Meet Jimmy Joe At Our Saint Patrick's Day Party.

I want you to meet the newest member of our doll family.  His new forever name is Jimmy Joe.  We have created this tablescape to celebrate Saint Patrick's Day and to celebrate Jimmy Joe's new birth date of March 17, 2016.  He is still a bit rough around the edges but I think overall he is quite handsome.  His hair has been cut,  his eyelashes are shortened, and his lip color has been adjusted (slightly) to give him his boyish appearance.

There is a hand crocheted tablecloth over the Battat table.  Wee little silverware and tea cups as well as leprechauns and crystal water glasses and shamrock plates adorn our party table.

 We even have green root beer mugs for the dolls to enjoy their St. Pat's Day beverages in.

 Little Jimmy Joe had the attention of all the dolls,  but especially young Callie's attention.   Ahhhh,  seems like Kismet has payed a call to our doll family.  You can feel the chemistry in the air.

 Young master Jimmy's eyes are riveted onto Callie's sweet face.

Can it be that they will be best friends forever?

Gradually as the party has wound down our two young friends have moved  closer.

How sweet they look together.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day to All!!!!

Details on the furniture, flatware and Jimmy's new look will be in a later post.

I will be visiting at JoAnn's Wednesday Wee Ones to see what her dolls have been up to this week.

See you there!

Valentine's Day Dress for a Pretend Lady Mary

For over five years I have been following the events in the lives of the characters on the PBS program Downton Abbey.  Lady Mary has been my favorite Grantham character (followed closely by her mother Lady Cora).  The sixth season has brought so many beautiful new costumes for Lady Mary.   I wanted to interpret one of  her costumes for my Kelsey Doll from the Journey Girls Line.  I used the Liberty Jane Aspen Party Dress Pattern that you can find HERE .  This Pattern was available as a free download a couple of months back on Freebie Friday at Liberty Jane.  It has a nice after five look to it and it kind of fit the mood I was looking for to create this outfit with. I chose red satin for the lining with black lace over it to simulate a costume from a while back. 

The necklace and the beads seem to be a integral part of Lady Mary's outfits as well as her hats and hair adornments.

 Somewhere on the PBS site for Downton Abbey I had read the necklaces were all about the beads for the costumes. My Lady Mary's beads are tied in the back and dangling like I have seen in recent programs.

I want to make another version of this dress that would come down to the middle of her ankles.  But for right now I have to be content with finishing a Fairy costume for another doll that will go to granddaughter Little Joe later in the spring.  Jo had asked for a pink and purple fairy costume with white and pink flowers last month when I had taken over another doll and costume for her to play with. I am not fond of how the petals look on the bodice and may just end up redoing the petals.  The doll is a recent thrift store find. She was scrubbed down and her hair was washed and allowed to dry without combing out to help maintain the curls in her black hair.  I think she will make a splendid fairy when the costume is finished.  I tend to want to name her Glena but ultimately Little Jo will name her what she wants to.

Here is a closer look at the petals and bodice of the fairy costume.

There have been several other dolls added to the family since the beginning of  December (and a couple from before that but not yet named or shown on my blog).

Heart for Hearts Lillian doll is in the middle holding baby BeBe. Lillian was waiting for me to find her at the Goodwill store.  Except for shoes she was fully dressed in her original Russian costume for just $2.00!

The girl scout uniform came from a china doll.

This little Lotus Doll would make a great doll to redo into a boy doll.

Notice how pretty and natural looking the teeth are, inset and not a glaring white-white

like some of the very expensive dolls out there.

 Karito Kids Doll Ling.  I found her at the VOA fully clothed.  She did cost a bit more (nearly ten dollars) but she is well worth it.

 The doll below is marked 1997 Just Pretend, Inc on her neck.  I thought she might be one of the Dream Designer Dolls called Kiri Tanaka.  This doll has sleep eyes and the info on the Kiri Doll did not list Kiri as a sleep eye doll.  If anyone can identify her for me I would Really appreciate it. 

She was dressed in a AG Samantha doll dress when I found her.

 Her outfit today is an AG skate dress also from the VOA.

 Leza is a Karito Kid Doll too. Her clothes are from all different sources.

And then there is Callie, another Journey doll.  She is my latest Ebay purchase.  It turns out that Callie comes from a home full of love and dolls. She came to me in this beautiful dress and with the bow in her hair.  She was carefully wrapped to prevent any injuries.   Thank you dotsydoodle for all the love you showed to Callie!

All of the dolls have their own stories.  As they are introduced into the family in their new homemade clothes their stories will be told (Hint Lillian is first!).

Have fun and make sure to visit some thrift stores like the Volunteers of America and the Salvation Army Family Store,  you never know what you will find there.  Make a difference - keep your money in this country and help give jobs to those who are in need in your community.   Good luck hunting for your treasures.

Little Jo Helps Set The Thanksgiving Tablescape.

The Thanksgiving Holiday came and went without too much commotion at our house this year.  Little Jo and Cindy had watched Grandma polish the silverware and place the napkins in the napkin rings last year during the holidays. They thought that with a little help from their cousins that they could help with the little tasks needed to set the table.  They wanted to help Grandma so that she could enjoy the company of her family a bit more this year and maybe even be able to sit down and read a story to the kids before bedtime.

Little Jo and Nora joined Becky and Cindy to fold the napkins to fit into the terracotta turkey napkin rings.  Nora was the first to get her napkin folded and into the ring properly so she helped Tina out with her napkin while Tina tried to figure out how to put the batteries into the candles.

After several attempts to place the batteries into the candles Tina started to get very frustrated.

Tina stared into the plastic cavity where the batteries went and began to wonder just who the heck thought of putting batteries into candles anyway?  Even after you get the batteries in they still look fake and don't give off much light anyway.   With a little help from Grandma the batteries finally went into the candle.  After the first candle was finished the other three were much easier to fit the batteries into. Tina was finished in only a few more minutes. 

Cindy helped Grandma get the runners laid down straight straight over the brown tablecloth.  Grandma held one end while Cindy tugged on the other end to help guide the runner along the edge of the table.  Once the runners were all straight Grandma let Cindy lay the lacy placemats onto the table so that the Thanksgiving dinnerware would look real pretty on top of them. Grandma placed all of the plates and glasses onto the table herself.  See how pretty Cindy's place setting looks!

Little Jo Helps Set The Thanksgiving Tablescape. 

The reason Grandma would not let us girls put the plates and glasses onto the table is because she thinks that we are too little to handle that job,  Hmmm,  I wonder why she thinks we are too little?

Well, maybe we are a little bit small,  but the books we stand on help us reach the stuff on top of the table.  Maybe next year......

After each place setting was ready all of the cousins sat around the table.  They giggled and told stories to each other just like they did when they went camping and told stories around the campfire.

Becky was so excited to tell her story that she kept waving her hand in the air so that she could have a turn telling her story too.  All of the other girls sat together and got very quiet as Becky told the tale of how they had gone out to the country with Grandma to Farmer Ricks Turkey Ranch to pick a turkey for Thanksgiving dinner.

Maggie, Tina, and Kate listened intently as their eyes grew wider and wider as they learned about how Mr Tom Turkey had run clear across the farmers barnyard to escape his inevitable capture when suddenly in a flurry of white feathers he spread his wings and flew over Farmer Ricks fence and took off running towards the woods. 

Cindy and her youngest sister Summer were giggling at the thought of that big ole fat turkey flying off into the woods.  How funny it must have been to see his big rump go over the fence with Farmer Rick trying to chase after him.

Soon after that grandma's big kids started to arrive for dinner so all of us dolls had to get back into our basket.  We all kind of hung out for awhile until the pumpkin pies were served. 

We hope that everyone had a wonderfully Happy Thanksgiving!

You can join JoAnn for Wednesday Wee Ones and see how her dolls are decorating for Christmas **Here**    and Diane's dolls Zeta and Holly are getting ready for Christmas too!**here** .

Thank you for stopping by to visit us!
Big Dolly Hugs,
Becky, Cindy, Tina, Brittany, Summer, Kate, Maggie, Little Jo, Nora, and our sweet little baby girl due to be born today.

Update:
 
Baby Eugenia was born at 2:47 AM this morning.  A beautiful *real* little doll baby!

Little Jo and Nora Play In The Fairy Garden

Fall clean up in the Fairy Garden can be quite a chore so I was glad that Little Jo and Nora  (Nora is Little Jo's younger sister) were here to help out.  Before we had worked too long several of the others in our doll family started showing up to pitch in and get the fairies and the fairy houses spiffed up for the rest of the fall season.  There were pumpkins and spiders, and even  a skeleton to gather up after the Halloween festivities in the fairy garden. It is now time to just enjoy a few harvest accents until it is time to decorate the garden for Christmas.  Nora was eager to wear her new Fall outfit that Grandma made this week.  Grandma also made a pretty jacket just like Cindy's only it is a different color.  I promised Nora we would let her model her new outfit first. Pretty Nora and Little Jo look a lot a like.  It is a good thing that Nora likes to keep her hair in braids or I wouldn't hardly be able to tell them apart.

Nora's Fall outfit.........

 Nora wanted feathers with her braids today.

 Grandma made leggings and a tee shirt out of a people size tee shirt that she had bought at Marc's (her favorite close-out store) for just $1.39.   Grandma said she could get one or two more outfits out of that big  tee shirt.

 We found the stick-on felt owls at JoAnn Fabrics.

 Nora's tee shirt was made from a Liberty Jane pattern that was the free download

 last week on Freebie Friday.

  It looks very pretty on Nora and it fits so well.

Becky's outfit today is the leggings from her Halloween costume and the reverse side of 

her purple spider shirt also from her Halloween costume.

Shy little Cindy has been gathering the last of the Halloween decor from the Fairy Garden.

Skeleton's are so creepy - ooh, yuk!

 Tina is wearing Little Jo's hat and jacket.  I think they are a bit too small for her.

Maggie's purple sweater looks so pretty with Maggie's red hair.  Maggie's outfit was bought off of Ebay by Grandma.  Grandma says she will make her own doll clothes from now on and save her money.

 Maggie has braided hair today,  isn't it pretty?

Little Jo was a bit late today,  she had a hard time picking something to wear.  She ended up wearing a tank top and pink shirt that Grandma had bought at the Goodwill store.  It was in a grab bag of shoes and outfits made by American Girl. All of the girls love the bright pink color and the sweet little pink heart buttons and trim.

 Little Jo is always hamming it up when we take pictures.

 Maggie is holding her own by not letting Little Jo be the center of attention for our group pictures.

Everyone needs to get into place for our group picture.

 Little Jo insisted on one more picture of Cindy and herself.

 The dolls had a lot of fun today helping Grandma trim the plants and pick off dead blossoms from the flowers.  Cindy enjoyed putting the Halloween decor away,  and we all helped to weed and prune the plants.

JoAnn's dolls have beautiful new outfits too.  You can see them  **here** .

Diane has created a beautiful outfit for her doll Ginger, you can see her **here**.   

Have a wonderful week,

Have some fun,  get out and play a little!!

Candy