Practice Makes...

I am making up my Little Bitty dolls in copy cat of these. I have long been smitten with Ric-Rac's dolls. Finally I have gotten around to trying my hand at imitation.

I spent my afternoon on this first attempt while the males of the house hold napped and the females either screamed from the confines of bed rather than give it up and go to sleep, or whined/bounced around the sewing room, at one point being thrown from the spinning computer chair into the wall.
Go ahead and guess which girl did what.

I am happy with this practice doll for a first try. Her arms and neck need to be a bit thinner, her body a bit thicker and her legs could use to get wider toward the feet. Also, I am not satisfied with the head attachment method I used. I am very pleased with the hair. I'd like to add a second thing I am very pleased with but there's really just the one thing. Everything else is merely satisfactory.

all that glitters

My newest shoes make me feel like Dorothy Gale.
That Frank Baum knows a thing or two about magical accessories.

a wedding report

Ruffled diaper covers for baby girl bums I am not including a photo of the baby niece's dress because I already did in this post.


This is Baby Girl's ensemble. I decided I liked the eyelet skirt better than the stripped dress so all I made for her was the satin belt with the beaded buckle.


Little Bitty's dress I made to match the blouse Baby Girl wore. I found a pair of socks with a red and white crochet-beaded edge that someone gave me for baby girl and, miraculously, I had all of the stuff to make a 3 year-old sized pair so both of my girls had beaded socks and sparkly shoes.
Little bitty loved the noise the socks made when she walked, and took big steps to make them louder.


I love how light the skirt looks in this photo. This dress turned out exactly the way I wanted it and I think the child who wore it was happy as well. I meant to ask her if the skirt was fat enough for her but I never did.
She also wanted "puffy boobs" which I did not provide. Don't let's misunderstand one another, were it appropriate I could build that girl some pretty impressive "girls" of her own. You don't work in the costume industry without learning a few tricks. But I thought a busty 4 year-old might steal attention from the bride and that, of course is the last thing you want to do at a wedding so I stayed my hand.
Speaking of things not to do at weddings. They years I spent in a bridal shop has made me a bad wedding guest. I'm so used to telling brides how to fix the oops-es in their wedding attire, I can't keep my mouth shut. In the shop it was my job to tell them every little thing I noticed so it could be fixed and perfect on the day. Once the day arrives however, brides don't need to be worried about little things that only a trained eye will notice.
Example number one. I am standing outside the temple in a crown of people waiting for the bride and groom to come out for photos. Another bride came out while we were waiting and from across the crowd I see her husband pick up her train and slip his wrist through the loop intended for a hanger and nothing else, ever! People make this mistake all of the time, a bride takes a dress into the fitting room, sees the loop and exclaims "Look! it has a loop so I can hook it to my wrist while I dance!" "NO" a responsible bridal sales representative should say. "That loop is only for hanging the dress on a hanger! You see how it is in the middle of the underside of the train? If you put that thing on your wrist all anyone is going to see is your crinoline, and the lining of your skirt and that ain't pretty!" Nobody told this girl, apparently. Anyway, back to the story. I'm across a crowd of people and I see this groom fumbling with the train and the hanger loop. "NO! HONEY" I shout, "That is NOT what that's for!" She of course didn't hear me over the crowd and it's probably for the best. My sister who was on that brides side of the crowd, noticed as well and helped the groom arrange the skirt so, at least, the lining looked it's best when it was chosen, over the actual pretty part of the dress to be shown to the world.
The second incident on the wedding day was with my brother's own bride. while standing behind her in a photo I noticed that her veil was up-side down. Anyone who plans on doing bridal hair-dos really should learn how to properly put in a veil comb because this is another very common mistake. The comb should be pushed down toward the neck, not up toward the hairline. This way the tulle falls beautifully over the comb and none of the stitching can be seen. It is really not hard.
So anyway, I notice the up-side-down veil and instead of keeping my mouth shut like I should out pop the words "sweetie, your veil's up-side-down", one always has to use some term of endearment when talking to a bride about her wardrobe fumbles, honey, sweetie, sugar lump, you get the idea. Now, what I ask you was she supposed to do about it at this point? Take the thig off right then and there, risking the ruination of her up-do inorder to fix a little something only I noticed? I realized the unhelpfulness of telling her immediately and assured her that I could only tell because I know better and because I was right behind her head. I don't think she stressed out about it, I hope she didn't anyway. Still, I should have kept it to myself.
Maybe one of these days I'll write a tutorial on how to properly don a wedding veil in a effort to educate the world and stop the showing of stitching on the heads of brides everywhere and in so doing cure my bridal-wear advice blurting disorder.

Ahhhh, I'm back

Five days I've been home and finally I have a chance to sit down and write something.
This three kids thing is really knocking me out. I don't know how people do it. Any who, here's a little update on the wee ones.
Baby Girl is fantastic, though grounded from TV for the remainder of today and tomorrow because she climbed up on a chair/the giant entertainment unit to get the remote and turn on a second Sesame street for herself. In case you wondered, having that thing fall on one of the children and crush them is one of my great fears. I try to imagine that if it fell each child would be miraculously positioned inside one of the open shelves and come through without a scratch. Like Aladdin in the window when the palace tower is rolling down the snowy hill.
Little Bitty Has taken to eating food instead of briefly sucking on it before removing it from her mouth and throwing it. That is a huge accomplishment. She is much more agreeable when she's received nourishment. Also, she does all sorts of adorable things, like instigating games of peek-a-boo, saying the word "bum" as she pats hers, and trying desperately figure out how to jump, all of which will soon be appreciated by her grandparents, who are taking her to live with them. Also, she says "tickle tickle tickle" sometimes she's tickling herself, sometimes me, sometimes she's just hoping someone will come along and fulfill the request. Hopefully the grandparents will be willing to do so.
Tiny Boy seems to have figured out that he's not supposed to put his hands in the dog dishes and so has taken to dipping his wee face directly into the water bowl for drinks instead. I yelled so loud I think I frightened all of the joy school children who had filled up to the bathroom for hand washing after a playdough session. -oops!
He also wants nothing more than to climb onto the back of the sofa and sit in the second story windowsill. Let me introduce you to another of my great fears. A child is sitting in the window and rears back, breaking the glass and falling to the crushed granite landscape below.
Baby Girl likes to sit there as well but she, at least, doesn't head straight for that spot every time she gets on the sofa and will mostly listen when I tell her to get down. Tiny can't quite climb onto the sofa on his own yet but it's only a matter of time. Once he masters that skill I may have to either bar his entry into the family room or board up the window until he loses his fascination with that perch.
I am fixing to get to work on a pair of Little Bitty dolls. One for Megan, because she won fair and square, and another for Little Bitty herself. Hopefully she'll have it for a long long time and it will remind her that somebody once took the time to make something just for her.
Maybe her grandparents will give her all the love that she needs to grow up with a good portion of self-worth but in case they don't, a hand made play mate is the best way I can think to pass along the message.

A posotively up-beat post

I am going to do my absolute best not to make a liar out of myself and the title of this post but, I warn you, it has been a rough week in the Uniquety household so I may start complaining at any moment without any further warning.
I'll start my positive-fest with a list of accomplishments.
1- Tiny Boy is a walky-walkerton. He's been close for a while Thursday evening he finally got there.
2- After weeks of agonizingly slow progress I finished what turned out to be 4 Flower Girl ensembles. Actually They aren't quite done, I saved all of the hand sewing to do in the car. I'll photograph them tomorrow as I pack them up.
3-I really wanted girl-scout cookie ice cream but they didn't have any more when we went to get some. (Blast! those sneaky complaints, elbowing in when you least expect them!)
4- Today Little Bitty actually ate a food with nutrients in it, chewed it, swallowed it, and everything.
5- I chose the winner of my contest. Megan entered in person rather than in Blog and she wins. Runners up are Annie, I loved Poppet but I wanted 2 words, and William(by the way, are you Cindy?), Little Love stayed at the top of my list for days.
You may call it cheating to pick a non-commented entry but it's my contest so I make the rules. (yes I am grumpy, thank you for asking)
6- Since I only just finished with the wee girls dresses I shopped for my own. It took some searching, I even went in the old-lady stores, but I found one and I love it. It has the sort of little cap sleeves that make it so your pits always feel sweaty but it does so much for the rest of me that I forgive the pits. If I'd made it myself I would have used built-in under-arm gussets to solve the problem but oh well.
7- I've mustered a bit of positive energy and patience each morning with which to greet the child who screams anytime I enter or exit a room, and a good deal of the time in between. The result of this is, I think she may be screaming a tad less. Maybe I just built up more resilience to the screaming, but in the interest of positive thinking we'll say she's screaming less.
8- I ate ribs on Friday, pried the flesh from the bones with my teeth and every thing. If you know much about my diet history you'll realize what a big deal that is. They weren't even well-done, that makes it an even bigger deal. All in the name of expanding my horizons.
9- I finished a song on Guitar Hero.

That's all I've got as far as accomplishments. Hopefully the trip to our mother state will be cleansing and I'll return ready to take on life at home with three children and a vomiting dog without slipping into a permanent role as Negative Nelly.

Other good things about the week were going to "Penelope" with my bunko group. Also, the park with cousins on Tursday eve and a Wii fest with friends on Friday.

And on that note, I am off to bed. The first time all week I have not nearly sewed myself to sleep.

Music

I awoke this morning to the sound of my dog vomiting in his kennel. Being serenaded in one's waking moments really is a good way to ease into the day, and dog retching lends such a peaceful tone to any situation.
Makes a girl feel all chipper and ready to face whatever the coming day has in store!

Dear frozen food company that rhymes with "Lawn" Man,

Thank you for stopping by every second Monday for the past 2 years to see if I am in need of any frozen goods. I heartily enjoy the cut corn and beef taquitos you supply. I also appreciate the fact that despite my rudeness in pretending not to be home when I don't need anything you continue to be courteous on the rare occasion that I do answer when you come to my door.
But, you see, the products you offer, aside from the corn and taquitos of course, are things I don't care to buy and a there's a limit to how much corn my family can consume. I've been thinking, it is hardly worth the time you spend walking from your truck, to my unanswered door, and back just for the occasional $2.00 bag of corn. I truly feel that it's time I set you free, Jeff. Free to spend more time driving to the homes of people who regularly buy multiple frozen entrees.
As I said, I've felt this way for rather a long time, but have finally been granted the courage to go through with the break up because of the recent barrage of phone calls I've received from your company.
It began last Friday. I was sitting at the computer, enjoying my bit of alone time when the call came. The woman said she was calling to remind me that you would be stopping by on Monday and would I like to pre-order any (pause while she refers to my file) corn? I told her, no thank you, we still had plenty of corn from your last visit, and hung up the phone wondering to myself if the call had something to do with the number of times I've been "not home" when you stopped by. On with my life I went and on Monday I listened quietly until the sound of your refrigerated truck retreated down the street as is my custom.
Today I got a similar call. I tried my best to keep the annoyance out of my voice as I explained to the woman that really, it was not a good time for me to discuss my need for taquitos (which she selected from her list to suggest). You see, sales calls are one of the things I most despise.
Just now, as I was getting lunch for a pair of babies one of whom prefers to throw her food rather than eat it and another who eats everything I give him, so fast I can hardly keep him supplied, the phone rang. "******'s foods" read the caller ID. "Surely they are not calling twice in one day!" thought I, "This call must be concerning something different".
It wasn't.
As the fellow on the other end of the phone line continued on with his script I grew increasingly bothered. By the time he came to the pause while he checked my file for an item to suggest I had made my decision. I would cancel the food delivery service all together as I had been contemplating.
I planned to be calm and simply state that I'd like to be removed from all lists, I don't buy enough to make the service necessary or anything that I can't get else where. Besides which, I can't stand sales calls and if I get my taquitos at Cost-co I won't have to worry about them calling to see if I want some more.
That didn't happen. Here's what I blurted with just enough self control to keep the hostility from my voice if not the aggravation. "You know what? I'm just gonna have to go ahead and cancel the service because you guys just.. keep.. CALLING me and it is honetly driving... me... a little bit, INSANE!" The response I got was, "Oh, I can certainly take you off the call list." I didn't trust myself to be polite to the poor man who surely didn't know of my extreme hatred of sales calls or the fact that he was the second ****** representative to call me that day, or that one baby was flinging marinara covered noodles as fast as her little hands could move while the other grunted for more food. I thanked him for taking me off the phone list and hung up.
So here we are Jeff, I want you to know that it's not you. You have been an exemplary delivery man. It is just time for ****** and myself to part ways. I hope you'll understand.

Apologetically,
Eva

A contest in which you will play the part of my creativity.

There is another little one at our house. She is calm and sweet. I just wish I knew how to get her to go to sleep. I know how to teach an infant to sleep but my own 2 already knew by the time they were toddlers so this is new territory for me.
Anyway, sleeping habits aside, she is here and so I'll be making mention of her from time to time but I don't know what to call her.
I call Baby Girl and Tiny Boy "Baby Girl" and "Tiny Boy" a good deal of the time in our real, off-line, life so it was natural for me to call them so here. This time, I guess, the blog nickname will have to come first. Does anyone have suggestions?
If I pick the name you suggest I will give you a prize (no, Cassandra I didn't forget your prize I'm just going to bring it along for my visit to save on postage)
And the prize will be... something handmade. Probably a doll that will bear the winning nickname. So, if you have a little girl who needs a hand made dolly to love get creative and suggest some good nicknames for this sweet, sleepless girl over here!

Never Mind

They found another family for the girls they called me about.
It is better for them there. They have older siblings and the other family could take them all so that's where they went.
I'm a bit relieved, I hadn't been planning on two at once, the thought of doubling my current number of children over night was more than a little overwhelming.
So I (we) wait.

Procrastination with a capitol P

I crocheted these for Christmas. The red and blue ones for Tiny Boy and the orange one for my nephew.
I still have the orange one because I forgot to take it with me to the family Christmas party to give to him. If you are unclear on why the orange ball is still in my possession go back and read the title of this post again.
I found the pattern online somewhere, I don't remember anymore that's what comes of not posting until 3 months after the fact. They are stuffed with balls of ugly yarn. I tried fiberfill but I didn't want them to be squishy so that didn't work out. My first choice for stuffing was tightly packed wool, like a doll's head, but there was no wool stuffing to be had the day before Christmas so I improvised and the yarn works really well.

Flower girl update

The baby dress is nearly complete. All that's left is to sew on the bow and put a button or hook (I haven't decided which) on the back.
I bound the hem with a super narrow bias binding. I think it's divine. In fact, looking from the bottom up is my favorite view of the dress. That will be ruined once a baby is inside so I plan to compensate by making little ruffled pants to cover the diaper.
Now I suppose I'll meander back to working on the other dress, I haven't done a thing to it since I last posted about my progress.

Ladies and Gentelmen we have placement

I got the call I've been waiting for since January.
All I know is that there are two of them, girls, one and three years respectively. Matches for the two I already have.
I don't think this placement is the one that brings the baby meant for me to keep. The one I have dreamed of, felt out there in the world somewhere. She is younger, I think, and alone in the world.
I pray to love them as I care for them. To overlook the behaviors I will have to learn to handle, and see them as God meant for them to be.