Things I noticed today and more about the book doll

How most of the products I use around the house and on myself such as shampoo, face wash, moisturizer and cleaning products often come in pump bottles. As if people have lost the ability to squeeze. This is the kind of thing I think about when I am too tired to do harder thinking such as is required by the list of work I have to do. Maybe tomorrow. A sunflower head emptied of its seeds by gravity, birds and children. The sunflowers are all over now and, all of a sudden, lots of the kids were desperate to plant the seeds. I got pots and trowels and off they went. The stalks make quite good weapons too. A little intervention was needed there!

How yellow these crab apples are. These make good aiming devices.

How tangled this rose is. I wanted some hips to put in a vase but they are a bit sparse. It is still flowering though.

The prettiness of this dolls house door. They make me thing of Charleston or New Orleans-not that I have ever been there but they just do. I put three big dolls houses out today as we were a bit bored with the trainset. These are all donated by parents-we have two more in the cupboard. It is great having so many as you can have a mini street and lots of children can play together. I love the tiny world of dolls houses and I could see that look of fascination at the magical little world inside them on lots of faces today.

These wooden toys are pretty old but I think they are great. I wondered what situation was developing here.

As I am writing I am having a glass of wine. It is an Australian riesling. I notice that it tastes like basil-really strongly. It is strangely pleasant and went well with my vegetable based tea!

The first stage of folding.

Gluing the back on with the help of some pumpkins. I think it is finished-I say I think as I am not sure whether to add any paint or other colour. I will wait till daylight!

I celebrated tidying up the area next to the draining board by lighting some candles!

The last two things I remember noticing today were the delicious scent of a couple of rosemary plants I bought for school (along with 160 daffodil bulbs for Forest School and the nursery garden) and the equally lovely smell of the Christmas trees hiding at the back of the DIY store. It was as if they were all waiting quietly for things to really get going. I wish I could blog smells!

Doodly Faces

I phoned my Dad. Then my Mum. I doodled faces. This sketchbook has such lovely paper-it has little ridges in it like expensive writing paper. It is lovely to draw on with anything soft. The paper feels soft too.

Girl number one looks a bit 70s to me. Girl number two is futuristic and girl number three is a cat!

I have been doing my book doll tonight and she is nearly finished. I had forgotten how I really like papier mache-such sticky fun!

Post Post And Other Things

Tuesday is Forest School day at the moment. I still have not quite finished all my course work and I have not been observed doing a session yet. This was due to be done next week but has been cancelled because my assessor has not been assessed to be an assessor yet! Nevertheless, Forest School is my favourite session of the week-the children love it and so do the adults. Today we planted some trees that one of the teaching assistants won. We were filthy-it was great! I think I could send that group out on their own to plant trees now and they would know what to do. My favourite thing was seeing them gently firming down the soil around the little trees-they were so careful. Fingers crossed that they grow! I got home about half six to find exciting post. Two packets of felting wool and a lovely sheep postcard from Anne of Frayed At The Edge-we met in the summer. I love surprises in the post so thank you Anne! I am thinking about what to make. The next piece of exciting post was this postcard-from myself via America. (Thanks Candace for the stamp!) It is the acknowledgement of receipt of Perdita by Art Doll Quarterly. At least I know she got there ok and I will get her back one day! Now fingers crossed that they like her!

This is the latest doll I have started. The idea comes from a couple of sources. Years ago I saw an article on this amazing artist who makes sculptures out of books by folding them. I had a go on an old copy of Sense and Sensibility-it is up on the book shelf. This one is a book I bought in Scotland recently on football coaching. I liked the illustrations and the cover. I like it even more now as the middle of the skirt. The other place I got the idea from was a picture of a doll with a folded paper underskirt. (Picture a long way down in this post)I am going to use papier mache to make the body and head. I used to do quite a lot of papier mache and feel like having another go.

The adult sized chair in the nursery garden. Ancient but quite comfy. I came upon this carefully placed collection of wooden bricks on it today and liked the effect. I don't know who put them there though!

C. in my class rushed over to get me this afternoon. She wanted to show me this. Bees are very attracted to our bright yellow slide, and often stop to clean themselves or soak up the sun. We watched this one for a while before it flew off.

One more thing-I have nearly finished my sketchbook for the sketchbook project-only three more pages to go!