One picket at a time.....

My husband is building a new picket fence...once picket at a time.

So, our basement is filled with pickets that he has cut and primed. He actually has a few hundred more to go. I admire him for this because this is the way to get things done.

The pickets are not the same as the beautiful box he recently made for me out of exotic woods.

Nor are the pickets like the reproduction Singer Featherweight table he made for one of my Singer Featherweights.


The pickets are not like the tiger maple that went in the contemporary table for my white Featherweight that he made from my design.


Yet all these things have one thing in common...they were made one piece at a time.

I was thinking a lot about this when I was in the basement doing laundry. In a world where things are often shoddy, disposable and made in haste, it is good to know there are people who still use the principle...one picket at a time.

Slow down...and enjoy the day!

Yesterday....

I forgot the Hitty dolls. I wasn't aware of this until a reader inquired about Hitty. A few didn't make it into the photo..but you get the drift...

Enjoy the day..and the weekend, too.

Did you hear?

Sometimes the dolls get themselves into poses. I happened to notice Becassine whispering to a Polish doll yesterday. I photographed the dolls because I want to move them around and sell some, too. They are such hams and get along quite well even though they live in very close quarters. They are always eager for a photo op.



I have been hearing lots of things myself lately. Some of it good, most of it bad, and all of it provocative. I live in a rich New England state and the rich are amazingly rich...but the poor are amazingly poor. The middle class seems to be slip-sliding away.

Standing in front of the doll cabinet provides me with a lot of comic relief. They are frozen in time and mostly happy and have no other function but to be looked at, played with and/or collected.





In my case, the bulk of my collection is vintage handmade cloth dolls, although I do collect some manufactured dolls. But, it is the cloth dolls I find most interesting. Who made them? When? For who? And why? Who were the little girls who played with them?

Collections give us a chance to escape from our own sense of immediacy and to think about the past. Collections can teach, bring smiles, and be a fun way to share with others. It doesn't matter what the collection is if it creates smiles.

Enjoy your day!

Weekend whimsy...

We found our weekend whimsy here. At present there are 4000 living, free flying butterflies in the conservatory. I truly don't have words to describe what it is like to walk amongst them. There were reptiles, button quail and a darling parrot, too.

Our grandchildren were enchanted and we were, too. We have been passing the Magic Wings conservatory for years and are just sorry we didn't visit sooner.

Still looking for (and finding) the whimsy. Let me know where you find yours.

Enjoy your day!

Dollz....

My doll club met last Monday and the program was "dolls twelve inches and under." Here is just a small portion of the dolls that members brought to share. There were many, many more tables.

Like any collectors, doll collectors know a lot about history. The older dolls require identification. Studying the history and the fabrication of the dolls is part of the joy of collecting. I selected a smattering of the many dolls we were able to see--everything from vinyl to wood to metal to bisque and china. Our club has grown to 27 members and is a diverse group of collectors.

What do you collect? I mean besides dust which is what I have been collecting a lot of lately.

The weekend is rolling around again. This week went by very quickly for me. We have some interesting plans so maybe I will have something different to show here next week. (I will try not to show Beltie cows but I cannot promise anything!)

Enjoy your day...and enjoy your weekend. Travel safely!

Weekend photos....

Couldn't help but notice this beautiful stone wall in our travels. What a monumental amount of work must have been involved in its making! Stone walls are, of course, everywhere in New England, even in the woods as abandoned fields have turned back to forests and the walls appear where the fields once were.

It is hard to imagine people clearing land by hand and creating stone walls that last for hundreds of years. This is such an unusual configuration of stone.

Of course, now I keep seeing the Belties everywhere we go. This was sociable group. See that black calf? It was "talking" to me as I took photos. The mooing was non-stop and loud! Seemed to be other cattle in the mix and there were far more than in this photo--this was a huge herd.



See that little bit of green? I do believe spring might be on its way soon. Early spring is my very favorite time of year. Today I planted pansies in the window boxes.

Enjoy the day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Kiss the cook....

Our home is 99 years old. The ceilings are are just seven feet above the floor. As a result, we have lighting that is either recessed or very flat against the ceiling. Above is the fixture in our kitchen.

Yesterday I applied vinyl lettering which I bought in a craft chain store. These vinyl letters are also abundant on eBay where I saw many other quotes I loved.

But--I had a discount coupon in my hand and it was just the right size and sentiment, so I went for immediate gratification. ( The shade on the light doesn't heat up.) Easy to apply, easy to remove and very whimsical. My husband read it and I am happy to say it resulted in a kiss.

Finding whimsy isn't easy these days. A few weeks ago, my husband's workplace closed abruptly and he was notified by a message on our answering machine. We navigated the dark waters of unemployment compensation, lack of jobs in his field, and the inability to find affordable health care. Fortunately for us, the company reopened and he is back at his high tech job-- for the moment.

My commitment now is to find more whimsy every day. Maybe that's why I love those whimsical cows and photographing dolls and making art. And, I discovered during this time that blogging and reading blogs is one of my favorite things to do and can provide brightness and whimsicality to a person's life despite other things going on.

Enjoy your day and the weekend-- and look for the whimsy!

Progress...

A friend of mine asked me to make and dress a small doll from a doll house doll family pattern that she has owned many years but never made up. This little one is three inches tall. I am not sure if this pattern is still being sold, although there are plenty of wonderful little dolls at Gail Wilson's web site. I regularly make tiny dolls and am used to working small, but I found the clothes on this doll to be both challenging and fun--not to mention totally cute!

Off to work on some more projects...enjoy the day!

Projects galore...

Just a quick post here. I am up to my nose in projects here that need to be completed. I am still fooling around with cotton and glue attempting to make "spun cotton ornaments." After much research on the Internet, I discovered that there are many approaches to making them but I am not sure anybody really has figured out exactly how they are made. However, there are several good artists out there making them and if I were a rich girl, I would certainly collect them! I especially like this work and these wonderful examples.

My original intention was to make some of the little figures that I draw. Above is an attempt at one of my "be happy" bunnies. I need to put his aside and work on some other things. I have another bunny drying that looks more like an antique bunny. If bunny dries today, I may be able to embellish him.

Off to get an early start here. Thanks for dropping by...

and enjoy your day!

Before

After

Chef renovation...

A few months ago, I made a repair on an apple head doll. I replaced the head and did some other repairs. The same customer had another doll that needed to have its head replaced and similar repairs. Johnny Appleseed is here.

I am not sure how old this chef doll is. He has resided for years on top of her refrigerator in her kitchen. He is so incredibly cool, I wanted to share his image and story here.

After cleaning out the old head, I made a cloth head with a needle sculpted nose, needle-felted matching wool hair and repaired the missing and/or broken parts.

A lot of work went into this figure originally with bread dough sculpts and real foods. Apple head dolls don't always do well over time. They fall prey to humidity, pests, and deterioration. I actually have seen some really old dolls that were quite durable but perhaps the drying technique was different then. When I finished the repairs, I sealed some of the parts with many coats of sealer. He has morphed into a cloth doll!

I was happy to save this chef for its owner. Don't be afraid to make repairs and restore items that still have value. Another person might have thrown it away. I think he has many more years of life in him!

It seems to be Monday again. Enjoy your day!

On the road today...

Excellent breakfast at the Millbrook Diner, Milbrook, NY

A bridge in the woods...

Wild turkeys...

Wing's Castle...

And more Belties...

Started the weekend a little early. As you can see, I am still looking for and finding Belted Galloway cows, castles and turkeys.

Enjoy your weekend...and whatever you find in your travels.

Bearly there....

Every so often a theme emerges in my travels and I notice things I haven't noticed before.

We had been many times to an antique and collectibles store. There were always a bunch of primitive dolls but slowly they have sold over the years. I was rummaging around to see if any were left when I lifted up a crocheted afghan. Underneath was a bear with its arms raised and smiling at me. I saw the tag it was wearing: "old and worn." I could relate to that. Bear came home with me since Bear was marked down next to nothing. Bear is a new bear made to look old and very nicely made.

I forgot Bear was in the back seat. I reached around to get my camera and there was Bear smiling back at me. I hadn't placed the bear in a seated position but I guess it preferred vertical to horizontal. I had wrapped it carefully in that blue towel.

Bear and baby below are carved out of a tree stump. There are a lot of decorative chain sawed bears on lawns and they are sold at craft fairs and pretty common. But this one was carved right along a stone wall along a rural highway.

It started with fiberglass cows and now the landscape is dotted with other animals. We have seen moose in Vermont, whales near the shoreline, horses on farms everywhere and now the bear has begun it emergence. I am sure we will see them frequently from now on.

I actually have some cute bears in my collection but am not a really Teddy bear person. But, if you have time take a look here and here and here.

What themes do you see from time to time? Enjoy the day....and...

A little snow update....

Maybe a foot or so...with a few more inches on the way. The wind gusts are up to 40 m.p.h. and there is a lot of drifting. Looks like the white Christmas we didn't have....

Snowed in...

A foot of snow is in the works. We are halfway there now. Up until last night, the snow had cleared away and it looked like early spring.

Here are some images taken over the weekend. There seemed to be a recurring theme with tower-like structures. I love spires and towers, steeples and spires, cathedrals and other structures that soar skyward.

Gatehouse, Hitchcock Farm, Millbrook, NY

Clock tower, Sharon CT

Monument, Fort Griswold New London CT

Of course, all of these locations are buried under snow now. These late winter storms can be big and messy. The entire East Coast has been affected by this storm.

When it stops snowing, there will be photo-ops. For now, it is windy and dark outside and the wind chill is expected to be 10-15 below zero here tonight. So much for spring.

Enjoy the day wherever you are and whatever the weather!