MAIDA TODAY and Happy New Year!

I am a member of MAIDA TODAY and enjoy it so very much. This is a remarkable group of doll makers who primarily engage in Making Antique Inspired Dolls and Accessories.

I am honored to be among seven of us who has been interviewed. To see the interview, click to MAIDA and scroll down to see me!

I wish you all a very happy New Year! 2011, I'm ready!

I'm through with my Sabbatical, and am introducing Elizabeth, and sharing Christmas 2010 with you.

Elizabeth 1, 2010, my newest reproduction doll has just appeared on my website for the first time, today, without any real fanfare other than this blog post. Visit her here.

Otherwise, having taken a small sabbatical from posting, I am eager to get back with sharing my world with all of you dear and wonderful people who visit me.

Our Christmas Day was lovely, spent with some of our family members. We had a delicious prime rib dinner, and we enjoyed much Christmas cheer.

I have already taken down all of my Christmas decorations, but I do have pictures of what I had out this year.

Above is my wonderful milliner's model (1820''s - 30's) where she always sits in the entry hall on my Danish end table, ca 1840's. I made the little paper tree on a stand replete with paper quilled ornaments.
Above is a shot of our living room and my darling, Victorian, "pencil tree" that I've taken out of storage for years on end. Yes, I do love real trees, but it is so much easier for me to set up this slender beauty, and so, I allow the rest of you real tree aficionados to have your fresh scented pine, which I can enjoy when I visit you!

What would Christmas be without a Nativity Scene?

My mantel made room for my Santa's and angels and my darling little feather tree that I made many years ago. I so enjoy it.

There sits one of my very favorite dolls, created by the great Pam Haber of Ghost Island Primitives. This raggedy beauty is Beth Ann, and she enjoys sitting next to a very old bottle brush tree and an old bank Santa.

Another little Nativity Scene that is missing a few pieces.

And another, also missing a piece or two.

In my entry hall, the old-fashioned Christmas Carolers always welcome my guests at Christmas.

There sits the head of the household, my dear, Gregory, and next to him is 4 year old granddaughter, Grace, and our daughter Brigitte and her husband, father to Grace, James.

On the other side of Gregory is Brigitte's dear and wonderful friend, Amanda.

There sit James' parents, Jack and Diane!

The young man on the very end is our wonderful grandson, Alexander, sitting next to his close friend, Colin, and whom do you suppose took the picture? I, of course, hence, no picture of me this year. I'm terribly camera shy anyway.

I'm so happy that it was all so lovely and that it is now a memory. There is much to be done.

I'm wishing you all a very happy New Year!

Christine

Sabbatical

I'm going on a sabbatical from posting on this blog. I almost closed it down, but decided just to retire from it for a while. If enough time goes by, and I'm still no longer interested in posting on it, I will very likely close it down.

Perhaps I will be back, and perhaps not, but in any event, I wish everyone pure joy, always.

Christine

Sylvia Browne to Peterson's Magazine ~ 1857

It's been a long time since I've posted on my blog, for I've been so very busy, and we also just returned from a few days in Lincoln City, Oregon at the coast where the ocean was hauntingly beautiful. Beautiful this time for me is inclement and stormy! This morning I saw many seals frolicking in the water. Our room was way up high, and it looked as though the surf were almost touching the bottom of the cliff from where we viewed it.

Our primary purpose for going to Lincoln City was to see Sylvia Browne at the Chinook Winds Casino. Sylvia is totally fabulous and I have admired her for years. It was a levitating experience being in the same room as that incredible psychic.

We went antiquing throughout the town and found many wonderful treasures, but my favorite was the big book of Peterson's Magazine from 1857. Here is just one beautiful picture from my new book. Look at the picture on the wall. Could it be of a sketch of a woman, or is it supposed to be a lady in a mirror? I think probably a sketch, yes?