Cedar, a natural fiber art doll ready to play.
Little Cedar has waited ever so patiently to come and meet you all. Let's not make her wait any longer, shall we?.
The morning starts always full of adventure with this little girl. When the first rays of light come through the old yellow curtains, she springs up as if awoken by a sudden noise. Big fat smile on her face, and quickly dresses while dancing and jumping all over the room.
This is one girl who does not like to keep herself inside the house. Out she must be. Trying to trick the chipmunks and tending to the moths that got caught in webs at night.
A quick breakfast of hot chocolate, whole wheat buns lathered in raspberry jam (we really should replenish the shelves mother says), a plate of stone fruit, all gone in a flash. She sneaks a whole potato in her dungarees, kisses mother on the cheek, and out she goes.
Why, must you ask? Go out so early into the dew-sodden garden? Oh because very early is the best time of the day, she says. You can see all kinds of birds busy greeting each other 'Good morning, good morning' they chirp back and forth.
You can witness the work of art of many spiders, with big fat and little fat dew drops, that warn you of their delicate ways.
You can get down and admire the patience of little snails, that try to get somewhere today. Slow and steady, slow and steady they seem to say.
Walking all the way around the garden, pass the tree line, into the raspberry bushes. If you sit under them you can pretend you are covered in rubies. But these are obviously better than rubies, you can eat them! And they are so tart and sweet and they come off the spiny branch so humbly. I love raspberries, and blackberries, and blueberries, and gooseberries, and salmon berries, and pin cherries, and all sorts of berries I do.
Once you eaten the fattest ones, and claimed a big loud Hurrah! to the squirrels and the birds. You were early, you were early, they were not! you can sit and plot the day's adventures under their shade. It's always much better to plot adventures under the shade of a raspberry bush I say. All sorts of good ideas come to you.
One, for example, to illustrate the mental progress of raspberry-induced thinking, is to go and stuff lots of cedar branches into all the chipmunk holes you find. These nut-activists are not aware of the bug-clearing properties of cedar, and one ought to tell them, or at least show them.
Would be better to do it with lavender, but then the poor nuts must end up tasting like it and we don't know if chipmunks take to that. One must not angry the chipmunks or they won't let you have a moment's peace the rest of your life.
After getting all your best ideas, while resting under and chomping on the bright red goodness of them raspberries, you can take a break. Yes, another break. Make yourself a good hammock with bracken leaves, or a cozy nest of moss and twigs. The forest is so full of things you can use, but you always have to ask permission first.
I like playing hide and seek under the big bracken leaves or play with the fuzzy-wuzzy children of the burdock tree. I collect lots of kindling for the fire, and always bring a garland of stolen treasure for mother to see. Though sometimes I forget to un-stuff my pocket and mother only finds it after doing laundry. All that treasure! all washed up! YUCK.
In the afternoons is better to play by the beach. The air smells so good and you can see lots of loons and ducks and other birds too. I like to sit in my mossy tree stump and watch them.
I count all the different bits of moss and lichen I can see and I've named quite a few. Funny thing is they change through out the years and I can't keep track of them. But we are good friends and when they are covered in snow I make sure to let them get some sunlight.
It's hot in the afternoon so you can bunch up your pants like I do and toss the hat and vest if you can manage. I know mother is always with one eye out peeking. I better keep the vest.
I like to collect wildflowers at sunset, when they have had a whole day of pretty light to collect. I get a spool of thread and I wrap them onto themselves and make myself a crown. I like big flower crowns best, and rubies for breakfast.
How about you? What are your day's adventures like?
Well, we shall cut Cedar's banter right there or we will never get anything done. I hope you are able to see a bit of her personality from this glorious description of what a day's worth of play and laugh looks like. Cedar is a doll full of mirth and hope. Those are the best words I could find to describe her. It is my deepest wish she finds a home where she can inspire both.
As all my dolls Cedar is made with all natural materials, a lot of love, patience and care. I decided to knit more intensely for Cedar than I normally do, but I think all those little things add a lot to her chirpy character.
Cedar is an 18" Petite Fig style doll, hand made by me. She is stuffed and sculpted very firmly with wool, she is covered in cotton fabric, eyes embroidered and freckles hand-painted. Her hair is mohair weft hand-sewn to a wool cap.
Cedar comes wearing this full outfit plus two little accessories we didn't manage to photograph: a linen scarf and a practical satchel (to store all her treasure). She is wearing a pair of cotton/linen dungarees, that close with snaps and have wooden buttons + a pretty hand-knit front pocket. Underwear is made of jersey, and socks made of vintage cotton ribbing. Her vest and boots were knit with wool/alpaca and are fine but hard-working. Her shirt is made of Liberty of London fabric, and her pointy bonnet was knit with angora/cotton yarn and has two wool felt beads at the end of its ties. At the moment I don't have access to a serger, so all clothing seams are just zigzagged, and not serged like my regular clothing. Hope you don't mind.
If you would like to bring Cedar home, please enter your details in the form below. Her price is $1250 USD plus postage (to the US/Canada $45, International needs a revised quote based on your preferred shipping method). Cedar will be taking entries until Saturday August 5th at 9 AM EST. At that time we will select a person at random to purchase and invoice will be sent via Paypal which is due then. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.
- - - Thank you kindly to all of you that wished to bring Miss Cedar home. She has now picked a very nice family to play with and we hope they all have a lot of fun together. I shall be back soon to introduce you to another little lady!.
Cedar
Enjoys sunsets, lakes and wildflowers in her hair...
If you are entering to bring Cedar home, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. It has been quite the adventure on this side of the screen, to bring her to life, to see her become her quirky little self, and to see one more of my dolls being born amongst the birch and the cedar, sung to bed by loons, and cradled in moss...once again.
I wish you all good luck, and will be back bright and early on Saturday to let you know of Cedar's fate. Any questions just please ask me by email at fabs(at)figandme.com
See you soon!.
