It wasn't fun, but it had to be done.

I took a look at all of my dolls recently and realized that I had a lot of work to do. In the past week i went through all of my dolls and did the following things:

• dolls that are no longer up to my standards have been taken out of my shop and will be ued for materials
• dolls that are still acceptable, but not quite as good as i would like them to be have either undergone reparative surgery or are severely discounted -go take a look
• most of the dolls have been redressed, many of them with wonderful dresses made by Adria Tate, better known as Belle Fille. You can go visit her etsy shop HERE
• some dolls got beautiful new accessories - I think i crocheted constantly over the past week or so...
• all pictures got a pretty new frame to give my store a pretty cute new look. Now i onoy have to make a new banner to go with it :-)
• several new dolls are coming soon - all new pictures can be marveled at on my facebook page. Veelana's Design on facebook

just thought i'd let you know what i've been up to :-) here is my pretty new store front - see you soon, i still have to show you the awesome customs i made in the last two months.

Keep creating, Vee

lets try this again...

Hello everyone,

i just realized that it has been almost two months since i posted something...

I started november so well with the daily posting and then it went down hill. We were very crafty this december (we have so many great handmade decoratons now!) and my son loved it. the holiday stress didn't catch up with me this year, but we got all the important stuff d.o.ne  anyway - cooki -es, presents, decorations - and we had fun doing this more relaxed approach.

I'll try to post some pictures at some point  because our tree was awesome again this year :-)

January has so far been nice - i have a custom doll order to work on and we have all kinds of stuff to organize. Mr. Turtles starts school in september and the whole application process starts in a week. Also, I'm trying to get organized in my home :-)

Vee

Top ten tuesday best boardgames for families / Brettspiele für Familien

We are passionate boardgamers, and since games make wonderful christmas presents I thought I could share some of them - maybe they are useful for some of you? My DH (darling husband) prepared this awesome list for you :-) Thank you, hun!

Wir sind mit ganzem Herzen Brettspieler und weil Spiele sehr schöne Weihnachtsgeschenke sind, dachte ich mir ihr wolltet warscheinlich gerne ein paar tips haben. Mein LM (lieber Mann) hat netterweise diese tolle Liste für Euch zusammebgestellt :-) Danke, Schatz!

A good family game for me is a game that has enough strategy as to offer

differnt strategies to win the game but enough luck so that the little ones

don´t get crushed. I also do not believe in holding back and letting children

win. I do not mind getting the outside track to make it harder for me, but

it is really important that children learn to lose, to win and to think.

 

niagara

Nice little game where too much greed leads to sunken boats. 8 and up

 

verflixxt

A game to be mean. Some kids like that, some don´t. No one knows your kids better than you do.

 

zauberstauber

A racing game to be played on a tabletop. It is great fun to learn to move you vacuum around.

Be prepared for your kids to get the hang of this faster than you are and you won´t ever win again.

 

maulwurf company

My favourite. It´s easy, It speeds up and it´s a challenge for young and old.

 

toru

A reaction game. The children should be older and you must make sure that players

do not get too competitive or this may lead to injuries.

 

ninja vs ninja

Kids just love to beat figures from a board. This game only takes 5-10 minutes and is great fun

6 and up.

 

robotics

Build little robots to order. It takes a little planning, so again for larger kids.

 

klondike

A very cool dexterity game from haba. You have a metal plate and put differently colored

marbles on it. Now you try to wash out all the rubble and keep the gold while the other

players bet on your abilities.

 

dixit

A very nice social game of associating pictures. Kids can play that easy as soon as they are in school.

 

zap zerapp

A race where you have to pick figures and listen closely on how much movement they allow you.

But get too greedy and you stay in your space.

Spielefest 2011

Boys Don’t Play With Dolls. Or Do They?

Tweet I wanted to write a blog about boys playing with dolls, but there are so many good ones already, so I thought I'd just do a link up today :-)

Boys Don’t Play With Dolls. Or Do They? by Picklebum

Boys and Dolls “My son plays with dolls. Will it make him Soft or Gay?” by Easy Peasy Kids

Girl toys, boy toys, and parenting: The science toy preferences in children by Parenting Science

His first (written) word!

Tweet  Mr  Noodles is getting the hang of this whole "writing" thing. One of the cards in his workboxes told him to do sommersaults, but he decided to do cool sommersaults - and he wrote it on the card without any help from me. Yes, it is spelled wrong. No, I don't care. I'm terribly proud of him!
ust in case you're interested - Purzelbäume are sommersaults on the floor (or matress, in our case) and the right spelling would be "coole" NOT "Kulä" but he sounded out his letters and that's what he came up with :-)

Mr Noodles kriegt langsam raus, wie die Geschichte mit dem Schreiben funktioniert. Auf einer Karte in einer seiner Lernkisten steht "Purzelbäume". aber er beschloss, "coole" Purzelbäume zu machen - and er hat es ganz ohne meine Hilfe auf die Karte dazugeschrieben! Ja, er hat es ganz falsch geschrieben. Ja, das ist mir ganz egal. Ja, ich bin stolz auf ihn!

Vee

Top Tip Tuesday Toys for Boys

Tweet Boys, huh? what should we give or make for them for the holidays? What to tell friends and family when they ask you and you don't want to end up with boxes full of shiny and new plastic toys that nobody ever plays with? I love the handmade suggestions I posted last week, but here are some more ideas, especially for a smaller budget

We love adding to toys that our kids already have - it keeps the toys fresh and interesting.

• Lego - there's still room in our lego box and Mr. Noodles gets better at building and constructing with it all the time
• wooden train set - you can always use mor tracks or bridges!
• Star Wars figures - it might be something different for your kid, but Mr. Noodles loves Star Wars and every new figure goes into the collection and gets played with. You know what your kid is a fan of - Dinosaurs, cowboys and indians, superheros or soldiers...

I don't place restrictions on these things (friends and family can gift this)

• Books (age apropriate and hopefully interesting) in english and german
• Puzzles
• Boardgames (people need to check with us first to see if we have something already)
• Art and Craft Materials

Vee

Last moments of fall

Tweet I'm really crafty at the moment! I'm at a handmade christmas market next next weekend and I have to have lots of nice things to fill my tables :-)

Ich bin im Moment richtig produktiv - nächstes Wochenende bin ich auf einem Bastelweihnachtsmarkt un muss meine Tische natürlich mit vielen schönen Sachen füllen :-)

We still had a chance to enjoy the last beautiful fall colors in my friends garden - but now the trees are bare and ready for winter.

Wir haben im Garten meiner Freundin die letzten schönen Herbstfarben genossen - aber jetzt sind die Bäume winterfertig und das Laub ist zusammengekehrt.

Handmade for Boys Part II/ Handgemachtes für Burschen, Teil II

Tweet Looks like I inspired some other people with my "handmade for boys" Post on friday - I've been featured in this awesome treasury:
Anscheinend hat mein "Handgemachtes für Burschen" Post vom Freitag Andere inspiriert - ich bin in diesem tollen Treasury:

Silent Saturday - Laminating my heart out...