Upload UPDATE

Here's my group of new dolls ready for new homes!  The three pictured will go up in my Big Cartel shop at 2pm EST on Tuesday, 2/22/11.  Please welcome:

Kennedy (dressed in The Melamoose Co.  http://www.themelamooseco.etsy.com/ )

Violet

and a special Apple Fairy!  She is wearing a special OOAK outfit from REFRESH ( http://www.aliciaverdier.etsy.com/ )

These 1st 3 dolls will be available 2/22 at 2pm EST http://www.appletreehouse.bigcartel.com/

Wait.... there is one more!  Li'l Ashley is the 2nd doll in the BooFeeMooTree collaboration series... that means 4 people played a part in her creation!  Ashley of Li'l Blue BOO provided the fabric and styling for the dress which MelaMOOse crafted.  Li'l Ashley is wearing some very special underpants made from a fabric with Stephanie CorFEE's baby bubbles print (available on Spoonflower.com), and the doll is by me (hence, the TREE....my kids actually picked out all the yarns and her eye and lip color... nice job, huh?!?) 

This doll is very near and dear to my heart, so she will be offered comment style on Facebook starting at 8pm EST on 2/20/11 and ending at 8pm EST on 2/21/11.  If you are interested in having the chance to have her reserved for you, simply leave a comment below the special post / pic on Facebook within this time frame.  At 8 pm EST on the 21st, I will randomly select a name out of a hat and contact that person who will then have 24 hours to purchase her.  If I don't hear back in the allotted time frame, we start over, or I give in to my kids and just keep her!!

Upload 2/22

The next upload will be on Tuesday, February 22nd at 2 pm EST... that will be 2/22 at 2!  There will be 4 dolls... here is a pic at another special gal that needs a name.  If you have any suggestions, please leave a comment below.  I will post more pics of her and the other gals very soon.

xo Debra

OUT OF ORDER!!

Things have gotten a bit out of order on Facebook lately... the new page layout for businesses are now being arranged by what Facebook deems to be the most popular posts.  Not to crazy 'bout that... I love being able to look at pics and reply to your posts there, so please don't think you are being ignored if you don't get a response, I may just not be able to find you! 

With all the chaos, I have still managed to finish a couple of dolls.  Here's a pic of one gal, she is wearing a fantastic outfit by REFRESH, especially made just for her!  The details on this OOAK outfit are amazing...  Alicia of REFRESH is thinking of a name for her and she will be available soon....

xoxo Debra

Doll Making Kits & Cool Art

I love yarn.  I mean, I really love yarn.  Especially expensive art yarns.  I have lots of yarn.  There is yarn pretty much everywhere I turn.  It is so wonderful to be surrounded by and get to use such fantastic materials in my craft. 

All of this yarn has got me thinking it is almost time to offer doll making kits again.  The first batch will be offered to the mamas who were interested last time and will be slightly different in that the floss / threads and premade heads will no longer be included in the kit.  This will lower the price a bit and afford several opportunities to the home crafter.  I love going to the craft store (or even Wal Mart) to buy the embroidery floss used for the eyes and lips.  There are so many beautiful colors to choose from, and you can even work at matching a beloved child's eye color or a detail in a special fabric.  By selecting your own skin tone threads you will have the ability to use as much or as little as you like, and you will also have extra on hand in case a little first aid is required.   Making heads does take some patience, but it gives such wonderful insight into how the wool "works"... by taking the time and effort to make your own head, you will inevitably have a nicer result stuffing the doll.  I will be updating the instructions to include directions on how to make the heads.  I will be e-mailing the mamas from the last go around by the end of the month and then offering kits on my BigCartel site soon after. 

On another note... I asked Stephanie Corfee http://www.stephaniecorfee.com/  to play around a bit with the Individuality Is Healthy art she created for me last year.  This is what she did:

Isn't it fun?  I am going to order a couple of these and they will be prizes in upcoming giveaways.  I have a couple different fun things in mind... stay tuned!

xoxo Debra

Upload 2/10

I have gotten so many incredible new art yarns lately.... so many, in fact, that I couldn't decide what to use for the next doll!  It seemed like a Facebook Fan Designed doll was in order...  I started with a medium tan body, and this is what I wound up making:

Her name is Maya and she is wearing a beautiful dress from The Melamoose Co.  http://www.themelamooseco.etsy.com/   .  I will put her pic on my Fan Page at about 9 am EST Thursday 2/10/11.  If you are interested in having a chance to have her reserved for purchase, simply "LIKE" the fan page and leave a comment under that pic before 2 pm EST on the 10th.  At 2 om EST, I will randomly choose a name from the comments (with extra entries to all who helped pick out all of her particulars) and contact that person, who will then have until 9pm EST to respond and purchase her. ♥

This was loads of fun for me and I will definitely do one again soon! 

xoxo Debra

Random Stuff

This is Molly.... I will be putting her in either BigCartel http://www.appletreehouse.bigcartel.com/ or Etsy http://www.appletreehouse.etsy.com/ within the next 24 hours... I am hoping she will be a wonderful surprise find for someone!

I am planning on doing more varied style uploads as the spring progresses.  That means there will be some on Etsy, some in BigCartel, some comment style on Facebook, some random, maybe even a comment style one here!  I hope by mixing it up that it will give as fair as possible a chance to as many mamas as possible. 

XOXO Debra

Dynamic Duo!

Introducing....The Apple Tree House Super Heroes....

Alicia the Atomic Apple 

Able to look fabulous at whatever she does


& Kung Fuji Kevin 

 Able to chop enough apples for cobbler in one swipe! 




I am planning to put them into the Etsy shop Friday at 9 am EST, if anything changes, I will put it here as a new post and on my Facebook page.  Please make sure you are familiar with all shop policies before buying!  Also, please do not click blindly or get a doll because you fear you won't be able to get one later... there will be more dolls soon (and I am on the hunt for help with some of the behind-the-scenes part of the business to free me up), so there is bound to be one that is just perfect for you.  I have many, many more dolls I want to make...if you could only see my yarn stash...      :o)

Special thanks to http://www.themelamooseco.etsy.com/ for supplying such fabulous apple core-ture for the dolls to wear this week!  I am looking forward to many more collaborations with Mel.   I hope to have some Lil Blue Boo for this new size doll soon.... they are super busy getting their spring line together as well as preparing for Trunk Shows.  If you haven't pre-ordered yet, please stop by and check out what is new. at http://www.lilblueboo.bigcartel.com/.