Bamboletta Blog

We headed down to the Farmers Market early this morning for first dibs on some yummy, fresh. local strawberries. Ben and I then spent the morning cleaning and freezing them for the winter. The market here is fantastic, there is everything you could want and more. I found a wonderful lady that sells fresh poultry and veggies from her farm every week. I’ve learned a lot about organic farming and eating from her the past few weeks. Her products are fantastic.

Those two Babies are my latest venture in jointing with doll joints. Little gal on the left has no hair, I’m waiting to hear back from a customer about what kind of hair she’d like on her. The other little gal will be up for sale either today or tomorrow on Naural Pod ( www.naturalpod.com ) . I’m working on a fairy next, inspired by the srawberry season! Im going to go to the ‘Loom’ yarn shop and see what kind of strawberry fairy hair I can find for her. I love making the fairies so much, you can just go crazy with them. When I was little I used to be obsessed with them, my mom says that when I was around 4 or 5 I used to think that dragonflies were fairies.

Well, gotta go and wake up Ben from his nap..

This is my new little guy Samson. He’s one of the 12″ dolls that I just made up. I’m trying to make up more of these smaller dolls, they are such a nice size for little ones. Benji has a 12″ doll , Emily, that is just perfect for him. Most of my customers are buying dolls for their 2 and 3 year olds and the 17″ dolls are just a tad overwhelming. When I was checking back on the Natural Pod site though I noticed I have a lot of Caucasian dolls..well, they are all Caucasian. I hadn’t noticed everything had sold off. So, next week I’m going to work on adding a tad more ‘colour’ 🙂

So today we bought a minivan. It’s a 2000 Toyota one and it’s a pretty goldy/pearl colour. I NEVER thought I’d ever get a minivan..ever, but they really are practical. With the new baby coming and next summer’s Farmers Markets, I think I’ll get some good use out of it. It just seems like such a mom thing, you know? I should just come to grips with the fact that I am a mom..ha, ha!

I’ll get some pics up of the new and improved Baby dolls tomorrow. One will be posted on Natural Pod tomorrow for sale. Her name is Stella and she has the most fantastic hair. One of the yarns I used on her is handspun by Lorna, the owner of Westcott Farms where I am getting my wool from. She has these beautiful dark brown sheep that she got the wool for this doll from. So, it hasn’t been dyed..just carded and spun..beautiful! It’s a bit of a yucky day outside and I can’t get a good shot of her so I’ll wait until tomorrow.

We’ve become obsessed with the show ‘Lost’. We’ve been renting the series on DVD and it has taken over my life. Anyone else obsessed with this show?

I can’t believe I’m having a baby in a few weeks, it all seems so surreal. This pregnancy has been so much easier then my last one, I keep foorgetting that I’m pregnant. I guess running after a 3 year old all day takes your mind off things. I feel pretty prepared though. I have a doula lined up and I *love* my midwife Jane. We are going to try for a homebirth but I’m open to whatever happens.

I’m tring to finish up some orders and get as much stuff on at Natural Pod as possible. I’m not sure how well new baby and dollmaking will go together. John is going to try to get 3 months off paternity leave which would be just dreamy. I’m fielding wholesale requests weekly and had a huge American company enquiring about the dolls a few weeks ago, but at this moment my focus is to be a mom. After baby is born, I’m going to really look at Bamboletta and where I want it to go. There are a few crafty mamas that I met in Cobble Hill that I think I can get to make my smaller dolls like my Pouchy, Blanket, Toddler and Lavender Cuddlies. Then I can make the Babies and various sized Bamboletta’s.

Speaking of my Babies (the cloth kind), I’ve redone how I joint them. I love the button jointing, but it isn’t the most sturdy if you have a rambuntious young child. Kids love to spin the arms round and round and round (because they can!) and the previous jointing would snap. Anyhow, I started looking at how teddy bears were constructed, ones with articulated limbs and wanted to construct the Babies the same way. I ordered in some joints and through some trial and error am really pleased with the results. I dislike that they are plastic, I hate for anything plastic to be in my dolls, but, I figure it’s better then a child playing with a doll and it’s arm falling off! Not a good scene!

I have to say a big THANKS to my good pal Devon, who gently reminded me of how lame a blog that is updated monthy is.. she is starting a blog soon about her photography and we have decided to become blog buddies and make sure that each other posts regularly. More on her when she get’s up and running….

I love where I live! This is what we did this morning.