One of my most cherished items from my childhood was my Madame Alexander doll, Twinkles.  I would not trade her for anything.  Twinkles once had to go to the doll hospital, she had lost most of her hair and had to have a new set of braids.  I remember being so forlorn until she finally returned.  She now reigns over my sewing room from a perch on top of the book case.  She and I have gone through many things together.

I love passing on to my granddaughter things that I liked when I was a child, now that she is six I think she is big enough for an American Doll.  I hope she enjoys her doll as much as I enjoyed mine.  These  dolls come with their own name, this one is Isabelle but I don’t care if she changes her name.  It is HER doll, and she may think she needs the name of Carol or Shira or Lola.

My granddaughter will receive her doll this Christmas, along with a box of clothes for her.  As you have probably already guessed, clothes made by grandmother.  Making these clothes has been a wonderful walk down memory lane.  My mom spent many a late night sewing not only doll clothes but also clothes for my four sisters and I.  I have to wonder if she enjoyed making the clothes as much as I have enjoyed making these, sewing a bit of love into each stitch.  I made the dress that Isabelle is wearing from the book “Doll clothes for every day play.”   It matches a dress I made my granddaughter this fall.

Did you have a favorite doll?  Do you make doll clothes now?

Christmas is upon us, only 40 days until Santa arrives so it is time to start planning the decorating!  We love it when our children and grandchildren come for the holidays.  They love the decorations and festivities that make coming to the farm so magical.  One of the traditions we started when the grandchildren were little is that they always come decorate the tree for us.  We get all the tree decorations out and they get to choose not only what they want to hang but where they want to hang it.   As you can imagine, out tree is heavily decorated on the bottom and gets sparse decoration near the top.  We have done it this way for years, the first year we moved a few of the decorations but they noticed immediately when they came back so now each one stays where it is initially set.

This year the table will be decorated with these fun tree napkins. The children love to cook and even like to set the table so I can’t wait to see their faces when they set these beautiful napkins out. Perhaps it will inspire them to use napkins a bit more!