I tried to sleep late, but sometime in the middle of the night Firstborn snuck into our bed. That's pretty much an every night occurrence. We snuggled up and off to sleepy town we both went. Then, 6:30 this morning brought Secondborn into our bed.
I love when she wakes in the morning. She's happy and lovely. It's almost as if she hasn't realized yet that she's more than capable of throwing hissy fits as means of warfare.
She snuggled into bed with me and back to sleepy town I went.....for all of three minutes. It seems Secondborn was up and open for business, as they say. She was in and out of the bed every six minutes with some new and louder toy each time. Sure, I dozed here and there, but it was at my own risk. I cannot tell you how many times she accidentally clocked me in the head with some three pound, hard as a rock toy. Hubby finally gave up and got up around 8:00 and we all followed suit.
We lounged this morning in our pjs and watched loads of cartoons. We colored and played. We played outside and discarded our rotting jackolanterns. And, by nap time, we were all ready. None more ready than myself, for I had a plan.
I had made a stuffed dolly for Secondborn this past Spring before moving. I never finished embroidering the face or installing but a few strands of hair.
She's no looker, as my dad put it when he first laid eyes on her. This being my first stuffed doll in at least fifteen years makes that tolerable to hear. You factor in the that the doll looks as if she has a perpetual case of chicken pox and you really begin to get a better understanding.
While shopping for fabric I found a flannel, white with pink polka dots and an aqua flannel that had adorably colored birds to use. I love polka dots. And, that was exactly what I was thinking when I brought the fabric home. Not once did it occur to me until stitching arm and leg seams together that this doll would look afflicted in some horrible way.
After piecing the dolly together and stuffing her, she was packed away until just this week when Secondborn found her digging through one of my tubs of fabrics. And, since that moment the dolly and Secondborn have been the best of friends. I knew it was time to finish the process. And, today was the day to do it.
I removed what few strands of yarn for hair there were and began to embroider the face. Mind you, this was a fairly impulsive decision that today would the day that dolly would get a makeover so my choices in embroidery floss were limited to a bright pink, corn yellow, and a brown. I've not embroidered since high school, and it showed. Fortunately, this didn't concern me, and I was certain that as long as Secondborn could distinguish all the facial parts then she wouldn't be concerned either.
I decided to sew her hair in the Waldorf doll fashion and proceeded to ready my sewing machine. Do you have any idea how hard it is to wind a bobbin properly when your cat is trying to eat your thread? He's just lucky he didn't get his whiskers sewn together.
It took me all afternoon to do all the different seamings of hair installations. And, I enjoyed every minute of it. Yes, I have the attention span of a gad fly, and yes I found myself wanting to get up and wander around the house or surf FaceBook, but I stuck with it. And, while she's still no looker, she's better looking than what she was. And, Secondborn loves her even more. The look on her face upon presentation said it all.
Oh, there's a lot of negative that could be said about this blemished, lumpy doll, but, best you do it out of earshot. I'm all smiles over Dotty. Well, what else could we name her?
(Forgive the quality of the pictures. They were taken with my phone and the latter had little in the way of lighting.)
Affectation is a greater enemy to the face than smallpox. ~English Proverb
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