Hello, Summer!

May has been a crazy month for me. What is a Waldorf doll? Hmm, I forgot. The doll shop with sweet handmade dolls has been pretty much abandoned this month... Poor babies!

I could have spent every single day at school helping out as a substitute teacher. I ended up working around 15 days total. It has been a total eye-opener and makes you appreciate teachers so much more. Frankly, I don't know how folks do it when both spouses have a job? Who cooks dinner, does the laundry, picks up the house? In our household it appears that DH didn't mind the cooking part. He cooked us many a delicous dinner when I came home.

But laundry? Not much help there. Is it true that I am making a huge mistake by still doing my teenagers' laundry? At least that's what I am being told by the office staff at school. I suppose my thinking is: Soon enough they will move out and leave for college, and I will miss them so much. I may even miss those mountains of laundry... Sniff!

But for now summer is on, and we will enjoy every moment of it. Yesterday we went out and bought a board game to enjoy as a family. Who still plays board games? There must be folks since there is a thriving business in our otherwise dead downtown neighborhood, selling mostly boardgames and other nerdy items. Have you ever played Settlers of Catan? I have always wanted to since I heard a lot of good things about that game - AND how could one go wrong with a game MADE IN GERMANY?

We were finally able to turn our garden plots after the torrential rains stopped here. All of May was pretty much a muddy mess in these parts. But how can one complain? I, for one, love the rain. One rarely meets like minded people in this town. They are all miserable and grumpy while I happily skip over puddles. I think to myself, you just wait. Once the thermometer hits 100 you will think back and wish for a cloudy grey sky.

Dolls? What are dolls? I have not had time to make any. I did take some photos of little Wilhelmina over here though. We agreed that she looks super cute in her patriotic outfit. I had to take the photos indoors. Once the ground dries up we will have to have a photo shoot outside...

Have a good summer or HAGS - as the kids write into yearbooks. Definitely an acronym I had never come across until I had kids in school in the US. Here I was thinking they were talking about old ladies. What about old ladies? Do you know how to say old lady in German? Alte Schachtel would be the equivalent. Well, take care and HAGS to you!

Creations from the heart...

I recently created this new ©GermanDolls Design  for my shop. I call it my swaddle baby. It's a tiny pocket doll with a small soft blanket for swaddling.

I get so excited when a new idea pops in my head. I can barely sleep until I realize the idea and create the item.

It came to me when I was getting a package ready for my youngest sister in Germany who is expecting her first child. I was searching the house for my old nursing bras and some other newborn items I wanted to mail her. Stuff I forgot to put in my suitcase on that recent trip home...

I was holding one of the swaddling blankets in my hands that I used for my own babes after they were born. Tears started welling up as a memory popped up. The little blanket was beige and had tiny little stars on it.

This is probably the memory of one of the happiest moments in my life. The image of my midwife handing over my newborn baby boy wrapped in one of those little hospital issued blankets. I was able to repeat this happy moment 2 1/2 years later when my daughter joined us in a similar swaddling blanket.

In Germany they don't hand out such blankets. I had never heard of them and swaddling until I gave birth here. I wonder where this tradition comes from. Anyone know?

So I wanted to share this special memory with my little sister. I sent her the little blanket with the stars along with my newly created doll in a "sweet pea" blanket. I also printed up some instructions on how to swaddle your baby. I found it very hard to explain this in German. The dictionary didn't have a good translation of the word. To swaddle was translated as "wickeln". The word "wickeln" in German basically means changing a diaper. Not exactly what I was looking for.

It's all good. My sister received the package, and I think she understood with the help of my little drawings and the instructions I printed off the internet. Now she can practice with the tiny doll - and soon with her own baby boy. ;)