Re-Designs For My Swaddling Babies Baby Fabrics

One of my all time favorite doll designs is my "Baby Nicky" doll. He's a baby shower centerpiece doll that I designed based upon my grandson "Nicky" who has the most wonderful, curly head of hair you could ever imagine. I just LOVE it and would love to swap hair with him. Of course, he hates it.

If you've been following my Linda's Blog you know that "Baby Nicky" is involved in a lot of what goes on in "The Dollie Storage Room" and was the impetus for my "It's Raining Baby Showers" product lines.

When I was designing new patterns a couple of years ago I wanted to design some more baby shower centerpieces and favors or ornaments to compliment "Baby Nicky."

While thinking about what to make for favors I  thought about my grandson, Nicky, who was born 31 weeks premature.   He had spent 9 weeks in a special care nursery and I remembered that the nurses would wrap him in a swaddling blanket which allowed them to easily carry him around. They always looked like they were carrying him around like a football.

The nurses taught all the family members how to bathe, feed, and dress Nicky so I learned how to wrap my grandson in a swaddling blanket. So, I thought maybe a favor with baby heads sticking out of a swaddling blanket would be cute and created a couple primitive favor ornaments.  I loved the ornaments shown in the picture at the start of this post that I decided to create a new line  of custom fabric designs for my baby shower fabric lines and designed the Swaddling Baby Heads Fabric Designs Collection.  

In thinking about what kind of graphics to create for my "Swaddling Babies" designs I wanted graphics that were adorable and fun. I also wanted fabrics that you could coordinate with each other and make wonderful baby shower decorations or nursery home decor gifts from.

For The Love Of Flowers and Dahlia's

I just LOVE flowers and have since I was a little girl. Our next door neighbor also loved flowers and she had the most beautiful English Garden. I can remember just standing there admiring all the beautiful flowers and thinking of creating a beautiful bouquet with them.

So, I decided that at the age of 8 or so that I should have my OWN garden - just like my neighbors.  I hounded my parents for months on end one year to let me build a garden of my own. I wanted to plant dahlia's as they were my most favorite flower. My Dad always encouraged us to try new things so he agreed, but the catch was that if I wanted my own garden I would have to create it by myself and would have to be responsible for maintaining it. He'd be there to help me, but the work would all be on me. I, being a cocky little thing, said "okay" I can do that.

So, the spent the better part of the weekend one spring digging up the soil, putting rocks around it for a garden edging, and planting my dahlia bulbs. Well, the 1st year that my garden was in full bloom I had the MOST BEAUTIFUL display of color you'd ever want to see. I had red, yellow, pink, white, and maroon dahlia's - all different sizes from colossal to the little patio dahlia's. I was so pleased with myself. That wasn't too hard.

Well, as the summer went along like any 8 year old I soon lost interest in the weeding and maintenance of my little garden. My Dad knew that I would which is why my garden was in the side yard and not on display in the front yard - like my Mom's garden. Like a good gardener she weeded her garden every night.

So, my garden fell to the weeds. That didn't bother me as I was at the end of the season and next spring I could start anew. My Dad mentioned to me that dahlia's were tender bulbs and would not survive the harsh New England winters. I would need to dig the bulbs up and store them in peat moss for the long cold winter and then plant them again. I, of course, thought that was too much work so I opted to leave them in the ground and put lots of pine needles over them for a blanket. My Dad just smiled - knowing full well that this wasn't going to work, but he let me have my way.

Well, of course when the spring came my dahlia bulbs were nothing but mush. More like dahlia soup.  And, of course, they did not sprout. So, that spring I had no garden and no dahlia's. I did however, learn my lesson and the following year after my dahlia's had bloomed I dug them up in the fall and stored them in peat moss to replant them the following spring.

To make a long story short - I never outgrew my love of beautiful natural flowers. That love was my impetus for designing my floral custom fabric designs.  Of course I created dahlia designs.

A Beautiful Swan For The Feathers Design Challenge

I don't know of any better way to start the day or for that matter start the new year than looking at something exquisitely beautiful. Do you?

When hubby and I were walking near a reservoir last winter near our home we were greeted on our walk by an amazingly beautiful and majestic swan. She seemed to have found a winter home just near and under a bridge on a local reservoir. Most of the reservoir was covered with ice except for the area close to the bridge.

Whenever we saw her we had to stop and just admire her beauty. She was unbelievably white and so graceful to watch. She inevitably sensed  us and would go under the bridge. Sometimes she'd just stay where she was and seemed to be looking at us.

A couple of times she has decided to walk on the ice and snow covering the rest of the reservoir. When she did that it was amazing to see how big her footprint in the snow was. Quite extraordinary.

During the summer we often spotted her with a mate. Where the mate is now is unknown. Why she was here in the winter also was unknown. I often wondered if she stayed there all day and slept under the bridge at night.

So, I decided to take some pictures of her. What I didn't realize until I viewed the pictures was she had a tag on her back left leg. You can see it in the picture at the top of this post. Who tagged her and why I don't know.

She was just so incredibly beautiful and such a beautiful image to start the day with. Wouldn't you agree?

After taking those pictures of her I had thoughts of creating a swan doll.  That hasn't happened yet but when I saw the Feathers Challenge on Spoonflower it became the impetus for creating my new swan custom fabric designs, which us shown below:

The Feathers Design Challenge Fabric

I created her fabric showing a mother swan and her babies because hubby and I believe she flew to another reservoir in a nearby town to give birth to her babies.  Driving by that reservoir one day we saw a beautiful white swan and several babies.  It had to be  her.  We were so delighted to see this and so happy to know she survived the winter and has a family of her own now.

P.S. I didn't win the contest but I loved creating her and hope you like her, too.  

When It Comes To Books Grandma Knows Best

When the 7th and final book in the wildly popular Harry Potter series entitled "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" was released in July 21, 2007 I thought it would be a good idea to introduce one of my grandsons to the series.  In thinking about books and my new "We Love Books" collection of products I thought I'd relate a story about the series and my grandson that you might enjoy.

Back in 2007 I was looking for a birthday present for my grandson. I wanted the present that his Grandfather and I gave him to be one that was "THE HOTTEST ITEM" among adolescent and teenage boys at the time.

I had read that one of the hottest and coolest items among adolescents and teenage boys was "The Harry Potter" Series of books, which then had only 3 books in the series. So, I decided we'd give him the 3 hardcover books that were in the series.

Even though this was the "hottest" ticket item it was a gamble for his Grandfather and I. You see, my grandson wasn't a reader. But, I figured peer pressure would create enthusiasm for him and maybe he'd discover a love for reading.

Well, he opened his present, smiled and said thank-you, but wasn't really thrilled. We'd bombed out. At least we thought so until the following year when "Harry Potter" really took off. Then the teenage boys and adolescents couldn't get enough of Harry Potter. Harry Potter mania had set in and all of a sudden we (that is his Grandfather and I) were just the "coolest" grandparents as our Grandson already had the first three books in the series and was "the man" among all his friends.

Even our son-in-law was enthusiastic about the books and decided to start reading them to our youngest grandson for his bedtime stories. It took awhile but they got through the first 3 books and decided to buy the 4th book in the series.

Well, not to be outdone by their younger brothers our older teenage granddaughters decide to read the series, too. So they, too read all three of the books in the set we had given their brother and then read Book 4.

After that they moved on to Book 5, then Book 6, then Book 7.  They all read all of those, too.

Our grandson ended up loving the books. I'd love to say that he became a reader because of it. He did and he didn't.

He has become a reader - just a reader of a different kind of book. You see - he loves the Japanese cartoon books that you read from back to front like "Inu Yasha", "Fruit Basket", "Juvenille Orion", and the "Trigun Maximum" series.

For me, the Grandmother who gives books every Christmas that's terrific. At least he's reading. Doesn't matter whether it's comics or not. He's reading. So, I just buy him the latest comic books in those series.

In fact, all of my grandchildren know that when it comes to Christmas presents that some of those will be books.  And,  believe it or not, they look forward to them.  After all, when it comes to physical presents nothing lasts longer with children than books.  That's a win-win in my book. No pun intended....lol

Books and reading gets them every time. LOL At first my grandson's enthusiasm was lukewarm.  When the mania ended his enthusiasm was he couldn't get it fast enough.  Grandma definitely knows best when it comes to books.

So, the moral of the story is that - "Just because a present isn't initially received with the greatest of enthusiasm doesn't mean it won't be appreciated over time."  When it comes to books Grandma knows best!