Dolls and Doll Clothes

Lately, I've become interested in historical dresses.  Since I don't have the experience or confidence to sew adult size dresses, I decided to try and make some doll dresses.  I've been wanting an American Girl doll for a long time, but I just can't justify paying over a hundred dollars for one.  So, after doing a little research, I decided to go to Target and look for a similar one called Our Generation.  I know alot of people have bought these dolls for a much cheaper price instead of the AG dolls.  They are very similar in size and body type and, to be honest, I think the Target dolls have a much prettier face on them.  The one below I bought at Target for $21.99.  Very affordable.  The hair is not the same as the AG dolls, but I plan to leave it up the way it came in the box so that won't be a problem.  I found the dress pattern for Kirsten's school dress at this link.  It's kind of a hidden link because I couldn't find it by doing a search in Google.  I just happened to find it the other day by chance.  Anyway, I thought I would try this dress first and it has its mistakes, but overall I think it came out pretty well.

I'm working on a Civil War era pattern that I found on Etsy.  Hopefully, it will go well and if it does I'll post a picture of it in a few days.

Beaded Change Purse

This is my first knit beaded change purse.  I'm very excited about it.  This is an area in knitting that I had not explored before.  I love learning new things in knitting and I'm really happy to have accomplished this one.  I bought my kit from Purse Paradise.  The pattern for this one is called Elaine.  I also bought the Danielle kit.  It's a little bit bigger, I think.  Elaine didn't take me too long to knit.  I think I will be making more of these little beaded purses.  These little purses take size 8 DMC pearl cotton, size 11/0 seed beads, and 1 pair size 0000 needles, except I found that the size 0000 was just too msall for my eyes, so I used size 000 knitting needles.  Unfortunately, that size is not available in the craft or knitting stores in my area, so I also ordered them from Purse Paradise.  You can find some purse frames at Joann's, but only one size.  So, it's kind of tricky finding all the materials, but once you do, it's so much fun to make these!  The knitting itself is very easy, the sewing of the bag to the frame a little tricky, but not bad.  It wasn't bad at all, in fact.

Flying V Scarf

Here is the picture I promised of the Flying V Scarf from the book Esquisite Little Knits.  I dug out my book last night so I could make a copy of the pattern.  I think I might be making another one of these soon.  Both of these scarves are great examples of easy patterns that look really complicated.  I like those kinds of projects.

Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf

I haven't been working on very much related to knitting lately, but I dug this scarf out a couple of days ago and I've been working on it.  I love this pattern.  It's so easy, but it looks so complicated, and best of all it's free.  You can find the pattern here.  I sure wish there were more patterns like this for free.  There is another pattern I absolutely love, but it's not free.  It's called the Flying V Scarf and the pattern is in the book Esquisite Little Knits.  I have one that I've made and I'll have to take a picture of it and post it.  It's another easy scarf pattern that looks so difficult.  Variegated yarn brings out the best in both of these scarves.

The Gathering Place Again

Well, Friday I decided to go The Gathering Place again to shop for a Christmas gift for a friend.  It was pouring down rain that day, but I was determined to go despite the downpour and I had a great time!  It would have been more fun with someone else, but I decided on the spur of the moment to go and I felt like it was pretty short notice to ask anyone to go with me.  Anyway, I went and I took some more pictures with my new little camera.  Here they are:

Another great place I found was called Art Crafters.  They have a huge art gallery where their main purpose is to frame artwork, but they also have some artisans who rent spaces in their store and sell their stuff.  They had one really pretty framed jigsaw puzzle.  I have read that you can frame them, but I've never seen one framed and it was awesome!  I didn't get a picture of it.  But, it got me to thinking that maybe I can do a jigsaw puzzle and frame it myself.  I have some great puzzles that I have never put together.  I hate the idea of putting them together and then just disassembling them again.  Framing them would be a great way to preserve them and keep all the hard work that was put into assembling them.

Now, we are just trying to finish up our Christmas shopping and wrapping.  I think we are finished now except for wrapping some last gifts.  I can't believe that Christmas is at the end of this week.  Where has the time gone?

Pictures

This weekend while I was at The Gathering Place with Melba, I saw her take out a really small camera and take a picture of a gingerbread man that she thought she might be able to make.  As I was watching her I remembered that I had intended to bring my own camera and left my house in such a rush, that I forgot it.  It got me to thinking about how clunky my camera is and how heavy it is when I have to carry it around when shopping.  You never know when you want to take a picture and usually I have no camera with me.  So, I decided to buy myself a really small digital camera that I can carry in my purse all the time.  It's not much bigger than a cell phone and there is a pocket in my purse where I can keep it and it will be convenient for me any time I want to take a quick photo.  It's also small enough to fit into a fanny pack, which is what Melba had with her on Saturday.  This little camera was on sale at Sears for $59.99.  I did have to buy a photo card, but that was on sale for $7.99.  This is what it looks like:

I didn't even read any reviews, I just winged it and went and bought it, so who knows what I'm in for.  But, I do have another Fujifilm Finepix larger digital camera and it's great, so hopefully this one will be ok too.

Here are some more pictures that I took with it this morning.  Just a few photos around my office.  First, my ribbon tree that I made this year for Christmas.

Next a little push pin beaded kind of tree that I made last year.

Then a couple of my African Violets that are in my office.

The Gathering Place

Yesterday I had the most wonderful afternoon. I went to Dayton to visit my cousin Melba, and we went to this wonderful place called The Gathering Place.  The link is here. It was so wonderful. While we were there, Melba's daughters, Karol and Sheila met us there. We had the best time. The Gathering Place looks like this:

I also love Melba's house. I love the way she has it decorated. She has a simple, country theme with lamps on her kitchen counters, country washtubs and dried flowers hanging from the ceiling. It's just awesome.

Here is a picture of the beautiful dried flowers in her kitchen.  I would love to take a camera and take more pictures. I always feel so inspired after I've visited her home.