Creativity Contest! First Doll I Dressed Was A Storyteller! Dress A Doll And Win!

What is the contest?  Make and dress a doll no taller than six inches out of anything you can find that you would normally view as something else.  It could be a stick, clothes pin, drinking straws, spoon or sculpt your very own doll.  Start making it as something you would be proud of. 

Prize?  Visit the website of http://www.sandycalderon.com/ and select an undressed doll for $60.00 or less and I will dress it for you FREE!  Or if you want to dress your own doll, Sandy will mail it to you postage free. 
"The Storyteller" was the first doll I dressed a few years ago and Sandy Calderon encouraged me to dress her by sending her to me FREE OF CHARGE!  Sandy had seen some of my doll clothes for sale on eBay and told me if I could make a doll dress on a hanger I could dress a doll.  Of course I said I couldn't, but Sandy, a total stranger at the time convinced me that I could dress this doll.  I dressed her and she sold on eBay for $218.00 and I was shocked, hooked and never looked back.  Thank you Sandy!

Purpose?  This contest is used as a method to tap into creativity that you may have never discovered and to share that discovery with the rest of the world.  All you have to do is join my blog as a follower, yes, I am seeking more followers, leave me a comment with a picture of your creation that I can post on my blog.   Make sure the image size of the picture is 1024x768 or smaller. 

How is the winner picked?  I will show the pictures to my 5 and 2 year old grandsons and under my supervision, let them pick the best of the best.  I will put those pictures in a hat and let my 5 year old pull a name out of the hat.  If you are a professional doll maker, while you are making your doll remember who the judges will be, therefore, the more colorful they are the better.  Doll can be male or female.  Only two entries per follower please.  If you are the winner and want to be featured on my blog along with your doll, please be prepared to tell me your life story even if you are only 2 years old.  Winner will be featured the third week of February 2012.  Thank you.

All entries must be submitted no later than 11:00 A.M. Friday February 3, 2012.

You don't know how to dress a doll?  Tutorial by Sandy no later than Tuesday, January 24th.  Please keep checking back.

I cannot end my blog by thanking those of you who are followers, leave comments and send me encouraging e-mails and phone calls:  An example:

I love reading your blog.  Keep it coming.  You are truly an inspiration.  Excited about life and full of love.  Whatever you're taking, I want some.   ; )   Your blog encourages me and helps me to re-focus my attention to what is important.    You spoke to my spirit.  I need to slow down and take some time to relax and enjoy all the beauty that God has put in my life.  Then celebrate!  Amen.  I’m looking forward to your future tutorials on cooking, marriage, and sex.  lol

Your 2 grandsons are sooooooo HANDSOME.  You must be so proud. 

So what are your plans for 2012?  Are you doing any marathons this year?

Is Week #2 Of This New Year Starting Out Great For Family And Friends And Friends To Be?

Can you believe this is 

  Week Two of the New Year?!!!  My boys are moving from "Bundle Of Joy" to "Handsome."  Family and friends are you starting this year with an affirmation to find more time to relax and enjoy in our beautiful wonderful world? 

"WHAT WONDERFUL WORLD?"  

Yes,  although plagued by challenges since the beginning of mankind we can still enjoy our beautiful wonderful world! 

 

Clink on link below to hear and watch amazing video about our world.  If you didn't feel something, please don't let me know:

  http://youtu.be/HPcgM1MnDnI 

Thanks to the Artist who produced this fabulous YouTube video.

 Rossa, in the above picture is a fairy doll made by Doll Artist, Sandy Calderon and dressed by me.  Sandy's creations will be featured here during January.  Please check back often to see what goodies we have in store for you.  An opportunity for you to participate in an interesting challenge will also be featured this month.  In the meantime, please take time to enjoy our beautiful world. 

Thanks again to Followers of my blog and to those who continue to send me encouraging e-mails.  I love you.

 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
Ecclesiastes 3:10-12

Earth Turning Faster? This Wonderful Season Is Almost Over!

Happy New Year!

Can you believe the Holiday season is almost over and I have not blogged since early December?.  Where did time go?  Someone please inform me.  Have I been Clowning around trying to hold weights that I should have just let go and concentrated on my blog and the finer things of life?

When I started this blog almost a year ago I had huge hopes such as, by this time of year I was going to have at least 5,037 followers and 3,049 comments. 

 My vision of having a love affair with my blog and followers because I had so much to inform you of from dollhouse miniatures, tutorials on everything including exercise, sex, death, cooking, love, marriage, babies, recipes and my vision was to make it fun and exciting to everyone to the point of jumping out of bed every morning, writing new blogs, reading my comments, responding to all.  And of course, hiring my own staff to present to me new ideas for everything under the sun that may be interesting to everyone from ages one to 111 (or more) from here to eternity was the ultimate vision. 

 Readers were going to be sharing my blog with everyone.  What a vision! 

My plan for 2012 is to put on a new pair of shoes, stop clowning around and start from the beginning to see if I can make this blog more of what I envisioned.  When love affairs do not meet our expections, somehow, we must try again and try to make it.

 

Thanks to all of you following my blog and thanks to you readers who have stuck with me from the beginning!  But, do you really care that I rode a bicycle down the street today for the time in forty years?  Or walked six miles yesterday?  Or had one of the most beautiful Christmas Season I've ever had?

Thanksgiving, December, Christmas, Friends and Family!

When we returned home from our second trip we were so thrilled to have our grandsons visit for a week.  In the picture to the right we are on a beautiful walkway near our home looking for bugs for our five year old grandson along with our two year old grandson.   It was one of the most beautiful days.  Fall is absolutely gorgeous. Changing colors of the leaves is amazing.  Oh my!  My!

Happy to be back walking and blogging again.  I've traveled over eight thousand miles by car during the last two months and there is nothing like home sweet home.  Although it was great to visit family and friends, it was not a happy occasion.  I took a lot of time creating and making dresses while my husband drove.  He drove during the day and we spent night in hotels.  The hotels were perfect for creating an instant workshop.  It was fun.

We were back from our trip in time to Celebrate Thanksgiving with family.  My favorite daughter and son did a great job preparing all the delicious food including homemade every thing;  turkey and stuffing with all the trimmings, cakes, pies and lots of love.  Didn't know my favorite daughter could make a pecan pie like the one below.  Beautiful and double delicious.  The Hot Water Corn Bread was a blast from the past.  Want some of these yum yum recipes?

Hope everyone had a wonderful and Blessed Thanksgivingwith many more wonderful years to come.

Now, after enjoying all the great foods, we needed to somehow work it off.  So we talked a lot, walked back and forth to the food table a lot and had lots of fun.  The next day I made mini dresses and went for a long walk.  Good health is at the top of my list as I celebrate living this Christmas Holiday Season, but I must have chocolate this and chocolate that.  I love candid yams and must have them too.  I'll do every thing  I can to be safe with my weight and issues.  Exercise, exercise and exercise is the key.  Hope I don't loose the key like I do with my car keys.  Let's try to stay focused and stay slim.  These cute dress will look great on you at the New Year's party.



Thanks to all of you for reading my blog.  Sorry I had to go away and now that I'm back I hope to bring you lots of pictures and inspiration to enjoy your life and celebrate living the best you can with what you have.  May God continue to Bless all of you.

A Season Of Deaths & Dying

October started as a season of deaths and dying in my favorite husband's family, therefore, I've traveled about four thousand miles since my last blog by car and walked only thirty.   Still more to cover by car and lots of miles to walk, but I wanted my blog readers to know that I am still here and will continue to post on my blog when the grieving period is over.

Please wait for me and say lots of prayers and send lots of hugs and kisses my way. 

Thank you!

Bye-Bye Summer! Romance! Love Affair! Marriage! New Baby! New Hobby!

So happy that I came out of the closet to Celebrate Living!  This summer went really fast.  Spent fun times with my grandsons.  Of course, they are the smartest and cutest grand kids and they give the best hugs and kisses.

Bye Bye Summer! This lovely picture of my oldest grandson taken a few weeks ago at Knotts Berry Farm remind me of saying good-bye to my sweet romance with Summer.  After my wild love affair with Spring, which is my favorite time of year, I thought I had had the highest level of fun until next year.  But, this summer was one of the best!  Now I'm looking forward to my long marriage with Autumn which started last Friday, to see how much fun it is going to be (usually my worst time of year).  Maybe this  Autumn will be as much fun as making a New Baby. 

  

The joy of making dollhouse miniatures always feel like discovering a New Hobby each day!  There are so many mini things to see and make.  I think I have enough projects to last about three life times.                                                                            Thanks to all of you for viewing my blog and cheering me on as I celebrate living.  I need all the help I can get to continue to move forward out of the closet into the next chapter of my life.  The month of October is only a few days away and since it is recognized as Breast Cancer month,  I ask that all of you will take a few moments to think about survivors, early detection, mammogram, a cure and mostly about taking care yourself.  Male or female, cancer is not gender friendly.  Also, during the month of October, call, send a card or e-mail a survivor and let him/her know you care and please make a comment on my blog and let me know you care that I'm a cancer survivor. 

 Thank You Kindly.

Week 33! Featuring Jean Day Was Too Great To Move On! New Miniatures!

Featuring Jean Day for almost five weeks was great because I received lots of e-mails thanking me for featuring her work including the AIM magazine.  Thank you Jean!

In the meantime I haven't climbed any mountains or walked tons of miles getting ready for a marathon.  Just doing my hour a day walking and riding my stationary bike between making dollhouse dresses, reading and having fun with my grandsons.  Also eating lots of great summer foods.  Will start sharing recipes with you that I've collected over the years.  I am also a creative cook.

These pictures are just a few of the miniature clothes I've been making that's given me joy over the last few weeks and I've also been reading lots of interesting books to increase my knowledge of making dollhouse period clothing.  Victorian doll clothes are in demand.  I'm learning how to make them. 

Life is interesting and there are lots of things to learn, lots of people to meet.  Books, books and more books to read.  WOW!

Thanks to all of you for your e-mails and following my blog.  Just knowing that you are somewhere in this universe encouraging me to do my best is fantastic!  Hugs to all of you.

Week 28! Featuring Jean Day Miniatures



Jean Day



About Jean Day:

Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

 Miniatures has been a full time job for the last 30 years. My wonderful husband John helps so much with our business. I am also an artist, specializing in watercolours and enjoy many fabric arts. B.F.A and B.Ed. John and I both enjoy being on the editorial team of AIM magazine. I really love working on the Gallery, Smaller Scales and formatting. It is a free on line magazine you might enjoy. I keep very busy with gardening too.

When Jean agreed to my request to feature her on my blog this week, I was really excited, but after doing some research I found so many great things about her, I really didn't know where to start writing so I did the simple thing, I asked her to give me some ideas on what to write about and she said, "Just write about what impresses you the most."  Well, that would take months of writing so I will highlight starting with an article featuring Jean in the Dollhouse Miniatures magazine, September 2004, which talks about Jean Day Makes Her Mark In History, where a national museum exhibit showcases her doll making skills.  The exhibit was so successful it ran from March 2000 until September 2003 and was so popular it was extended for six months.  Please click on the link below to see the magazine and read the article along with other great articles: http://members.shaw.ca/jday1/tpt_articles.html

Jean is also the a member of the AIM Magazine's Editorial Team.  Click on the link to see inside this fantastic miniature lovers magazine:
 http://www.scribd.com/full/56791126?access_key=key-1wj0im74nflhgeoszj91
As we know, pictures are wonderful to help tell a story, therefore, since there is so much of what Jean has done in miniatures over the last 30 years, I'll provide some links for you to click on see what Jean does to enjoy her life with miniatures.

This link will take you to her miniature tutorials:  http://jdayministutorials.blogspot.com/

 This link takes you to her Esty store where lots of beautiful work is displayed for purchase:  http://www.etsy.com/shop/jdayminis

What is life without eBay?  Click on this link to see more of her work for purchase. http://stores.ebay.ca/J-Day-Minis

Click on this link to see if you are as surprised as I was:  http://www.zibbet.com/jdayminis

Well, this link tells more about this great lady of miniatures:  http://members.shaw.ca/jdayminis/html/jean_day.htm

 

If you click on the links I've listed, yes, you will be amazed at what one person can do  with the gift of creativity.  You may also search Google for Jean Day Miniatures to find out more about this extraordinary lady, but be prepared to find about four million results. 

 

Another thing that impresses me the most, the name Jean is also part of my birth name! 

Week 27! Dollhouse Miniatures Grandsons and Life Events!

 Where does time go?  It doesn't go backward or does it?  What is good timing and what is bad timing?  Week 27 is here already and I am not ready.  Ready for what?  What would I do differently if I could to back to Week 1?  One thing for sure, keep a journal.  Blogging is great, but since I don't blog every day, many days of my Journey To Celebrating Life can soon become vague memories. 

My two grandsons are spending the week at "Grandma's House" which started yesterday and we are having a blast!  The weather is hot and we don't have a backyard pool so I created one today using a large plastic storage container.  Kids are non judgemental, creative and so much fun.  They thought grandma had made a special little pool just for them, which reminded me of a joke I read.  The comedian said, "I grew up poor, so if there is an economic collapse I'll just feel young again."  I grew up poor too.  Let us pray for economic recovery although it would be nice to feel young again.

Last week I walked almost every day for at least an hour, all uphill.  LOL.  Doctor's orders.  I'm feeling better, although walking my first marathon at the Long Beach Marathon in October is only a dream and thanks to my friend Yolanda aka Walking Diva, who encouraged and walked with me for several weeks to start my journey to celebrating life, walking has become my daily routine.  She also encouraged me to start blogging.  Please click on the Walking Diva link to read Yolanda's encouraging blog about her amazing journey to the Guinness World Record.

Dollhouse Miniatures and creativity.  My creative juices have been flowing for the last few weeks.  I've come up with a new Mark Collection;  Relax After Work wardrobe as shown in the picture above.  Christmas in July is on eBay.  Please take a look at my eBay items by clicking on this link:  http://shop.ebay.com/anyminimore/m.html

When I finished a dress today and took it to show my #1 Critic (Papa), my 4 year old grandson immediately ran to touch the dress and Papa said, "No! Don't touch!"  "Grandma, will you make me a boy dress, please?" he asked.  "Oh, I mean a shirt."  Wallah!  You guessed it, I made a miniature shirt for grandson and a new collection of boy's clothing is running around in my head as I write, waiting to be birthed.

Thank you for reading my blog, thank you for your support as I travel this Journey to Celebrate Life.  Today I made a big step and wore a swimsuit in the backyard.  I didn't even care that one breast and arm was bigger than the other.  I had fun with my grandsons.  I've also made progress with the book I'm writing, although I've changed the title a hundred and two times.

 Thank you God! 

Oh No! My Journey To Celebrating Life Is Not Ending! Just Changing Directions...

 

Making these Jared Collection suits can bring so much joy from taking a simple piece of fabric, like taking a blank canvas and turning it into something beautiful.  It amazes me every time one is completed.  The above painting also amazed me.  I've never had formal painting lessons so when I finished this little painting I thought it was a really nice little job and put it up for sale and my confirmation was that it sold immediately!  

Speaking of cool, it is so hot in my part of the country that training for a marathon is out of the question and when I saw my doctor last week he was not happy that I am training for a marathon, again.  A few years ago when I was training for a Hawaii marathon, I twisted my ankle and ended up on a walking cane.  He gave me a good talking to about my health issues and that I should keep my walking to a max of one hour per day 5 days a week.  So, when I saw him last week for a routine visit I was not going to tell him about training again for my first marathon.  My mistake,  hubby went with me. And there was a communications breakdown.  My test for diabetes was higher than we expected it to be so the conversation went something like this, "Are you exercising?" asked my doctor.  My husband was so proud he quickly responded, "Oh yes, I'm training her to walk a marathon in October."  I just sat on the the edge of the exam table giving hubby the I can't believe you said that surprised look.  My answer was simply going to be "Yes." period!  Anyway, my doctor gave me the I can't believe you are doing this surprised look.  Then I went into my mumble jumble of "what other people are doing and the challenges/obstacles they are overcoming by walking marathons" and my doctor of 11 years said,

 "My dear Felma, you were born an original, please don't die a copy."



Thanks again for all of your supportive e-mails and for reading my blog.  Please keep reading.  Sometimes I post very interesting miniatures and tell great stories. 

Miniature curtains, sofa, pillow and floral arragnements made by Felma.