On the make

I am a bit at home, and a bit all-at-sea at the moment. I am trying to use this holiday time wisely and not get too distracted by Bookface, and the instawobblies and so forth. If I owe you an email, its coming.... I have been distracted.

This little man has been brewing for such a long time - and has had many many changes and tweaks. He was never quite who I thought he was until

 he got a friend.....

 and even though he is still not who I thought he was going to be, 

I am very pleased that he is who he is.

Elsie Cabbage

Whirligig, chatterbox, top rung of the fence balancer.

Scraped knees, muddy dress, my turn, rough–houser

Singer, squealer, hanging upside downer

Elsie Cabbage, scared of NOTHING and NO ONE.

Elsie Demented or why it takes so long to make a new friend

 

I have had some deadlines to meet in the last few days and someone who shall remain nameless has been tapping her little softie foot and drumming her little softie fingers from the sewing table. (Hey do you think she should have little lines sewn into her hand to look like fingers?)

While I was happy-ish with these final limbs, that wrist is so teeny tiny, it was a bugger to turn (even for me who loves itsy-bitsy sewing)

So Elsie went on a weight gain diet and got slightly chunkier limbs. The thicker leg, changes the appearance of her derriere No? I think this is a more child-like shape but I could just be talking out of my own derriere.

Time for a start-over to do something  more with that hair.

I changed to a creamier coloured linen, and of course introduced the new hair colour (she was always going to have red hair in my mind). That smile is all kinds of too-wide but it is only pinned so it doesn’t matter.

I wish I had thought of the ear before the remake though…No point in making a matching one as I have to make another Elsie with the ears inserted.

She’s an impatient cartwheeling, lopsided piggy-tail kind of girl who tells me to hurry up so I can meet her little brother.

Heads and shoulder, knees and toes

 

Today I made heads…lots of heads. These guys are the ones with potential. I tried some four piece heads (I’m not usually a fan of the seam up the middle of the face, but I am leaning that way at the moment.)

yes, he is ugly there is no denying it, and his head is a little baseball shaped for what I want , but the ear is cute. I seem to be adding ears to everything these days. He is the very very starting point to someone I have wanted to make for ages and ages. He will be left to percolate for a bit longer.

The guy I thought was a knight, is in fact a Viking . (Of course).  He seems to have reverse mumps on one side doesn’t he? Also his mouth is not quite happy enough is it? It is too wide.There is something just generally not right about the face but that’s Ok as it was just the head I was working on. I know the weird side of the head is just my crappy rushed sewing so I might proceed and give this guy some limbs and play with some clothes…a little shield maybe?

And this little madam just popped up unbidden from a four piece practice. I’m going to nut this head out a bit more – especially that stuffed hair idea. She may of course turn out very very different in the end, but for the first time in a long time she popped in to my brain with her whole story.

May I introduce Elsie Cabbage.

(and she might just look like an unfinished head on a stick, but let me tell you – she means business!)

Independent ..........

Tuesday - a bit of a scarf workshop with friends - Awesome fun and a new scarf featuring some Aunty Cookie, some Greenolive designs , some Pippijoe and some left over printed text from the Johnny Depp scarf of last year.

Wednesday - sewing day with some other friends, more great fun and the fronts- only of two cushion covers. Gorgeous natural linen with pieces of Sumor by the spunkiest of all bubbles the Ink and spindle team.

and this little sweetie is Nan and she loves to play nurses

She may not be the answer to swine flu.....

but she's willing to give it a shot !

Ages 3 and up!

Hello, My name is Esther and I am sisters to Hazel. Do you know Hazel?

This is me waiting at the gate for my friends Violet and Ruby. Violet and Ruby are coming to play here for ever and ever and be sisters to me and Hazel as well so we will be all like four twins who are sisters.

Did you know I am a very good cooker and I do cooking nearly every single day. Mostly I like to cook cakes and biscuits and things what I can put icing on.

Jodie knowed I like cooking so she buyed me my very own mixer and it is the best mixer ever in the whole wide world.

And with my mixer I got all sorts of stuff and cakes and a little knifer and even a cake what comes apart and goes together again. So when Violet and Ruby get to my house we can have tea parties all together.
I did some cookering for Jodie on the weekend and I made some biscuits what are mostly healthy cause they have fruit and then a bit not healthy cause they have chocolate. I think mostly that I like the chocolate part but Jodie says it is rude just to lick off the good bits of biscuits and you have eat the not-good bits too. I think maybe I don't agree to that bit.

(OK so that is my pathetic attempt to disguise the fact that I went and bought this most wonderful toy just so I could use it to take cute dolly photos. I bought it from

My Wooden Toys

.Seriously, this is one cute toy! It has heaps of bits and pieces and the quality is fantastic. I am not normally into advertising stuff on ye olde blog, but I just knew that someone would ask me so I got in first - Pop over and have a look and while you're there check out the breakfast set and the pirate ship............. and it's OK because it says it is for ages over 3 and I am waaaaaay over 3)

EDITED TO ADD:

Guess what ?

(and before you ask I have nothing to do with this company at all I am just a happy customer)

My Wooden Toys have just emailed me to say that until the end of the month they are going to offer 10% discount on your purchases. All you have to do is type ric-rac in the comments box at checkout. They will deduct 10% when processed for a credit card or refund the 10% if you use paypal.

How cool is that? ...Stay tuned, next week I might mention Mercedez Benz

Doll week !

So I stuck pretty much to the plan of doll making this week.

You need to know that these girls were already sewn and stuffed - I had a huge bag of limbs and heads and bodies before the week started. I just had to hand sew all their limbs and give them faces. I can usually manage the hand sewing part of one doll a night - hand sewing is not my forte!!!

Hazel and another were already finished and the little sweetie with glasses already had a face so I guess I put together 6 dolls this week.

I have become obsessed with dolly freckles and a few of these girls got freckles after the photo. I had to stop myself giving them all freckles.

There are two more on the go but I had to wait for some felt for their hair so I hope to get those finished this week.

That will bring me to a total of 10 dollies ....OMG that means 10 cardigans, 10 scarves, 4 hats (it depends on the hairstyle) 10 coats or capes, 20 reversible dresses, 10 handbags, 10 little friends and some felted shoes for the girly with no shoes....need to be made, as well as 10 carry bags for them to travel in. Yikes - I might need to work on The Year of doll clothes !

'cause they can't get around in paper bags forever !

Just because....

Just because all the crafting I am doing at the moment is so brain-numbingly boring, I thought you might like to meet this little guy.

He was really fun to make - I cracked myself up with the surfboard.

On the dolly front - Miss Mirabel is coming up in the next round of

Softies For Mirabel auctions

this Sunday night.

If you want to check her out you can take a look at this post. She is a bit naughty but Pip tells me she has been very good lately and has not been calling people poo- poo heads at all. She has a little selvedge quilt to bring with her and she and all her clothes and accessories come in a zippered bag. I'll post the link on Sunday night when she is up.

The first lot of the kits are ready at long last - I know it has taken forever. These kits are of the little bluebird cages. I will pop them in the shop tonight at about 9pm.

Maybe by next week I will have some with red birds

maybe.............

( Thankyou for all the lovely birthday wishes. I wish you could all come over here for cake. I'd even tidy up the sewing room for you......and you know I wouldn't do that for just anybody.

It took me a while to figure out how everyone knew.

Thankyou Annie!)

Softies for Mirabel

Hello my name is Mirabel

but you can just call me Belle if you want.
I am being a bit grumpy at Jodie because it has tooken her about twenty hundred days to make me be ready and lots of time I was naked with no clothes at all!

I am very special because I am going to find a new home and I will in a auction which is about people winning and paying money to look after kids whose maybe mum or dad is not very well.

Jodie said I have to go to meet a nice person called Pip and she will look after me until I go to a very new home. If you wanted me to come to your house then you would have to know about Softies for Mirabel cause that is where I will be going first before my new house.

I hope my new home has some children who aren’t babies. Do you like babies? I think they look nice when they are all bubbled up in their pushers but when they get let out and get near to you they are all gross and they dribble lots and grab at stuff. And did you know my friend Sara has a baby that pulls hair all the time and makes Sara cry even!

Today at the park I saw a boy who was not very nice at all. At the slide he just pushed in straight in the front – even pushing in to the little kids and he had funny sticky –up hair and I said “you are pushing in” and he told me to go away and I said no he should go away instead and he said I was a baby and I said I wasn’t and then I said he was a stupid head.

Then I dobbered on him to Jodie and she said just to go and play somewhere else and I said I couldn’t because he was just being everywhere. So Jodie came over to the slide and looked at him funny when he tried to push in and I said to her to tell off him but Jodie said you are not allowed to tell off other peoples children , you can only be telling off to your own children and dollies, and I said that you should be able to tell off stupid head boys who are mean with sticky up hair.

After we left the park we had to do jobs which was boring and going to the supermarket which was a bit funner because we bought some nice things and the man at the meat place said aren’t you cute and gave me a piece of meat and I said thank you but he had sticky-up hair like the mean boy at the park so I just held on to the meat and I didn’t eat it and then I dropped it on the floor a bit on purpose, because I thought he was maybe the mean boys dad and that he gave me a poison meat and I told Jodie and she said he was not the mean boys dad because he was too young and that I was being a bit silly.

I said “Well you don’t know everything in the whole wide world”!

Jodie said she thinks it will be a long weekend.........

and then there were four..............

EVA

Hello I am Eva and because it is nearly my birthday in maybe nine or twenty sleeps I get to be first and to tell you what happened.

Well ! Outside when we were playing hide and seek, I went to hide in the hedge and I did and it was a bit scratchy and when I came out Polly yelled at me that I had blood on my leg and

I looked and I went uh -oh and it really hurt and I cried.

Polly

So then Eva had to go inside and she cried a lot and a lot and we heared her from outside and we waited for her to come back and I did some forward rolls but I got dirty and forward rolls are not good for doing in dresses. Lottie did a handstand and then fell over

and I said that hand stands are not good because then everyone can see you undies and Lottie poked her tongue out at me.

Lottie

Eva came back to play but she had a bandage on her leg and I said that was good. I don't like band aids because when you are better and it has to come off they hurt really lots and they pull all your skin hairs out and it hurts even in the bath.

So I said I would play hairdressers with Eva until she felt better but Eva said not to be messy on her bun and maybe Ester would be a good hairdresser and not me. Ester didn't know what happened because she wasn't being attentions with us at all. So I said I didn't want to play hairdressers I wanted to play gymnastics anyway.

Ester

In the garden I picked some flowers and I saw a bug that had sort of dots on and it went on a leaf and then it went on some grass and I tried to pick it up on a different leaf but it didn't want to go on my leaf but I didn't touch it with my hands because Jodie said not to pick up bugs what you don't know in case they are biting sorts.

Eva was crying a lot and then her leg limped so I gave my flowers to her and she got all cheered up. After that we had snacks and Jodie said to please all be in a line for a photo and not to pull faces.

So we just had our normal faces on.