On My Desk

On My Desk with Kootoyoo is ending, so here is one more shot of what was on my desk when it ended. Thanks Kootoyoo even though I have been so busy lately I have not posted in a while. :)


A doll for a one year old girl's Christmas present.
Not my little girl though!

It's been fun playing!


Here is the dolly all finished.
The little girl has glasses so her dolly does too.

Esme's Crew

Esme and her crew
hanging out, thinking up what trouble to get into next.

Homefront

Sippy cup
Esme has almost completely refused to drink formula anymore - and now it's real milk in a sippy cup and no more bottle either (unless all the sippy cups are in the dishwasher).


Happy girl!
Most of the time Esme is smiley, but lately she has been quite the brat with her teething and mommy being busy so much when I'm home. I have so many toys to make! I spend lots of time playing puzzles, chasing her around, reading books, giving baths, mealtime etc.. but sometimes she just can't bear to be stuck in her playpen when Mommy is sewing.


Hanging out with Dad
Mark hangs out on the bed and reads books often and she likes to come up and crawl around and 'smushface' on the pillows etc... Mark often has to keep hold of one leg just to make sure she doesn't dive off unexpectedly.

Unhappy girl :(
crying because she can't have the camera
She wants to copy everything we do and be in on the fun. Being told 'No' is about the worst thing in the world for her and she has a temper. We're holding firm though. 'Yes we know you're mad. No, you're not getting/doing (X)' We try to just ignore her tantrum and go about what we were doing. If she really gets unreasonable we distract her by reading a book, singing a song, going to another room etc..


Completely exhausted, she fell asleep on the shelf like this for a full ten minutes before the dogs woke her up

Local Fabric store treasure trove found in McKenzie, TN!

I was told by a customer where I work that there was a fabric store in McKenzie, a town very close by. I was so surprised! Robertson's Decorating Center is located on Highway 423 in McKenzie, TN, not far from Paris and Huntingdon. It has remnants of thousands of types of upholstery, decorator and bedding fabric. I took Esme there today and she ran all over with me while I looked at the various remnants and rolls of fabric in several rooms. They also had trim, ribbon, pillow forms and lining fabrics. I am amazed this store was in my backyard and I had never heard of it. By the time Mark came back from the feed store Esme was very tired and ready for home! She was rewarded for being such a good girl by a hamburger of her very own for dinner tonight.

I will definitely be back there soon to buy more. Now to see what I can do with the lovely thick cotton fabrics I purchased there today.

On another note: I have orders rolling in for the handmade toy shop and am being kept quite busy!

Dolls and Monsters : Christmas orders coming in and going out

Saying goodbye to furry friends

I hate to dole out bad news, but now two things have happened and I'll just go on and say goodbye to both of our furry friends at once.


Gypsy
It's been over a week since we saw Gypsy, the black kitten from Pogo's litter. Is it bad to say I'm glad we kept two kittens? Mitzi, the yellow striped girl kitten, is still here and bouncey as ever. They were learning how to hunt with their Mom we guess and one night something happened to our tortoiseshell kitten. Pogo didn't seem too concerned. Mitzi cried 'I'm lonely' for days. Goodbye Gypsy, sorry to see you go.


Kelba, 5 years old
bluetick coonhound through-and-through
While I'm dealing out the bad news, we've also lost our Kelba just recently. For several days she was grumpy and curled up on her couch, but that wasn't entirely unlike her. She would have her bouts of grumpishness. But as long as she still got up for dinner and went outside and came back we usually didn't worry. Then one morning she didn't come back. We looked along the roads and called for her, but it isn't like her to not come back for more than one night in a row. After all, it was her job to call the morning wakeup call with a roundabout howl. Mark holds out the hope that maybe a hunter (it's rabbit hunting season here) picked her up with their dogs, or worse maybe they shot her when she was fighting with their dogs. :( We'll probably never know living out in dense woods like this.


Still with us
Pogo giving 'cat lessons' to Mitzi