The joy of toymaking

Once you get the taste of the rewarding feeling of handmade, you can get easily hooked. And toymaking is no exceptions. I can spend hours looking at the most beautiful toys made by the Europeean compagnies, and truly they are absolutely magnificent and are a joy to own. But they are also quite spendy, and truth be told, no matter how beautiful they are, they take space, and having too much is no better then having too much of something else, it does become clutter! (Yes, you can clutter your house with beautiful Waldorf type toys!)

Peanut is really playing with her doll lately. It is part of every day for her. And she has been sleeping her in the most unsual little corner of our house: the laundry basket, a bookshelf, in the pot cupboard...so it made me think that this wonderful doll of hers had no spaces of her own to sleep. I pondered over getting a wooden bed, but finally choose to make something for her: it would cost less, and take less space, and well, would be made with mommy love.

I tried to get the best idea for this bed, and finally came up with something amazing! A hammock. We love hammocks here, and try to enjoy them as much as possible when the hotter seasons are around. But why not treat her doll for an all year round hammock bed?

And so DD's doll's bed was created:



I made the hammock with some cascade yarn and gigantic needles (broomstick knitting anyone?).

I hung the hammock with a tree branch that we found in our yard. Pea and I sanded it as a surprise for Peanut.

then a little rainbow of silk is in order to keep Doll warm



and some birds to lull her into sleep;



and that was all Peanut needed for some more magical playtime.