good morning...donations given their due....

good morning to everyone! First off, this summer I received many wonderful donations that were not given note. So, here it is!!

a giant box full of comfort dolls from Colleen Cheshire...the box literally overfloweth, 126 comfort dolls to be exact!

Kudos our wonderful French Connection Jill McNeilly of bois-fleurie.blogspot.com. Thank you so much for such a wonderful donation. Your faces are just fantastic!
CA Haskell from Texas sent these wonderful gems! I so love that everyone is so different and so uniques with their dolls!

Next up...ugh...I don't know who these are from, I misplaced the card...BUT...I absolutely love these!!! all the wonderful different face beads and designs you incorporate are just a hoot!! Please, set me straight so that I may give you the artist a name.


If I have somehow missed someone, please let me know. The summer without internet was just enough of a snafu to throw-off this already off -kiltered blogger!

Smiles to All,
Brenda

...where does it go?

I find it incredibly hard to believe that we are already almost through the month of July! Where does it go? I hope everyone is enjoying their summer. I have found yet another new distraction. One of the vendors at the farmer's market in Culver Indiana has rescued some Alpacas. OK, right there, HOW COOL! (wait it gets better) If you have never felt unprocessed alpaca fleece, it is amazing. All I can compare is to is wonderful light cotton candy that doesn't get sticky and you can snuggle up with. I am completely serious, I have never been in contact with anything so delicious that ISN'T food.
Anyway, she shears her Alpaca's, washes, and then handcards the fibers (all of this is new verbage as I didn't know a thing 2 weeks ago), then, she hand spins on a spindle the fibers into yarn. Now, if you know anything about me, one thing you do know is that I am a "process" creator...just love a process. So, of course, I jumped in with both feet. She recommended the book "Respect the Spindle" which is wonderful. It is chucked full of photos, instructions, history, and just a variety of different ways to make yarn. I also highly recommend the book. I bought a spindle, which was made from a wooden toy truck wheel, dowel rod and hook, really, that simple...and off I went.
Believe it or not, that isn't the best part of the story...she is bringing me a pound, yes, a pound of unprocessed fleece. I will get to do all of the work. I can't wait to wash and card the fleece...I don't have any handcards yet though...can you say "Christmas Present"?
Smiles to All,
Brenda

...excuses...excuses

This lack of internet is quite the adjustment! Quickly, here are the pics I promised. Thanks to everyone!!! The author of the piece Nicole Macdonald sent me a list of questions and asked me to answer and also send her pics. I must have sent 30 different pictures of everyones wonderful work. These are the pics that she chose to include. Once again, what a wonderful village we are.  I have been working on ball jointed dolls lately, which is a wonderful consumption of time. I am extremely fortunate to have summers off to really delve into creating. I will work on being more accountable and organized on this site...progress, not perfection!
Smiles to All,
Brenda

...just GIDDY...we've been Published!

Yes! It's true! Creating Country Threads has a beautiful 3 page spread on our project. I'm not able to upload the article yet, as I'm posting from the library, but I should be able to upload pics of the article by the end of this weekend. Nicole contacted me last year about doing an article in the publication and we sat and asked and answered questions and really, I forgot about it. Well...thanks to newcomer, Fahy Rolfe, I realized that, WOW there is an article out there about us. Indeed, the next day in the mail I received my copy of the magazine. BEAUTIFUL!! The artwork is wonderful, the article, very true and well represented. Just a fantastic tribute to all of us! (I can't seem to get away from the exclamation points!!) This is just kind of like teasing you on Christmas Eve with just one small present without being able to open all the big Kahunas until later...sorry.

Now if that isn't just about enough wonderful news for one day...there is MORE...
Please help me welcome Elizabeth Beglin, she is going to be our Australian Comfort Doll Project Contact! I know, it is so cool! Elizabeth contacted me wanting to know if there were any specific Women's Shelters that I send to in Australia, as the postage to the States can be outrageous. No, there wasn't BUT...I threw it out to her that it would be wonderful if we had an Australian contact. She graciously accepted! So, now, we are on 2 continents....here they come more exclamation marks...!!!!!
I will get a standing page with Elizabeth's information on it soon, but in the meantime, Australia, here is her information:
Comfort Doll Project
c/o Elizabeth Beglin

 - 24 Bland Road, York, Western Australia, Postcode 6302

The email is - dolly.hugs@yahoo.com
Aren't Wednesday's GRAND : )

Giant Smiles to All, 
Brenda
PS: Pat thank you for what you started, it is such a privilege to keep it going
 

M.O.I

Yes, it does appear that I have been Missing On Internet.

I have to confess that as of this moment, I'm posting from the library, we don't have internet service this summer...rule #1: don't preview your post...just hit post...

OK first a thanks to everyone who is still checking in and following. You are wonderful! A giant WELCOME to all who are new! I'm waiting to hear back from a contact in Australia who may have some exciting news for us so....that's just a teaser for you guys. I'll fill you in when it's a true "Go".

Dear Patti, you are amazing. Once again I've received dolls from Patti. Folks, just to let you know, she is one of the most diligent of us on keeping dolls coming in, so, while reading this, if we could all just send some wonderful warm hugs of thanks her way...I know they would be well recieved.

Also, a huge HOORAA for....arrrrghhh...where's my piece of paper....ok...you know who you are...you sent the wonderful box full of 20+ dolls. (like I said I'm at the library and I forgot my list)...any way...I will make sure I get some pics and give credit where credit is due...the dolls are ALWAYS such a hoot!

So, that is all for now, I can't tell you how much everyone's involvement in this project means. I'm sure though, that you all do know, and that is how you have found your way here.

Love, Smiles, and Hugs to All,
Brenda

...it's almost like I won the lottery!

Today I was lucky enough to meet with a retired teacher and dollmaker. He suffers from a little dementia, and a little hard of hearing...ok..back story. A fellow OTS asked if I would be interested in doing some elder care for her father. Now, I'm not a nurse, or particularly like older people (not that I dislike them)...just not into elder care or any care...taking care of myself is more than a full time job in and of itself. So, after serious thought, I declined. Well, come to find out...HE MAKES DOLLS!!! I kind of put this back in my mind under the category..."hmmmm?" Fast forward to these BJD that I'm trying to figure out, banging my head against any soft surface (I'm not into self harm) and sure enough, out flies the filed elder care out of the "hmmmm" file. So, today we met. What great FUN!!! So many smiles, so much laughter, it was like coming home. I just loved it, and they seemed to enjoy having my sponge brain at the willing. One of the many things that struck me as "ahhh, the mother-ship" was that we were discussing something around the kitchen table, various items surrounded us: a peanut butter jar, a towel with my body pieces strewn, a pile of doll joints, a stack of papers, and when Carol needed a fine pointing object she reached into the coffee mug that held various items and pulled out a capped scalpel....AHHHHH!
Needless to say, I'm looking forward to spending time with my new friends and giving the daughter a break. I've indeed won the lottery!
Smiles to All,
Brenda

slowly but...not surely

This may look like I've not gotten very far...I've been fixing things like...the abdominal area, adding breasts...and trying to figure out how in the world all of this goes together. I've found a sight that has helped me a bit on the steps, but isn't very detailed. (Boy, I really wish I read Japanese!) Obviously, I'm not going to complete this perfectly, the leg joints aren't the way the are suppose to be, the doll isn't able to get to a full right angle...things like that...how deep the balls should go into the joints...how do the feet and hands get balled and then how does the hook work????..among other things of frustration....YET...it is coming along, and that I am extremely pleased with!!(what's the saying? Rome wasn't built in a day) : )
Smiles to All,

Brenda