Auntie Ruby was up early this morning cause she wanted to be sure little Pippa had a full tummy before she was scheduled to travel to her Mama, Sara Jo, later this afternoon.

The little lady was very good and ate all her cereal – she was quite hungry….

Ruby made sure she was burped cause no one wants to go traveling with a painful tummy!

Pippa visited one last time with Marcellus and Mini while Ruby got her travel crib all ready. I notice that Mini decided to sit out of nose bonking reach this time :)

One last kiss on the forehead and baby Pippa is now all ready to go off to the waiting arms of Sara Jo!

I have a long time good friend some of you know who never met a baby she didn’t like :) So, when I was reviewing some unfinished dolls I had stashed and came across this one who was mostly done except for hair and painting, I knew Sharon would be interested. She saw right away that this would make a great baby doll for her doll Sara Jo (see earlier posts here) and so it came to be. Today she was born and got her little playdress….. Here is the sequence for all of you who enjoy work in progress pics!

She thought that part really tickled!

Needing a little dusting off at this point.

And here she is – Pippa Jo Fairfield!

I put her down to chat with Mini Clown Bear while I made preparations for her dress….

Trying on my test dress pattern – looks pretty good…

Now out of correct color of fabric.

Now the fun part where the details get painted on. Am using water based gouache paints mixed with acrylic medium – not as gunky as regular acrylic paints but dries waterproof. Couple layers on each part and then some polyurethane matte varnish too.

While waiting for that to dry, she got some hair bows. Those are also finished off with dots of matte varnish to keep them from unravelling.

OK – then the back seam of the dress is sewn.

Now starting to put straps on the front. Will crochet the threads into a chain for each strap.

An estimate for how long the straps will be.

Now the back skirt of the dress is gathered up a bit so the waist is form fitting and the skirt is still full (so she can sit).

I hear Marilyn Monroe was sew into her clothes, too :)

OK, here one of the straps is now being attached in the back. The straps cross in the back.

Finally done with that fiddly work and the skirt looks good – nice and full in the back.

She went back to the table and looked long and hard at Mini….

Then stepped right up and honked her in the nose!!

“Giggle!!”

“Pick me up now!!!”

Baby Pippa will be on her way to her forever home in New Mexico tomorrow. She is 1 3/8th inch high carved from a combination of bass wood and birch. She is fully painted with Alkyd oil paints. Some of you may recognize that she is a sister to a doll I made some years ago named, Phoenix – yes, they were both carved at the same time but Pippa was waiting till today to be born :)

OK – for all of you following the work in progress of a rabbit named Oakley – today he was scheduled for his “e” section (“e” being for elastic). Here is the delicate procedure as it happened blow by blow….

“Wee!” he says “I am a real boy at last!”

I set him down gently so he could get his balance.

And he said – “OK, I think I got it now!”

And off he went climbing up to the table top where I had put some flowers earlier this morning…

These are too small for me to smell anything – but his wee nose could pick up the delicate fragrances!

And he declared that it was a good day to be born!

Started many years ago and then put aside, this boy is 1.5 inches high and is carved Holly wood fully painted and varnished to silky smooth. Please welcome Oakley The Magnificent – rabbit of the world and slightly magical being :)

He’ll be off on a trip to his forever home in Athens Georgia tomorrow…

And if you wish to see more of Oakley in his new life, stay tuned to Victoria’s section of this blog – where I am sure he will be appearing (in more ways than one) soon :)

Been going through a bit of reorganizing and reevaluating around here. Robin (her full name is Robin Rose Fairfield) pictured above has been in a box for a couple years and I was happy to “rediscover” her. When she was first made in 2010, she starred in a couple of the little stories I did using my dolls and she, for what ever expedient reason I had at the time, had taken on the role of “the authoritarian” in some dolly drama. It clouded my view of her for quite awhile…

Have to say, I just don’t see her that way anymore. She is just as sweet and childlike as the day I made her and am quite happy that of all the five inch little girl dolls I made like this, I kept her. After having made some slightly larger polymer dolls last year, she seems quite delicate now. I think when time allows this year, I will replace her arms and legs with more articulated wood ones and she will be capable of a much wider range of motion and emotion. Something to look forward to!

And to see Robin staring in some dolly drama, you can visit the Stories section of my website – she is in a few:

http://www.dandelionfair.com/stories/index.html

Finally have had time to reopen my Etsy shop and Cookie is here to celebrate with me :) That is news to celebrate because the last few months I have been working on a couple long term projects and had no time for smaller items. Since I only post things that are made and ready to ship, my shop is often empty. This year will be busy, but I will try to do better. Wish me luck!

Edit: Since I wrote this post, I have sworn off Etsy for good I hope. Their policies and procedures have gone way off the rails IMHO. I will be opening an independent store elsewhere soon…

On behalf of Victoria and myself, let me welcome you to our collaborative blog! We hope to use this space to further facilitate our love of both doll making and also doll play. While there are many doll characters we will introduce you to, here are the sisters Fairfield, just born in 2013. The first two are Opal Joy and Ruby June – Opal lives with Victoria in Georgia and Ruby lives with Christine in California.

And here are Ruby and Sara Jo – Sara Jo lives with our good friend Sharon in New Mexico:

Hapyy New Year to one and all!