Stanley is in the Shop

Stanley is a chef at a small neighborhood restaurant in his friendly neighborhood. He gets inspired for his culinary dishes by the patrons that enter his shop. He doesn't speak to them because he is horribly shy, but he smiles at them under his mustache and he observes them through the chef's window from the safety of his kitchen. For Dotty, the sweet older woman with white hair that has a pinkish hue, he invented pomegranate pancakes with a strawberry sauce. For Larry, a boisterous fellow whose large belly jiggles when he giggles, Stanley invented a jellied horse radish sauce to be served with meatloaf. The patrons find Stanley to be quite a curiosity. They desperately want to start conversations with him, but don't want to disrupt his culinary process.

Stanley is super cute! His mustache is made of partial wool felt and he has a wool bottom. His shoes are part denim part felt. He has hand embroidered and machine embroidered features. He would love to sit on a windowsill in your kitchen and motivate you to be more adventurous with your dinners! He measures roughly 12" tall by 8" wide.

He is meant for gentle play, but because of his buttons is not intended for children under 3.

He is now available in the ole shop.

Sumo Mobile

My very good, lovely, oooooooober-talented friends are going to be an Auntie and Uncie to a lucky little person soon. That little person is in for a treat and will likely have an interesting wardrobe due to their Auntie's special talent of finding treasures on goodwill racks (see this dress). They wanted a mobile for their nephew/niece. A sumo one! Well, initially, they wanted a Samurai mobile, but that seemed impossible, however the very round sumo wrestler is a martial artist that is easily translated into plush. They already sort of look like plush dolls as is. I had so much fun making them. They look a bit skinnier than I'd like, but I'll blame it on Michelle Obama's anti-obesity campaign? During my research I found this photograph: very cute.

Tommy

Tommy is a good boy. He never pretends like a stick is a gun and he prefers brussel sprouts to Twizzlers. If he goes to the movies, he doesn't make a peep, not even during previews, which he thinks last way too long (though you won't catch him complaining). If there is a funny part happening in the film, he has to excuse himself to the restroom to have a little giggle so as not to disturb the film for others. Sometimes when he is back in the theater he will remember the funny part and have to excuse himself again! Tommy has a dog named Fred who is also a good boy. They are good friends and enjoy long walks in the spring time together.

Tommy's story sort of fizzled out at the end there, sorry about that! I am a little out of practice. Also, my brain has been fried since Walter figured out how to climb on the furniture. I was so proud of him at first, and then I realized that he still doesn't fully comprehend gravity yet. Though his story is a bit of a doozey, I really like Tommy. I wanted to make a baby-safe boy doll, so I designed something new and I just love his shape and over-sized shoes. I am listing him in my Etsy shop today! I will be slowly adding my new collection through out the month of March. I hope wherever you are that it is as sunny there as it is here! I love the sun for all the regular reasons, but it's also nice because the cats that live in the abandoned house across from mine come out. So, I get to catch up on all their gossip and shenanigans!

Humpty and Dumpy and Marshmallow Birthday Cake

I made a couple new guys from a new pattern that I have been sketching for awhile now. Their legs---or, more accurately, their feet are jointed. They are hilarious to me. I love the looks of polite little fellows in ridiculous attire.



My man is one. Unbelievable. I wanted to share his birthday cake recipe with you because it is super special. It's the richest cake I have ever eaten and definitely the richest thing that Walter has ever-in-his-whole-year-of-life tasted. The recipe comes from a Babe the Pig cookbook (my favorite pig). It's a vegetarian cookbook, though definitely not a vegan cookbook, as you will be able to tell by the copious amounts of butter required. The book was gifted to me ages ago by my beautiful friend Gretchen. It's a very good cake. Go make it and eat it to celebrate Walter being 1!

Great Grandma's Chocolate-Marshmallow Cake with Chocolate Frosting
Ingredients:

Cake:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups granulated white sugar
2 sticks unsalted butter (softened)
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups shredded sweetened coconut (I omitted this)
1 cup chopped pecans
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 package (10 ounces) large marshmallows

Frosting:
1 box (16 ounces) confectioner's sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
Pinch of salt
1 stick unsalted butted (softened)
1/4 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Butter a 13 x 9 x 2 inch baking pan---butter is good.

Making the cake:
sift together flour, cocoa powder, salt.
In an ample bowl with an electric mixer, beat sugar and butter until smooth and creamy (5 minutes or so). On low speed beat in the eggs, one at a time.

On low speed, beat the flour mixture into the butter mixture until well blended. With a wooden spoon, stir in the pecans, coconut and vanilla. Spread batter into the buttered pan.

Bake in the 350 degree oven for 30-35 minutes, or until the top of the cake is set and dry looking.

Remove the pan from the oven, place on a wire rack, and immediately cover the top of the cake with the marshmallows. Place the cake back into the oven until the mallows melt about half way, 6 minutes or so. They should be puffes and soft. Then remove the pan from the oven again. Use your mitts! Place on a wire rack to cool.

Making the frosting:
In a bowl, mix together the confectioners' sugar, cocoa powder, and salt. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter until creamy. Gradually beat in the milk until the frosting reaches a good spreading consistency. Beat in the vanilla. Spread the frosting over the marshmallow layer.

Yum.

Worker Bee

I have been very busy sewing and building up my stock for a photo session with Tall and Small at the end of the month. I have been surprising myself with how much I have been able to make. It's nice because through work, ideas seem to come. It's like magic. I made these simple mustache pillows to make my studio seem full of friends. I like them, I plan on making more and selling them in the shop.



My little man turns one soon. I wanted to make him a mini strong man as a present. He has already seen him, chewed on his arms and threw him at our dog. Why does he do that? Poor Albert.


Shelf is filling up! My back and arms start to ache after too much sewing. Walter and I are taking a day off and high-tailing it out of here to a bigger town with a book store and an indoor playground (and a hot chocolate with whipped cream).

Celly

Celly Cow is for a friend's daughter. I used to work with this friend ages ago in a cafe that was in a bookstore (a decade ago? Sheesh! When did I become able to measure my life by decades!?). She was so much fun, she slowly climbed up the ranks and became manager, but before that we used to play entire games of Scrabble in the back kitchen in between customers. It was my first job, and my favorite. I miss my clothes smelling like espresso and cocoa powder. There were huge windows there and I loved working in the mornings before the sun rose----baking cookies at an unseemly hour while the doors were still locked and then opening up and serving coffee to the same senior citizens day after day. It was great. So Rebecca (Celly's mom) has an amazing blog full of amazing recipes and useful information if you have ever been inclined to grow a vegetable garden. Plus, she is really witty so it' a good read (she wrote me the funniest letter after I gave birth and it made me laugh so hard that my weak bladder had me running to the bathroom every other paragraph).

Celly once went to a farm with her mother. Though the goats were cute and the pigs were pink, the cows were who stole her heart. She liked the black splotches scattered all over their ginormous bodies. She looked at the cows for a very long time and even imagined their splotches to be different objects from real life. She saw a splotch that looked exactly like an Easy Bake Oven. Celly wanted to lie down on the hay and stay over-night at the farm to see those tubbies jump over the moon. She wasn't able to, but when her mother gardens she gives Celly some alfalfa to munch on (a cow's favorite food) and Celly paints splotches on her clothes with mud. Then she lets out very loud moos and her neighbors peek out their windows to make sure their street hasn't been invaded by cows!

Monster Fiona

This little gal was a special special request. I had so much fun. It is going out to the daughter of a woman who brought my Etsy shop out of hibernation and then sprinkled it with sweet powdered sugar in the form of utterly cute feedback. She could turn writing feedback into an art-form. She calls her daughter "monster" and her daughter calls her "queen". They sounds perfect for one another. I can imagine the fun they have. Queen mom wanted a little Fiona doll in an Monster outfit for little monster for Valentine's Day. Here she is:

When Fiona heard the grumbling under her bed she didn't respond like an ordinary child. She didn't scream for mom or pull the blankets over her head in fear. Instead, she listened extra close. She grabbed her night cup from her night-stand and put one end to her mattress and then listened out the other side, like in the movies. The grumbling was rumbly and hollow and she immediately knew what the problem was. There was a monster under her bed. And, it was terribly hungry. Fiona, being the soft-hearted, resourceful gal that she is, scurried off to the kitchen to remedy the problem. She got two slices of bread and all the condiments within reach. Then she layered them artfully on top of one another until she had a very colorful sandwich. Then, with her best penmanship, she wrote the "Fiona Special" on a doily and put them both on a nice china plate (the monster technically was a guest). When she delivered the sandwich and lay back on her bed, she heard many satisfying gulps and then a belch, which though rude in some cultures, meant gratitude in "monster". The monster was floored by the kindness and culinary abilities of such a child. In return, the monster, being a gifted seamstress, stitched up a warm monster coat for Fiona. The monster made sure to prominently stitch on a bright pink heart for the kind little girl. Back in the land of Monsters, they have adopted the "Fiona Special" as their national meal.

In other news, I am very excited! I was offered a chance to be part of a book about doll artists. It will be featuring my studio, me, my dolls and it will include 3 patterns, and 9 other doll makers (I don't know who). It comes out in May of next year, but the photos and work for it need to be done by the middle of next month, so I am going to put my Etsy shop back into voluntary hibernation while I build up my stock for pictures. This means that I also can't take on any special requests for awhile (but I will be finishing up ones I've already taken, of course). My friends form Tall and Small are going to take the photos for me! Until then, Walter and I need to make my studio more interesting, I think.