46. To my lovely readers

To lovely readers of my little blog

I am sending sincere greetings

May you have beautiful Christmas time.

Federico Barocci, La Nativite, 1597, Madrid, Musee du Prado,
Source: Internet

*

45. And now Marianne

First Maya... And now Marianne is leaving... Marianne who I sometimes called Patience has found a a very special home. I am glad, but I can't help it that I will miss her. 
Thankfully there turned up a new doll in our house.

If you would like to have a look at Marianne's story, it is here. 

I will try to pack Marianne and post her as quickly as possible so that she would be with her new friend in time for her 9th birthday just before Christmas

And here is a photo of Marianne before her flight to a new home. "Is it far?" - asks the doll. "It is not if you go by plane. You'll be in time, I am sure." - I calm her and Marianna looks delighted. 

I say goodbye to Marianne.She will be very much loved.
What more could a little doll ask for?

*

And here... 
There is a new doll on my table who would love to spin HER story.

A new dolly

*

Thank you for vising my blog. 
Enjoy the rest of your week!

44. Maya is leaving...

This is one of the latest photos of Maya taken before her journey. 

YES! 
Maya has found a new family of her own. Soon she will meet them. She is happy. She is so excited but also a bit anxious, so she sits on the bed and starts playing with Marianne's little basket.

H'm... I'm beginning to think that I will give her this basket. Her journey will be nicer then. "What do you think?" - I ask Marianne. "But of course. Yes, you're right." - she nods

Apart from the clothes I have made earlier Maya gets a lovely woolen cardigan, colourful leggings nd warm bootees. "They will be very useful for the upcoming winter." - I say to Maya and wink at her. The dolls giggle and Marianne notices. "And your hair is longer Maya. Your plaits are lovely."

*

Bye-bye Maya! 
A lovely little girl is waiting to love you.

43. When it rains

Basko Polje near Baska Voda in Croatia

Now when it rains almost every day I like looking at my summer photos. 

This year we spent two weeks in Croatia. I remember when we reached Zagreb we decided on taking a road not a motorway. "It'll be better, you will see." - said my husband. "OK." - I agreed and added. "Yes, great. We can see more of Croatia then." And so we drove southward towards Makarska and Dalmacija.

42. Maya wants to play

Maya is a Waldorf inspired doll. It is a cloth doll.

She is about 14 inches tall. Maya is all made from natural high quality materials: a special swiss cotton jersey designed for dollmakers, clean washed sheepswool, hand embroidered face and certified woolen mohair for hair specially produced for doll making.

As she is made of sheepswool. Maya is soft, warm and nice to the touch. It is very pleasing to hold her and cuddle. She smells of home and gives her little friend a sense of security.

Maya's clothes are made from natural good quality materials. 

She has a blue cotton dress embellished with a colourful ribbon, her sleeves have a white ricrac edging. Maya's dress is easy to put on since it is cut at the back. It has snap fasteners with complementary buttons.

And of course as a Waldorf doll Maya wears a pair of little cotton underpants. 

She has pulled on elastic waisted loose trousers with a white ricrac edging and lovely buttons as embellisment. The trousers are white with green leaves. 

Maya also has violet mohair bootees I hand knitted using little jenny wren pattern. 

I took the same yarn to crochet Maya's band to tie around her hair. 

Maya has hair in brushed mohair. 

There are more pictures of her in my gallery over here.

She is currently waiting to find her own special family. 
If you would like to take wee Maya into your heart  and offer  her a home, 
she is in my Etsy shop. 

You can also send me an email at

kbm.1507[at]gmail.com

Maya is suitable for children aged three or older.

She can't wait to find out what her new home will be like.

41. MAYA, a new Waldorf style doll

I'd like to introduce you to Maya. She is my new doll I hand made in a Waldorf style.

Maya is a sweet little girl standing around 14 inches tall. 

She has light skin, blue eyes, pink lips and rosy red cheeks. 
Her facial feature are hand embroidered and her cheeks are coloured with a wax crayon. Her hair is very soft white mohair crocheted into a cap. Occasionally it can be delicately brushed with a comb.

Maya loves playing a lot... She is a wonderful companion.

However, from time to time, Maya is cross with me I do not know why, 

and then she does not like chatting. Luckily it does not usually last long...,

Come on, don't be cross with me, Maya! 

because she quickly forgets and is happy again.

Maya is wearing a pretty blue dress, white and greenish trousers and violet blend shoes. Her playful little ponytails are tied with a white ribbon. When there is a special day Maya ties a band with two flowers around her hair.

I made her with a lot of love and attention to details, 

and it was such a fun to be with her all this time.

Maya is waiting to find her own family and is hoping for a wonderful adventure in her life. She would like to give huggs, smiles and fun. 

Thank you for visiting us. 

Have a nice day!

40. Waiting for the ferry to Świnoujśćie

What am I going to work on now? I haven't decided yet. Meanwhile I cleaned off my table and went on an excursion...

It was Sunday afternoon when we set out for Świnoujście. It has always been a bit of a problem when driving to Świnoujście, the last Polish town on the borderline with Germany, because it is situated on two islands. To get to the main part of the town one has to take a ferry. Sometimes the waiting time for the ferry is two hours!

As expected we saw a long queue of cars in front of us. After fifteen minutes' time we gave up and decided to withdraw.

What to do?.. We heard there was a nature reserve about here, but actually never had time to visit it. We might go there now, why not. Let's try and find it!

Very soon we found out it was a good idea.

A couple of swans

The reserve is called Karsiborska Kępa "Birds' Sanctuary" and it is situated in the region of back delta of the river Świna. The landscape is greatly diverse with over forty isles and the river meandering among them. From time to time a tourists' ship turns up. Lovely place, peaceful and quiet.

The reserve itself consists of broad meadows and pastures. Soon we were in the fields of grass waving in the wind all around and we heard birds' singing.

Some horses were grazing in the pastures nearby. They were quiet and admirable... 

On the horizon we noticed a group of cows... 

Since they were far off we started strolling in their direction stopping now and then. 

Unexpectedly we saw them quite near. They were moving towards us, 

some of them even running, what was worse they were on the same path as we. 

Probably they crossed wires fencing the fields... 

We quickly retreated, and the cows.. after a while they left in the direction of the river.

Polish primitive horse (Konik polski), specific Polish breed with beautiful blue dun hair coat.

Here you can see some local farmers' horses grazing in the reserve pastures from spring to autumn.

In the neighbouring village there was an interesting mediaeval church from 15th century. 

And the flowering grass everywhere. 

Heron or crane? Who knows. 

The path where we saw cows.

We had a lovely afternoon here. 

The next day I wanted to go back to this lovely place. 

Thank you for your visit.

Have a nice weekend.

39. What is Marianne like?

If you visit my Etsy shop you will meet Marianne there. She is 17 inches tall.

MARIANNE is a lovely Waldorf girl-doll, a true doll with soul. She is ready to love 

and hoping she will find a home with someone to play with soon... 

She is waiting impatiently  for a new adventure in her little doll's life.

Look at my bow? It is such fun!

What is Marianne like? She is a gentle loving doll. 

She will be the best companion for a girl at the age of four or more.

You will find more stories about Marianne and plenty of her pictures in the previous posts - 

about the beginning of our acquaintance, then about her character and a long dress, and at last about where she came from. 

Or you may just click the label "doll Marianne" at the bottom of the blog .

Below "Marianne's description". 

Marianne is a Waldorf inspired doll. She is about 17 inches tall. She is made from a special smooth fair toned cotton jersey designed for dollmakers (swiss cotton with Oko-Tex label). She is firmly stuffed with clean, carded sheepswool, but soft enough for hugging. Her head is created in the traditional Waldorf style. Marianne's simple facial features are embroidered with floss. Her face is delicately coloured with wax crayon. She has coloured cheecks and nose. For her hair I have chosen several kinds of different woolen yarns, like mohair and boucle, of different thickness and colours. I made her hair by applying strand by strand to the embroidered head. It is very strong. Her hair can be changed, and it needs to be finger styled.

Because she is made of sheepswool, Marianne is soft, warm and nice to the touch. It is very pleasing to hold her and cuddle. She smells of home and gives her little friend a sense of security. 
MARIANNE comes with two complete outfits of clothing: 

Two pairs of underwear, long dress and petticoat, a nightdress, cardigan, bootees, pixie bonnet, shawl, blouse, trousers, bootees/socks, hair band to tie hair and ribbon. 

Her clothes are hand washable only! and laid flat to dry.

Marianne is suitable for children 4 years old +.

The doll herself and all her clothes are made from natural materials: her underwear, dress, petticoat, trousers and a nighgtdress from cotton; bootees, cardigan, shawl, hairband and ribbon from wool,

For more information about how to care about Marianne visit my blog ("Waldorf doll care tutorial" page).

Thank you fro dropping by.
Have a nice time!

38. A forest lake

Do you remember when Marianne wanted a long dress? 

I thought it was one of her new fantasies she was always ready to make up
. She usually had many stories to tell especially on our evening walks by the sea. Most often we climbed the cliff. 

And when we approached the wooden stairs descending to the beach she sat at the top and looked at the sea glittering  down in front of us... 

Yes, Marianne liked the sea. 

**

On that day we went to the forest. When I stopped at the parking area, we saw a little forest lake nearby. Marianne ran to the small wooden pier, sat down and happily looked around. Oh, the place was so admirable.

Light blue clouds were mirrored in the water alternately with the reflections of the trees 

growing on the bank. We were enchanted by this stunning landscape.

When I looked around I had a feeling I had been here before. But no... the point is that the lake with the surroundings resembled another place with a very similar forest lake 
I had been to. Hence, the impression... Yes, it was there where I met Marianne. Just a moment, how did it happen..?

Oh, yes. I remember there was something wrong with my rucksack. I turned my head and saw little legs and arms sticking out of the rucksack. And then I noticed Marianne...

But now Marianne sits at the end of the pier watching reflections in the water and enjoying a quiet time beside the lake. Suddenly she saw an old spider's web. She settled herself opposite the web, leaned against the embedded post and started jogging the web lightly with her foot.

"Be careful, you will fall into the lake."

In answer she smiled at me knowingly. - "Do you remember?" I nodded and said to myself "very clever indeed".

"How did it happen that you were in my rucksack?"

"I came from a fairy-tale land. " - I heard her pleasant voice. 

"I asked you for a long dress, because once upon a time I wore long dresses.." 

I looked at her and Marianne, I could swear, she winked at me...

In a moment she wasn't here. She was running down the path to smell some forget-me-nots growing by the lake. It was all fairy-tale.

We had a lovely afternoon in the woods walking, listening, seeing and talking.

**

Thank you for stopping by.

Happy days.

37. Marianne's dress

Much to my surprise Marianne told me she would like to have a long dress.

"I'd love to have one. It would remind me of something." - added she.

"Really?" - I was still taken aback. 

So far I have never made a long dress. My dolls did not ask me to do this. So it is going to be for the first time. 

And I started picturing a dress for Marianne. 

I remembered a lovely long dress I saw on Gabi Moench-Ford's "FairyWoolDolls" blog  

whose dolls I really admire. Suddenly I wanted to make a similar dress for Marianne.

***

When it is getting cold Marianne puts on a dark and red shawl knitted from the same wool  

as her bootees and a ribbon for her hair..., and a funny yellow pixie bonnet.

As you can see the bonnet is warm and big enough to be easily put on her hair .

Sometimes Marianne wears a cardigan. 

She really likes it, especially when she plays outdoors and it is cold.

When we strolled yesterday it was chilly.  

However after a while the weather changed a bit and we even had some sunshine. 

Marianne immediately took off her hat...

.

Thank you for stopping by.
 Have a nice day.

36. Marianne

My latest doll Marianne should be named Patience after she had to put up with how slow 

I was working on her.

I must admit my dolls have always been willing to cooperate with me and somehow tell who 

they want to become. But first I must find in them something that expresses them and helps determine their little personalities. When it is unveiled the dolls start telling their stories. 

Marianne was no exception. I knew, from the start, she was going to be really special, 

so I was glad we would spend more time together than usual and enjoyed it 

as I created her. 

Soon I could carry out all I planned out in my head . 

I like sewing little clothing. I like creating the dolls' faces.  

***

Since it stopped raining and the weather was getting fine, we decided to go on a trip. 

From Międzyzdroje to Kamień Pomorski. After fifteen minutes' drive we turn into a local road with old high trees growing along the road on both sides. 

What a lovely old avenue! 

Watch out!  I say to myself. It is very narrow... and these trees.

On the right there appeared a flowering rape field.

What is it?  Marianne asks.

"Rape field." - I say.
(On the way from Wolin to Kamień Pomorski in Western Pomerania, Poland.)

We stopped for a moment and had a walk in the greenish-yellow bush. 

Only after we returned to the car did we realise that the rape was wet from a recent rain. 

Our clothes! They were caked with wet yellow pollen...

Keep an eye on us. 

Soon Marianne will be looking for a new home in my shop.