Another dolly.

After my last creation, I emailed Susan about my horrendous guilt, and that gal....Let me tell you, is as sweet as pie. She alleviated most of the guilt. Well, to the best of her abilities anyway.

Then, I was strongly encouraged (by my family) to make dolls for my nieces' upcoming birthdays. Strongly encouraged. So, I emailed Susan and got her blessing for another four babies using her "style."

This is dolly number 2 for Kenzie's cousins. Dolly number 1 has some issues. It appears she'll need some serious surgery to repair a pinhead condition. On her, I tried a different hairstyle with baby Meredith in mind. I figure these dolls are more of an artistic statement that should sit idle on a child's bed...but I anticipate they may be drug around a bit too. Long piggies probably wouldn't be the best for little Meredith - so I'm reworking that doll a bit to make her more youngish-toddler friendly -- minus the pinhead condition.

Anyway, this is dolly Number 2. I'm leaving them nameless for the Dolly owners to name them. This one looks like a Stella to me, but... I'm fairly pleased with how she turned out.

Kenzalina

****Edited to add: Ah the Irony! This doll is now deceased. My in-law's dog, Abby, has the habit of eating our belongings. There is now a long list of things she's destroyed of Kenzie's: cups, Croc shoes, baby bag, etc. that have been ripped to shreds by this dog. Kenzalina suffered the same fate last night.

Original post:

Kenzalina (face)
Originally uploaded by mama's doodles.

This is a doll I made for Kenzie, designed to resemble her. I loved the notion of the heart on the mouth & telling Kenzie it was a kiss that I put there.

Anyway... I've named the doll Kenzalina...which is the nickname that our old Nanny gave Kenzie. I've fashioned Kenzalina to be quite like Kenzie with the bright blue eyes...and blond piggie-tails. (OK, so I'm dreaming a bit with that mass of hair, but maybe someday my Kenzie will have long luscious hair too. :) She's wonky and fun, and she turned out really great. She now sits on a rocking chair in Kenzie's room. Kenzie said she's "OHhhhhH, pretty, pretty!"

And, after trying to upload this post through Blogger - oh, say 37 times...unsuccessfully -- I threw a temper tantrum and did it through flickr. I put two other shots (full body and backside view) on flickr, but I can't seem to get Blogger to upload ANY photos for me today. This doll was fashioned after the dolls made by Joybucket.org. It's my own take on her fabulous dolls, which seem to have skyrocketing price tags.

Big girl bed

Okay, here's a photo of my work. I may have mentioned that the room is orange? This is what happens when you involve a two year old in swatch selection. MY original thought was a nice shade of light blue.... But, it does feel good, and Kenzie loves it. This all started with the quilt placed at the bottom of the bed - as I've already shared what I did to that. And, I found the bed at a garage sale (can you say 50 bucks???). There's a footboard too, but it's not visible in this shot. We bought another quilt for everyday use (tan with random colored stitching curling through it), and I've just tossed on some pillows that are left over from Kenzie's crib collection (which my mom made all the bedding and coordinates for). It's all pretty cute together. Kenzie chose the room color from about 10 different swatches (a zillion blue shades, one orange, and one green).

Now, I didn't photograph the rest of the room as the toddler was busy dismantling it. I also have not concluded the painting in there as I plan to draw some whimsical flowers throughout the room - reminiscent of the bugs that she had in her room in San Diego. WHEN? I might do that, is still a question to be solved. The room is definitely a nice sherbert-y shade of orange. Yummy.

So, this is Kenzie's big girl bed and she's thrilled.
She has, however, not slept in it yet. Hmmmnnnn. Each night she bounds on top of this bed saying she wants to sleep there - yet she panics at the last minute and we go nighty-night in the crib instead. I don't mind. She can sleep in that cage until she's 17 for all I care. At least she hasn't figured out how to let herself out of it in the middle of the night.

Yet, we are NOW prepared for when - my girl is ready to be a big girl. (sob).

Referrals

I've been having trouble with Blogger lately, and spending way too much time trying to load posts to my Kenzie's doodles blog. I've also been painting and readying Kenzie's big girl bed. My "crafty" time just evaporates and I haven't accomplished much lately, aside from the beginnings of a painting for Kenzie's room. But, I always check my blogs, even though it's a big investment of my time.

Today, I checked my stats for some reason, and got a good giggle at some of the referrals that bring people this way. My favorite was this Google search:
"Why did Kate Hudson separate?"

I didn't even know she had separated from her husband until this. But, indeed it appears her marriage wasn't as blissful as I thought it was. So, that simple question -- linked to my statement about making a wrist cuff similar to one I saw her wearing, and I also used the word "separation" in my post...and Voila. My Mama's Doodles blog popped up as the first entry in answer to why Kate Hudson separated from her husband...

Too funny.