Monday 29 October 2012

Heads

Twenty heads that have now been attached to their bodies. I love the colours all together and the way some of them look slightly apprehensive.

 I got some lovely metallic thread in the supermarket and it has added some glamour to some of the eye make-up.

 All lined up ready to be matched to a body. I make the bodies and the heads separately with no real planning but they all seem to find a match that looks right.
 I laid them all out and matched them, then put each in a ziplock bag ready to be sewn. Now they are waiting for outfits which I have been working on all week. Last night I also sewed on my woven labels but had to order more, as I made more dolls than I originally planned. Once I have dressed some of these I will be able to see what still needs to be done to finish them. Such  long process!
 A few close ups. The one on the right below has the Prick Your Finger yarn as hair. I love the colour changes in this.

 The bright pink on the left is some acrylic yarn bought from Deramores for granny squares but it was just too tempting to have a shocking pink headed girl!


 The one on the top right is acrylic yarn I have had for years and has been in the understairs cupboard, at school and finally back in my wool box!

The red head below left is some lovely mohair yarn from the charity shop. Three balls for £1.50!



Thursday 25 October 2012

This post is brought to you by the letter B

 Ball. One of the skeins of yarn I bought at the weekend. I haven't got a fancy winder so I used my knees. The texture of the yarn is so rough! I am using it for little crochet brooches but am not sure what else to make with it. It is too rough for a scarf.
 Butterfly. The body is made from some of the ironed plastic then I crocheted the wings on. I made it while watching a terrifying film so now it is associated with that in my mind! The film was called "Darkness". It is about five years old but I had never heard of it. A good creepy film for Halloween.
 Blurry. This is from Monday morning as I arrived at work. It was really foggy that morning but this is the only picture I took and it doesn't show it that well.
 Brown. This little doll is from Linda Sue and she has found herself in a Scottish landscape-a painting of a house on Loch Tummel in Perthshire. Andy's parents had a lovely house there and when I saw where this painting was of I snapped it up. I liked it anyway but that was the deciding factor between bringing more clutter home or not doing so. £3 in the charity shop. That seems to be a common price point for lovely paintings that nobody loves anymore. The picture is brown because it has been vintiqued-a great app with loads of filters and lovely effects for virtually no effort.
 Blue. My new classroom which I first saw today. We move in tomorrow. The new building is interesting. Totally different to the old one. I like it. There are some issues with certain things but there always are with anything new so we (the nursery staff) are being quite philosophical about it. More than can be said for a lot of the other staff though. The atmosphere was tense today. At least three people that I greeted with a 'Hi, you alright?' (Sounds better than it reads!) said 'No, I'm not!' Oh dear. Hope it gets better!
Bus. Seen on the way home while waiting at traffic lights. It was more the sun coming out that made me look but the red bus makes a nice contrast.

Tuesday 23 October 2012

Leaves

Lovely mild and misty weather. Much better than last week's continuous rain. I parked my car under a tree last night and this morning the leaves looked beautiful on the roof. That's all.

Sunday 21 October 2012

Birthday Treat

 Friday was my birthday. On Saturday my birthday treat (if such a thing still exists at my age!) was a trip to The Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green. It is a lovely museum. Part of the V&A but much easier to get to! I love it. It also has a great cafe and part of the treat was one of their sausage rolls, a lovely coffee and an amazing piece of cake. The best cake I have had for a long time. Pear and blackberry. I wish I had another piece now!
 I took loads of pictures. Here are some of my favourites...
 Pelham puppets-I have a small collection of these myself, which includes a skeleton like this one. Something I own in a museum. Not sure what that says!
 Lucky Mary Lou, she has such a fun life ahead of her! I see she has a cat that irons-if only.
 When I read the label with these phones, which says 'have you ever seen one like this before?', I suddenly felt very old. Later in the shop I saw two toys that made me laugh but made me a little sad too. One was 'my first laptop'-a toy aimed at quite a young child-it was a wooden laptop shaped thing, which, when it opened, had a chalkboard where the screen would be. Quite weird mixture of eras really. The other product, by the same company,-'my first smart phone'-also made of wood. I didn't look closely but it didn't seem to have too many parts. A wooden brick shaped like a smart phone would do, and would probably be free and already in the toybox. It is what the kids use at school for phones-amongst other things. One of them this week used a toy iron, and a brio railway bridge, which, strangely is shaped quite like the handset of the old dial phones. Full circle!
 This one is for you Dawn! Not the same size as yours, but they reminded me of them.
 I love this picture of a girl having a tea party. I have to drink so many cups of pretend tea at school every day, it quite wears me out!
 This is Cassie as a teddy bear. It looks just like her!
 Love the old monkey and his lovely velvety trousers.
 I would like one of these for school. My shoe is a wire and organza one from a charity shop and my old woman is not old and her children are weird-some are not even children at all. This one is much more together as a set!
 The days when Mr Potato Head was a real potato! I didn't realize that he ever was, only knowing the brightly coloured plastic version.
 If they made these in human size, I would want to live in one. I might have to have a sugar bowl extension though.
 These fairies or angels are beautiful. I might use them for my Christmas cards.
 I love the story dress.
 We had a walk around the local area, as I wanted to find a wool shop I had read about in Country Living Magazine. A local primary school had a beautiful selection of mosaics on their walls. The crocodile and the Pearly couple were my two favourites.

 The said wool shop. Full of hand spun, hand dyed and delicious yarn. Some is even from city farms. I am glad I know where it is now. I bought two skeins in pinky, greeny and natural variegated tones. I also bought a bundle of bits-a selection of meters of different yarns and bits and pieces which I thought would be great for doll embellishments.

 I loved this sign. We enjoyed wandering around the area between the wool shop and the museum.
I want this. Pure and simple! Isn't she beautiful? To see the early stages of a doll, without all the clothes is interesting. She looks almost robotic with her metal arms.

Three Little Pigs

I wore the necklace to school on Thursday and one of the children said "Why have you got that... lion?", pointing to the wolf, which does look a bit lion like. Then they all had a look- it was carpet time- then we acted out a lively version of the story. It was fun! I want to make more story necklaces. I have things for the three bears ready to go!

Wednesday 17 October 2012

Cat Animation Excitement

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Cat entertainment after school with my tea. Lily and Tiger have a spat, with Cassie in the ringside seat. Lily has a relaxing roll in the dust afterwards. This is the most exciting it gets around here at the moment. School is getting a little easier. We have a few really good days in between the hard ones! The first half of the autumn term is always hard with all those new children to settle and get to know, but we are having fun most of the time, despite it being difficult. It is really lovely when you see the results of the efforts we make with both the children and their parents. There have been a few changes of staff in the nursery which have made a lot of difference to how we work as a team-good changes I am pleased to say!
So, that's all good then, as Hugh Bonneville might say in 2012.
I am going to have a change from dolls faces tonight and make a three pigs necklace which I have been planning for ages. Will show it if I get it done!

Sunday 14 October 2012

Hello!

Just a few pictures from my week. We had a break from work and crafting today and popped to Greenwich. I felt most virtuous as I have completed 20 bodies, sewn on 15 heads, crocheted some bunting, ironed some plastic ( more on that another time) and done some work. The pictures today are of the park, a couple of granny squares that I managed to follow a pattern to make, a doll who caught my eye on the market ( and then had to come home with me!) and a brilliant book I found in the charity shop. It is full of black and white pictures of amazing art spanning centuries, including lots and lots of faces. Most inspiring. I hope your week has been good. X