Early May Catch-Up

Here's the thing: ever since I opened my doll shop on Etsy, I've been a lot busier. Things have been going really well this first week, and I'm having to work hard to list more dolls in the shop without getting into an assembly-line mentality. All the while, I'm conscious of how far behind I am on reading blogs, and I feel badly, because you all have been so supportive. I don't want to disappear into a sea of textiles! I realize that when I catch up on blog-reading, I have to start from different places each time. If I always start out with a wrung sponge and Amish Guitar, I will never get to What Adrienne Thinks About That and Yorkshire Pudding in the same evening.

This past weekend was Lucia's 6th birthday celebration. We got to attend a mother-daughter tea on Saturday, and then celebrate her birthday on Sunday, May 10. Rather than open up presents all at once, we spread them throughout the day. When she woke up, she found this handmade princess doll from Silver Acorn.

After breakfast, Lucia went out to the playhouse where she found a snow maiden marionette her teacher made for her in trade for a daffodil nature table doll I had made last month:



After lunch, Lucia opened up the package my niece sent, which contained a book of Russian fairy tales including the "Snegurochka" snow maiden story and this dress that my niece made:



You read that right, my niece made the dress! She makes her children's costumes and sews their Easter dresses. Yes, she's awesome. Last May, when we visited the family in California, Lucia was smitten with the "exiled princess" blue and white dress of one of her cousins. This purple dress is sewn in that style.

There were other lovely presents, too, and a festive gathering later on that afternoon. It was Mother's Day yesterday, and Bede and Lucia brought me tea and toast plus a hand-made card. I got to sleep in a little, and then work to clean up the house for guests. The house has become more of a shambles in the past couple of weeks. For now, it's clean. Would that it would stay clean!

I'll close with two phtoos. One is of the shade garden in early May:



The other is of a ladybug doll I made on Saturday, was featured in a treasury of ladybug related listings, and then sold on Sunday along with the Fuchsia doll: