CYBER MONDAY MAKE ME AN OFFER SALE!!!!

Spent the day today watching over the children making their little gingerbread houses...didn't they come out cute? I tried my best not to interfere....just a little help to stick the houses together, and they did the rest. All this Holiday cheer, I'm in a Great Festive Mood.....so! I have decided to make Cyber Monday, TOMORROW , a SPECIAL MAKE ME AN OFFER SALE!! No kidding, I'm serious! Feel free to make me an offer on ANYTHING in my ETSY store, or TDIPT Page, and Ill get right back to you~ while I feel the effort and love that I put into each one of my dollys is well worth their listed prices, I also love to share them, and really want anyone who wants one, to be able to give one a home~

If any of you will be in or near the Trinidad area next weekend, I will be selling with my eldest daughter Tressa on Saturday and Sunday December 4 & 5th at the Holy Trinity Academy Craft Faire~ this year it will be at the HTA Soup Kitchen~ if you need directions, just email me~ would love to see you there :)

My "Thanks Be~ To Thee" Thanksgiving Weekend Sale

I cannot express in words everything that I am Thankful for on this Earth. The thought brings me to tears, to which no words can possibly follow. I love my life, I love my Family, and love the path that God has chosen for me. I want to do my best, to add to the Good in the world, and never detract from it. I hope all my readers, friends and customers have a most Blessed Thanksgiving Day tomorrow~ and as a little Thank you, I am offering FREE SHIPPING ON ANY ORDER PLACED FROM 25 NOVEMBER~ 1 DECEMBER 2010. This is good on my TDIPT Page, and in my ETSY store. IF you pay automatically, I will refund the shipping cost to you. Thankyou so much for sharing this year with me, and may next year be even better!

xoxoxoxo Rachael

Back Home & Resting....

I am back home from surgery now and resting. WHAT a year/summer this has been. I don't like to talk about me or my body (BLEK) BUT..... I have entirely too many emails to answer, and not near enough energy, and hopefully, my little 'experience' will inspire one of you, to seek answers elsewhere, if your not getting them.....I'm probably not making a lick of sense...so here goes, my condensed version~ In the spring of 2009, I went for my wonderfully fun annual medical exam....and told my dr( female, who has been a dr for eons and eons) that I was having pain in the nether~regions....and some other things, to which she replied, its the FUN of getting OLD. She sent me for an ultrasound, and when the results came back, she sent me a photocopy, with " Don't think anything to worry about" written on the bottom. That was it. done. finito. except I was still having pain....I tried to call her several times, and could never get her on the tele, left messages with her nurse, that were never returned. I felt like poo, but in the means now we have gotten a huge bill for the ultrasound, and so I figured whatever must be in my head, and it will go away. Except, it didn't. This spring came around, time for my annual again, except I was still paying on the ultrasound from last year, so I put off going to see the dr until I had paid off that bill~ which was this past Aug. Went to see her again, told her the pain and other things were getting worse, to which she kindly replied how tired she was of 'everything' and she COULDN'T WAIT to retire this Nov. she sent me for another ultrasound. This is where I want to slap myself..... went to the ultrasound, the results came back, worse than before, but this time, the radiologist recommended that I GET ANOTHER ULTRASOUND IN 6 MONTHS...my dr called and READ verbatim the results, to which I said, HEY~ I have NO IDEA WHAT YOU ARE SAYING?!!! And she said, it recommends I get another in 6 months~ to which I replied, well the cysts are still there from last year, didn't they compare the two???? So my Dr says, that's what they recommend, don't worry about it. And phone call was done. I sat there feeling like an absolute IDIOT. I was feeling worse and worse, and starting to loose weight now, so I went to see my husbands Dr. It was not easy. I really HATE talking about myself to a Dr....to anyone....and I didn't even know him. But I gathered my test results, and went to see him, and he was very concerned and got me answers IMMEDIATELY. When my problems were no longer within his area of expertise, he sent me to my surgical Dr and well, here I am now, all fixed and ready for another year...I think :) My test for ovarian cancer came back good, and Dr didnt call me on Friday with pathology on the bits they took out, so that means all is well. I had 2 cysts on an ovary that had attached and were obstructing my bowel, so Dr fixed that too. Geee, go figure, someone going out of their way to fix something that wasn't stated in writing before hand......I guess what I mean to say is, that if you feel in ANY way that you don't like the answer your Dr is trying to give you, or not, GO TO A DIFFERENT ONE.

Do you like the pic? Its a little sneek peek of the real solid silver spangles I have started making for the lace on Marguarite's jacket. The squares on the mat are 1", to give you a size reference...I have about 200 finished, ohhh...800 or so more and Ill be done :) It's good to be home

TDIPT Update this evening and other news...........

I love this picture :) Earlier this fall on my birthday, I received a little pair of doll shoes and the wrapping paper had little paper dolly clothes printed on it. Pippy asked if she could have the paper, it was just a smidgey, maybe 9x11 piece of paper....so I said she could have it, and off she zoomed down to her little 'work table', which she has beside mine. She wouldnt let me see what she was up to, but in about an hour, she showed me her paper dollies she made, and I was SO proud of her, I think I even shed a tear! She cut out the clothes, and made the girls new heads and legs~ I didnt help her at all~ not one teensie weensie bit!

I didnt even get upset that she used nearly an entire roll of clear tape...I just love them. She certainly does have an active imagination, and since our birthdays are just 5 days apart, perhaps she is my little mini me. See how she used dollys bonnet on the left there, for an apron instead? I just had to share!

I will have a little update on the TDIPT Mercantile this evening at 7 pm. Havent been feeling myself for some time, and am leaving tomorrow to have surgery to get my offending parts removed~ so if you would like something off the update, it will probably be wednesday at least before I check my email again. I have never ever not posted an update in all my years on the internet, and am not planing on missing one now~ I have some wee little pretties for your parusal....little 18th c swaddeled baby Christmas ornaments, and a few very special Christmas pins. Hope youll stop by and take a peek, cause its beginning to look alot like Christmas on the Mercantile

xoxoxoxo rachael

A New Winter Project.....

I have always had my eye on this early 1900 display case since we have been here in Colorado~ so when the Mercantile in town called me to say they were sadly going out of business, I jumped at the opportunity to get it. Its HUGE, a bit over 8' wide! And so heavy.....I don't exactly have the perfect place for it anymore, as I am kind of a furniture hoard....but I managed to squeeze it into the gallery, and have all sorts of great things planned for it.....first thing being, a nice stripping of the horrid paint!

It is solid oak, and under the hastily applied black paint, is a layer of tan, under that, a layer of white, and under that, a hideous school bus yellow! YUK! I wonder what store could have possibly painted over the beautiful oak, in favor of that color????? In any case, this will certainly be an all winter project, as I am using a non toxic stripper, and lots of elbow grease. :)
My mind is racing with all sorts of pretties that I can fill it with~and when I look at it, I find myself dreaming of all the things it has held over the years....... I wonder how many children stood wishing for something that was inside?

International Quilt Festival, Houston 2010

Got home yesterday from the festival, it was entirely too much for my mind to comprehend. My Mother flew down from Wa state to go with me, and from my house we drove drown. Spent Sat and Sunday at the show

This is a picture of a smidgey of the vendor booths, before they opened on Sat. I took this picture from a little bubble window above the floor~ Saturday there were so many people, I saw all sorts of new things on Sunday, that I didn't see the day before cause if a booth had a hoard of folks in it, I kept going! All day Mom and I felt like a fish swimming upstream, always seemed like we were going against the flow of people. It was definitely an experience I will always remember. Sunday was perfect~ Id say a quarter of the amount of people than Sat. The isles were numbered up to 1600 I think....with everything under the sun available. I was disappointed a little, for me... as I am a traditionalist, and was looking for 100% natural silk and linen threads and fabrics, and there just weren't too many, matter of fact, of all the vendors there, I could count on my ONE hand, ones that had yardage, never did find anyone with linen thread. If I had to sum of the show in one word, it would be "Technology" ... ok, maybe two words, the other being. ..." bling" I have never seen so many rhinestones and sparklies on a quilt before in my life! I had no idea that was the 'in' thing now a days....and I saw only one booth with hand quilting frames....everything I saw was computer aided quilting and sewing....technology technology!

I have also never seen such tall buildings this close ever in my life! I am behind the times, I know, and it doesn't bother me a bit :)

It was a pleasure viewing the quilts, so many wonderful ones, and getting to meet friends and fellow quilt makers. I bought a wonderful early block print fabric as a souvenir, and brought home my quilt, now hanging once again up on the wall behind me. I have missed it.

Off to Houston....

I am off to Houston early tomorrow morning to pick up my Baltimore Album quilt, 'History's Humble Servant' from the International Quilt Festival show. It was a finalist, but didn't win anything~ that's OK with me, I am happy with it, and I have been missing it these months it has been gone and my wall has been standing empty. Am looking foreword to seeing the Baltimore exhibit too, but wont be able to take any pics of it for you, as it is one of the listed exhibits not allowing pictures to be taken. Mom is here from Washington and going down with me, just the two of us...so we can wander and wander till our legs give out, without anyone saying....'can we go yet, can we go yet???'

If U want somthin' done, do it yourself.......

That's what my parents always told me growing up, and what I tell my own children still. I guess if I had a saying I live by, it would be that. I find it much easier to do or make for myself, instead of trying to find from others, or depend on others for~ and especially so when it comes to dolly things! When I started making reproduction doll size corsets and stays, I grew so tired of trying to find supplies at the right scale, that I just eventually gave in and made my own. Little brass rings are very hard to find in the right scale for stitching over to make lacing eyelets up the back of a set of stays....who on earth would use hunky klunky metal grommets....iiiiiick! Above the the back closing of Marguarite's bodies, boning channels are stitched, and I have lightly marked with a pen where I want the eyelets to go~ just one side tho. After I get the first side done, I use it as a guide for the other side, so no need for marking.

Making the metal rings are very simple~ all you need is a pair of flush cut wire cutters and flat pliers (can find in jewelry supply), a mandrel to wrap your wire around (size of the mandrel or rod, will be the finished size of your eyelet holes), and wire. I used brass wire, cause it doesn't rust, and is nice and stiff. Use a heavier gauge for larger rings~ Marguarite's are small size, so I am using 24g.

Just take a length of wire, and wrap it around your mandrel~ you can use a pencil, wooden dowel, knitting needles...those are great cause they come in a variety of sizes....
Keep the wire as tight to the rod as possible, and try not to twist it.

When you get a length of wire wrapped around the rod, slip it off, and then take your flush cutters and just snip a line up from one end to the other, and the rings will fall off as you continue on to the next. You'll end up with a pile of open ended rings like this

The next step is to 'finish' the rings off with your flat pliers. Mine also have round tips, as you can see above. If you look closely at the picture, the two rings on the left are the before ones, the two on the right are finished. I take and pinch them the rest of the way closed and then take and lay them on the flat surface of the pliers, and give them a good squish so they lay nice and flat and are not twisted at all. Once you have your rings, just lay them on the surface where you want them, and stitch over them all the way around to cover the brass, and they make a very nice reinforced and even eyelet hole.

After I got the eyelet holes done, I filled the boning channels on each side of the back opening, and am now ready for binding. I will stitch the final lacing eyelets after the binding is on, as they are just directly above it.