My Sister's Dolls

Do these Ginny dolls look familiar? If they do, you're probably a "Boomer" like me. My sisters and I loved collecting the dolls and their outfits back in the 1950's.  These two dolls belonged to my "little sister", Nancy. Unlike me, who lost all of my old dolls over the years, Nancy took care of hers and displayed them on a shelf in her craft room.

Here is a photo of my sisters and I on Christmas morning 1953. I'm in the middle and Nancy is on the right - only 15 months old then. As you can see, we got dolls that Christmas. I still remember the ones my sister, Andrea, and I got because (with just a little maternal assistance) they walked!

When Nancy passed away in 2010, after a long battle with ovarian cancer, I was devastated. Her dolls were the last thing I thought about. They ended up in an attic somewhere, I think. I didn't care. I didn't care about much then, actually, except that Nancy was gone. It still aches every day. She was only 58 and my best friend.

And then, a few months ago, Nancy's widower, Aaron, called me. He was moving and found the box in the attic that held Nancy's dolls. He asked me if I'd like to have them. Are you kidding? Of course, I wanted them. 

I wanted to touch them again. To hold them and smell them and try to get a whiff of Nancy, of childhood, of happy/sad sisters' memories.

So now the dolls are on the shelf in my craft room. 

I remember how much Nancy wanted a Betsy Wetsy.

Our mother was reluctant because of the "mess" the doll might make but Nancy was adament and, that Christmas she got this one.

Over the years, she rubbed most of the hair of the old girl!

And then came the piece de resistance . . . Barbie! I still remember every detail of the day I got my first Barbie. Mine is long gone now. But Nancy kept hers.  Here she is, strutting her stuff in the Marilyn Monroe outfit our Mom made for her.

With the original Barbie case and all!

I'm so lucky to have Nancy's dolls. They bring back painfully beautiful memories of childhood and sisterhood that were almost lost.  Like sitting on the porch of our cottage at Wells Beach playing with our dolls together as the surf crashed below us. Like learning to sew at our mother's knee by making clothes for Ginny and Barbie on her old Featherweight. Like fighting, as only sisters can, over whose doll was prettiest.

Do you have keepsakes from your childhood that, when you touch them, make you feel six or seven or eight or ten years old again? Can you close your eyes and it's almost as if you're back there - just one more time?

Where does the time go?

This post is linked to:

Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage
Share Your Style Link Party #193 at 21 Rosemary Lane
Inspire Me Tuesday #486 at A Stroll Through Life
Blogging Gradmothers Link Party at Grammy's Grid
Amaze Me Monday #300 at Dwellings

Procrastination

Happy New Year from Maine! I haven't posted for almost two months and I apologize to my few, but loyal, blog friends. I love to write, take photos, decorate, or go on adventures and blog about them and I've missed doing it. I promise to do better in 2019!

Winter has arrived here in coastal Maine but it has been mild so far. This is our street; across from it is beautiful Casco Bay, which leads to the Atlantic Ocean near Portland (the "other" Portland!)

With my stair project done, you'd think I would have taken a break but . . . you'd be wrong. The stairs came out so good sans wall-to-wall carpet that I plowed right ahead and started on the second floor, which houses my craft room, our master suite, and a second-floor laundry.

Which required squeezing every bit of furniture, clothing, and decor into the laundry room and bathroom while we worked on the floors. What a mess!

Here is a "before"picture of our master before the icky old aqua carpet was removed. 

We replaced it with red oak flooring. It was quite a learning process for me as there are so many new flooring products on the market today. I had no idea about the virtues of vinyl planks vs. engineered hardwood vs. laminate and so on.  After lots of research and speaking with helpful professionals,  we chose red oak engineered hardwood to compliment the floors downstairs.

We did have the flooring professionally installed and it looks beautiful. What a change!

 Here it is in my craft room, one side . . . 

And the other.

When  the floors were done, I decided to add some curtains to the craft room. I love how "boho" and unexpected these are, with their mix of colors and textures.

And since I've been reading at my craft table (and I LOVE to read), I treated myself to my very own reading corner in the newly-floored craft room. I had the lamp, bought a little C-table at Home Goods for my books, and ordered the chaise from Wayfair.  FYI: This was my first purchase from Wayfair and I couldn't be more pleased; they sent free fabric samples when I was deciding on the fabric and shipping was free and fast. If you've never seen my craft room, here's a link to a post I did about it. I spend most of my time in this room!

By the time the second floor was back together, it was Thanksgiving. Literally. I love these little bottle-brush turkey place card holders I found at Home Goods. Only $1.99 each. I gave them to my sister as a hostess gift on Thanksgiving Day. Heck, she was doing the cooking this year!

We  had barely finished all the Thanksgiving leftovers when the Christmas season got started. The first two weekends in December are "Christmas Prelude" in Kennebunkport , a great time for Christmas shopping, fireworks, and catching up with old friends.

Speaking of Kennebunkport, I have to acknowledge the passing of President Bush #41. He will be missed by all of us who he considered his neighbors. I am a liberal Democrat but knew him to be an exceptionally honest and caring man. He will be missed.

And then it was Christmas . . . .

I spent all my time making Christmas gifts and not enough of it working on my blog. 

I love this stamp. I had it made at Staples and use it to make my own gift tags, gift bags, gift wrap and Christmas cards on plain brown paper. Simple to wrap or embellish with plain old garden twine.

I found these vintage Bingo cards at an antique shop in North Carolina last March. 

With some cut and paste and a little ribbon, they made tree ornaments, a holiday banner for our fireplace, and Christmas cards for special friends.

I posted Tips for Stenciling Flour Sack Towels in August and, between then and December 25th, completed 46 (OMG!) of them to give as Christmas gifts. I found images I liked on the Internet and cut my own stencils on Mylar using an Exacto knife. 

                    The Kitchenaide mixer stencil took awhile to cut out but it's my favorite.

                                      Whew! No wonder I didn't have time left to blog!

             And then there were the driftwood Christmas trees to finish . . . 

Homemade Maine Christmas folk art with driftwood collected in Searsport, Maine.

But on Christmas morning, all of the preparation was worth it.

After Christmas Day, a walk on Wells Beach was exactly what was needed to center myself again.

For the New Year, I decided to go crazy and cut off all my hair. Really!

Here we are before; halfway before anyway . . . 

And after. 

Short, sassy, and oh so easy!

And, ever the optimist, I rejoined Weight Watchers AND Planet Fitness for 2019. 

Hope springs eternal!

Last weekend, we had a great day outdoors at the farm of our friends Survivor Bob and Peg Crowley in nearby Durham, Maine.  

The occasion was the Crowley's annual "Christmas Tree Burning Party".

So much fun and so nice to be outdoors on a mild winter's day .

Which brings me to today.

I think we're actually caught up.

I promise to be less of a blog-procrastinator in 2019.

Happy New Year!

How To Bring a Bean Bag Back to Life

I bought this HUGE bag of "Bean Bag Filler" awhile ago for yet another ill-advised  DIY project. I left the bag in the garage until I was ready to tackle "reviving" the two "poufs" DH and I use to rest our feet on when watching TV in our bedroom. I paid $100.00 for the two poufs a couple of years ago and wasn't ready to give up on them yet. "I can do this," I told myself, as I handed the clerk at JoAnn's Fabrics my 40% off coupon for the "BIGGIE" bag of pellets.

Every time I walked through the garage to my car, I had to pass this monstrous-looking bag of styrofoam pellets. It seemed to grow larger and more ominous by the day, in my mind at least. The directions on the back warned of the potential for "static electricity" and suggested one might want to use these little pellets "with a friend".  That scared me enough to put off the project for a few weeks more. But, as I procrastinated, my poufs were shrinking and slowly becoming unusable.

Once I finally dared to open the bag, I realized that the role of the friend would be to keep me calm as the pellets literally flew around my craft room, sticking to rugs, curtains, lampshades, fabric, yarn, and my pile of half finished holiday projects.. In moments, these little styro-UFO's took on a life of their own!

That's when DH walked in and found me not only covered in styrofoam pellets, but in tears.  Actually, a few "bad words" might have been slipping from my mouth as well.  Quite a few actually.  But DH saved the day, and the project. 

Here's what he came up with. DH taped the vacuum cleaner tube from his shop vac to the bag of pellets . I held the other end into the slit I had made in the side of the bean bag, and VOILA . . . gravity did the rest. It worked perfectly. We filled both poufs in minutes with no more styrofoam UFO's!

Here are  the finished poufs. Good as new! Actually, even better.

Hopefully you'll never need to fill a bean bag. But, if you do, remember this little tutorial. It'll save you time, a BIG mess, a few tears,

And lots of wine!

Look What Kathleen Made!

I recently blogged about wanting to paint and stencil Flour Sack Towels.  For two weeks I've been meticulously drawing designs and hoarding supplies for the "big project".

Meanwhile,  my artsy friend Kathleen Gerdes, went to Target, bought a few towels, and  and actually completed them! (Obviously we work from opposite sides of our brains).

I love what Kathleen did!

For $1.00 plus the cost of a little fabric paint, wouldn't these make great gifts?

I've used 50% off coupons on a few stencils at Michael's and A.C. Moore but they can get pricey, even with coupons, so . . . 

I purchased some Mylar sheets and am having fun downloading simple shapes from the internet and cutting my own stencils.

 

Between Kathleen and I, our Target is now out of the towels, but, if you'd like to try this craft with us, they're still available at Target Online - $4.00 for a simple ribbon-wrapped package of four. To save on shipping, they'll "Ship to Store"; you can order online and pick them up at your local Target store.

Two friends and I plan to get together in my craft room later this week to trace and cut stencils. Since I've already squirreled away 8 packages of towels, we'll have to work fast.  At least I've got all the supplies we'll need:  Sharpies, Xacto knives, a bottle of wine, and . . . band aides!

Yours in Mylar,

This post is linked to:

Inspire Me Tuesday #432 at A Stroll Through Life
Craftastic Monday Link Party at Sew Can Do
Style Showcase #39 at Savvy Southern Style
Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage