Technology and the Problems it is causing

I know we need technology in our life but do we really need cell phones and all this that we have now days?  You know, My husband and I have raised a very beautiful, intelligent, hard working, Straight A Student and most important, KIND 18 yr old Daughter who is going off to College in the Fall.  Did we do that by shoving her in front of a video game or throwing a cellphone in he hand...NO!!!  We would take turns every night reading her a bedtime story from a real book until she was about four...that was when she started to read them to us.  We also sat at the Coffee table a LOT and played ACTUAL board games like Monopoly, Clue, Scrabble and every other board game we could find.  We may not have had much but we had each other and that is all that mattered and people just don't seem to understand that anymore.  All they care about is technology.  Just yesterday I was driving behind a person and I seen a little child in the back seat and the person was driving all over the road and almost wrecked several times........when we finally got to a red light, I seen it was a woman and her VERY small son and the woman was texting on a cell phone and THAT was why she was driving that way and the child wasn't even wearing a seatbelt.  ARE WE ANIMALS anymore.  HOW could anyone endanger their own life or their childs for a text????????  I never will and never would....MY CHILD MEANS MORE TO ME THAN MY WORK, OR ANYTHING ELSE.

Rag Dolls for my Porcelain and Resin Dolls

13 years ago when I first discovered you could actually make Porcelain Dolls, I fell in Love with a doll named Molly.  Molly was sculpted by Dianna Effner and the molds are sold through Expressions Dolls.  Dianna is my favorite sculptor and is also an excellent teacher.  I got to attend 2 Seminars at her Studio in Jamestown, MO where she taught several wonderful Ladies and myself how to paint doll eyes.  Using her technique, I painted this Molly and got such a sweet expression on her face.  Saggedy was also handmade by me using one of Dianna's patterns.  Her smocked dress was also made using an Expressions pattern.  When I first saw the picture of Molly, I had no idea how to sew but I taught myself how to smock.  I wanted to make Molly a smocked dress so after researching how to smock on-line, I dove in and made this beautiful dress!

Here is a close up picture of Molly's Face.  Her eyes were a lot of fun to paint.  When I made this Molly, I did not own any of the molds so I ordered her bisque from www.dollsyourway.com  I had her leave the eye area in so that I was able to paint them.  I really love the effect you get with the painted eyes.

Here is a close up of Saggedy's face.  I used acrylic paint, copic markers and a blue ball point pen.  This picture was taken before I put his hair on but I really wanted to show off his cute little ears too!   Since finishing this set, which was sold, I have made several Saggedy dolls for other people.  The pattern I have actually has pattern pieces for 3 different dolls.  Rag Doll, Saggedy Sam and Floppy Joe.  The pattern is called Raggmuffins and is available at  www.expressionsdolls.com

After making many porcelain dolls over the years, I discovered the Resin Ball Jointed Dolls and Vinyl Little Darling Dolls that have become favorites for many doll collectors.  While browsing Ebay several months ago, I   found a beautiful costume for a Kaye Wiggs Doll from Deena's Country Hearth.  Not only was Deena selling the clothing, she was also selling a Rag Doll she had made for the Wiggs Doll to hold that matched the clothing.  Since then, those Rag Dolls have become quite popular so Deena decided to share her pattern with us all so we could all make our very own Rag Dolls!  The name of the Rag Doll is Little Mini Wilabee Bug Dolly.  She is very cute!  I purchased the pattern but have not yet made any dolls.  I want to tea dye my muslin first but I have never done this before so I am looking for a good online tutorial on how it is done before trying.   Here is a picture of the pattern.

Once I feel confident that I will be able to dye my muslin correctly, I will dye it then dive in to making one of these sweet little dollies!  Until then, I am working on several Saggedy Sams and Floppy Joes!  They sure are keeping me busy but at least I am having a lot of fun with them!

Doll Costuming Workshop plus Annual 2012 Doll & Teddy Bear Show & Sale at Sauder Village

Here is a group shot of all the Workshop Attendees minus One, the lady who took the picture for us.  Dianna is the first on the Left and I am right next to her in the white distressed jeans.  I never realized until I saw this picture that those jeans are too young looking for me....they will more than likey become my daughters....lol.

Good morning everyone!  Sorry it has taken me so long to finally update you on the Costuming Workshop and Show & Sale but I needed to get re-organized and rest up after I got home.  I had an absolute BLAST and I learned so much during the Workshop!    My actual trip started on Wednesday afternoon.  Right around 12:45 p.m., I headed out for my 5 1/2 hour road trip.  The drive there was really easy until I got to the last road I was supposed to turn on....that is where I seen the huge "Road Closed" signs and tried to follow the Detour signs but ended up lost.  Thankfully there was a Farmer out and I was able to stop and ask him for directions and his directions took me right into Sauder Villages Parking Lot!  That was a huge relief!  It was around 6:15 when I arrived and once I got settled in to my room, I went to dinner.  Here are 2 pictures of my room.  It was very cozy!

The Barn Restaurant is across the parking lot from Sauder Inn and the Food was excellent!  The Restaurant itself was amazing.  It is an actual old barn that was totally renovated years ago for the Restaurant and the woodwork was beautiful.  Ouside, they had some really neat things!

After Dinner, I found myself very tired from the drive so I went back to my room and relaxed for a while.  But on my way back, I took pictures of some of the quilts they had hung on the walls and of the neat ponds they had inside the Inn.

They even have a nice pond and patio outside!

The next day started bright and early for me.  At 6:00 a.m., the Inn serves a Continental Breakfast in a huge room that has a Oak Tree in the middle and a pool at the opposite end.

The breakfast was very good and re-energized me for the day.  I knew it was going to be a day packed full of information!  Since the Workshop wasn't going to start until 10:00 a.m., I decided to do some site-seeing.  I went into the Welcome Center and browsed through the Gift Shop.  There was a lot of neat things there. 

At 10:00 am I headed to Room Homestead A in the Inn for the start of the Workshop!  I was so excited when I went in there and seen all the fun stuff we were going to be doing.

 

The first picture shows Homestead A and B.  They were separated by the quilt!  The Workshop started off with a "Meet and Greet" then we got down to business.  First, Dianna took us around the room and showed us all the different techniques we were going to be doing.  From dying silk and mohair wigs, making our very own iron-on transfers, stamping images with paper stampers and inks, coloring in some parts with Copic Markers, painting shoes, making spiderweb ribbon roses for cute sashes or hair pieces to making jewelry, she covered a lot of stuff in just about an hour!  As we walked around the room, ideas poured into me like water into a glass!  And since we only had 2 days to make our outfits, it wasn't long after Dianna showed us all the different things we could do that we got down to business!  She brought a couple different patterns and said we could make whatever type outfit we wanted.  We pretty much picked it out and went to work.  Only stopping when we had a question.  The great thing about this Workshop was that Dianna gave us the freedom to make whatever type of costume we wanted for our Little Darling Doll!  We were all given a "Blank" doll to use for fitting.  I hope to learn to paint the vinyl dolls so I can paint her one day. 

By the end of day two, a lot of us still didn't have our outfits done.  Luckily most of us just needed to bring them home and sew them up.  Mine still are not finished but I am taking my time so I don't mess them up.  One lady got hers done plus two other, but she was smart and had brought her sewing machine from home so she could sew in the evenings.  One of the ladies outfits was very close to being done but she wanted to do more to it.  Here is a picture of two of the things she was working on.  I really love the shape of the little dress!

I have promised myself that next year, if I am going to attend another "Costuming Workshop", to take my sewing machine with me too.  That way I will also be able to continue working in the evenings in my room.

Another thing we did was during day two, we were allowed to pick out supplies for purchase!  I got stampers and ink, copic markers, silk dyes and a extra pair of shoes.  I also got a Mohair Wig that I dyed.  There is a picture later on in this post that shows all the goodies I got from the Workshop, Show & Sale!  I really did get a lot of things!!!!

Here is what I have done so far:

I love the mint green color I got for the first dress.  All the green ribbons were also dyed and the 3 green roses are going to be a part of the sash.   I dyed all the purple and pink silk ribbons too and the silk ruffles on the dress.  The Flower Power part was stamped onto an iron-on transfer paper then ironed on but the one ruffle and the pants where are just stamped straight on.  I mixed up a purple acrylic paint for the shoes and am going to make tiny little roses to put on them.  All the purple roses I am making are going to be put on the ruffles on the dress for more dimension.  Even the blonde wig was dyed.  The original color was too blonde...almost a pure yellow color which really didn't look good at all so we took some of the silk dyes and toned the yellow down some.  Now it really needs to be re-styled.  It was in a French Braid but we had to take it out to dye it. 

As for the Doll & Teddy Bear Show & Sale...."WOWZERS" is about all I can say!  I figured there would me more Bears than Dolls but boy was I totally wrong there!  There were so many different dolls and wigs and outfits that it made my head spin!  They hold the Show and Sale in "Founders Hall".

It was packed full of many different tables and many different dolls.  There were so many I took over 100 pictures but here are a few of them:

 The Black Dress on the far Right is the one I got.  It is soooo beautiful!

Here is the Dollfie I got!

I made some excellent purchases at the Show too. 

I got a MSD Super Dollfie but am not sure of her name.  She is the big doll in the middle.  I also purchased the outfit she is wearing.  She came with eyes, wig and shoes.  I got lucky and found a Kaye Wiggs Tillie and snagged her up along with the little Anne Estelle.  Those were the dolls I got!  I got the black dress on the left (which was one of my favorite purchases besides the dolls...lol).  The other things I got from the Show and Sale were supplies for making my porcelain dolls.  They were pates, shoulder plate connectors, sfgw cleaning scrubbies and porcelain scrubbies.  I got a armature and wigs plus more doll shoes.  I got a tiny bit of fabric from the Quilt Shop there and the rest of the stuff on the table came from the Workshop!  

Even the Village itself was packed full of stuff to see.  I spent about 4 hours on Saturday just walking around Sauder Village.  It was very interesting to see how they did things back in the day.  From woodworking, glassblowing and schooling, there were many things to see.  I took another 100 pictures just while in the Village and here are a few of them:

I am already looking forward to next year!  Since Hubby seen my pictures, he said he thinks he would even like going to the Village and looking around while I take a Workshop, so he told me to start saving!  There is more information about Sauder Village and the Workshops they offer at:

www.saudervillage.com

For those of you who are not familiar with Sauder Village, it is located in Archbold OH which is up in the Northwest corner.  Archbold is more of a Farming Community so there is a lot of farmland out there and most of it is corn!  It was very interesting to see actual corn rows in person!  It really was a Fantastic place to visit.  Everyone who worked there was very kind, generous and helpful.  The Inn Staff made sure I was as comfortable as possible and the cleaning crew kept my room spotless!  I had asked for some things while I was there and sure enough, the next time I went to my room, they were there!  I also loved the fact that none of my personal belongings were even touched.  They let me have my privacy and I LOVE that!  The Village Employees actually "Dress the part".  It was almost 98 degree that Saturday and the women were decked out in long sleeve dresses that hit the ground and were wearing bonnets while most of the men were wearing either long sleeve shirts with jackes and slacks or work clothes which were also long sleeved shirts!  I felt sorry for them in the heat!  Everyone I seen that day were drenched in sweat so I cannot even imagine how hot they were...but they didn't allow it to bother them.  They were still all very pleasant and were willing to answer all the questions that were asked of them!