The Pastoral Dollmaker~Christine Crocker

the road to Tasha's

2008-07-23T09:23:00.000-07:00

~the road to Tasha Tudor's home in the woods of Vermont~

~~~

it's been over a month now since our dear

Tasha Tudor went home. I still find myself feeling as though I have lost a dear friend.

What an extraordinary person she was, what a wonderful life she made. Living her dreams in every way following her heart.

If only we all were so brave.

~~~

I took this road with my dear friend, Gayle, one hot summer morning and found myself in another world, as though I had stepped back in time and was a part of it all. The woodsmoke in the air, no noise but for bird song and the slight rustle of leaves.

I was not ready for how loudly my heart sang that morning

~~~

may God bless you, dear Tasha.

you've made a beautiful and indelible mark on my life and the lives of all those who found you.

a warm light,

bright and shining in our hearts.

I hope that this finds that she is right where she wanted to be.

Gone back to her life in the 1830's,

enjoying her flowers by the kitchen doorway this beautiful morning, Canton tea cup in hand with corgi puppies at her feet.

let us then live in peace

2008-07-04T09:22:00.000-07:00

a wonderfully wise man,

our

Thomas Jefferson

born in Shadwell, Virginia

on Apr. 13, 1743

and died at his beloved home, Monticello

in Charlottesville, Virginia

July 4, 1826,

the 50th anniversary

of the Declaration of Independence

and then....sun

2008-06-07T05:49:00.000-07:00

after a long grey day

the sun slipped

below the clouds as she went to wake up the rest of the world

and gave us a smile before she went on her way.

it seemed a much longer sunset than usual,

it made the fields a honey gold and long shadows across the grass

and so

my Bella & I sat together

and let it soak in

~*~

the thankful heart

...will find, in every hour,

some heavenly blessings

Henry Ward Beecher

remembrance

2008-05-24T20:17:00.001-07:00

of those that live in our hearts.

mothers day

2008-05-13T18:17:00.000-07:00

I keep this picture in my purse.

it has lived in every purse I have had for 28 years.

the little people here are my children.

my son, 2 years old and my daughter is 5 years old,

and the way you see them here...their bright and shiny spirits...

is how they are today.

oh, yes, they may be a little taller...

still, the same bright shiny little faces.

they have so much love for each other

and for those around them.

when they were very small, it was just the 3 of us

for quite sometime.

they saved my life every day.

without them life would have been a vast open sea

without land in sight.

it has been a glorious garden with them in it.

our sunday

2008-05-04T15:42:00.000-07:00

warm sun,

soft and fragrant air,

royal anne cherry

clouds of spectacular bloom,

frogs content in the pond,

hens asleep under the old lilac,

a double white narcissus between them,

a tiny pansy

blooming by the old gate

balm for a winter weary soul

thank you

2008-05-02T17:32:00.000-07:00

Thank you everyone who sent such lovely notes & emails telling me how

much you've enjoyed your time

while visiting me here at The Pastoral Doll maker this past year.

Thank you from my heart.

I have to say that many of your letters

put a lump in my throat and a tear in my eye.

I'm so glad to know that you have enjoyed

my writings, my stories and images about our life here

on Deerfield Farm .

I loved reading every one

of your letters.

thank you all so very much.

with love

on this day

and always,

Christine

~~~

the first of may

2008-05-01T10:41:00.000-07:00

from my humble garden to you

happy first day of May

my first year blog anniversarie celebration & news

2008-04-16T14:14:00.000-07:00

One evening, over a year ago now, I sat with my daughter on her bed playing

with her lap top...

"oh, I've got to get one of these!" I said, emphatically.

Speaking of her lap top, of course, and exclaiming over her then new blog

HomeKeeping Hearts all at once.

How luxurious,I thought to myself. To sit upon your bed and sail the world over!

To visit exciting places and wonderful people,

seeing such things that I had no idea even existed.

things that can only be dreamt of.

and so~~~~~

with Katie's help,

The Pastoral Doll Maker was born that very evening.

From my chair by the window I can see our farm unfolding hill upon hill, dressed in her best soft green gown of spring...

the twittering of the meadow lark, the sound of contented frogs

singing from the newly filled pond.

oh! there's the scent of crab apple blossoms catching me by surprise while I write.

and I can share it all first hand.

This has been a wonderful year of learning, of growth & discovery and I am grateful for all of you, my dear friends, new & old, who have come to Deerfield Farm

for a visit & peppermint tea on the porch or

for a walk through the fields with me.

I have visited & made new friends in countries all over the world from my old wing chair.

all while sitting here, snug, by the crackling fire on snowy winter evenings.

~*~

To celebrate my First year blog Anniversarie,

I invite you to write a sentence or two, a paragraph maybe and tell me what you have enjoyed most while visiting me here this year...

and what you would like to see & hear more of.

This is your entry into the First Anniversarie Celebration.

Mr Fine Pigg is away for a few weeks away to visit his family at the neighboring farm

and so I will be drawing the name of a lucky someone who leaves their kind thoughts.

There is a lovely Paper Trifle to be given away~

hand made especially for this occasion.

The winner will be chosen on Friday, May 2, 2008 shortly before my

Sweet Springe Celebration

beginning at 5 pm that First Friday of May.

I hope that when you do come for a visit,

that you'll feel comfortable and please leave a comment.

~please leave your name and a way for me to contact you~

I love to hear from everyone and will do my best to do the same for you.

I look forward to hearing from you~

with love

on this day,

Christine

~news from the Deerfield Doll House~

~*~

ps. I have heard from a little bird that the newest issue of Artful Blogging may contain

a little something about The Pastoral Doll Maker.

April 24***after traveling for hours and miles

and spending my children's inheritance for gas...

I have not yet found the newest issue of Artful Blogging.

We sat on the floor in front of the artist's & crafter's

magazine shelves

at Barnes & Noble

had wonderful mocha's.

We basked in the heady coffee aroma & delightful atmosphere

of a real live book sellers .

Spent some delicious time looking through

all the newest magazines,

but did not find the one issue

I was looking for.

it surely is coming ... and it is somewhere...

my little bit of being published is not in the Spring 2008 issue.

but rather the Summer 2008 issue

on the newsstands May 1.

I can be patient....being surrounded by rows upon rows

and piles of books

and other bookish people was heaven.

double mocha's and patience...do they mix?

ah yes, they do for me.

I have not yet seen this little bit of story about the dolls myself,

but I hope to very soon.

love,C

a blessed easter

2008-03-23T13:15:00.001-07:00

early spring garden in Colonial Williamsburg

~~~

Easter has come very early this year...

most times there are enough tiny blooms

to make my own bouquet for Easter brunch,

but this year,

just one tiny daffodil is bravely

blooming down in the orchard.

My treasures, the old black hens,

are fluffed and snug under the old budded lilac.

The promise of spring is evident,

just not yet here.

In my heart I visit a peaceful, green,

lovely and serene brick walk

in one of my most beloved places to visit.

From my home,

I'll share a fragrant and fresh bouquet of

white crabapple blossoms

from the old knarled crabapple tree

with you.

sending wishes to you all

for a beautiful

Easter with those you love all around you.

and hopefully -

a lovely chocolate bunny

who is most definitely hard of hearing.

with love to my friends,

on this blessed Easter day,

Christine

Deerfield Farm

more love letters of home

2008-03-13T08:35:00.001-07:00

I adore this early mirror. It belonged to a wonderful old friend

who spent her life collecting early things.

She lived her love of early.

Everything she did was connected to another time.

The first time I visited her, I was put to work washing lambs wool

in an old trough. She was busy making mead that day.

My chalk ware lamb is precious,

Netty made her for me a long time ago.

early morning light falling on my favorite

linen toile pillow.

I have had this lovely old brown linen toile

in my home since we first came to

Deerfield Farm...it's all in pastoral farming scenes.

I do love it.

Notice the young man ....

in every vignette

he is lazing about while the ladye works hard

at harvesting the wheat, tending her lambs,

turkies & hens and milking the cow.

I can't help but laugh at the look she gives

him.

I'm quite sure he's imagining the wonderful supper she's going to be

making for him .... just as soon as her

chores are all done, of course.

what was the old broom closet at the end of the hallway.

I took the door off

and fitted it with shelves

and painted it all a creamy white

to display some of my old white ironstone.

Perfect.

my love affair with an old house

2008-03-02T08:28:00.000-08:00

Nearly 20 years ago, we were out for a Sunday drive around the rolling foot hills

of the high desert,

looking for abandoned homesteads of those brave souls who stopped here

on their way along the Oregon Trail instead

of going on to the fertile & lush Willamette Valley. I remember very well, the very moment when coming around the steep bend in the dirt road and finding her there...

and the catch in my throat!

She rose up from the pasture in once splendid elegance.

Her windows looked out with hopeful eyes.

"I don't often speak to strangers", she confided, "but you"...she said,

"I know you". "Never mind that the cows come and go through my open doors and gaze out from broken windows while they thoughtfully chew their cud... come live with me", she said. "My rooms are waiting for love letters in every corner. Your lovely Mt. Jefferson can be seen from my every window. My fireside has a place for your chair and your ever present stack of books.

The comforting pat of your grand children's little bare feet

running up and down would be most welcome here.

The sounds & smell of Sunday dinner being made, laughter coming from the kitchen,

the scent of the sagebrush gently blowing sheets behind me on the line...

Come live with me, she says. I'll plant a rose by the kitchen door.

love letters of home

2008-02-14T08:11:00.001-08:00

late afternoon light dances

across the walls

glowing golden on

early quilted petticoats and bonnets.

I like to think of the quiet little corners of my home as love letters to myself and my family.

You know, when you put together a little place that feels just right, with your treasured things. and then, when the light comes through, it surprises you with just how pretty it is...

the feelings that come from experiencing it for the few brief moments that the light comes through and you know how much you love where live...

then looking forward to the next little moment when the light changes again.

these are my love letters of home.

every doll has a story

2008-02-13T18:48:00.000-08:00

Every doll has a story.

And for as long as I can remember my dolls have told me their stories, their dreams and secret wishes and thoughts. Long before they were dolls, they were stories in my thoughts, sketches on paper, most of the time they come to me in my sleep.

For me, the dolls have lives just as interesting and varied and as real as you and I.

and so, I would like to share these stories of the dolls with all of you.

All of you, my dear readers, who have written such wonderful letters to tell me how much you love & enjoy my dolls and their stories, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I have begun something special for all of you that you may continue to enjoy the dolls and their stories from Deerfield Farmhouse.

a window into the Deerfield Doll House the dolls & their stories

Here you will find all the adventures and goings on with the daily lives of

the Ladyes of Deerfield Farm;

Mr. Jefferson, the handsome gentleman farmer from Virginia

who, besides his great desire to experience farming on the western frontier,

has come to call on the Ladyes of Deerfield Farm

along with a wonderful and interesting cast of characters throughout.

*a small note*

~and this is all in good fun~

~not wishing to injure any Dear Reader with delicate sensibilities~

Life for the dolls is not unlike that of real folks, with the joys and trials of everyday life and perhaps,

a secret romance may be found.

So, my dears, if it is just a pretty doll story that you want to read,

you may wish to avert your eyes from the story and gaze upon the pretty pictures I have thoughtfully added just for that very reason.

again, this is all in good fun

I hope you enjoy!

sending love,

Christine

and

the Deerfield Dolls

winter morning

2008-01-28T08:33:00.000-08:00

There is a privacy about it which no other season gives you....

In spring, summer and fall people sort of have an open season on each other;

only in the winter, in the country,

can you have longer, quiet stretches

when you can savor belonging to yourself.

~Ruth Stout

poppets & trifles

2008-01-24T19:03:00.001-08:00

hello dear Friends,

This evening

begins my first

website offerings for this new year.

In Celebration of the

Sweets of Love

with

Poppets & Trifles

We hope that you will come for a visit to Deerfield Farmhouse

this evening

January 25

5 pm pacific time

and for especially lovely handmade paper trifles and dolls

visit Sparrow's Cottage

Valentine's Day will soon be here....

pretty girls

2008-01-10T04:22:00.000-08:00

why hello young ladies, don't you look pretty!

May I take your picture? well, I would love to...what do you think, Elisabeth?

just let us get prettied up first...oh dear...let's get Sophie's

crown back on again...Elisabeth, you look nice....

hold on while I

fluff my hair a little

we're ready!

oh, such pretty girls!

smile!

my grand daughter, Emma, who is

2 1/2

~thank you very much~

and playing nicely with my

old German papier mache dolls

the road not taken...

2008-01-08T08:21:00.000-08:00

Whenever I'm out walking in the hills around our farm,

the wind in my face, the sky overhead

and the hills around me.

It's then that the beginnings,

the middles and endings of poems

that I love...

Thoreau or Robert Frost come to mind.

maybe you do this, too? I hope so.

When I first saw this picture that my little grandson, Ethan, took,

my first thought was

"wow...just look what Ethan did"

and then I heard

"I took the one less traveled by

and that has made all the difference."

You see the old farmer is "precariously perched"

on an unfamiliar road

and yet he looks quite satisfied with the view....

ah yes,

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood,

and I-

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost

there was just something about him.....

2007-12-24T06:58:00.000-08:00

when I first saw him, he was nestled in the old mitten just as you see him.

His crown chipped and his little hand long gone....

Someone before me had surely loved him and

had seen to it that he was safe & warm before they

let him go.

He has been there, asleep on his old mitten,

giving

Peace, Love & Joy every Christmas

and every day

in between.

***

I wish for you all

much love, peace and joy

this Christmas

and

every day in between.

with love,

Christine

***

~Our dear Mr. Jefferson & the Deerfield Ladye's send their very Best to you all

and hope that you are enjoying the Spirit of Christmas.

They will return again with stories and news in the New Year~

Bless you all for your friendship and love,

Merry Christmas

a blessed New Year

My dear Madame....

2007-12-03T20:26:00.001-08:00

a voice called down from the top of the old cupboard-

"My dear Madame"...

Mr. Jefferson spoke with great calm & dignity "Please, do not trouble yourself concerning my first meeting with the ladyes,

"he said, peering over the edge. " As you can see, I am quite well"... He looked surprisingly well. I also took note that in the short time he had been on the shelf that he had fashioned for himself a hat made from a bit of the wrapping paper that he had arrived in.... and tied some of the string around it to keep it in place. A resourceful fellow...since his arms were themselves tied on with string.

"In fact, he confided, as he adjusted the paper hat. " I was quite taken with their enthusiasm upon my arrival....I understand that the ladyes may not be used to much company, especially when that company is a gentleman. Of course, my sudden appearance has probably caused a bit of unexpected giddiness.

..."and the parlor tea table seems to have a bit of a tilt to it...and...." his voice trailed into a whisper... " I'm afraid that my spectacles were still in my vest pocket and I actually lost my footing and went down on my own accord...I do believe the ladies were only trying to help me up again...

and so as he spoke and told me about his missing spectacles, the fact that one leg is a bit shorter than the other, these combined with the tippy parlor table and apparently our Mr. Jefferson was much older than he had let on, it all became quite clear what had actually happened. it would seem that along with a most enthusiastic welcome, our dear Mr. Jefferson is a bit of a clumsy fellow without his spectacles...and more importantly, he is much older than he let on...in fact, quite old. Something to do with being "repainted"....poor fellow...

"and so dear Madame...if you would do me the kind service of finding something more appropriate for me to wear until my clothes are mended, I shall be most honored and pleased to join you with all your dear family for tea in front of the fire this evening...perhaps we may all begin again."

He smiled down at me.

He was now leaning precariously over the edge of the shelf, dangling a thin sock with a hole in the toe... "do you think you might be able to do something with this before the appointed hour?"

~~~~

to be continued...

oh, Christmas is lovely ...

2007-12-01T07:17:00.000-08:00

oh, isn't Christmas time lovely....

it's the first of December, looking out my windows snow is falling as I write. The candles are lit on the mantle, the fir wreath on the front door is dusted with snow, a good fire in the fireplace and the scents of Christmas have come to my little farmhouse.

We've been to the woods with our little grandchildren to cut our tree, we've been going to the woods since I was very small...and we carried the tradition on with our children and now our little grandchildren... it's just lovely...seeing their excitement and the snow falling as we tramped through the firs and pines looking for the perfect tree to bring home. Feeling the same excitement ourselves...making snow angels under the trees, wondering if they'll be found before the snow fills them in... Seeing Christmas through their eyes makes this celebration just what it is meant to be. Peace & Joy, great Hope, love for each other and the promise of good things to come.

This evening our tree stands in front windows, not yet dressed and waiting for it's old paper and tinsel, wonderful beeswax candles & chalk ware Santas , gingerbread animals & sparkling glass charms .

Each year we add more and each year our tree is even more beautiful...and Christmas more meaningful as our family gathers and is together.

oh, Christmas is lovely....

with love,

Christine

Deerfield Farm

~~~

Dear Readers,

Our story of "Mr Jefferson comes calling"

continues tomorrow...with

"My dear Madame".....