Bewegung hatte. Hier hofft jeder auf die grosse Karriere im Sport und Millionenvertraege, und viele Eltern scheinen ihr Leben durch ihre Kinder zu leben...

I am often taken aback when I see how out of control some parents get when watching their kids play sports. I have seen people yell at their kids, coaches, and taunt other fans and their players. I have seen a mother going after a child after a baseball match giving him "a-talking-to" because he supposedly injured her child. I missed a fistfight in our area that actually made it onto National TV last year...But what took the cake the other night, was that one of the mom's from our team found that her car was vandalized after Tuesday's game. How nuts is that? What kind of person would wonder up to stranger's car and put a big fat scratch all around the vehicle? I am still floored by the ugliness of this particular American past time of random violence against a perfect stranger. I guess one shouldn't put a sticker of one's team on the car because you never know what people might do if they happen to be the losers of a game...

Ich habe schone viele komische Situationen erlebt bei solchen Spielen hier. Da sieht man Eltern ihre Kinder, die Trainer, oder andere Fans anschreien. Ich sah eine Mutter, die so weit ging und hat ein Kind nach einem Baseballspiel verfolgte und auf uebelste Weise anfuhr, weil es angeblich ihr Kind verletzt haette..Aber meine neueste schlimme Erfahrung war diese Schluesselaktion vom Dienstag. Eine Mutter von unserer Mannschaft fand am naechsten Tag einen riesigen Kratzer im Lack rund um ihr ganzes Auto herum. Da fragt man sich ob diese Leute noch alle Tassen im Schrank haben...Eine komische amerikanische Sportart...

Sibling Dolls - Sisters

2011-11-15T08:18:00.000-08:00

I just completed this set of sibling dolls. I think they look so cute together.

And the world didn't end ...Yet.

2011-11-14T12:37:00.000-08:00

One of my Facebook friends predicted the other day jokingly that the world would end on 11/11/11. All sorts of funny commentary followed her predictions.

Well, as we all know now, the world did not end, and the only thing that did end this last week is my pile of sticks. The City or Greeley finally came and picked up the stick pile left behind by the huge storm two weeks ago. They came with giant machines and trucks to clean up the 20 X 10 foot pile in the street. It's weird to be able to look out my window again with an unobstructed view. I kind of miss seeing the birds play in the pile. They certainly had fun in it.

I suppose I should be happy and grateful to the City workers. Yet I can't help but feel uneasy about the state of the world. Yesterday the announcement came through the news that the carbon monoxide output of the world has reached new record numbers. Judging from the pollution it doesn't look like we are in an economic crisis at all.

As I sit there sewing up my little dolls I worry about my own carbon footprint. What about my very own actions as a manufacturer of goods? Are my dolls adding to the world's problems rather than helping? I like to think that making dolls from natural fibers and doing a lot of the work by hand is a good thing. But maybe selling them online shipping them all over the world is not. Wow. It's so depressing when they use such terms on the news as "catastrophic" climate change.

The empty space left by the dead trees downed by this last storm serves as a reminder that when nature wreaks havoc we humans are often left truly powerless. What if we create a mess that cannot be cleaned up? We must change our ways or else there may not be a future for our kids and grand kids. What are you doing to lessen your carbon footprint today?

I love this Doll

2011-11-09T12:37:00.001-08:00

Erins Doll copy, originally uploaded by germandolls.

I had to put another picture of her on my blog. Soon I will have to ship her to her new home. I hope the little girl who receives her for Christmas will enjoy her as much as I enjoyed making this sweet gal!

The Big Mistake in the Recipe

2011-11-08T06:18:00.000-08:00

Please don't shoot me. I made a huge mistake in my recipe the other day: For the layered applecake or gedeckter Apfelkuchen it should read:

4 teaspoons of baking POWDER and NOT Soda!!!

Germans don't really use the other stuff (soda). I hope you read this and don't get upset with me in case you tried my recipe and it didn't work out.

Sorry! I suppose one shouldn't try and do two recipes at once...

Since the last time I have made this cake again. Everybody loved it so much that they begged for it. This time around I added the almond slivers on top. I also used chopped sauted apples instead of the applesauce. It was even better!

Free Shipping on Flannel Nightgowns Today

2011-11-06T04:15:00.000-08:00

If you have been looking to buy a Nightgown to put under the Christmastree this is your chance to get one delivered to you at low cost. Shipping on flannel Nightgowns is FREE today only. I have been working hard all of last night to change all listings to make them free. If you find I missed one that you wanted to order, please let me know and I can fix it. Remember this deal is for today and on the flannel only.

Fabric of the Season

2011-11-05T05:25:00.000-07:00

I am so happy. After years of searching for the perfect Christmas fabric with Nutcracker dolls on it finally success. I found this beautiful maroon red colored fabric that has the cutest bright Nutcrackers on it.

It's only the fifth year my daughter is in the local Nutcracker production. Practices have been running since late September. Now they are in full gear as the performance date rolls closer. There must be hundreds of little girls in Nutcracker productions all over the US...Why is there so little fabric in stores dealing with the theme? Huge mistake, you fabric makers! My daughter was so excited when she saw the cloth on my table. Of course each little girl participating in the ballet production dreams that one day they may be featured as the main character Clara...It's a long shot since it takes many many years of dancing to achieve that skill level.

Pst! Don't tell my daughter that she will be getting one of these:

I was so excited finishing the first set of them. The Nutcracker doll lives in the dress pocket and can go marching about your house chasing after pesky mice and rats...=)

The Importance of Feedback

2011-11-04T04:02:00.000-07:00

Last year right around this time I reached the milestone of 1,000 sales in my Etsyshop. You can read the note I wrote about it here.

Yesterday I reached another one of those little milestones: I received my 1,000th feedback comment. Yay! I am actually at 1,003. Thanks so much to all of you who have helped me out in that department.

I LOVE to read my feedback comments. Even better if somebody sends me a cute picture like the one above! As they say a picture speaks a million words...Pictures make me smile and my heart go pitter-patter.

In fact I get downright depressed when somebody doesn't leave me a note after receiving a doll or package. If they don't I worry that they didn't like the doll or dollclothes I made. If you have an Etsyshop or on-line business of any kind you must understand. Feedback is like this little pat on the back that says:" Well done! Good Job! I love your work, and I am so glad I found your shop."

After all in the virtual world of selling there is often no real face connected to the customer. Unless, of course, I know you from FB. That's why everyone loves it so much, right? Still, not everybody uses their own picture...Some people sport dogpictures, cartoons, or even plants. At the end of the day contact is limited to exchanges of emails and Feedback at the end of a transaction. Yet, curiously one finds that Social Media has made it possible to add more personality to the salesprocess. If a customer comes back after over a year and orders a new dress for a doll they bought, I often instantly remember which doll and can almost see the child in front of me.

Virtual stores are a curious thing. Don't you think? So please, don't forget to leave your on-line seller Feedback if you are happy with their service. If you are not happy, please let us know, too. It really helps us out a lot. We love this little pat on the back, and it keeps us going on days when sales are not so great!

Cooking up a Storm...

2011-11-03T05:14:00.000-07:00

When it gets cold outside I like to cook and bake. Living in a drafty old house it's the only way to survive the cold winter. While Hubby and kids go off to work or school I must stay home in the cold cave. Once the fire in the wood stove dies I flee to the kitchen and turn on the burners plus stove. Shh. Don't tell them!
So I cooked up a storm yesterday.

1. I baked a butternut squash and transformed it into the most delightful soup for dinner
2. I made a "gedeckter Apfelkuchen". It's the closest thing Germans have compared to an apple pie.

Ingredients for Butternut Squash Soup:

1 big butternut squash
1/2 cup of dried black beans
1 liter of chicken broth
red bell pepper chopped
corn
garlic, minced
chorizo sausages or other hot sausage links
pepper and salt to taste

Cut your Butternut Squash in half. Scoop out the little pocket with the seeds. Put the two cut sides down in a baking pan with about 1/4 inch of water in it. Bake in the stove at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about an hour or until soft when stabbed with a fork.

Take another pot and throw in some black beans with water. Boil for about two hours until soft. Ah, it' s already getting warmer in the house!

Next prepare the dough for the apfelkuchen.

Ingredients for Apfelkuchen: (adapted from Backen macht Freude)

350 g flour
100 g sugar
2 eggs
4 teaspoons of baking powder
milk (recipe called for 4 Tablespoons but I added quite a bit more because the air was very dry)
150 g butter
1 packet of vanilla sugar

2 cups of applesauce, mine was homemade, I added raisins to it.

Throw all the ingredients (except for ONE of the eggs and the apple sauce) in a bowl and kneed them together. Wrap your dough ball in Saran wrap and put in refrigerator. It can rest while squash is baking. Ah, perfect timing. Now you can go and do something else. Maybe chop some wood or shovel the driveway...

Once you get back in the house the squash is ready to go. Who said they were cold? A lovely wave of heat hits me as I enter the kitchen. Beans are getting soft and it's time to deal with the squash. Pull it from the oven and scoop the meat out and reserve.

Time to get back to the cake! Get your dough from the fridge and cut it in half. Take the first half and roll it out flat to fit in a baking pan/sheet that's about 30x40 cm. Hmm, since I don't have anything that size I just took whatever came close... See picture.
Spread your applesauce mix on top of the layer of dough in the pan. Take the second half of the dough and roll it out flat. Same size as the first piece. Now come the tricky part: Moving the second sheet of dough and putting it on top of the applesauce. No different from making an apple pie really. You have to fold it up and then unfold it. Right? It's just a bit bigger...

Hopefully your oven is still nice and hot from baking that squash. Temperature needs to be about 375 Fahrenheit. So great, you can turn it up a bit more. =)
Make an egg wash by mixing one egg yolk and a tablespoon of milk. The German cookbook calls for sliced almonds on top. I didn't have any so just the egg wash will do. Brush it on. Stab the cake a few times with a fork to create some holes for steam to escape. Put it in your oven and bake for 25-30 minutes - until top is golden brown.

Back to the soup. Add chicken broth to your squash chunks and puree. Add the clove of minced garlic. Add the cooked black beans. Throw in some yellow corn if you have it. Add some chopped bell pepper. Add little pieces of your cooked hot sausage links. I don't add them to the pot since my daughter doesn't like spicy food. So you can just have the sausage in a little bowl to the side. Vegetarians can leave it out too.

You'd think there would be easier ways to keep the house warm. But not as delicious. Dinner is ready to go. Time to make some dolls...

Blizzard 2011 Round Two

2011-11-02T08:47:00.000-07:00

A wise old woman told my daughter the other day: If we get snow on October 26th that means there will be 26 snowfalls this season. Looks like she was right!
What the heck?

We got blizzard number 2 last night. I swear these pictures are new and not last week's - though they do look kind of the same the only difference being that I have a huge pile of snowcovered sticks in front of my house...

I think I'll stay put and keep making dolls. I have no desire to drive about and see more fallen treelimbs. We lost a couple more in the backyard. I thought there was nothing left. But I was wrong. We will be adding to our pile once the snow melts. Wish me luck!

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T04:58:00.000-07:00

The family spent all weekend cleaning up the mess from last week's storm. I feel like Hercules after cleaning the Augean stables. My back hurts and I am soooo sore from all the lifting, chopping, and dragging of dead tree limbs. Supposedly the city will pick up the pile of brush we put out by the street. It's "only" a pile about 5 feet tall and 20 feet wide...

The kids had fun playing on the pile. I couldn't help but smile though my heart was heavy looking at my dead Italian plum tree. No more plum cakes. Sniffle.

Hope all those Trick-or-Treaters are careful tonight. It's going to be difficult maneuvering around the brush piles on our street. I swear ours is the highest and longest in the neighborhood.

Can you find the second child in this picture?

Happy Halloween! And be safe out there!

NaturalKids Team Giveaway on SouleMama

2011-10-30T11:11:00.000-07:00

Don't miss out on this great Giveaway by the NaturalkKids Team on Soule Mama's blog. You could win a number of cool Natural toys to give away as presents for Christmas!

Images from the Big Snow Storm

2011-10-28T04:59:00.000-07:00

I don't think this post requires too many words. The images speak for themselves...
You can see what we woke up to on Wednesday morning. From a perfectly golden mild October we went to Winterwonderland in the blink of an eye.

I am just really sad to think about all the trees that got destroyed in this massive snowstorm. This is what happens when one foot of snow falls on trees that are still in their fall attire.

The destruction is epic. Our backyard looks like a bomb hit. Fruit trees that we nursed for years fell victim to large branches from the neighbor's old trees that fell on top of them.

On the positive side: My husband put the car in the garage. The truck only lost one of the side mirrors. Nobody in our neighborhood got hit by a falling branch. The power is working again and I can make coffee on the kitchen stove instead of the wood stove. I have the Internet and my computer back...
I am glad to be back to relatively normal!

From my phone

2011-10-27T05:05:00.000-07:00

we had a massive snowstorm in colorado. took out our phone and powerline yesterday. luckily I have this nifty phone that keeps me connected to the world as we huddle by a fire. pretty weird how we are reduced to living like cavemen while having modern touchphones. I'll share my pictures snd story once I get my computer back. The distruction in our yard is totally depressing!

Nightcap...

2011-10-25T03:55:00.001-07:00

nightcap 4, originally uploaded by germandolls.

I think we should go back to using nightcaps. I mean the hats - not the drinks. LOL. I made this cute little set for a customer. It turned out so adorable I decided to make a couple more for my etsyshop. The shoes now - take a while to make. If you'd to order some for Christmas you better hurry quick!

Visit to the Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-24T12:04:00.000-07:00

We finally made it to the pumpkin patch this weekend. Only my husband, daughter, and I went. A certain teenage boy thinks he is too old for that kind of stuff now. Sniff! I am pretty sure he would have enjoyed it anyways. They even sold snacks such as homemade hot pickles. Delicious!

It was so much fun picking out the perfect pumpkin. The haunted house that came with it was not my cup of tea...There was a maze inside a wooden shack that was so dark, I needed help finding my way out. I am glad I didn't go in alone. Kind of freaked me out.

Other than that just orange as far as the eye could see. We got a pretty good deal on our pumpkins too: 10 bucks for 4 pumpkins? Can't beat that!

Yellow Day

2011-10-22T10:13:00.000-07:00

When my kids went to preschool they learned colors with these cute little rhymes. I think the rhyme for the color yellow went like this:

Yellow yellow sat in Jello.

Not sure how the little cartoon character got in such a pickle.

I love the color yellow. But then again I love all colors...

Meet Sweet Pea

2011-10-20T05:10:00.001-07:00

Sweet pea 3, originally uploaded by germandolls.

In the wee morning hours, yesterday, I put the final touches on dear, Sweet Pea. She is so cute and cuddly. I think I just want to keep her for myself.
Alas, I listed her in my shop...

Sweet Waldorf Doll Mugs are Hard to Make!

2011-10-19T12:12:00.000-07:00

You may think a Waldorf style doll face is easy to do. They look so simple. After all they are just two dots and a line. But if you think that you are deadwrong!

Even after making hundreds of dolls I still get very nervous whenever I get ready to embroider the face of a doll. If you make a mistake on the sweet doll face it may not look so sweet after all...

I think the eyes of a doll especially are very important. Like a person's eyes they are the "windows to the soul". So if you are striving to make a good doll, don't forgot about the fact that each stitch counts!

The perfect mug takes time and patience! I never do the faces when the kids or husband are around. I am afraid I may yell at them if things don't go smoothly.

Here is a list of common mistakes people make (in my opinion)

1. Not having the doll's face centered on the head.
2. Making the eyes too far apart. If you do that the doll has more of a frog like expression. Not flattering in my opinion...
3. Making the mouth too low or too high.
4. Not putting the mouth centered.
5. Making messy uneven stitches.
6. Putting on a nose that is far too big. (I hardly ever do noses on my dolls. But I think big noses look really bad on a doll)

Hope this list of mine helps you if you are an aspiring doll artist. I think any homemade doll is better than the plastic stuff made in China. So don't be sad if a doll doesn't quite turn out. I am sure somebody will adopt a baby whose face is not perfect. My daughter was always happy to add a doll gone south to her collection...

Mermaid Finished!

2011-10-18T11:53:00.000-07:00

I just finished this adorable redhead Waldorf style mermaid doll. What do you think?

She will move to Great Britain in the near future. Hope she finds a good place to swim and collect some seashells...Farewell little redhead gal!

Fall Impressions

2011-10-17T06:42:00.000-07:00

Fall is fun. Leaves inspire us to do crafts...and write cool poems.

Leaves are all we need for entertainment on a balmy fall day. Now how do we get everyone coordinated so the leaves end up in a pile? 3 busy little girls worked hard to make a pile big enough to jump in.

Finally they decided to wait another week until all the leaves are down. They left in frustration to return another day. Kids...

Purple Day/ Lila Tag

2011-10-14T05:53:00.001-07:00

purple day, originally uploaded by germandolls.

Yesterday I was having a purple day. I made a lot of things in different shades of purple. I love lavender, mauve, deep purple, violet or as we say in German: LILA. When my daughter was really little and knew just a few words she liked to yell "LILA" at moths that invaded our house in the summer. I am not certain why she did that. Maybe she thought it was the German word for "attack the bug"? LOL.

I like having color theme days.
The mood in my studio was very purplicious. =)

What Kind of a day did you have?

Waldorf Doll Underwear Indicator

2011-10-12T09:36:00.000-07:00

Ever heard of Alan Greenspan's Underwear Indicator theory? I was listening to NPR marketplace the other day, where, for the umptieth time, it was discussed whether the economy is improving or not.

I had never heard of Mr. Greenspan's (Chairmen of the Federal Bank) interesting theory about male underwear buying patterns and how they explain what is going on with the economy. It made me laugh when I looked it up:

Mr. Greenspan argues that:" if you think about all the garments in the household, the garment that is most private is the male underpant, because nobody sees it except people in the locker room, but who cares," Krulwich told NPR. "Your children need clothes, your wife needs clothes that have to change, your children grow, you need clothes on the outside. But the last purchase that you don't have to make is underpants.... [men wear them until they are in] total tatters."

Sorry, Mr. Greenspan! But I think you are wrong. At least when taking into account my guy's buying pattern for underwear. He just doesn't buy any undies. Ever!

But then I started thinking about my dolly underwear sales and how this theory made perfect sense. Yes, I have actual proof that Mr. Greenspan is right. Sales of doll underwear have been down dramatically this past year. I sold only very few pairs of shorts and bloomers over the last 12 months. Despite the fact that doll bloomers and shorts are one of the cheapest items in my Etsyshop they don't sell much at all. It seems that in these hard economic times people don't want to spend money on an item you don't see much anyways. Not that dolls ever destroy their undies and manage to turn them into these unmentionable tatters guys call underwear. Is that why the are called unmentionables?

Well, I decided to be optimistic about the whole thing anyways. I recently sold a set of shorts, and I am working on some new sets for Christmas. Hope your dolls will find some underwear under the Christmas tree this year!

My husband will for sure. Pst! Don't tell him! LOL

Blank Canvas

2011-10-11T13:46:00.000-07:00

I think my favorite stage in making a doll is when I have finished the body. I like to look at the sweet figure that has no face, hair, or any clothes. It's like a big blank canvas before the artist gets to paint it.

I like to imagine what the doll will look like finished. Will she be a redhead? Brunette or blonde baby? What eye color shall I put? What clothes will this little one wear?

I guess I miss having little babies around so through the process of making dolls I get to be a "new mommy" over and over. Giving birth to a new doll is oodles of fun.

Today I got this little brown haired fuzzy baby on my workbench. She will go to a little girl's house this Christmas...Fun!

Friends and Fairy Tales

2011-10-10T04:38:00.000-07:00

Being German I grew up around fairy tales. My mother read them to us all the time. I get a little frustrated when the family drags me to the movies and I have to watch the Disney versions of my old time faves. What happened to the Rapunzel story? They changed the plot so much it made me sick to the stomach. I really hated it. Sorry, Disney people, but next time could you please consult with a German?

Are you excited about seeing Puss in Boots? Well, at least it's bound to be very funny. I have two good friends who make the most amazing fairy tale creatures out of wool and bits of fabric. First there is Kelley. She is also known as Elfie or little Elf. How befitting.
She recently created this amazing Puss in boots you see in this picture. Now that is exactly how I remember the Puss in Boots. Feisty and cute.

Next there is my friend Cynthia. Another dollmaker whose name is just perfect. Did I mention that her last name is "Toy". It really is. My German heart sings when I look at her delightful fairy tale characters. They are too amazing for words. But see for yourself and visit my friends dreamy shops, sites, FB pages. They are really creators of little miracles not just toymakers...

Yes, it IS!

2011-10-09T09:37:00.000-07:00

Fall that is. Or did we skip fall and went straight to Winter? It's snowing in the mountains in Colorado. There wasn't much of a transition it seems. We went from temperatures in the 90s straight to the 40s in the blink of an eye.

Where is my winter coat? Got to go look for it in the basement today.

With the cold came much needed rain. Now it really looks like Germany outside. I feel like basking in the rain. Is that weird or what? I love watching the rain come down in sheets. Jumping in the puddles.

I brought in all the tomatoes. Must have picked 20 pounds of them...
The basil is drying in the oven.

What next? Waiting for the husband to turn the heat on. You know he says it's too early. Not until November 1. Used to be October 1. Since it's been so hot lately that seemed fine. But really pushing it back by a whole month? Better find that coat, a hat, and my mittens. Now that should make for a good picture...Sewing with mittens on? LOL

Cutest little pumpkin Dress for Bambolettas

2011-10-09T09:04:00.001-07:00

beige pumpkin dress 2 copy, originally uploaded by germandolls.

Just finished this cute little doll and dress. I love the dark orange and beige together. I wish I could find more of this cute fabric. I'll cry when I run out of this one...

Is it really Fall?

2011-10-06T04:29:00.000-07:00

As I am bringing in red tomatoes from the garden every day I am wondering where fall is. Sure the leaves are falling off that big old oaktree in front of the house. But really, we are well into the first week of October and sweating in Colorado. Every day temperatures have been in high 80s I believe there even was a day when my car thermostat claimed 90s.

How can people still deny that global warming is a fact? It boggles the mind.

I really miss fall in Germany. The rain, the foggy cold days, and picking grapes.
I think I have shared some pictures of childhood fall memories from Germany with you.

We have a grape arbor in our backyard. The children love to go outside and sneak some of the delicious grapes. Very different childhood memories...

Now I have to close my eyes and leave it up to the imagination. Maybe if I keep sewing fall dollclothes fall will actually come? Longing for the cold I put together this cute set for my shop.

Like it?

My new postcards arrived!

2011-10-04T13:03:00.001-07:00

GermanDolls postcards 2, originally uploaded by germandolls.

I just received my new postcards in the mail yesterday. They will be available in my shop for sale. They come as a set of 6 different images of my dolls and doll clothing.

Hope you enjoy them!

Creating in Silence

2011-09-28T04:26:00.000-07:00

I published the following article on the NaturalKids Team Blog yesterday. I wanted to share it with my readers over here, too. Hope you enjoy it.

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I was waiting for my daughter at dance class recently when I discovered this really cool article in the July 2011 issue of the magazine Real Simple: Life made Easier.

Oh boy, was it noisy in that hallway where I was waiting for my child. Waves of noise were coming at me from all directions: jazz and ballet music drifting out from classrooms, younger siblings chattering and crying, mothers making phonecalls. In the midst of all that I was trying to read this article on “Silence”. Kind of ironic.

In the article Holly Pevzner talks about noise pollution, and how it affects people in a negative way. The author argues that there is strong scientific evidence that growing noise levels in our modern world cause a host of problems in humans. For example, health studies have shown that loud noises make human hearts beat faster and increase blood pressure. Scientists even have gone so far as to directly link loud traffic noise to a great number of heart attacks that killed people. Not sure how they proved that one. Besides these direct health effects, noise can lead to problems with attention, aggression, insomnia, and general stress.

I can very much relate to the insomnia part. One thing that really frustrated me when I moved to US was the loud train whistles that go off all the time. I nearly fell out of bed when I first moved here and heard the trains the first night. “What is that? ” I asked my husband as I jumped out of bed.

Our family lives about 1.5 miles from train tracks where each morning, sometimes as early as 3 am, freight trains blast through blowing their whistles like there is no tomorrow. How stupid I thought. Why do we have to live with this kind of noise terror? Wouldn’t it be better to build gates so that cars cannot go onto train tracks at all rather than make all that noise? They have that sort of technology in Germany. How can the guy driving the train stand it? He must be going deaf for sure. My previous fondness and nostalgia for trains whistles, I believe, are gone forever.

I suppose as time went by I learned to live with this kind of noise pollution. Or maybe I have just learned to live my life around them. The train alarmclock has led to some lifestyle changes for me. I have become an early riser. What’s the point of staying in bed when you can’t sleep anyways?

But Holly’s article also made me think of other noises: Random noises, like people talking on cell phones everywhere, with no regard who they are standing next to and what that person is doing. Then there also the noises that we can choose ourselves to be surrounded by: like the TV, stereo, or radio, ipods. Pevzner suggests that we cut down on all of them and try some simple kind of meditation once in while.

She says: "You don’t even have to go to yoga class for that: Just sit in a quiet spot, close your eyes, and focus on your breathing. Try and relax your whole body from head to toe. And breathe! I really liked it."

Inspired by her article I tried something else. I turned off the radio in my little studio/work space. I usually like to listen to the radio, and I have some favorite CDs I like to play when working on my dolls. After reading the article I stopped that completely. What was the result of this experiment? I loved it! I found that by turning off the noise, even noise that I perceived as enjoyable, I was much more focused and relaxed in my work. I got a lot more work done, and I was in a better mood and happier. You should really try this some time.

I remember a conversation I had in the Etsy forums with other natural toymakers. We talked about why our natural toys are so much better for children. The main advantage over modern toys is that natural toys don’t overstimulate like so many lights-flashing noisy plastic toys.

That got me to thinking that maybe we adults would be better off too if we made some healthy choices about “our toys”. Maybe we’d be a lot less stressed if we turned off that cellphone and jogged, cooked, cleaned and created in silence…

Here are two books on the topic Pevzner quoted from in the article. I must find them in my quest to lead a simpler and better life:

Listening Below the Noise by Anne LeClaire
Peaceful Parenting by Nancy S. Buck

You could win something...

2011-09-26T11:16:00.000-07:00

Hey, who doesn't like to win stuff? If you have a couple of minutes, please go visit my friend Julie's blog. And enter in her Monday Meltdown Giveaway.

You could possibly sweeten your Monday by winning one of these cute silk-wool knitted bunnies. Aren't they adorable? I love them! How about you?

acorn baby in green pocketdress

2011-09-24T04:06:00.001-07:00

green acorn baby 1 copy, originally uploaded by germandolls.

this little feller is looking for a new home...

Custom Order Mania

2011-09-23T05:11:00.000-07:00

Okay, I think that handshake with Mr. Chimney Sweep is totally working for me.
September has been the best month so far. I will just ignore all news about Wallstreet and the economy. I am putting my head down and making dolls, dolls, dolls. Who cares what they say...

I have been receiving so many of custom orders this last week that I am kind of freaking out. I must pace myself. I don't want to take on too many for fear of not being able to finish them in the end. I want to put the same amount of love into each doll and make them perfect. I also have nightmares about getting the details mixed up and loosing track of information and deadlines. To battle these issues I made myself this handy-dandy "Custom Dolls Order Detail Sheet". On it I mark all the important information. What do you think?

My little sticky notes are just not big enough to put all the info on them. A few Christmas seasons ago I could barely look out my window because it was pasted with them.

How do you stay organized running your small business?

Time for "A Clean Sweep"!

2011-09-18T11:58:00.000-07:00

Yippee! Looks like the German survived yet another hot summer. I so much prefer wearing layers of warm clothing over sweating. This week I gladly carried the window fans down to the basement and got out the warm covers. Finally, sweet sleep is back! No more tossing and turning.

Part of getting the house ready for the cold season means calling the chimney sweep. People say it's good luck to shake hands with the man in the top hat. So call him we did this week. We insisted on the top hat. It looks so cool and doesn't add to the cost.

One of the most useful items we bought for our house was a modern and highly efficient woodstove. It keeps our little old house cosy and comfy. We all huddle by the fireplace in the mornings and gather there in the evenings to read books. There is something special about having a real fireplace. Maybe something to do with our cave dwelling ancestors...

Last year, over Thanksgiving weekend, a family we know had a terrible housefire because their chimney had not been cleaned for a long time. So if you are planning to use your fireplace this winter maybe this is a good time to have it checked for safety and get a good sweeping.

I am glad I made an appointment with Mr. Lucky last week. He danced on our roof for about 30 minutes. I am not sure where the idea of chimney sweeps bringing good luck comes from. Do you know? I surely feel lucky that our evenings by the fire place will be free of worry!

When Osama stole my Friend

2011-09-10T13:48:00.000-07:00

Busted. Broken. My favorite serving bowl broke the other day. In this bowl I served many a good meal to a dear friend. I loved that stupid bowl so much. Had it for over ten years. Now what? It makes me sad to think it can't be fixed.

Some stuff just can't. I normally like to read the papers, listen to radio, or watch the news on TV. Not this week. All they talk about is September 11th and what people were doing that day. Let's see: we were having breakfast and getting our 3-year old boy ready for preschool when we heard the news.

This week our kids came home from school talking about old news footage they were shown at school. My 10-year-old is having nightmares from it. My 13-year-old has this project: Interview your parents about what they were doing on September 11th.

How can I explaine this one to my son?

I am sick of it all. I really don't want to think about it any more. Tried to forget and burry it along with the rubble. Has it been 10 years, really? Nobody I personally knew died that day. Yet I remember a traumatic event tied to that very day. A friendship of mine that was of great importance died that day. Something broke.

How come? Let me just call her K. She was the first real friend I had made since moving to the US. Seemed like we had so many things in common. We worked a the same place. K. lived in a little old house like mine. A fixer-upper with problems. We had kids the same age. Her son went to the same preschool as my son. K. spoke German. She had studied it in college. Spent some time in Germany, too. She loved things German. I suppose I fell into that category, too.

Then September 11th happened. Nobody I know died. It was only a friendship. All of sudden we couldn't talk anymore. Every conversation turned into an argument. An argument about how all people from the Middle East - foreigners - were evil. Could not be trusted. I tried to reason with sweet K. The young woman who had babysat my son while I was in hospital giving birth to our second babe just looked at me with hate in her eyes.

Only six month after I had trusted her with my first-born son everything changed. I never found an explanation for it all. K. just disappeared from my life. She ended all playdates. My son who had been inseparable from his friend J. (K's Kid) was never allowed to play with him again. Our weekly "German" playdates were stopped abruptly never to resume again. I would call her and ask why. I never got an answer. I felt like a jilted lover or something. I'd lay awake at night writing letters in my head: Why K? I did not fly those airplanes into the World Trade Center! I am a German Immigrant. The fact that I have Muslim friends in Germany does not make me a bad person! If you can't love me any more why take it out on a 3-year-old child? How do you explaine to a young child that he cannot see his friend any more?

Whether they are 3, 10, or 13 years old - I find explaining it doesn't get easier.

On September 11th two friendships ended. I will never forgive Osama Bin Laden for that one. The human tragedy hit on so many levels that awful day...

Apfeltaschen - Apple Pockets

2011-09-09T13:30:00.000-07:00

I often wonder whether my time spent at the University of Berlin getting a Master's Degree in North American Studies wasn't a huge waste of time. Wow, I can't believe I said that. I worked so long and hard for that degree I still have nightmares every now and then over the finals...

Reading novels and studying American history may have enlightened me about what I was getting myself into when I moved to the US, yet in no way did it prepare me for the food crisis I would encounter once I started living here. I still get really depressed when I wonder the food aisles of the typical American grocery store.

Photo by Jes Anthonis

Bread. I miss those hardy German loaves to no end. I miss the multitude of rolls and buns one can choose from at a German bakery in the early morning hours. Donuts and Bear Claws? Ridiculous! If you have ever visited Germany you know what I am talking about...

I am convinced that an apprenticeship at a German bakery most likely would have prepared me better for life in the US. At least food wise. In order to survive, I had to teach myself how to make some of the baked goods that I love so much. I never knew how some of my childhood favorites were prepared until desperation drove me to search for recipes in imported cookbooks and on the Internet.

One of my favorite childhood sweets are Apfeltaschen. Yum! So simple and a yet so good. My kids agree. What kid doesn't love apples?

If you are a German expatriate or just prefer a less sweet treat in the morning enjoy this German recipe!

Apfeltasche/ Apple Pocket

For the filling

Fresh homemade applesauce is best! But you can also use chopped sauteed apples with raisins. You need about one to two cups for the filling.

If you are wondering why the applesauce in my pictures is intensely red: I made it from an old variety of crab apples (you know from before they started messing with the genes to make big ornamental flowering kind of trees). I cannot tell you the location of this tree. It's probably the last one of it's kind in the US. I would have to kill you if I did. LOL

For the dough:
400 grams of all purpose flour
1 package of dry yeast or fresh if you have it
50 grams of sugar
pinch of salt
1 package of vanilla sugar
50 grams of melted butter
200 ml of warm milk
1 egg

Mix all the ingredients together and knead them until you get a smooth dough. Let the dough rest until it has risen or visibly increased in size. Then punch it down and knead it again.
Roll out the dough into a flat sheet. It should be a little less than a quarter inch thickness. Then take a little bowl with a diameter of about 5-6 inches. Use bowl as pattern to cut circles from the dough sheet. You should get about 8 circles. Crack and egg and separate the egg white from the egg yolk.

Put a heaping spoonful of applesauce in the center of each circle. Smear the edges around of your circle with egg white. Then fold over and make little half moon pouches. Pinch the edges firmly together or apple sauce will leak out!

"Looks a lot like an empanada", my husband commented. "You probably stole that recipe from my grandma!" HaHa. Not funny!

Set your apple baggies on a greased baking sheet. Parchment paper works well too.
Cover them up with a towel and let them rise in a warm place once more. Rub the top of each bun with some egg yolk. Once they look bigger bake in a preheated oven at 375 degrees Fahrenheit until the tops turn brown. Takes about 15-20 minutes.

That Silly Old House...

2011-09-08T04:22:00.000-07:00

We have been living in our little old house since 1998. In fact we moved in the day our son was born. In those 13 years we have done tons of work on this house. One thing one should keep in mind buying an old house: When you start a project it's never what you thought it would be.

It's sort of like excavating the mistakes of owners' past...

Check out this lovely hallway. We have never painted it. Why? Because the ceilings are so high. One really should use scaffolding to do the job. But who needs that when you have an uncle who is handy and determined to play Cirque du Soleil at your house? The children got so worried about his balancing act on a couple of ladders and wooden planks they started piling pillows at bottom of the stairs and brought me the phone to call 911.

Luckily nobody got injured. The uncle left. The project is not finished. Hmm. Now does this look worse than before? I only have to scrape >a few more areas< where the paint is loose from an ancient leak that must have occurred many years before our time. The previous owners painted over the mess instead of peeling off all the lose paint.

I have decided to do a little bit each day while I contemplate what color to paint it. First I was leaning towards a pretty grey. But after scraping off all that old greyish paint I changed my mind. I want something bright. I want the intense blue they use in Greek houses. Not that I have ever been there. But why not bring Greece here? I still have not found the right shade of blue. Do you have any suggestions? I only want to do this once. I cannot afford to make a mistake here. So please help me find the perfect color.

Reminders are Good!

2011-09-05T04:31:00.000-07:00

Reminders. We all need them. This summer a bill arrived in the mail. It came as a total shock to me and my husband. How did this happen? How come our electric bill was suddenly double of what it normally is? Not like I stayed up around the clock sewing doll clothes. Was there a broken appliance sucking up all this energy?

Air conditioning? Haha. We don't have that in our little old house. We do have a few window fans to get us through the worst part of the summer but we don't run them enough to double our bill. DH (husband) was quite annoyed. Of course, it must be something we (the kids and I) were doing. Like leaving the refrigerator door open or leaving lights on.

Now we had to get to the bottom of this. Who wants to waste energy in these times of global warming? And who can afford to double their electric bill when the economy is down in the dumps. So we all decided to watch ourselves very carefully. We policed each other about turning off lights that were unnecessarily burning. We turned the dishwasher and clothes washer only on if it was full to the brim. Cutting down on TV time also helps!

Mostly I watched my own actions. One thing I noticed I had been slacking off with was the clothes drying. It's criminal, really. I even wrote an article Simple Steps to Save the Planet on the NK blog a while ago. Back then, I ranted about Americans wasting so much energy by using clothes dryers instead of hanging their laundry and drying it outside. You know how many gazillions of kilowatt hours could be saved if we all dried our clothes on a clothing line? A LOT. But here I was all lazy and Americanized finding excuses: It was too hot, or I am too tired to hang clothes, my back hurts.

So after that bill arrived in the mail it was a good reminder for me. MUST HANG UP LAUNDRY. And guess what? The next bill came and it was $15 less than our normal monthly bill. At the end of the bill was a note tacked on saying that the last bill had been a mistake. They had accidentally overcharged us by double the amount. Wow! I am so glad we found the reason for this strange bill. But even more I am glad it got me back on track doing the right thing for the environment...Reminders are good!

Sedona - a 12 inch Mermaid Waldorf Style Doll

2011-08-31T02:43:00.001-07:00

Sedona 2, originally uploaded by germandolls.

I just finished this doll yesterday. Not sure if I need to retake my pictures. It was in the late afternoon when took them and getting kind of dark. What do you think? Are they okay?

On Sleepovers or Slumber Parties

2011-08-30T03:50:00.000-07:00

I am having a really hard time with the American institution of the Sleepover or Slumber party. I had never heard of the existence of such a thing until I moved to the US. What in the world is a sleepover?

photo by Julie from thiscosylife

When I was the kid growing up in Germany, the only reason one would spend the night at someone else's house would be because your parents were hospitalized or on a romantic getaway. The only place you would spend the night would be your grandma's or a relative's house. This rarely EVER happened. My parents were blessed with good health and did not take vacations often.

Let me ask you: Why would you want your child to spend the night at a perfect stranger's home? I remember the agony of my kids asking me once they started school, begging me to spend the night at so-and-so's house. After all, I already stick out like a sore thumb with my German accent. Then I also became known as that German lady who wrecks birthday parties.

I am sorry I am having such a hard time with this. I just don't see why children should be allowed to go to another kid's house and stay up all night eating candy, watching inappropriate movies, and do anything BUT sleep. I have seen the zombie-like victims of such parties at soccer games the next day...

Even better, one time this kid walks up to me, not knowing me from Adam, and says: "Can I sleep over at your house?" What in the Sam hill?

I feel bad for being the crusher of so many sleepover dreams but it took me a while to wrap my mind around this idea. I don't want to be mean or anything, I just want my kids to be safe and not worry about them getting in the middle of some bad scenario. I have actually had parents confess to me about their regrets letting a child sleepover at times. Looks like I am not alone with my fears.

Over the years I have tried to find a healthy middle ground where I can exist and my kids can still have fun. I developed some rules that make me feel better about letting my child participate in a sleepover. So hopefully all of us can >sleep like a baby< when they are away from home...

1. Knowing all members of the family and what the sleeping arrangements will be is a must for me! I don't let my child sleepover at anyone's house unless I have met both parents and the siblings. I have to be able to trust my instincts. If I have any doubts about my child's safety, I will say "No!" to the sleepover.

2. I talk to the parents about rules in their house and try to assess whether my child will get any sleep that night. If we have big event on the agenda for the next day, and I get the impression that this will be more of a "Awake-over" party, I may allow my child to go to part of the party. I pick them up after they had dinner at their friends house. They just don't do the sleep part of the party...

3. I make sure I have the parents' house and cellphone numbers and that they have mine in case of an emergency.

4. It's also a good idea to discuss what foods are being served, especially if your child has allergies or is a picky eater.

Points to consider from the child's perspective:

Is he/she emotionally ready to sleep away from home? Will my child be comfortable spending the night at another person's house?

Discuss with your child what happens in case they wake up before the family in that house does? Our kids are early risers. They are up early regardless of the time they went to bed the night before. Will they be comfortable upon waking up? What will they do when they are awake before everyone else?

I hope this little check list helps you and your kid stay safe and avoid any nightmares.

Candice - A sweet Natural Doll

2011-08-25T14:14:00.001-07:00

candy closeup, originally uploaded by germandolls.

Just finished this cute doll. She loves the outdoors, can you tell? =)

Back to School Blues...

2011-08-23T04:07:00.000-07:00

Only last week we had so much fun collecting bugs in the yard. Now the house and garden are quiet every day. Except for the bugs who keep chirping on: Cicadas.
They have been making music all day this hot summer. How come they never run out of energy?
We collected their empty "shells" last week to see how many we could find around the house. They like to hang out on window sills, tree bark, the grape arbor, and the now empty playset.

I think we collected over 50 in all. Some shells where high up on trees and needed to be shot down with arrows. Some we could easily reach with the help of a chair.

The little kids tried them out as decorations on their shirts. How many can I put on my shirt and run around with without them falling off? I believe the record was 16. It was kind of creepy...

After all they are just empty shells. Life is gone from them - like it's gone from the house and our yard - with the kids back in school. I miss them running around the yard.

Soon the cicada's song will stop too, and everything will be completely quiet. I will miss you, Little Cicada!

Getting Ready for Holiday Season

2011-08-21T06:55:00.000-07:00

Yay! They are finally here. I was running pretty low on business cards. I waited and waited because they are not exactly cheap. But I am sort of addicted to them: Moo cards.

I love these little things. I finally got around to adding a couple of new designs to my business card selection. Each one of my orders inludes at least one or two of these cute cards. Start collecting!

Here is the old selection of cards:

Here is the new selection. I added two doll face closeups. What do you think?

I really liked that the new cards came in a pretty cassette type box with slots for each set of cards. Moo is cutting down on waste by sending only 1 little card board box, and you can refill your box when you run out of cards. I like that! Anybody who is into recycling and cutting down on waste is a good friend of mine. No more throwing away of the little boxes! Not that I ever did. They are such cute boxes. I will use the empties I collected and put my new cards in them. Oh no, what do I do with the new cassette box?

I love Moo! They are the coolest little business cards ever!

Meine Schultüte - My School Bag

2011-08-17T19:49:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again. The summer is over and tomorrow my kids will head back to school. Each year I get kind of sad seeing them walk off. It's a reminder of the passage of time.

A couple of years ago I wrote this article on the NaturalKids blog about the German Tradition of the Schuletuete. It just struck me I never published it here on my own blog.

What is a Schultuete? It's the curious object you see me holding in the picture above. I present to you Ulla, aged six, on her first day of school. Even if you are a homeschooling parent you may find this little tidbit about German culture interesting.

Maybe you have spied this "object" in an up-scale toy catalogue. You may have wondered what that strange looking cone shaped thing was. Here is my explanation:

The tradition of the Schultüte (translated school bag) goes back to the early 19th Century. It started in the big cities of Jena, Dresden, and Leipzig in the states of Saxony and Thüringen. There, children were told of these wonderful bags growing on trees in teachers' houses. When the bags had grown to full size it meant that the children were ready to go to school to receive them.

This tradition eventually spread from the cities to the country side and all over Germany.

Nowadays every German child receives a Schultüte when he or she starts school. By starting school, I mean on their very first day of school in First Grade. The German school system is very different from the U.S. system. The German word Kindergarten is equivalent to what Americans call preschool. Between the ages of 3-6, most children attend Kindergarten. In my case that meant I went to a Catholic Kindergarten. It was nearly free of charge, funded by the state and church. I went there at 8 am and stayed for a few of hours every day. I never thought of it as school or daycare, though. Kindergarten was a place to socialize with other kids besides your siblings, learn how to write your name, and do crafts.

Kindergarten is then followed by Grundschule, our elementary school. To mark this very important rite of passage from Kindergarten to school, children receive the Schultüte. It is a colorful, decorated, cone shaped vessel, usually made of thick cardboard with an opening at the top. The bag is filled with school supplies, toys, and of course candy. But there is no limit to the imagination. The children receive it in the morning and carry it proudly to their school. A picture is taken in front of school. They meet the teacher and their new classmates. When the first day is over and the children get home they are allowed to open the Schultüte and see what treasures it holds.

I love this tradition and tried to recreate it for my children as best as I could. Since I could not find a Schultüte to buy in the U.S., except for the expensive Magic Cabin version, I made one myself. I found there are quite a few German websites that teach you how to make one.

My daughter absolutely loved it. I think this is such a fun way to get children excited about school and learning. Learning is like that mystery bag - you don't know what's in it until you open it!

If you have a child starting school you may want to think about giving them such a wonderful bag and tell them about this German tradition...

Happy Back to School Days!

What's in a Waldorf Salad?

2011-08-17T07:16:00.000-07:00

Ever heard of Waldorf Salad? Since many people on my Etsy team, the NaturalKids team, make Waldorf style toys I thought it would be fun to look up the recipe and make it. The original Waldorf Salad was invented by a chef of Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York. It has lots of things in it that kids love. It's pretty much a fruit salad. Just leave out the nuts if you have people in the family who have nut allergies.

"According to the American Century Cookbook, the first Waldorf Salad was created in New York City in 1893, by Oscar Tschirky, the maître d'hôtel of the Waldorf Astoria. The original recipe consisted only of diced red-skinned apples, celery, and mayonnaise. Chopped walnuts were added later to this now American classic."

Some people prefer their Waldorf salad made with yogurt, instead of mayo. I am definitely a great fan of the yogurt version. It's lighter and healthier!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 tart crisp apples (red and green mixed makes the salad look pretty)

2 stalks celery

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1 cup fresh red grapes cut into halves

3-4 Tablespoons Greek fat free yogurt

1 Tablespoon of lemon juice

pepper and salt to taste

fresh lettuce or greens such as Romaine or Bib Lettuce

How to make it?
Chop Walnuts lightly and toast them in a pan. Whisk yogurt and lemon juice together. Add a tad of sugar. Core apples making sure to remove all the seeds. Cut apples into small bite sized pieces. Wash celery stalks and slice thinly; add walnuts and grapes. Serve on a bed of lettuce in a pretty bowl.

YIELDS: 5 to 6 servings

International Orders

2011-08-13T15:27:00.000-07:00

I am glad two of my international orders I shipped arrived safely this week! One traveled to Switzerland and one to Berlin. Wish I could have mailed myself in the package to Berlin! I miss it so much...

Custom mermaid outfits are always a bit tricky. You need really good measurements to make it work when the doll can't fly in for a custom fitting...

Portofino, Italy...

2011-08-11T07:35:00.000-07:00

I am sorry if I mislead you with my title! Unfortunately this post is not about going to Italy and having a fun family vacation...

Isn't it a bit early for the flu season? My daughter recently came down with one nasty flu bug. After 3 days of dealing with a very unhappy kid I remembered the puzzle. We had bought it for Christmas thinking it would entertain the kids over the break time, but then it ended up in a back corner in the basement.

Not sure why I got to remembering it. It certainly came in as a total blessing when reading wasn't an option and the TV meter had run out... It also brought back memories of when the kids were little and loved puzzles so much.

Now I have to say you are never too old or too young to enjoy a good puzzle. The one we got for Christmas had 750 pieces (according the box) and showed a three feet wide panorama view of Portofino, Italy. Of course, we had to look it up on the map. So we got in a little geography lesson at the same time!

At first the job was very daunting and near impossible. How to start? The patient was only remotely interested. Once our 12-year-old son and I picked out all the border pieces and the project started taking shape, everybody wanted to help finish this hard puzzle.

Isn't it beautiful? I definitely want to go there now!

Even my husband - who mumbled something about the Germans and the French never getting along and how I enjoyed fighting crazy battles (did I hear the word maniac somewhere along the lines) - couldn't keep his hands of the pieces when we got near the end. After two days the task was finished!

As a child I did a lot of puzzles with my family. I guess I forgot how much fun it was since my kids are older now. I think this experience was a great because it helped us pass a difficult time while our daughter was sick and take our mind of the sickness. At the same time it was a fun way to teach about patience and teamwork. I am already on the lookout for another big puzzle for the family to do.

Winner of my 400 Fan Facebook Giveaway

2011-08-10T03:35:00.000-07:00

Drumroll...and the winner of my 400 FB Giveaway is Pauline Todd! Yay!
Pauline will receive one my cute fall 12" jumper dresses in orange or green. Her choice!

Congratulations, Pauline!

If you didn't win this time around don't be sad! There will be another when I hit 500 fans!

Pink, Aqua, and Yellow

2011-08-06T05:10:00.001-07:00

floral Pink PP 1, originally uploaded by germandolls.

Feeling soft and floral today...

Monster Zucchini

2011-08-04T16:16:00.000-07:00

It always happens. This sneaky squash hiding in your garden growing in its hiding spot into a giant monster that your kid wants to try out as a baseball bat. Stop! Don't do that! Mom needs it for making dinner. Or rather 3 dinners plus desert...

Here is one delicious recipe you can use it for. I call it Zucchini Pesto Soup (recipe has been adapted from one of my favorite cookbooks called The Book of Soups by Lorna Rhodes)

Ingredients:
1/3 of that large 3 pound out of control monster zucchini =)
1/2 onion
1/4 cup of olive oil plus a little bit more
1/2 cup of rissotto rice
5 cups of chicken stock
salt and pepper
two handfulls of basil leaves
pine nuts
1 garlic clove
more salt
grated parmesan cheese

Dice the Zucchini and onions very finely. Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large soup pot. Stir in the zucchini and onion and cook until they are soft. Add the rice and coat it with the olive oil. Pour in the hot chicken broth and bring everything to a boil.
Make pesto while the soup is simmering in the pot.
Wash and clean basil. Put basil leaves, olive oil, garlic, pine nuts, and a healthy dash of salt into an electric blender. If you feel ambitious you can do this with a mortar and pestle...Add about 1/4 cup of grated parmesan cheese.

Add 1-2 Tablespoons of the pesto to soup.

You can serve the soup with crispy slices baguette that has the rest of the pesto spread on it or serve with bruschetta.

Our son who normally considers zucchini his mortal enemy will eat two bowls of this soup when I make it. Not bad for a scary green monster zucchini!

Above the Clouds

2011-07-30T11:43:00.000-07:00

Waiting for the ride

The children and I got our first ride in a hot air Balloon today at the Weld County Fair. Every year a ballonist from the area offers free rides for people who otherwise would probably never be able to afford this.

I was a little scared. I don't like heights very much. The Balloon was tethered to the ground and we did not really lift off and go very far. But still...

Getting situated

Have you ever travelled in a hot air Balloon? I was really surprised how strange it felt. In a matter of less than a minute you are high up. Floating above the earth. You hardly feel the wind. Reminded me of a song called Ueber den Wolken by German singer and songwriter named Reinhard Mey.

Take off

                                                  Ueber den Wolken
                                           muss die Freiheit wohl grenzenlos sein...
                                           alle Aengste, alle Sorgen sagt man
                                           blieben darunter verborgen
                                           und dann wuerde
                                           was uns gross und wichtig erscheint
                                           ploetzlich nichtig und klein...

                                                 Above the clouds
                                               Freedom must be endless
                                               All fears and sorrows - they say
                                               Remain hidden beneath
                                               and then everything
                                               that seemed big and important to us before
                                               becomes small and negligible

I am so glad I overcame my fear and tried it. We didn't go up above the clouds. But it was a truly an amazing experience.

TOYS 4 SALE

2011-07-28T03:42:00.000-07:00

i saw this young entrepreneur in my neighborhood this week. he looked so cute it made me smile. after all we are in the same business...

he told me he made $2.55 yesterday selling his wares. then his little sister started to cry because she wanted a toy he was selling to another kid. kids....

Eat your Peek-a- Boo Beets!

2011-07-26T12:37:00.000-07:00

Our community garden patch has been amazing this year. We have enjoyed many fresh vegetables this year. Some of them the kids are not too happy with. Cauliflower was a bust. But the kids love beets. As you can see in these playful pictures...

The best way to eat beets - in my opinion - is baked. Just cut the tops and roots off and scrub the beets clean with a brush. Take a fork and pierce them a couple of times. Then wrap your beets in a layer of aluminum foil. Bake in the oven at 400 degrees until soft. Depending on the size...If they are big it can take 90 minutes.

Then break the foil open and enjoy your beets with sourcream and some chives sprinkled on. Heavenly!

But don't throw out those tops! They are quite delicious. You can cut the stems off and sautee them in olive oil and garlic. Then add the cut up cleaned wet leaves. Once the leaves are all wilted this makes a lovely side! I love to splash a bit of lime juice on top of mine...

Pray for the Children in Norway!

2011-07-24T06:42:00.001-07:00

robot boy 4, originally uploaded by germandolls.

when I am sad about all the evil things that happen in this world - I make dolls. it's my therapy.

then there is prayer...

today is Sunday. I am about to head to church where I will pray for ALL people. the ones on the right, the ones on the left side of the aisle, and mostly the ones that don't know me from atom but hate me because I am different...

I will pray for the people who hate me me because i have a different accent,
because I am a foreigner,
because I am a stranger,

the ones who hate me because i don't have the same political opinion.

it's a very sad world today.

Pray for the people - children - who were murdered in Norway. why did the man kill them? Because they were the children of people who had a different political opinion and belief system!

Finally Here - the Bee Line Dresses

2011-07-20T07:44:00.001-07:00

Bee dress 3, originally uploaded by germandolls.

Hope you'll love this fabric as much as I do. Comes in green and pink.

From the Annals of the Crazy German Lady...

2011-07-18T06:41:00.000-07:00

I am feeling a bit depressed today. Our baseball season has come to an end, and I will really miss watching this amazing American sport. Being German I had not known much about baseball until my son started playing. I instantly fell in love with it! There is nothing that get's your adrenalin pumping like a game of Little League kids going at it...

But there is one thing that really bothered me all summer. I had never seen such waste, mountains and mountains of trash, than at those little kids' baseball games. Most of this trash came in the shape of: Water Bottles.

I felt like a total outsider carrying around giant gallon sized refilled waterjugs from home. I could feel the the stinging looks. Lookey here:" There comes the crazy German lady again with her water bottles. Or was I imagining it? My son was the only kid - I am pretty sure of it - who had a water bottle in the dugout. I kept jogging over to refill his drink bottle about three to four times per game. Was it too much work? Not really. Not much different from grabbing a throw-away bottle from a cooler.

I know they all thought I am bit cracked. But what seems crazy to me is that people would pay up to $10 per gallon of bottled water (or even more at concession stands) when you can bring it from home for about 1cent per gallon. This is not the reason I am doing it. I was doing it because I like to avoid trash at all cost! I just don't like it when a giant overflowing trashcan obstructs my view of the baseball field. Sigh!

Here are some facts I found on the Internet. Maybe I should print them up as a handout for the next season? Will they still give me that look?

• Unlike soda and other carbonated beverages, there is no deposit on water bottles
so fewer are recycled.

•Nationally, only 10% of plastic water bottles are recycled—90% end up as either garbage or litter.

•30 million single-serve non-returnable containers end up in landfills or as litter every day.

• We spend millions annually to clean up plastic bottles that litter our highways, parks and open spaces.

It’s a Waste of Energy

• 18 million barrels of crude oil equivalent were consumed in 2005 to replace the 2 million tons of plastic bottles that were wasted instead of recycled.

• Manufacturing that much plastic releases more than 800,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, contributing to global climate change.

• If we recycled the water bottles used in New York, we would save more than 67,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases.

• In New York, the oil used to make our bottles is equal to 66 million gallons of gasoline; enough to power 120,000 automobiles for a year.
Taking Action

• Since New York adopted the bottle bill in 1982, 90.6 billion beverage containers have been recycled.
Roadside container litter has been reduced over 70%.

• San Francisco and Los Angeles have banned city departments from buying bottled water. Ann Arbor, Michigan is calling for city events to be bottled water free. Salt Lake City urges city workers not to buy bottled water.

Maine, Hawaii, California and Oregon have deposit laws that include bottled water.

What You Can Do

•Recycle or return all of your beverage containers
•Pick up bottles along the road or sidewalk and recycle them.
• Drink tap water—it’s better for the environment, even using a fi lter is cheaper than buying bottles.
•Get involved—help start a recycling program at school, work and sporting events.
•Buy and refill reusable bottles.
•Learn more about your local recycling program.

Eva's Doll

2011-07-15T04:48:00.001-07:00

Eva top view 1 copy, originally uploaded by germandolls.

Isn't she cute? For a rascally little girl who loves to play soccer and hug dolls...

Do you know what day it is? Etsyversary

2011-07-13T06:12:00.000-07:00

It's July 13th, 2011. Nope, it's not my birthday. It's my ETSYversary. Today, 4 years ago, I started my shop on Etsy. At the time I was really depressed because I didn't have a place to sell my dolls and doll clothes. Dollmaking was a hobby and I made dolls for friends and family - and gave them away. But once all the nieces and nephews had what they needed overcrowding became a bit of an issue...

I felt so lucky when I first discovered Etsy. A mom at my daughter's preschool told me about Etsy. Like me she was also a doll maker and struggling artist. She made different kind of dolls: Art dolls for collectors. But our plight was the same. If you live in a small US city in the middle nowhere - how do you find people who value your art?

I instantly loved the simple format of Etsy! When I first joined found myself rushing over to the computer each morning to check what had happened. Like a teenager in love. Wow, I had a sale! I'll never forget that morning when I woke up and someone had bought over half of my store: 33 items and paid a total of $850. Finally I could afford a good sewing machine...Unfortunately this never happened again. But I am happy to report that since I started I have had 1265 sales. I got nearly 1000 Feedback reports. Impressive, no?

I love the Shop Stats feature Etsy put on the site a while ago. It neatly shows you all the numbers in a graph. It's also a close reflection of what is going on with the economy. Not that I am an economist. Lucky me! Starting a business in the middle of a recession... Who has money for handmade dolls clothes and dolls when people (including myself) need to put food on the table for the family? But considering all of that - I have not done all that badly, and I am proud of my little business and my creations!

Here I am just another immigrant living the American Dream. Maybe one day I will make it and my little business will take off and provide our family with an income one can actually live on. I thank Etsy for helping me get a little bit closer to that dream...

Cutest Bee Fabric

2011-07-12T14:18:00.000-07:00

I just added this supercute fabric to my stash. Of course it's Japanese and who would not fall for this pattern? Isn't it amazingly awesome?
I can't wait to turn it into tiny shirts, little dresses, and whatnot.

What should I make first with it?

NK Blog Guessing Game Giveaway

2011-07-08T05:31:00.000-07:00

Since y'all had so much fun playing detective I got another one for you! Please go visit the NaturalKids Blog and play my Plant Guessing Game.

You could win one of these:

Happy Guessing!

Piece of Cake: German Cherry Crumb Cake - Kirsch-Streuselkuchen

2011-07-06T05:29:00.000-07:00

Here is a secret: My husband is a 3-time Weld County Pie Champion blue ribbon winner. I am not! I don't do pies. It's not a German thing. In fact, when we first started dating, we always argued about the usage of the word cake and pie. I'd call his pie a cake, and he 'd be very offended. "It's not a cake! This is a P-I-E! A cake is something different," he woud yell in frustration. Problem is we don't have the word pie in German. A baked sweet something is just a Kuchen/ cake.

Year after year the judge ladies at the fair would ask upon turning in the pie: Did he really make that pie?" They could not believe that a guy could make better pies than the old blue haired ladies...

Well I am not a champion pie maker. And I have never won any of the baked goods competitions at the Weld County Fair. It's just too intimidating with a husband like mine...But here is a really great recipe for an amazing German style cake!

You can make it with sour cherries or any other kind of tart fruit ( apples, red currents, any berries really, or apricots)

Ingredients for the batter:

1 stick unsalted butter
3 eggs
125 grams sugar
vanilla (powder or liquid version)
200 grams flour
2 tsp. baking powderpinch of salt

for the topping

1.5 cups sour pitted cherries or other sour fruit cut into bitesized pieces

for the crumbs:

a little over half a stick of COLD unsalted butter
75 grams sugar

150 grams flour

1.cream the butter with sugar, add the three eggs incorporating one egg at a time mixing it for about a minute, add vanilla flavoring

2. mix flour, baking powder, and salt together.

3. add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients one tablespoon at a time.

4. butter a springform (springform is the kind of pan that's round and the rim pops off after the cake is baked)

5. spread the batter in the springform evenly

6. put the cherries or other fruit on top and spread it evenly

Make crumbs:
1.cut the cold butter into a small bowl
2.add the flour and sugar to it
3.gently work the flour and sugar with your fingers into the butter

Remember: you are not trying to make dough here! Just a lumpy mixture to spread over your cake!

Bake for about one hour at 375 Fahrenheit in preheated oven. Check with a toothpick for doneness...

This cake is really a piece of cake to make! I have been doing it since I was a young child in Germany. So don't be afraid to try it, and let me know how your's turned out.

Winner of the Flickr Celebration Giveaway

2011-07-05T07:59:00.001-07:00

I need an Angel!, originally uploaded by germandolls.

Sorry folks, I didn't get around to pick the winner for my Flickr Celebration Giveaway until this morning. Thanks so much for participating in it! You all did great work playing detectives and finding the dolls with noses!

My flickr Photostream has two dolls with noses in it. One is the Audrey doll and the other this cute little angel here!

Looks like noses are really popular and I'll be making more dolls with noses in the future...

AND THE WINNER IS...DRUMROLL: ulrike aka Mini' comment!

Here comes the Sun little Darlin' - Be Safe in it!

2011-06-28T08:50:00.000-07:00

Photo by Jes Anthonis from Mosey Handmade on Etsy

Flashback Mother's Day 2011: My 10 year-old daughter got a sunburn. I felt like the worst mother ever. How could I let this happen? Well, it was the first sunny day of the year, and my daughter went to a friend's house to play. I had given her instructions that if they were going to play outside she needed to ask her friend's mom for some sunscreen. Of course, she didn't!
Lesson learned: Don't expect other people to be aware of your child's needs! Maybe the other mother thought it was okay because her kids have a darker complexion and don't get sunburned easily. You and your child alone are responsible and will suffer the consequences...

So we applied lots of aloe - freshly squeezed from the leaves of our houseplant and were glad there was no blistering, and the redness went away after 3 days. We skipped Field Day at school the next day. Everybody knows that one shouldn't go out and catch more sun when burned already, right?

So in order to do some penance here and to help out other parents I investigated the subject some more. I found a great site called: Healthy Child that you should visit. You will find many articles about sunscreens and protecting your kids from the sun. But here is the sum of the knowledge I gathered for those of you with little time:

SUN SAFETY TIPS:

1. Avoidance:
Stay out of the sun as much as possible, particularly between the hours of 10AM to 4 PM when the sun is strongest. If you must go outside, find shade as much as possible!

Check the UV index when planning outdoor activities.

Keep infants and very young children, in particular, out of sun completely!

2. Cover up.
The less skin gets exposed to damaging UV rays the less likely skin will get sunburned and damaged. Protect skin and eyes!

Clothing: wear brimmed hats and shirts made of fabrics that are dark colored and have a dense weave! Were sunglasses to protect eyes.

There are some companies that sell protective shirts and swimwear. I have not tried them myself, but what I read on their sites made a lot of sense to me. There is a reason why I see many farm workers in Colorado wear hoodies in the midday heat while working out in the fields. I am pretty sure they are not doing it as a fashion statement...

3. The Skinny on Sunscreens.
Help! It's so confusing. What do I buy?

Fact is that 85% of sunscreens sold in the US do not protect you at all. Why?

- people don't put on enough sunscreen to begin with. People put only 1/4 - 2/3 of what they should . Of course, that stuff is expensive and who can afford to keep buying it?

- manufacturers give us a false sense of protection with claims of 30, 50, 70, 90, or even 100 SPF factors. People using the higher numbered ones tend to reapply less often and stay in the sun much longer.

4. What's in a Sunscreen? Horrible chemicals that you definitely don't want to eat, breathe in, or leave on your skin for too long...

•The Environmental Working Group’s comprehensive scientific review indicates that 85% of 993 sunscreen products offer inadequate protection from the sun or contain ingredients with significant safety concerns.

->A new study from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) found that nearly all Americans are contaminated with oxybenzone, a  sunscreen chemical that has been linked to allergies, hormone disruption, cell damage, and low birth weight.

Use the sunscreens with SPF 30 rather than the higher ones because they have less chemicals. It's better to apply a lower numbered sunscreen more often than to use the high numbered ones only once.

Don't use the kind that you can spray on!!!It has small particles and people inhale those scary nanoparticles when spraying the stuff on. They still don't know what the long term health effects are. Fact is: chemicals build up in our systems.

Wash the sunscreen off after done playing in the sun!

5. What brands/ sunscreens? I found the following list on the website I mentioned above:

Top Ten Sunscreens recommended by the Environmental Working Group

1. Keys Soap Solar Rx Therapeutic Sunblock, SPF 30
2. Trukid Sunny Days Facestick Mineral Sunscreen UVA/UVB Broad Spectrum, SPF 30+
3. California Baby Sunblock Stick No Fragrance, SPF 30+
4. Badger Sunscreen, SPF 30
5. Marie Veronique Skin Therapy Sun Serum
6. Lavera Sunscreen Neutral, SPF 40
7. Vanicream Sunscreen, SPF 35
8. UV Natural Sunscreen, SPF 30+
9. Sun Science Sport Formula, SPF 30
10. Soleo Organics Sunscreen all natural Sunscreen, SPF 30+

I hope you find this article useful and tell a friend about it. I spent 13 hours at baseball this past weekend. Unfortunately we cannot live our lives indoors... We can only try and protect the people we love. It's hard to stand by and watch all these kids running around without protection or infants being sprayed with sunscreen. How do you tell people without offending them?

Celebrate my Flickr: Giveaway

2011-06-23T17:38:00.001-07:00

Coveralls & Sweet Pocketbaby for your 12" Waldorf Doll, originally uploaded by germandolls.

This is the first picture I ever posted on my flickr account. Since then ( April 12, 2008) I have added hundreds more. I have been busy, can you tell?

I usually don't make dolls with noses on them. Can you find the couple of dolls that actually have a nose on them? Maybe there were two or even three photos among all photos on my Flickr account. Find the nose doll(s) pictures and email me the link(s). I will draw a name from all correct entries sent to me.

Please, do leave a comment about the noses not where the doll is located! Do you prefer noses or are you a fan of the noseless kind of doll. You may hint at what the doll is wearing or something like that. Just don't give away the answer in your comment! It's more fun that way! =)

Drawing will be held July 4th! You will win something as sweet and cute as this first outfit I posted! Promise!
ulrike.seckler@msn.com

How to pronounce my German Name...

2011-06-19T05:24:00.000-07:00

You have to see this cute video!

http://www.facebook.com/GermanDolls#!/video/video.php?v=219840338040489&oid=158466720325&comments

Summer is for Salads!

2011-06-17T16:55:00.000-07:00

Now that the heat is here, I find the best thing to make for dinner is salad. I love salads because you can make a big bowl and eat it over a couple of days. If company appears at the doorstep - just throw in more vegetables to stretch the salad.

Here is the recipe for one of our family's favorite Salads: Mediterranean Rice Salad
I adapted this recipe from a Sunset recipe.

Ingredients:
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cup of long-grain rice
1/4 cup of fresh lemon juice or more
1/3 cup of olive oil
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 tsp of fresh oregano or more if you like
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
2 cups of fresh chopped spinach leaves
1 bell pepper, yellow orange or red diced
1 small cucumber, peeled, seeds removed, chopped finely
1/2 cup of chopped Kalamata olives
1 cup of crumbled feta cheese

1. Bring 2 1/2 cups of water to a boil. Add 1/2 tsp of salt to it. Add rice. Turn heat down to low. Put lid on and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove pot from burner and let the rice sit. I wrap the pot in a thick towel.

2. Whisk lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, herbs, pepper, and remaining salt. The original recipe called for 1.5 tsp of salt. Since we are trying to cut down on salt I use only 1/2 tsp or less. The feta cheese and olives usually have enough extra salt...

3. Fluff the rice with a fork. Add the rice to the dressing and mix it together gently. Add spinach, to the still warm rice and toss them together. The warm rice will wilt the spinach slightly. After the rice-spinach mix has completely cooled down add the remaining ingredients and toss again.

If you like hot food you can throw in some hot red pepper flakes. Since our youngest doesn't like hot food, the rest of the family adds some pepper flakes individually to their salad servings.

This salad is great for parties and potlucks! You can serve it immediately after finishing it, when it's still a bit warm, or serve it cold from the refrigerator.

Stars and Stripes for your Doll

2011-06-15T04:36:00.000-07:00

Are you ready to attend the 4th or July parade in your town? I couldn't make it last year because Germany was playing in the World Soccer Cup that day. But I surely won't miss it this year.
Parades are so much fun. I love the colors and the commotion. People, horses, dogs in motion. And the American flag is just so pretty. I always have to buy a few yards of "flag" themed fabric. This year I found a cool one with Peace signs.

You can order my patriotic clothing designs through my Etsy shop and receive Free Shipping through the rest of this month. Just mention my FB post (code: Stars & Stripes) and I'll send you a new invoice upon ordering.

Offer is good for Patriotic Designs only, through he month of June, 2011.

Where is Waldorf? Or The Essence of Doll

2011-06-09T08:30:00.000-07:00

When I look at the assortment of dolls that are labeled "Waldorf" on various sites these days I am always amazed. It looks like people are more and more getting away from the original idea of Waldorf. What is that idea?

The two main ideas behind waldorf style toys, I would say, are: Simplicity and Nature.

I have been making dolls in the Waldorf tradition for over 10 years now. It is an old tradition of making cloth dolls developed in Germany, where Waldorf Schools were started in 1919. According to the Waldorf philosophy, dolls should be made from what nature has given us: natural fibers such as sheep's wool, mohair, and cotton.

The dolls have a unique inner head construction which gives form but not detail to the face. The dolls have very simple features, sometimes no features at all. Strict followers of the Waldorf education principles believe that giving too much detail in a toy stifles a person's imagination. When a doll's face is left blank the owner has to fill in the doll's expression. The child fills in whether the doll is happy or sad. If there was a permanent smile painted on the dolls face, it would be hard for the child to imagine a sad doll...

When I encountered my first Waldorf doll in Germany I was instantly smitten. How was it possible that a doll this simple was so beautiful? How could it be that something so basic held such great attraction to a child and the child in me?
This first Waldorf style doll I encountered, made by a mom for her own child, had a simple line for a mouth and two dots for eyes. Her clothes were equally simple. She had a simple dress withouth any thrills.
And the best part of it: She was warm and huggable. Not plasticky and cold.

When I look around at the wide array of dolls sold as Waldorf style these days it makes me kind of cringe...
Often I see dolls that are not made of natural fibers. Sometimes people stuff with fiberfill or use synthetics for the clothing and accessories. I see noses big and small, I see eye browes, dimples, freckles, belly buttons, fingers, toes, and elaborate hairstyles.

I guess some people just prefer details. Does a doll without a nose somehow strike people as crippled or incomplete? Does it offend when a doll has stumps for hands or is missing a belly button?

Hmmm. Wasn't that the original idea? Are you able to fill in the blank and make your imagination soar? If your answer is yes, you may prefer my kind of doll.

I suppose I could add all those details. I have made dolls with noses but it feels weird. I think my reason I am here is to preserve the original idea of Waldorf. I want to stay true to my German roots and a more traditional approach to dollmaking. I don't want the simple dolls to become extinct.

To me less is often more. So I'll keep creating what I perceive as the "essence of doll".

LPatriotic jumper 2

2011-06-08T14:09:00.001-07:00

LPatriotic jumper 2, originally uploaded by germandolls.

Just finished this cute dress for a large 15-16 Waldorf style Bamboletta. It's such a pretty pattern. Just perfect for 4th of July celebration! Take your doll to the parade!