On Wednesday, the girls and I went over to my parents' house to work on a Raggedy Ann doll for Clara. My grandmother started this tradition 45 years ago and made either a Raggedy Ann or Raggedy Andy for all of her grandchildren (except one if my memory is correct). She was also able to make a Raggedy Andy doll for her oldest great-grandchild, but I'm not sure if she was able to make any other ones before she passed away 8 years ago. My mom and I found the Raggedy Ann pattern in my grandmother's sewing things that we took with us after she died and my mom has been making all the Raggedy Ann's for my girls and nieces since then. She's also helped her sister and sister-in-law make them for their grandkids. So, she asked if I wanted to help her make Clara's. This was a great opportunity for me to learn how to make them, too, so in the future, I can carry on the tradition. She showed me how to do the embroidery on the face, which she feels is the most personalized part of the doll. She also showed me how to sew some of the trickier parts of the pattern (all while making it seem so simple!). We were able to get all of the body sewn and all but one leg stuffed. Even Hailey helped out with the stuffing! That also meant that 3 generations were working on the doll at one time...so special! You could almost count my grandmother in, since it was her pattern, but I'm sure she was with us in spirit and loving every minute of it. Once the leg is stuffed and sewn on, we can finish closing the whole body up and then start working on the dress and apron. I'm hoping to go back this coming week to work on more of it.
Last week, we noticed that we have a lot of yellow ladybug-like beetles eating our leaves and fruit of our zucchini, cucumber, pumpkins, yellow squash, and green bean plants. I looked it up online and found that they are called cucumber beetles and are big garden pests. So, in trying to keep an "organic" garden going, we all went outside on Tuesday night to attempt to "collect" the beetles. They are fast flyers, so it was difficult. The neighbor kids thought it would be fun to help us, so we said, "Sure, come on over!" The swingset eventually became more enticing for some of the kids and after an hour of chasing and collecting them, we hadn't made much progress. I decided to put "Sevin" dust on the plants in hopes it will control the bugs. I often think back to earlier times when farmers didn't have the pesticide treatments we have now and how challenging it must have been to overcome some of these obstacles. They also had much bigger gardens than we do!! The drought we are having this year is also not helping at all. The 50 gallons of water our rain barrel saves for us anytime we do get a passing shower gets used up in one or two waterings. Plants respond so much better to rain water than tap water. Thank goodness we aren't dependent on this garden to feed us through the winter, otherwise we'd be going hungry for several months.
On Saturday, Brian and I tried out our new hardwood floor cleaner (LOVE it!) and got some much needed cleaning done. We did some more cleaning this morning and then went over to my parents' house in the afternoon to see my aunt and uncle who are in town for the week. Such a fun week!
The cucumber beetle. Supposedly, the striped ones do more damage than the spotted ones.
The neighborhood kids helping out (and getting distracted by the swingset).
Cutting the material to make the Raggedy Ann body.
Drawing the face guide lines on the material to show where to embroider.
Drawing on the lines to show where to add the hair.
Laying the pattern out to cut out the dress.
Almost completed legs.
Both my mom and I did the embroidery on the face.
Getting there!
Growing so fast!
They were having so much fun playing through the window!
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