Even the dolls love shutterbugs

                                                 Even Dolls Love the Shutterbugs

Since 2013 is coming to an end, it is time to show-off all my dolls. So I asked my dolls, "Who is ready for the annual photo-shoot?". All dolls jostled each other and ran to me. I shouted, "Tall ones at the back, short ones in the front," but they didn't care. The frenzied dolls knocked Grandpa and Grandma over. Santa threatened everyone with the absence of gifts next Christmas but no doll thought of the Christmas almost a year away. Mothers left little ones behind, wives outran their husbands, Little Red Riding Hood abandoned her Granny, Wolfe cunningly sought the best spot, Rascal The Dog barked Kitty away from her zone. There was utter confusion! 

CLICK!

Who would bring order? 

All of a sudden, there was silence. Every doll was scared. Sidney Slapstick was making his way to the stage.

CLICK!

Sidney arrived in his work clothes. Coming straight from a painting assignment he was dirty, he was smelly, and he was sweaty. Standing near him also came with the risk of getting yourself wet with paint and sticky with glue. The dolls made way for Shabby Sidney to take his place. With Shabby having marked his territory, I coaxed each doll to its spot. The ones I placed near Shabby weren't happy with me.

FINAL CLICK!

Wish you all a wonderful new year! 

This is Rev Burgundy signing off! You stay classy Craft World!!

Merry Christmas...

Merry Christmas,

Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year ! 

The Christmas Fairy and the baby Jesus are knitted from Jeangreenhowe's book called ' Christmas Special ' 

The church, the bible, etc are 3d stickers from Jolee's boutique . I love these 3d stickers they are quite amazing.

These Nativity dolls and the Christmas tree were crocheted last year to gift one of my friends  for Christmas. I found the pattern online. The picture is not taken that very well. I started creating backgrounds for the pictures only quite recently.  Now I have a knitting pattern for the Nativity set from Jeangreenhowe which I might knit next year...

Hope Santa will pay a visit to everyone and leave some wonderful presents under the Christmas tree :)

Merry Christmas !

Christmas special

                                                  Santa Claus is Coming to Town

About a month into this project and it is still incomplete. Mrs. Claus is under preparation and Santa will remain single just a little longer. He is ready with his sack to hit the town, slide down those chimneys, give out those gifts, eat those cookies and drink that glass of milk.

This is Santa's work shop. All the elves and the she-elves are superbusy, it has been the busiest Christmas ever. Some are serving food, some are wrapping gifts, some are loading the wrapped gifts on a train to Santa's house. December is busy on the North Pole.

Santa's house: His sleigh is loaded with gifts. The reindeers await the start of their Christmas journey, the route of which is by now the essence of their very being.

Let's take a peek inside Santa's sack. Mrs. Claus has knitted these dolls, her needles clicking round the clock, all of last year. This has been a record year for 'nice children', no child has been naughty this year. Mrs. Claus is convinced more than ever that this generation of children will rid the world of all it's evils. Among the gifts she has made are a clown, an elf, a toy solider, a snowman, a fairy, ..... and wait .... what! She's even made a Mr and Mrs Claus! Is there anything Santa's paramour can't knit? Children who have been nice all year will receive these wonderful dolls from Santa. 

So.... finally...... Santa ..... chimney ....... eat ...... drink ........ gift. You know the drill :) 

You better watch out 
You better not cry 
Better not pout 
I'm telling you why 
Santa Claus is coming to town

He's making a list 
And checking it twice; 
Gonna find out Who's naughty and nice 
Santa Claus is coming to town

He sees you when you're sleeping 
He knows when you're awake 
He knows if you've been bad or good 
So be good for goodness sake! 
O! You better watch out! 
You better not cry 
Better not pout 
I'm telling you why 
Santa Claus is coming 
Santa Claus is coming to town

Acknowledgements:

Santa's work shop, his house, sleigh, reindeer, and elves, train, etc., are 3D stickers purchased from  Michael's and Walmart.

These dolls are knitted from Jeangreenhowe's book: Christmas Special. I love this book, even after this Christmas season I will continue making dolls from this book. Of course, Mrs. Claus will follow soon with a new story. 

I close here with a pic of my kitty-kat. Maggie used to be as white as the first snowflakes of Christmas. He has started turning an orangish hue, perhaps in memory of his recently departed litter-mate Gary.

It's the season to be jolly...

Holiday shopping..

Greetings!

It's December and I love this season, I love to see all those Christmas decorations in the malls and in front of some houses. It's such a delight, I am knitting some Christmas dolls myself but I thought I should buy some holiday dolls this time. I bought few since they were on sale. I bought some from Khols and some from wall mart. 

The carol singers, lamp posts, and the big clock, benches, the wishing well, set of Christmas trees, children enjoying the cookie treat on the bench, sleigh ride, lady shopping Christmas gifts and a man helping her out, children carrying fresh cut Christmas trees , fire place, wine basket, miniature gift boxes etc. I was quite happy with all these dolls. I wanted to buy the entire village but I have to watch my pocket :( may be I will buy some more next year hopefully. Along with the dolls I make I love to collect beautiful dolls I come across . 

My cat Maggie curiously examining everything in the first  picture. I asked him to face the camera and he did it obediently :) 

I just loved the way they look after I decorated .

Happy holidays ! 

It's winter time.

Winter is here finally !

After five years I finally was able to see the snow last week. I always wanted to see white Christmas and I hope it snows again on christmas. Four days ago we had a freezing temperature in Dallas, we had freezing rain whole night and by morning there was snow every where, it was very cold and icicles on the railings and the branches had frozen, there was ice on the ground, the roofs of the houses and the cars were covered with snow the sight was just beautiful. I took some pictures , I could not take too many since it was very very cold to go out. 

The ice had taken shape of the leaf and my husband found this and brought this for me , I felt this was beautiful and preserving it in my freezer :)

But it was very difficult and risky to walk on the snow. I went to the store just opposite to my apartment to get some milk and I kept slipping on the ice and luckily did not fall and fortunately my husbands university was closed for three days, busses were cancelled , whole city was closed because of the weather. There was no power in some areas for two days , luckily we had power otherwise I wouldn't have been able to cook, since the stove is electric, there wouldn't have been hot water or heater everything would have Come  to a stand still. I  have to do some grocery shopping and I am not sure when I will be able to get out , I hope I will not run out of things at home . Davis use to get chilly but this is the first time I experienced the freezing temperature and snow. Since i come from southern India there is absolutely no chance of snow there . I was quite happy to see the snow. The snow was not that severe like Denver or Newyork  etc but it was quite wonderful to watch the snow. Today ice is slowly melting, big chunks of ice are falling from the roof of some houses and buildings, but there is till some ice and the roads are still slippery. I haven't seen the Sun from almost five days.  For tonight's dinner I will be making paneer chilli and chapathis which is appropriate for this weather .  my husband had to go to work today but I am sitting under an electric blanket feeling warm and cozy :) 

With all these nice feeling there is a sad feeling as well. Two weeks ago my cat Gary passed away. He was just eight months old which is heart breaking. He was a very charming and handsome cat weighing 11 pounds. He was suffering with sever urinary tract infection. My husband and I took him to the vet , he was given some antibiotic and narcotic shots and some pills, when his condition worsened we had to take him to the emergency clinic and the doctor there told us that nothing much can be done. We had to euthanize him and put him to sleep. It was quite painful to watch him.  I truly miss him now when he is not around. Maggie is missing him even more. Sitting on the window sill and staring outside was his favorite pass time .

In the second picture Gary and my other cat Maggie are together . 

 I hope Gary will RIP.

Graduation doll

Graduation doll..

Well, it's been almost six months since my husband graduated from UC Davis with a PhD , but somehow I delayed writing a blog about this graduation doll I made. That's too bad of me , I was busy moving from California to Texas  and after that I kept knitting dolls and writing blogs about those and now since my other projects are in work in progress just thought I will finish  writing about the graduation doll finally :)

This doll was a Gift from my side to my husband to show my appreciation for his achievements and also to reminisce the past in future when I look at this doll. Even though he thinks its not a big deal, I would have been very happy and proud to see him walk on graduation day wearing his gown and hat and receiving his doctorate ,but somehow he was not interested to walk since he felt his biggest achievement is yet to come and  I believe what he believes that is about achieving his other achievements. 

I did not feel so bad that he did not walk since I have already seen him walking at Indian institute of technology ( IIT ) Mumbai when he received his  Mtech degree.  It was such a great honor to step inside the  IIT and to sit in the auditorium and see him walk and receive his degree. Lakshmi Mitthel was the chief guest that day. I was very proud to be a part of that ceremony.

Since he did not walk I decided to make  a graduation doll myself. I crocheted the basic doll, with a big head and a small body. This was deliberate so that the gown will fit well and I love doll with big head and small body it looks funny and cute. I bought the gown from UC Davis book store made by jewels boutique . I love all the paper crafts and other things from jewels boutique they are fantastic . I also purchased spectacles , nose and mustache made by jewels boutique . I put the gown first to the body and then sewed the head and stuck all the honors and pinned the UC Davis alumni pin on the gown. I embroidered the eyes and stuck the glasses, nose and mustache with glue. I stuck the mustache even though my husband doesn't have one just to show that the person  is old by the time he received his doctorate , even though my husband got his doctorate at the age of 29 which is not that old. My husband wanted me to make a beard fir the doll but i did not like the idea. I stuck double honors on his gown since he received an MS degree as well along with his doctorate. 

Man ! I am quite proud of him , the five years I spent in UC Davis was the most wonderful time ever, I just loved the university life,living in the university apartment, enjoying the bagel breakfast on every first day of spring in the community center, pizza nights once in a while, walking in the arboretum , going to UCD book store, volunteering in the Women center library. The librarian there became my friend and she admired my dolls and jewelry and purchased those  from me. Going to the International house on Wednesday mornings to attend connections where I met some nice and talented people  and later my husband and I became the care takers of that place which was a unique experience . University life is something only those who experience will know. If I go on I can write a novel about it , but I want to put a full stop now.  Recently I read a novel called ' The Lowland ' by Jumpha Lahiri  , which talks a lot about the university life in the US. I also can relate myself to her another novel called 'The Namesake'. Another university based novel that I am reading now is ' On Beauty ' by Zadie Smith. My favorite lines so far in the book is a dialogue spoken by a wife to her prof . Husband  and it goes like this, ' You know what's weird ? Is that you can  get someone who is a professor of one thing and then is just so intensely stupid about everything else? 

I am going to save this line in my memory :) 

Have a good one !