The Olive Sparrow

Of Kids and Lambs and Blue Eggs

These images - the second batch of our wonderful March break week, was meant to be posted a few weeks back. Yet looking at the pix and processing them for this here blog made me realize how seasonally appropriate they are. 

Enjoy!

 

 

At the farm of my friends co-worker and friend in Mount Albert, Ontario. 

Angora Goats and kids (2 days old), sheep (sorry I forgot the exact breed), wonderful medley of different breeds of chickens and their gorgeous eggs, lambs - a bit early this year, papa-sheep before and after his shearing, Huxley and the youngest daughter of the farm with a lamb. 

I did not notice how beautifully subtle and harmounious the colours of the animals where with the landscape until I started to process the images. 

Easter is such a wonderful festival to celebrate the re-awakening of life in nature! This has been the greenest celebration I have experienced in my almost 25 years here in Toronto. It is wonderful. I hope you have a chance to go for a walk outside and fill yourself up with reawakening life.

The Olive Sparrow Child - Baby Dolly

Aa dear client requested if I could possibly make a small baby doll in a sling for her daughter's birthday. Although the deadline was very tight, timing worked out wonderful to create this little as of yet unnamed baby. 

She is about 9.5" or 25 cm tall.

Cuddling in her sling.

Wearing teeny-tiny diapers that close with little snaps. 

The sling fits a 44cm Olive Sparrow doll with the baby snuggly cuddled around mami-doll.

Fluffy baby hair.

Wearing her itty-bitty hat.

Smilling and waiting for her pickup at the studio. 

 

My client and I discussed that they baby should be somewhat unisex in appearance, so that her daughter could pretend to either have a baby-girls or a baby-boy. I think that was successful, as both my husband and my son couldn't right out say which gender the baby is. 

While working on the baby, I also started another small doll. I just picked out the colours for her clothes and hope to work on her later today - now, I'm going to let Huxley create some bean bags on the sewing machine - a first for us and we're both very excited. 

____________________________________________

Each doll is made up of the following materials.

Skin: 100% cotton (Swiss-made to Öko-Tex-Standard 100)
Stuffing 100% “green-processed” wool batt from Canada
Hair: 100% Wool, or a Mohair/Wool Blend
Clothing: 100% natural fibres (linen, cotton, silk)
Shoes: Recycled felted wool sweaters, or pure leather
Face: 100% cotton Embroidery Thread

Workmanship:
Each doll is created individually by artist Monika Aebischer, the proprietor of The Olive Sparrow. She sources and uses only the highest quality materials in her creations – swiss-made skin fabric, Canadian green processed wool stuffing,  wool/mohair for the dolls hair (often hand-dyed by her). Hair for the Olive Sparrow Children is made by crocheting a cap that is sewn to the head, allowing for replacement should it ever become necessary (although most children will object to this, as it changes their doll dramatically). For the wispy hair, a special german mohair is used and a labour-intense technique, for the loose longer hair each strand of wool is individually knotted into the crocheted cap. This is the prime technique for doll-wig creation.

Doll clothing is made from up-cycled vintage and clothing fabrics, in either pure linen, cotton or silk. Up-cycled fabric is wonderful for doll clothes, as the cloth has been washed soft, gentle and free of textile manufacturing products. Monika also felts used woolen sweaters to use for doll shoes and clothing. She knits the doll’s hats out of prime quality knitting wool. Each seam on the doll’s body is sewn twice to allow your child to fiercely love their Olive Sparrow Child. Clothing is sewn with finished seams and some are fully reversible.

 

 

 

What we did...

... finally some pictures of the first part of our March break outing as promised. We went north in the search of snow. We found some, although not the copious amounts what we had hopped for. Living within the seasons has been very challenging when the seasons don't play along.

I take our winter books up from their storage downstairs at the beginning of December, together with the Christmas and Solstice books. After the holidays, usually January 7 when we put the Christmas tree away, all, except the Winterbooks go back downstairs. At the same time we also turn our nature table into a winter scene. This year we had used both shelves on the little sidetable that we use for a nature table - upstairs was King Winter in his winter wonderland, on the bottom shelf Huxley put Mother Earth and her children by creating a wonderful cave for them. 

Here is where it becomes challenging. Waiting for winter, for snow, for activities as they happen in the books that talk about winter. I think it is high-time that some books are written that show our winters as they are and also suggest some activities to do without snow. I have a gander that we will have more irregular weather like this ahead of us (smile). 

To try to find some winter, we planned to visit my dear friend Mary and her family in the north (from us it's about 2.5hrs due north) in Bracebridge, Ontario. We stayed there for a few days and had lots of fun. Here some pictures to share.

Bleached leaves - wonderful colours and gorgeous shapes.

Cadmun, the family german sheppard, black lab mix. She celebrated her 1st birthday while we visited. 

Resting.

Marys' youngest - full steam ahead!

The path behind Mary's house - this is the snow we found and glorious it was.

Mary with two of her three Children, Pauline (who teaches at the same school as Mary) with her children.

Funghi growth on a dead tree trunk.

On the second day of our visit it was so warm outside that the children played on the deck with only their shirtsleeves on. 

Muskoka at its best!

Woodpecker geometry. 

 

Thank you again Mary for putting us up for a few days!

 

A lot goes on inside

You might be wondering where the dolls are. I have been talking about new ones in the works, yet no pictures and no status reports on this here blog. Last week was the school March break (we spend 3 days in bed with the flu, then had some fun - pix to come), the week before I finally got the studio in order and actually did some work on the newest dolls. Here a bit of background.

Last fall, I spent a focussed time of almost 3 months working exclusively on The Olive Sparrow items. My painting practice was put on hold, so that I could focus on the dolls and doll clothes. Not completely though. In the background I spent time restructuring and renovating my studio. For those of you new to visiting here, I am also a professional painter (Monika Aebischer, and the other slightly forgotten blog). I have maintained my professional artist studio going on 18 years. It is a lovely space in downtown Toronto with a gorgeous 3rd story view into the west. My dolls on the other hand have been created in my downstairs studio here at home. I have not been able to do textile work at the painting studio for the past 6 years, because of the resin that I work with on my artwork - resin is a magnet for even the smallest fiber floating gently in the air. 

Splitting my work up between home and the rented studio has felt wrong for some time. I love my studio and like to spend time there. Last summer this all overwhelmed me and I fell into a dark hole. A hole that didn't let me see any sunshine and made me question my artwork, my dolls, my life - not fun. One day (one of many) where I sat in my studio, with hands paralized by darkness, I looked around and was struck by an idea - if I build a wall to seperate off the resin area, I can do different work again at the studio. Reinvigorated, I set myself to organizing the task - simple I thought and quick - not so... Together with the help of my amazing superintendent in the building, supplies brought there with the help of my husband and son, and most of all time and gentleness towards myself, I started the process in August 2011. The beginning of this year I worked on a painting comission, then I set 3 weeks aside to get it all done! I even painted the floor white, and the whole space is a new inspiration. (I'll show some pix in a bit). 

Two weeks ago, I brought some of my dolls in progress there and each day spent a few hours working on the babes. Here is another type of inside look that shows how I weight out the stuffing for each doll limb. I have developed a chart for each pattern so that I remember the weight for each part. I find that important, so that every time I stuff a limb, it will be the same - quality control. 

The head and wig-base for a 44cm doll, hand stuffing, inner arm, outer arm. Legs with the feet done and the inner leg and outer leg stuffing. 

Lots of weighing out to be done for each doll. (There is another babe in the background)

One foot stuffed, the beautiful eco-wool for the other foot ready. I am always amazed at how much wool will fit into a dolls to make it solidly stuffed. 

When I stuff the limbs, I create an inner core that I needlefelt very solidly, then wrap it with a loftier outer layer. It all is inserted into the limbs with help of a "funnel" as I call it. If a doll isn't stuffed very solidly, it will easily misshape over time. Especially when a child sleeps with a doll and possibly ends up laying on top of it. Hence compacting the wool as much as possible at the outset means that the wool doesn't really have any place to compact into. Also wool naturally felts together through rubbing, so why not start that process before putting lofty fiber into a limb. I tried many different ways to stuffing a doll and this process has become the one most logical for me.

Finding a rhythm in the creation of my various endeavors is a challenge, one often thwarted by life getting in the way (grrr). But I have been gifted with various ways to express myself and to create not one type of work, but many. Often when I make something "just for fun" and "just as a little gift" - one or more of the dear ones in my life comment "you could sell that". But not everything I make is meant to become a commercial enterprise. Rather on the other hand. I have decided that I am very selective of what I will offer to the world for purchase - my paintings, wet-felted and The Olive Sparrow goods. There is also teaching in my future - dolls and wet-felting, in my studio and as a traveling instructor (more to come about this).

A little taste of home

This time of the year is when we eat traditional Fastnachtschuechli at home in Switzerland. They are sold in all the local grocery stores and are only available in February and March (if my memory serves me right).

Fastnachtschuechli are to celebrate carnival Swiss-style. I miss this time of the year very much, as Halloween just doesn't capture my heart the same way. I loved the lightheartedness of the Swiss celebration.

This year I decided to start a tradition of making the Fastnachtschuechli (can you tell I love saying it... Giggle), on family day , our mid February statutory holiday.

Yummy....

Happy Day of Love

We have started a new tradition around our meals: recounting our favourite thing of the day. 

Today I had a most definite favourite: 

Huxley got up at 5:30 to tape about 50 heart cut-outs onto the walls of the kitchen and the bunny-room door, he made us breakfast (toasted bagels and cream cheese) and taped some hearts underneath our plates. He also put his lovely hand-made cards under our plates. 

 

Spending a few minutes before our family dinner every night to focus on good things has brought much happiness to our days. At first, Huxley always wanted to mention bad things too - I encourage him to focus on the good things before dinner and then we could talk about the bad things afterwards. Being Thankful, a small gesture, a few minutes of time and a huge difference.

Huge Huggles to you all! and may your lives be filled with love of all kind!

 

Inspiration

"She who dies with the most
Fabric, Yarn, Art Supplies, Tools, etc. wins!"

Have you heard about this competition? I'm doing really well (giggle). Stacks of collected fabrics, baskets of yarns, tools to help me with virtually any task, 10 drawers full of thread in any colour imaginable; are just what I have in my home studio (we won't discuss my painting studio). Having lived a life filled with creation has left its mark. In addition, I have often been gifted with wonderful treasures from friends and neighbours. Then there was the 3 years that I worked at a major fabric store chain as an assistant buyer and could purchase fabric for my personal use at cost prices. I know that even if I live another 60 years and am blessed with working hands, eyes and grey matter, I will not be able to use up everything. I do not need to ever go shopping for supplies again, except for specifics, such as doll skin, doll-hair, eco stuffing wool. 

Yet inspiration can be such a fickle companion. There are moments when placing a hand on a piece of fabric a fully-formed image of a creation springs to mind. Other times it is an image in a children's book, or a conversation with a friend. Sometimes though, what is really needed is to fondle materials that are not yet mine - aka a visit to a yarn or fabric store. Mostly on an errand where I need just a little bit of something specific to compliement something I am working on - inspiration has a habit of jumping on me. 

I ran such an errand this week to Romni Wools, the largest wool store that I have seen. And, there is the basement! A crowded space with stacks and stacks of discontinued and coned yarns/wools. It is a heaven for my doll making needs. What started with the need to pick up a ball of specific hair yarn ended up with quite an inspirational haul of goodies.

Now there has been knitting for the past two days, instead of stuffing body parts - hats in glorious colours. For the 35 cm dolls that will be forthcoming.

I got a half cone of the lilac chenille - it is made with viscose and wool - super soft and so pretty. It is a designer yarn from Italy to boot.

When I design my dolls, I sometimes start with the knitted hat and then build an outfit around it. For the chenille hat and the one mohair yarn in the back, I know that some will be for fairy dolls. With wings. The red and green yarns I picked up because I knew they would match some of the fabrics I have in my stash.

I am a very tactile person - I think many of us are, especially our children. When I make an Olive Sparrow Child, I make sure that each one has a wide variety of textures for a child to feel and play with. Teaching our brains to recognize how different each material feels through our fingers connects us more intimately to our world. I would also think it makes us more affectionate and compassionate human beings. We have adapted the song "Four Hugs a day" to "Ten hugs a day". (Lyrics), and include our pets in there too (except the fish, they don't seem to feel the same way.

Talking about tactility - I'd better take my hands off the keyboard now and get creating.

Have a wonderful day!

 

Up-close and Personal with The Wild Things

When our family heard news of the Polar Bear Cub at the Toronto Zoo (Globe & Mail) we immediately shelved our Sunday nature walk plans and decided to go to the zoo instead. We planned to be at the gates when the zoo opened, alas, we got there around 30 minutes after that.  

Huxley said, that all he wanted to do was cuddle with the little bear - knowing of course that would not be feasible.  

It was good planning to be there at the early morning hour - for about half an hour, there were so few people that we got to hang out right up against the window. I shot all these pix with a 18-55mm lens, so the little fellow was never very far away.

 Making contact:

He spent a good 2 - 3 minutes trying to engage with Huxley - ah, what a wonderful experience. 

Eventually though, we had to move on, the amounts of people multiplied and we also wanted to see some other wild creatures:

The Lions we agreed that cuddling up with one of these would be the coolest thing.. except maybe the purr, which would surely keep you from falling asleep, as it would possibly rattle your teeth, if they could only safely be kept as pets.. (giggle)

 

Just hanging out with a baboon.

Canada geese flying very closely over-head.

Pacing back and forth with a Hyena along the front glass wall about 10 times.

 

This was the first time we visited the zoo outside of the busy summer season and it was a wonderful experience. Most of the animals were much more active than during the hot summer months. A large tiger was playing in it's cage like a kitten, rather than just lounging around. We got to chat with an elephant keeper and a polar bear keeper. We also watched one feed some tiny monkeys and had them clambering up her legs and back. Walking was easy because there is no snow on the ground. 

The orang-utans are as always a pleasure to see. There was a little tumble, as one of the older females slipped and fell ontop of the littlest monkey in the enclosure. The little one, named Nazir, was luckily not hurt, but he promptly ran to his mother to nurse, which he still does at age four. 

I hope that we get a chance to see the polar bear cup again in a few weeks/months. 

And for fun, here is the Polar Bear Cub playing with a barrel:

  

A fun Challenge

My niece is turning 11 tomorrow. When I met my husband she was a scant 5 months old. Over the years she has spent many sleep-overs at our house and I love her like my own daughter. She is my girl-energy, my connection to the young women generation.

This is L. in 2008, the year we started a tradition:

Crazy-cakes for her Birthday at the beginning of February. This one was a very healthy, all organic vanilla-flavoured Gugelhopf, covered in a totally insane, and of course totally unhealthy amount of candy and blue-dyed, organic lemon icing. Inspired by Tessa Kiros' "Apple For Jam" cookbook- the Pandoro Birthday Cake on Page 417.

As you can see, it was swiftly munched up. 

Resulting in a pack of high-sugar strung children. Huxley was a sweet 3 and 3/4 in this shot.

The cake was such a hit with L. and her friends, that it started this crazy cake-making tradition. 

For the past two years we made a pop-rock cake with white chocolate. (It was eaten too fast for me to even take a picture). This idea came through a word game (don't ask...)

A few weeks back, in mid-january, I got a call from L. asking me if I would possibly be able and willing to please make her birthday cake again. I immediately said "Sure thing! Count on me!". Upon which followed an e-mail with this:

 

First I swallowed hard a few times - I am no cake decorator, I can bake an edible concoction, bake a cake with no recipe, but looking pretty - not so much. Could I possibly tell my niece that it was not possible? I would have felt bad. So some R&D was in order. After spending upwards of 5 hours zooming around the world wide web and hence taking a theoretical crash-course in cake decorating, I decided that it should be doable (somewhat). I had made plain marzipan many times and growing up in Switzerland, marzipan was sold in every bakery shop in the shape of cute animals and fruit. I learned about fondant, how to make it, how to apply it to a cake and how to make animals out of gum paste. I looked up addresses of suppliers in Toronto. Luckily just before I got into the car to buy me some gumpaste, I read a comment that called it edible, yet not palatable. So back to the idea of marzipan I went. 

L. came by for a visit a couple of weeks ago and we dyed the marzipan with gel food colours (something rather against my eating philosophy, but hey, can't always be perfectly adhering to my life manifestos.) Yesterday I baked a simple vanilla cake from a PC' Choice Organics cake mix (I needed to recoup some time, and considering how much other stuff was going into the cake I figured it wouldn't make a huge difference). I baked 2 8" vanilla cakes with some added white chocolate chips. Once cooled, I  added some butter-cream frosting, sprinkled the bottom layer with fancy white chocolate chunks put the second layer on it. The whole cake was then heavily frosted with all the butter-cream frosting I had left (this is why the cake looks so soft and cushy, rather than tall and hard-edged (note to self, add less butter cream next time). After I made the marshmallow fondant, L. helped me dye it to just the right shade of pink. 

This is what the final result looked like:

Some detail shots: 

L. made the bowl and the sleeping bag by herself. I helped with the pillow

L.'s slippers, with flowers of her own design

I made this little marzipan bear

This box is what L. left with:

Home-made too. 

 

Here is the note I got from my Sis-in-Law today:

Thank you so much Monika!!!! Your cake was amazing to look at and soooooo delicious! The girls loved it! That was very generous of you. As usual, L. was the belle of the ball with such an amazing cake and got to show it off ...I took the paper off of it as soon as we got home and it sat in front of them for 3 hours before they got to eat it! Thank you...

I can go to bed and sleep well, then worry about what I might need to create to trump this years cake...

Recipe Links

Marshmallow-fondant

Best butter cream Frosting  

Instructions to apply fondant: youtube, search for: applying fondant.

What this exercise has taught me is that no matter how challenging something looks, with dedication, RESEARCH, patience and courage, anything can be accomplished. And no, I won't be studying cake decorating and no!, I also won't be for hire to make cakes... (not to worry hubby!).

 

Suzy and Baby Jo

I finally am ready to let Suzy and Baby Jo go into the world. I listed them in my Etsy store today:

To the store

Blogged about here.

On other news, I am working on a series of five new Olive Sparrow Children. They will be in the following sizes: one at 54 cm, one at 44cm, two at 35 cm and one at 31 cm. I will post details as I move along. 

January has been a recuperating and re-grouping month for me. I worked on a painting commission at the studio, finished another painting that I had to re-do, (thanks to a product that was sold to me as a professional art product, but didn't behave as such), did a lot of work on Huxley's knitted bed spread, submitted a course outline to Loyalist College for a wet-felting course I'm scheduled to teach in the summer and mostly went to bed at a reasonable time every night. The downstairs studio is all cleaned up, the pantry and the fridge have been completely cleaned out and re-organized. Now I'm working on my desk and next up will be the chest freezer downstairs. I have crochet all the doll caps for the dolls I'm working on, so from here on their becoming will be swift. I always find it amazing how at a certain point the babes almost create themselves.  

I also picked up quite a selection of wonderful fabrics and clothes to be made into doll clothes.

Today Astrid was sent of to her new family in Rochester - she was one of my favourite babes that I created before the holidays and I had her sit with me for a while before I was ready to list her on Etsy. Now I am so happy that she has been adopted and can't wait to hear how her trip was.

Okay, before it is too late, I am going downstairs to get the new babes further along their journey.  

Cleanliness is a good thing...

Today is the day that I am getting my sewing studio back into a semblance of order and workability! Wish me luck (for not stepping on any errant pins), and perseverance (for staying with the job instead of getting side-tracked with a spur of the moment project)...

When I stopped working on Olive Sparrow goodness just before the holidays the sewing room had entered a catastrophic state - this is not unusual for the busyness the ensues in the 3 months leading up to the holidays. After a few last minute gifts for friends and family (all undocumented do to their JIT production schedule), it was time to relax and enjoy the festivities. Then there was that week we pretend that didn't happen between the end of last year and January 9th, which I designated as the official start of the new year for me. (that week was plain evil and I have decided it never happened!). 

Last week I was busy getting a painting ready for a client in Kingston, saddly missed her leaving for an extended winter down-south by a day, but was still able to deliver it to her home (300km's away one way) on Monday thanks to the generosity of her cleaning lady that helped me hang it.

Going to Kingston was a good trip though, as I had a chance to pop into their Chez VV thrift store on a day where I got 50% off. This always means that I stock up on lovely clothes to turn into dolly-goodies, and goodies I got this time. On the long drive back home there were many a great idea and inspiration swirling through my head - of course, these ideas will not come to fruition overnight, but the seeds have been firmly sewn. Lets see how they grow.

In the weeks ahead I am planning to list a few other dolls into my Etsy store, as well as redesigning the pattern of my 35cm doll. I also have plans for a much smaller doll, as well as a life-sized baby doll - all my own patterns. There will also be listings of doll clothes coming up. I am currently working out the most efficient way to photograph and document them. One thing that adds to the price of goods sold on Etsy is that if they are one-of-a-kind items, they take a lot of time for photography, processing the images, writing the descriptions, calculating postage, managing them in the store, etc. So I need to spend some time up front on making the process more efficient - otherwise I would have to pass those costs on to my clients, which I'd rather not have to do. 

This year will be full of plans and new ventures - I'm sure the ride will be bumpy at times, but I hope you'll come along for it... It's sure to never get boring!

The Olive Sparrow Child - Astrid

Astrid is a 35cm (14+") Olive Sparrow doll with bright orange-red curly hair. 

Both Pippi Longstocking and Astrid Lindgren served as my inspiration for her.

Astrid is a fun, silly girl that certainly is up to some funny business sometime, yet she also has the gentlest soul. I wouldn't put it past her to chase after robbers and pirates.

 

For the photos Astrid insisted in wearing her hair in pig tails, although she also loves wearing it loose, or done up in one pony tail.

 

The blue bias tape on the diaphanous linen blouse is faced in a light blue cotton and matches her eyes. When I was taking this picture, she was just about to turn her head to ask me if we were done with the photo shoot, because her patience with sitting still was not so great. (which is quite typical of Astrid, she has too many ideas to be realized each day).

 

One more shot she allowed, where she is wearing the blue-dotted side of her tunic out and also her silk rainbow scarf.

 

I was very quick and even snapped an image showing her sitting down.

After she had run off and played with the other Olive Sparrow children and Huxley's doll Odillon for a bit, she agreed to come back and to take her picture with the green side of her tunic facing outwards. It is being said that green is calming, and it certainly had this effect on Astrid. As it was near bed time, we spent some time sitting and she told me about all kinds of adventures she had while playing. I then asked her to change for night time and she said that she really wanted to sleep in her white linen shift, because it made her think of times long gone by when people didn't have special night clothes. 

Her striped tights and bootlets are all part of the fun. (Now I did insist that she remove the bootlets, and she obliged. 

 

Astrid also told me that she is ready to go on a trip to meet new people and to find her permanent family.

 

She is available in my Etsy-Shop.

Astrid was adopted on January 26. 2012.

 

If you think she might be right for your family, feel free to contact me with any questions you might have.

_____________________________________________

Each doll is made up of the following materials.

Skin: 100% cotton (Swiss-made to Öko-Tex-Standard 100)
Stuffing 100% “green-processed” wool batt from Canada
Hair: 100% Wool, or a Mohair/Wool Blend
Clothing: 100% natural fibres (linen, cotton, silk)
Shoes: Recycled felted wool sweaters, or pure leather
Face: 100% cotton Embroidery Thread

Workmanship:
Each doll is created individually by artist Monika Aebischer, the proprietor of The Olive Sparrow. She sources and uses only the highest quality materials in her creations – swiss-made skin fabric, Canadian green processed wool stuffing,  wool/mohair for the dolls hair (often hand-dyed by her). Hair for the Olive Sparrow Children is made by crocheting a cap that is sewn to the head, allowing for replacement should it ever become necessary (although most children will object to this, as it changes their doll dramatically). For the wispy hair, a special german mohair is used and a labour-intense technique, for the loose longer hair each strand of wool is individually knotted into the crocheted cap. This is the prime technique for doll-wig creation.

Doll clothing is made from up-cycled vintage and clothing fabrics, in either pure linen, cotton or silk. Up-cycled fabric is wonderful for doll clothes, as the cloth has been washed soft, gentle and free of textile manufacturing products. Monika also felts used woolen sweaters to use for doll shoes and clothing. She knits the doll’s hats out of prime quality knitting wool. Each seam on the doll’s body is sewn twice to allow your child to fiercely love their Olive Sparrow Child. Clothing is sewn with finished seams and some are fully reversible.

 

Wishes for you

"Guetzle"

Having left the country of my birth - Switzerland - at the young age of 19, most of the traditions that I crave are traditions of my childhood. Sadly though, many of these can't be replicated here in Canada. Mostly due to the fact that you need crowds of people celebrating together - the Swiss are not culturally inclined to congregate in groups outside of Switzerland though, so I am missing out on much.

Some of the festivals that I really loved where the National Day celebrations on August 1st - big bonfires, rockets, crackers, sausages over the open fire (veggie sausages i.e. Quorn sausages would do quite well for that too). I also love Advent celebrations. Ah.. the memory of the smell beeswax candle dipping that was open to the public during late November and early December still brings a smile to my face. Somehow though, Advent is just not activily celebrated here. I am also in my most busy Olive Sparrow time during the fall and Advent, so mostly I also lack the time to fully immerse myself into the quiet time of preparing for the bit day.

The one tradition that I insist on honing here is to "Guetzle" (this comes from the word "Guetzli" - which is swiss-german for cookie) - so "Guetzle" is specifically used in Advent when one is baking a myriad of different Christmas cookies. My hips don't need a lot of cookies to keep their svelete shape, our family is small, I work by myself - yet "Guetzli" baking I want to do. I usually make upwards of 15 + different types.

About 5 years ago, my husband and I started to give my home-made cookies to his clients as a small gesture of thank you. We also gift neighbours, friends, my galleries that are in town, a few of the people in the public housing complex in our neighbourhood and often a spontaneous selection of people dropping by our house over the holidays. 

This year I made 50 baggies of cookies, each weighin about 1/2 lb. So this years output was around 25 lbs. Plus about 2 lb for us to have at hand for guests staying here. 

Many of the recipes I use are very old, traditional swiss cookies, combined with a few new ones I just like trying out. I also make some chocolate truffels every year, this time around I gave white chocolate ones a go - they are okay, but I don't think I will attempt them again for a while because the chocolate didn't firm up properly and I had to improvise with additions of cashews - they taste okay, but are not what I had in mind.

Another favourite is the Basler Läckerli - a ginger-bread-type with lots of dried fruit and candied peels - this year I added some of the sour cherries from our tree and I love the bit of tartness amongst all the honey sweetness. Nidelzältli are my sons favourite - cream, sugar and a bit of vanilla - essentially a soft granular fudge. There are also Brunsli - chocolate and almonds with eggwhites, rolled in sugar when rolling out - yummy... Chräbeli are my best friends grandmothers recipe - a traditional Anis cookie and the same dough that is used for Springerle (which I make with a lovely angel mold). Nusspraline - walnuts, coffee and icing sugar, not baked, but left to dry, then glaced with more coffee and icing sugar. 

The essential Swiss Christmas cookie is the "Mailänderli" (Milano cookie) - a shortbread cookie with an egg-wash

Here is the recipe from my mothers home economics cookbook from 1948:

500 gram all-purpose flour (but you can also put part spelt or whole wheat in it)

250 gram sugar

250 gram butter

3 eggs (+ 1 egg yolk)

finely grated peel of 1 organic lemon

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Put flour, butter, sugar, eggs and the lemon peel into a large bowl and knead well, but not too long (so that not too much gluten develops).

Put dough into fridge for a few hours or overnight

roll out on a little bit of white flour

use your favourite cookie cutters to cut out shapes

transfer shapes to baking sheet (I always use parchement paper, not buttered)

brush egg-yolk onto each cookie

bake at 350 fahrenheit for about 12 - 15 minutes until the egg yolk has gone a beautiful colour.

Let cool and enjoy!

I love cutting out tiny cookies, so that each one is one bite. Takes a bit more time, but looks so pretty. As children, this was our standard cookie that we could help with. (the dough also tastes amazing - my son says so as well.)

On that note, I am now going to work on a few more dolls that have to be finished in time for Saturday. 

 

Olive Sparrow Child - Eloise

Eloise is the name of one of my best friends' daughter. A wonderful girl about half a year older than my son. My friend is of half swiss heritage and a soul-mate for sure. The real Eloise has two older brothers and was very much a tom-boy when she was younger, now at 8 she has found her own girly-ness and she is a beautiful, funny, thoughtful girl.

My Olive Sparrow Child girl, named after her, is just as sweet and at the same time mischievous. She loves playing with the boys, wild play that gets her hair all mussed and dirt on her knees. Yet she is also quite a girly-girl, liking her hair done just so and sitting pretty.

Ah, this smile, couldn't hurt a fly (giggle) - but give it a mean chase, that's for sure.

How could she not, with such a sparkle in her eyes.

Eloise's hat is made from gorgeous wool. All nubbly and full of colour variations. 

On the days that she runs with the wild side in her, she loves wearing her kerchief on her head as a head scarf. She says that it lets her run faster and her wispy hair doesn't get into her eyes. By her description, the boys can't catch her when they play on such a kerchief-wearing day.

Eloise the demur... (giggles just barely contained...)

Thinking deeply....

Hhmmm.... what shall I do next.... hhmmmmmm....

Ah those hands... it's hard to keep them still....

Eloise is wearing her super-soft cashmere poncho, a cotton-embroidered tunic, green polka-dot pants, reclaimed wool shoes, a kerchief and a hat. Her hair is in two braids that can be opened, but are better kept as braids.

As a larger 52cm/20" doll, Eloise is best for an older child whose longer limbs can easily embrace her. Eloise is sewn from my own pattern with limbs that move freely, she is very easily sat down and she just loves to trow her arms around people for lovely hugs. The free-moving limbs also make changing her clothes a breeze.

Eloise can be purchase through my Etsy store here:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/69138097/the-olive-sparrow-child-eloise-waldorf

Eloise has been adopted

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Each doll is made up of the following materials.

Skin: 100% cotton (Swiss-made to Öko-Tex-Standard 100)
Stuffing 100% “green-processed” wool batt from Canada
Hair: 100% Wool, or a Mohair/Wool Blend
Clothing: 100% natural fibres (linen, cotton, silk)
Shoes: Recycled felted wool sweaters, or pure leather
Face: 100% cotton Embroidery Thread

Workmanship:
Each doll is created individually by artist Monika Aebischer, the proprietor of The Olive Sparrow. She sources and uses only the highest quality materials in her creations – swiss-made skin fabric, Canadian green processed wool stuffing,  wool/mohair for the dolls hair (often hand-dyed by her). Hair for the Olive Sparrow Children is made by crocheting a cap that is sewn to the head, allowing for replacement should it ever become necessary (although most children will object to this, as it changes their doll dramatically). For the wispy hair, a special german mohair is used and a labour-intense technique, for the loose longer hair each strand of wool is individually knotted into the crocheted cap. This is the prime technique for doll-wig creation.

Doll clothing is made from natural up-cycled vintage and clothing fabrics, in either pure linen, cotton, or silk. Up-cycled fabric is wonderful for doll clothes, as the cloth has been washed soft, gentle and free of textile manufacturing products. Monika also felts used woolen sweaters to use for doll shoes and clothing. She knits the doll’s hats out of prime quality knitting wool. Each seam on the doll’s body is sewn twice to allow your child to fiercely love their Olive Sparrow Child. Clothing is sewn with beautiful finished seams.