Hard to believe I lost track of time and haven't visited with you here in months.

Maybe you know how it is.

It's been two weeks now and we are still looking for five pairs of missing fabric scissors. That's right, 5 individual pairs, not a set.

And don't get me started about pens. I think there is a black hole where pens are sucked into when we turn off the lights in the studio each night.

Oh, if I mailed you that plastic pattern template for the 18-inch DRD Baby Doll by mistake, just let me know, would you? Then I can quit looking behind all the bookshelves and finding only dust bunnies large enough to eat Seattle.

So, we lost a few months but now we are glad to have found our way back to our blog where we can share thoughts on life here at the Dancing Rain Dolls Studio.

I thought I would sort through your mail (thank heavens for email in-boxes) and then share the answers to the top ten questions DRD received while I was crawling around on the floor looking for missing studio supplies.  And while I pull together the results I hope you are having fun kicking fall leaves, taking a 10-second mom nap while stopped  behind a school bus, or just resting in your bathroom with the door shut, dreaming about that next Dancing Rain Doll project you would lke to make before the holidays.

Stay tuned!

I was grazing through the book The Creative Family: simple projects and activities for you and your children by one of my favorite craft bloggers, Amanda Blade Soule.

It is one of those books that makes you happy you are mom...even when the kids run off with your good scissors, play "build a sandcastle" with all the dirt from your seedling pots, lose your wallet somewhere in the house along with all the checks you needed to deposit four months ago, and you can't for the life of you figure out how to make a meal ALL your children will eat, let alone actually like.

The four sections Gathering, Playing, Living and Connecting are chock full of great ideas for fun family activities and easy crafts like family drawing time, a no-pressure pick-up-the-crayons gathering. Or how about her idea of holding informal yet productive meetings in bed---now that's MY idea of a good meeting. And I love the pattern for cute yet practical bedtime bags that store pj's and your child's favorite bedtime story.

One project I thought was so sweet and simple is her Joy Jars. All you need is a recycled jar and slips of paper. You can work with your child to decorate it with whatnots and crafting scraps with your kid to make it special. Brainstorm together as a family and think of different messages to write that will make the person you're gifting smile. A couple examples she shared were: "I love it when you call me angel"; "You have so many fun shoes, Grammie!", and "You make the best toast ever!" There you have it! A Joy Jar. What a thoughtful, easy way to teach gratitude and share love.

Amanda goes beyond showing us how to encourage imagination and nurture creativity. Her book, just like her SouleMama blog, gives so many no cost and low cost ways for us to spend quality time with our families. There is no need to run ourselves ragged transporting our kids here and there to keep them happy. Amanda's book reminds us that there are plenty of heart satisfying traditions we can start now at home with our families. Hoorah for summer and a little time to do them!

First off, I hope all of you have a wonderful Fourth of July celebration with family and friends.

Independence Day....picnics, watermelon, sparkers, fireworks, friends and family.

It also makes me stop to think of what that means to me as a mother of young children. I look at my kids and see how much they've grown up over the last year and yet they are still my babies. At 10 my daughter is quickly becoming a lovely, considerate young woman, a best friend and confidante. I love our moments chatting or just sitting together in the studio working on stuff together. And my identical twins! It seems like it was just yesterday that I had to color code their little socks to tell them apart quickly after they were first born.

Some days as a mother with young children, a business owner, a Waldorf handworks instructor and teacher-in-training taking classes, a house cleaner, a cook, a chauffeur, a gardener and a wife to my loving husband, I sometimes can feel a bit overwhelmed. Independence to take a peaceful nap seems a long lost luxury.

Yet, today as I sit reflect, I feel so blessed. I know that time goes by fast and soon my children will want their own independence, will want to fly the coop like our chickens here in the backyard. For now, I want to just sit quietly for a moment and cherish the freedom I have to love and be loved, the joys of sharing Dancing Rain Dolls with all of you around the world, the happiness of my life right now.

And just to help me remember these special days, I have a Mother's Memory book you can pick up used on Amazon for a penny (plus shipping)! Below is a nice page from it.

Many blessings,

Amy

PRIVATE THOUGHTS

Here is my recipe for a happy life; the ingredients are simple. First know yourself; you'll always know what to do next when difficulties arise. Second, live in the present; savor every minute because time is what we have least of. Third, never stop learning. One of the surprises of growing older is that the mind doesn't. Fourth, stay as wonderful as you are.

MY DREAMS FOR YOU:

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HOW YOU HAVE CHANGED MY LIFE:

___________________________________________________________________________________

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WHAT YOU'VE TAUGHT ME:

___________________________________________________________________________________

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WHAT I'VE LEARNED FROM LIFE:

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You can crochet a doll wig while relaxing at a campsite. (Check out our videos here on our blog if you need some pointers first!)

Or if you like to hand sew, grab a needle and thread, a pair of Gingher scissors and throw some fabric scraps in a basket and head outside to work on an outfit or two for the Dancing Rain Doll in your family.

I took a peek at my bookshelf which is overflowing and managed to unearth a few doll clothes books here in my ... umhum..rather large collection.  I always find some tidbit of inspiration in craft books, even "The Dolls Dressmaker" which has a lot of antique vintage clothes.

Here are a few titles I own:

BABY DOLLS AND THEIR CLOTHES - Valeria Ferrari

THE DOLLS DRESSMAKER - Venus A. Dodge

TWO-HOUR DOLLS' CLOTHES - Anita Louise Crane (she must sew a lot faster than the rest of us!)

SEW BABY DOLL CLOTHES - Joan Hinds

SEW THE STORYBOOK WARDROBE FOR 18" DOLLS - Joan Hinds & Jean Becker

SEW INTERNATIONAL WARDROBE FOR 18" DOLLS - Joan Hinds

And here's one I don't own but just saw on Amazon and couldn't resist including after reading the title :)

Not exactly Waldorf-esque but it may be worth checking out...

DOLL FASHIONISTAS - Ellen Lumpkin Brown

What if you would rather be holding a glass of wine instead of a needle and thread when you have that picnic outdoors? You can always go shopping online to buy doll clothes before heading outside to enjoy the summer sun!

I always steer people to the online store Etsy, a great site where you can buy and sell handmade stuff.

Here is just one of the many cute doll outfits on Etsy I found when doing a search for a "16" Waldorf doll dress". This pink set for $15 is made by the vendor Dragonfly.

Happy days in the  sun,

Amy

It looks like Spring is here! The rhodies are beginning to bloom purple and pink, the willow has a new green leaf skirt, and the thermometer topped 70 one day last week before settling down to the 50's again. Sunshine and the colors of Spring bring me energy. Something about shaking off the grey skies and the muted colors of winter wakes me up and makes me ready to dive into new adventures.

For some people Spring means using that new found energy to clean. It is not that I don't feel the call of the dust bunnies, but truth be told, I would rather be rummaging.

I wandered into a quilt store the other day. A husband was minding the counter while his wife was running a local show booth. Since the place was empty, I had plenty of time to browse through every thing, take down fabric bolts and play by making different arrangements of colors and textures. Free time to be creative without spending a penny!

Then the husband asked if I would like to browse through an entire room in the back where his wife had tons of old fabrics from a local store that had closed twenty years ago. Of course, I said "Show me the way!"

It was like a trip back in time! I saw a peach satin chiffon that reminded me of a horrible bridesmaid dress I had worn years ago. And look! There are plaid polyesters and acrylic large-scale flowered fabrics, orange, lime green and brown mystery weaves that remind me of shag carpets! The place was chock full---a cloth graveyard of fashion faux pas of the past.

But there I found another way to look at these remnants as I rummaged through them. These castoffs were calling out a challenge to me: "I dare you to find a way to use me! Can you be creative enough?"

My tiny practical side answered, "No way."

But, as I circled the room, plowing through table after table, I finally caved and said "YES!" to the creative challenge.

The husband was delighted when I came to the front of the store carrying all those bolts of cotton plaids together with the strange tiger print that had been sitting there unpurchased for the last two or more decades.

And I was even more delighted than him when I spied a bolt of silk for $4 a yard left behind the counter from some other rummage shopper just before he finished ringing up my purchases.

Once home I looked over all my spoils of Spring. It was a good day's rummage. I smiled and reminded myself that I can always clean next year.

For you gardeners out there it may sound like a perfect recipe for fertilizer. The other day I learned that it is also a formula to help make our hectic lives more manageable.

Suzy Welch might be one of those superwomen it is easy to hate. Married with young kids, she managed Havard Business Review AND toured nationally giving lectures.

One day Suzy had a meltdown. (No, that is NOT the secret formula to managing stress.)

Her two kids who she had rushed off to hotel daycare escaped and walked into the middle of one of her high-powered executive talks. They wanted some quality mommy time. She hadn't planned for this!

It hit her that she was always rushing, wildly juggling to keep up with everything. And so, she decided she needed to come up with a better way to take control of her life. She wanted to make decisions that worked for HER instead of always working hard just to keep up with daily demands. She was so busy pleasing everyone else, her life has somehow slipped out of her own control. 

10-10-10 was her solution.

So, how does 10-10-10 work?

Let's say your mother-in-law has just fed your kids M&M's, Twinkies and Kool-Aid for lunch even though she knew you had them on a no-sugar diet. What do you do?

A. Shoot her.

B. Call your spouse and demand that he/she shoot her.

C. Decide never to let your kids stay alone with your mother-in-law again.

D. After letting off steam behind the closed bathroom door, you first think about all the ways you can deal with the problem, no matter how outrageous. Next, you consider the consequences of each action after ten minutes, ten months, and finally, ten years have passed.

Suzy says we should go with option D. We will find ourselves making the right decisions that work for us.

If you are like me, you might be asking yourself, "Who has time to think, let alone plan?" But, Suzy claims she has been using the 10-10-10 strategy for over a decade now and it really works. Instead of being held captive by the demands of the moment, we can take control and reclaim our lives.

Hmm...might be time to give it some thought. I don't own a gun.

[For more details check out Suzy Welch's bestseller "10-10-10: A Life-Transforming Idea" or her website, http://www.suzywelch101010.com]

Are you in a pickle, always running around trying to squeeze more than can possible fit into the span of one day? ME TOO!

The one thing that would of really been valuable to teach somewhere between those high school classes of grammar and algebra would of been time management!  I never new that becoming a grown up was more about juggling like a circus clown than wearing pearls like Joan Clever. 

It's the one thing that everyone is given an equal amount of and yet how we manage to use it or waste it or play with it, is really all up to you.  Now me,  I wish I could figure out a few proven ways to make it stretch a bit further.  My juggling consists of a husband that travels weekly and children that go to a Waldorf school an hour from where I live, oh...and running a home based business.  I often find myself making 3 meals for us 4 girls in about 20 minutes; Breakfast, sack lunches and something in the crock pot, all before we head out the door at 7:20 am.  

So here are a few of my time saving tips; 

1.  Have your groceries delivered, many places do it now.  Amazon, Albertons, Safeway. If you know that you use a gallon of milk, a dozen eggs and 2 loaves of bread in a week, order it once and your history will be saved.  Oh, and you might want to look into  fruit and veggie boxes delivered to your door from the local farmers.  The great thing is that you are than not only eating locally, but seasonally as well.   Not to mention that you can do this all while your angles are tucked into bed and sleeping, not crying that they want a cookie from the bakery department.... need I say more?

2.  Consolidate errands.  We spend more time in the car running from here to there and there to here.  If you have to go pick up kids from school do your errands before the pick up and not after.  It will go twice as fast without the children needing to get in and out of the car. 

The other thing that comes to mind when I say this, is do you really need it?  I have found that if I put something on the list, and wait 2 days to do all my errands together, a lot of the time I have either come up with another solution by than or found what I was looking for in the first place.  Economy 101... 

3.  Get your whole family involved.  If I told the children to go clean their rooms, most likely it will get mixed results, things shoved under the bed or into the closet, where I later have to go and clean out.  I try to have little chore throughout the week that they can do and a general pickup of clutter before bed.  The little chores include taking out the trash or putting the dirty clothes in the hamper.  When it comes time for the nitty gritty cleaning, let them clean the bathroom or the kitchen.  Be prepared that you will need a few more beach towels, but hey every surface gets wet and wiped down.  Make sure that you use biodegradable and child friendly cleaning agents.  Please don't give them anything toxic.

4.  Don't be afraid to ask for help, or deligate.  Sometimes when our car pool doesn't work out, I ask the grand parents to take the girls to school.  The girls love that grandma usually packs a cookie for them and they get listen to Elvis and the Beatles.  I'm happy that I have problem solved how to get two hours of working time back.  When Monte gets home form his trip, he is often out of the loop, so if I let him know what needs doing the most, he is usually able to jump right in and can take charge. 

You can always go the route of sleep deprivation and lot's of caffeine, but after a while that will takes it's toll.  If you want to gain back a few hours of your life, look at your time spent watching TV, looking at the internet and Facebook.....

I am still lobbying for a few extra hours to be added to the day, but hey I know we are all in the same boat on that one, so enjoy what you can and give up what you don't.   Eat well, enjoy sleep, play hard and know that you can always put it on the list for tomorrow.

When I stop a moment and look around my messy studio nestled here in the Northwest woods beside the ocean, I know I am one lucky duck.

So, today I thought I would share with you a list of my favorite things here in my studio that I feel lucky to have!

1.  Time to play at Thrift Stores...  It true one mans trash is another's treasure.  I can't begin to tell you of all the wonderful things that I have found at a few of our local thrift stores.  I have filled my studio with countless baskets, a beautiful wooden sewing box and books on every subject.  Vintage doll making books have some of the most amazing idea's in them.  The girls also like to tag along and Autumn has decided to build her own personal library that we are all allowed to check books out from on Saturdays.  My little ones found some roller-skates that have kept them busy for hours, which means more sewing time for me.  YEAH!  If that's not luck I don't know what is.   

2. Friends that cook...I may be a wiz on the sewing machine, but the kitchen is a different story.  It's not that I can't cook, but that I don't like to.  I guess we can't like everything.  I had a jar of tasty sauce gifted to me today, which Monte made into a wonderful dinner. Less hours in the kitchen means more hours in the studio!  Jamie you are the best friend a gal could ever have. 

3. Gingher's scissors...the sharpest scissors that make life so much easier when cutting fabric.  Mine even have a golden handle to make them oh so special.  When I was a kid, my mom had a pair that stayed in the box and we were NEVER allowed to use.  I used to think how unfair..... 25 years later I completely understand!

4. Anne says a Dritz fabric marking pen. She does a happy dance when she get a new one! It works great on the tricot fabric and washes right off later.

5. 8-Gig camera memory card....I had no idea that the price of memory had dropped so much since the last time I shopped for this techie stuff. Now I can take lots of picture of dolls here at the studio before I have to fight with the computer to download images. If only I could get a brain with this much capacity, I would be in great shape!

It goes without saying that I feel luckiest about my wonderful family and my friends who all support me so dearly.  I would never be able to do it without you.  Happy Saint Patricks Day and my you find a bit of the Irish luck as well.

What would you do if you knew that you could not fail?