Show and Tell Friday

Dolls are one of my many collections,I collect porcelain and cloth dolls.I love dolls,I guess I am still a little girl at heart because I had just as soon buy a doll or make a cloth doll as I had to buy anything.This is just a few of my porcelain dolls.Some were ordered from Ashton Drake others were given to me by my mother and husband for birthdays.I also love to collect cloth dolls that were made by others,I do make them also and can never seem to part with the ones I make,unless they were made especially for a doll swap.I have cloth dolls made by ladies from Canada,Australia,and other countries also America.I will have to post the cloth dolls on another Show and Tell.The doll in the second picture was the first on bought for my collection.She was bought because she looked like my first grand daughter 14 years ago.That was the start of my collecting dolls.The last pic was a doll chosen because she favored my second grand daughter sister to the first grand daughter.It has been awhile since I bought a porcelain doll,but I think the time to buy a new one is nearing,(My husband will love hearing that).I slow down on the porcelain dolls when I started making cloth dolls.Hope you enjoy looking at my little beauties.

To see more wonderful Show and Tell post visit Kelli at There is No Place Like Home

Porch Bench in the making

I have been wanting some new porch benches so my husband and I decided we would build them ourselves.We had some pressure treated lumber that was not being used so we are making the porch benches out of that lumber.He was off work last week so it was a good time to get the benches started.We only got one done last week ,but over the next few weekends we are going to build a few more benches.Since they are out of treated lumber we are going to do a few benches to set out around the pond.We enjoy sitting out at the pond and letting the goats eat brush and the benches will make nice sitting areas under the oak tree.We cut the seat of the bench about 5 ft. and then cut the legs they are around24 ins.There is a V cut into the bottom of the legs and then cut flat on each point so it will sit level.We used galvanized screws to assemble it.There is a brace screwed in under the seat at each leg for stability. Here we are making the bench and starting the sanding process,we have had rain all week so I just got started sanding it really well today.I will try and get the sanding finished up tomorrow.Then comes the task of making the choice to stain the bench or put a beautiful country style painting on them.That is the one thing I have not made a decision on yet,I am thinking that for the porch benches I will do a nice country style painting effect,and on the benches that will be at the pond I will stain and add water sealer and a couple of coats of clear varnish.I will add the water sealer and clear varnish to the porch benches also.

When I am finished sanding and start on the painting I will post pictures so you can see the progress of the work until i am finished with the porch benches.I have a few more outdoor projects I want to get done before Spring arrives,but this is my starting point.