a little dolly

I made this doll inspired by Melanie's little elf girl . 

I have enjoyed making her so much, she's taken me on a journey back to my childhood and all the miniture things, dolls and bears I used to spend my days dreaming up and creating. That's where my love of creating began and its nice to reminisce. 

Here is the only toy I still have, although my parents have a few bears I made. I made this angel doll when I was about 10 or 12. I'm not sure why she's the one I still have as I don't think she was really my favorite but its nice to have her all the same. 

I made up a pattern for the little 9" doll and used this tutorial. She is made of cotton tricot (scraps from my previous waldorf dolls) hand stitched, filled with wool that I washed and carded.

 I then crochet a hair cap and hooked and looped the hair onto it. I sewed her nickers and singlet with old t-shirt scraps

I improvised a patter for her tiny knitted bonnet and cardigan based on people sized ones iv'e knit in the past. Amazingly they both fit perfectly!

 I then made her skirt out of ticking scraps and she is happy and clothed.
I so enjoy drafting up tiny patterns and having simple little projects that are finished quite quickly. I have a feeling over the next two weeks as we travel to various family and then travel to the beach house we stay at for four days over new year she will come along and some new outfits will be in order. A yellow sun dress and some bathers for the beach perhaps? I really am having far too much fun with her:)

Linking up for Creative Friday!

ginger bread

Yesterday I made gingerbread biscuits

I was just looking after Maddalyn so she was my little helper for the day. Shes alergic to dairy and eggs so she made her own biscuits from playdough. Judging by how keen she was to get them in her mouth I would say hers must have been pretty tasty too

 I haven't iced iced them and i'm still debating if I want to. Looks wise Id like to but they are sugary enough. does anyone know of a healthyish biscuit icing recipe? I'm thinking maybe some cornflour, honey, egg white perhaps. Id like to experiment but i'm out of cornflour so that will be an adventure for another day.

summer days

are best spent at the beach

finding treasures along the shore (and in Maddalyn and Georgia's case taste testing them all:)

Building sand castles

finding wide open space when the big school kids are with us. With 7 kids in care wide open space is essential!

feeding birdies

discovering hermit crabs

climbing, jumping

making pizzas

tomato babies

In October I gave my dad a punnet of tomato seedlings. Hes been taking great care of them and they have become lush healthy bushes

 He'd been talking about growing some for a few years but never got around to it but now they're in he loves tending to them and is doing a great job.
We call them his tomato babies.
In the evening when he comes in from locking up their two little chooks he talks of fluffing their pillows and tucking them in. Its a bit of a joke we have but realy its about his fabulous attention and enthusiasm to detail he has. He takes great care of things, animals and now tomato plants

Each wilted leaf is noticed and shade gets put up for them on hot days. I love to hear his enthusiasm and the enjoyment he gets from taking care of them and seeing them grow. Its at a perfect time for me because my garden enthusiasm is a bit lacking while i'm pre ocupied with other thoughts but he reminds me what it is I love about gardening. The amazement of big plants coming from tiny seeds, growing almost before your eyes in the hot summer sun. The excitement of watching tomatoes get bigger and knowing they'll be on your plate before you know it.

Just plain enjoyment of being outdoors with a purpose instead of inside. 

 The first tomatoes are getting to a good size and hes dreaming of delicious sauce

There are even some capsicums too. Its going to be a delicious summer!

painting our doll house

 I never was happy with the colour of our  doll house so while the little ones napped Cameron and I painted its roof blue

He thought it was great and did such a neat job.
Incidentally when we finished he wasn't finished with the colour blue. I left him to have some quiet play time on his own as I always do while the others nap. I found him in the bathroom looking rather sheepish and trying to hide his bright blue hands that were stained with food dye. An entire bottles worth! Oh my! I didn't need to say much at all, he was in the bathroom for a good while scrubbing his hands and when he came out he said to me sure as can be that he would not be doing that again!

 Anyhow, the doll house turned out a brighter shade than I intended. Its always hard to judge how much a colour will change as it dries. Never mind, it will either grow on me or we will have another fun painting day

lucky finds!

Today I had a wonderful day. My friend Kylie and I went to her naturopath in Adelaide. I went for general health and fertility help and she was lovely, knowledgeable and helpful. 

We visited my Oma and Opa and I had a glass of apple juice (THE drink Ive always loved to have at their place. We rarely had juice at home when I was a kid and I rarely buy it now so its always been a nice treat at Oma and Opas) It was fun to introduce my god son Jayden to them. He crawled flat out excitedly exploring their house, got spoilt with bananas, apples, bickies and cuddles!

After that I had a few second hand finds to pick up and at one stage Kylie's face lit up and she urgently told me, go back, go back, GO BACK!! 

We had happened to go past a wedding dress shop that she had desperately wanted to go to. Being that she thought all the dresses were way out of her price range she hadn't gone out of her way to find it last time we made a day trip to choose a dress for her. We had time so we went in for a look. As luck would have it they had a big sale on and she found her dream dress for just under budget. To say she was happy is quite an under statement! It happened to fit her perfectly with no need for alterations and we are secretly pretty sure it was made just for her. Stars align just right some times. We were in the right place at the right time thanks to a little wooden high chair.

I also tried on some dresses. I'm a bit shy about trying on wedding dresses as I'm not really a dressing up kind of a person and its a bit uncomfortable that a lady goes into the change room to help dress you  but we had some time to waste so I tried a few. It was actually really fun to see myself as a bride and I'm looking forward to going to look at dresses now. We are thinking our wedding will be at the end of next year, although we wont fully plan until a few months beforehand in case I'm pregnant (fingers crossed because to me that would be even better than a wedding:) But its nice to get a bit more of an idea about what I do and don't like.

 At the moment I have two 1 year olds often over for day care on the same day so I started off looking for a second little plastic booster high chair like we have(on the right) to strap onto a chair. I found one but for the same price I found this wooden high chair which I love so I got this instead!

 It needs a sand and re finish, particularly on the tray but its lovely and solid

 It fits in perfectly with our table! Doesn't it just look like it was made to sit right where it is? It also solves a problem as a bonus. When I look after 4 children (the maximum non school aged children for family day care in our state) I no longer need to stand while they eat. Even if they are all older children the youngest will go in the high chair with no tray and feel like they're in a regular 'big people' seat

While I was checking eBay I checked to see if they had any nice solid wooden dolls prams.
I have been checking occasionally for a few years since our thrift store umbrella strollers fell apart,you know the common $10 ones that are sold everywhere and just don't last?
I haven't seen anything, not even more of the 'budget' ones at the opp shop locally. I couldn't justify buying any new that would end up in landfill because it wasn't up to the job, or that were expensive and not visually to my taste (think bright pink checks etc!) so I patiently waited

 I managed to find this beautiful one, (has the make on the bottom) without the 'made in france' posh price tag! Its perfect size for our waldorf dolls and I adore how old fashioned it is. I will make some bedding for it later on. I'm thinking that from the original price tag it should be built to last. I sure hope so, it's soooo cute

 just randomly while taking photos in the play room, here is a sign I stitched for our little kitchen

 With 3 little girls in care at the moment its all about dollies and cooking (they seem intent on keeping the stereo types going lol:)Apple blossom kitchen is getting far more use than it has before which makes the hunt and the work so worth it

I also found this sweet rocking horse as the children have been reminiscing about our old one that I sent back to the opp shop because we ran out of room in our old house. And now I must stop finding beautiful bargains and perhaps send some of our less loved toys to the opp shop to keep the positive second hand energy circling around. Isn't it nice having 'new' things at no cost to the environment? I've said it before and ill say it again, I love second hand!

on a warm tuesday

 dolly cuddles

 reading favorite books. After clearing the bookshelf. Its hard to decide which book to read but if you throw enough on the floor your bound to find a good one right?

 sifting flour for pancakes

 cant resist getting fingers in there while Karen's distracted by the camera

 meanwhile someone else has noticed that its a perfect time for mischief...

 ahh, time for a rest

and a cuddle

recent hand mades

Lately ive been doing some knitting

I'm knitting up some tiny stripey pant by combining the alpaca of two failed projects. I think this time ill be happy with the finished item. I hope...

Here are some pants with feet I knit in size 6-12 months. My gauge was obviously off because they are a nice roomy fit on a very nearly 2 year old. cute though! They will have overall straps to keep them up but I haven't made them yet. She was nice and snugly in them and enjoyed slipping about in them on our smooth floors (its the middle of summer here but we had a cold day)

 Christmas books are out and we've been busy making all manner of glittery creations to celebrate

stockings are officially hung too this year. I made Benny and I a stocking each out of linen with bamboo batting cuff at the top. One day I will add our names