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All computer problems were fixed during the weekend, so everything’s back to normal. I worked all weekend on custom orders, and continued improving the new doll website and blog. I started working on a new dollhouse and, to be honest, I’m a bit under the weather today out of pure lack of sleep – but this is what making a dream come true takes; it never comes without sacrifice. Complaining about having too many passions seems unlucky to me, so I’ll just have more coffee :). Below, the handpainted floor plank for the new dollhouse’s kitchen floor.

Last week, as you know, we received a new donation of yarns. Most of them are not suitable for crocheting for babies, so I took out the knitting needles and started knitting them into blankets, since rectangles are the only thing I can knit (LOL). I got to finish one while the guys were fixing the computer, and added a pretty crochet border. It’s really soft and, as Fernando says, looks like an ice-cream.

I have almost the whole week filled with spells and candle work, so please forgive me if I’m a bit absent during this week. Blogging is always the first victim when I have so much work scheduled, and after four years of blogging continuously, I am seriously considering blogging less in the future. At this moment, all my free time is for dollmaking, whether if it’s for actually making dolls or for learning about them (not a small task either), because I want to become the best professional I can get to be, and that takes a lot of time, and a lot of learning. Not that House Of Eleggua leaves me much free time…

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Quick Update, Please Read

We had a major computer crash last night and, although my super-helpful-computer-wizard brother has fixed it, we have been offline all day and all our day’s work has been delayed. I will start attending orders and appointments immediately, but I have a lot of work to do in the next days to transfer and update the new computer. So, I will be here and reachable through email, but there won’t be much blog updating in the next days. Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused! All orders will be shipped tomorrow morning.

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Queen Of The 2012 Tenerife Carnival

Today is the biggest day of the Tenerife Carnival, so we wanted to share it with our readers by showing you this video of the winner of the Carnival Queen contest that happens every year. Just a note – this costumes are not allowed to have engines, so the poor girl has to pull it all by herself. Enjoy, and happy Mardi Gras!!!!

If you want to see more:
First runner-up;
Second runner-up;
Third runner-up;
Fourth runner-up.

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Another Donation For Our Charity Project – Thanks So Much Peeps!

Peeps from the blog Pagan Peeps contacted us last week, offering to donate yarms for our Charity Project. We got the yarns today, so this post is dedicated to thank her for her generosity! Thanks so much Peeps, the yarns are gorgeous! Lots of really lovely items are going to be crocheted from these yarns :D – now, if I could only clone myself to make all I want to make!

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Vintage Images

My aunt gave me some antique family pictures that my great-uncle took while living in Africa as a militar, and from his home in the north of Spain. There were some gorgeous captures:

Written on the back: Lake Enol – 1.800 metres high. Lake Enol is in Asturias, Spain.


Written on the back of these two: Tangier, 1942.

Written on the back: Frutos García and his brother-in-law, Tetouan 1940.

No dating on this one, but it is most likely from Tetouan as well. The man on the left is my great-uncle, and the one on the right his superior and best friend.

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A Few Small News

The Tenerife Carnival has started this week, so because of the reginal holidays there won’t be shipping available on Monday 20 and Tuesday 21. Regular shipping will be back on Wednesday, so all weekend’s orders will be shipped then. We won’t be on holidays, so orders will be attended as usual.

My new doll website and blog are up and running – there won’t be much updating for now, but I needed a place to start documenting the doll collection and the customzations, so I decided to set it up and add things to it slowly. Of course, you are most welcome to follow them, and any significant update will be notified here too. Also, if any of our readers happens to have a doll-related blog, please let me know so we can exchange links.

And, since this is a post of unrelated events, let me add this pic, which surely wins the prize of Cutest Pic Of The Week: Boris, Pupi and Baba sharing the jarapa (traditional canarian rag rug). February is the coldest month for us, and it shows :).

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Offerings, And A Very Sweet Recipe For Valentine’s Day

The altar, overflowing with offerings. The Carnival starts this week so we will be making some special offerings in the next days to connect with its amazing energy.

Since tomorrow is Valentine’s day, I thought it would be nice to share an extra sweet recipe – Herbal Sugar.
This recipe can be made with white sugar, brown sugar, or fructose sugar as this one you see. Actually, even honey would be used.

You must powder in a grinder the following herbs:
- A teacup of lavender flowers;
- Two sticks of Indian cinnamon;
- Seven cardamom pods;
- Half a teacup of dry ginger (or two spoons if you have it already powdered);

- A 2-inch piece from a fresh vanilla seed pod – this ingredient is not powdered, and must be retired once the product is ready because its scent would overpower the rest;

Mix well with around a pound of your chosen sugar, and let sit on a dark, cool place for three months at least. It will be perfect to sweeten tea, coffee, herbal infusions and even your bakery! It has sedative and restorative properties – but honestly, it is the scent what will make you become addicted to it!

Other herbs/seeds that can be added at your taste: jasmine flowers, orange flowers, rose petals, violet flowers, lemon balm, lemon verbena, star anise, liquorice root, fennel seeds – the possibilities are endless! Also, it is a very unexpensive gift – we made a whole batch and gave jars to everyone at Christmas. It was a great success!

This recipe also has a magical use – sweetening spells, called endulzamientos in Spanish. Sweetening spells are made when situations are too harsh between people, and trust and love must be restored. Also, it can be used as an ingredient on more complex love spells and potions. A perfect magical craft for Valentine’s Day!

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New Items Listed Today!

Eleggua Heads – Back By Customers’ Demand!

On the traditional Santeria rites, Eleggua heads are made of concrete and filled with herbs, animal parts, gemstones and many other items. Each piece is built for each specific practitioner, making the rite very expensive and unaffordable to many.

I have made this Eleggua heads not to substitute a properly made piece as the ones mentioned above, but to those practitioners who don’t want, or can’t afford having one. Made of clay and adorned with beads and guinea feathers, this piece is perfect to start your Eleggua altar, or to give to someone who needs the help of the ever generous Orisha of luck and fate.

Seven African Powers Amulets And Bracelets (Sold Separately)

Gorgeous protection amulet, with the colours of the Seven African Powers – white for Obatala, yellow for Orula, red for Shango, purple for Oya, blue for Yemanya, green for Oggum and black for Eleggua. This empowering piece is enhanced by a glass pearl, symbol of wealth and abundance, and an angel wing charm, symbol of angelic connection. Use for your protection, for enhancing energy on your sacred space, to protect children’s rooms, or anywhere where you will need the powerful magic of the Orishas! Our priestess in training wears one as a pendant and never takes it off!

Another new piece for our Orisha bracelet collection – wear it to honour the Seven African Powers and get their protection, specially when you feel negative energy is too much around you!

Since these are not OOAK items, they have been listed both at our Etsy and Zibbet shops.

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Freya Doll Pics

Although it is not nearly finished yet, I wanted to show an update on my new customized doll, Freya. As I said in a previous post, this doll means a great step for me as it is the first one I make with clothes that can be taken off. A powerful learning curve!

Last night, I was brainstorming ideas for future dolls with Fernando, and ended up talking about how in Santeria, certain sacred crafts are made by specialized artisans that work only on that area – on a Santeria church there is one who cooks, one who plays the drums, one who beads, one who works with herbs, one who sews the ritual costumes. That kind of artisan is highly valued by the community, as it is such a powerful tool for a ritual to have all the details covered by an expert.

For me, these dolls are not toys, or collector’s items. They are the vessel for an entity, that chooses each doll without me interfering, and directes the work as it flows. I make my dolls in my studio, in a state that we would consider meditative, and sometimes even visionary. I do not make my dolls in front on the TV; I usually play spiritual/classical/relaxing music, light incense and candles, and meditate a little before work. My channels need to be completely clean to transform the doll into a space that is worthy of the deity represented, because an altar/sacred space is where these dolls really belong. This, simple as it seems, has taken me over a decade of dollmaking to realize. But now that it has become so clear, I can’t ignore it any more.

While I may feel like I have reached an Epiphany, the road towards my goal is still very long. For starters, I need a couple of years to build a collection of pieces and develop my skills and vision – while I will document all the work here, no pieces will be for sale for a while, although I will accept offers and will take each one into consideration because, honestly, dollmaking is not cheap. Also, it will be long because I do not have all the time in the world and House Of Eleggua takes almost all of it; and finally, because I really need to stay away from the make+list+sell state of things that selling online carries to be able to let that channeling happen at its best, and do what each Spirit needs. This is the first time that I see that, because I had to sell them, I forced myself to dettach my emotions from the piece – and never got to know how far I would have gone creatively if I had allowed myself to fall in love madly with them. Right now, I want to fall in love, because that is the very essence of Divinity. Through that love, the Divine will flow, and that will be the more powerful magic to exist.

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Four New Orisha Necklaces Listed!

At The Marketplace – For Oya
After the Yemanya and Ochum necklace, we certainly owed a piece for Oya, Orisha of Lightning, Warrioress and Queen of the Cemetery and the Marketplace. Several intertwined strands of traditional Santeria beads in her colours – brown, black, purple and a bit of blue – with a myriad of skull beads, faceted crystals, frosted glass beads and many others. The piece is enhanced by an All Saint’s Cross pendant from our charm collection.

King Of The Lonely Mountain – For Obatala

Golden Sand – For Ochum

The Gates Are Open – For Eleggua

Necklaces for everyday use, using the traditional Santeria beads, cowrie shells and charms. As all Santeria necklaces should be, they have been threaded with double extra-durable cotton thread, making it perfect to accept offerings or to be used as a Mazo necklace during ritual.

Details of each piece on the shop’s listings – since these are all OOAK listings, they have been listed at our Zibbet shop only.

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