Emma's gifts

Pretty soon it will be time for Emma to travel on to her next destination so I've been working on some special gifts for her to take along with her. This evening Emma, Jack, Kitty, Sophie, and Olive all went to a local photographer and had a family portrait made. Given that Kitty lives in a saloon in the old west the picture looks somewhat like one of those old-timey sepia portraits. I framed the picture and asked Emma to she be sure it made it back home with her to Elsbeth. I think Emma is going to miss us just as much as we're going to miss her because I saw a tear in her eye when I took this picture. Here's a shot I took of everything that I made for Emma to take with her on her journey. The framed family portrait goes back with her to Elsbeth. The rest is going to travel on with Kitty as a gift to her next host. The potted blooming cactus is a cutting from outside of Kitty's saloon. The caponata colored bottle is filled with one of the saloon's finest vintages. The smaller ruby colored one is a bottle of Kitty's favorite perfume.

And here's a close up of the portrait. You can see Jack, Emma, and Kitty standing with Sophie and Olive in front of them.

Showing Emma around town

Sunshine or not I decided to go ahead and show Emma around town today. For those of you who are Nascar fans you've probably already heard of Bristol, but here's a link for those of you that haven't.

Believe it or not Emma isn't the first traveling doll to visit my town. Spuds is a Mr. Potato Head doll that has been traveling around the globe since 1985. If you'd like to see pictures of his visit to Tennessee or any of his other destinations you can check out http://www.spudstravels.com/index.html

First we stopped at the Grand Guitar. http://www.talentondisplay.com/grandguitar.html

Next we traveled downtown. Bristol is known as the "Birthplace of Country Music." The sky looked pretty scary in this picture. Can you spot Emma? She's sitting in front of the guitar posing for me.

Here's a zoomed pic to show you Emma.

And here's my favorite - Emma standing in front of the Bristol sign. It reads "BRISTOL TN VA A GOOD PLACE TO LIVE"

This last pic isn't around town, but it's pretty cute anyway. This is Emma meeting our dog Oscar for the first time.

Jack and Sophie go fishing

The weather has warmed up just a bit this weekend, but the sun still refuses to come out. Jack said this was perfect weather to go fishing though. He took Sophie just as he promised and they went to a local park. These two seemed to enjoy their outing and brought plenty of fish back to the saloon for Kitty and Emma to fry up for dinner.

I'm going to have to remember this location to come back to for pictures next summer when it's warm. It was just too cold for many pictures today though. Taking pictures of minis is difficult - either the dolls are blurry and the background is clear or vice versa.

Dollhouse party!

After the girls were tucked in bed Kitty, Emma, and Jack decided to have some fun last night. There was lots of laughing, some card games, and even a few shots and cigars! This picture is much better if you click to make it larger. When Kitty found out that Emma and Jack had never had moonshine she had to pull out a jug from her special stash! It was apple pie moonshine made from a still not too far from here in Tennessee...(and yes I have a "real" jar in my freezer!)

At one point I had to remind everyone to keep it down...in order to not wake up Sophie and Olive.

And here are some pics from earlier in the day. Jack and Sophie were enjoying some Cokes and he was teaching her how to play chess. I'm going to have to learn how to make chairs for these tables soon because as you can see Sophie was standing on her tippy toes just to reach the board.

Olive seems to be feeling better and she was playing under the table with "fluffy dog" again. I think she's going to miss him very much when Emma travels on her next destination.

More pictures with Emma

These are some of the cutest pictures that I've taken so far. Last night Olive had a case of the sniffles and she was so fussy that she couldn't sleep. Emma stayed up for hours carrying her around and singing lullabies.

I think the Greenleaf forum readers were right - I can definitely see children in Emma and Jack's future! Isn't Emma just the sweetest?!

Sunday with Emma continued...

Kitty came out Sunday afternoon to spend time with everyone as well. I was able to get lots of good pictures to share!

Here's Kitty and Emma on the swing.

Jack, Sophie, Olive, and Emma on the swing.

Kitty, Sophie, Olive, and Emma on the swing.

Sophie, Emma's dog, and Olive on the swing.

Did anyone else notice that the dog made it into every single shot?

Easy like Sunday morning

Sunday morning Emma and Jack decided to go for a stroll in the beautiful autumn weather. Sophie and Olive have become quite attached to them in just a few short days so they were allowed to tag along. Of course Emma ended up carrying Olive as she's still at the age where she can only walk so far before she gets bored and wants to be picked up. Sophie, on the other hand could skip along for days! And as you may recall Sophie is our little "waterbug" and since Jack has promised to take her fishing she's now got a new hero :)

Emma and Jack did get a bit of alone time on the swing while the girls were playing nearby. Well if you don't count Emma's dog who jumped on the swing as well.

And just so you guys don't think I left him out - here's a cute shot of Emma's dog.

And I thought this was a lovely shot of Emma as well.

Saturday with Emma continued...

Kitty was very grateful for Jack's help with the saloon so she promised to keep the girls out of his way all afternoon. Emma was anxious to start exploring the area so I took her to my Mother's house for a visit first.

First I showed Emma the scrapbooking table that I made for my Mom. She was absolutely delighted with it and said that she would be interested in making a scrapbook of her travels.

Next she posed for pictures with some of my Mom's ceramic dolls. This farmer and his wife are sitting on the dresser that was part of my great-grandmother's wedding bedroom suite. There was a post from a while ago where I included a picture of my Granny Frye. She also crocheted the throw that the dolls are standing on - and the little snuff can was hers as well!

This is the Victorian couple that live on my Mother's old fashioned record player. My Granny made this throw as well.

This is the little old couple with the potbelly stove that live under the table - and another of my Granny's throws.

Now these are two of my Mother's prized dolls - a grandmother and grandfather in their rocking chairs. Can you see Emma?

There she is!

Saturday with Emma

Here's Emma soundly sleeping in her big comfy bed on Saturday morning - and her puppy snoozing in the floor.

Little did Emma know that it's very hard to sleep in when there are little ones running around the house! This picture was taken about 7 a.m. Sophie and Olive couldn't wait to see their new guest any longer. And it looks like Emma's dog was eager to join in on the fun as well.

Believe it or not Jack had already been awake for quite some time by 7 a.m. He saw that the floors upstairs were unfinished and was up at dawn sawing and sanding away at the pile of boards Kitty had stacked up outside. He was waiting for everyone else to wake up before he started installing the rest of the flooring.

Emma's homecoming

I'm a bit behind on my posts here and at Greenleaf as well, but I wanted to try and update Emma's adventures from this weekend.

After our trip to the bar to celebrate their engagement it was time to bring Emma and Jack to the saloon to meet Kitty and the girls. Here they are just coming in the saloon doors. Jack is such a gentlemen and was carrying Emma's bag with her books and her knitting. And of course Emma's dog was eagerly leading the way.

Kitty was so excited to finally meet Emma! I've been telling her about Emma for months now and of course she keeps up with all the news online at Greenleaf's forum. Kitty loves working on the saloon and playing with the girls, but she was eager to have some adult doll friends! As you can see Sophia and Olivia ran right over to be included in the greetings as well.

Emma was pretty tired after her long journey and the trip to the bar so she was ready to call it a night. Kitty showed her upstairs to the guest bedroom. I'm happy to let everyone know that Emma thought the bedding was just lovely! Jack, once again being the perfect gentlemen, didn't mind that we only had one guest bedroom and was happy to sleep in one of the unfinished rooms.

After Emma went to bed her dog decided to roam around the saloon for a bit just to check out his new territory. Even though it was way past their bedtime Sophie and Olive were quite fascinated with their new pal! I'm not sure what his real name is, but I kept hearing Olive call him "fluffy dog."

Emma has a very talented dog indeed. In this picture he was showing Olive that he knows how to shake hands!

Emma and Greenleaf

This post is going to be out of order, but I wanted to include it b/c I thought it was so cute! I love Emma's pose with her hands on her hips. I took this pic especially for the Greenleaf forum members. There were rumors floating around the site that Emma and Jack had eloped or were already married! This is Emma reading the posts where members shared their suspicions that she was pregnant!

Emma's accommodations

Since this is my first attempt at a dollhouse and it's not exactly finished I had to sort of improvise to create a guest bedroom for Emma. Kitty and the girls helped me to clean the upstairs of the saloon and move all of the new furniture in. If you overlook the fact that the wooden floor hasn't been stained, the wallpaper hasn't been hung, and there is no trim around the door/window (or anywhere else for that matter!) it really doesn't look that bad. Here's a view from the outside landing looking in. I will be ordering some clapboard siding for the saloon very soon! And now for a view of the guest bedroom. It's very simple, but I don't think Emma will mind. I tried to mimic the look of a roller shade to cover the window. Also if you saw earlier pictures of the bed you'll see that I've now added a box springs to go with the mattress to make a set. I also added two more pillows to match the fabric that I used to make the fitted sheets. This lovely table with the crocheted tablecloth and the accessories on top are the gift I mentioned earlier from Emma's last host Linda. There is a tiny brown book, a school-themed lamp with abc's, a ruler, and an apple, and also a little potted plant. Isn't it great?! I thought it was perfect to complete the guest room. I have a feeling that Sophie and Olive will eventually be fighting over that lamp though! My b/f David kept asking me why I was decorating with stuff that didn't look like it belonged in a saloon. When I tried to explain it to him I got the same look as when I tried to explain that the traveling doll Emma now has a fiancee. Men just don't understand.

Emma and Jack and an announcement!

Emma and Jack said they were tired from traveling, but both were too excited to sleep. So at their request I took them downtown to mine and David's favorite bar - O'Mainnin's. Emma and Jack seemed to fit right in with the locals and soon were just chatting it up with everybody! My bartender Dustin was a great sport and let both Emma and Jack pose for a couple pictures (he's never even let me behind the bar!) Dustin made the comment that the two of them needed a little pet dog to travel around with them. Little did he know at the time that Emma's dog was outside in the car! He told me to tell everyone that he's sorry, but it would be against health regulations to let a dog into the bar. Here's a close up so you can see them a bit better. Probably the most exciting part of the night was when Emma and Jack made their announcement. If you've been following Greenleaf there were quite a few rumors flying around the forum about a proposal, an elopement, and even a new arrival! Emma and Jack would like to confirm that yes, they are engaged to be married. The happy couple shared a Jager-Bomb amid many toasts to their health and happiness. Please don't worry - I didn't let either one of them drive home. Emma and Jack would like remind everyone to drink responsibly.

Emma has arrived!

I'm so excited! The traveling doll from Greenleaf has arrived! If you're not already a forum member I'll give you a bit of background. Emma belongs to Greenleaf member Elsbeth who started this traveling doll round. Emma traveled to the Netherlands, then through Canada, and she is now making her way back through the United States. Even more exciting is the fact that Emma met a nice young man along the way and now has a traveling companion! But anyway, let's get on to the pictures since that's the fun part anyway :)

Here's Emma as I found her when I came home from work the other day.

And a close up of Emma - isn't she sweet?!

And allow me to introduce her traveling companion Jack. He's quite the gentleman! And he's quite the looker too - I can see why she enjoys his company :)

And this is the box that carried all of their belongings. The small pretty decorative box is Emma's. I can't show you what's inside because it's full of gifts for when Emma returns to Elsbeth. The pink bag contained a gift from Emma's last host - Linda, to me. I'll show you the mini treasure that she sent shortly.

I can't wait for Emma and Jack to meet Kitty and the girls now!