“A single photo. No words. Capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.” – joining SouleMama
Christmas Creations
I’ve been meaning to share all the holiday goodies I created for Ellie and for others. December was a heavy making month. I was making peg dolls late into the night for custom orders and then would get an idea that I needed to make a doll or I needed to paint something RIGHT Then! It was a lot of work, but so much fun. I loved making all the peg dolls I sold this year. The custom family dolls may be my favorite. I even did a whole extended family of peg dolls for a friend of mine.
This is my best friend and her family. So much fun posing these pegs for pictures.
(photo above by WildWhimPhotography)
I made Ellie little tiny Charlotte and Linus peg dolls for Christmas. They are played with a lot. Especially since they fit in her new peg people cars and the airplane she got for her birthday.
I’m not sure if I shared this or not, but something I made and gave to Ellie before Christmas was this Snowman peg doll set. The book was one of her favorite winter reads and I thought it would be fun to make her a set she could use with her winter play mat. She’s still enjoying incorporating these guys into her play.
I also made Ellie a set of nesting dolls. I had bought the blank set here, and thoroughly enjoyed painting them. They were quite the hit on Christmas and are played with regularly even now.
I did a lot of watercolor and ink pieces over the holidays. Here are a few…
And then I finished two more dolls. One baby doll for a friend’s daughter and one for my grandmother.
Made from felt and cotton and all upcycled materials. Her cowl was a thrifted tube scarf and her dress was a thrifted adult skirt.
I had to add a little peg doll pocket too! I love how she turned out. I’m learning a lot about hand sewing with each doll that I make.
The last thing I made before Christmas, was an art doll for my grandmother (Ellie’s Great Grandmother). I had been wanting to create something special for her for Christmas. She’s been such an amazing inspiration to me for many, many years and she’s also been my cheerleader for many, many years. I thought a special art doll would be perfect.
I used denim and linen and wool roving for her hair. Little bits and colors that reminded me of her style.
Because she’s a painter, I made little wooden paintbrushes from popsicle sticks for the doll. I was thrilled with how she turned out and I think it warmed my grandmother’s heart, which is precisely what I wanted to do.
So there’s pretty much everything I wanted to share with you. I can’t believe I got all of this done and more, in less than a month. I don’t think I slept throughout the month of December, but oh, it was worth it. Making things for the people I love and even making things for myself, it’s the creative work for my soul.
Happy Bloggy Mail
It’s so fun to be so connected to this online community. Not only do I get to know some wonderful, inspirational, incredible women, but I am also lucky enough to receive thoughtful, lovely handmade goodies from time to time. I was tickled with joy when I received Jenny’s package after we returned home from Boston. A package full of goodies!
A sampling of her family’s fresh pressed apple juice, a lovely clay handmade ornament and one of Jenny’s coveted hand-carved stamps. All wrapped up in lovely fabric. It was such a special, wonderful gift. Thank you Jenny!!! I truly was surprised and touched to receive all of this!! 
Ellie received some happy mail too, a couple of weeks before Christmas. I kept meaning to share about it here, but never got the chance. Another dear friend whom is part of my “tribe” I’ve talked about and an amazing writer, did a little swap with me. I made her son a playmat and she made Ellie a beautiful felt name banner! It’s gorgeous and Ellie was thrilled to get it. She was even more taken with the extra goodies my dear friend sent; a felt crown and a beautiful hand painted card! Ellie is a fan of dressing up, so this crown has had a lot of wear already.
Thank you Tracey! Your felt items and card will be treasured always!
What a joy it is to receive happy mail!!
Weekending!
It was a lovely weekend. Busy and fun but also slow and steady. Just what we needed after our trip back East. All the Christmas decorations packed up and put away. Laundry done. Windows got washed. Getting back into the groove of things…
I got to finally meet a friend from my online community of mamas. I’ve talked about this amazing group of women before. They have helped me get through the tough sleepless nights and they’ve become my best friends in the two years I’ve known them. But, I’ve never met any of them, until this weekend. Sarah and her family were in town and we took that opportunity to meet in person. It really was like we had been friends forever. A wonderful couple hours with a new, old friend. 😉
We hung out with my parents the rest of the day. Lots of dancing and banjo music.
Sunday we spent enjoying California’s tide pools with good friends. It’s always so much fun watching Ellie with her playmates. Her interactions with other children (especially her best bud) have developed and grown richer. She ended the night wanting to give her friend a big hug. It warmed all of our hearts. A great day. A great weekend.
Wishing you a wonderful start to your week!!
Portrait Project 2015
Another year down! This will be my third year of documenting Ellie’s growth and development week by week through a portrait. I’m excited to embark on this portrait project. Having these books in our home to look back on is so much fun for both Jeff and I as well as Ellie. I decided to go with Shutterfly once again this year. I stuck with the same style of book. A 10x 10 white paged book. The photos and the words beneath, the centerpiece of each page.
Now for 2015’s first portrait
1/52
eloise: Two years and 5 months old. A New Year… and you are ready for anything that comes your way!
-joining Jodi for the 52 project 2015!
{this moment}
“A single photo. No words. Capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.” – joining soulemama!
Boston Snapshots
Our holiday Boston trip has come to an end. We head home tomorrow morning. We had a nice time with Jeff’s family and friends, met up with some friends from California at the Boston Children’s Museum and spent a very cold morning at the Boston Aquarium. Here are a few snapshots from the rest of our trip…
Happy New Year to you all! I’m excited to get home and begin new projects, make new goals, continue to watch my little girl grow and play and to be inspired by all of you out there!! Much love!
xoxo,
Summer
Portrait Project
52/52
eloise: The last portrait of the year. I found it much harder this year to capture your beautiful face. You have grown from an infant to a baby to a toddler to a little girl, running around, chatting, yelling, singing, jumping, joyful, angry, sad, curious, loving and wild. It was harder to carry my camera around and it was harder to interrupt our play for a snapshot. Pictures this year turned out ever so slightly blurry. I even forgot until the last moment for several weeks to capture a portrait. You are just always moving now and we’re always busy. I’m hoping next year to capture your portraits a little better, but we shall see how the year turns out…
(You are ending your year in Boston with your Nana and Papa. We fly back to California on New Years’ Eve, ringing in the New Year with Gramma and Grandpa- from East coast to West we ring in the New Year!).
-joining Jodi for one last time this year for the 52 Project! Hoping many more of you will join us next year!!
If you want to see all of this year’s portraits, click HERE!
A Christmas in Boston
Merry Christmas! Hoping you and yours had a lovely couple days. We made it safe and sound at Nana and Papa’s and Christmas was delightful and lovely as well. Lots of good food, family, an annual beer swap (and family peg dolls), chasing chickens around (my SIL’s) and lots and lots of presents and toys!! It’s been a very fun trip so far.
Weekending: Early Christmas Edition
We’re headed to the east coast for Christmas this week to spend it with Jeff’s family. As much as I love doing things “on the actual day”, we decided not to ship presents back east and instead Jeff called Santa and Santa made arrangements to bring Ellie’s gifts early this year (plus a little bit more on the actual day). So, we celebrated Saturday and had a wonderful, magical family Christmas. That evening, we drove up to my parents’ house and celebrated with my family as well.
Earlier in the week, Ellie and I made Christmas clay ornaments for everyone. We used Jenny’s tutorial and supply list, but I was unable to get the pigment she recommend in time, so after we cut them out and baked them, we painted them with acrylics. They’re definitely not as lovely as Jenny’s but they are perfectly perfect for our first go around. I’m thinking we’ll definitely do this again next year (and hopefully, I’ll be better prepared).
Ellie actually caught a throw up bug late last week and we were so worried we’d have to cancel Christmas. But, it seems it was only a 24 hour thing and after a couple of days of rest, easy-going in-home activities and of course some Frozen,curled up next to Mama, she seems much better. On Friday we made snowflakes for Santa and his elves and left them under the tree.
On “Ellie’s Christmas Morning” she found that Santa and his elves had hung the snowflakes all over the house.
Santa also set up Ellie’s table with new toys from one of her favorite books, Red Knit Cap Girl and Mama and baby polar bear!! (This wonderful shop custom-made Red Knit Cap Girl for me and the bears are Holztiger)!
This doll was the big item (along with the grocery cart). She was a custom handmade doll from this lovely shop. I have been wanting to get Ellie a Waldorf doll for a while now and this sweet doll came across my Facebook feed one day. Unfortunately, the doll sold to someone else and so I waited till the doll maker posted another doll for sale and I snatched it up right away before I lost another one (all the while, still wishing I had gotten the pink haired doll). I mentioned it to the doll maker, that I was disappointed I had missed the pink haired doll and she immediately responded and told me she would make me another just like it. I was so thrilled. Ellie is very into dolls these days and I knew a special doll, like this would be the perfect gift. Ellie loved her up as soon as she saw her.
We opened our stockings and enjoyed some homemade swedish oat bran pancakes (thank you to my Grandmother for the recipe).
The little white softie stocking friend is something I made for Ellie. I’ll go into the things I crafted for her in another blog post (there’s just too much to tell here, so I’ll save it for later).
I didn’t take too many photos at Gramma’s house, but Gramma did make Ellie a glorious Christmas dress, which Ellie loved!
I made my siblings (and my brother’s girlfriend, peg dolls, of course). And Ellie picked out an ornament to give to each of her aunts and uncle too.
It was a very nice morning and night. We got home late, tired but happy and full of Christmas joy.
Sunday was a lazy day. Laundry, preparing for our trip and playing with new toys. We did take a trip out to the Ojai farmers market and had a few surprises along the way…
Baby violinist’s, fairy’s with fairy dust to share and Santa selling persimmons… it was a very interesting trip to the Farmers Market.
And because it was the solstice, We made a hot beef stew with homemade biscuits (Ellie helped) and we ate by candle light. A perfect way to ring in Winter, if I do say so myself.
We had a wonderful family Christmas. Now on to our east coast family Christmas. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday!! I’m hoping to still post this week while in Boston, but if I don’t get around to it with all the holiday hustle and bustle, Have a wonderful holiday my friends and a Happy New Year!!!!
summerplayshouse 