one eyed pink haired doll

Two more dolls I have on the go and nearly finished, just need some stuffng and hair and some snazzy outfits.

I have been making this doll on the left for rather a long time.  It is to be a boy doll for my little daughter to go with her girl dolly.  It was kind of tricky to make him look like a boy and I'm not sure I've done it very well, dollies and square jaws don't really go together, but hopefully some hair and stuffing will do the trick, if all else fails I shall have to give him some stubble or a goaty beard.  

 They look a bit odd and flat without their hair and filling.

 The dolls face on the right was embroidered onto some beautiful old linen, and the green eye-brow was already half there.

 Its amazing what a good stuffing will do.  The doll on the right is my oldest daughters first doll, and I got the idea for a one eye doll from her.  She designed her dolls face and I did the embroidery. The rosy cheeks were also her idea and I have used them quite a lot in my dolly making.  Kids are very useful for inspiration and general idea stealing.

 this pink haired dolly is for my mums birthday.  I can't think why it has turned out like this, she is rather tasteful and subdued and not at all pink and one-eyed.  She hasn't got it yet but as she never reads my blog (she doesn't like the name) it won't spoil the suprise. The rather swish pink skirt is just actually the end of a sleeve from an old dress of mine, I thought a bit of colour blocking would be good, now I know what it means.

And I had to put these blossoms in as they are the first ones I have seen this spring.  They were so pink and pretty and smelt delicious.  Me and the girls found them on our walk this morning at the Chinese gardens.  the bottom picture is the shadows on the garden wall which  thought was rather lovely.

old man checkered shirt fashion

I went op-shopping with my girls this week and bought a couple of magazines for chopping up. They are generally good for  collages, bunting, eco fashion,  anything goes pretty much. They are also left in a cupboard in the kitchen so they can fall out every time said cupboard is opened.  In Fashion Quarterly summer 10/11 I came accross some lovely frocks, and they all happened to be from Kate Sylvester.  I generally like her clothes a lot but am perplexed at their simplicity and how well it works.  If I ever make anything it is generally a bit silly/ girly/ childish,  I haven't yet really adjusted to being over forty (good heavens). 

I cut out this dress by Kate Sylvester, (there are some really pretty cool things on her web site, click the link to have a look). and put it in my scrap-book/ sketch pad because the checkered shirt material on the dress above reminded me of my dad, who only ever pretty much ever wore these shirts, unless he was working.  He would wear them until the collars wore out, and then turn the collars round so the good bits were on the front.  He was good at darning socks as well.  

I stuck the dress on this page with some sketches I did from some dresses from Fresh Fruits.  I thought they would make a good combination 

I also thought this style dress from Goldie London would look cute in that checked fabric.  Of course I have been looking in the op-shops today for some of those shirts and despite the fact that normally the places are awash with them, there are none to be seen now.  I still have a couple of places to look however.

 Here are another couple of Kates dresses that took my fancy.  Very clever lady.

For some reason if I buy a magazine from the op-shop I can cut it up, if however the magazine is bought new from the shop, I am completely unable to do this.  Why is this?

In the woods today.

It was a beautiful frosty sunny morning this morning, so we ate our porridge and had a little tidy up and then the children were dragged out the house and taken for a short steep walk up a hill and through some trees to see a beautiful view of the snowy mountains. I don't have a picture of the snowy mountains 'cause they weren't very good.  I blame it on the camera lens myself. 

I love this part of the walk, especially really early in the morning with the light shining through the trees

 the girls prefer not to use the windy path and to scramble up the scrambly slopes. 

 I thought the colour of the bark was so pretty, and the negative shapes in blues and bright greens.

 and then I had to try and take photos of the girls while they climbed the tree and hid behind the branches

These photos made me think of Little Red Riding Hood with my little one in her red coat running along the forest path.

And later today there has been rock climbing and some rather groovy mini dolls house furniture being made ( not by me)

new hair-cut, new hair ball

Today my youngest daughter decided that she would like to have a funky little hair-cut.  I am counted on around the house generally for hair-cuts, for some reason I am trusted with a pair of orange sewing scissors and a comb ( today it was a pink hairbrush as the comb had gone on holiday ) and the apparent ability to produce required hair-cut.  

 Started with the top layer so she could decide if the length was right

 which it wasn't so it went a bit shorter, it's not my best work but my model got a bit fed-up with me taking so long and refused to let me fiddle around any more.  There was loads of hair on the floor in a messy pile, and after I'd managed to salvage some to tie up and keep ( I hate throwing my gorgeous girlies hair away, and always try and keep it)  G decided that we should make a hairball out of the remainder.  She is holding it in the above photo.  It's kind of disgusting I know but also I am quite impressed with the final result and how small it turned out, rather like felting but with human hair.

 so we decided to dress it up with some eyes

 and then a mouth and a little bow in its hair

 some cool shades

and then some model lips and proper sunnies from an old Tatler magazine. Oh how we laughed!  Luckily at this point in the proceedings it was time for the girls to go to bed and it had to stop.

and I apologise to Kerry Howley profusely who makes these beautiful hair necklaces for even putting her on this page.  But it just reminded me of her. 

cosy nooks

you couldn't get much cosier than this, i imagine it's for children.  what fun they would have all snuggled up in here on holiday.

I do like the idea of these cosy nooks, they remind me of Heidi and I have romantic notions of weekends away in the winter with a roaring fire and something nice to eat and drink, some snow outside would be good and one of those kiwi outdoor baths.  Obviously it would be nice with the kids too, but in a different way.

an afternoons fishing

 It was a beautiful sunny winters day so we decided to go to this beautiful spot for some fishing.  We also managed to get a pink cup-cake and two rather delicious custard slices.

 My daughter is the one with the fishing rod and the fishing licence. I don't know what you're meant to do although its probably pretty straight forward. 

 My husband and I have been vegetarian for many years and so are not into impaling small maggots onto hooks or fish having hooks in their mouths, but decided that it may be good for the kids to learn how to catch food ( they may starve at their present success rate )

the three boys next to us must have caught all the susceptible fish.

 I was no help with the fishing so I tried to draw my daughter, from the back incase you can't make it out

She is wearing a very snuggley puffer jacket which I am rather jealous of. 

Beach creations, blue sky

 This wasn't from today, but today was as beautiful of this in our sunny home town.  Actually I have been painting the railings on the deck today and the kids have been banished to the garden to play.  After some fear and trepidation at being sent away from the TV and the computer, they took some blankets, some sewing, a camera and some other stuff into the garden and set up some activities and spent the whole day outside, and came in full of beans just as the sun sunk low and it started to get cold. 

 Its nice to go to the beach and see what other people have been up to with driftwood and rocks

 their always seems to be a few of the same idea, different interpretation, which I like, especially if you go to the beach on consecutive days and ideas change and morph and grow.  We turned up at the beach a few weeks ago and walked along to find these driftwood shapes ( all above ).  So my children decided to make a house.

 They did it all themselves while I sat on the rocks looking for heart-shaped stones.

 Its always nice when they are inspired without any encouragement.

 My little girl has a dolly called Lucy, and we have made Duct-Tape dummies in the past, so she decided that she should make one for her dolly, so she could use to help make clothes for Lucy.  How very sweet It is finished with a mini coat hanger stuck in the top to hang it up.

 I have been trying to dry out the timber railings on the deck so I could paint them.  It has rained a lot and also it is winter, so there is lots of condensation or frost in the morning.  We have put cling-film over the rails at night so they don't get any wetter.  So in the morning all these beautiful dew-drops were sparkling  on the railings

 And the blue sky is reflecting in some of the droplets. how lovely

Its a mixed bag today