Swaps!

Michelle has the swaps ready to go! Here is her afghan for the Hitty Afghan Swap. She is running this swap (means she sets the dates for being finished & mailed, matches up partner from those who sign up, etc.) This afghan is in honor of her younger sister Tami's old Nice Blankie-soft & fuzzy in the middle, but silky along the edges. My co-host today is Hitty Daisy. She is a Pat Thompson Hitty and make an excellent model.

Here is the cute little dolly that Michelle made for the Hitty Dolly Swap. She's only 2 inches tall! She's made from two strands of embroidery floss and a size 8 hook...I want one for my birthday, but Michelle says she was "fiddly" to make & has to think about it.

Michelle also finished the Happy Birthday Hitty swap & actually mailed it out today. She totally forgot to take a picture of it. She's kicking herself enough for that so I won't rub salt in it. It was a pretty good swap though if I do say so myself.

Ashleigh introduces Robert Raikes bears

Now Michelle really loves her Robert Raikes bears. She ordered the two brother bears directly from Raikes, got the panda bear & the bear with the silver face off eBay, and found the large bear at an antique store here in town. Robert Raikes bears are five way jointed and have carved wooden faces and paw pads.

These two "brother" bears came as a set with this book that was written by Carol Raikes, Robert Raikes' wife, and illustrated by J.W. Raikes his son. It is about two boys that they adopted from Russia.

I like the Raikes bears. They all have friendly expressions and nice fur. Apparently Mr. Raikes is mostly retired now. He also did a line of Hitty dolls...some of which Michelle also has, but that's another blog for another time.

Michelle's "new" car Baby Girl

Gregg bought Michelle a 1965 Ford Mustang GT a couple of weeks ago...that's me waving by the antennae. It's a sweet little car & we're having a ball cruising around in it. Michelle named her Baby Girl.

She's pale yellow with a black vinyl top and white Pony interior. See these running horses? They are all on all the seats. I think the Pony interior rocks out loud. Michelle had a 1966 Mustang years ago named Mustang Sally that she used to drag race, but poor Mustang Sally was sold to pay for the 1955 T-Bird & the idiot kid who bought her rolled her within a month of buying her. Gregg felt so bad for selling Mustang Sally that he's been looking for years for a car to replace her that Michelle would like. Baby Girl now has the wheels that Mustang Sally had on her in remembrance.

Ashleigh introduces the Steiffs

These are Michelle's two Steiff bears. The big one is Donald and is reproduction of an early 1900's Steiff bear. We believe that the little blue one, Amanda, is just adorable...but then who doesn't love a little blue bear?

As yu can see, they both have a big feet, the "hockey stick" arms and the hump on the back, along with the triangular shaped head. Both are also made of mohair. Other features include the famous "button in the ear", embroidered triangular nose, embroidered mouth & "paws", button eyes (just like me!), and five way jointing.

All in all, very handsome bears don't you think? Very well made bears, with very good materials. Along with the well known name explains why they tend to be pricier than your average bear (which is why Michelle only has two currently).

Things that are coming...

Michelle's been swamped trying to get stuff done, so just a quick note to let you all know what is coming up. One of the things that I want to do is a series introducing different bears by who made them, like Boyds, Steiff, etc...Michelle has some of these different types of bears so I can even have pictures!

We have some swaps and challenges coming up too. Above is the Bargain Basement Bear challenge that Michelle just completed. We call him Thrifty & Michelle has less than $2 in materials, so he definately lives up to his name. Right now she is working on an afghan swap and a Love Bug challenge and she has a tiny doll swap to get working on, so we'll have pictures of those coming up.

Riley will be in a play in February so I'm sure I'll get to attend at least on performance...it runs every weekend in February. Oh, and swap meet season is coming. That should be a lot of fun!

Plus we've got Valentines Day, Michelle's & Mine's birthdays, St Patrick's Day, and Easter coming up & there's sure to be stuff going on that will be fun!

Tea Party!

Yesterday Riley came home from school with a stomach bug. When she started feeling better she decided that Isabelle and I needed to have a tea party. While we were drinking tea we kept an eye on some little dollies that wanted to play in their playpen. It was a very nice way to spend an afternoon.

Happy New Year, Happy New Home

Happy New Year everyone! Here I am partially moved into my new house. Still waiting on a couple of things to arrive, but as you can see I've already had a guest over. Llama is still waiting for the poll to be over so that she knows her name. If you have a chance vote before you go.