Eggs are some of Elizabeth's favorite things to cook. Funny, since neither one of us has ever been able to eat one. She makes lovely omelettes and egg breakfasts for Pop, though, and she dreams of making the full skillet-sized "puffy omelette" as shown in the 1950s Betty Crocker cookbook.

This has been a pretty good week around here. Mom and I have been working on listing stuff on eBay --- all in an effort to make some extra spending money and clean the house out! Well, we actually got around to photographing and listing some of Elizabeth's new wool felt play food in our Etsy store at the same time. Felt food has been something that she's been working on for the last year. True to her style, she bought some patterns and decided that she'd have more fun making up patterns on her own. Of course, she's always right, because she is absolutely amazing at making patterns --- whether it is a doll pattern, a wood carving or felt food.

The food is going up in the store as custom orders. All of these "prototypes" are going into baskets for our kids. Elizabeth and I were just crazy about play food when we were kids, except that all of ours was plastic. About a year or two ago, we cleaned the big bin of plastic food out of the closet and got rid of it --- knowing that we wanted felt food for our kids. So far, she's made a Cuban Lunch, supreme pizza, white pizza and dessert pizza, and a slice of Brie cheese.

It was just a few weeks ago that someone came up with the omelette idea, and I was positive that would be the cutest thing --- as was Elizabeth! In fact, it looked so cute from the start that she made two of them at once. Here are photos of the omelette "just out of the skillet", as it were (having been finished just last night!).

The pictures are adorable, but they don't quite do justice to the real things. They are SO cute! It is pretty addictive to sit and come up with ideas for the next project.

Speaking of projects, I'm almost done with another felted doll. Elizabeth and I are hoping to have him finished later this evening, so pictures will be coming soon. Dad's birthday is this weekend, so we're planning on having some fun with that. The weather is back to freezing single digits and below zero. Brrrr . . . Supposed to be warmer tomorrow, so a break will be nice. Even the cats are cold. More later.

Last month we received a custom order for a little Miss Marple Minikin doll looking like Joan Hickson in the 1986 film, The Body in the Library. The lady ordering her was wanting to create a miniature scene showing Miss Marple as she discovers "the body". We were quite happy to oblige, as we've talked of making a Joan Hickson-inspired Minikin for some time. After some e-mailing, we offered to give our hands at making "the body", too. Not your typical Minikin, but it proved quite fun. Of course, you can't have those two without Dolly Bantry, right?! So, we decided to try her as well. All three ended up coming out so cute that Mom was ready to keep them herself! ;)

I took some pictures of the dolls, we packed them up and sent them on their way --- winging their way across the ocean with the help of the Post Office. Time went by and Elizabeth and I could not wait to see photos of the finished scene.

Of course, I'm a bit behind in posting this (as always!), but Faded Vintage Rose posted pictures of her scene and has, graciously, allowed me to post them here! She did an amazing job, and we've had so much fun seeing these Minikins in their new home. She wrote a really fun blog entry about the scene on her blog (click the link above), so be sure to read that. All of the miniatures are so precious. It really inspires me to get the dollhouse that I'm always talking about. Here are some pictures from her scene:

Elizabeth and I always have so much fun hearing about the things that people do with their dolls, and it's even more fun to see pictures. ;) My personal favorite thing in here is the set of china dogs on the mantle. Wow! This is the first time that I've seen a set like that in dollhouse scale, and I'm absolutely going to have to find a pair for myself!

The two of us are really inspired to make some more "different" dolls in the coming month or two. We're in a bit of The Hobbit mode, so some dwarves are in the planning. Elizabeth is wanting a Beorn, but I'd have to be able to wrap a body that is 5-1/2" tall --- and that will take a bit of work. I think the next one coming is "The Russian Lady" from the Hogan's Heroes TV show, since that is one of Elizabeth's personal favorites.

I'm almost finished with another large felted doll. This one is the doll that I've been making for Elizabeth for Christmas --- of course, it's a bit late in the finishing! Hoping to have it done in a week or so . . .

Elizabeth and I have been saving an Amazon gift card since Christmas for this. The official release date for the release date of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug was released two days ago, and this morning the pre-order option came up on Amazon! Yay!

So, come April 8th, our little DVD will begin winging its way through the mail to our house. Can't wait!

This will also be the first Blu-Ray disc that we've ever bought. We don't even have a Blu-Ray player, but you get both that and the normal DVD for just an extra $6.00 --- so we figured that it would be worth preparing for the day when end up having to get a Blu-Ray player.

Now, it is just a matter of waiting . . .

Happy Valentine's Day! I can't believe that the month is half over before I've made time to blog. Wow. Things have been going on here pretty much the same. Lots of snow. Cold weather (still had below zero), but that looks like we're warming up for the weekend and . . . maybe . . . next week. Yay. Elizabeth has been really good to the little songbirds and keeps a lot of feeders full of seed every day. The cats think that's a pretty dandy thing. "Flitting birds at the window are even better than television," says Oliver.

All of the snow and ice has meant that we haven't made it to church in weeks. Looking promising for this weekend, though! Dad and Elizabeth are enjoying taking weekend afternoons to play a Sherlock Holmes computer game together. They're becoming quite experienced detectives! We've also sold a couple more dolls, so that's been some good afternoon occupation for the two of us this week.

At the beginning of the month, we had one day warm enough to run down to Columbus to Whole Foods. That enabled us to stock up on things, so we should be able to get through the last of this cold weather. Since we made it out that long, we figured that we might as well make a fun day of it. We rushed home, put the food away and a new fire in the stove, and rushed up to see The Hobbit one last time (the theater here has quit playing it --- boo hoo!). We got into our seats as the title screen came on. Talk about good timing! At least, we didn't have to sit through all of those long trailers. The Hobbit only improves with viewing, that's for sure. Can't wait for the DVD.

This past Sunday and Monday were some pretty tough days. We woke up on Sunday, saw that there were no roads visible and snow still coming down and realized church was out. Came downstairs, and there was poor little Samwise sitting in the dining room --- obviously not feeling like himself. I carried him into a bed in the living room, but he had a bad day. He couldn't really wake up. Couldn't lay his head down and was breathing very quickly --- and he wouldn't eat. In the evening, I finally got him to eat just a teensy bit of wet food, but it wasn't really enough. We gave him butter and mayonnaise, because we thought that he looked like he needed to get a hairball up. Nothing seemed to make him feel better.

Went to bed, and I stayed up most of the night worrying about him and saying prayers. Got up the next morning and he was not looking any better. Mom called for a vet appointment and got one in the afternoon, but it was below zero outside and the roads were covered. Wasn't looking too good. We sat with him, said some more prayers and I cried. He was so sad --- and it wasn't looking too good. Then, Mom thought of giving him a homeopathic remedy. Minutes later he was perking up. After a little while, we gave him another dose. He got even perkier. By about eleven o'clock, he ate a lot of wet food, went upstairs and stretched out. Thank you, Jesus! I was thrilled --- but still worried. He's continued to look good ever since. In fact, I don't know what he had, but he looks better now than he has for ages.

Shirley Temple passed away on Monday night. That hardly seems real and will take some getting used to. Elizabeth and I love her. We have a "Shirley Temple spree" about once a year and order DVDs in from the library and spend an afternoon watching them. Can't beat them for sweetness. So, we're in the process of collecting obituaries for our scrapbooks. Elizabeth and Mom went out the other day and they brought home a stack of newspapers. Not to mention friends all over the country who are sending some to us!

Everyone knows who Shirley Temple is. Almost everyone, I'm sure. It's kind of like the passing of an era, but what a legacy. She may have been 85 years old, but everyone will remember her as a curly-headed six-year-old with dimples. You can't help but smile when you see her, even if her films aren't exactly your cup of tea.

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Well, this gives you all a bit of an idea as to what we've been up to lately. I better stop blogging and get working. Elizabeth's waiting on me to work on one of the Minikins. More later.