LITTLE DONNER O'DELL

Donner O'Dell is finally ready for you to meet. This little boy is Dory O'Dell's  younger brother and should have been finished days ago but I kept putting off giving him hair. I couldn't make up my mind as to how I wanted to proceed with this part of him. I had originally thought to give him crepe wool hair like his sister but then I had to decide what color to give him. I'd been leaning towards blond but it wasn't set in stone even with his blond eyebrows and blue eyes. Then I had to decide how to style his do.  Should it be short or should it be longer? Was it going to be thin and straight or thick and curly. I'd almost decided on shading his scalp with paint and then giving him a few loose curls on top. Because I couldn't decide he sat patiently in the little rocker waiting for me to make up my mind.

Here's what I finally went with....

He has been given a short thin do with a side part, and he's blond like I thought he might be. I see he's been to visit Mrs. Claus because he has two of her gingerbread boy cookies in the pocket of his romper.

For days Donner sat on my work table wearing nothing but his socks and shoes and his white hoodie. I finally got around to designing and sewing him a blue denim romper and red knit
T-shirt for that patriotic look.

Here are some photos of Donner with his sister. Dory takes after their father in looks while Donner favors their mother. Dory is nearly 13 inches tall and little Donner is nearly an inch and a half shorter.

 

Both dolls have paper mache clay heads and both are wearing paper mache clay shoes. Their bodies are made of muslin with painted arms and legs. Their rompers are sewn from the same blue denim that was a work shirt in a former life. Both dolls have movable arms and legs and can stand on their own if carefully positioned. Their heads can be turned side to side.

Speaking of heads. They keep multiplying and I now have 19 heads sitting there giving me dirty looks. Making bodies and clothing should keep me busy and out of trouble for a very long time. Especially if the heads keep multiplying.

We've been having some unseasonably warm weather this past week and the forecast is for another day or two of this before it cools off. I couldn't resist taking a trip to the nursery for tomato, pepper and strawberry plants. What I really wanted to find was an Italian plum tree but can't seem to find one. I know they grow here because my brother-in-law's mother had one on her property so I'll keep looking.

My granddaughter Ariel who is going to school in Colorado will be here for a visit and should be getting here sometime tonight so I may not have much time in the next few days to visit your blogs but will catch up when I can.

Have a great week and as always thanks for stopping by.

Hugs,
Maddy

WENDY'S PROJECT

 Wendy has been working on a special project and hasn’t wanted to share what it is until now. Our mom won some wonderful origami papers and a book on making origami figures in a giveaway from Orchid’s Daily Voice . Wendy wanted to see if she could teach herself origami so she has been working at it a few hours each day for the past two weeks.

You have no idea how hard it is for a polar bear to do something like this. Polar bears have rather large paws and making the folds takes a lot of patience and practice. It took lots and lots of practice, every day, and tons of patience. There were times when Wendy wanted to give up and admit defeat, but that’s not our Wendy. Nope, not our Wendy, she stuck with it.

First she used plain paper so she wouldn’t waste Mom’s special paper.

Once she had mastered a few of the figures she tried making a figure using the pretty paper.

And then she made more figures..

  Here she is making a turtle.

Here she is finishing up a cute little kitty.

Then she started teaching some of the rest of us to make origami cranes and frogs and turtles and after many failures a few pieces actually turned out looking like the pictures in the book.

Here's Bartholomew with his puppy that he is rather proud of.

Robbie and his pink bunny. It doesn't stand up by itself but it almost looks like the picture in the book.

Look at the cute beetle or whatever it is. Mom said she thought it was a beetle or a June bug.  Wendy likes the way the blue kitty turned out so she's going to give it to Mom for Mother's Day.

Even Mom got in on the fun and tried making a crane and then she made a turtle. Wendy said it was easier for Mom since she doesn’t have large paws. You should see the shelf above our TV. There are dozens of origami animals and birds.

Now we have another fun thing to do when we can’t go outside and play. It’s always a good thing to have plenty of options for having fun don’t you agree?

Since it is Friday some of our bear friends are posting so we’re going to spend an hour or so visiting with them. There are still 63 more sleeps until we’re going to be seeing everyone at camp. You all know we’re ticking off the sleeps on our calendar and wishing it wasn’t such a long time but Mom says that the time will fly by once the weather get nice enough for us to play outside.

See you soon.

Hugs,

Bellamine & Wendy

Prince Caden Turns One

Yesterday a young prince named Caden celebrated his first birthday at a party given in his honor. It took place in a park and there were many guest who brought the young prince gifts to show their love for the sweet boy.

The bottom photo  I couldn't get him to look at the camera no matter what bit of silliness I managed to do. This sweet little boy is my sister Maggie's great-grandson and my great-great nephew. Does that make us seem old? Or just great?

Have a lovely day and thanks for stopping by.

Hugs,
Maddy