Dada Doll

Since my last post I've been quite busy. At first (after Thomas deployed) I didn't get any crafting done because I was overwhelmed by caring for the kids full time with almost no help. And the help I've received has been every Sunday for an hour while I'm at church, then every Wednesday night I take Glenn and leave Genny in the care of Kate, my bestie and next door neighbor for a few hours of Growth Group (a bible-study type meeting for Military Wives). Then, once I went for a massage. Which means that I was gone from the babes for about two hours total. So, all in all, since Thomas has deployed (almost five weeks ago) I've been away from both kids for a grand total of five hours. I've been away from Genny with just Glenn for a total of six hours. But, it's just like being a single mom, as long as the single mom isn't going to school or working. I am, however, super thankful for my meetup groups in that I'm getting adult interactions as well as good Genny play out of the meetups. Not to mention Kate, who has been a Godsend.

Did I mention that Genny has gone down to about two naps a week and Glenn goes to bed at about 9pm, wakes up at 6am and nurses about twice between the hours of midnight and 5am? Needless to say, I've been a bit tired and haven't had the ability to get much done outside of cleaning. But the past week or so I've been putting a program on for Genny and Glenn during Genny's nap time (when she doesn't fall asleep) and crafting. I've made two name towels, two hats for Glenn and now a Dada Doll for Genny. I also finished my niece's Vacuum Cleaner Chronicles. I'll do a blog on each of these items listed soon, so I won't go into any detail about them now.

Back to the Dada Doll. I had heard that you could order a Daddy Doll from a website for your child when your spouse deployed. It would be essentially a stuffed animal using a picture of the service member. So after I started work on the Vacuum Cleaner Chronicles, I realized that I could make the Daddy Doll myself. So I did!



This paper is great- you buy it at your fabric store and all you need is your color printer! It feeds through like a regular piece of paper, printing the picture and then you peel the paper backing off which leaves you with a piece of fabric with your picture printed on it.

This Dada Doll is a little smaller than I wanted, but Genny just about went crazy asking for it as I was finishing it. Once she realized that Thomas's picture was on the doll, she kept saying, "I hold it, Dada Doll!" Now I just need to watch it to make sure that Gus doesn't think it's one of the dog toys I make him...




This is Genny putting Dada Doll in the swing with her babies.

I used camo for the back- I had Thomas pick me up a camo shirt when he went to the thrift store to buy more pants to take with him to Afghanistan.

This would be a great project for any stuffed animal you would want to make a loved one- maybe a picture of a pet or an animal from the zoo that he/she likes. It's pretty cheap and you can customize the back using a fabric that you choose.

Happy crafting everyone!