A Very Special Lady

Growing up one of my favorite places to visit was my Granny Nina's house. She had the best collection of dolls and toys a little girl could ask for. Her house was magical, she had a glass display case full of little hand carved Gnomes that she had collected for years. She also had buckets of makeup that she would let me riffle through and take home with me. She was always so sweet and tender. At one time she had an array of beautiful canaries and exotic birds that she kept cleaned to perfection. When we would stay the night we would wake up to the sounds of beautiful birds singing. She is to this day one of the biggest influences in my life and now that I have children of my own I have a small glimpse into the life that she lived. She had 10 children 8 of whom survive to this day. Everyone who meets her knows what a special lady she is. I have always admired how neat and tidy my Granny keeps her home. Everything in her home has its place and is kept in pretty boxes with hand made labels. In every cupboard and shelf there is one bin that is always labeled "Little Bits of Everything" she even has a special story that she told her children growing up that includes this phrase. So when Rachel and I were trying to come up with a name for our blog we decided that this would be perfect.

 One thing in particular that my grandma gave me as a little child were homemade sock dolls with yarn hair. When I was thinking about what to get a little girl who's Birthday party was coming up I thought what could I make?! I came up with a couple of ideas before I decided why not make her a doll?!! I searched all over the internet and got some ideas and ultimately drew out my own pattern. This was a really fun project and I hope that I can do more things like this so that my children have some home made toys that they can treasure. I am happy with what I came up with and later in the week I tried out some other patterns that I will also show at a later date. I gave each of the dolls hair by sewing in yarn until I thought it looked pretty good. I embroidered their faces and made their clothing from felt and fabric. I hope this little girl who received this doll enjoys it! I gave both of them to her so that she could share with her sister who is just a few years older than her! Enjoy!

-Haley