back to school craft: mommy doll

You might remember my post about back to school books a few weeks ago where I described Eliza's Kindergarten Surprise by Alice B. McGinty.

The little girl, Eliza, is sad that her mommy can't come to school with her, so she makes a mommy doll during craft time. 

The doll is wearing a red dress and blue shoes just like her own mom. This ends up comforting her all day long. 

Immediately, after reading this book, Juliet asked if we could make a mommy doll for her when she goes to preschool. Since I have a great love for clothespin dolls, I said, "sure!" And we set about to gather up the supplies. It took a while to scrounge up a clothespin, but we eventually found one. Juliet got out the button box and was supposed to pick out two for the shoes. I thought it would take 5 minutes tops.

It ended up taking 2 weeks. 

She could never "find the perfect pair of shoes!" Every time I suggested we make the doll, she would spend 10 minutes searching for shoes and then decide that she didn't want to make the doll anymore. 

So the first day of school came and went--with no mommy doll. 

A few days ago, I ended up taking matters into my own hands. Here's what I came up with: 

An exact likeness of myself...

Baby bump and all...

I had a clothespin left over from the 12 days of Christmas Crafts and Mermaid dolls from Juliet's Birthday party, scraps from Lucia's rose pillow, a few buttons, and a bouncy ball. The blue yarn was chosen by Juliet over black for my hair because "her favorite color is dark blue."

Juliet was thrilled with the doll and has been carrying it around the house for the past two days. She calls her, 'Vanessa".

Vanessa has been busy doing the things Vanessa does...like packing Juliet's lunch in her too cute for words owl lunchbox.

Talking to random giraffes...

And bottle cap bunnies...




And of course, admiring Ben's seventh grade rock collection.

For more fun back-to-school projects, check out: ABC and 123 and, Childhood 101