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Silk Wedding Gowns For Barbie

Posted January 4, 2014 By Suzanne Holland

When I was a little girl I spent hours designing and making clothes for my Barbie.

I am sure that is what lead me to become a Couturier.

Now I am all grown up with a 25 plus year career under my belt and two

very creative little girls with oodles of Barbie Dolls.

Alice and Lily have come up with some fantastic designs and as time permits

we dig through my silk scraps and draft little patterns to create what they have

envisioned. It is fun. Even more so than when I was a little girl. Of course I didn’t have

expensive silks and beads and sequins galore either.

I thought you might like to see a few of their designs. and yes they do play with these.

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Filed in Stuff I Love | Tagged: barbie, barbie wedding gown, silk dresses, silk wedding gown, wedding gown designs for barbie

Vintage Egg Baskets

Posted January 4, 2014 By Suzanne Holland

Egg basket my son found and gave me for Christmas. Love, Love, Love

Vintage Egg Baskets ….

have been a favorite of mine forever . I only had one until my oldest son, Andrew surprised me this Christmas with one he found in an old barn situated on the property near our tree farm. The land is owned by a friend and Andrew did have permission to take the basket.

He did a fantastic job cleaning it up and I have enjoyed using it to gather eggs.

I don’t know if I ever mentioned what breed of chickens we raise here at what we affectionately call “Little Holland Farm”.

My oldest daughter Alice is working on a re-populating project of a rare breed —The Barred Holland…….funny huh

We have two really great lines of Buff Orpingtons and we have Mille Fleur d’Uccles. Our d’Uccles hens have all gone broody at the same time and hatch day is this weekend. We will be hopping with excitement to see how many make it in the cold.

We also have a few hatchery egg layers that are really sweet pampered pets.

My husband of course would argue that All of the chickens are

spoiled pampered pets.

Filed in Chickens, Ponderings, Stuff I Love | Tagged: barred holland, buff Orpingtons, egg basket, egg basket collections, Mille Fleur d'Uccles, Vintage egg baskets

Mud Room Idea

Posted January 3, 2014 By Suzanne Holland

If you have kids like I do, you will understand the need for a “Mudroom”.

When my husband and I built our new home, the first “must have” added to the design was a large laundry/mudroom.

Our Mudroom includes a lovely bench long enough to accomendate 4 bottoms.

Below the bench we have a heavy duty storage basket for each child, to store their “stuff” in. Directly above the bench are hooks strong enough to hold heavy book sacks , coats, hats, etc.

Above that wonderful, functional Mudroom bench are storage cabinets that reach all the way to the ceiling. You can never have too much storage.

Now on to what I really wanted to share. I wanted a really cute way to label each hook in the Mudroom . You know……to stop the bickering over spots. So I got the kids to let me update their silhouettes. My husband and I love marking the kids growth with silhouettes. We have them throughout the house But I think this might be my favorite because it is small and useful.