more pictures of Collina

Office and parlour

I have had a lot of requests for more pictures of my house, so I have added some for you all to see. "Collina" was built inMississippi in 1835 by a Judge for his bride. It originally was a small plantation with about 150 acres. We now have 9 acres and every form of wildlife you can imagine! Deer come right up to our house where we feed them; we have every type of bird, fox, wild turkeys, you name it! Even those pesky armadillos that root up our yard. My husband and I restored Collina over a 3 year period. I used to run a B&B, but now my dolls consume all my time! Hope you enjoy the pics!

Here is another doll completed for the show; she is "Bella" and is 27" tall cloth with clay face. She is dressed in an 1840's style dress with an antique lace collar.
                   Gone to a new home!!!
         

New dolls

"Topsy Turvy" doll

Gone to a new home!!

Miss Mandy in her 1850's dress, cape and bonnet

Miss Mandy

Here are some of the newer dolls I have made for the show

Doll displays

Hi everyone! It has been a long time since I've posted anything, but I have been very busy preparing for my huge craft show sponsored by the Mississippi Craftsmen's Guild in Jackson, MS the first weekend in December. I am posting pictures of the booth display. My husband has been so wonderful in creating the fabulous room settings that set the dolls of to perfection. As you can see, we have done a "practice" run by setting up the rooms in the huge entry foyer of our house. They are not totally complete (I will be making drapes for the windows, decorating the Christmas tree, taking a canopy behind the bed, etc., and Doug needs to add shutters to the porch scene. He copied the windows and doors to look like those in our antebellum home, and the porch scene is a replica of our rear "verandah". Each room scene is 8' long, 3' wide and about 3 1/2' tall. I have been planning this whole thing for almost a year, and I really think it was worth the effort! My booth at the show will be 10' by 20'. Wish me luck and I will post pictures later of the actual booth at the show. Hope you like the pictures of some of the new dolls. I hope all of you have a great Thanksgiving!!

It has been so long since I last posted anything! It has been a roller coaster last few months. My husband, who had been diagnosed with blood clots in both lungs in April was doing very well, and then towards the end of May he started coughing again and was short of breath. They did an Xray to find that 80% of his left lung was surrounded by fluid. So back into the hospital he went for another 5 days while they put a tube in to drain out the fluid. That went very well, and he has had two subsequent Xrays and all is clear! We missed a family reunion over Memorial Day in Florida as he was in the hospital, so we are going next week for a few days to my brother-in-law's beach house. We will be able to see at least one member of the family! Needless to say, I wasn't doing much doll making for a while, but now am going full blast again!! Talk about full blast; the temps here in Mississippi have been in the 90's since April. I love the heat, but it has become even too much for me! Anyhow, I've added a few new pics of my newest creations. I'm trying to get as many done as possible to prepare for the big show and sale in December in Jackson hosted by The Mississippi Craftsmen's Guild, of which I am an exhibiting artist. Doug is helping me create what I hope will be a really spectacular booth display. I'll take some pictures of it and post here. Hope everyone is having a great summer.

The past week has reall been a life-changer for me. My husband started complaining of shortness of breath, and then some lower back pain. I wanted him to go to the ER, but you know how most men are; they say they're "OK". The back pain intensified until he couldn't take a deep breath. Off to to ER we went and none too soon. He was diagnosed with blood clots in both lungs. The left lung had a clot blocking the pulmonary artery and actually caused about 10% of the lung tissue to die from lack of oxygen. The doctor told him if he had waited another day or two, it might have been too late. Needless to say, he is a VERY luck man. He also has pleurisy as a result, which is inflammation of the tissue layer surrounding the lungs. He just got out of the hospital yesterday, after 1 week. He will be on blood thinners for 6 months at least, and will have to be monitored frequently, but he will be fine. If I can stress anything to all of you: If you feel anything out of the ordinary, have it checked out!!! Even if it seems like "nothing". Now that things are sort of back to normal, I'll try to get out to the studio and work on the dolls again. Obviously, the "creative juices" dried up when all this was going on. I'm getting ready to start on more Civil war dolls; a little boy brother for Miss Isabella and also some little Black children. Will post photos!!