Rag dolls & a makeover


Wow, hasn't the week whizzed past. Although it has been mostly very soggy and miserable (the weather that is).

Now what has an old rag doll and an older box got to do with each other?

The box originally had apricots in it and came from Turkey many moons ago.
I blogged about my rag dolls last year which is here in this post. Well as Morag has had her dress on for the last 15 odd years and her baby has grown up and left home she decided that it was time to call in the team for a makeover!

Here are her new shoes...which were painted on (always looking for the easy way, me!) Unfortunately the paint did run a bit which I wasn't expecting, anyway I oversewed the outlines with some black thread and put a little group of beads on the front and a 'button'to do them up with.

Now this is where the box comes in. When browsing the internet I've seen a few boxes used as props, which I thought was a brilliant idea. So this one was painted cream and a page from an old atlas was stuck in the back. Morag now has something to read while she watches life go by!

                                                     Back view.

I cut her arms down a bit as they were quite long. She has had a hair cut and the jacket is made from an old cardi of mine, with some added bling. Morag wanted to keep her underclothes and petticoat and as they were in good repair, I agreed.

Here she is in my bedroom with some of her teddy friends......

.....and her best friend in the world, Rag Doll. Here they are having a good ole chat. Rag Doll is so delicate that she can't be handled that much as I'm afraid another seam will come undone, but she looks happy enough with Morag!

ohhh nearly forgot....here are some Japanese crochet flowers that I'm making....long way to go yet tho, so that's for another post!

Party links for the week:
http://handmadeharbour.blogspot.co.uk/
http://www.flamingotoes.com/
http://sewmanyways.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/sew%20darn%20craft
http://www.homemakeronadime.com/
http://www.kammyskorner.com/
http://myuncommonsliceofsuburbia.com/
http://www.handymancraftywoman.com/
http://lovingthiscrazylife-melissa.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/its-piece-o-cake-linky-party-13.html

A bunch of red roses.

This post is a bit earlier this week due to no computer tomorrow.
Getting carried along with making paper roses I made 3 reddy pink ones.
I re-dipped the 3 yellow ones that I showed before here in some red paint so they are now an orangey red colour and match the reddy-pink ones.

Here is the other side of the vase showing the pink ones.  The greenery is 2 pieces of paper with a wire glued inbetween. Needing no water or looking after, just how I like it!

They now reside on my bedside table, which used to be plain pine and just how they were bought from the shop in the sale (of course!), lived with it for a year and then got my act together and got the wardrobes painted at the same time. It took 1coat of primer and about 3 topcoats! I just waxed the top and knobs with some coloured wax we've had in the shed for about 25 years!

Also finished the bathroom off at long last. Adding tiles along the wall where the radiator is as the heat kept curling the wallpaper up. Son said, 'why have bird cages in the bathroom'? I said 'why not, makes a change'!

Anyway we like it, so that's that :0D

Here are this weeks linky parties;
http://www.flamingotoes.com/
http://handmadeharbour.blogspot.co.uk/
http://sewmanyways.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/sew%20darn%20crafty
http://www.homemakeronadime.com/
http://knickoftimeinteriors.blogspot.co.uk/
http://thediydreamer.blogspot.co.uk/
http://ambassadorcrochet.com/
http://www.michellestastycreations.blogspot.co.uk/
http://www.finecraftguild.com/party/
http://lovingthiscrazylife-melissa.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/its-piece-o-cake-linky-party-12.html
http://theivycottageblog.blogspot.co.uk/
http://www.craftionary.net/2012/06/friday-fun-party-and-features-216.html

Sillouettes of children and plant hammocks.



Hello there, fellow bloggers.

Today I want to show you something that was made over 20 years ago! (I do like to go at a leisurely pace!) The idea came about when my son's teacher made a black silhouette of his head and I thought it was kind of neat. Sooooo I did three more and put them in little frames which really didn't enhance them very nicely. They were then put away and forgotten about. A couple of months ago they were re-discovered and as I had a narrow frame (charity shop bargain) which matches my new wallpaper, my local framer cut a mount for them.

It is a bit difficult to get a good piccy without the reflection in (should have done it before I put the glass in, silly me). The poppy picture is actually a tile which one of my dd bought for me as she knew I would love it.....and I do, very much.

In the 'old' days before wizardery computing these were done the old fashioned way. Putting a child behind a lamp and shining the shadow on the wall and then threatening said child to move if they dare!! :0D I'm glad that I've fallen back in love with them again (the pictures, not the children cos I never fell out of love with them!)

What else have I been upto. Well, thinking about the polytunnel and not much ground left to plant stuff in I looked skywards. Having just emptied 2 of those plastic things that oranges come in and was looking at a wall that had a load of moss on it, why not combine the two and came up with these;

Neat huh! Inside are more strawberry plants with some compost. Slugs can't get at these (unless they are Ninja slugs!) I also strung up a couple of flower pots with some strawberry plants in. Moneysaving or what? Wonder how long they will last.

Close up;

 They look like plant hammocks :0D

On the crafting side, I've been making some more roses, this time a reddy pink. They arn't finished yet so maybe next week.
 http://www.flamingotoes.com
http://topstotreasures.blogspot.co.uk/
http://sistersofthewildwest.blogspot.co.uk/
http://handmadeharbour.blogspot.co.uk/
http://sewmanyways.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/sew%20darn%20crafty
http://www.homemakeronadime.com/
http://ambassadorcrochet.com/
/lovingthiscrazylife
michellestastycreations 
craftionary

Roses are red......

But not today mine are yellow! I have been messing around with paper to fashion some roses with. (lots of different tutorials on Youtube)

As you can see I need to practise lots more as the middle is not right and I havn't got the petals spaced out evenly.

The greenery is real so am going to figure out how to make some from paper.

Here they are with some real roses! Makes a bigger boquet and they compliment the real ones nicely, in fact Head Honcho had to look twice! The lady who makes paper roses in US www.mymommymakesroses.com charges upto $90 for one rose....will have to up my game a bit! :0D

The other thing I've been fiddling with and also need some more practise with is Fluffy Florence.

Here she is eating the daisies in the garden. (yes, she is a sheep if you can;t figure out what she is :0P ) You can't see her feet as Florence is knee deep in grass. I saw this tutorial on here and as I've got some fluffy black and white wool left over from my dancing bunnies the next step was a flock of sheep!

I will link up to these parties;
http://handmadeharbour.blogspot.co.uk/
http://www.flamingotoes.com/
http://sistersofthewildwest.blogspot.co.uk/
http://sewmanyways.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/sew%20darn%20crafty
 http://www.finecraftguild.com/party/
http://www.iheartnaptime.net/sundae-scoop-link-party-31/
http://www.homemakeronadime.com/
michellestastycreations.blogspot
http://prettyshabbyuk.blogspot.co.uk/
friday-fun-party-and-features-