Dingle Darling, a sleeping baby

I began this little guy over two months ago in Marilyn Radzat's "Leaf Pod Baby" class at That Creative Place, but, due to the distractions of the holidays and ill health, I just finished him yesterday.



Meet my Dingle Darling. He is exceedingly easy to make, so I'm afraid that I went a little berserk with the embellishments. Geez, I love embellishments, LOL!



"Dingle" is a new favorite word of mine.

Din"gle\, n. [Of uncertain origin: cf. AS. ding prison; or perh. akin to dimble.] A narrow dale; a small dell; a small, secluded, and embowered valley.


The Dingle Cradle owes more to Jean Bernard than Marilyn Radzat I'm afraid. Maybe I'll be bored with them some day, but right now I can't get enough of vine-y things and Paverpoled fibers.

Hmmmmm... I think, looking at this photo, that I want to add one more little pillow puff to the upper right. It looks a bit hollow there. I have a tiny bit of that hand-dyed silk velvet left. It is the most luscious stuff!



Copyright restrictions forbid me to offer him for sale on my Etsy site. That's OK though... he's so cute, I think I want to keep him anyway!

Down for the Count

I have been so sick these past few weeks. I thought it was a cold, but it just kept getting worse and worse until I finally went in to the doctor, who gave me some medicine, and now I am slowly coming back to life. Gads I hate codeine-laced cough syrup!

Normally I am a rock. I'm the one who takes care of the ones who get sick. This one knocked me down for the count. I am SO glad to finally be able to draw a breath without gasping for air. Needless to say, it has been a long 2 weeks.

Today I feel almost human again. I actually had enough energy (and lung capacity!) to get up and play with the last details on my Dingle Baby sculpt. I don't have photos yet as the glue is still drying, but you can be sure I will post them tomorrow. It was so much fun to play again!!

In the meantime...




...we have a snow day here in Oregon. I know it isn't very much (especially compared to what I have seen has fallen in the midwest - oh my!) but we don't get very much here on the floor of the Willamette Valley, so when we do, things pretty much grind to a halt. The kids are happy though -- their Christmas vacation has begun early!

Checking in

I will be posting photos soon of my latest WIP, which is coming along slowly. I wish I had more time for creating lately, but the reality of the situation is that our country's crashing economy is taking its toll on our business as well, and I am needed to do other things. We have been forced to lay off one of our workers, and Jake is picking up that slack.

I don't really believe that things will ever go back to what we believed was "normal", but I also know that God has us in His plan. There is a place for us; if not here, then somewhere else. Some days my faith wavers and fear takes over. I keep fighting though -- I do believe that "this, too, shall pass."

Eventually.

I have been spending my "creating" time to get serious about building up my Etsy Shop. I have been having good results this past month, which encourages me to keep at it. I plan on adding a section of books and patterns this week as well -- oh, how I need to reduce my library, LOL!