May Day

Finally ringing in my favorite month of the year! So grateful for all the blessings of this Spring and am trying to finish projects so that I can abandon our little nest for the outdoors each day this summer and really appreciate the warmth and light. One of my big projects was making a doll (it is the third doll I have made for AnaSofia). THis time I wanted to make one in the Waldorf/ Bamboletta tradition. AnaSofia and I have been admiring them for awhile and I knew we would never fork over the $200 for a totally amazing, handmade one. SO... Being so much like my father, I decided I could make it myself. The materials themselves were fairly expensive (wool stuffing, handspun, hand dyed wool yarn etc) and then I had to tackle a "pattern" on my own. There are some great online tutorials to do the very difficult head and hair but nothing on body parts, so I came away with a bag full of misfit arms and legs but finally figured it out. The most challenging part was that, unlike other dolls I have made, the neck and body are attached to the head and stuffed before sewing on the arms and legs. I did a bum job (in my opinion!) of attaching the body parts but I know the kids are really happy with the results. My plan had been to finish the dolls for Easter, but I was still working on them that Friday and decided to abandon the rest of the work until another holiday because I really wanted to enjoy Saturday preparations rather than stressing out over finishing the dolls. Thankfully neither child minded because they had some other special homemade presents Sunday morning AND May Day was right around the corner so I aimed to finish them for today and with a little hard work I managed to just on time!
I made AnaSofia a matching dress for her to wear with her doll and Kasper has the same pants as his rockstar dude.

AnaSofia wanted a mermaid tail for hers and knew she would name it "Ariel".

The hair yarn is from a Cortland, NY gal (yay, supporting "local" handmade)and is so gorgeous and fun to play with. Kasper (THANKFULLY!) informed me right before I was about to give his doll a "boy" haircut that boy dolls "scared him a lot". Phew, so he has a long haired dude (it still looks like a boy to me even with the hair for some reason).

I filled the dolls with lots of love and hugs and was so happy for the joy with which they were received. I hope they will be special friends for many years to come.