a surprise

So, I've been working on a doll for Fern's birthday. A long time ago, she said she wanted this for her birthday and she never changed her mind.... So I finally ordered it for her, since she really is so into baby dolls and not much else. She's not interested in pretend kitchen play (unless we suggest it and play along), and keeps stating that she doesn't want a dollhouse. She brings a baby EVERYWHERE. Along with the dolly changing table she said she wanted this. She wanted one with blond hair and blue eyes, and of course, blue clothes. She is so into blue everything. She told Grandma on the computer that she wanted a big big blue cake for her birthday. I'm not too sure about that, but I'm trying to include some blue into her birthday. I felt wrong about spending 105 bucks on a baby doll that she is going to drag around everywhere and possibly lose at daycare. So I decided to make one (and ended up spending almost that much in material and shipping...but it will make more than one baby, so I suppose it was worth it). It was alot of fun after some trial and error, and advice from a friend. It took me a while, but I'm sure the next time will be much, much easier. Will there be a next time? Who knows, but I had fun doing it, and I am soooo excited to give it to her in a few weeks!

I made 2 diapers for her out of old prefold diapers of Fern's. They have velcro fasteners for little fingers.

She has jointed arms and legs that move!

All dressed up! I created some blue accents to go with her dress. I bought Fern a dress with the same fabric for her birthday. I bought some extra fabric to make this baby a little dress. I thought it was turquoise, but it turned out to be more like a green, so I had to add the blue so that Fern would like it. I think Fern will like her dress if she is matching her baby's dress. She is always wanting to match me.

A little pocket baby. In my dollmaking book it says to practice on a few smaller dolls before attempting a large jointed doll. I learned that you have to stuff the head super tight in order to avoid the 'grandma with no teeth' look like this little baby has. After I made this first little doll, I jumped to the big one. not recommended!

I made little mary jane's with velcro closures. I used a pattern out of the book for the first pair of shoes I made, and they were ridiculous looking. So I designed these little blue ones myself.

A super soft snuggly blanket with lots of blue to go with her knitted bonnet, which I made for Fern when she was a baby. It fits the doll perfectly. Of course we didn't use it and now we will! so happy about that.

little hairclips that I made for Fern while back.

Her hair is made with mohair yarn. I quickly taught myself to crochet to make the wig of hair. It's much easier than knitting. Then I brushed it with the dog brush to give it a fuzzy look.

Ta dah!

craftiness

It's been a while, but here I am! I wanted to share our Valentines Day crafts. I made Fern some play cookies but they look more like little pastry puffs, mostly because I wanted to use what I already had around the house. And then Fern and I made Al some felt flowers. Fern had fun painting the leaves (I painted two sides but she wouldn't allow me to paint more than that). Then I cut the wire and felt circles while she was sleeping (you can use coat hangers but I happen to have a roll of bendable wire) and she put them all together with a bit of guidance. It was really easy and a great craft for a 2 yr old. Fern walked upstairs to wake daddy up with the flowers. It was pretty sweet. Check the other blog for pictures of Fern here in her heart-shaped glasses.

Fern runs a daycare here at the house. She always lining up the babes to feed them, laying them down for a nap or changing them. Here are a 'whole bunch' of babies in the midst of a diaper change. (She had run off to get some wipes)

She is talking so much these days. I wish I could capture (or remember!) all of the funny things she says. She's on a "I'm going to do my workstuff" kick right now. And then she grabs a pen and paper and my phone and a calculator and gets to work. I have captured some of her dance moves however - check out the video below:

Untitled from Ginger Haddock on Vimeo.

stinky skunks

I have the coolest friends. They do the coolest of things and knowing that they are on this island is what gives me sanity. They started "Garden Day" (which is probably what you think it is and more) and for about a year I was able to attend on Tuesdays, but my work schedule no longer accommodates that which is a huge bummer. BUT, they still have weekend celebrations of sorts a few times/month, and holidays are no exception. So we were looking forward to our Halloween this year. I've been reading Fern 5 different Halloween books (thanks to sister-in-law Jenn) for the past few weeks to build her up about the festivities. I partially made our costumes and had good intentions to make them entirely but just didn't have the time to make three of them.

Back to how cool our friends are...they tell the story of the switch witch who comes in the night to switch out your bag of candy for a toy. (I had also been building Fern up for this!) Fern collected about 8 pounds of candy so thank goodness for the switch witch! (And Fern walked the whole entire way by herself, even through the spooky jungle) She walked up to every single person and opened her bag wide saying 'trick or treat! give me something good to eat!' I'm pretty sure I had just as much fun watching this night as I did when I was a kid, if not more.
So, this morning, I woke Fern up and told her that the switch witch had come and left her a surprise. She was sooo excited to go downstairs and was happy to find one piece of candy and a play stove!

I just didn't have time to get any really good photos but here are a few so you can get an idea of our costumes. (I also posted some of those cool friends of ours...)

I made pizza decorated with spiders and jack-o-lanterns!

medley by Fern

The girl can't stop singing!

medley by Fern from Ginger Haddock on Vimeo.

dancing on Saturdays

This video is old, but thought I'd share anyway. One of our Saturday morning rituals. Nice droopy drawers Ginger! Time to buy some new clothes I suppose!

Untitled from Ginger Haddock on Vimeo.

closing down the park

from seed

I got this idea from a magazine article to make Fern some of her very own flower boxes that will someday be veggies if I can muster up enough sunlight somehow. (How is it that I live on Guam and yet have a hard time finding the sun I need to grow some things?) Anyway, Fern loves flowers, so she picked out some zinnia and phlox seeds at the store (almost a disaster...she wanted to open them and then eat them) and she planted them with dad's help. We've been checking them out every day, waiting for buds to form. Okay, I've been anxiously waiting for the buds to form-Fern doesn't yet know what a bud is. The first zinnia bloom made it's appearance the other day. The phlox is still tiny and I wonder if it will ever flower.

first bloom

several blooms later

Before the flower box, Fern planted some boonie pepper seeds and they are just now forming peppers. She gets it, I think. She talks about how the seeds turned into plants, I think. I love growing things from seed, especially seeds I collected from the forest. how very resourceful. :)

I ran across this lovely poem several weeks ago. I'm usually not one for poetry, but really loved this one, so I thought I'd share:

All things by immortal power,

Near or far,
Hiddenly
To each other linked are,
That thou canst not stir a flower
Without troubling of a star.

-Francis Thompson

boonie pepper seeds

flowering boonie pepper

Oh, and let's not forget the okra. We manage to get enough okra from two plants to have it with a meal every week. barely. Fern usually eats half of my portion and some of dad's. She looooves okra...so much that she's named several of her human and animal babies 'Oka'. She is definitely her mother's girl!

okra guardian

my girl

You would not believe how many things she lugged to the park with us that day...funny girl makes me smile. :)

Talofofo Caves

I needed a hike with Fern several weeks ago so Alisha and X were good sports and decided to join me. This was Fern's first walking hike outside of the Ergo. I had to carry her through the steeper parts but she was more than willing to walk herself.

in awe of the giant hole that is the cave.

having a snack and a chat with her Auntie Alisha.

Alisha and Xavier

The big girl carried her own gear.

Rehydrating before the return hike. :)

And running down the trail as fast as she could! She ended up on her face here. Did she cry? nope. not Fern. She's one tough cookie.