Country Living

365 Toy Project, originally uploaded by esmereldes.

Although I don't expect this to be one of my more popular photos, I'm really happy with the way it turned out! I like the cute old-fashioned country look to it. I'm also kind of pleased with the lighting, even if it is not perfect. I was trying to find a way to get rid of the shadows, but I kind of like the uneven lighting I ended up with here.

The hat is for a Madame Alexander doll, so it won't really fit any of my current dolls, but I've found with miniatures and doll clothes that I just never really know what I will be able to find a use for. This is nice, because nothing goes to waste, but also bad, because it encourages me to keep all the random stuff I acquire instead of tossing it out... ^^;

I got the hat at Toy Fair, they were making them onsight as little gifts for attendees. It was amazing to watch them get made. They were using this really old looking industrial sewing machine (I am not sure if it was an actual antique or not, but it certainly looked like one!) and the hats were made so fast! They could churn one out in less than 10 seconds! Which impressed me, because the guy was just sewing together a single strip and then cutting it off when it was done. Here is a photo of the machine at work:



That pink stuff in the background is what became the hat. So the circular hat shape was pretty much done 'freehand', and without any stopping to think. I was impressed!!

The other item in my photo is a pot of cute little clay flowers. They were selling them at CVS. They were little Valentine's Day decorations. There used to be a little sign in it that held a card saying "Be Mine" or something. I'm not sure what this was good for as a valentine's gift (maybe leave it on someone's desk as a surprise?), but it's really cute as a dollhouse accessory!! They were half-off, so I bought three - this one and two that match. I thought the matching ones would be good for the front of my store dollhouse, if I ever get that stupid project off the ground. This nonmatching one... well, I shouldn't've have bought it, but the pink was too cute! The others are orange-ish pots with white roses. I would've bought 2 matching pink ones and been done with it, but they only had one pink. I guess the orange will look more like what you'd put in front of a store anyway...