Isla’s Doll

In the middle of making this rag doll (my first ever, don’t laugh!) for our youngest granddaughter, Isla. Talk about unrealistic body expectations!

Thank goodness she has a long skirt. Her crotch literally is right above the hem! ?

Kenny laughed at me and calls it my thalidomide doll. She has weird lobster claw chicken wings for arms and her crotch is around her knees. Doll making is harder than it seems! I pretty much thought it’d be like making a snowman with legs.

Every time I lift the bottom hem of her skirt: BAM! There’s her crotch!

I added a cape to disguise her strange lobster wings.

Update: January 19, 2019

Isla gave me a strange look when I presented her with the crazy-looking, perpetually-excited doll, but she didn’t run away screaming or anything. I think she may actually like it!

Here she is blowing out her candles on the birthday cupcakes I made, which were slightly less of a failure. (Just one of those frantic, failure kind of days!)

They were filled with homemade custard, and that’s always a forgiving ingredient. See my vanilla custard recipe below the cute photo of Isla.

Recipe: Vanilla Custard

• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 can 12 ounce Pet milk
• 1/3 cup milk
• 3 egg yolks
• 1/2 stick of butter
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

Combine the flour, sugar and salt in a heavy bottomed sauce pan. Add milk and cook at medium heat, slowly stirring to keep it from sticking or burning. Cook this way until boiling and then two minutes more, then remove from heat. Temper egg yolks by pouring about a half cup of the pudding mixture to the yolks, stirring them until well blended, then adding all back to the sauce pan. Mix well then add butter and vanilla to the pot, letting the butter melt from the heat of the pudding. Stir in butter and vanilla then pour in container of your choice to set.

Recipe: Chocolate Custard

• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 can 12 oz Pet milk
• 1/2 cup of milk
• 3 eggs yolks
• 1/2 stick of butter
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1-1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Combine the flour, sugar and salt in a heavy bottomed sauce pan. Add the milk and cook at medium heat, slowly stirring to keep it from sticking or burning. Cook this way until boiling and then two minutes more, then remove the pan from heat. Temper your egg yolks by pouring about a half cup of the pudding mixture into the bowl with your yolks, stirring them until well blended, then add it all back to the sauce pan. Mix well then add butter, vanilla and chocolate chips to the pan, letting everything melt in from the heat of the pudding, then stir everything together.