The Halloween party at Pumpkin Hill!

So we invited our friends for the Halloween party- the first in the dollhouse in years since it's been restored! What a blast! Lots of candy- and mice who were regular's at Minuette's sweet shop came in costume as well....

Minuette's friend, Jack Mouse, came with his candy corn and everything....April Mae decided to come as a skeleton. Fitz & Floyd made Jack's costume...

I myself, decided not to go as a bee- and a good thing! My buddy Chelsea came as a bee in the same costume I had tried on! and my other friends Kelly and Kelley came as a witch and a bat! I decided at the last minute on my bunny costume. The bee costume was scratchy and tight...Marigold perched on the new TV between my rabbit ears....lol....

 Happy Halloween from all us down here at the Pumpkin Patch on Pumpkin Hill!
~Dixie, way down South in Virginia

Happy Halloween from the Pumpkin Patch!

Happy Halloween everyone- from the 'Patch down here at Pumpkin Hill...This is such a favorite picture of mine. Our own pumpkin house is coming along...slowly.

We are almost ready but not quite. Windows are coming along on our dollhouse restoration. But I have news- MORE dolls are arriving...one is coming today. His name is Wallace and he is a dollfactory polar bear from the Wylde Bunch ....my buddy Miranda Facebooked me...I'm getting real savvy with this Facebook thing for a doll.

So Wallace will according to dolly tracking, be arriving today. From what I gather from Lisa, he is looking for a new venture here at the pumpkin patch, and will be taking over as the professor/teacher at the local one room schoolhouse Lisa is setting up . Evidently us dolls don't have enough to keep us busy, so we need to go to school. I'm not sure if I'm going to like this very much. But our Rement desks are here, and Lisa is busily looking for additional items. If more dolls keep arriving, then I don't think the one room schoolhouse will be BIG enough....

But there is another doll that has been on the 'list' that is arriving as well....(evidently there is a list of 'wanted' dolls Lisa has- she won't show it to me cause she knows it would probably disappear-!) but a doll named Miss Hitty, made out of wood. Lisa has long wanted a Miss Hitty- I think it's because all of her FRIENDS have miss Hittys, but you could do the same rationalization with us tinies on that line of thinking.......after all, there are alot of us!

She won Miss Hitty on Saturday night. Here is a picture of her

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Evidently Miss Hitty isn't even finished! Not only do we have a ANOTHER doll coming here to the Patch to live, but she needs to be finished! And she's made out of wood! whoever heard of a wooden dolly--?? but oops, there I go again- the Woodenhouse family will probably welcome her as they are made out of wood and look like Queen Victoria's dolls........as moderator of the blogs, I have to be open minded about alot of these made to look old dolls...
But on a happier note- Halloween is here and Miss Lisa and Mr. Chris took me driving yesterday up to Spotsylvania- the historic part. It was a beautiful fall day and it was lovely with the leaves turning, and all. We even stopped at a one room schoolhouse- Lisa's passion is taking photos of these places.This was the Stubbs schoolhouse and it is now fully restored and preserved. I think it was built a very long time ago- as it had a well and an outhouse and a wood stove.

There are a couple of one room schoolhouses near our place here at the 'Patch, but they are no longer used as schoolhouses, just storage places, or closed up and stripped of the old schooldesks, or worse. So it was nice to see one so beautifully restored and cared for, since it is a part of our history. Miss Lisa's grandmother went to a one room schoolhouse and often told stories about it, which is why I guess she is so insistent that we dolls go to school, and is bringing Professor Wallace here. I was glad to go along that day in my basket and see the schoolhouse now...

Here's hoping everyone has a lovely Halloween!
~Dixie, way down South in Virginia

Progress on the dollhouse Restoration....

The dollhouse restoration really came a long way today- the top two bay windows were painted and adhered to the two windows on the 2nd floor. Now I just have the middle window to finish and install. Lots has been going on today- it was a rainy, cold, wet and dismal day- no better time to work on the dollhouse than a day like that! Dixie was in her room blogging, Minuette was in the kitchen washing the dishes- yet again- she loves her kitchen. April Mae was trying on costumes for Halloween- she was hesitating between a princess dress and skeleton costume- which she finally squeezed into. Maizie was on the floor in the parlor reading spooky books and looking thru old halloween bags stash for decorations...and I have prepared the tinies for yet another tiny anthro- a polar bear who is making his way to us from ....drum roll, the Wylde Bunch at the Treehouse from Miranda Wandering ! Wallace has a mind to probably open an ice cream shop, so we will have to see. Where Wallace will reside is a tricky situation, but Dixie seems open to it.
Also new in the Pumpkin Patch- if you haven't seen the badge to the right- Dixie has a Facebook page all her own- where updates on the blog and new dolls, new friends will be posted about. Imagine- a doll, having other doll friends on Facebook. Well, if you're a doll, be sure to friend Dixie Hill on facebook- she would love that. She already has over 12 friends so far!
Wallace will be arriving next week, and we are hoping too- that Miss Hitty will arrive as well. Miss Lisa's Sybarite Slipper has arrived, and so have her new shoes and new wigs...

these two wigs are from Facets by Marcia, and are a synthetic mohair...the white one looks so Marie Antoinette, and the ringlet one reminded me of Keira Knightly in the movie 'The Duchess' about Georgiana Devonshire. I have been toying with the idea of making a loose gown like a gaulle that the dresses of the Petite Trianon were based one, with a high waisted sash, in white. The shoes - the court pumps and court mules fit her wonderfully. I love looking at this doll and she models so beautifully on the large scale Bespaq. Perfect, perfect.
I will have more on the dolls and Halloween later....I have been playing catch up with my photos, and have had to draw back some from the ATC trades I was doing, as I just couldn't keep up. I am hopefully going to be finishing the pumpkin house for Halloween display, and Marigold Finch and Wren can possibly get some mail delivered soon as well.

Autumn, Candlelight, and a little blogging....

Autumn is coming, and in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene, I was bored one evening so decided to play with the shadows, candlelight and my favorite pumpkins. I even dragged out my Wizard of Oz wicked witch and a little Bespaq table I had aged & customized with spiderwebs...since we have no power, the fireplace mantel was the perfect spot to drag out my candlesticks and candlelabras, and play with 'Elegant' halloween placement.

I took some time when my netbook was re charged (we are running off of generator power from the RV now, until Power returns later this week) and did some re-arrangement of the blog. I've added some artsy art doll and Halloween art links- I will be adding more, these are some of my favorites from Art Dolls only .  I also purchased Stampinton's Art Dolls magazine and have been enthalled with the artistry of some of these dolls- no rhyme or reason, but the art behind the dolls is fascinating and fabulous. I have put a few things on my list to create- one is an art doll, some ornaments, and possibly a marionette &/or a marionette theater. I have been entrhalled with Patricia of The Magical Marionette theater and how they perform, plus create the marionettes. One of the new boxes to the right will feature some links to marionettes, Patricia's blog, and also the Czech Marionettes, which are art forms within themselves. A doll on strings that performs! lol...One of the things that fascinated me as a child was Mr. Roger's puppets, I loved Henrietta and the King, and how he did the different voices, with the train running around the castle and throughout the magical village...So one of my future projects this year will be to create a marionette, possibly from Puppenfimo or paperclay. I am currently working on finishing my art doll- she is made of paperclay, and some halloween pumpkin ornaments, all made of paperclay! Yes, I am creating again, even without power. I seriously think candlelight has been inspiring me- there is something very tranquil about lighting candles, and seeing the light from their soft glow, that sparks my creativity. Also, if you are doll lover as I am, the dolls seem to have their own kind of magical whimsy in candlelight. Tasha Tudor had magnificent art for a reason, and I think it was because of beeswax candles....nutty I know, but hey we're all a little nutty here in the Pumpkin Patch!lol

I hopefully will be posting more photos as I make progress on my doll, and please enjoy the links- I encourage you to browse them!