My Doll Haven

Everyone Needs Playtime

In our hectic, modern lives, many of us focus so heavily on work and family commitments that we never seem to have time for pure fun. Somewhere between childhood and adulthood, we stopped playing.

When we carve out some leisure time, we’re more likely to zone out in front of the TV or computer than engage in fun, rejuvenating play like we did as children. But play is not just essential for kids; it can be an important source of relaxation and stimulation for adults as well.

There doesn’t need to be any point to the activity beyond having fun and enjoying yourself. By giving yourself permission to play with the joyful abandon of childhood, you can reap oodles of health benefits throughout life.

Friday

More Pretties

Not much dolly news to share today. We have been busy outside while the weather is still reasonable and have planted a couple of Camellias. One in front of my studio window (we've tried other things, but had no success), it's an informal double called Hawaii. The flowers are so pretty and it's not expected to grow very tall, so should still let enough light into the house.

Camellia Japonica Hawaii

The other, a Paradise Petite Pink, will be planted in our courtyard, where we have just finished adding a new larger patio. Unavoidably, the workmen destroyed a small section of our garden when they had to bring the concrete in, leaving just enough room for a slender plant.

Camellia Sasanqua Paradise Petite

This will grow up to 1.5 meters tall and just 1 meter wide, so should be perfect there.

The patio looks great, but we are still waiting for the balustrade to be installed. I will post photos when it's all completed, as it just looks like a big bluestone blob right now!

Next thing on the agenda is repainting all my old pots terracotta, to match the more recent additions.

Hopefully there will be a little time left over for dollies. :)

Have a wonderful weekend!

Hugs,

Monday

Autumn Gardening

This time of year is often when I have less dolly time as the garden needs some attention. Earlier on we pulled out all our lavender shrubs as they were getting woody and infested with red mites. This left spaces that needed to be filled, and fill them we did!

We planted a dozen azaleas which are looking quite lost in the space but the three colours we chose will hopefully look like this when they flower.

ANNA KEHR

CLIFF'S CHOICE

RED WING

We also planted lots of these colourful leaf plants under the trees. They are shade lovers so hopefully we will eventually get some decent ground cover where we find it almost impossible to get anything to grow.

Can't remember the names of these plants, but the burgundy leaves should make a nice contrast with the light green leaves on the plants along our fence.

Well that's about all for today, be back again in a few days!
Hugs,
X

Wednesday

Consolidating

Over the past few days I have been mulling over the future of my blogs . . . and I have a few! However, I have decided to combine them all into one, so you will see much more of what I sew and knit for the many dolls I own, who will become my store models.

Hannah's two way jumper/cardigan and pinafore is AVAILABLE NOW!

I've also spent many hours, days even, looking for a platform to sell my dolls clothes that didn't sell mass manufactured merchandise, but there's really nothing. Both Etsy and eBay are now inundated with stuff from China. In the mean time, you can always contact me through the contact form on this blog if you see something you are interested in.

-oOo-

Now for some other news . . . Smug Mug has bought FlickR, so I have given them the flick and have decided to store all my photos on my own external hard drive, which I will have access to when ever I wish, without paying someone else for storage.

So there you have it in a nutshell, until next time, have a wonderful weekend everyone!
Big hugs,
X