If you have kids I’m sure you’ve heard of Flat Stanley right? He’s a paper cut out that gets sent from one family member or friend to another with his picture taken with them before they move on to the next person. There have been several other versions with other flat cut-outs, gnomes, etc. Well, I had a fun experience over the summer playing with a little crochet doll and doing the same thing.
It all actually started several years ago in a Ravelry group I belong to called Cute and Kaboodle. She is a Polish designer and I had tested a few of her amigurumi patterns. She thought it would be fun to travel the world and visit as many of her followers as possible. So she created a little crochet replica of herself and set off on her travels. Each person would take her around their area and show her the sites, post pictures in the group and then she would move on to the next person. One day we totally lost contact with her and her host. No matter the method of communication or who tried communicating with her the host ignored everyone. That meant no more Traveling Designer and those of us who were waiting to take our turn to host her were very disappointed. I know, people can really suck sometimes. Why on earth would you agree to hosting the doll and then be so rude not to communicate with anyone that you were no longer interested? The designer even said she didn’t care if there was an accident and the doll was gone, she just wanted to know. Nothing…not a word…not an apology…nothing.
Fast forward a few years and talk came back around to the Traveling Designer doll and people wondered if anyone had ever heard from the last host…no one had. The next thing I knew someone had “found” the doll in their local park and the traveling designer was on the move again. One of the group members had recreated the doll because many of us had expressed interest in trying again. I was fortunate enough to be the first host and right at the start of summer, perfect timing for many adventures.
The first thing we did was went berry picking. You saw my post about the pounds and pounds of berries we picked but you didn’t see that we had some help from the Traveling Designer. Check out those blackberries.
Waiting in the ferry line.
Enjoying the ride with my grandson.
Our next big adventure was camping at Ft. Flagler. First the ferry line, cramped parking on the ferry and watching the waves.
Enjoying the beach.
Taking a wee break during a walk.
Taking a nap with the puppy after our long walk.
A little fire of course.
I’m not going to lie. I had a great time posing the doll in different places we visited during the camping trip.
Checking out some of the different crochet entries at the fair.
Poffertjes – Dutch mini pancakes with whipped butter. Oh so good!
In August she joined us at the local fair. I always enjoy checking out the crochet and other needlework entries. This year was a bit sad to tell the truth so there wasn’t a lot to see. Now you understand why there was a little crochet doll with our poffertjes in my fair week post.
Artist Point – Mt Baker WA
I was disappointed with myself because I had so many different places I wanted to take the doll but somehow time flew by and I did very few of them. I wanted to take her up the mountain but every free weekend we had ended up being horrible weather so we ended up taking a much shorter trip during the week and managed a few pictures. Artist Point is one of our very favorite places to wander around. We especially love going up as soon as the road opens…in June or July usually. The snow is a good 20 feet or more high all around the parking lot and love playing around in shorts in the snow.
Apple picking at Bellewood Acres.
Pumpkin Patch at Bellewood Acres
Pumpkins. That is Mt Baker in the background.
Our last adventure before the Traveling Designer moved on to her next host was apple picking and the pumpkin patch at Bellewood Acres. Every year we go to their fall festival, take the tractor ride out to the orchard and pick some apples. Our favorite is Honeycrisp but this year we did the Gala so we could make jelly and apple butter. They also have a corn maze and a pumpkin patch.
Traveling Designer sporting a new hat.
My kids thought I was a bit odd carrying the doll with me everywhere and taking pictures of her. But I admit that I thought it was fun and wish I had done more with her. I enjoyed showing off our little piece of Washington and sharing her adventures with everyone.
I ended up hanging on to her for a couple of months and I’d definitely do it again.
A Little of This and a Little of That 