New cute things

If you have kids, I'm sure you recognize these three from Nickelodeons Ni Hoa Kai-Lan. It was a tedious but wonderful break and challenge from the Kokeshi Spool Dolls I normally make. Even better, they were commissioned by a fellow wood doll artisan, Beccijo of the Enchanted Cupboard ...which made 'my heart feel super happy' <--kai- class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6" span="">Lan always says that. :)

A WAY overdue product will be arriving in the shop this week! I hope everyone out there is having a wonderful start to their week!

Update Tomorrow!

Finally, an update! Little Yuki in the center is a reserve I had promised forever ago to a wonderful etselebrity (that's what I call Etsy featured sellers) , Agnes Blum from Knockknocking (which reminds me I need to blog about her amazing work that I WILL own one day). I took this pic this morning and they are still unvarnished and not complete (one is missing half a face!), but I think you get the idea. I may have one or two additions if I can get them completed in time. Maybe. Hopefully.

Also in the update, a batch of sweet little, "falling" acorns amongst some other surprises!

* wishes *

We had a Jaidy birthday party today..definitely party on a budget but every little touch she asked for I tried with all of my soul to make happen. I can't believe my baby is five!

Belation: A Continuance

I know, I know, it's Christmas time but I'm sticking with my unintentional late posts until time allows me to be a tad more current with these things. I wanted to share some pictures from Thanksgiving which also happened to fall on my birthday this year! Perfect timing as there is so much to be thankful for this year!


What's not to love about Thanksgiving? Yummy food. Family...speaking of, my sister did her usual "Hostess with the Mostest" thing and concocted lots of festive edibles! Those acorns on the end: donut holes with their tops dipped in chocolate, then rolled in toffee pieces and a pretzel stick for the stem....so good!

Speaking of acorns, some sweet little ones made their first appearance in my shop....and speaking of my shop, I'd like to thank everyone who stopped by to shop the update...means so much right now, so a big THANK YOU!

I'm about to lay on the couch and try to watch Funny People without falling asleep. Wait....no reflection on the movie (I haven't seen it yet)! I'm just so sleepy right now. First some more pictures from our Thanksgiving!

Jaida wished for a unicorn and Zoe just said "I love mommy". It must be true because little Jaidy didn't win this wishbone tug-of-war. :) Good thing because she would have been really disappointed to know that Unicorns don't really exist.

Oh...and my cake. My mom brought it over and the girls sang me happy birthday and gave me cards they made (I almost cried). This birthday was way less detrimental than turning 30 last year. I feel like I wasted my 20's wallowing in mental hell. I know this decade is going to be awesome! Still, it was a strange birthday; bittersweet. Hard to explain. Although, the cake took away the "bitter" pretty fast! I love Carvel ice cream cakes!

I hope everyone had a blessed Thanksgiving and if I don't post before Christmas, Merry Christmas! xoxo

A New Baker!

I'm so sorry about my few and far between postings. Our lives are very stressful right now. To make a long story short we are trying to cover two mortgages and well, I will NEVER landlord again....I'm a big softie when I shouldn't be and a big meanie when I shouldn't be. I can never get that right!

We're going to be moving soon back to Panama City, FL (when I was younger my friends and I referred to this city as a black hole and here I am being sucked right back)....but the bright side is my daughter, Zoe, starts school this year and although the four of us (and 3 pets) will be cramped into a 900 square foot townhouse that I loathe, she will be attending one of the best elementary schools in the city...and that's so important to me! Plus, my poor husband, Ben, won't have to travel 1.5 hours to work every day...he'll be home more and that makes me really happy. :)

We spent the weekend with some very welcome guests (Ben's family) and they brought a wet saw and skills to tile our master bathroom! It looks awesome! We're hoping to have the cabinets finished this week so we can call a realtor in and get this house sold! Ben's mom made it look WAY to easy...I swear, this woman knows how to do everything!
Oh, I restocked some little Granny smith zakka apple boxes! I hope to have a Spool Doll update soon and I promise: next time I won't be waiting so long to update my blog! I have so much to say.....just no pause button for my hectic life! :)

Update Tomorrow!

It's going to be smaller than I'd hoped for but there are a ton of things going on in our lives currently that include evicting tenants, moving to another state, registering our firstborn in school, and a collection of small annoyances that = out to huge time-eaters! Can't wait to get settled!

I have a little surprise if you are one of my sweet blog-readers. There will be six spool dolls in the update (which is at 5pm Central) and if you see one that you absolutely love I'm allowing one "reserved" doll per person! Feel free to call dibs through comment or convo, I'm fair so I promise first commeth first getteth!

Here they are, the spool dolls for tomorrow! Rikuyo (with the pink hair) is the first doll sporting the low-side buns, and the Lucky Kokeshi is also the first to have a new hairstyle! There is one more spool doll for the update, Hitomi ....but with pigtails. There will also be a Toothfairy box restock as promised as well as Twine Bakers including a new baker girl! Hope to see you at the update!

* Thanks so much to my super-sweet blog readers for putting your claim on your favorite doll before todays update! They are all promised to happy homes! *

Tornadoes and Customs

Well, today was off to an interesting start with a 6:30 am Tornado siren wake-up call. Thankfully, (and this is probably the only time I will ever be happy about this), both of my little girls snuck into our bed last night so we just had to scramble to collect our three animals and into the bathtub we went. A gust of wind blew the back door open and in poured about a gallon of rain-water....I was so glad Ben was home because I would have lost it without him...he's so calm. The storm passed pretty quickly and there were no tornadoes riding down our street (so thank-you God)!

This is Mom and dad of the custom family I've been working on...not clothed or varnished yet but they are near completion, yay! Here are their three beautiful kids!

Paloma, Vincent, and Navae (aren't those great names?) Two of the kids also have some custom beauty marks they will be receiving today and I will be shopping for clothes for them all tomorrow...today is stormy and horrible! I'm also working on the family's Great Dane and fluffy cat...the Dane was an experiment but so far he's turning out really awesome....I think this is why I try to avoid customs; I spend way too much time and the customer has to wait forever and I hate that for them. I always see something to improve and am constantly touching up...it's a problem. Luckily, the girl I'm working with is really sweet and has been so very patient but I'm determined to unite the spool family with the real family this week!

* Oh! Shop update May 2nd! :D

Update of an update

I can't thank everyone enough for coming and shopping away at my update, especially a certain New Zealander named Virginia and a group of new friends living in Virginia....weird, isn't it? Oh, and I can't leave out a new friend hailing from my husband's homeland Germany, Suse! A lot of new people as well...you all know who you are! Thank-you sooo much!

A new Kinder Box! I'm obsessed right now with exposed wood-grain, I love it. She hasn't been varnished yet and when she is, the grain of the wood will really pop!

Good ol' Baker Giuseppe is back and he'll be listed as well as a a new twine-keeper, Baker Molly! Rei with a top bun is also about to be listed in the shop! I apologize for being so slow with listing, I'm still trying to get the hang of things and I didn't spend any time with my girls yesterday so I was feeling "mommy-guilt" so I played most of the day with them. I watched my five year old Zoe, make a new friend...it was really cute. They both had scooters and scooted around the cul-de-sac together as if they'd been friends forever while Jaida chased the two of them around...why can't friend-making be that easy when you get older? Oh, to be 5 again. :)

Speaking of those two, I promised I'd watch a movie with them so I had better post and go! :D I hope everyone had an awesome weekend!

Gearing Up!

The update is this Friday and I will be restocking these little ladies...

...as well as adding a new DIY Spool Doll to the DIY section (the top-side bun Kokeshi style) like this Yuki doll:

I'll be upping the quantities of the DIY dolls as I've been getting a lot of requests for me to do so....wish granted. :) I've also been very diligently working on my first custom Spool Family for a gorgeous couple and their three gorgeous children! I'll have some new (painted) Spool Dolls this Friday as well including some Easter Editions!

Check back Thursday...I have some new things to show you before the update! :)