Nelson Sisters Celebrate the Older One

Yes siree, it's now her turn to get the theme treatment!  Along with a bouquet of flowers
brought right to her door.  (Those flowers had to bring a bit of cheer inside as outside it was a horrible, rainy, cold mess.)  Soon these two sisters would be drenched...see visual of our drippy selves.

The original celebration plan included a train ride to the city to
go to a restaurant that would go along with the 2017 birthday
theme.  That was scrapped to use car transportation only. Also
Baby Anderson was soon to arrive and the location had to be close
by.  We called this the new Plan B.

Let's cut to the chase: what is the theme for this year? I know you want to know. 
Simply put, it's Simple Joys. Plan A was to go to Joy's Noodles & Rice. It's a Thai
restaurant on Broadway.  But with the nasty weather and a need to find a related-to-theme restaurant,
close by I was stumped.  I decided to instead think of a restaurant that would bring joy to mind, and that became a no-brainer:  Tre Kronor on Foster Avenue.  We have shared so many happy occasions there: graduations, Christmas, family gatherings.  The food is always great and the ambience is cozy and comfortable.  Simple. We would have breakfast there.

And her cake would be an oozy, gooey, warm cinnamon roll.  And look!  With those swags hanging
from the ceiling, doesn't it already look like a party in progress? No matter that the rain was building up to a crescendo of wetness! Visual below.

We enjoyed a lovely meal and the restaurant wasn't too crowded. The gift basket was presented
right there and then.

Nothing like red and aqua colors to get the idea of joy across!  As well as pom poms, red and white striped string and funky tags on each gift.  Each one was given as a way of appreciating the simple things in life like mornings, sunsets, chocolate, words, etc.  Another visual, yes?

This is what the front of the tags look like and the numbers indicate the order in which the gifts
should be opened.  The tags are backed with old book pages cut to size.  Note:  oops on #9. Twice.
I may or may not have been on pain meds following hand surgery when I crafted the tags.

The red word strips have the Simple Joys to be celebrated. I used a Dymo device for this.
Examples of the gifts included:  Singing for this ceramic bird that can be hung from a tree branch in the garden:

Sunsets:

A photo book made from our recent Florida trip.

 

 

                                         

And here's a look at the whole collection unwrapped.

There's a lot to be said about celebrating the Simple Joys in everyday life.  There's a lot to be said about taking time to celebrate the advancement of years.  There's a lot that can be said about shared memories throughout the course of decades.  There's a lot that can be said about the joys of having siblings!

Plan B also included going to a movie afterwards. A movie in which a young woman has no siblings,
has been brought up by her father who loves to make clocks, is happiest when reading books, has no time for the brawny-but-no-brains buffoon, and ends up befriending a Beast who lives in an enchanted castle.  There's joy to be found in this place, too.

Shoulda. Woulda. Coulda.

Samantha Parkington. Kirsten Larson. Molly McIntire.  Do these names mean anything to you? Back in 1986, these young "girls" were introduced to the world in book and doll form by the Pleasant Company. Yes, I am talking about the phenomena of the American Girl collection. My favorite of the three was - and still is - Kirsten Larson.

Unfortunately, she never made it home with us in doll form. (So sorry, Anne! It's my shoulda coulda woulda regret as your mom!) And now she's "retired" and I'm not about to fork out the eBay bucks to get her belatedly.  So, I make do with a doll from Target as I have the time and desire to recreate her Scandinavian/American wardrobe.

First up: the Santa Lucia outfit.

Using tiny scraps from the baptism dress worn by all three of my grand-daughters, I made bodice and sleeves with plain white cotton for the skirt portion of the dress. (Here's Harper in the baptism dress)

See the scraps on the Lucia bodice and sleeves?

The petticoat is made from a white sheet that was damaged.  The striped socks are from a thrift store onesie (40 cents) and the belt is from vintage red bias binding tape. The lace is from my stash of yards purchased for 10 cents a yard back when I worked at Minnesota fabrics. The head wreath was the big splurge of a candle ring.  I'll figure out later how to add the Lucia candles to it. The total cost of the outfit is around $7.00 because of that candle ring.

Next outfit:  The "Frozen Frontier" combo of skirt, sweater, mittens and hat. 

Finding a thrift store Hanna Anderson sweater on sale for $2.00 made me nearly hyperventilate! It would be (almost) perfect in this Nordic black and white ensemble.

The drawback was its front closure of a zipper. Oh well. I cut it down to doll size.

The skirt was made from wool scraps and vintage trims. 

The hat was made from a Dollar Tree

$1.00 knit Peruvian hat, again cut down to fit a doll.

I was really happy to find this as there wasn't enough Hanna Anderson sweater to make a hat, too.

The yarn ties from the hat were repurposed into the cord to hold the two mittens together through the sleeves of the sweater. I'm guessing that my materials cost was under $4.00 for this outfit.

The shirt and slip have yet to be made but here is where you can help me out if you own the original outfit---is it a petticoat slip or a pantaloons undergarment?  I can't tell from the Google image photo.

I'm thinking about turning this into my Could. Should. Would. project. Plenty of fabrics from my collection at home to whittle down. Bring on the "Coming to America" dirndl skirt with blouse and 

vest, the

"Country Dress" with sun bonnet, the "Prairie School " dress with shawl, the "Work Dress" with the locket, the "Springtime Dress" with pinafore and the "Summer Striper" with straw hat! Come on over 

with your doll for a play date! Now is not the time for regrets!

And you? Did you have a favorite Amercan Girl doll?  Did you get her as a gift? If not, do you have

any regrets to resolve?