New year, new adventures.

Howdy friends! Long time no see, I know. I think my last entry in this doll making journal of mine was somewhere around beginning of December, when I was jumping up and down celebrating the fresh-to-press event of the Big Fig doll pattern. I have been active everywhere else but here, so I thought to do some sort of recap for those of you who do not follow me on the other channels.

First, as any Canadian, we must discuss the weather. Oh yes. The temperatures here leave much to desire for, as we’ve hit -35 C (-31 F) quite often. I have tried to document this on my Instagram stories for those of you who cannot believe humans endure such a thing. Just today I heard that a close-by town holds the record for the lowest temperature (recorded) in Canada: -70 C. I can’t even.

Aside this bit of rowdy weather, the beauty of winter at such temperatures is just astounding. Everything becomes crystal clear, the air carries such a different quality, the sound travels different. It is very hard to put words to express what nature becomes at this stage of the mighty Canadian winter. Just take my word for it, beauty beyond comprehension. Starkness.

You feel SO alive. As the cold penetrates, you feel yourself from the inside. It is a gift. One I am not always willing to experience by leaving the house I must confess. But I try.

I got a pair of snowshoes as a Christmas gift from my beloved, he knew how much I wanted to go out in the deep snow. So now, the snowshoes look at me reproachfully when I do not venture past the entrance door. Luna adores romping through the snow, so I must oblige every now and then, though we wait until it warms up closer to -20. Otherwise the poor pup doesn’t last much outside, never mind me, dressed up to eyelashes in wintry clothes. She has to brave the conditions in nothing but the fur mother nature gave her.

Aside wintry adventures, planning a whole year of doll making shenanigans (who am I kidding, I can never plan that far ahead), I tested the waters of Live interactions on Facebook. People! I must confess, I had so much fun doing this. Can’t even explain why but it is true. I was in the house, surrounded by dolls, talking about dolls, to people on the internet. So not much different than writing it all on the blog though it felt ginormeously interactive and fun. If you were there, I thank you. If you watched it later, thank you again. I must repeat this because it truly was very cozy and I felt very happy afterwards. Now you can see the level of crazy I get up to.

Here it is if you don’t believe me!

This event was advertised via party invitation sent via the newsletter, so I am very sorry if you missed the Live thing, but you can always re-watch it and check out all the dolly goodness. I am going to download it, edit it and load it to YouTube as well for those of you who do not have Facebook accounts. it is very long and I do not have permission from the YouTube overlords to post such lengthy faffing on their platform. The cheek.

Another thing I have been yelling everywhere, maybe not yelling but I have mentioned it several times, is that I reorganized my Patreon channel and things seem to be going really well. I am so excited with the content I am creating over there, the conversations sparked and the requests from all of you through Patreon, I can’t really thank you enough. Honest.

First of all, I opened two more tiers. Patreon is a membership thing, for those of you who have never heard of it. You susbscribe for a month or two or however long you desire to stay current. During the time you are a member I share new content with you every month. Last year I was publishing some 4 videos per month and I only had one tier, to keep things as simple for me as possible. I was trying to “ease into it”. Get to know the platform, my limits and learn more about videos and all that.

Well, 2018 went really well. I wasn’t sure I was going to keep doing it this year, as I have many other very important projects, but somehow the thought of stopping the videos made me feel very sad. I liked the rhythm, I liked the challenge, and above all I liked that I had to force myself out of the doll studio cocoon and think about other people, creating things outside of making the dolls and expanding my thoughts regarding doll making.

So I decided to give it another year. I don’t know how long I will keep the Patreon adventure, but for now it is here to stay. During this year I have three options for you to participate at your level of involvement in doll making, as well as your budget.

You can join on my Dressmaking Series, where I share one in-depth monthly video on the construction of an item of doll clothing. If all the time you have right now is to make something for the dolls at home, or you want to learn to construct better doll clothing then this tier is for you. I don’t actually give you the pattern pieces but I show you step by step how to create the item. Sometimes all we need is to see someone else do it. We can figure out the rest. If there is a pattern for you to buy, download or fetch I will always provide links or coupons if it’s one of mine.

But let’s say you have more time in your hands and you want to dive deeper, so I have my new Doll Making Series. Another monthly video where I share one aspect of the creation of an art doll, made of cloth and wool of course. By joining this tier you are now receiving two lengthy videos: the Dressmaking and the Dolll Making. Every three months I will hold a Live Q&A session for my Dollmaking Series patrons and after the fun I had with the Facebook one I think this one is going to be great.

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A doll’s journal. The story of Poet as she goes through the year. By Fig and me.

But the tier that I am the most excited about, the project that is one of my most heart-consuming adventures is this one: A Doll’s Journal. Poet is finally going to have a dedicated space for herself every single month. I aim to publish a monthly journal for Poet, tidbits of her days or one big adventure, it is up to her and what she went through that period.

That will not only force me to spend more time with her, poor neglected child, but also to write more about her and to make little movies of her. Some months the journal will come as a PDF full of photos, other times it will be a little movie. But every month Poet is going to be sending you a letter and a postcard by mail! How awesome if that?

I think is brilliant to try and keep in touch with the people who actually read Poet’s journal, it is after all a very small close-knit group, and to send them a package that they can touch and see. They can of course collect all their postcards, or give them away, but I plan on doing little treats every six months or I don’t know, as Poet sees fit. She is a very generous soul so I can only imagine what she is going to want to do. Brace yourselves.

This project is everything to me at the moment. Some of the postcards just arrived and I can’t wait to sit down with Poet and write the letters and address the envelopes and send them away. What a special thing for me to do, you have no idea how much I love this project. I go to bed at night dreaming of things to create in this arena. I haven’t felt this excited in months.

So for now that is it. I am rather busy, working on one girl who is playing moody with me so I am just letting her take her time. I am also designing a new doll (we shall see) and working away preparing everything for Doll Folk. I won’t have any dolls ready for you this month but I do hope this girl gets a move on and we can get snippets of her very soon. If she is who I think she is, she will take us all by storm. Believe.

Sending warm hugs and fortitude to brave Father Winter, I shall see you all very soon.