Summer Poetry...

Sorry, if I have not been around much this summer! The children and their summer activities are keeping me busy around the clock. There is hardly time to breathe between running to swim lessons, dance lessons, baseball and softball practrices and games, library events. Only in the early morning hours do I get to sit for a minute and think.
At the end of the school year my daughter brought home this painting with a poem attached to it. I have no idea who wrote it. It brought tears to my eyes.

CHILDREN ARE LIKE KITES

You spend years trying to get them off the ground
You run with them until you are both breathless.
They crash...they hit the roof..
you patch, comfort and assure them that someday they will fly

Finally, they are airborne

They need more string, and you keep letting it out.
They tug, and with each twist of the twine,
there is sadness that goes with joy.

The kite becomes more distant,
and you know it won't be long
before that beautiful creature will snap
the lifeline that binds you together
and will soar as meant to soar
...free and alone.

Only then do you know that you have done your job.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am enjoying my beautiful kites this summer. Watching them take off every day, soaring higher and higher. Soaking it all in. When school starts again, I will go back to my computer and try to catch up with blogs, flickr, and facebook accounts...

More Cute Shoe Offerings

I have made a few more sets of doll shoes using the needlefelting technique. Paired with Japanese Kawaii fabrics these doll clothing sets are simply irresistable. Don't you agree?

Custom shoes to match

Anyone here in the mood for some fresh strawberries?
Or would you like to go on a hike to the woods for some mushrooms. Please don't eat the toadstools, though...They look delicious but are only for decoration.




I have been making a lot of doll shoes lately. It is so much fun! Wool felt is such a wonderful material. It is soft and pliable and comes in so many colors. I have quite the collection of colors. I get kind of sad when I run out of a favorite color...

Check out my rainbow of shoes! My hands were quite sore after making them. But wasn't it worth it?

Once the raw shoe is finished they are decorated by needlefelting a design on them. It can be anything from a piece of fruit, piggies, a bunny...I love to match the new Kwaii fabrics in my stash. They are the cutest material on earth. If you want to know more about them, please read my previous blog entry on Japanese fabrics.

Needlefelting is an amazing craft. If you have lots of time on your hand you should try it. The limit is your imagination. Just make sure you have good eye-sight and a magnifying glass, for some of those details will make you blind. =)

I hope you enjoyed my happy shoe rainbow!

Your German Dollmaker

Bees in Our Backyard

On April 19th my husband and I received a beehive as a birthday gift. A friend of us built it from scratch out of wood. The style of hive he built is called a top bar hive. Until I received this gift I did not know much about bees. Frankly, I was a little afraid of them. So were the children as you can see from the very skeptical look on my daughter's face....

From a library book we learned that this type of hive is quite common in Africa. Beekeepers like it because the bees build the honeycomb directly onto a set of slats/bars that lay across the top of the box. See pictures below.
This makes harvesting honey quite easy. You also get a lot more beeswax for making candles that way. I am thrilled by the idea of making candles. I think this would be a great activity to do with children in the cold winter months.


The first set of pictures shows the bees being put in their new home on the day of their arrival in our backyard April 19th.

The second set shows the hive less than a month later. Watching the bees every day, I came to a much better understanding of the phrase "busy as a bee". They are such cool animals. The children are very excited. Every day they run outside and check on the progress of our new pets. 10 000 of them... Contrary to what most people seem to believe, honey bees are very peaceful. Nobody in the family has been stung or bothered by them. They go about their work every day never paying any attention to us watching or even standing close by.






We even got a little lick of honey when we opened the hive. Yummy!

I will keep you posted on the first harvest!

How to clean and care for a German Doll

Once in a while I get a letter by a customer asking me how to clean and care for their clothdoll. So I thought I'd put a sample letter I wrote in response to these questions on my blog. It may help to answer some questions you may have about caring for your doll.

Dear...
I am glad the doll I made is so well-loved by your child. Here are some tips on Waldorf doll care and how to bathe and clean your child's best friend.

So you have purchased this precious cloth doll and are really worried because it got a stain on it. Or even worse: it fell in a pond by the park. Yes, believe me it has happened to people... Don't fret it can be remedied! Contrary to what most people believe: Waldorf style cloth dolls are quite sturdy and can be bathed/fully immersed in water.

I give my daughter's dolls a bath every now and then when they need it. Since my German Dolls are stuffed with sheep's wool it is okay to fully soak them in water and give them a complete bath! They will NOT loose their loft because wool stays fluffy. Wool stuffed toys will not flatten or flake like poly filled ones. So you can do MORE than just spot clean.

Your child could even help with the cleaning of the doll. Your child and the doll could take a bath together. I recommend using a mild soap. Any mild soap used for humans - provided it does not have color in it - is okay to use on my wool stuffed dolls. If you just want to wash the doll by itself in the sink - I would use a mild wool detergent such as Woolite. You can find it at the grocery store. Add a fair amount of it to some lukewarm water and wash the doll with it. Just make sure the water is not too hot! You would not use hot water on your baby in the bathtub.

It is okay to gently massage areas where the doll is very dirty with the mild soap. Give the doll a good rinse after you feel you got her cleaned up with the soapy suds. After rinsing, squeeze the doll gently like you would when washing a wool sweater by hand. Try to get a lot of the water out by gently squeezing each limb and the tummy. Be gentle with the head. After the bath let the doll drip-dry on a towel. You could fold the towel or use more than one if the doll is still very wet. It is be best to do this on a nice sunny day. Depending on the heat and humidity it will take a couple of hours to dry completely. If you live in a very humid climate it may take longer (maybe even a day or two) to completely dry out.

In the winter time I dry my dolls laying down on our radiators. But I think sunlight works best! If you set the doll out in the sun - midday sun - you may even be able to get some extra bleaching action from the sun! I always hang my white laundry in the midday sun. You'd be surprised what miracles the sun can do on stains...
If your doll has long hair please don't brush it! The hair must be washed and treated very gently. Please fingercomb only! If it should ever get totally messed up and you are not happy with it you could sew on some new hair! Or send your doll on a spa vacation to my house where she can recieve a new wig or hairdo.
If the blush on the cheeks has faded, a wee bit of red beeswax crayon can be applied. If you don't have that use a non-toxic red pencil to gently rub some new blush on the cheeks. Don't overdo it though! But also don't be afraid. I believe the true beauty of these dolls lies in the fact that they can take some loving and still be adorable.
My daughter has thisHispanic doll, her absolute favorite, whose hair is so matted and she got some spots from "eating strawberries" but she would not have me change a thing about her. I'll never forget the trauma when her American girl doll lost an arm last year. How do you put a plastic arm back on? My clothdolls have never lost a limb...

My sister in Germany sticks all her Waldorf dolls in pillow cases, throws them in the washer, and machine washes them... I have never tried that. I would feel bad doing that to my babies. But I believe my dolls are pretty sturdily made and I have never had report from sis' that one fell apart in the washer.

I would not use any harsh stain removers though!I hope my long missive helps. Let me know how it goes!



Your German Dollmaker

Bonnets and Bloomers...

If you have been wondering what I have been up to. Well, it is simple: Bonnets and Bloomers. I have been making them in every color under the sun or should I say rainbow? They are available in flannel or plain cotton. The flannel ones come in pink, lavender, yellow, light blue.

The cotton sets come in any color you can imagine...

So now when you get an outfit for your dolly you can always find matching hat and panties. So much fun. And if you want to take it one step further: Order a pair of matching shoes. This way your doll can be entirely color coordinated. =)

What the Easter Bunny has in mind...

When I was a child Easter was my favorite holiday. I loved it even more than Christmas. Maybe because I have such a sweet tooth? Or was it the excitement of Easter Egg hunts that made it such a fun occasion? Of course, we were told to keep in mind that is not about the eggs and the candy. Like I tell my own kids now at Christmas that it is not about presents.

Easter is about hope...New life. Jesus risen from the dead.

But when you are a child death is very abstract and seems so far away. No matter what adults tell you it is all about the hunt and the pretty colors.

My mother always had a lovely centerpiece on the table. A few branches of pussy willows or forsythia, decorated with hand painted eggs, graced the center of our dining table.
Every year I have lived in the US I try to recreate that memory. It is hard though since pussy willows are hard to come by where I live now...

I am not quite ready this year. Time is flying by when you are busy. I have had so many custom orders recently I have not had the time to think about decorating my home.

My etsy shop is not fully stocked up on Easter items. I really wanted to make another Easter themed doll. But then again what better gift for Easter than one of my Wee Pocketdolls. They fit perfectly in one of those commercial plastic eggs.

And they won't harm the children's teeth...

I hope you are enjoying the spring season. I love spring - the season of hope and new beginnings...