Hayden - A Busy Girl

Hayden spent the night with me last night and she's busy painting dolls again. 

Her last doll sold within 24 hours.

What a nice surprise!

Here is a photo of Aubrie, her latest doll.  

I helped her with the eyebrows but Hayden did the rest.

She's also working on a little "Sister Doll."

The hair is drying now.

I may be able to post it by mid afternoon.

Stay tuned, 

or better yet,

visit my Etsy shop at

www.frecklefarmdolls.etsy.com

Hayden returns to school on Tuesday

and

I'm heading to the California desert for a few months,

so I imagine it could be next summer before she paints more dolls.

Good thing!

She could be serious competition!

Nice work, Hayden!

Meet Mia!

I've been working on little Mia for a couple of days. Her hair was frizzy and tangled. I washed and conditioned it, then gave her a boil perm and now it's soft as silk and beautiful curly.

I sewed a turtleneck teeshirt and a new pair of merino wool/cashmere overalls.

Isn't she cute as can be!?

Ethnic Dolls - We Come In All Shades

I try to always have various ethnic dolls in my shop when I can find the Bratz dolls of various skin shades.

If you need a particular doll shade or style of doll, please be sure to convo me on Etsy or here, and I will do my best to make the doll you need.

Here are some ethnic dolls I've had in my shop over the years:

Hayden's Doll

Yesterday was a special day because I was visited by a special girl!

I have two granddaughters, and both enjoy painting dolls with me. 

Hayden is 8 years old and she loves the arts! She can knit and is learning to play the piano.  The lady next door to her has a kiln and has taught Hayden to slump glass. This summer she took a pottery class. She also loves to cook. 

Yesterday, Hayden visited for the day and she painted this beautiful doll!  

She asked me if she could sell it

and I thought, "Why not!?"

The doll is really as good as most dolls on Etsy, 

and so we will list it for $39. 

When it sells, Hayden will get $30 

and I'll keep $9 for materials and listing fees. 

The face was completely painted by Hayden.

The hair was braided by her.

She made the sweater - Grandma cut it out.

The pants and boots are regular Bratz pants/boots.

I embroidered the flower on the front of the sweater 

and tidied up her stitches a bit, 

but Hayden did most of the work herself.

The doll is really a beauty with gorgeous green eyes

and a soft, sweet expression.

  

Hayden has named the doll Makayla.

I strongly believe in teaching children to work and earn their own money.

Teaching a child to be self-sufficient, 

to me, 

is one of the greatest gifts a parent or grandparent can give.

I think Hayden is well on her way to a career in the Arts;

perhaps she will paint portraits,

or be the curator at a museum.

And that makes me very happy!

If you are interested in Hayden's doll, Makayla,

it will be listed on my website later this afternoon.

Here are a few more photos of Hayden

so you can see her cute personality.

She's a kick!

UPDATE! 

Hayden's Doll sold the day it was listed. 

HOORAY!

Upcycling - Why do it?

Upcycling: A process that can be repeated in perpetuity of returning materials back to a pliable, usable form without degradation to their latent value—moving resources back up the supply chain.

Upcycling is becoming more and more popular in our Portland, Oregon neighborhood.  Taking an object that has been discarded and turning it back into a usable form is not only good for the earth and all living things, it is good for the soul.

Upcycling is not a new idea. My grandparents, who survived the Great Depression, were awesome upcyclers! 

I remember playing with giant balls of rubberbands and string, saved from every package they received. I remember stacks of empty Purina Dog Chow bags that became sacks for carrying items to market. I remember my grandmother even upcycling the dinner scraps by making it into a big soup. If it got too far along for humans to eat, she would mix it into dog chow and feed it to the 37 farm cats and one dog that patrolled their land. Dogs and cats ARE omnivores after all. Corncobs and the Sears Catalog were put into the outhouse before toilet paper became a household staple. Flour sacks became dish towels as well as my school dresses. Old jeans became part of a scarecrow or a polishing rag. Other rags became the tail bows on my handmade kite, which was upcycled from leftover balsa wood and newspaper. Leftover fruit fed the hogs, which became bacon and pork chops. Manure from all the animals fed our huge garden. Lard rendered became soap,  made from lye which was upcycled from wood ashes taken from the fireplace. Old sweaters were disassembled and the yarn used to knit socks or smaller sweaters. When sheets wore out, they were cut into strips for rugs. When blankets wore out, they were made into batting for quilts, which were made from old clothes, cut and sewn into wonderful patterns. If your sock got a hole in it, you darned it. You didn't throw it away! In fact, Almost nothing was thrown away. Even bathwater was handed down, and lastly watered the garden!

Back then it wasn't called upcycling.

It was called 'making ends meet.'

Recycling and upcycling is as old as humanity! Do a Google search on the history of recycling and upcycling and read for hours. Glass from the Imperial Byzantine times was recycled in the ancient city of Sagalassos, Turkey. Old bronze coins in Roman times were melted and made into statues. In Britain, dust and ash from coal fires was recycled into brick. The list just goes on and on and on.

So why upcycle?

Upcycling keeps humans from creating MORE items that would eventually end up in the landfill.  If you make or buy an upcycled doll, a brand new unused doll doesn't have to be created to fill the need for a child's toy.

In this way, upcycling moves resources back UP the supply chain.

I could bore you with article upon article about how long it takes for certain materials to degrade and how the chemicals we have used since WWII are poisoning our water, earth, and air. But you all know that.

So instead of thinking about how you can "Save the Earth" by upcycling, think about how you can teach your children to save money, how you can create an ethic of wise moderation in your children, by showing them how to upcycle their clothes and toys.

And the best thing is . . . it FEELS good!

Taking the face off of an old doll, sanitizing and repainting it, creating new clothes and shoes, giving it a new hairstyle... these things bring me great satisfaction.

In the end, each doll I sell saves a doll from the landfill. 

In the end, each doll my clients buy keeps another plastic doll from being created.

It's a win-win situation, one I love being a part of.

Do you upcycle items at home?

What are some reasons you can think of to upcycle?

Oh yeah, and then there's this reason: