…*behind* out from the bed this morning. When I finally made to my sewing room, it was 5.30 am. I was late to start but still manage to get some work done for a custom order and finished up some knitting for hair that I have started Monday, lunch time, at work!, yeah, you read it right, I knit at work I am so lucky to have co-workers who like crafting, so whenever we can, we gather at the conference room and craft away, I usually knit cardigans but this time I knitted for hair.

It was about 7 am when I left my house to go grocery shopping and to work. I love shopping early in the morning; there are no lines in the check outs, actually there are hardly any people in the markets, mostly workers, cleaning, fixing and stuffing the shelves and the counters with fresh produce and meat. I can be in and out from the market in 30 minutes specially if I have a list on my hand

Just before I left my house I snapped 2 pictures, one shows Magie still waiting for me to take good pictures, and I just couldn’t find the opportunity. Even though we had some sunny days here in Michigan, I just am not available… it is still dark when I leave my house and again almost dark when I arrive… I am seriously hoping that we will have sun shine this weekend or I’ll just go out and get proper light bulbs, LOL

I also would like to mention my other neglected shop. I have been thinking about it for a while now. I would like to redesign and have it for my other crafty things. I don’t know if it should have only one line, like I do with my dolls or should it have multiple categories, have to decide on that first, I guess…

LOL, now that I actually wrote about it, it HIT me! OMG!! How will I find a time to manage second shop???

Heh!

If you remember on my previous post, I mentioned how Kristina of Maddie & Me had inspired me to go forward with my doll business and I would tell all about it when it came to conclusion?

Well, it came to conclusion!

You can now find my dolls at a very sweet local toy shop called Lexi’s Toybox!

Lexi’s Toy Box can be found in a little old house on Ashley Street, one block west of Main Street in downtown Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Please check that wonderful shop out for beautiful natural toys as well as Lara & Me dolls.

And please allow me to introduce Magie, She will be up on Etsy as soon as I can take more pictures of her in a good light

Totally unrelated to dolls but I watched the Oscars last night. Overall it was a good show, but I was kind a surprised to see how Jennifer Aniston was soo nervous, is it because Brat and Angelina were sitting across from her or is it because she was presenting? I wonder….

I may have mentioned before I sometimes use kool-aid to dye my yarn. Two nights ago, I wanted to dye my yarn again for a custom order. I prepared the yarn, soaked in the water for at least an hour and I pulled my kool-aid box out, found the orange flavor dumped in to the water stirred and reached for my grape flavor to mix, BUT where are my grape kool-aids? What? But, I know, I had some? OMG!! I don’t have any!! Oh Man, what should I do? Should I waste the kool-aids or should I go ahead and have an orange yarn?

Well, I decided to go for it, put the yarn in to the pot and simmered for 45 minutes. You see, I never dyed yarn straight orange, I always added a different flavor to play with the colors, so even though I had a pretty good idea about how bright orange my yarn would be I never thought of this bright and cheerful color. I just LOVE it!

Now what should I do with it? Should I use it as hair? I put the yarn on a head this morning (see the picture) hmm maybe if I add some darker color yarn, maybe blue eyes? Or maybe green? This yarn might just work as hair we’ll see

And the name dilemma comes in with my smaller doll. She is done as of this morning, it took me more than it should, because I had to fix my shoe and dress patterns (keep in mind that I make my own patterns) a couple of times and I knitted a cardigan for her in bright green. She is so petite and cute I just can’t think of any cute names for her, any suggestions?

I’ll take her pictures to list to the shop when is sunny and bright outside, unfortunately it may take a couple of days till we see sunshine here in Michigan..

If you have read “about me” section of my website than you know my daughter is my inspiration for my dolls and I named my dolls after her and well, “me”. When I opened my shop at Etsy I was so happy to see that there are a lot of Mom’s out there who think juts like me and named their shops just like I did

That’s one of the reasons I love Maddie & Me, not only Kristina and I get our inspirations from our daughters but we named our shops after our daughters and on top of that she makes the most beautiful and Unique Children’s Clothing, and on top of that too Maddie has one of my dolls Isabel annnnddd Maddie and Isabel have matching outfits designed by Kristina I just love the idea of dressing my daughter and one of her dolls in the same/similar outfits Wouldn’t you?

I came to know Kristina one night in an Etsy chat. We exchanged quite a few emails since then and I came to admire her talent. She also inspired me to go forward with my doll business. I’ll tell you all about it when it comes to conclusion

Please find extremely talented Kristina and her lovely daughters shop “Maddie & Me” for matching outfits and much more here.

And her wonderful blog about her work, life and good recipes here.

I have been following the forums, the websites, the news about this new lead law and how it will affect my dolls as well as my family. A lot has been said, a lot has been done to change the law in a way that all natural (handmade or not) products would be exempt. I am happy to say that my dolls are safe and there is a nice article written by Etsy editor Matt about this law. He wrote it in a simple way that everyone can understand what to do next. You can read the article here.

As much as I am happy about this article, I am happier about one of my dolls “Amelia” has made it in to the Editors picked items for this article Doesn’t she look lovely among all these wonderful items?

I am still working on my smaller doll, I want her to be perfect, pictures will be posted soon

I took my toddler to my fabric shop!

Last saturday, I wanted to stop by at our local Jo-ann fabric to get some treads and machine needles. Since Target and Jo-ann stores are next to each other here, I told my husband to drop me and Lara off to the fabric store and will meet him at Target after we are done.

I took Lara to fabric store before, and it was so much fun shopping with her. But this time, it was a nightmare! As soon as we walked in she led go of my hand and start running, she found some toys and wanted to get them, when I said no, she ran again to the fabric bolts and started pulling them down… at that second, I was in shock! What in the world got in to my sweet child??? When i finally was able to hold her, I quickly grabbed the treads and the needles and got in line at the checkout. The checkouts here at local jo-anns are always and I repeat “always” busy, so I am waiting in the line, holding Lara with one arm and my bag and the stuff with other. Than, Lara starts crying and wants me to led go off her. At this point I am so frusturated by the situation I said fine! dropped the stuff I picked up and walked out from the store…

Look at the picture below, I got the wave alright :o) wo-hoo!! Oh! I am soo happy with the out come :o) I can not wait to sew this yarn to my smaller doll…

Please forgive me with the lighting on my last two pictures. It is 5-6 am in the morning when I took these pictures, even though I have a light box, I just don’t have the proper light bulbs yet, and at that early in the morning no daylight yet :o)

My sewing room is my piece of heaven and I love getting up that early, sewing is just fun and don’t feel guilty at all about stealing the quality time from my husband and my daughter, because they both are sleeping at that early hours, so no guilt, so quite, so peacefull, so fun

it is February 4th already, days pass by really fast yet I complain about how long the winter is here in Michigan and how cold has been this winter. Seriously I think this is the coldest winter since we moved to USA. Some days were -29C (oh yeah I still go by C not F :o) ) brrr cold cold cold…

But like I said days go fast, it will be spring in no time so thats why i have been thinking about having spring colors on my dolls… and new clothing line? yup, I have some ideas alright, you’ll see

So as I do every day I got up at 5 am and went straight to my sewing room to work on my smaller doll. I was able to get some stuffing done before I head out to work at 7 am. Tomorrow I will assemble her and prepare her hair. I want her to have black wavy hair. In order to achieve the waviness on the yarn I knitted a piece and washed it with really hot water (no soap) I am hoping that will give some waveness to my yarn

Since I am so anxious to finish my smaller doll, I stopped by yesterday to my medical store to get 2″ tubular stockinette but couldn’t, I was sad to learn they did not have any at the moment.

Bummer…

There is another medical store that carries the stockinette but it is kind a away from my usual route to home nevertheless I am gonna stop by there today to get it. I hope they have some… I really want to finish my doll as soon as i can LOL

While I couldn’t make a head for my smaller doll, I made a bigger (15″) head and body this morning so it was very productive

Meet SADIE…

My newest doll, she has brown mohair hair and green eyes and looks like me really her inspiraton came from me!

I have been wanting to sew a dress with velcro closing at the shoulders for a while, but I could never figure out a way to include a lining and I do not like a dress without one.. so making a dress like hers has been on my back burner until recently. When I finished her, I thought she would look good on a dress just like the one I wanted to make. Now, if I could only figure out a way to include lining to the dress…

A couple of days past by, meanwhile I made her shoes and her blouse and kept thinking about the dress. And finally one evening, I was watching tv, it hit me! I could sew the shoulders and the arms together and than I could open up the lining and sew the front and lining tohether. VOILA!! thats it!! thats how I could do it! Next morning i got up and went straight to my sewing room, in 1 hour the dress was done and she looks lovely in it, isn’t she?

Since I figured out the way my next project is making my sweet Lara a dress just like the one Sadie wears

Oh! I would like to mention Sadies name giver “heartsabustin”. I met her at Etsy chat, I was thinking about a name for my newest doll and happened to ask to the lovely ladies at the chat and heartsabustin suggested Sadie:) Heartsabustin makes beautiful, one-of-a-kind jewelry, here is her wonderful shop: Heartsabustin

Thank you for the beautiful name Heartsabustin!

Sadie is listed at my Etsy shop: laraandmedolls

After Sadie, I started a new doll, this time it is a smaller one. For her, I have reduced my original doll pattern by %20 and cut and sew the skin cotton this morning. I will stop by my medical store to get 2 inch tubular stocking to make the head tomorrow morning. Since I have never done a smaller doll before I thought making the body first then determine the size of the head would be better, so will see

more on her tomorrow:)