Memories and Mermaids

 That's a good part of my life nowadays, remembering and enjoying all those years past.  I'm not quite out to pasture yet, but I have a lot of stuff stored up in this mind to remember.

When the girls started having Little House in the Big Woods read to them, my mind went back to the days when their mom and her best friend, who lived across the street, became obsessed with Laura and Mary.  They watched the episodes on TV more than they read the books at that point, but they were really into the play-acting.  I sewed them each a bonnet and apron, and they wore them a lot, if I recall.  Even so, I don't remember any pictures of them, but I thought I would check Emily's photo box and see if I saw any.  And I found one.

Emily and her great-great-aunt Myrtle.  I think that's right.  Mike's great-aunt who loved the children so much, and the feeling was mutual!  Look at their hands!

Judging by the surroundings, this looks like spring in Andalusia at her grandparents' house.  Familiar paneling, plaid couch, candlewicked pillow.  

And her daughter's faces in their bonnets:

Maybe I should get busy and make their school friends one too so they can have as much fun as Katy and Emily.  I've written to Katy's mom Roz to see if she has any pictures of either of them.

So today is Graysen's Mimi Day, and I'm still not sure what we're going to do.  I have hopes for this!

Barbara sent this little panel at the same time she sent the Auburn pillow kit and some other things, including the girls' favorite scissors.

It looks like I started off with a bang, completing the little quilt and pillow and starting on the doll.  I must have had a sewing-room cleanup and put this away somewhere.  It just resurfaced a couple of months ago when I cleaned out my closet in there.

The quilt and pillow turned out really cute.  We just need to stuff the pillow.

I think Graysen is responsible enough to cut on the dotted lines of the doll back pattern, but I'm not sure if she has enough control to sew curves yet.  We'll try. I have trouble on those curves too. I think there is a little skirt and belt that seem to be straight lines.  Maybe the mermaid tail is the skirt?

Bowie has counted the pieces and finds them all there.

Thank goodness the instructions are there too!

I'm excited to get started, and I hope Graysen will love it.  The only problem is that Katherine is not going to like seeing what her sister accomplished when all she went home with last week was buttons on a pipe cleaner. I'm almost sure we won't complete the whole thing this afternoon, and I can buy some time to find something comparable for Katherine's day next week!

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I did find this.  It's not exactly what I was looking forward to, but when she sees two baby kittens tucked in with their mothers, so 6 kitties, I think she'll be happy.