This time of year is always the busiest for custom dolls. I always try to squeeze in a batch of ready-made dolls, too. Here's what I've been up to.

I also tried my hand at some painted wooden spoon girls.

And I submitted work and was excepted in an art show with this piece.

I want to wish all of my readers, fans, customers, and friends a peaceful winter season!

Last spring, we planted a few sugar pumpkin seeds without much hope. we've never had much luck growing pumpkins. But we were pleasantly surprised to get a few that ripened before the frost came!

So I made soup! I used fresh pumpkin, but you can use canned pumpkin, too.

Ingredients:

*2 small sugar pumpkins, equalling about      3 cups of pulp. (Or one large can of pumpkin).
*1 onion
*3 carrots
*2-3 cups chicken stock
*1 cup cream or half and half
*2 heaping Tablespoons of brown sugar
*1/2-1 teaspoon of salt, to taste
*1-2 teaspoons Pumpkin Pie spice, to taste
* dash of pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Roast 2 small pumpkins (cut in half, scoop out membranes and seeds, put cut side down on cookie sheet, cook at 350 for 2 hours, or until a fork sinks easily into flesh). Allow to cool, then scoop flesh out of skin and/or peel skin off.

2. Dice an onion, slice 3 carrots. Saute in olive oil until soft.

3. Add pumpkin, 3 cups broth, 1 cup heavy cream, 1/2 to 1 tsp of salt (to taste, depends on if broth is salted or not), 1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice, two heaping tablespoons of brown sugar.

4. Add more broth or cream or milk if too thick. Puree together with immersion blender. Taste and adjust seasonings as you like.

Makes 4-6 servings.

*For bonus tastiness, reserve your seeds scooped from the pumpkin, rinse off all membranes, spray a cookie sheet with pan spray, arrange seeds in single layer on sheet and sprinkle with salt. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes. Watch closely to keep from burning. Yum!

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Also, my new roses 11 x 14 print has been listed!

Click here to buy.

I've recently added a new painting to HenAndChickArt.etsy.com. I painted some peonies that I photographed from my garden this summer. It started slow.

Added some darker tones, then it sat for a while.

After a while, I finally got it back out and finished it.

I was pleased with how it came out! Now it's available in the Hen and Chick Art shop as a greeting card, 5 x 7 print, and 8 x 10 print.

Do you like it? Is there another size of print I should offer? What should I paint next?

It has been such a great summer in so many ways. it's a bit hard to say goodbye to it, but my consolation is we are headed to autumn which is my favorite season.

Here is my look-back on the last few month's joys and creations.

Every once in a while I get a custom doll order that gets me even more excited than usual.

When a mom contacted me about making Laura and Mary Ingalls dolls for her little sweetie's birthday, I couldn't wait to get started! As a little girl, I loved the show Little House on the Prairie, and even more close to my heart are the books by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

I started with red calico and brown braids for Laura and blue calico and blonde braids for Mary.

Another essential piece was going to be the bonnets. I made these from some really pretty Liberty of London-esque vintage cloth napkins.

I modified the bonnet from a vintage Holly Hobbie doll pattern to fit these dolls. Isn't this sweet?

The dolls also needed some little white pinafore aprons over their prairie dresses, and then faces painted. Laura with violet eyes and Mary with soft blue.

Here they are completed and in their bonnets.

And here they are in their special winter cloaks, a sweet extra my brilliant customer added on.

I enjoyed this project so much and was so inspired by it that I've decided to reread the Little House books this summer, starting with this one:

If you are interested in a custom made doll of your favorite book character, click here for doll options, and here for costume and outfit extras.