Teru and His Buddy

Teru and His Buddy
Originally uploaded by rhubs knit

I love this fellow Teru and now his special buddy! This photo somehow shows how sensitive and gentle this boy is...!

The girls in my life

There use to be many girls and boys in my life when I taught.  They already use to enjoy my alter ego who was not becky my ball joint doll {see her blog:  http://rhubsknit-beckymyalterego.blogspot.com/), but at that time was a beaver puppet Bucky.  Why when I was going to talk about the dolls in my life did I start talking about my toddler/preschool class?  I know yesterday when I was on facebook I suddenly saw the girls I had taught almost all grown up and young women.  You can see the photo of them the preschool girls now all grown up done by Tanja Olsen one of the parents I had in my class who is a professional photographer.  The photo is at: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/photo.php?fbid=485072582147&set=a.480844827147.261654.761777147  I am so glad that they all still get together now and then.

Now rather than using puppets for my alter ego or devil's advocate, I use dolls and no longer do I teach but I make jewelry for the dolls, knit and crochet items for them.  I actually started to really get involved in crafting at SWPCC where I taught those girls who have grown up by doing the crafts with them and enjoying them unlike at past preschools which were more involved in a pretty outcome so the child didn't actually make the items in the long run without the help of the teacher.  I loved Southwest Parent-Child Collective as they really supported my style of teaching and my philosophy of teaching which was Developmentally Appropriate Practice:  DAP as the children get to experience and learn from what they experience and the curriculum is based on their interests and where they need to stretch themselves.
Then today on facebook a friend Melanie of Melacacia Art Dolls on facebook, she was worried about talking to her doll momo a blythe doll about feeling bad about selling her on ebay of course now she is coming to me, but many of us let her know we all talk to our dolls.  I actually think it helps us keep our sanity and joy.  It reminds us of the child we once were and still are inside.

You can also find Melanie's dolls on a blog at this sight:  http://melacacia.blogspot.com/  The name of her blog is Art and Dolls by Melacacia.  I believe I refer to her blog at the side of this page although there are quite a few doll blogs I follow.

  

The last weekend I was suppose to go to a xmas ball joint meet. but it was up in Vancouver, the USA one, and raining hard so instead I stayed home.  I will try to make it in the spring, but I love going to the blythe meets here they are so full of life and after most people leave I will wait until we are down to four people and talk and wind down some before going home.  Above is a xmas card I made with picnik.  The actual photo to your right shows the photo that I took in low light with the iphone and added the shadows using iPhoto on the mac.  There were a few other photos I took, but so many of them were in low light that they really looked grainy.  I really wish we also had a momoko meet here, but of course that would be pushing it.  A friend I made online named Blue takes the most increible momoko photos another doll made in Japan.  You can find her photos if you are on flickr at:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/blue-is-me/

I have taken very few momoko photos as I started collecting them a few years earlier than blythe dolls which I believe I started collecting in 2006 so I must of started to collect the momoko dolls before I had even a camera or phone that was digital back in 2002 or 2003.  So I only have a few photos of them.  Here is one of  my more recent photos with one of my blythe girls Vinter Arden and with my momoko Harvest Moon.  Both the girls just arrived.  One day I will take a photo of each type of doll family, i.e. my blythe family, my momoko family, my lati bjd. family and my Jaime family.  I have around 30-50 each, except for my jaime family of four, so I may have to break them up into smaller groups and make a triptich or use some other technique for the groups. As for my other dolls like the licca and maba barbies, takara barbies and the japanese mattel barbie family as well as the USA barbie family and other mattel offshoots made in japan and later other places; I won't even try to take a photo of  rather they may just appear in a photo.

These dolls though keep me human and remind me of the dreams of the caring child inside!