"As Thomas Edison says…"

Whenever I get frustrated at a failure of mine, (usually in cooking)

my dear, well-meaning husband says, 

"Eden, remember what Thomas Edison said when creating the lightbulb,

I haven't failed 10,000 times, I just found 10,000 ways it won't work.'"

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'll try again.

---

So meet Happy, an rag doll that has been brewing in my head for 

quite some time, but I put off actually working on her till now.

Last week, while visiting family on spring break,

Little Pip and I had some one on one time,

so I took her to Hobby Lobby, where we searched and bargained 

for the materials I thought I would need to create this idea. 

Then we split a donut at a new little place in Joplin called Sweet Spot.

Their maple cake donut was delicious! Pip loved the red and white booths.

Back to doll, I decided this week to make this project a priority 

since the house was fairly clean and laundry was fairly caught up.

I made templates for the body, arms, and legs,

washed, iron, and cut the fabric.

Then I colored her hair, face, dress and shoes,

with these Pentel Pastel Dye Sticks. 

Her back was just a fun print fabric.

Today, I sewed and sewed, 

felt sweaty and teared up, 

sipped tea (to help me calm down)

sewed, and muttered, and sewed.

 I am pretty proud of this prototype.

Somethings didn't work out like I wanted,

somethings rubbed off, one leg is a bit longer than the other,

and her head is a little lumpy.

But as I showed her to my older daughters, they said,

"She's so beautiful!"

"Mom, you did a great job!"

"Can we play with her?"

And that felt great.

Then I remembered what my husband says that Edison said,

(good one hun!)

and I am super excited to get back to work, 

figure out the tweaks and changes I need to make 

so she can look better and be a little bit easier to sew.

I'll try again.

Our greatest weakness lies in giving up.

The most certain way to succeed

 is always to try just one more time.

--Thomas Edison 

(quote found here)