I knew I would not be able to post every day but I am still hoping I will do better.

 

It has been a week since my last post.  Bad me when I tried so hard to keep posting every day.  I am not a big writer so it is hard for me to say something every day.

What have I been doing this week?  Sewing.....Sewing and the normal every day household stuff and the running to the store for groceries and whatever.  There never seems to be enough time to get everything into the day.

I think it is time to show you some of the work I have been doing.  Right now it is all Chatty Cathy clothing as the show I am doing on the 22-24th is an antique and collectible show so all the dolls from the 70's and before will be shown and I always have extra clothing that can be bought for these dolls
 

 Yep, these are 8 of the girls that I have done right now.  All for sale, fully dressed or the dresses or aprons can be bought separate.
I have more clothes beside this but they are not posted any where right now.

I also have other Mattel dolls from the Chatty family that will be sold.  Just need to get some picture taken of all of them.

I will try to get some more individual pictures taken in the next few days with pricing as every doll has a slightly different price.  These were all fixer up dolls and some things just can't be fixed.  Dressed you would not know it but undressed and you can see the flaws that time has worked on these well played with dolls.

You can always reach me through my email address.  
johnandeva@myway.com or on my Facebook page.
    

Sunday night and tired.

I have been busy the last couple of days, playing with my sewing/embroidery machine.  Don't tell any one but I have had the machine 3 or 4 years and other than one little design when I first got the machine I have not used the embroidery part of the machine.  Bad me, because it was an expensive machine and I thought at the the time, that I would be using it a lot.  HA! HA!  Guess not.

So any way, that all said, the last 3 days I have made 8 pinafore/aprons for my Chatty Cathy dolls.  They are white, pink, beige and yellow and with different designs or different colors of the designs.  This is is my favorite, a butterfly.

 

 

I just knew it.....I can't seem to write every day.

Here it is Thursday and I haven't got anything done with sewing or writing in two days.  

I am blaming it on the weather...do you think that will work?  Doubt it but I am sticking to it.

I did make it out yesterday to thrift store and was looking for some old canning jars but didn't even find one.  I did come home with 4 new dolls.  Dolls I don't collect but hopefully they will sell.  Two are from 1986 and 1975 and they will go to the antique show.  The Berenguer baby will probably be sold on eBay or if someone wants these, they will be sold on a first come basis.

    Yes, I know there are only 3 dolls in the picture but you don't want to see the little dirty, dirty fourth doll and all the little clothes that came with her.  The dolls in the picture have been cleaned up and the Tyco Rub a Dub in the left back with get a new outfit.  The Dancerella works and is clean and the Berenguer in front is now all cleaned.

Well off to see what I can get into the rest of the day.
 

It is time to start a blog and see how many days I can write on it.

 

Do you think I will be able to write every day?  Ha!  I am not a writer and things seem to keep me away from the computer and zap the day is gone.  

I have two friends who are challenging each other to write every day and maybe that is what I need.   Well knowing me that probably wouldn't help this little brain.

So it is Monday and the wind is blowing AGAIN today.  We have had strong winds for over a week.  Yes, we live in a valley between two mountain ranges and yes the Colorado River also runs through our valley but this is so unusal to have the wind blow so strong for so many days.

So today and even yesterday, it was back in the sewing room...or that mess I call a sewing room...and I finally got a couple of things made.  Right now I am working on clothes for the Chatty Cathy family.  This dress is the one I did yesterday for the Cathy doll.

     So now I hope to be able to get something made on a daily basis or at least a couple a week.

I have several dresses that I have made over the last few months on my website at http://www.ejcrafts.com if you care to look.  Most dresses that I make are in cotton or cotton blends.  I find that these are the easiest to care for they can be packed away then pulled out and with a little ironing they are like new again.

 

Where has the time gone???

 

The last time I wrote on here was in October right after my husband had his stroke.  It has been a roller coaster every since then.  I really haven't even had the time to work much with my dolls or make all the doll clothes that I intended to do.

I guess I should start where I left off on the last post.  John was in ICU for 9 days and then came home for a month.  Our daughter was here with us for the first week that he was home and then she had to go back to her home in Maryland.   Next was a 4 week wait for the brain swelling to go down so that they could do surgery on the artery in the neck.  In the meantime our youngest son was able to get here at Halloween time and he will be living with us to help with the care.

So it was Nov and Dr. Cooper, a very nice lady surgeon, did the surgery and everything seemed to be going well and they sent him home after 3 days. He seem to be doing quite well until a few days later he got to start shaking.  We called the paramedics and we were on to the hospital again where he ended up in a full seizure.  The brain had swollen again and the blood pressure was out of control.  It took another 5 days in ICU to get everything controlled.  While we was going through this brain swell, he got very confused and tried to get out of bed and he fell, cut his head above the eye and had a black eye.

So after all that he was finally able to come home and he does require 24/7 care but he can get around the house without help.  They just don't want him to fall and someone not be here.  He can partly dress himself and I do the rest.  The personal hygiene is all on me too.  He has only partial use of the left hand and arm and because he is left handed, this part has been hard on him.  Also he has problems tells us what he wants sometimes.  He knows what he wants to say but it doesn't always come out right and that frustrates him.  The doctor has told me that we almost lost him three times so we are just thankful that he is as good as he is.

He is now in physical therapy twice a week, which he doesn't like but it has helped him a lot with balance and use of the hands. 

I am thankful too that our son is able to be with us and help out.  I know it is hard for him to be here and he is looking for a job but hasn't been able to get anything yet.  Our fingers are crossed that that will change soon.  I really don't know what I would have done without him over the last two times in the hospital because he could talk to the doctors and understand a lot of the medical stuff I couldn't.  That helped so much.  Now he helps with the wheelchair when we go places, helps with the cleaning around the house, even repaired some things that needed to be taken care of plus he drives the car so that I can sit back an relax.

So all that being said and probably no one really wants to know what we have all been through here but it helps me just to know that there are so many of my cyber friends were there when I needed them.  I have to thank all my friends who called and wrote notes and emailed me.  And then all the friends from CraftBuddy, Wet Canvas and Facebook who checked with me every day to be informed with what was going on and to send prayers and positive thoughts our way.  I wish I could thank each one of them personally as they were so much help to keep me going.

Now that we are back into a routine, hopefully I can get back to the dolls and enjoy cleaning, sewing, dressing, showing and selling my dolls.  I have lots to do and I want to be able to show you want I have been working on and what direction I want to go with dolls.

Thank you one and all.
     

Boy, Oh Boy how life can change in a minute.

This month is a month I would like to have completely pasted if I could.  On the last Sunday of September, I found my husband, John, on the floor at 7:30am.  He was in the chair when I left the room and when I came back a few minutes later he was on the floor.  He wanted me to help him up but I could see right away that he had had a stroke.  I immediately called 911 and the paramedics were here within 5 minutes.  The fire station is only a little over a mile from our house.  They took him to the hospital right away and at this time John could still speak and answer questions.  

I got myself dressed and then went to the hospital, a mile and a half down the road.  I got there and signed him in before I even got to see him.  I then was able to go back to the ER and he just wanted some thing as he had a big headache he said.  He was hooked up to a bunch of monitors and I said they not going to give you anything right now.  The doctor came in and said they had done a CAT scan and he did have a stroke and would I like him to get the shot they give to stroke patients because he was in the window to be able to have it.  I said yes.  This drug (expensive) is a super blood thinner which is giving in an IV.  First a super shot and then an hour of drip.  As he was having the drip he was getting further and further out of it.  Couldn't talk and throwing his arms around.  I had to hold his arm down and talk to him so he would lay still.  The nurse and doctor kept checking him and they wanted to do another CAT scan because he was worse than when he came in.  So off they took him.  When they brought him back and while we waited for a room in ICU they told me that his brain didn't have a bleed. It took another hour or more to get a room for him.

He got in the room and I was able after a bit to go see him.  Very little movement in the whole left side and he was pretty much out of it.  He tried to talk but he really couldn't.  They told me I might as well leave and go have something to eat as by this time it was after lunch time.  I came back in the afternoon and there still was very little change so I only stayed long enough to talk to the nurses on duty.

Monday he was some better and you could understand part of what he said and he could move his arms and legs.  I visited in the morning and again in the afternoon then for the next 8 days in ICU.

Each day he got a little better.  I finally got to bring him home on the 8th of October.  He is quite weak on the left side and can't do things like put a shirt on or button it or tie shoes.  Couldn't pull the zipper on his pants so we went and bought he some sweat pants.  He can do pretty much any thing else by himself.  He does have problems with a fork or spoon because he is left handed and the left hand doesn't always cooperate.

He is still facing surgery on the artery in his neck as it is 90% blocked and it needs to be cleaned out.  He still has some swelling on the brain or they would have done the surgery right away so now we think that may be the middle to end of November.

He still has a lot of confusion, especially as the day goes on.  He can't always get out what he wants to say either.  He is taking a bunch of pills every day.  

We now have a visiting nurse once a week and physical therapy will be started this week.

I am so thankful for our wonderful kids.  Our daughter was here the day after John came home from the hospital and she was a wonderful help.  To me mentally because I really needed someone to talk too.  She left on this past Tuesday and so we have been by ourselves most of this week and will be all this next week before our youngest son will be coming to live with us.    

So right now we are going through a lot of changes and John is not really pleased with them all but there is nothing else we can do.  I don't think John really understands just how sick he still is and that the surgery is not going to make things back to the old way.  During all the CAT scans, (3), and the MRI, they found that he has had three strokes.  Two old minor ones and then this massive one.

With all of this going on, I have not done any work on dolls or doll clothes.  I really want to get back to doing that and with the holiday season coming up, I need to get the stuff out there or I will completely miss all the good sales I normally would have during this season.     Lucky I didn't have any shows scheduled because I would not have been able to do any of them anyway.

I did get a chance to update and reduce some of the things I have on my website so I hope you will all go take a look and see if there is any thing that you might like.  I have so much that is not on my website and that was one of my goals for this fall to get pictures of everything and get it on the website.  Don't think I will get it done now.  Website:  http://www.ejcrafts.com

We are living day by day and hope the next day will be better.  I have to thank all my friends, relatives and all the other people who have sent prayers and positive thoughts for us.  They sure have helped us get this far.

    

A quick update on the coats and hats.

I have completed two more coats and hats.  These are for the large dolls.  The coat will fit dolls from 26 inches to 32 inches.  These are both a wool blend, burgundy in color and lined with a burgundy satin.  The hat matches and is in a pillbox style. 

The first coat I did with a long very soft white faux fur and the second one I wanted a more vintage look so it was made with a leopard print shorter fur.  I remember seeing this type of coat on ladies when I was growing up.  I have designed all the coats myself and do take custom orders for any of the coats that I have posted.  The coats on here are all listed on my website if you want to go check them out.

The coats are both shown on dolls from the 1970's  They are both Eegee walking dolls.  The first is a 32 inch doll and the second a 31 inch doll.

I hope you enjoy looking at the coats and hats and that you will check out my website at http://www.ejcrafts.com and look at all the coats, hats, sweaters and jackets that I have made.  It is never to early to order for fall and winter as I probably will not be able to get many more of them made for general sales because of custom orders.