Once upon a time there were 10 well loved painted cloth dolls, who had all been brought to life by an amazing dollmaker named Izannah Walker. Because the little dolls had trouble remembering back, all those many years ago, to when they were very, very new they have all decided to treat their dearest Izannah’s birthday as their own. So every year they have a big, lovely birthday party to celebrate Izannah Walker’s birthday, as well as each others ❤
At the moment Zanna and Izzybelle are in the kitchen putting the last finishing touches on the refreshments. The dolls had quite a discussion about exactly what to serve today. Last year Isabeau and Sarah Alice were in charge of the kitchen and got a bit carried away! There was soooooooooooo much cake left over when the party ended! https://izannahwalker.com/2024/09/ After talking about it for quite some time, they finally decided to put the very sensible Zanna in charge of baking this year. Izzybelle insisted on being Zanna’s kitchen helper, even though the rest of the dolls were silently shaking their heads no.
Zanna proposed that each of them should name their most favorite birthday treats and then everyone would vote on them. After the votes were all counted Zanna announced that she would make the top two favorites, Joe Frogger cookies and vanilla ice cream! Charlcie and Eliza Jane were quite worried that there wouldn’t be enough ice left in their ice house from last winter to freeze ice cream, but somehow Zanna managed to come up with exactly enough.
“Izzybelle how many times have we told not to kneel in the kitchen chairs? Eliza Jane is going to have a fit if she sees you doing it again, and she’ll be sure to scold you about behaving like a proper young lady!” “But Zanna I can’t reach everything if I sit that way!” wailed Izzybelle.
“Alright, but just this once, and only because we need to hurry!” “We still have to put the candles in the Joe Frogger cake and the candle sticks”
“OH IZZYBELLE!” “What have you done now?” exclaimed Zanna with a huge sigh. “Carefully carry the platter of cookies upstairs please, without any more tasting like a good girl, while I scoop the ice cream.”
Such a great deal of excited chatter greeted Zanna in the parlor, with all the little cloth girls talking at once! “Oh my goodness Zanna, you and Izzybelle out did yourselves!” “Look at the ice cream!” “What a magnificent tower of birthday cookies” “Which one of us should blow out the candle?” “Tilly Lamb you blow out the candle while the rest of us make wishes ❤ ” “Remember Izzybelle don’t tell anyone your wish or it won’t come true!” “Are you sure we shouldn’t open presents first?” No Izzybelle, tea and treats first, then presents. You know that’s the way that we always do it.”
“NOW is it time for presents?” asked Izzybelle squirming with excitement. “Yes!” chorused all of her sisters!
(So THIS is what they have all been planning!)
(The dolls aren’t the only ones keeping birthday secrets…)
“Izzybelle you can go ahead and start opening presents now!” “I’m going to start with the one that has my name on it!” she declared. “Now the one I made for all of you!!! ” “It’s seeds for our garden!” “Are you surprised?” asked Izzybelle. All of her sisters tried to hide their smiles as she proudly announced “Look! I saved lots and lots of seeds from my runaway tomatoes!”
After Izzybelle made a start in unwrapping the birthday gifts, some of the other dolls joined in. Ismay gave her sisters a lovely hand cut silhouette. The lovely blue indigo wrapped parcel contained peppermint, apple mint, & lemon balm teas from Charlcie and Eliza Jane. Isabeau opened the framed flowers that Tilly Lamb and Sarah Alice gathered from the garden and pressed. (Which explains why there was a brick on top of the books!) When it was Ismay’s turn she unwrapped a sewing sampler book, made from hand made paper, that Isabeau and Zanna started to keep all of the sister’s needlework examples in. The very last birthday was the one from Cloe and me. I think Hannah was quite surprised to untie the twine and find a somewhat tattered schoolbook!
Once the dolls looked inside, they could see that the little book was actually a scrapbook full of verses, essays, and pretty lithographed paper “scraps”.
“This has been the best day” murmured a tired, but happy Izzybelle. To which all of her sisters agreed…
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We hope you have enjoyed attending the doll’s birthday tea party. If you’d like to read a bit more about the behind the scenes activities necessary to set up all of the party scenes, as well as a more detailed description of how their birthday gifts were made (including Izzybelle’s seed packets ~ which were inspired by a lovely gift from our dearest, most talented friend Sandy Connors of Honey Bee Press ) please join us here tomorrow for our “After Party” post.
Izannah Walker Journal 