Just as every person is different, so is every doll. Gracey is one of those. Her Mom dressed her in her finest clothes for the first day of school. Gracey was not happy at all in all the clothes.

She didn't mind the color so much but all the lace and her hair. She looked like all the other Hitty's and she wanted to look like herself. She longed to be different.

Different was not something her Mom embraced. So each day, she would walk thru the woods to get to school and dream.

She began collecting different fabrics and fibers that the other girls at school didn't want. She secretly worked on her new outfit and hid it in the woods on her way home from school.

Gracey smiled as her Mom layed out the same ol' dress type that everyone else had. She knew that today would be different. She walked to the woods and changed into her new outfit and carefully stored the outfit all the others had. She added one more item and she was done. She was different than all the others. No more sausage rolls in her hair and no frilly dress. Ahhhhhh, she was herself. She was different now than all the rest.

Gracey enjoyed the wind in her long hair. She also liked the shiny short skirt.


"Hey, what are you doing here?" a tiny voice called.


Gracey spun around to see a funny looking rabbit standing there.

"You look different than all the others!" the rabbit squeeked out.


"Good. I don't want to look like all the rest." Gracey said.


"You like being different looking?" the rabbit questioned.


" Yes, I do!" Gracey said. " I am Gracey."



" I'm Sally," she said. Wanna go sit on the log over there?"

" Your hair is even different." Sally said. "Can I touch it?"

"oh, it is soft." Sally said.


A single sound echoed thru the forest. It made Sally leap high into the air.

"Oh, I have to get to school and see what the other Hitty's think of my look." Gracey said and off she went.




While she was happy with her changed looks, I hope she is ready for the opinions of others. Some may like it and others may hate it. She will have to decide if she truely wants to look that different from the others. Only time will tell. Some of us follow the crowd while others step out into the light and walk a differnt path.

Almost a whole year has gone by since I last blogged. I have been busy with real life and of course making dolls. I have also started my own dollsite www.handmadedollsandfriends.com So I am going to try to take a little time to post more often. I have a Sweetgum doll named Abby (after one of my favorite characters on NCIS) Sweetgum. She was an odd one on the tree, much darker than the rest. The other kids made fun of her and she slipped further and further into the shadows. I brought her in and showed her a little kindness and she seems to be coming out of her shyness. The kids used to call her evil but she seems ok to me. Anyway, here comes Abby to tell you her own story about finally getting a home of her own. I found a suitable container for me to live. It says CSI on the case, which means Crime Scene Investigator. Me, I like being the crime scene instigator. (Evil laughter). I drug it away from the dump site. My person helped me take it to her studio to paint it and clean it up. It had a few things still inside of it that I think have potential. Some spent bullet casings made wonderful table legs for my lab. My person also made me a bed and nightstand to put in my loft. Queen Whodunit loves my loft and my bed. She lives in the forest with some of the outcast gnomes and fairies. Her name is really Sarah but no one would be leary of a Sarah. She caused a lot of mischievous in the forest and everyone asked who done it so she adopted the name, Queen Whodunit. While she was doing that, I made a couple of acquired fence panels from Lester's garden to make a bench. I used some chunky brass for legs. I painted them purple but oh my, it was too cheerful so I used a secret formula to mingle black onto the purple for a less bright color. My stairs and door are still bright purple but I may keep it that way. My person being cheap, made a chandelier for my tall ceiling. She used silver and black beads with a purple glint and even found some fat birthday candles to go in it. I wouldn't want ot gush, but she did do a good job on it. My lab is coming along quite nicely but I have to be careful and not let my person see everything in the lab. I have some rotten Easter Eggs I managed to acquire from those silly Hitty's last Easter. They have been fermenting and I just dug them back up. They are almost ready to give back to them. (evil laughter) But that is another story. I salvaged some bloodwood boards fromt he back of Lester's old barn and made a shelf for some of my experiments and collections of oddities. Queen Whodunit brought me a wonderful mirror trimmed in black. She said I needed to check my scary face before I opened my secret door, just in case anyone was near it when I snuck out. Queen Whodunit loved looking thru the CSI magnifying glass that was left in the kit. It isn't quite a microscope, but that will come later. I am not finished but it is beginning to look really good inside. I think I will drag it out to the forrest into the deep shade away from those clothes hogging Hittys.

Rehabing a log cabin dollhouse

My dear Hubby got me a log cabin for my birthday. He had heard me say how I really liked the looks of them for a rustic dollhouse.

It was really nice looking except for the big empty spot in the middle. It was like a porch inside the house. But I figured we could re build it and make it work. Well, over a year later and I finally decided to jump into it.

Out came one of the walls to make a large livingroom and kitchen. I also knocked out the short door to the other room. I reused the logs to fill in the front hole and make a new door for an entrance. For the extra window, I used the plastic off of a tool kit.

Even the inspector liked our new door.

To fill in the gaps between the logs, we used a new to us product. It worked much better than the old one. It applied really easy and let us work it into the seams. I didn't want to take photos inside and see light thru the logs.

Once that dried overnight, I got busy staining the logs. I use plastic lids or the lids my can opener cuts off cans for a paint pallet. I use a painting gel medium to slow drying and to get more of a stain instead of a heavy paint. I use a dark, medium and light brown to blend colors.

Louigee was painting the upper part of the log cabin.

He is not the best painter but he works cheap.

A little paint on the shingles is no problem. I took the same gel medium and brown paints to mask the oops.

Once it is dry, you would never know there was a problem.

Now the roof looks old like the cabin. I also had to deal with the posts on the porch being moved and they had stained the floor while they were in place.

I used the darker color and gel medium in the light areas and then blended in the lighter shades with the gel medium. Wood doesn't always stay the same color throughout the board.

Moving furniture from the guest house, which is really room boxes and placing it is next.

The upstairs still needs painting and sealing, but I got excited and needed to make sure things fit.

The upstairs is next.

Miss Viola Hickory's Log Cabin

Miss Hickory decided she should go take a look at the construction going on at the log cabin. Lester had said he would have a crew come by and begin work on it. He would be supervising since he was recovering from hip surgery and still using his custom Harley Davidson black and orange walker his brother had made for him.

Miss Hickory filled a basket full of vegetables, bread, cheese and a chocolate cake she knew was Lester's favorite. She wanted to treat the guys since they were working on the holiday weekend to get the old cabin ready for her to move into.

She hummed a tune as she walked from the guests house to her log cabin. She was excited for the work to finally begin on it. She could hear hammers and saws as she stepped thru what would become her front door.

As she stepped into the open doorway, she saw the new man that was working with Lester.


"Hello, Viola Hickory," Lester said smiling. "I'd like you to meet our new man. Viola, this is Macintosh."

"Aww, everyone just calls me Mack," he said removing his hat.
Miss Viola Hickory could almost feel herself blush. Mack was obviously of very strong stock. "I thought you guys might enjoy a little treat," she said as she pulled up a table and set out her goodies.

Viola didn't stay long since she knew she had a lot to do at the guest house like the dreaded packing. Soon her cabin would be ready.


Sunday afternoon and Miss Hickory decided to take a walk back to the cabin to see all the work the guys had gotten done. She didn't even look when she was there yesterday. Seeing Mack, just made her forget everything else.

She was excited to see they had closed up the opening in the front and even gotten the door and new window in. It still needed to be caulked and stained but the progress was showing. Inside, she noticed they had stabilized the sagging upper floor and put up the window trim. She closed the door behind her and breathed in all of the smells of her home.

Where did I come from?

Oh you are so small and cute Alicia cooed as she rocked the tiny one.

The little blond toddler looked up at Alicia and asked, "Where did I come from?"

Surprised, Alicia began to explain. "Well, at the edge of the forest there is an old log. It has been shaped by the winds over the years. The old woman here says that you and the other Raindrop Kids sprouted after a long hard rain."

"Is that where all of those noisy babies came from that are here?" she asked.

Alicia laughed and said, "Why yes, they did. Early this morning I went out with the old lady, as she calls herself and found that the light rain had caused them to sprout. there were all different kinds, red and yellow, black and white."

"But they are so much littler than me," the toddler said.

"Yes, they are, they are babies. They didn't grow on the stump as long as you did. They need extra care. Some of them aren't as tall as an AA battery" Alicia said.

As the toddler ran off, Alicia watched the babies and smiled.

Alicia knew these Raindrop Babies were going to go to homes that had time to love them all. She was glad that she was watching the babies while the others were at the Mad Hatters Tea Party.

She was around when they drug in three days after it started. Jenny was muttering something about carrot juice punch and she showed Alicia the photos of the strange get together.

Alicia knew that the first of the babies was already listed for adoption online
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300571413628&ssPageName=ADME:L:LCA:US:1123
and more would soon follow.


Alicia was carved by Connie Hardt who goes by iamstonedragon on Ebay.