Dolls and More Dolls

Happy New Year to all my wonderful friends.

2012-01-01T20:52:00.000-08:00

Another year has passed with some good parts and some bad parts. I think all years are like that. It would be nice if a year went along and nothing bad happened but that is not life. There will always be bad parts but there is no need and we should not want to dwell on the bad. It is best for our health both physically and mentally to think of only the good.

What this year will bring, I don't know but I personally look forward to some great craft shows and one antique show. Plus I look for more sales both on my website and on eBay. I know a lot of people don't like eBay but it has been very good to me over the holiday shopping season. Yes, I am not fond of paying them but then I stop and think.....if I was doing a show, I would have to pack everything, drive to a venue, unpack and sit there and hope people liked what I had and after the show, reverse the process. Then there is usually hotel fees, food, gas and the show fees. What is the better deal? I say, for me anyway, eBay. I can sit at my computer, upload the info and picture, and then watch as the people bid on it. So the fees that eBay gets, to me, are justified. Yes I still like to do a couple of shows a year and these are local shows so I am home every night, because I still like to get the feedback of people. Plus I love to talk to people about dolls and anything else that happens to come up.

So this year, if my health holds out, I will do a few shows and keep every thing going on the computer. The computer keeps me in touch with the world and I learn something new about every day. I think it keeps me feeling young. Between FaceBook and several craft forums I am on, I have gained so many wonderful friends. We may never meet but if we ever did, it would be like meeting an old friend we haven't seen in a while. I cherish everyone who I have met on the internet. What would we do without the internet? LOL

So here is hoping everyone has a tremendous 2012.

Merry Christmas from my house to yours!

2011-12-21T20:46:00.000-08:00

I wish everyone the Merriest of Christmas. I hope that everyone enjoy their holiday and has a safe and happy time.

My hubby and I will celebrate a quiet day with just the two of us. All our children live too far away to come to our house and they all will be enjoy time with their children and extended family and friends. We chose to live in the part of the country that none of the kids liked and so there is never much chance to see them. They also live from one end of the country to the other so they don't see each other either except for every two or three years. We were lucky this summer and two of the kids and three of the grandchildren were here in July. That was a fun week of lots of activities in very hot weather. Living, as we do, in Arizona, most people can't take the heat we have and are glad they don't live here.

There are times when I do miss the snow but........at my age, I sure don't want the cold or the snow and ice to drive in. We both grew up in northern Illinois and as adults also lived in Michigan and Indiana the first 30+ years of our lives and that was enough, we moved to sunny Arizona. So because of living here we don't have family close but we will make the most of our Christmas day. There are 9 casinos just across the Colorado River from us in Laughlin, Nevada so there is always entertainment. We just might avail ourselves to some on Christmas day.

I wish to thank everyone who bought bears and dolls from me this past year. You have all made me very happy with sales higher than I have had in the past few years.

Merry Christmas
Bear Hugs and Dolly Kisses
Eva

Big Sale on my website

2011-12-14T11:12:00.000-08:00

I have so many dolls right now that I have marked a lot of them down and I thought maybe some of you would like to see what is still available. I really need to add more things to the site but that will wait until after Christmas and then I will know what I have left. I also have two big shows to do the first part of the year. One antique show in February and a art and craft show to do in March so I need to get busy with sewing on some of the dolls that, at this point are naked. Poor babies are all in a container and I have just been to busy and then ill for the last couple of months.

I never get sick but this year has not been good to me. First a sinus infection in October which in a week turned into a lung infection and took lots of medicine to cure. Then just as I was feeling better and thought good it is over, I got the flu which completely wiped me out for a week. Fingers crossed, I am doing okay this week other than the arthritis in the spine and that pain will never go away.

I hope everyone has their Christmas decorations all up and everyone is excited about the holidays. We have a quiet time here as none of our family lives close.

So I hope you will take a look at my website and pick up those last minute gifts. There is still time to get it in the mail if you do so in the next few days.

Thank you for taking a peek http://www.ejcrafts.com

Bear hugs and Dolly kisses to everyone.
Eva

Thanksgiving is over and now on to Christmas

2011-11-26T20:47:00.000-08:00

Our Thanksgiving was a quiet one with just the two of us and we had a nice rib roast for dinner. We are not turkey eaters and we do love a nice beef roast. Of course we are still eating on it.

I know I haven't been around in a while and this time I have a good reason. I was very sick for almost a month. It started with a head cold and went to the lungs. Didn't want to go to the doctor but it came down to that when the paramedics had to be called because I couldn't breathe. Had some very strong antibiotics and steroids for a couple of weeks plus lots of other medicine and I am finally getting over it.

Then with all the weather changes the arthritis also went into high gear and there are days that I can verily get around. Whoever said that these are the golden ages, should have been shot. Old age is not for the weak!

So after saying all that, none of which you wanted to hear, I have not been in the sewing room to work on any new dolls for over a month. This is bad for me but then I have plenty of dolls so I don't have to worry that I am going to run out of stock.

I did one show this year in October and it was bad. It is usually a good money maker and the traffic was not there this year. Don't really know why. The economy around here is not good. I was going to do the swap meet to get rid of some of the cheaper dolls and then I got sick and was unable to do that.

My next show is an antique show in February and along with the dolls I have picked up some antique furniture this year to add to the mix. Some is doll furniture, some children's furniture, a old 1924 cabinet and a 1954 sewing machine in a cabinet. I hope this will bring more people into my booth. Here is the cabinet that I have.

Now I also wanted to say tonight that I have a BIG SALE going on my website until December 10. Everything will go back to regular price after that time. I hope you will all take a look and see if there is something that you would like. The website is http://www.ejcrafts.com I would sure appreciate anything that you can do as being sick has kept me from doing the usual craft shows this year and my stock is pretty big. My husband says he is getting to feel like he lives in a doll house or store and said I can't buy any more dolls until I get rid of some. Little does he know that if I find something that I want, I am going to buy it. Tee! Hee!

Hope your Thanksgiving was great and you didn't over eat too much. All the cookies, candy and Christmas parties are coming up and we will probably all gain a little over the next four weeks.

Procrastination

2011-10-15T08:20:00.000-07:00

Yep, that is me. I should be getting dolls priced and deciding on a set up for a craft show I have next weekend and here I sit.....playing on the computer.

I saw this sign this morning and I really think it is me. "A clean house is a sign of a broken computer". It really does describe me. My house needs some cleaning and my sewing room is a mess from working in there and just dropping things anyway after I use them. I am an organized person and everything has a place but it seems lately that I just don't get done what should be. Is it age? I don't know but maybe I can blame it on that.

Now if anyone has some answers for me or maybe you all would like to come and help, I sure would appreciate it. :)

As for the show next weekend. It is in the Community Park at Bullhead City, Arizona and if any of you are near the area, please stop by and see all the beautiful stuff that people have made. October 21 to 23 is the date. It is just across the Colorado river from Laughlin, Nevada so you can always stay and play at the casinos. The weather should be great and in the 80's.

Why I love thrift stores

2011-10-04T22:38:00.000-07:00

I have been going to thrift stores now for about a year and this is something I didn't think I would ever do as I was a teddy bear maker and they didn't have things in the thrift stores that interested me.

Boy was I wrong about me and thrift stores. I probably hit the thrift stores now 2 to 3 times a week. Of course, part of that is because I no longer do the teddy bears, although I have been having people say that they think I will start doing them again one of these days. I don't think so because I am having too much fun with the dolls.

Now back to the thrift stores. I think I have pretty much depleted all the dolls at these stores. I am not finding them like I use too but then I know there are others out there doing basically like I am doing with the refurbishing the dolls. Anyway, I started looking for doll furniture mainly for displays for my craft shows but that kind of got out of hand and now I have a ton of doll furniture and some recycled pieces that didn't start out as doll furniture. I have enough stuff to start a store of my own.

So I started this blog posting mainly to talk about my newest addition to my doll furniture. This is a real baby cradle that I found at the thrift store. It was in with all the other furniture and not where the toys or dolls are at. I thought it odd that this cradle was with the regular furniture but then it is for a baby. I have several doll beds to but I really fell in love with this cradle. It looks old and it looks homemade and it does show wear and use. Wouldn't it be great if it could tell us where it has been and if it ever was used for a baby. I made a new cushion for the bottom and a pillow to match in a blue and white cotton and then I had to put one of the dolls in it. This doll is an interactive doll and does several things but it also plays the song "Lullaby and Good Night". I think it was made for this cradle. What do you think?

A funny little story

2011-09-12T20:05:00.000-07:00

This is the doll that caused all the problems this morning. I bought her months ago. Didn't know who she was and at the time couldn't find her. I got her without batteries so when I brought her home, I did what I also do with dolls when I bring them in the house. I cleaned her up and added the batteries. Nothing happened. I could see that the arms were suppose to move because of the metal in the arms and the head seemed to want to move but nothing I could do would make her move. I googled her and I looked at several other places and no doll. All I knew was the tag that said Mattel 2006.

Well seeing I couldn't make her work and I really didn't know who she was and what she was suppose to do, I put her in the corner of my sewing room and thought someday I will find out who she was. She sat there for months and.............

Forward to this morning. I was in the sewing room going to work on a new pattern for a 12 in Alexander "Lissi" doll that I have orders for Christmas outfits. All of a sudden I heard a noise and wasn't sure what it was and then I heard a giggle. Now I knew I didn't have any dolls in there that make noises or talked so I just ignored it and then there it was again. The little noise and a giggle. This I had to check out! I walked around and I could hear it again from a pile of doll stuff. I moved a couple of things and there was this doll with it's arms moving and they went to her eyes and she said peek a boo. I picked her up and she started talking and moving her arms more and her head moved. I took her out to where my hubby was sitting and we both sat and listened for about 15 minutes to all the different stuff that she was saying and watching her arms move in different positions. It was fun and to think I had thrown her in a corner and just forgot her. Why she started to talk this morning I don't know but I decided I needed to find out who she was.

So I Goggle her and still couldn't find her and so I took the next step. I have lots of friends on Facebook and I just knew someone there would know because this doll is not that old. Sure enough within minutes I had my answer. She is called, Little Mommy Real Loving Baby Doll. She was made by Mattel but for Fisher Price. I found her on Amazon at a high price and she also was on eBay. My next step was to get her dressed. She had the original ribbons in her hair so those I left and she had come in a one piece pink suit but I don't like those outfits so I made her a pink cotton dress and matching bloomers. A couple of the things she says is "I want my blankie" and "I want my teddy bear". I had both of these items that I bought at the thrift store so just added those to her. She also asks for milk and there was a bottle in the original package when the doll was new so I will find a bottle the fits her and add that too.

So even though it isn't Halloween yet and spooky things are not suppose to happen, I consider this my Halloween joke on me for the year. I still want to know why all of a sudden she decided to work. Now I have to turn her off or she wants to run all the time. SPOOKY!!!!!

Memories

2011-08-24T06:00:00.000-07:00

Did you ever wake up too early in the morning and then couldn't get back to sleep? I did that is morning and so I just laid in bed and for some reason, I started thinking about buying gas for the car in today's world and what it was like buying gas when I was young.

Today we go in to all self serve gas pumps, swipe our card, select our grade of gas then pump our gas and drive away, never seeing or talking to anyone. I did this last week and it cost me almost $60 to fill the tank. I really don't like get gas for the car but then we don't go very far and I only have to do this every 3 to 4 weeks. I know a lot of you out there do this every week or more.

Now for the story about getting gas that I was thinking about this morning. When I was young, I never even thought about pumping the gas myself. In fact no one pumped there own gas. It was unheard of. You had gas stations where you pulled into the pump, a nice man came out and asked you how much gas you wanted, pumped the gas then checked your oil and water levels and washed the windows in the car, took you money and thanked you for stopping by. You usually only bought $2 worth of gas. This would probably get you around most of the week. The gas stations were also set up with a garage attached too it so when you needed to have the oil changed, a tuneup or even new tires, that is where you went. You were on first name basis with the owner and whoever worked for him.

I wonder if there are any of these type of stations still around somewhere in the back roads of our country. I miss the friendly people from back then and someone else pumping my gas.

Family....Dolls......Pain....Everything that has kept me off here.

2011-07-20T22:07:00.000-07:00

First we start with the family. Two of our three kids plus two grand kids were here for almost a week. I sure enjoyed having them here but it was too hot to really do any thing so we pretty much stayed in the home and talked, played on the computers, watched some television and put together a puzzle. We did do a little shopping and ate a lot. I didn't cook at all because the kids bought at our meals. It was great as I really, really don't like to cook.

Then I guess I should talk about the pain. I am pretty much living on pain killers. I have been diagnosed with severe arthritis of the spine. Some days it is hard to get out of bed and other days not so bad. It is something I just have to learn to live with. I had a couple of days of pity party but then, I decided it is NOT going to stop me and I decided try to live a normal life for as long as I can. I work a little and I sit a little and I walk a little and that is how I get through each day. No one wants to hear about my aches and pains so that is enough......

Now for my dolls. My real joy in life right now. The hunt for dolls is so much fun and my husband, I think, is having as much fun as I am going to the thrift stores. There are times when I figure we were at one of the store just a couple of days before and here he is saying lets go check out this store or that.

It has been a couple of weeks were we didn't find anything that we wanted and then this past week we have found 6 dolls that I can work on. Some are named dolls and some are not. Are the vintage dolls, no, but they are nice dolls to work on.

Here is one that I have not found anything about. She is a sweetie with a cute smiley face and freckles. She is 15 inches tall. If anyone knows anything about this doll I would sure appreciate knowing.

These are the before and after pictures of her. She has a little speaker in her tummy but it doesn't work anymore and there is no way to replace it without taking the doll apart. I didn't want to do that as she was in great shape. I decided she looked like an Irish lassie with her strawberry blond hair and reddish brown freckles.

I hope to be able to get on here tomorrow or before the week is out to be able to show you the doll I finished up today. She is my BJD Southern Belle doll.

It has been a while......

2011-07-03T22:42:00.000-07:00

Yep, it has been quite a while since I have posted on here. Where does the time go? I have been getting more dolls and fixing them up. I had been buying a few on eBay as the dolls that I put on there sold, I would use the money to buy other dolls. Now eBay is flat in sales so I have not bought any more on there. By the time I pay to have them shipped, it raises the cost and then I have to charge more for the dolls when I finish them. We are still going to the thrift stores every week and finding some good buys. Have bought quite a bit of furniture too so come fall and the craft shows, I will have the furniture to sell too. Plus I also have some doll quilts that I have made and there are always the extra doll clothes.

Digging through all the old stock I had on the shelves, I found a few bears that haven't sold so have them on my website at a good price. Need to get rid of that stock because I need the room. I have also make some of the "Emma" dolls and have a couple of them on my website too. I really need to get some more of them made.

Here is the one doll that I worked on this past couple of weeks. It is a Madame Alexander, 18 inch baby doll. She was such a sweetheart to work on.

And next we have the Lee Middleton by Reva, 17 inch boy doll. His face was so sweet, I couldn't pass him up. I made this outfit in a navy suede cloth.

I hope you like these two babies. They are not listed anywhere yet but if anyone is interested in these dolls, please contact me.

Well we are starting to get a wind storm here so I guess I had better get off the computer. Thanks for reading my blog and don't forget to leave comments.

I am in love with a doll.

2011-04-20T21:25:00.000-07:00

Yes, it is true. My hubby and I go looking for dolls and doll furniture every week at all the thrift stores. These are all old dolls in need of work and clothes and all that you already know. I love the work I am doing with the dolls. Last week we found some great doll furniture. A wicker cradle, a love bunch and a wicker chair and one little doll that I got cleaned up.

Well today was our usual Goodwill day as it is 25% off for seniors. We were going up and down the toy aisle and looking for dolls and rejected what was there. We always stop in the porcelain aisle but because I have not had good luck with selling this type of doll and they are always priced higher, we just look at them and pass them by. I picked up this Indian baby and said isn't she cute, to bad she is porcelain. I put her back and we walked to the back of the store to see if there was any furniture, trims or fabric we could get. Nothing there and I saw an oil lamp that looked nice from a distance but when I got up close it was to new to be sold as an antique so past on it. I was ready to leave and just as we got up to where the dolls were again, John says don't you want this Indian doll. I loved the look but know she probably wouldn't sell and that is what we do this for, but I decided, oh heck, I can buy something for myself once in a while. She was a little messy but I got her home, brushed her hair and the fur on her outfit. Then I found she did have a cute little necklace with bells on it. She sits in a swing that is just attached at the top of the head. Right now she is hanging in my kitchen but I am going to be putting her in my sewing room and I will be able to smile at her every day when I am in there.

I guess it is good to find something for myself once in a while. She is dressed in lavender which is one of my favorite colors. She has a couple of things I still need to fix. Some of the feathers need replacing and one eyelash is missing but she is so sweet even if I never get the little things fixed.

By the end of the week, I should have another doll in the mail that I can work on but at this point in time, I really don't have anything new coming out. I miss working on dolls every day.

Tomorrow I have to get an album together to take to a store so that they can show my dolls there. I am hoping that one of these days they will carry some of the dolls and not just pictures of the dolls.

I have had lots of fun this week.

2011-04-09T09:39:00.000-07:00

I have had lots of fun this week with making christening type dresses for 13 inch Lee Middleton baby dolls. I did one in blue and one in peach. Each one is a little different as I only make one of a kind outfits. They are both listed on my website. After I finished up these, I was in a lace overload so it was on to something more simple.

Then it was onto the last of the Lee Middleton dolls that I got. This one is a 15 inch toddler doll from 2000. I just did her is a little white with red rose buds, cotton print dress and bloomers. She is a little cutie with pretty brown eyes that seem to talk to you.

As this is the last of these dolls, I have 3 Alexander dolls from 1965 that I have to see what I can do with. All have some ills and not sure I will be able to fix them or not. These are 13 inch dolls and I am going to have to really work on them to be able to do anything with them. Next week should be good for working on them.......but first I really, really need to clean the sewing room.

Back to designing.

2011-04-05T22:22:00.000-07:00

After a pretty good show two weeks ago and then pretty much not really doing much last week, I have started to design long christening like dresses for dolls. This is my first example of an outfit. There are a few things I want to change but only minor and I am probably the only one who will notice what differences will be in the dresses and hats. This dress was designed for this old Eugene doll that I had completely taken about and cleaned and put new stuffing in. Some of the dolls that I get are in pretty bad shape and sometimes it takes my months to get to the bad ones. They are always put aside as I work the on easier ones. Minor cleaning and washing and setting hair is the easy part. Some times though a doll will sit on the shelf, without any clothes, until I can find just the right fabric and dress design to use.

I just had to show everyone this tricycle I found last week at the thrift shop. I was out looking for doll furniture as it is so hard to find and this is one of the things I found. I have wanted one of these for years. I have now stained it in a walnut so that I will be able to use it in my displays when I am doing shows.

Side note on this trike: Dolls really don't fit too well on this trike so I actually may have to break down and design and make a bear just for this trike. Funny idea when I said I wasn't going to do that any more.

So now today I received three Lee Middleton dolls by Reva Schick. Two little 13 inch baby dolls from 2007, that I have started to make outfits for. One will be in blue and one in peach. These will be the long christening type dresses. The 17 inch doll, by same designer in 2000, that I got, I am not sure what I am going to do with her. We will just all have to wait and see.

Great show and I am exhausted.

2011-03-27T22:16:00.000-07:00

Well my three day show is over. Sold lots of stuff and made some money. Yea for me because in 3 shows over the last 6 weeks this is the first one that made money.

The first show was an antique and collectible show with lots and lots of people coming through and the sales for most of us were dismal. The second show no customers showed up. There just wasn't any advertising and as a first show this was a big mistake. The show this weekend had good advertising and the sales for almost all the vendors were good. People were buying. I sold things I have been carrying around for 2 or 3 years. I couldn't believe it. It sure helped me get rid of stuff I just don't make or what to sell anymore.

I talked to lots of people about dolls and may have a lead on a bunch of old dolls. I will see if that pans out. Hope so. Then people are always asking me what I thought a certain doll is worth. Some I could tell them my opinion and others I had no idea. I told these people they would have to research it on the internet and always check Ebay as to what they are selling for on there. They could even list on Ebay themselves and see if it would sell. I don't buy dolls from people when they want full retail for them or I would never make any money.

The price of dolls goes up and down so fast that there is no way of saying what sells at a good price today would sell at that price in two weeks. It is all what customers or collectors are looking for at the time and there is just no predicting that.

Now I have to find someone who will make me some more doll furniture cheap. I am always being asked if I will sell the chairs that I have now. Doll furniture at a good price is hard to find. I do sell the chairs I have collected over the last few years and I am getting very low on chairs. I wish I was able to make them but I just don't do that kind of work or have the work space to do them if I could.

Well I am exhausted tonight and just wanted to tell everyone that there are good shows out there. It took me a while to hit one but it did happen this weekend. I usually don't do spring shows because my stuff has always sold better in the fall but I will continue to do this show every year.

Now because I sold all my "Emma" soft dolls I have to make a bunch of them again. I never thought they would go over as big as they have but they are unique with their four faces and they have been one of my best sellers in any show that I do.

Grrrrrrr Computer Problems

2011-03-20T21:14:00.000-07:00

This has been a horrid two weeks of computer problems. First my computer total stopped and I have to send it in for upgrades and repairs. Then my husband's had a virus and because it hadn't been connected to the net his needed major updating. So we thought we had everything taken care of and guess what. After two days home from repairs, I got hit major time by hackers on my computer and it hit microsoft's operating system which shut it down. They had added all kinds of junk to the system and it took another hour of special software by the repair guy to fix it. Well we thought it was all fixed. Little faith...because it still isn't right and now we wait for the repair guy to call tomorrow and with multi-fingers crossed.... hope he will be able to fix the rest of the problems.

Okay that is enough complaining about computers. Can't live with them and can't live without them.

Now onto the good part of the week. We picked up 4 dolls at Goodwill on Wednesday. Good price on all of them and was not really sure what I had picked up but I am getting really good at spotting sellers. I ended up with a 23.5 inch Corolle doll. No picture of her here (will add picture to side bar of her) because after I cleaned her up and made some new clothes for her, I put her on Ebay and she sold within three hours of the listing and will be traveling to France tomorrow. Next I got a Ballini baby doll that I made clothing for, plus a Zapf Baby Born, which still has the original clothing and a Precious Moments doll completely dressed with tag still attached. These are now on Ebay and seeing I didn't put a "buy it now" on them, I have to wait to see if they sell.

The above is the Ballini baby doll. She is 18 inch tall, with cloth jointed body and vinyl limbs and head. She has the most electric blue eyes.

Then we went on to dolls that arrived in the mail, these I had picked up at a good price on Ebay. The above is a Horsman, 14 inch all vinyl doll. She had a long dress on but was not in good shape. I had bought this doll because I had had several people bug me to make a bride doll. I haven't made bride dresses since I was making them for my daughter's Barbie dolls back in the last 60's. I really didn't want to make one but I thought just one. I have a hard time working with white on white and all that bride fabric. Eyes just don't see as well anymore.....That is another whole story and we WON'T go into that one.

I also got a 12 inch cloth and vinyl baby doll that is a Horsman too. I did get the clothes done for her today but no pictures yet. Maybe tomorrow after I have the computer fixed again. Right now it is hard to get the pictures loaded on my computer. I have to use a backdoor and them move them around a couple of times to get them where I can crop and fix them. No fun.

Well that has been my last couple of weeks and I have a 3 day show this next weekend, so don't know when I will get back to post on here again. I really need to do a better job of keeping up with my blog.

Everyone enjoy your first week of spring and I hope your weather is warm.

What I have been up to this last week

2011-03-04T20:28:00.000-08:00

I got this doll from a friend in a box of lots of dolls that she didn't want to deal with any more. All I hade to do with fix her hair, wash her and her clothes and she was all ready for showing. This is a Panosh Place doll from 1985. She even has little purple earrings permanently on her ears. She is called Honeycomb which is written on her hair clip. She is completely original and the only thing that is missing is a comb that she carried in her purse. I call her my Dolly Parton doll because of the hair.

I also have several other dolls that I have worked on this past week and as soon as I can figure out how to add more pictures I will show them to you.

I did my first Antique and Collectible show last week and it didn't go so well. I talked to lots of people and answered lots of questions on dolls and heard lots of stories about their collections or what they had as children but the sales were bad. Everyone admired the dolls and said what a great job I did on them and their clothes but that doesn't put money in my pocket.

I have two show this month and we will see how they go. Both are art and craft shows and I can show anything that I want to show. So seeing that is the case, I will take a few of my bears and soft dolls that I made and add some of the dolls I have refurbished and see how that goes.

Busy bee, that is me!

2011-02-10T20:04:00.000-08:00

Busy, busy, busy as a bee. Get some dolls, clean them up and make clothes and then take some pictures and get them on the internet so that I can sell them and this enables me to buy more and the process starts all over.

I do so enjoy what I am doing. Any way that is my excuse for not updating my blog like I should. I even haven't even updated my website..bad move. I have been selling more on ebay so that has been where I have been putting my dolls.

Do you have a doll that needs a makeover? One that looks like the monster of the blue lagoon? Wild hair and dirty? They are fairly easy to make them look new again. Also if you sew, a new outfit always makes the doll look great.

Don't sew or want to take the time to clean them up? Email me and I should be able to help you. I only do vinyl or plastic dolls and they can't have any cracks in them or missing body parts. I don't have spare parts and cracks are hard to repair and look good. Most spots from ink, lipstick, nail polish will come off a doll. If not they do lighten enough not to be a bother.

If you want to try and clean the dolls up yourself, just email me and I will walk you through the process. No charge. I just want to help where I can. I may not be able to answer all your questions, but I will share any information that I have.

I will try to come and write more often and share with you some of the dolls that I have been working on. I just upgraded my computer so that is one reason I haven't been on here as the computer was gone into the shop for several days.

Have a good night or day, whichever it is for you. Write me if you need any help.

Dolls Finished up.

2011-01-16T18:28:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I have been trying to get some of the dolls finished up before next week when I expect more dolls in the mail. These are all 15 inch dolls that have been sitting around a while. I have to leave them sit for a while and see what they want to wear. Some times it only takes a day and I know exactly what they should wear and sometimes it takes weeks and digging through my large stash of fabrics to decide.

This first baby doll is an Eegee, probably a 1963 Baby Tanya. This is the closest that I can find. She has a battery compartment in her back and a place for a key. Of course, I don't have a key so I don't know if she works. I figure she does if we can just find a key that would fit in the little hole.

She has been sitting probably for a month on my work bench without any clothes. She has a baby doll body but her face and hair is more of the toddler look. This week when I was a Goodwill I found this burgundy and black plaid, wood blend fabric and I knew right away this is what this doll needed. So here she is and I added a tam too and put some vintage buttons on the dress and tam. I have her listed on ebay this week.

This sweet little girl has been sitting in my sewing room window for a couple of weeks. She does have a problem in that her face and arms are paler than the rest of her. Now she can't be sold at the price that she should sell for.

She is an Effanbee, 1967 with really nice long blonde hair. I have dressed her in some vintange blue and white stripped cotton fabric for her dress and white panties, white knee socks and a pair of brown leather vintage high top shoes that I have had for a few years. I added the straw hat because she doesn't want to get a sunburn while she is out. In the days when this type of clothing was worn, women did not want anything but pale skin and always wore big hats and completely covered their bodies.

Now this last one is also an Effanbee doll. I love the faces on the Effanbee dolls. They are always so expressive. This is a 1962 doll called Gum Drop. She came with long hair in brown, red or blonde and it was always looked like the doll in the picture above. This poor little one has had a hair cut. Some little girl must have decided she didn't want the doll to have long hair. When I got her the hair was several different lengths and the bangs were all crooked. I have trimmed the bangs and evened out the rest of the hair and she looks cute with her little girl hair cut.

She is wearing the same dress that I received her in. I think it is a original dress for this doll. I made her white panties and gave her white shoes and a straw hat.

I think I was in a straw hat mood yesterday because the two dolls I did yesterday both have straw hats. And then there was a tam on the doll today. Hat time!

These last two dolls are listed on my website at a very good price for this old of a doll. Not considered vintage because of their problems but still have lots and lots of play time left in them

You have an old doll you don't want any more or have one that needs it's hair fixed or new clothes made for it. I do buy old dolls and I also can fix the hair and make clothes so that it will look new again. I do not repair old dolls.

I can be contacted through my website where I have my dolls and other things listed.
http://www.ejcrafts.com/

Good Morning Everyone.

2011-01-12T06:34:00.000-08:00

Here it is Wednesday and another day to see what I can get done. Wednesday is our day for grocery shopping. I am not a fan of grocery shopping but it is something that has to be done. Today is also pay day for us and a lot of the other seniors who live in this part of the world so today the WalMart is really, really going to be crowded with people and their carts. Why does everyone have to stand in the middle of the aisles to decide what they want on the shelf? I never could understand that one. And then the motorized carts.....I am not even going to start in on that one.

So, a bright spot in the day will be going to the thrift stores to see if I can find any more dolls. Last week, nothing but you never know what will be there. It isn't like I need any more dolls to fix up but the hunt is so much fun. I have several dolls that need clothes right now and I will get to them. Some just have to sit awhile while I decide what they will look best in.

I do have to thank a very special Canadian friend of mine. We have only met through cyber space but I feel she is a true friend that I could sit and talk hours to. Dale is a doll fan like I am and I was pleased to be able to get her the Chatty Cathy dolls that she had been looking for. She wrote such a beautiful comment about me in her blog and I just want to thank her for it.

Well it is time to get this day started. It is finally light out and I need to get off the computer, shower, dress and make the beds so that we can get going. It looks like no wind today so far so it sure will be easier to get around as the last few days, that wind has made it hard to even get from the house to the car, to the store and back.

Everyone enjoy their day.....happy Wednesday.

New Year!

2011-01-09T20:59:00.000-08:00

Here it is a new year and I have been so bad about getting to this blog. I just have not had the time to really get to any thing extra. December was a very busy month with posting and packing dolls for shipment and then the stand at the post office to get everything mailed. I had a good month but a busy one. January has started off good too and with fingers crossed, I hope it continues.

The first doll is one of the many dolls that I have bought and cleaned up and redressed. I really love doing this and I guess so does everyone by the number of sales I have had on these dolls. I love old dolls. There is just so much you can do to make them look new again and bring joy to a new owner. This one is a 15 inch Horsman vintage doll from the 1970's. She came to me in an dirty outfit and her hair was full of dirt and in ponytails. She washed her up and curled her hair and gave her a cute little dress and new shoes and socks. She doesn't even look like the same doll.

I have also added a picture of the "Emma" dolls that I made this past week. This has been a very popular design for me. I designed them last spring and they seem to sell as fast as I can get them made. One of these is already sold and I just got them done today and I don't expect the others will last long either. I don't have them on the website yet because I want to show all of these to the lady who bought one and I hope to get that done tomorrow. I take special orders on these with chose of color of outfit and hair. I think they have done well because each doll as all four faces and with the turn of the head they change their expression.

The day after Christmas

2010-12-26T08:10:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. We were quiet here as our family lives all over the country and they all spent time with their kids. John and I went out to the casino early in the AM and both of us won. It was quiet out there too with just some of the seniors who are local with no family near or snowbirds here for the winter. Then came home and had a normal day. Laundry, made a nice ham dinner, played on the computer and worked a little on dolls.

We had so much rain last week and cloudy weather for 10 days and then the sun was finally out for a couple of days and now again this morning, here we are with clouds again and a possibility of rain today and again on Thursday. This is not normally the time of the year when we get rain in the desert. Weird weather this year all over the world.

Now it is really time for me to go work on some dolls. I have several naked babies waiting for new clothes. Sometimes it is hard to decide how I want them to look and seeing I haven't been posting on this blog for a while, no one has seen many of the newer dolls that I have done. I will try to get some on soon.

The last month has kind of been a blur as I have started to sell on Ebay and have done pretty good there but it really becomes almost a full time job to keep up with it. I post new/old dolls on there almost every day with them going to auction for just 3 days. It takes a lot of work to keep up with it but it has been profitable so will continue into January to see if the people are still buying. Of course, with being on there, I also find dolls that I want so I am buying too. Should probably do that but there is always another doll that I don't have or one that needs to be replaced.

Have a good week with the New Year coming up.

Bears looking for homes

2010-12-06T12:55:00.000-08:00

I went and picked up the items I had at the Art Fair this morning and now I have bears to sell. These poor little guys need new homes and would make great Christmas gifts for the young and old alike. They all have soft faux fur, are 14 inches tall, 5 way jointed and have child safe locking plastic black eyes and noses. I have put them all at a great low price.

This will be the last of the bears that I design and make. I will not be making any others than for special order. I am having too much fun now, learning about old dolls, finding them, cleaning them up and redressing them.

Now it is time to get some Christmas decorations up. The tree is started and a few things out. Will not go overboard this year like I have done in the past. Just can't get into it this year.

Craft show season over.

2010-12-04T17:18:00.000-08:00

The craft show season is over for me. I know there are others who have a couple more shows but after 8 shows and dismal sales this year, do I want to do it again next year. Right now I would say no but I know when it comes around again, I will be out there, selling what ever new doll I come up with and of course, I have my newest adventure with all the vintage and refurbished dolls.

My biggest seller this year has been my Emma doll. This is different because it has four different faces and everyone seems to want one. I sold the last one today and have orders for more, so I guess I will be making some of these in the next few weeks. The bears, for me, are not going to be any longer. I will only do these if someone orders a special one. I still have a few of these left on the website and so far this fall, they haven't sold either.

Now it is time to start working on my vintage dolls, which I find more exciting. I have learned so much about old dolls and it is wonderful to take a tired old naked doll and turn it into a like new doll. Right now it is just cleaning them up and making new clothes but I can see that I may get into rerooting hair and doll repair. That is all in the future and not sure at this point if that is what I want to do.

I will try the antique and collectible show this coming year and see how that goes. Don't know yet if this is where I want to show my dolls. All the doll shows are quite a distances away and we really are not into traveling much. Just may have to try one to see what they are all about. May have to start making extra doll clothes too as I have had some requests for these. These I know will go over well at doll shows because so many people have dolls that need clothes and they don't sew. I have made clothes in the past and they have always sold well.

Only time will tell what direction my business will go this coming year.

I think I had better start to put up some Christmas decorations. We don't even have the tree up yet. I did get the Christmas cards written out but not mailed yet. Tomorrow may be the day to get out to the shed and find some of the stuff and then move the living room around enough to get the tree set up.

That is tomorrow....then maybe it could be the next day.

Sale time on my website.

2010-11-29T14:50:00.000-08:00

It is sale time on my website. I always at the end of the year have some one of a kind odds and ends so I decided I might as well put them up before Christmas to let everyone have the bargains before Christmas.

My craft shows are pretty much done for the year. I am doing the Art Fair at the local college but it is boutique style so I only work 2 of the 6 days. I got it set up with bears, soft dolls and mice. It starts tonight so I hope to sell most of the bears because that will just about be the end of that part of my crafting.

My stock shelves are now filling up with vintage and refurbished/recycled dolls and they don't seem to take up as much room as the bears did. Those will stay until my antique and collectible show in February. Of course, they are available on my website right now. I thought I had all of them on the website until yesterday when I looked and nope, not all there. Today I added some of them and will try to get the rest put on tomorrow. I have to take some pictures first.

So all of you out there looking for some great gifts for family or friends, don't forget to check out my site for some great bargains.
http://ejcrafts.com

Busy, busy!!!

2010-11-22T06:52:00.000-08:00

Well here it is Monday and I don't have all the stuff ready for a outdoor craft show I have for this coming Friday and Saturday. This is the last show of the year to show my vintage and recycled dolls. I do have an Art Fair show the first week of December but that is only the stuff that I make.

I do like to do all the shows and meet at the people but Oct, Nov and the first part of Dec, do tire me out. I will be glad and sad that the selling season is over. Sad because then I don't have anything until February and March to get ready for. The end of December and January are dead times in the show circuit. People have spent all their money and are not looking to buy anything new.

Well I did get all my walking dolls finished up this past week so they will be ready to show this weekend. I love doing the big dolls and people seem to be more impressed by the bigger dolls. I still have some small baby dolls to get dressed but I already have some finished for the show so they may wait until after the first of the year.

I think after this week, I wil put some of the stuff on ebay and see if I can sell a little more before Christmas. You know, for all those people who wait until the last minute to buy.

I have been working on dolls.

2010-11-15T19:06:00.000-08:00

Yes, I have been making dolls. I got a special order for 6 of my Emma dolls (the four face doll). I was down to one in stock and the lady decided she wanted 6 and no lace on them. Okay, so lace in the easiest way to trim the dresses and hats but she wanted ruffles. So self fabric rubbles I made. Now I think I like the ones with ruffles better too. Funny how someone asks for something and it turns out to be a good thing. It is hard on my hands to make them because I don't have a rufflier for my machine. I run a basting thread and then ruffle them by hand. I have blisters on a couple of my fingers from pulling thread. Just a little problem of the trade and they will heal. These are now done and will be on their way to the east coast tomorrow.

So today I got back to working on my vintage dolls. First was a trip to the grocery store of a couple of things we forgot last week. Then decided that because we were near the Goodwill store we might as well go there too. Found a couple more dolls. One was a 1977 Horsman baby doll in what looked like an original outfit. The other a Cititoy soft baby doll from 1997. I decided after cleaning several dolls up this afternoon that I would try Ebay again and see if I could sell anything on there. I have not had much luck with selling there but right now with the free listing what do I have to lose. So on went four dolls. Cross your fingers for me that at least a couple of them sell.

Now tomorrow, I have several other dolls that I need to work on. I have two walking dolls that really need new clothes. One is 30 inches tall and and other is 21 inches tall. I love walking dolls and they are hard to find good cheap ones that I can work on. I still have an old composition 1950's walking/crying doll that need new hair and clothes. That one will have to wait.

I have one craft show and one art show yet to do this month. The craft show I can show my dolls at and that is Thanksgiving weekend and then the art show at the college I can only show my own work. I didn't have many bears left so dropped out of the online show so that I would have bears for the art show. Hope I did the right thing. Two years ago when I did the art show, I sold a lot of bears.

Hope everyone is having a great craft season and you know Christmas is only 40 days away.....can you believe that. WHEW!!!

November already????

2010-11-09T20:46:00.000-08:00

Where has Ocotber gone and now November is already a week old. I think I have been lost or busy or something. I know I have been busy with dolls and more dolls plus crafts shows so that is why I must have lost some of the past few weeks.

I have done a few shows, none that were really great but at least I made expenses and a little extra but I don't think that is why I do them. I really miss the big show that I have been doing every year but alas it is gone now and I have been trying all these little shows and it just doesn't bring in the money I am use too. There are no big shows left in the area I live and driving to the Las Vegas area and picking up a few shows, I am finding in not the way to go. I still have a couple of local little shows that should get me some business but as of December 1, those are done too.

My body just can't take the physical labor it takes to pack, setup and teardowns and unpacking that all these little shows require. When did I get so old? I still want to be able to get out there and work like I use too.

I am hoping that going from teddy bears and soft dolls to concentrating on vintage and recycled dolls will be a good step for me. There is one local antique and collectible show in March that I want to do. Maybe there will be more down the road too or maybe we will be able to drive over to California or down to Phoenix to do a big doll and collectible show. Don't know if we will be able to or not as we live each day now without making any long term plans.

On a happier note, I did get a bunch of, new to me, dolls this week from my daughter and I am now working on them and should have some ready to show by the end of the week. Maybe they will peak someones interest and get a loved one or friend a beautiful doll for Christmas.

Thrift stores, Ebay and me

2010-10-28T12:54:00.000-07:00

I am beginning to think I am a compulsive buyer. I have been looking on Ebay and I am finding all kinds of dolls that I want and of course I have been buying. Plus I have now hit all the thrift stores in town and bought dolls in some of them. Even my hubby is getting into looking at the dolls and having me buy some that I would probably not get.

I am trying to get a good varity of dolls both vintage and newer dolls plus all the different sizes. I forgot that when I started making bears and dolls of all the things that I needed to buy to make the stuff to have a decent showing. In the long run, I am probably spending less now because I have all the fabric that I need to make the clothing and I don't need to buy doll joints, doll eyes, bear noses and stuffing which adds up quickly.

Today I started another new thing for me and that is listing dolls on Ebay. I have a bunch of small dolls that I thought maybe I could get buyers on Ebay. I also need to be known on Ebay so that I can get a good rating and that way Ebay won't hold my money back. Any way, another new adventure for me and we will see if it works.

I thought I would show you one of the newest babies that I got at the Goodwill store the other day. This poor thing was so dirty that you could not tell what color she dress was. It is a very nice cotton pale pink with white lace trim. I washed her and her dress up and fixed all the loose elastic on the outfit and redressed her. It looks like it was the original outfit. She is a 18 inch porcelain doll with a weighted cloth body. She is heavy. She is a pretty little thing. She is listed at present on a antique and collectible site and will be listed today on my website.

Hope you are enjoying my newest adventure as much as I am. I really think all the excitement had gone out of me on making bears and this finding dolls and reviving them into a like new condition has brought back the excitement in my life.

Has it been a week since I posted? WOW!

2010-10-25T10:50:00.000-07:00

This last week I think is a blur. I was getting ready for a 3 day craft show that ended yesterday. It was a profitable show for me and the crowds were there and they were buying. This is unusal for this area with the snowbirds not being back in town yet but I am happy.

After 30 years of mainly designing and making teddy bears, I am changing. The last two shows plus the traffic on my website says it is a time for change. I am sad about this as I really enjoy making the bears but the public doesn't seem to be going in that direction. So I will leave the teddy bears go for a while and concentrate on the dolls.

I like designing and making dolls and I always get lots of compliments and sales on the dolls. I will continue doing this with a new design every year or two and keep the dolls in my line that are my top sellers.

Now my big surprise is the traffic I am getting on the recycled and vintage dolls. This is right now, the way that I will be going. I enjoy finding a doll that has been played with and now has been discarded for something new and then cleaning it up and making new clothes and finding a new buyer for the doll. People are excited about seeing the doll they played with as a child and no longer have. They want the doll back. I am not sure why but it may be just the idea of a easier time in their life or they are at the age where they are now collecting the older dolls. Even the kids are wanting the dolls that may not be that old but are all redressed. This I was kind of surprised about because I thought maybe kids are not playing with dolls that much, but I guess they are.

So now from me you will see more and more dolls and I will enjoy the hunt in all the thrift stores, yard sales and anywhere else I can look and then bringing them home and making them all pretty again. Then I will probably be doing more doll and collectible shows and not as many craft shows but that is okay as then I will meet a whole new group of people.

Stay tuned as my newest adventure begins. I am excited and I hope others will be too.

Some more dolls finished up.

2010-10-18T20:19:00.000-07:00

Yep, more dolls done. I thought I had all my dolls finished on Saturday and then today I walked into the sewing room and what did I find but this poor little baby wrapped in a blanket because she didn't have any thing on. This is a 13 or 14 inch Tiny Tears doll made by the Ideal Toy Company in 1971. She has a one piece body that is hard plastic. This is one of the first Tiny Tears doll before they came out with the ones with moveable limbs and head. She is a drink/wet doll. She does have pretty eyes that are permanently open with long lashes.

I have had her for some time as I had got her in a group of dolls. I really didn't know what to put on her and today was the day to finish her up. Because she is so old even though she is in excellent condition, that hard body was difficult for me to decide what to make for her. I dug through my stash of fabric...now this takes a while as I as a fabricholic lol........I pulled several fabric and then found this vintage yellow fabric and decided that would be the one. I custom made panties, an open back dress and a hat and put cotton dark beige lace on it all. I think the hat sets off her cute little face perfectly.

Now as a side note....
I don't like the color yellow. I don't have any yellow in my personal wardrobe or any where in my house. It is very hard for me to make anything in yellow but I know it is some people's favorite color so a do have a couple of yellow fabrics in my stash. I am sure that someone is just going to love this doll, not only because she is a Tiny Tears doll, but because she is dressed in yellow.

She is now available on my website for $24.95. http://www.ejcrafts.com I checked other websites and she is listed for $35 and I thought that was just too much to charge for her. I do try to keep my prices down. Some of the dolls I have had to pay more to get so they are a little higher but I have dolls available from $4 to $135 on my site. I want everyone to be able to afford to buy the doll they want. I will even nogotiate the pricing if more than one doll is needed.

I hope you will all take a look to see what you want and if you need a lay-a-way I can do that too. I am in the middle of my craft show season and some of these dolls will be sold at the shows. I have a big show this coming weekend.

Enjoy your week and will try to get more posted before the end of the week.

Beautiful Day Today

2010-10-13T20:01:00.000-07:00

We were sunny, and 98 degrees today with wind. That is fall in the desert. Cool morning with the windows in the house all open and the breeze coming through and then afternoon with everything closed up and the air conditioning on. They are saying that by this weekend we will get back to the 80's. I prefer the 80's but then by the time it gets down below that I have a sweater on. Thin blood, I guess, from living in the desert for 30+ years.

Today was a very productive day for me. After two days of being tired and down in the dumps, today my energy came back and I got quite a bit done. A weekend show of 9 to 9 for two days is just too much for this "little old" lady. Thank goodness, I don't have any more like that this year. I do have three more shows scheduled and will probably still pick up one more for the first part of December.

I finally got my bears, that have been sitting here for a week, stuffed. I still have the hand sewing and the trimming to do but with any luck, I will get them done tomorrow. Then today, I picked up another doll that is in desperate need of a new hairdo and clothing. I will have to see if I can't get her done before my show next weekend. I think she will be a good one to sell at that show.

Now if I could just get someone to do all my house work, I would be on top of the world. Any takers?

Is it Monday?

2010-10-11T18:11:00.000-07:00

I think I have lost some days somewhere. Does any one know what happened to my weekend? I have to admit, I worked the whole thing from 9 to 9 every day doing a show but today has been a blur.

The show was not the best or the worst show I ever did. At least I made a little profit. The promoters were super nice as were the vendors. None of us did really well but we did all enjoy each other company and took turns watching each other's booth while we walked into the casino and played for a while or as some of the guys did, sit at the bar and watch football. Traffic was extremely slow and we could sit an hour and not see one customer.

That show is not one I will do again. You never know when doing shows if the are going to be a bust or a huge profit. The life of a vendor is always maybe, maybe not on what shows to do and what shows are better left to someone else.

I had lots of interest in my vintage dolls and sold some of the more expensive ones and then I sold some of the dolls that I design and make. Bears were hardly even looked at so after this season of shows, I will have to decide if I will continue to do bears. I love doing them and have for the last thirty years but they are just not in vogue anymore.

I do have an online bear show to do in November and maybe then what I am making now for that show will sell. I sure hope they do.

Well seeing that today has been one of those days where not much got done, I think it is time to go watch a little television and go to bed early.

It's Craft Show season!

2010-10-07T07:54:00.000-07:00

Yes, this is the time of the year when I do most of my craft shows. Holidays are coming and people are more willing to buy that child safe bear or doll. I am now in full gear mode to get my shows going.

I have a show this weekend, then another in two weeks and then another two weeks after that. I use to be able to do a show every weekend but age has caught up with me and it takes a week to recover from a show. My mind thinks I can still do all the shows but my body just says stop you can't. Boy old age stinks sometimes!

So today is getting all my displays ready and all the table covers washed and ready and see what else has to be done with products I am taking to this show. Tomorrow will be packing everything into containers and packing the van.

Even with all this, I still am sewing today. I got a couple cute dolls at the Goodwill store yesterday and so I did one doll up yesterday and today will try to finish up the other one. Then the lady at one of the other thrift stores says she will have some other dolls ready for me to look at today so will probably make a quick trip down there is see what she has. I have to remember to take a couple of the dolls with me that I got from her when I go down there and show her what I have done with them. She wanted to see them.

So the next two days are busy and then the weekend will be lots of sitting and standing and talking to people. Hope for lots of good sales so I don't have to bring so much stuff home.

Happy Crafting everyone and for you who do shows, I hope you have great sales.

American Craft Week

2010-10-05T21:22:00.000-07:00

This week is American Craft Week and I hope everyone is thinking about what they will be buying this year for the holidays and think about buying handcrafted items to give. The local crafter who works so hard to produce their product and never gets paid for all the love and hours they put into the product and then pay to show it at the local craft show really do need your business.

Go to http://www.handmadetoyalliance.org/community/HandmadePledge.aspx
and pledge to buy handmade this year. We all need to help our fellow crafters.

There is a press release that the Handmade Toy Alliance put out too.

http://www,oressrekeaseoiubt,cin.bide.507012

I am a crafter and have been for most of my life. My grandmother, who raised me, taught me to crochet, knit and sew and for that I am very grateful. Today, I don't see enough of the younger people learning to do these things. Even all the craft shows I do, I very seldom see a person under 40 who is a vendor. This is sad. Crafting should not be a dying art. We are true artists, each in our own venue. I know I wouldn't know what to do with all my time and it sure releaves the stress of every day living.

On another note, I am doing a craft show this weekend. Maybe that isn't another note because it is to sell all my products that I have worked so hard on all year. My original designed teddy bears and soft dolls. Then with the new recycled and vintage dolls that I have been having so much fun working on the last couple of months. Now I get to let others enjoy what I make.

The show is at the EdgeWater Hotel and Casino in Laughlin, Nevada on Saturday and Sunday November 9 and 10 so if anyone is in the area, please stop by and see what I have. Everyone I make is child safe and oh so cute, if I do say so myself.

Remember BUY AMERICAN AND FROM YOUR LOCAL CRAFT MAKER.

Sunday has been a different type of day for us.

2010-10-03T18:43:00.001-07:00

Yep, Sunday has been different. It rained off and on all morning with lots of thunder and lightening and some beautiful double rainbows. This afternoon we had some thunder but the storms all past us and just went over the mountains. Living in the desert, we love a rainy day as we only get about 6 inches of rain a year so this was wonderful. It also made the temperatures lower. We were in the low 80's and it was nice until the sun came out in the afternoon and the humidity got to us and we had to turn on the a/c. The weather people are saying we could have the same type of weather the next three days. I think our fall has finally arrived!

Today was a bear making day. I know all you have been reading about from me is dolls, dolls and more dolls. I love doing the dolls and I have a couple more that I still need to dress but I also have a online show in November and the bears have to get done first. Wish I could show you what they look like but you will all have to wait until they go online on November 21 and 22. At this moment I have two completely ready and three more partly done.

Now I know that I will make my rounds at the thrift stores on Wednesday so you will probably see more dolls. The funny thing is that for years, I have been making and selling bears and they have always been my passion. Over the years I added rabbits, cows, pigs, mice and dogs to the mix that I made of craft shows. Most of these have now gone away from my stock. I also added soft dolls which I designed and they have always sold well. People like to buy handmade dolls. It has only been a couple of months with the recycled dolls and this is now my new passion.

Second one done.

2010-10-01T19:58:00.000-07:00

I was good today and got the second of my two 32 inch walking dolls done. My hubby thinks this one is the best one. I like them both and I am hoping that others like them too.

The weather gave us clouds, thunder, lightening and some rain today. Started about 2:30am and was all over by 6am. It was nice to see something besides sun. The only thing is, it did make it hot and humid for the day. Now they are saying we possibly could get more for the next three days. I only hope that the air is not so hot but they are saying we are suppose to be cooling off to normal temperatures by the middle of next week. I sure hope so!

Our normals are in the upper 80's to low 90's and that is good weather. Anything below 80 and I am cold. I know, all you people love the cold and snow and all the other things that come with that type of weather but I had all that when I was younger. Now that I am "old", and we won't say how old, I do enjoy my desert living. Okay, maybe not all of it because I do complain about the 110 degree weather but with a/c, I just stay inside and sew.

The one thing I really love about the fall....no I am not talking about the weather now...is craft shows. I love to get out and show all the teddy bears and soft dolls that I make plus this year with the vintage and recycled dolls it is really going to be interesting to see the reactions of the people to what I do. Now if they will just take their hands out of their pockets and buy, I know I will be one happy camper.

Didn't think I would make it today, but I finished this one.

2010-09-30T15:05:00.000-07:00

It has been a long day and it is still early afternoon. I woke up for some reason at 4:30am today. Wide awake and could not get back to sleep. Got up and did the dishes I didn't do last night Oops! Then opened some windows and took care of the cat's needs. By 6am my daughter emailed me and said to let her know when I got up and she would call me so did that and talked to her for an hour. At least by then John was up so that I could go and do some sewing. So, that is how my day started.

I wanted to work on an outfit for one of the 32 inch walking dolls I got yesterday so pulled the fabric from my stash, made a pattern for the dress, cut it out and sewed it up. Then I wanted an apron on her and it has been ages since I had made one so that took a lot longer than I thought it would. I don't use a pattern, just cut and sew.

I had done the hair yesterday and cleaned her up so at least she was ready for clothing today. I thought she could use a necklace so found a little heart locket and added a ribbon in the same color.

I hope you like her because I think she came out really cute.

So now I think it is time to go take a nap or I will fall asleep watching tv tonight.

What do I do next????

2010-09-29T16:11:00.000-07:00

I have bears to finish for a online show in November, and I have dolls to dress. Right now I have 6 dolls to dress. What to I do first...that is a good question and here is sit at the computer.

I know I will get one bear finish tonight because it is just finishing up the seams and I can do that while I am sitting and watching my tv programs. Then tomorrow maybe I can get to the other bears I want to finish for the show. I am having problems getting them stuffed because my hands and wrists hurt when I do it. I will just have to do part of it at a time I guess.

But then, I want to dress some of those dolls. I have all these poor naked babies sitting and staring at me when I walk into my studio. All I can say is sorry babies, I can't do you all at once.

Today, I picked up two of the dolls from Goodwill. They were a mess but then that is not how I look at them. I look at them as what they will look like. They did have dresses on but cheap little china made dresses and I can see them in a nice cotton dress with a white pinafore. The hair was another thing and that I have already taken care of. Washed, conditioned and set. They came out beautiful. One had shoes but I had to buy socks for both and the shoes for the one.

Now I didn't even tell you what size these dolls were. They are a big 32 inches tall and are walking dolls. They are going to make someone very happy when they get them. They may be recycled and they may have been made in china but to some little girl, they are going to be their pride and joy.

I will post some pictures as I get them done, so stay tuned.

Now we are on to some little dolls.

2010-09-27T12:58:00.000-07:00

I am not thrilled with doing dolls under 15 inches. I like the feel of a bigger doll and the clothing is so much easier to do. In among all the dolls that I have bought, which my hubby thinks is way to many, I got a few little modern plastic dolls that had just been thrown in with the order. I decided, what the heck, might as well dress them and sell them too.

So here are so of the dolls that I did this to. First is a little 10 inch doll. She has such a sad look on her face. I thought she look like a little girl who needed an old fashion type print dress. She has her hair cut in a pageboy and this is the way I use to look when I went to school as a child. Not the sad face though because I loved school. She just has that old doll style doll face. She is a soft plastic and vinyl doll and I know someone will fall in love with the look. Her tiny feet are only 1 1/4 inches long and boy were those shoes hard to make. They are felt but I don't do any hand sewing unless I really, really have to, so they are machine sewn.

The second doll, which I did first is 14 inches tall and to me another of the school girl look. I found this small piece of black and white cotton fabric in my stash that has a blackboard look to it with all the writing on it. Of course, that called for a white blouse and I found another little piece of white on white heart fabric in my stash. Made up in a really cute blouse and enough left over to make the panties. These black felt shoes were easier to make and the socks too.

You must have surmised by now that I am a fabricholic. Yes, I must admit, I can't pass up a bargain on fabric or even dolls. I have a double wide closet full of fabric plus a shelving unit full of fabric. It is a good thing there are no fabric stores in town any more since WalMart quite their fabric department, or I would have lots more. I probably could never buy another piece of material and sew every day until I can no longer sew and I still wouldn't use all the fabric I have.

Now the dolls are another subject and my hubby is getting a little worried that I have bought too many and that they will not sell. I figure, and I hope that I am right, that with the holidays coming up, there will be lots of sales at the shows I am doing and from the website.

Final note: I talked about the fabric I have and some day I will talk about all the faux furs I have. You see, bears were the main thing that I made for a long time and now I have fur stacked from floor to ceiling on a 4 foot wide shelving unit. Then there is always all the supplies that go with all of this sewing.

Another day for that subject...................

Another day - Another Goodwill find.

2010-09-23T17:00:00.000-07:00

Here is my latest find at the Goodwill thrift store. Wednesdays are senior day and it is always crowded but being a senior means I get a 25% discount, so we always stop there before we do our grocery shopping.

So I picked through all the dolls that they had available and I see this big doll and it is heavy. Had a battery area in its backside and the contacts inside the case look clean and the doll, who you could tell had been played with, was dirty plus the hair was messy. The price was good so we bought her.

When we got home I washed her and her jumpsuit and then brushed out the messy hair and set it and put her out in the sun to dry. After she was dry I combed out the curls in her hair and put them back in the little ponytails that the doll was set up to have.

Then it was time to do some research and see if I could find out what kind of doll it was. After an hour or so looking though collectibles dolls and a few other websites, I found her. She is a Baby Loves to Talk doll, made in 1992 by Toy Biz Company. She was designed and sold as a promotion doll of the year in Toys R' Us. She was called the most innovative toy of the year in France and the best toy and doll of the year in Australia's Family Fun magazine who named her the Best Doll of the year.

Now that I found all that about her, I wanted to see if she talks. She requires 4 "C" batteries. I looked all over this house and could only find 3 "C" batteries. Bummer!! So in the car we go to the dollar store to get batteries as now we were both curious as to what she does. The store is less than 2 miles from the house so we were only gone about 10 minutes. Get back home and after fighting with the blister packs to get them open, hate blister packs, I put the batteries in and it said to kiss her forehead and tip her head. Nothing. Take the batteries out and try again. Nothing. Now this was getting frustrating and I was bound and determined to see if I could do something else to make her talk. Decided maybe the contacts needed to be cleaned so did that and put the batteries in again and then hit the reset button. She talked! Now we had to see what else she said so for about an hour we listened to her as she said different things and moved her mouth and blinked her eyes. She is soooo cute! Also in my research it said if she said a word wrong to repeat the word and she would say it right. It worked! What a great doll.

I know that some of you may remember this doll as it is only 18 years old and some may have had her as a child or bought one for your child. I am going to have a hard time parting with her but I will be selling her. I have so many dolls now and I know I will be buying more and I am quickly running out of room. I truly do enjoy the hunt for dolls of all kinds and then turning them into a clean like new doll for someone else to enjoy.

My winning entries

2010-09-22T07:04:00.000-07:00

Finally I am able to post the winning entries I had in our Mohave County Fair. This has been a month long adventure. First was trying to decide if I was going to enter anything in the fair and this being the first time that I had ever done anything like this, I didn't know what I should enter. I changed several times before I got the final decision made. From there it was deciphering the entry form on the internet. So many divisions and so many categories and sub categories to choose from. The easy part was being able to enter on the internet and not having to print everything out and mailing it in. The forms had to be in almost a month before the actual fair.

So now were the 3 trips to Kingman. The fair grounds are over the mountains and a 100 mile round trip. The first trip was to get the things there a week before the fair so that they could be judged, the second trip was to see if I won anything once the fair was open and then finally yesterday was to go pick everything back up after the fair closed.

I am happy that everything I entered won a First Place ribbon and am really happy that the Fairy Princess won a Best of Class ribbon. I do get a little money from all this but that is not why I entered this competition. I just wanted to see if anything I design and make would be judged by others as good. There were 100's of entries in my division and so I am very pleased that mine all won top honors.

From here these items will all be available on my website and I hope that you will take a look and with Christmas coming up soon, you will decide if anything I have will fit into your budget.

I have several craft shows that I am doing this fall and everything that is on my website will also be shown at shows. Shop early if you see something you want and with 50% down, I will hold an item for you in layaway.

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog and tell you friends about it as I really do need more followers.

Poor Strawberry

2010-09-21T07:21:00.000-07:00

Poor little Strawberry. She had so many problems when I got her in the mail. Her body was so dirty and she had red and pink strips in her unkepted hair plus one eye was not all there. She looked like she had been truly loved but then discarded in a box. I found her and tried my best to clean her up. She use to be a Mattel Sneezy doll, dated 1975, that when you pressed her tummy, she would sneeze and her head would go up and down. I suspect that the original mommy decided she needed a bath and put her in water and all the stuff that make her work leaked out and all over her hair and body. It had to have been red and this gave her the red streaks in the hair but the body is a soft vinyl and it made the body a purple tint. I tried and tried to get the body streaks to go away but to no avail. They are lighter but she will never be like new again. Even her little fingernails and toenails were a blue/purple color. And then there was the poor eye.

Oh what, oh my, what was I going to do with a this sweet little doll with a cute little face. Surely she could come to life again and be loved by another mommy.

After working on the body for two days, and being frustrated in not being able to get the streaks out of her, I decided to work with them. First was repair the eye. A little paint and pens took care of that and now she has dark blue eyes that twinkle at you. Next was the mouth which had no color so a little red took care of that and the blue fingernails and toenails are red too. She was beginning to look better. Then to tackle the hair. A good roller setting and a few hours in the sun and she had curls. There is still the red in the hair but now they looked like they were meant to be there.

Now it was time to work on clothing. The legs had to be covered so after a couple of tries I got her a pair of flesh colored tights made and that covered up all the ills on her legs. Had to pick out some fabric for her and I found this little piece of strawberry print fabric and used that to make her a dress with long sleeves to cover the rest of her body. Of course she had to have shoes too so a piece of green felt and shoes were created for her.

So now you know that she had to have a new name to go with the red in her hair and the strawberry print dress. Strawberry, what else could she be named! Now she is all ready to be loved by a new mommy.

You can see her and the rest of her pictures on my website where she is now for sale.
http://www.ejcraft.com

I WON, I WON

2010-09-16T21:45:00.000-07:00

Not much time to write tonight because it is almost bed time but I did have to come and tell you about my day.

I had entered four items, a faux fur black dog, a faux fur long haired teddy bear, a Emma doll, the four face doll, and a green suedecloth fairy princess into the Mohave County Fair. Last week we drove them over to the fair grounds so they could be judged before the fair opened. Today the fair opened so we drove back over the mountains again to see if any of my items had at least placed.

Surprise, surprise!!! I won a First Place ribbon on all four of the items. Then I also won a Best of Class ribbon on the Fairy Princess.

I took some pictures but because you couldn't get close to anything they didn't turn out well. I will have to wait now until Tuesday evening when back over the mountains we go again to pick up all the stuff.

I am thrilled as this is the first time I had ever entered anything into the fair competition. There were probably 200 to 300 entries in my division so I think I did very well.

Nite all.

Dolls, dolls and more dolls.

2010-09-15T20:56:00.000-07:00

Dolls and more dolls. I am having so much fun! I go to the thrift stores and find all these dolls that are in good shape but have been played with and are dirty and have messy hair. I bring them home and with a good washing and shampoo and some times curling of the hair, they look like new dolls. Then I just make them clothes and they don't even look like the same doll. These I can then sell at a good price. Most of them are not vintage but just something that was made in the last 10 years or so.

I have found a couple of vintage dolls and that is exciting to find a collector doll among all the modern dolls. Today it was another Berenguer baby boy doll. He still needs some clothes so he won't be ready to sell just yet.

The dolls pictured are all more modern dolls and they look nothing like the dolls that I found in a dirty messy condition.

Hope you enjoy my journey into the world of redoing all these dolls because I sure am. It is becoming an addiction of what can I find next.

Tune in and see what I come up with next.

Today I remember my Dad

2010-09-11T19:43:00.000-07:00

Today is a day for remembering my Dad who was born this day in 1915. He passed away in 1998. I miss him and know that he still watches over me. I was his first born and was named after his mother.

He was diabetic and then went blind when he was about 65. He was a short, heavy set man and loved his beer and any thing sweet. He did not watch his diet and didn't go to the doctor until it was too late. The last 5 years of his life were spent in a nursing home after he had lost his leg to the disease. He got the last couple of years where he didn't even know anyone. It is so sad to know he was this way and I know I should have went back to see him but I just couldn't see him that way.

He had been such a happy and loving person all his life and never said any thing bad about any one. My parents were divorced when I was 4 and I was raised by my mother's parents. My Dad remarried and him and my stepmother were married just a couple of months short of 50 years when he passed. My stepmother is a wonderful person who I still write to. Being in her 90's and still living alone in their house she gets lonely and I try to keep her up on all the things that go on in our lives.

I spent 2 weeks every summer while growing up with my Dad and Stepmother and after I was married our kids know them as Grandpa and Grandma. We would drive up to see them every chance we got.

Anyway, I miss my Dad's hugs. He gave such great ones. Rest in peace and continue to watch over me and John and all the kids and grandkids. We sure all miss you.

I also have to remember the twin towers, the plane crash and the pentagon and all the people who lost friends and family that horrible day. I remember that day like it was yesterday and not 9 years ago. May this tragic event never happen again.

New dolls

2010-09-09T19:16:00.001-07:00

Well as you can see I have some new dolls. I have never done up porcelain dolls before and thought I would give it a try.

I went to the Goodwill store yesterday to see if they had any doll stands. They didn't so was looking at all the dolls they had for very little money and decided that I could clean them up and maybe redress them if needed. I found these three porcelain dolls and I also got three plastic dolls. Those will be for another day as they all need clothing. I got all 6 of the dolls cleaned and washed and curled the hair on the onea that needed it. Also washed the clothing that was on the dolls. They may not have looked dirty but I assure you they were filthy as the wash water was almost black when I finished.

So onto the porcelain dolls in the pictures. The first thing I had to do because I don't know much about porcelain dolls was to do some computer research. Boy was I surprised when I discovered that the one doll was a highly collectible doll.

She is called Rose, She is marked with Royal Albert and the crest on the back of her breast plate. She was made for the Royal Doulton Company in a limited edition of 10,000. The pattern is now retired. She even had all the original clothing on. She is missed the flowers and ribbons in her hair but other than thay she is in perfect condition.

The second doll is a 12 inch doll marked Rose 1-5000 and couldn't find out much about her other than she is from the Victorian Rose Collection. No date so not sure how old. The outfit she has on is original and all I had to do is clean her up. Even her hair was good.

The third doll is a 15 inch doll and has no marking and so not really sure where she is from. I had to complete redress her and do major work on the hair. She has a ton a hair and it was all matted. I got it cleaned and curled and then piled it on the top of her head. Her outfit consists of white stockings and white bloomers trimmed in lace. The dress is a green moleskin fabric trimmed in white lace with a tie of white with white and silver snowflakes. She has such sad looking eyes. I hope she likes the way I dressed her.

Tomorrow is a trip to Kingman to drop off my handmade stuff for judging at the county fair the following weekend. I have never entered anything before so we will see what happens. Cross you fingers that I will get a ribbon.

It has been an exhausting day so will close and wish everyone a good night.

PS.........I guess I am tired because all the pictures are reversed. Sorry!

Last day for gift.

2010-09-06T11:07:00.000-07:00

Okay this is the last day I will offer the free gift when you order from my website. Tomorrow will be too late!

I have also added these three dolls. They are all bargain priced at $25 each. The little one is a 12 inch Eegee doll from the 60's. She is all vinyl and I have dressed her in a fun fish print dress and bloomers. Also made her shoes and socks.

The other two are from my collection. They are TallyTots dolls made for WalMart a few years ago. They have the vinyl head, arms and legs and cloth bodies. They are 18 inch dolls and the WalMart version of the American Girl doll. I just have too many dolls and seeing they were just sitting on my shelf, I decided to offer them to someone else to enjoy.

Have a safe and great Labor Day.

Labor Day Weekend Sale

2010-09-05T07:55:00.000-07:00

Hope everyone is enjoying the last long weekend before fall or spring which ever part of the world you live in. We are finally suppose to start to cool off tomorrow.

Thought I would help every one out with a sale on my website and those that are starting to think about their Christmas gifts. Yep, I know, no one wants to think about Christmas yet but it is a good time to start getting those special gifts for the wonderful people on your list.

Just for my blogger friends,
$5 gift for anyone who buys $50 worth of merchanise...
A $14.95 bear or doll for those who buy $100 worth of merchanise...
And $24.95 bear or doll for those who buy $200 worth of merchanise...

This will only run today Sunday September 5 and tomorrow September 6

If you need to put things on layaway for later, I will hold your order with a 50% deposit.

I have several shows coming up this fall so get your things before they disappear. Everything is pretty much one of a kind and I don't think I will have much time to make any thing else.

Happy September

2010-09-03T21:06:00.000-07:00

Here it is almost fall and we are still into the 110+ temps. What is with the weather here? I enjoy living in the desert but this summer has been almost unbearable. We have had too many days of 120 degree weather and only to short rain showers all summer. We usually get 3 or 4 and it will cooler it off for a little while. We also didn't get only about 2 weeks of high humidity this year, which I am glad for because that is a real killer with the over 110 temps and then adding the humidity.

Well all I can say is I am glad that fall is just around the corner. I am also looking forward to taking four of my pieces to be judged at the Mohave County Fair next week. This is something I have never done before and am a little anxious on how I will do.

Then in October I will have my first local craft show of the fall. I hope to be able to do a couple more of them too before the year is out. I also will be doing an online bear show in November, but more about that later.

This has been a week of received Mattel Vintage dolls. I have them all cleaned up now and those that needed their hair recurled that is done too. I also have made dresses and bloomers for them all, got new shoes and socks and the Charmin Chattty Cathys also got their glasses today. Now I think they are all set to show and put on my website for sale. There are a few on there now if anyone cares to look. I really need to sell a couple of them so that I can buy more and fix them up. I don't restore their voices or cracks in their bodies that they may have. These dolls are all 50 years old and I don't want them to look like a new doll. You can buy reproduced dolls every day and there is no history in doing that. These are dolls that have been loved and played with and you can just imagine the stories they could tell.

Everyone have a great Labor Day weekend. My hubby and I will be staying home and just doing our normal things. I hope that I will be able to get some of the pictures on here sometimes this weekend of all these dolls so that all can see.

Beautiful Sunday Morning

2010-08-29T07:19:00.000-07:00

Happy Sunday everyone!

It is a beautiful morning here with clear skies, lots of sun and low temps and humidity. Maybe we are finally getting over our extremely hot summer. I know this is Arizona and the desert so we will still have some 100+ temps before we get into our fall but this morning at 68 degrees it feels good and gives us hope that the cooler weather is on the way.

The windows are all open in the house and we are enjoying it. The cat really loves to go from window to window and checking out what is going on outside. As an indoor cat he can still check on everything and not get into a fight with the cats that roam the neighborhood.

I am still working on doll clothes for the different Chatty Cathys that I have been getting. Right now I only have 5 of the dolls and still have two more that are in the mail. I have about a dozen dresses made and hope to get a few more made before my fall shows start so that I can sell them along with the dolls. The clothes will fit not only the Cathy dolls but also the American Girl dolls so that will be good for selling. I use to make lots of outfits for the American Girl dolls but stopped dong in about two years ago. I really enjoy designing and making dresses for all the dolls.

I have a little retired Berenguer boy doll that I am crocheting an outfit for at the moment and will show that as soon as I get it done. He is so cute and I just love him.

Well enough rambling for today. Enjoy your Sunday.

Tuesday and Another doll

2010-08-24T14:55:00.000-07:00

Well here it is Tuesday and I have another doll. This one came to me dirty, with very messy hair and naked....poor baby. She is a 25 inch tall Charmin' Cathy from 1982 per her body markings. I don't know if she talks or not as it takes a record to make her speak. I hope to find some of the records soon so I will know one way or the other if her player still works.

I cleaned her up which took a couple of hours and she still has a couple of faded spots but these may still come off with more cleaner. I then worked on the hair and it came out beautifully and looks almost like it did 35 years ago. She desperately needs clothes so I made up a pattern and cut the fabric for a school girl look in red cotton and lace. She has the red dress and matching bloomers and then I also made some socks and put on a pair of cute little shoes that I had. I added the red bow to her hair and now she is ready to move on to some little girl or collector who will cherish her.

Tomorrow will be the next doll. A cute little Singing Cathy (sorry no voice) but I will tell you all about her tomorrow.

My love of dolls continues

2010-08-21T16:58:00.000-07:00

Has been a busy week here with making doll clothes. This is my latest find. She came to me dirty with a really nasty little outfit on and I had to rid her of the dirty and grime. She is an all one piece soft vinyl doll make in Mexico. What year, who knows? The thing is she talks. Says several phases by pulling the string in the back of her head. She cleaned up very well and I made her a cute little pink dress, bloomers and white socks all trimmed in pink lace. The only thing I kept of the original outfit were the white plastic shoes, which were in a like new condition. She is now listed on my website http://www.ejcrafts.com

My love of dolls has gone back to my childhood. I always had a doll and played dolls with my sister all the time. I made doll clothes from the time I was about 8 or 9 when I was allowed to use the sewing machine. Maybe I am in my second childhood because I am starting to get excited again about getting some more dolls, cleaning them up, redressing them and letting others have the joy of getting a "new to them" vintage doll. This is going to be a great adventure!

Dolls and more dolls

2010-08-16T05:14:00.000-07:00

I really should stay off EBay because yesterday I won the bids on three different dolls. They were really low bids and I didn't expect to get any of them and I won three. Who knew!

It all started last week when I got the two Chatty Cathy dolls in the mail from a collector. I decided I would go on EBay and see the pricing plus I wanted to buy some shoes for the dolls. Bad idea because I started to bid on some of the dolls that had low pricing figuring that they would go way high....well a couple of them did but then came yesterday and I get the notices that I was high bidder. Now I have three more dolls headed my way and I am really going to have to decide what I want to do with all these dolls.

I did get some clothes made for the dolls this week and it is so much fun making doll clothes. I like pulling the fabric and cutting out a basic dress and then going through all the embellishment's that I have, adding them to the dress and seeing what I come out with.

Here are three of the dresses that I did this week and now with getting some "new" old dolls in the mail over the next week, I guess I will be making more clothes.

If anyone is interested in buying some of these dolls or even the clothing for these dolls, please contact me and I can send the information on the dolls. I will also be putting all the dolls and the clothing on my website over the next week.

Now it is time to go sew some more............

Today my husband John is in love.

2010-08-12T10:43:00.000-07:00

I got this fur the other day and John wanted a bear made from it right away. The last couple of days I worked on making a panda and this is the result. He is a 14 inch, 5 way jointed bear and I even put vinyl paw pads on him to make him a "man's" bear.

Even though navy is a hard fur to photograph, I think you can see the shine that this fur has. It is so soft and easy to work with. Anyway, John thinks it looks almost like Chicago Bear colors so he is in love. It is going to be very hard when this bear sells. The bear is now listed on my website.

Wednesday and I am in love.

2010-08-11T13:33:00.000-07:00

Today I received two "new to me" Chatty Cathy dolls in the mail. I think I am in love with these dolls. They were popular in the late 60's and early 70's and I remember at the time that we could not afford to buy one for our daughter. Now I have three of them.

The first one I got a couple of months ago and that one is going nowhere but these two I bought for resale. I really wish I could keep them but it is best if I sell them. I will be making a complete wardrobe for each of the dolls. These two are in pretty good shape. One still has the pull string but the voice is garbled and the other one the string is missing. This is a common thing in these dolls. The one also have discolored legs which also is common. These dolls have been around and played with so you have to expect some minor problems. They have both been redressed with new clothes and then I will add some more clothing.

If you know of anyone who would like one of these dolls, please contact me for further information on the dolls.

Maybe tomorrow I will get around to more about my life. As for today, I am off to my sewing room to see what I can do with the new wonderful fur that I got yesterday.
I got some peach and navy and think I will be making a Chicago Bear panda for my hubby. He is a Chicago Bear fan. These will be special ordered if you want one and will not say Chicago Bear anywhere on them as only the colors will make it look like a Chicago Bear. Don't want to get into any copywrite problems.

Reflections

2010-08-10T18:13:00.000-07:00

My birthday was last week and as I start another decade of my life, I sit and reflect on where I have been and where my life has led me.

Background: I grew up on a farm with my grandparents raising my sister and I. Our parents were divorced when I was 4 and my mother had us living with her. One day she brought the laundry and us girls and our baby brother to my grandparents and said she would be back in a couple of days and she never returned. My grandparents who had two kids of their own still at home, one girl 16 and a boy 12 couldn't keep all of us so my brother who was only 5 months old was adopted by my grandfather sister and husband. My grandparents then got guardianship of us girls. We had a good life from then on and enjoyed living and working on farms in the northern Illinois area.

I think because of this early trauma, I vowed if I got married, I would never put my children through that. Well, here I am married 52 years and raised three wonderful children so I guess I made it. Yes, being married is not always easy and yes we had our bad times but there were many more good times than bad.

My husband, John and I are best friends and have worked all our lives until we retired 6 years ago. The last few years of working we even worked in the same job so were together 24/7 so when we retired we didn't have that trauma of all of a sudden being together all the time.

We even spent 20 years of doing craft shows all over the western states. We really enjoyed doing them with John setting up everything and I doing all the sewing. It worked great. We would work all week at regular jobs and our weekend were craft shows. We still do a couple of shows a year but due to health problems, that is all that we can manage. Then John doesn't drive anymore so now the shows are all local.

I love doing my crafts and I love to sew so now with a website I am able to sell some of my work that way too. I try to keep my cost low and I don't charge what I know I should charge for my work but it is more of "keeping busy" so as long as I can make enough to cover my costs of materials and a little extra to cover the shows, I am happy.

I have rambled on now and never got to the part of reflection that I started this blog with so tomorrow is another day. I have lots of time, so if I get busy doing something else I will write and explore what my life has given me.

Green is good

2010-07-27T07:16:00.001-07:00

Green is good, right?

For these pretty little fairy dolls, yes.

Now the story of why these dolls came out a moss green color. Polyester fabric is not suppose to take dye but I have done it before and it worked. I made a bright blue and orange bear from a lovely white faux fur this past winter to match the Chicago bear colors. The fur colors turned out beautifully and the guy who commissioned it was thrilled.

So on with the story of the green. I have the light taupe colored ultra suede and I thought I could dye that a nice brown to make some brown dolls. I got out my big stainless steel stock pot and mixed the dye according to the package and put it on the stove to boil. I added about a yard of fabric and waited, stirring the fabric every so often. For an hour and nothing was happening, another hour and it looked like maybe the fabric was getting brown. Another hour and now it looks brown so I do the next step of washing the excess dye from the fabric with cold water. The fabric does look like it is really the brown color I was going after, so into the dryer the fabric goes. Twenty minutes later, the fabric is soft and the color looks right.....yea I did it. WRONG!

I put the fabric on my cutting table that is in front of a south window and OH NO....the fabric is mossy green.

Now what am I going to do. I have fabric dyed and I am not a person who likes to waste fabric so I cut out two dolls and made them up. Okay, so now I have two green dolls....let's see.....what kind of things are green......gnomes, sprites, fairies..........hummmmm what to do, what to do.

First they need hair so start to pull faux fur fabric to see what would look best. Tried several colors and none were quite right and then tried the white and it worked as it is a complete contrast to the fabric. Okay now that that is done, what about clothing. Maybe a Christmas theme outfit but no Christmas theme doesn't sell well for me so onto the next thing. Fancy, that will do it! So pull out all my bridal type fabrics. White, blue, lavender, green, pink, rose what oh what is the best ones to use.........

White on white satin is always good so start there. Cut that out and decided it really needed puffy sleeves in a different fabric so cut out some sheer sleeves. Hum, better cut out two sets of sleeves because these would look good on both dolls. Start to sew and opened several drawers of lace to find just the right lace to put on the dress. Sewed it all up and dressed the doll. Looks good. Now what color for the other doll? Had a small piece of a heavy rose fabric and cut that out, sewed and dug through all the lace again to find a piece that would work on that fabric. Done and now both dolls are dressed.

Set the dolls on stands and go........what do I need to finish them. Flowers for their hair, but I don't have any flowers that would work. Shoot, now I have to make a trip to WalMart and it is 110 degrees outside and I really don't want to go out.

Next morning now and I have to go get some flowers if I want to finish these dolls so off to WalMart. Get to store and they really don't have much to choose from and they are expensive but found a couple branches of a velvety flower that would work. Also bought wire and floral tape and extra ribbon. Home again and see what if the idea I have in my head will work. Got the wire the right size and used floral tape to cover the wire and started to try to get the flowers on the wire. Nope........doesn't look good. Darn! Walk away and think of something else I can do.

Second idea. Hot glue. Dug out the hot glue gun and heat that up and cut the flowers down and now have to cover the wire with more than floral tape or the hot glue will melt the tape. Cover the wire now with ribbon. Finally I can start to cover the head piece with leaves and flowers. After a couple of hours of work, two head pieces are done and I attach some ribbons for streams and put the head pieces on the dolls.

Dolls still don't look finished....Now what???? Baskets of flowers in their hands. Nope. Wands in the hands. Nope. Okay, dig through the accessory box and see what else I have. Lockets....I have some little antique looking lockets in there. These will work!

Finally after days of going back and forth on this project I think I have a couple of cute dolls. Now they are on my website and we will see if anyone else thinks they are cute and will buy them.

New Doll Designs

2010-07-10T13:15:00.000-07:00

It has been since May when I last was here and I am not sure anyone is reading this anyway.

Here are a couple of the new designs that I have been working on. The first is a set of dolls I call Kyle and Katie. They are 16 inch dolls. I like this design and they have been good seller for me this year. I am down to just the three sets.

The second picture is of my design I just finished up this week. She is a 17 inch doll with bent arms and legs. It took me third times to get her right but I am pleased with the finished product.

The weather is hot here but then it always is in the summer in the desert. No craft shows to do in the area and everyone pretty much just stays in the house and only goes out to do what is necessary. We all look forward to the end of the summer when we can get out and do things again.

I hope everyone is having a great summer and the storms have stayed away from you.

Greetings

2010-05-03T22:32:00.000-07:00

I have been working on new bear designs and new soft doll designs since the first of the year. My newest bear is one with bendable arms and legs and is 20 inches tall which is a big bear for me as most of my bears are either 14 inches or 8 inches. These bears have a foam covered bendable rod that goes in the limbs and I really love working with them. Three of them are shown above. I am still trying different furs and dressed and undressed to see what everyone thinks of them

I have a small craft show to do this coming Saturday in Henderson Nevada, at the Fiesta Hotel/Casino and hopefully these will be a big hit. If anyone is in the neighborhood please drop by and take a look at all the bears, dolls, dogs and other critters that I have available. The show runs from 10am to 8pm on the second floor next to the buffet and across from the bingo parlor.

Next week when I have the time I will show you all the dolls that I have been working on. There are three new designs for them too.

Happy New Year

2010-01-03T18:08:00.000-08:00

It has been a while since I have posted anything on here. I was very busy with shows from October until right up to Christmas. It was a mixed bag with shows this year. Most were very good but some it was a bummer and these will not be on my list next year. Also next year there will be fewer shows as I just can't work that hard any more. Then on top of the shows, were the custom orders. I usually don't take custom orders so late but business is business and I got them all done and shipped so they were received before Christmas.

I also had a shipment that ended up who knows where and had to make another shipment. Good thing it was microwave potato pouches because I always have extra of these. Oh, I did run out of them at my big November show but got enough made for the next couple of shows.

It is time for me to clean house from the older stock I have, so this week all the old stock will go on Clearance on my website. I hope you will take a look as most of it will be priced below what the supplies cost me. I just want to get it off my shelves and on to a new home.

I have made a couple of new items, a bear named Cali and a dog named Sadie. Both are new designs for me.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and that this new year and decade will bring whatever you dream of.

Happy Thanksgiving

2009-11-24T06:18:00.000-08:00

Where did November go? I have been busy and just have not had the time to get here. I have no new bears or dolls made in the last 6 weeks.

I did an 18 day show which ending Sunday and was very profitable but it has left me with very little stock and I have another show starting Friday and running every weekend through Christmas.

I am low on bears and almost out of dolls and then the potato pouches that I make are completely out. I have not been so low on stock in years and I am tired and really don't want to get into the sewing room. Then I also have a couple of comission bears that I have to try to get out for Christmas. Time........time...........need more hours in the day and some energy boost. If any one has some extra of either, please send it my way.

I did get some key chain bears made while I was at the big show and will try to get them posted soon. They were big sellers to hang on purses and backpacks.

Hope all have a wonderful Thanksgiving and don't eat too much. Those who have to travel please drive safely.

October? Already?

2009-10-02T13:50:00.000-07:00

Here it is October and just where did the summer go? I know I did get quite a few bears designed and made and even did a new sock doll so I guess I have just been to busy to see the months slip by. I do know that it has been very hot all summer and I didn't want to leave the house. Grocery shopping, a couple of trips down to the casinos and some company in August and that has been about all my excitement.

Well now I am ready for the fall craft shows to start. We don't travel anymore, due to my hubby's health, so I do only local shows. There isn't much to choose from and they are all mixed crafts and commercial but I have learned to deal with what is available. I started doing a indoor swap meet in January of this year and everyone kept asking me, where were you before Christmas, so this year I am doing the swap meet starting next weekend. We will see what sales are like before the holidays. There are quite a few craft people who did the pre-holiday meet and they said they did pretty good. I will be there every 3 day weekend until the first week in November and then I do a straight 18 days outside show at the AVI Casino and Resort. I have done that show for the last 3 years and have done very well there. Do have to contend with the wind, which we have a lot in the fall but we anchor the canopy down and have never lost anything. After that it will be back to the swap meet until Christmas. I think I am going to be dragging after all that.

So if you don't see me again for a few weeks, you will know that I have just been busy or maybe just to tired to type.

2009-08-10T19:11:00.000-07:00

2009-07-06T16:43:00.000-07:00

Thought you might like to see my latest baby. This is "Pretty in Pink". It is an all pink bear including the feet. I love this fur because it is so soft and shiny. I only have a little bit of it left so I am going to have to be careful in what I make from it. This bear is child safe as most all my bears are.

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July. It was quiet here as we pretty much stay in the house this time of the year. It is over 110 every afternoon. When it is over 110 the air is drier, usually under 10%. We are normally now in our higher humidity days, and temps from 96-109 but for some reason this year we have only had about a week of that. It WILL come back and then we get the thunderstorms, dust and a little rain.

Have a great day and talk to you next time. Please take a peek at my website. Lots and lots of stuff there.

www.ejcrafts.com

Onto another project.

2009-06-18T17:25:00.000-07:00

Well here we are again and onto another new project. I started to think about doing plant pokes and then had some people say that they would get wet and buggy. Living in Arizona, we don't have that problem but I guess you would in other parts of the country.

So it was suggested that I try the bear heads on pencils or pens. I have done a couple on pens but I think the pens are kind of short so I have done several on pencils. I think if people want they can still poke them in a plant but that will be up to them.

This is the only one I have photographed at the moment but I have a dozen made in different colors. I have them in grey, brown, tan and this rust color. I have some with flowers glued on the ear and some without. Each will have a ribbon around the neck. I still haven't decided what I need to charge for these. It will have to be somewhere from a dollar to two dollars. I will never get my time costs but this has been a fun project and keeps me busy. Let me know your comments.

If you would, become a follower and you will know when I have a new project in the works. I have a few more ideas that I am working on so hopefully over the next few weeks when it is too hot here to be anywhere but in the sewing room, I will post some more new things.

Everyone take care and don't forget to check out all the things on my website that I have put on clearance. I really need the room for some new things LOL.

Feather bears

2009-06-11T17:12:00.000-07:00

Here are my bears that I made with a faux fur called feathers. It is really different to work with and I think the brown and pink ones are cute. But the black one just doesn't look right to me. These are 10 inch bears, made from my newest design. They all have leather foot paws and are 5 way jointed. The top fur on each of them is grey and white but it really doesn't show well on the black. I am going to make a couple more of them and they are available on my website.

Our weather here is the desert is getting very hot now as it is going into the summer. We had 100 degree temps almost all of May and then this first few days of June, it has only got into the upper 90's. Yes I know, most people will say that is really, really hot but we don't have much humidity and so if you stay out of the direct sun, you don't feel too bad. Of course we pretty much live inside this time of the year and just get out in the mornings when the temps are still in the 70's. Grocery shopping and any yard work is done before 9am.

I have some more bears in the works and will try to get them posted in the next week or so.

Remember When?

2009-05-21T09:37:00.000-07:00

Well here I go again with some new bears. These I call "Remember When". I was thinking about the bear I had as a child and thought these were simple bears in a more simple time. I was raised in the 1940's and money was tight for our family. It was war time and there was not much joy in the world. Boy that sounds like today. Funny about how things cycle over and over again.

The bears are made of a short faux fur and 13 inches tall. I think the bear I had was only 9 inch, but seeing it is long gone, I decided I would just use my memory and recreate the style. The bears are jointed too in the arms and legs which I know my bear was not but for today's world this works better. They do have the set-in seam ears in the two colors and a plastic nose which really haven't changed much over the years. Then I put on the button eyes. I usually make child safe bears but back then we never thought about child safe and all the eyes were sewed on so that is what I did for these bears.

In my stash of fabric I found this cute blue and pink plaid in a soft cotton and so I created little pants for the boy and a dress and panties for the girl, all matching. I found enough of this material to make 5 bear sets and because they are easy to make, I have a lower price on the sets too. Please let me know if you are interested as these are not on my website yet.

Until June 9 I do have a big sale with about half my products at 50% off so if you have any interest in some bears or dolls, please check it out.

It has been a while since I have posted.

2009-05-03T17:41:00.001-07:00

This is what I have been working on the last few days. This are microwave potato pouches. If you have never used one, they are great. It will give you the moistest, softest potato from the microwave. You probably know that the microwave usually takes all the moisture out of the potato and you come out with a ugly looking potato that is hard and dry. This pouch solves all those problems. I have been making and selling these for several years and I now have people looking for me so they can get some for other people because they tried it and loved it. They are available on my website at www.ejcrafts.com

Other than these and a couple of bears that I made for challenges, I have not been sewing much. We bought a new to us car and have traveled the last couple of weeks back to the dealer, a 100 miles round trip to have things fixed on it. It is under warranty so no charge just the travel time and the gas. Of course, being retired we have lots of time and it does get us out of the house.

We will be taking another trip this week to Lake Havasu City, AZ, which will be another 100 mile round trip because they have a new Michael's store there and the WalMart there still carries fabric so it will be a shopping trip. We don't have fabric or craft stores where we live. I do sometimes miss living in a city with all the fabric and craft stores but I never miss the traffic that comes with it. We enjoy living in our small area and it is slowly getting some of the national chains in our new shopping center so we would never move back to the hassle of a large city. We can always go to Las Vegas, which is 125 miles north of us if we had too.

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog. Stay safe and hope you will visit my website.

I finally got all the bear hangers done.

2009-04-05T13:10:00.000-07:00

This has been some week. I sold bear hangers faster than I could get them made. I finally got enough finished to list them on my website. Hope you will check them out I have them listed for only $4 each.

Thanks,
Eva
www.ejcrafts.com

Well here we go again with a new project.

2009-03-29T18:08:00.000-07:00

Here is my latest project. Hang them on a door or like my the refrigerator. Most of these have already been sold but I am making more, in fact, I made 7 more today and have some more in the works. I am using small pieces of faux fur that I have left over from other projects and then I am adding plastic locking eyes and nose so that if a small child get to it they can not take off the small parts. These are only 3 inches by 3 inches and I also added a little piece of lace for a collar and a ribbon. Then I added a ribbon hanger which all have been sewn on. I added a flower to the top of the head which has been glued on. I use to make these, from a different pattern years ago and they sold really well and I am hoping that they will again. I think these are much cuter than the previous ones I made. These are pretty girly and I haven't come up with a way to make a boy on yet.

Right now because they are selling so fast, they are not on my website but I hope to have some there by next week.

My newest project.

2009-03-19T15:00:00.000-07:00

Well after a couple of weeks experimenting with making sock dolls this is my newest design. I went out and bought a bag of new ladies socks from the WalMart and started to make them up. The legs are cut from the ribbed part of the sock and the arms are cut from a separate sock. I made the bodies soft so they are so huggable. The hair is yarn that has been sewn on the head and the faces I painted on with a pen. Each one is slightly different as it just depends on how I work them. The clothing with includes a dress and matching panties are design for this doll only. I made them all removeable and because everything is cotton, all can be washed. I hope everyone enjoys them because they are fun to make. I have added 8 to my website right now and will be added more as I finish them.

I have tried to keep the costs down on these and am selling them for only $10 each. They are 12 inches tall.

Thanks for taking the time to look at them.

Bear Hugs, Eva

Thoughts on the week

2009-03-07T14:52:00.000-08:00

Here it is Saturday already and the is the time of the year when all the men in my family have birthdays. Our oldest son's birthday was the 5th and the youngest son's today the 7th and then on the 10th my hubbys. We don't live need either of the sons so phones calls and cards is all there is in celebration. They are both grown with families of their own so they celebrate that way. We won't be doing anything on Tuesday either as hubby has to go to the doctor for his ears.

Then this week I also broke my glasses so have an appointed with the eye doctor on Monday. I will find out on Tuesday when we are at the doctors how my blood test turned out too.

As for crafting this week. I got the little chest type boxes finally in the mail and started to paint them. Some I am just staining and others are painted. They will be used with my needlefelted animals as they are the perfect fit for the small animals. The others I will give as a treasure box with any bear that sells over $25. Not sure what will be inside of box yet or if I want to put anything in them.

For a laugh, I have added my newest bear. His name is Jed. I had this fur and really didn't know what I wanted to do with it so I decided a character bear would be fun. He is 10 inch tall and 5 way jointed and available on my website www.ejcrafts.com The poor little guy had a butterfly land on his nose and he is trying to see it and has been trying to chase it away.

Bear hugs to everyone and have a great weekend.

March first already!

2009-03-01T18:32:00.000-08:00

Here it is the first of March, where did February go? February here in sunny Arizona has been warm and cold and then windy too. This is the time of year that we have what other parts of the country call spring. Come May and we will start our hot summer. Now is the time I have to get busy and plant my flowers and pull weeds that have taken over our present flower beds. I looked last week for flowers but they didn't have what I wanted so will look again this week to see what they have got in.

As for bears and crafts, I have designed a couple of things this past month. One a little 10 inch bear named Alexander, named by a good friend of mine named Charlotte. Then I also had to make a Easter sock bunny for my stepmom, something she requested. While I was at that, I decided to see if I could design a sock doll. The doll is okay but not quite what I want yet. Then the last couple of days I tried my hand at a horse. I had a pattern for a long time for one and I worked it up and it turned out okay but if I make any more of them, I will redesign the pattern to make it easier.

You can find the bear on my website at www.ejcrafts.com plus I have quite of bit of end of stock that is on sale.

New craft for me

2009-02-01T15:03:00.000-08:00

Well last week I started a new craft project. I started to make needlefelted animals. I started by making a bear because I love to make bears. I am not using any pattern as I find as I felt each piece it just seems to take on its own life.

Here are the two bears that I made first. I sure do enjoy this new to me craft and I hope that as I get better on the craft that I will be able to create with more detail.

Please enjoy and I hope you will leave a comment as to what you think of my new craft. You can also buy them on my website at www.ejcrafts.com

Thanks for your time.

Eva

Happy New Year

2009-01-04T05:25:00.000-08:00

New year, new start. What am I going to do this year in new products? Hummmm!!!

Well I did do up a few scented wax animals, but these are no brainers as I bought the stuffed animals at the dollar store and the votive candles to melt and put on the bears. They turned out quite cute and I will take them to the swap meet and see if they sell. I usually don't do swap meets but decided I need to get rid of some of my older stock and this just might be the way to do it. I have a local indoor swap meet that is free for the month of January so why not try it.

I am not sure how much or if any bears and dolls I will make this year because of a new law taking effect in February that says all items for children 12 and under needs to be tested before it can be sold. I can't afford this and I don't know of any crafter who could. This just might stop me and my website. I hope everyone will write to their congressman and all the news agencies and help all of us crafters and artists who live in the USA and sell products for children.

New design

2008-12-27T13:18:00.000-08:00

Well I have started a new design in a bear. This one is geared to the very small child. The only pieces on it are the plastic locking eyes and the plastic locking joints. Everything else is fur. This is my first attempt and his name is Fuzzy Feet. I then knit it a red scarf. This is all in a nice soft fur.

Enjoy and let me know what you think. I have posted it on my website for sale. I am going to sell it for just $24.95 because I am using pieces of fur left over from other bears.

Eva

www.ejcrafts.com

Eva's crafts and thoughts: Merry Christmas

2008-12-21T12:50:00.000-08:00

Eva's crafts and thoughts: Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

2008-12-19T17:47:00.001-08:00

Here we are only a few days left until Christmas. Where has this year gone? I find that the older I get the faster the years go. We have already received all our Christmas gifts this year. We bought ourselves a new sofa and chair for the living room. The old one was 10 years old and had seen its better days. Then with some of the profits from my sales we bought a Wii. We haven't really got into playing it yet as we are having trouble getting the handheld to stay on the screen. And we do want to buy more than one game. Then our kids went together and bought us a new 32" HDTV for the bedroom with a built in DVD player. This is wonderful because working with all the surround sound system in the living room with the big screen is a pain. Plus we can lay in bed and watch whatever we want.

As for my season with craft shows and website sales, I have done pretty good. I only do a couple of shows and the website is only a year old so for me, what I did was great. The money helped us but new roofing on the house and added more cement to our patio area in the front of the house. This next year we need to get more landscraping so that will be our goal with sales profits.

This picture is of the mink bear that I made and I used it on our Christmas cards this year. Enjoy and have a wonderful Christmas season.

If you would like I have reduced some of the pricing on my website. I did this so that more people could afford my work in this hard economy times. I hope you will take a look.

Eva, www.ejcrafts.com

Mink Bear

2008-11-29T04:45:00.000-08:00

I just finished working up a mink bear made from an old fur coat. I am taking my hat off to all the people who work this type of fur all the time. I haven't made a bear from an old coat in about 15 years and it was frustration to say the least. I think I will stick to my faux furs from now on. Here is is the results in a 14 inch bear.

I have been MIA for weeks!

2008-11-22T17:46:00.000-08:00

I have been working a mixed craft/commercial outside show for 17 days, which will end tomorrow. Boy am I tired!!!!! Sales are down from last year but I still did pretty good. The wind was extremely strong for most of the first 8 days but this past week has been good. The traffic is slow and there is a lot of down time but I have made it through.

I will try to get some of my newest bears put on my blog this next week. My house needs to be cleaned first as nothing has been done in 3 weeks.

See you all next week.

Happy Crafting.

Where has this month gone?

2008-10-22T13:53:00.000-07:00

Here it is almost the end of October and I don't know where this month has gone. It is still hot here-in the 90's every day-and I wonder where our fall weather is. I have been working on products for the only craft show I am doing this year. It is a 10 day show at AVI Casino in Laughlin, Nevada. It is only 5 miles from my house so travel time is short. It is outside and the wind can get bad here so will have to really tie the canopy down.

I have been making bears and hope that this is the year of every one buying bears. That is what I started with 30 years ago and had sort of got away from them for a while but started with them again this year. Back to my roots, I guess I can say. I have a new design on this 14 inch bear and have made several in different types of faux fur. This one is for Halloween and I hope you enjoy him.

Happy Halloween.

Eva

What I have been doing in crafting this week

2008-09-24T16:49:00.000-07:00

I have been trying to design a new bunny and this is the result so far. His neck is still too long but he is made. He is of a light grey faux fur with white fur upper ears. He of course is child safe with plastic black eyes and a pink nose. I put a satin collar and a red/green/gold tie on him. I have him listed on my website for only $15.00 as it still isn't what I am looking for in a bunny. This will at least pay for my materials and it will make a great toy for some child. He is 15 inches tall not counting the ears.

I will be adding more fur bunnies after I redesign them. I hope that you will enjoy him and give him a new home.

Grandpa Jones

2008-09-10T14:44:00.000-07:00

I have a new design in my teddy bears. This one I call Grandpa Jones because he has a mustache and wears glasses. I have a passion for teddy bears and I love designing something new all the time.

I design teddy bears that are child safe because I feel teddy bears should be handled and hugged. Everyone needs a hug. I use only locking eyes and noses on my bears and all the joints are plastic so that if the bear gets wet or needs to be washed he won't be damaged. The fur is a synthetic fur and this can even be brushed and it won't hurt it, in fact it looks better when it is brushed.

Yesterday I put Grandpa Jones on eBay auction and this is the first time that I did this and I am hoping that you will take a look.

Everyone have a great day!

Eva

www.ejcrafts.com

Number 6 in the series

2008-09-10T14:33:00.000-07:00

Okay so I finally got to finishing the 6th doll in my series on character dolls. This one has taken me longer than I thought. Couldn't come up with a good theme for her but seeing my last one was spring I decided that this could be summer. So then it was finding just the right fabric for her and I found this cute yellow print fabric that just said summer. After that it was easy and I finished her in two days. Now getting her photographed was another thing. I just couldn't get it right and there is still a shadow on her but this will have to do right now until the light is better.

She is not on my website yet as I am also having problems getting anything new added to my site. I have hollered help to my webmaster and I am hoping he can get it fixed today.

Everone have a wonderful day and I hope you will visit my website and see all the critters that I have made.

Eva

http://www.ejcrafts.com/

Finally got doll number 5 finished today

2008-08-28T17:24:00.000-07:00

Well I am a little slow but I did get doll number 5 done today. This one I call Spring Maiden. After making the doll, I used a new yarn I found that is two toned tan and it makes for great looking hair. The first thing I made was a hat. On my first attempt to design this hat it worked. Then it was on to the outfit and that worked the first time too. Yea, for me as it usually takes a couple of attempts. The felt shoes did take me a couple of tries. Then it was just finding the right colors of ribbon to finish her and some flowers in her hand and there I had my Spring Maiden.

I hope that you like her and she is for sale on my website along with all the others that I have made. I have a couple of more that I want to make but haven't decided just what they will be. It will probably come to me in the night as to what they should look like.

Enjoy

Eva

http://www.ejcrafts.com/

2008-08-28T17:22:00.001-07:00

Well I got my 4th doll finished today.

2008-08-15T14:15:00.000-07:00

I feel good today as I finished the 4th doll in my character doll series. This is the cowgirl I talked about the other day. This one caused some problems in that I had a design for a peasant blouse in my head as I ended up having to take it apart several times to get it to look right. The skirt was easy and I had this adorable cowboy print that made it the doll look western. I then designed some boots for her. That turned out not as hard as I thought it would be. I did not put heels on the boots because the foot is flat and the doll would not be able to stand if I did that. The cowboy hat I had in my stash of supplies and I think it set off the doll well.

This week as been a busy week with my also making a blue and white bear for a friend that has a new grandson on the way. I hope you will check out my website and see all the animals and dolls that I have been busy making.

Eva

http://www.ejcrafts.com/

2008-08-12T19:24:00.000-07:00

These are the three dolls that I have finished.

Eva

www.ejcrafts.com

It's Tuesday

2008-08-12T18:56:00.000-07:00

Here it is Tuesday night already and I really never got much done today. I intended to finish a new doll I am working on. I have been redesigning this doll now for the last two weeks. I finally got a pattern for the doll its self right and now I have to do some more work on outfits.

I made the first doll and the picture doesn't look too bad but the doll its self is not up to my standards. I like the clothes I made for it though. The second doll came out a little better and I did get some plastic joints in it so I feel better about the design and wear and tear that a little girl will have on the doll. I tried a different design with the hair and outfit and it is still not what I was looking for.

The third attempt at the doll I think was the best of the lot and I like the faux fur I used for the hair. The outfit came out nice and will work for a little girl to play with. I am now on to the fourth doll and that is the one that I did not get finished today. The doll is done except for the hair and it has turned out well and I think will be the finish design. I know that each doll will look a little different as I make one at a time and the sewing and sculpting of the face never is the same. I think I will do this one in a cowgirl outfit. Just have to go through my stash of fabric and decide what I want to use.

Today is the first day of my blog.

2008-08-08T13:55:00.000-07:00

This is my first time at doing a blog and so that everyone can get to know me and my creations I am just introduction myself today.

I have been sewing since I was a child and so I sew. Over the years I have made just about everything that you can think of making. About 30 years ago, I decided that I wanted to make some teddy bears. First I only made them and gave them to friends and co-workers and then people said they would buy them so I started to do art and craft shows. This turned into quite a business for me. Every weekend we would travel the western states and sell at craft shows. I would work my regular job and come home and sew, travel on the weekends and it went on and on like that for years. When my hubby lost his job, downsizing they called it, we decided to sell our house and buy a travel trailer and do shows full time. We did this for only 2 years when we got so burnt out that we went back to regular jobs. We didn't do shows for several years or did I make bears. Then, of course, the bug got me and I started to want to do shows again so we did a few a year. We had to stop doing the shows for a while as our jobs were too demanding to be able to be gone.

We retired almost 5 years ago and decided to do a few local shows and I was up and running again with a business. Last year after my hubby got quite ill, I started a website as our house was being overrun by stuffed animals. I still do a couple of shows a year but am hoping that the website will give me a good income.

I do hope that you will check out my website and bookmark it for future reference. I not only design and make teddy bears but soft dolls, rabbits, mice, dogs, hand puppets and a few more odds of ends of things. Whatever I dream up and make, I put on the website.

Eva
www.ejcrafts.com