Old Dogs, New Dolls and a Flag Dilemma

I had planned on posting last week but Mildred was ill so I was very preoccupied with that. Turns out she was very dehydrated. She's been on fluids and is now on the mend. Looks a bit like a hospital around here!

I know you aren't supposed to pick favorites, but sometimes they pick you. Mildred and I are madly in love. She came from a shelter through lost and found. She can't walk so I'm not sure how she got lost (dumped???) but I'm sure glad she was found. Since she was special needs and elderly (not a good combo for a dog at a shelter) they called me to take her. She is a tiny 4 lbs and gorgeous (remember, beauty is in the eye of the beholder)! She has two luxating patellas in her hind legs along with some paralysis in all legs so she walks like she is very drunk. But, don't feel sorry for Mildred. She prefers to be carried...walking is highly overrated in her book.

In between all the dog drama I have been making some dolls. This doll may very well be THE best doll I've ever made. I am pretty critical of everything I make, but I really LOVE this little gal. She is on a stand and wears a dress made from an old vintage flag that I had. The flag was in very poor shape - torn, ripped, stained. So I decided to recycle it into a beautiful gown. Her star and crown are made from some vintage glitter that I just covet. I rarely use it because I love it so much. I keep it hidden under my mattress, because dreaming of using it is sometimes better than actually using it.

Okay, I will admit I struggle with the concept of making things out of flags. I know there are strict rules in the to abide by. I know flag code says that you should never wear a flag, does this apply to dolls...I don't know. I do know that I recycle as much as I can in my dollmaking. I am trying to exclusively use vintage textiles. I especially love when I can salvage something that is pretty much destroyed and couldn't serve any other purpose. These dolls are tiny, so sometimes I just need the smallest piece of something. After a little guilt and soul-searching I decided that if a flag was old, had served its purpose for a time, and was about to destroyed or thrown away anyway, why couldn't it be re-purposed and have life extended in a new way?

I visited my mom this weekend and guess what she had? Yep, a big bag of destroyed flags she was saving to properly discard by burning. These flags are tattered and torn. They have had the life whipped out of them by the wind, so they are perfect for my purposes! And my mom being a fellow crafter was happy to hand them over. So be on the lookout for some Americana dolls coming your way soon!

Goodbye Sweet Lenore

A few weeks ago we lost one of our dogs, Lenore. We had rescued her from a shelter where she had come in as a stray. The volunteer coordinator from the shelter called me because she knew as an older dog her chances of getting adopted were very slim (she was estimated to be 12-15 years old) - not to mention her disposition. Lenore wouldn't socialize with shelter visitors, she just stayed curled up in a ball in the kennel. You've heard that saying, "so ugly she's cute?" Well, that would probably apply to Lenore. When I picked her up from the shelter she licked the kennel attendant on the face and I thought, "Oh she's going to turn out to be a sweetheart." Well, I wasn't exactly right on that one.

My husband named her Lenore after the Edgar Allan Poe poem because this dog was like something Poe would've written about. She would bite and attack any dog that would come too close. She was feisty to say the least. She was pretty much blind, old and crabby. I don't know that she had ever been around humans much...she didn't have much use for us. She HATED to be held and would whip her head around trying to bite your hands if you picked her up. She had a cognitive disorder (similar to Alzheimer's in people) so she spend most of her days going in a circle. She never did warm up to the luxury of indoor living...she didn't like beds or blankets. Her favorite spot was on a towel on the kitchen floor. Though she never quite blossomed like some of the other dogs have, she did seem content. She loved eating, and especially loved treats. I miss her. I miss seeing her sleeping in the middle of the kitchen floor. I miss having to clean around her little curled up body. I miss her mournful bark. I'm glad she spent the last year and a half of her life warm, full and unconditionally loved. Goodbye my sweet Lenore.

Looks like rain...

Spring is here...it is actually going to rain. I LOVE the rain. I really do. I think I'm one of those people who could live in Seattle where it is cloudy all of the time. Rain makes me feel cozy. Sunny days just make me feel lazy and like I should be doing something productive. I choose cozy over productive any day!

Now, there is a downside to the rain. I have a few dogs that go crazy when they hear THUNDER. I've tried everything on this front. Tight t-shirts, Rescue Remedy, loud music. Nothing works. Ignoring them doesn't work...babying them doesn't work. The only thing that helps is when they get older and go deaf! This is Estelle (with her side-kick Wilkie). She is the worst about thunder. If there are a few clouds in the sky she starts to panic.

Luckily, I had already gotten outside and taken some pictures of my newest creations. This one has a dress made from a vintage flag I had gotten at the local antique mall sometime back. I LOVE her. Can't get enough Americana.

This gal is a little larger and she wears a skirt that is a gorgeous table topper I found at another antique mall. I almost didn't buy it because it was $9. I know, but I like a bargain. But, my husband talked me into it, so here she is. The bodice of her dress is made from vintage trim and some "buttons" that were from an old necklace of my grandma's.

And since I've gotten so much done today, I think a rainy day nap would be okay, don't you?