Our house...

I have an upcoming craft show in October and wanted to find some fun ways to display my dolls.  I had pinned this template a while back and remembered it and thought i would give it a try.  It was super easy to put together and my kids can't leave it alone!

"I am Robot!"

These guys are my new addition to my etsy store.  I wanted something that was more for the little guys.  My ideas have been mainly for custom orders or for girls as my two daughters where the ones that I had first started painted the peg dolls for.  I was thrilled with how they came together and love the chance to offer something else to boys as an option for imaginary play.  Imaginary play has always been something I love watching my kids do.  My husband is not a fan of batteries.  He is one that won't buy more batteries and despises the toys that go through them like crazy.  So I have tried to even this out with toys that push more imaginary play.  Something the encourages the kids to create their own idea of how to use the toy.  I have always been drawn to the wood play sets for this reason and have enjoyed expanding this into something that I enjoy doing as well.

Adventure Time!

Adventure Time is a favorite in our house!  This idea was brought to me from my sister who wanted them as a gift.  This is just the start of a set, but I made some for my son as he is usually forgotten when I make peg dolls as he feels to old for the superheros and robot sets and has no interest in the princesses ;)  So this was the perfect thing for him.  I was so excited to see how much he loved them when I gave them to him.  He's 11 going on 12 and is way to cool to "play" with them but as a "cool" observer I say they passed.

Engagement Snap shots

These are some couples I did from engagement pictures that were sent to me to create for their wedding gift.  It's fun to help create something original for the couple as a wedding gift in hopes that they enjoy for years to come.

Teachers

I am posting more teachers that I completed for a friend that lives in Texas that she ordered.  I was so excited with how they turned out. 

Baptism

This is a picture of a sweet doll I painted this last weekend for an old friend that approached me with the wonderful idea of painting a doll of her niece for her baptism.   I loved that she asked me to paint this doll and how it turned out.  I usually don't add arms on my wooden dolls but I wanted to have the girl hold a book that she was holding in the picture that was given to me to use as my direction for her.  I love how it turned out and wished I had done it for my daughter at her baptism.  

Frozen set Giveaway!

This is my most popular item right now.  It is a favorite of my girls in our house and when I am painting them I am usually surrounded by neighbor girls that keep asking if I have any extra.  (ha ha ha).  Now is the time to get your hands on one for free!  Check it out!

There are 5 different ways to enter to win this set for Free!!
1) Like my Facebook page www.facebook.com/clairabells
2) Share my Facebook page on your page
3) Leave a comment
4) Follow my instagram Clairabells_dolls
5)Share on your instagram by taking a snap picture of your screen and reposting it on your instagram feed with the hastag #clairabells.


Giveaway ends May 10th at 6pm.  Winner will be announced here, on Facebook and on my instagram about an hour later.

No time to lose enter now ;)

Shout out to all the Teachers!!

This week is teacher appreciation to the teachers at my kids school.  I feel like we really got lucky with the teachers my kids had.  It amazes me how my kids can leave my house for 7 hours each day and come back smarter and with so much excitement.

I truly believe that teachers deserve far more than they get and above.  The ones we have had, have truly been a blessing to mine and my children lives.  LOVE our Teachers!

This was something I felt would show how much we love our teachers.

Meet the Snow's!

I really enjoyed creating this family!  I am also loving my new doll sizes that I got.  I felt so limited with the smaller sizes and now found a way to help my families grow! 

Practically Perfect in Every way!!

In our house a spoonful of sugar is what helps everything, well at least if you ask my 8 year old.  Sugar brightens everything for her.  In our house though there is no such thing wiggling noses that begin marching toys, laughing fits that end with us floating to the ceiling or even a dog that I can understand. My life is much more plain then that but, a girl can dream right?   In my dream world life is a musical.  Everything ends in song and my kids want to listen to me when I ask them to do something the first time because who knows what crazy adventure is up my sleeve if they do.

Mary Poppins is a favorite, and I often assume my kids know who this "practically perfect" individual is, besides me of course.  (ha ha ha)  When thinking of ideas to create for wooden dolls Mary was a perfect choice!  

Frozen inspired

I don't know about any of you but Frozen has been a huge hit in our home. At any given moment any of my 3 kids can been found reenacting any part of the move. We are a bit obsessed. I have a bit of a crush on Olaf. He is probably my favorite of the movie. I had been asked by a friend if I would paint a Frozen inspired set for a birthday gift for her niece. This was when the fun began.  This set has been a favorite for my girls to play with and it has been so fun to see the different ways they have used it to play with. Just recently I was asked if I did a Sven and Kristoff. I answered no only because I felt that there was too much detail involved with Sven and I my style is a more simplistic one. With very minimal prodding I changed my mind and decided to make Sven and Kristoff. I was so excited I did. I made some for more girls and the fun has begun. I was happy for the challenge and even more pleased with the turn out.

This was what one daughter created one night while she was suppose to be sleeping. How can you possibly get made when this is what you find. She inspires me!!

Big Top Circus

As I am creating and designing my little wooden peg peoples, I try to consider sets that are unique and different to what is currently out there.  I have a thing for dolls.  Big, soft, wooden, clay, really anything that is different and unique.  I am trying to duplicate that with my shop.  So after doing some brainstorming and some research I decided on creating a Big Top set.

This set has been so fun and has evolved even from the ideas I had in the beginning.  I use my kids as my critics.  They often times give me the best advice as to what they would like to see or what they think of the sets.

This set has been a new favorite.  I have only created 2 sets and the big problem with coming up with something new my kids lay claim to them.  So I am now painting one for them.  I started doing this for them, to have something to play with that encourages them to use their imagination.

Not sure about your house but ours are filled with battery operated toys.  These are the bane of my Husband's existence.  He hates battery operated toys.  They drive him nuts.  Many reasons that I won't bore you with now but enough that I started to explore what other options there where out there for kids to play with that were unique and different.   I started a whole board on Pinterest dedicated to homemade dolls because this is where my obsession started.

My new place!

So previously I mentioned I was in the process of creating my new space.
I still am but here is my work in progress. 

This is the dining room where I would set up shop until we have a family party or gathering and then I would take down so that we could use this table as well as our kitchen table.

 

My office still needs lots of work.  I want to paint the clock add more accessories, paint the wall and so, so much more.  I keep having pace myself as I am also trying to get things moving on my etsy store and juggle all that with being a mom of 3 very active kids and other things that seem to fill my time.  But for now,  I am thrilled to have a place to call my own that does not need to be cleared when we decide to have quests over and to use the dining table to eat. 

 

Organization is a huge thing for me,  I believe everything needs to have a suitable place or it gets tossed.  I am trying to keep that in mind as I decorate and add to this office that I don't clutter it with items because I want to fill it but to keep it minimal enough but also efficient and useful for what I need.  Hopefully I can make it work.  Fingers Crossed

Office Space

I have fond memories of coming home from school looking for my mom to tell her about my day.  If she wasn't in the obvious places, kitchen or family room,  she was surely in her own office space.

My dad and mom transformed the laundry room into a working space for my mom.  When it comes to painting my mother has the real talent in the family.  This is where I would go to talk to my mom about all that happened during my day.  The laundry room was fairly big and she would be painting at her counter space while I would sit on the washer or dryer with my other sisters as we fought to out speak each other to tell her about our day.  This was her space, her escape, her place of creativity.

I am in the process of creating such space.  I currently do a lot of my painting on the dining room table.  It works great for the time being but I would like to have a permanent place for all my items and wooden dolls waiting to be painted.  It was time to turn our living room into an office so that I could have such a place.

Creating a new space can come with a cost so I am try to do so at a very minimal budget.  Re-purposing currently pieces and recreating a desk to work for the space that I have.  My hope is to have a place that promotes creativity with the ability to have all my stuff at my hands.  I will post a before and after picture once available.

This little shop

I made the decision to make the exciting venture into the Etsy world. Don't take me wrong I have been part of the Etsy world for years but mainly as a partaker. I love Etsy! Love the endless possibilities it provides for all those needs (wants) that are part of my dream life. It creates a different feeling of products that no super store or over sized warehouse can provide. I enjoy creating things or re-purposing items. With the amazing teaching/mentoring of one amazing mother, did I mention she is amazingly talented I have been taught that nothing is impossible. Well maybe not nothing. With the little bit of OCD (okay a lot) that I also inherited from the same amazing parent, I found that detail is a big deal. Detail is what creates life for me in anything or any item that I find interesting. It is not the perfection in the detail, but the meaning in the detail. I have over the years painted little wooden peg families. It started as a set that I made for my youngest for her first birthday. I wanted something a little more personal, more handmade, with her being the third I felt that we had enough of the fisher price sets and wanted something different. After that I started making them for gifts. It was something that required a little bit more time than running to the store but felt like it was something different and personal to send with my girls to their parties. It slowly grew to be more than that. As I made more for gifts I began to also get requests from those that received them as gifts to have me make them for their gifting purposes. From that Clairabells on Etsy was formed.