One nice benefit of Earl’s broken foot is that the weekends are nice and quiet- just the way I like them! Hmmmm…..maybe he should always have a broken foot….LOL! I just shared that with him and he didn’t think it was very funny at all! Seriously, though, it has been so nice to focus on dollies and handcrafts. Good for my soul.

Speaking of Earl’s foot, his cast comes off on Thursday! Depending on how the x-rays look, he might be put into a walking cast which will be so much nicer for him than the dead weight cast he has now. I can’t see why he doesn’t love it- it’s so cheerful and colorful, wouldn’t you say?
(Ugh, don’t look at the disgusting, always messy blue carpet!)

Last night I made one of my favorite dinners: corn chowder and fresh biscuits. Yes, it’s pretty heavy on the carbs, but when I’m ambitious I also make a green salad. The weather was so dreary yesterday, this soup was the perfect cozy meal.

I don’t think I posted about the Peddlar’s Fair that Carmen and I went to last week. It was in old Folsom and it was all vintage goods and antiques with a tiny smidgeon of handcrafts. Carmen, my tea drinker, was excited to find Red Rose animals offered. One booth that I was excited about was all vintage purses. Every decade from the last century was represented right up to the 1980’s. Remember long handled Liz Claiborne purses? When I worked at Weinstock’s they were the must-have purse after Dooney & Burke. Anyway, it was a treat for the eyes! Then, this week, I was lucky enought to find this blog throught Sweetheartville for more purse love!

But, I digress. What I wanted to say about the Peddlar’s Fair is that I bought this very cute Dolly Dingle paper doll sheet. And it’s the real deal too! From a 1930 edition of the Pictorial Review. I have always loved the embroidered pancake dolls of the twenties and once I got this paper doll, I couldn’t put it off any longer! I have this great 1915 doll pattern that was a gift from Mary Colgan of the Vintage Cloth Dollmaking Yahoo Group. I modified it a little bit and this is where I am at so far:

I must admit, I am in love! It’s so fun to make something different than another EFA and I am so digging the vintage vibe. Wait till you see the fabric I have for her dress! Oh, and I will be embroidering her little combination suit too. I am coloring my little Dolly Dingle with PrismaColor Pencils which is also what I use for cheek color on my EFA’s. You absolutely must see this darling site, Dollkind, which is a celebration of 20th century dolls. I found this very cute tutorial there which is getting more of my gears spinning!

This weekend is exactly why I want Tender Arts to become a full-time endeavor for me. This is how I want to spend my days, not answering phones and typing legal descriptions. I’m getting too old to be doing things I don’t love. I am not content to wait for retirement. Having said all that, I am scaling back my plans for the business for now. I think I will have to go with just the web launch for the moment. Hopefully, that will net enough money to afford some time off from my day job so that I can increase my inventory enough to actually do a live show. I can’t work full-time and build enough inventory to do a show. *sigh* I’m just one little old set of hands.

Speaking of the web site….that’s another hurdle! Building a web store is harder than I thought! I went with Homestead and I don’t think they are the problem- I think it’s me! I want a custom looking site and I don’t have the money to pay for a web designer and I don’t have the time to teach myself. If any of my readers have experience with this kind of thing AND like the stuff I make, maybe we could work a trade. To give you an idea of what I want, Inspire Company is one of my very favorite web stores. If you think you can help me out, leave me a comment or email me at bettsi_mccombATyahooDOTcom.

Anyway, if you’ve made it this far, gentle reader, I hope you are having a lovely weekend also! Hugs to all!