Bring 'Em On!

Yes, it is here in its glory and has been for a couple weeks. Those peepers; what a din. Love those daffodils; stay awhile. No more wood fires. The furnace is clean and off. All the doors of rooms upstairs are open and Silvio is checking in every one upstairs, remembering all his favorite spots on sills and in baskets, following the sun. Gardening happens to be our favorite activity right now even though I should be indoors and diligently finishing four dolls a week. I'll make it. I always do.

Even more of a sign is what is ahead. Spring will bring those visitors --- Vermont Crafts Council Annual Spring Open Studio Weekend. Mark the dates: Saturday and Sunday, May 25 and 26, from 10 am to 5 pm each day. No marketing venue offers a visitor this invitation: Show up and come in and be welcomed--and surprised. It may be a home but like many other artists' whose galleries are in their homes, this exciting event makes access easy and effortless for everyone.

Each year we pick up the yellow signature signs and a piece or two or wisdom

despite our ten-year experience. We also get to share at these Open Studio conferences things we've learned that work. This years map/brochure is refined and green like spring. Get it online, even by county. Remember, Windsor County. And remember Chester and its 15-mile circle of great artists - two painters, a glassblower, a woodturner, a chairmaker, a photographer and a dollmaker. We work together as a great team. We make a splash in the big glass showcase during May at the Vermont Welcome Center in Guilford, and we all offer an exciting and engaging experience for you...and your children during the studio tour. We here at the doll shop will have free calico paper dolls for little visitors, face design experiences; and yes, our usual yummy veggie pizza, Cabot cheddar cheese and Bonnie's cookies -- not as many varieties as the dolls themselves, but wicked good.

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Here's a money-saving idea. Visit the website before coming to pick someone out to take home, let us know so we can set your new companion safely in the Promise Room. Those 10% returning customer certificates are good. We know who you are! We will have a sale going on as well, plus a raffle to win our famous Camilla Cat.

So, we will see you! Amidst daffodils, tulips, pansies--real and cloth and even the season's bugs--bees and butterflies.