 Happy Thanksgiving! Atelier Mandaline is closed for vacation. Everything in my shops is on sale. You may purchase items but shipping will be suspended from 11/24-12/1. Just like everyone else, we are having a remote Thanksgiving celebration with only our immediate family. We hope and pray this will be the last holiday season we have to spend apart from loved ones. May you have a meaningful holiday, even with the Covid isolation. In other news, my Doll University books arrived early! You may now order from Amazon and all my other shops. I will honor the pre-order sale here on my website. Order my book for 50% off through 11/30.
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 I'm so pleased to announce I am turning my Doll University book into a series! Coming soon, two books on making your own custom dolls. My Art Dolls book will show you how to make one-of-a-kind art dolls from existing dolls, no kiln or manufacturer required! My Pressed Felt Dolls book will show you how to create your own pressed felt dolls in the style of antique Lenci dolls as well as how to identify authentic Lenci dolls. These two books are partially-written. I would love to finish them in time for Christmas but I think that might be pretty optimistic, at least for the paperback versions! I will format them as both e-books and paperbacks. You can pre-order my Doll University book from my website or Etsy and you can download the e-book right now from my website. Both are on sale until November 30th! While you're shopping, why not sign up for my newsletter so you don't miss out on any launch announcements and sales?  In a departure from dolls, I have written another book called Tiny Budget Tiny Cabin. This is a book sharing how we built and furnished our environmentally-friendly tiny home for less than $20K and how you can do the same. I also reveal how we got a great deal on waterfront property, negotiated the permitting process to save cash, and made our home sustainable. I am finished with the manuscript and am in the process of formatting the book as a paperback and e-book, and I expect it to be ready for download and pre-order in December.    These covers and titles may change when the books are finished since they are still in progress. Please, however, enjoy these mock-up shots of Tiny Budget Tiny Cabin; I had so much fun making them!These covers and titles may change when the books are finished since they are still in progress. Please, however, enjoy these mock-up shots of Tiny Budget Tiny Cabin; I had so much fun making them!  Several years ago I was lucky enough to get a vintage textbook from a Midcentury trade school that taught doll repair. This book has detailed instructions for problems with specific dolls, such as Saucy Walker, Tiny Tears, Cissy, Valentine, Thumbelina, and more. I am so happy to offer these to you in printable PDF form! You can view them on your device or print pages to see diagrams better. Some parts of these Midcentury lessons are obsolete, so each packet comes with an information section I wrote to help you update them. Purchase these packets here by choosing your doll's name. Please note, these are specific to each particular doll. For general doll repair, like eye replacement, purchase my Doll University, Repair Dolls for Fun & Profit book. Have fun with your doll repair career!  I am so happy to announce my book, Doll University, Repair Dolls for Fun & Profit, is available immediately for download as an e-book! I got concrete information today that the paperback copies are set to arrive November 30th, so I am extending my 50% off pre-order sale until then. I will also be offering a special sale price on the e-book until November 30th. Buy the e-book here on my website. The paperback my be pre-ordered here or from Etsy.  I set up my e-book to print full-page at high quality, so while you can read it on your computer or device you may also print out a paper version of your own. This is especially helpful when you are using my proven "cheat sheet" tutorials with step-by-step photos. As you can see from the Table of Contents, I cover every type of doll repair I find essential as a doll doctor and restorer. The e-book is set up with UNLIMITED access; once you buy it you can download it as many times as you like with no time limit. I am still working out whether to offer the e-book on any other sites. I would have to completely re-format it to sell on Amazon and other platforms. Order today and give yourself or a loved one the gift of a new career!  I'm so happy to announce my book is finally here! Are you looking for a new home-based career? Doll University, Repair Dolls for Fun & Profit is the answer! I have been working from home for more than 20 years restoring and selling dolls and running a doll hospital. Doll repair is an underserved field, especially in times of financial hardship when people desire to fix their dolls rather than buy new ones. My book will not only teach you to repair all kinds of dolls; I also walk you through opening a doll hospital or doll shop, purchasing wholesale supplies, manufacturing and importing your own goods, and creating and promoting your brand.   My book is currently in production. You may pre-order it here or from Etsy for $40 shipped in the USA. The price will double when the book is released. Pre-orders will take 3-4 weeks to arrive and you will get a paperback signed by me. If you were to send dolls to my hospital for all the repairs shown it would cost over $700, not including shipping, and that doesn't even take into account all my advice for setting up your business! This is your chance to start a fun new hobby or business or inspire someone else by gifting a copy to them. People all over the world have learned doll repair from my tutorials. All my lessons are included in this book and I've added a few new ones never before posted! Here's what just a few of my recent students had to say: If you've ever wondered whether you could repair dolls or start your own business I am here to tell you YES you can! Place your order and get started today!  It's been so long since I posted a blog entry some kind souls reached out to see if I'm okay. Thanks so much for noticing! I am doing as well as can be expected. If you follow my social media you will see I am working on a complete re-branding and overhaul of my business. I've been working on it for months and now, right when I was finishing up, our daughter was diagnosed with scoliosis. For those keeping score, this means now every one of our children has a pre-existing condition, right when the GOP is trying to strip them of their health coverage. It's been an incredibly stressful few months. I am dealing with it by trying to make sure we all stay as healthy as possible so we can avoid any additional costly medical intervention. My husband's company announced, despite the pandemic, all their employee insurance plans will be increasing in price due to hikes by the insurance companies. It's hard to stay positive when we live in a world with so much evil and greed. Therefore... doughnuts and cookies to the rescue! Specifically beignets and Norwegian Fattigmann. It's difficult to be sad when you're eating fried dough! And these are Keto recipes, sugar and grain-free. The beignets even fit within Dr. Atkins' allergy elimination protocol diet! I adapted this from Ketochix's French Fry recipe on Instagram (@ketochix on Instagram). The French Fries are great, but these are even better. Keto Beignets Makes 8-10 beignets 1/2 cup almond flour 6 tsp Xanthan Gum 6 TBSP hot water Pinch powdered monk fruit sweetener, sifted, and some for dusting (I prefer Lakanto) Coconut oil, tallow, or lard for frying Start heating the oil in your deep fryer, following manufacturer's instructions for the amount of oil to use. Mix the almond flour and xanthan gum with a pinch of the powdered sweetener. Add the hot water one tablespoon at a time and mix until the dough forms a ball. It is very sticky dough, so that's normal. Chill for 15 minutes. Roll dough out between two sheets of parchment paper or silicone mats until it is 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick. Cut into squares with a pizza cutter. Deep fry on high for 5 minutes, turning over halfway through, until the beignets are puffy and golden. Shake off excess oil and dust with the sifted powdered monkfruit. Serve hot. The thinner you roll the dough, the crispier and drier the beignets. Thicker dough produces beignets with a crispy shell and a gooey center. To adapt the recipe for Fattigmann, add a pinch of cardamom to the dough. Substitute 1TBSP brandy for one of the tablespoons of hot water. Roll the dough on the thinner side. Fold over one edge of each rectangle after you cut the dough, so it looks like you're making a little sack, as shown in the photo below. Of course, real Fattigmann are actually twisted in a sort of knot, but this dough is too sticky for that. Fattigmann were my Norwegian grandfather's favorite cookies, he once told me. He didn't like sweets and they aren't very sweet cookies. Fattigmann means "poor man" in Norwegian and these are called "poor man's cookies". There is some argument as to why. Some say the expensive cardamom and brandy made the baker poor and others say these were the only treats poor people were able to afford to make. My grandfather's family was certainly poor, so that would make sense! These are a traditional Christmas treat in certain areas of Norway, or in my grandfather's case, Norwegian-America, and the original recipe is terribly labor-intensive. You roll out the dough and cut it into diamond shapes. Then you cut a slit in the center of each one and pull one end through the slit, like you're tying a bow. Then you fry them. They take forever! A couple times I made these for my grandfather and carted them from NC to Ohio but they aren't very good unless they're fresh and I gave up on it. I wish I had this recipe when he was alive! If you want to make these to travel I recommend only frying them about halfway. Then freeze them and finish frying them just before you serve them. You could probably make them in an air fryer, too. I would brush them with oil and fry them in 5 minute increments, checking them and turning them over every couple minutes until they're done. I'm feeling better after treating myself to a plate of beignets. It was like I was at Cafe Du Monde! I wish I had some of their coffee! Outside of our kids' health issues, things are going well. I completely transitioned my women's and kids' fashion to ThredUP. I did this for two reasons: my daughter has been assigned to have her physical therapy at home and I need the room I was using for inventory for a home gym. Also, we have been finishing the tiny cabin shell we ordered all by ourselves, including even some electrical work. We spend most weekends up there now, so I am looking for more passive income sources that require less hands-on work from me. In that vein, I finally wrote my book! It's called Doll University and it contains every doll repair tutorial I've ever made as well as instructions on how to turn those skills into a home business. I just finished correcting my author's proof and I hope to offer pre-launch copies at a discount later this week. I will update you as soon as I finish that. I'm just so thrilled, and now I have several more book ideas in the works. I've inspired my kids as well; my two youngest have their own books about halfway written and plan to publish them! I am having my best year of my business so far. Before the pandemic I was on track to quadruple my earnings but now, with that and the extra time out of the shop required by my daughter's diagnosis, I am looking at just doubling it. That's still good, however, and I am proud of myself. As of October I also saved up my daughter's entire four- year college tuition, if she attends the same university as my son! That takes a huge load off my mind. I was able to buy a composting toilet for our tiny cabin, too. That will probably not sound as exciting to you as it was for us, unless you've been using an outhouse! Those suckers are expensive but it was worth every penny. I'm grateful every night I don't have to climb down the 60 foot cliff in the dark to use the outhouse. It's the little things!  |
AuthorMy name is Amanda, but my childhood nickname was "Mandaline". I am a mother of three turning my passion for creating into a full-time business. Archives
February 2023
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