The Queen of Pillows, Paper and Poupées

Right now my bed is my castle and I am the Queen of Paper, Pillows and Poupées, reigning my country with a weak and cold hand. And no, I haven´t forgotten you, my true friends and fellows, but I can´t receive you in audience at the moment, I am truly sorry. The only exception the Queen of Paper, Pillows and Poupées does right now is to open her door for a few little maids who pretend they would never! catch anything else but a few freckles and rosy cheeks...

If you wonder what the Queen of Paper, Pillows and Poupées is doing all day long (and why she is unable to receive any audiences) - I have been badly sick now for about one week. Except to the doctor I didn´t take any walks, I am spending most of the time in bed, either asleep or in daze so therefore any blog updates and email responses take time and therefore I haven´t been able to take new pictures of several dolls waiting here to be shipped.The appropriate activities for the Queen of Paper, Pillows and Poupées are of course:

• packing a few packages for customers, writing some lines for little boys and little girls

• crochet little hats, tiny shoes and warm doll scarfs

• folding traditional German paper stars** (about 200 so far, if I have counted right, using pretty giftwrapping paper)

I found out that stabile paper stars are perfect for a loose fill in the packages and a nice surprise, too. Apart from all the other extra gifts such as crocheted mushrooms, hair clips, beeswax candles or lavender sachets which I use to add to any package and which to prepare I am happily spending my reigning-a-kingdom-from-my-sickbed-time with when I am not fevery asleep.I hope I am soon back on track - because next week we are going to have another doll making class in Skåne/ Sweden and I would be bitterly unhappy if I would have to cancel the course. So keep your fingers crossed that folding paper stars is a good treatment!

Warmly,

Juliane

...who will need some days to get through all your emails, but my laptop is patient and so are you, hopefully


**Footnote: I got three emails today saying that the paper stars are a Danish invention, not a German one. They are indeed very common in Denmark and have a long tradition in many other countries, but to be precise - it was Friedrich Fröbel who invented these kind of stars.

Fröbel was a famous German mathematition and pedagogue (one of Pestalozzi´s students) and has had a lot of influence on pre-school education. One of his mathematical excercises for children was this paper star. Therefore we call these stars Fröbelstern (Fröbel´s Star) in Germany and every year I get more addicted, especially when using paper such as the one from House Doctor (and yes, that now is a Danish brand ;-)

Some of you asked for a tutorial - just google paper star and I am sure you´ll make a find. If I manage, I will take some pictues and upload a some instructions for you, it is easy once you understood how to fold the stripes...