Forgot to mention ! And update on kitties...

During last months I actually did make some minis.

This witch was made by me in August from a kit by Nancy Cronin , who makes the best witches and crabby old ladies that I know of . As you can see , she has a mini-me with her 😁 . The kit was excellent with clear descriptions, was quite well prepared, as well. Moonyeen Möller did a lot of work on it . It was about the first mini I had made since a long time and I do owe Nancy and Moonyeen for getting me out and back on track. 

The other thing I made was (in October) a bunch of 1/24 narcissi from a kit by Georgina Steed (The Miniature Garden ) ; she makes excellent kits in 1/12 and 1/24 scale. The last ones are rather hard to find . Thank you Georgie !

The vase was made by Elisabeth Causeret.

PS the tape in the pic is a centimeter, not an " inchometer" !

                                       In the meantime my kitties are growing up fast !!

The one with the white nose is Fluffy, the black nosed one is Spotty, and the big striped tiger is Tiffany. 

slowly getting back

Into minis!

During/after the kitchen  remodelling and due to my long and intensive physical rehab, I had  landed into a litlle mini-dip, so to speak , not a lot of motivation to do anything but playing around with the things I have and even so, half hearted.

But I am getting back on track ,even slowly. I have restarted stitching on my Accursed Aubusson again (don't  DARE to laugh !) - update pic to follow in some days- and last week I also bought via ebay this adorable little boy. he is even cuter for real than on his portrait !! Lots of freckles :-)

Since he will need to get some clothes on ( and he is not the only one !!!) I foresee a lot of doll dressing in my immediate future when I gaze into my crystal ball...!

The Rheda fair!!

Yesterday I went around to Rheda ( and back) with Elga and Josje. It was a  great fair, although several sellers told me it was very quiet. On Sundays fairs have often been quiet ,but the all over tendency seems to get a bit downwards , too.
Still, there were many great sellers/artisans and we had a lovely time.

I fetched a nice (WHAT am I saying?) , correct : a WONDERFUL Dobby doll , made for me by Jain Squires ("Master has given him his sock! Dobby is free!")

And Chris Malcolmson led me from the straight and narrow again with this beautiful chest

                               I bought a Tantalus and a cat from Karon Cunningham.
                               I think the cat was made by Literature in Miniature

Some VERY fine sewing thingies by Jurgen Engel ( sorry, no website)

                                   a pair of working scissors by Edmund Drescher , no website  sorry

                             And some nice bottles of wine from Artofmini 

                                                     Pieces of wonderful thin silk

some foods by Georgia Marfels , no rats this time, but not to worry , we will meet again! Tee hee.

Elga is staying here for a few days and she brought me this lovely Shaker table, made by herself , she is such a great woodworker. I will post a better one when it has a home.

,

And Winnie ( who we met for lunch , together with her husband) gave me this little fossilized `desert rose`  

In between I did a lot of shopping and picked up this wonderful papercutting by Engelhardt Schmitt. yes, that is not laser , it is miniature and handcut with scissors. he does not do mail order , btw , so if you get greedy you either need to visit the Rheda fair or try to get me grab something for you ...

It is becoming a tradition...

If it is possible in any way , I love to dress dolls during days-off, esp when they are two in a row. And this time of the year I usually dive into one of Kathi Mendenhall's patterns . They are not for the fainthearted , though....And my results are never, ever as good as Kathi's , whatever I do, but still...I think the result is OK.
The doll was bought at Michelle Mahler's.
For the hat I owe Hazel Dowd big time, as she provided me with a nice sturdy mold for making hats. Very useful!! Thanks Hazel ! I also had bought ribbon and lace from her at several fairs, which also came in very handy, as I had to switch from the original fabric to some from my stash ( and I think it is my friend Marlene who sent me this - it may have been Sis, though:-) One gets older...)
Believe it or not, this outfit represents two days of plain,solid,hard work . Doll hasn't got her purse yet, that will follow later. As, maybe , more decent pictures. But this is it for now!

WOOOHAAA ! Stacy 's dressed!

Finally ! After having several tries at dressing this beautiful little gal by Stacy Hofman, I finally clad her. My, that was an operation. First tries: dresses too stiff or too modern. Could not find fabrics or thik of decorations to go with her beautiful hair decorations, that Stacy had so painstakingly made.
Finally, I saw a pattern in DHMS last year, called Wisteria Bride by Sue Johnson. I do not need any bride, but reckoned it could double as a ball dress, as the fabric is a soft golden  color. Upon inquiring, Sue delivered the fabric pack needed for thsi dress,a LOT of silk and several laces that I would never have been able lo locate myself. Thank you Sue !
 The original decorations were roses and wisteria; would have liked it, but the flowersoft that I used on other projects is prone to bleach up in the strong light of my house and after a year it looks awful. So I settled for roses only , both wire (faux enamel and silk roses) and wire leaves,
Umm, remind me not to use Dupion silk again, unless I have to... draping is surely not my strong suit, sorry...

I also altered the bodice, since this doll is petite, and the original bodice of the pattern was a bit too modern, too.

After decorating the dress, I also added some rhinestones to the hair decorations, to make them  coordinate better with the dress. And now I have sent her to the ball. She will get a fan, promise, but not right now. Later.

Little Lazy Larry

Yesterday/today I finished  a kit by Nancy Cronin, little Lazy  Larry, a very lazy, very Irish pixie, happily asleep in a bed of marshmallows:-). he is going to live in Bluebell Cottage, a nice little cottage, in the attic.
Isn't he sweet?

                                                         (underneath : Nancy's picture ):

Doll arrived today

The postie brought me a lovely doll,made by Marie-France Beglan ( it is a pleonasm, really, since all her dolls are lovely and I have been coveting one since years).
I think I will employ her as  a flower seller in my tearoom, which is illegal, I think, but she is too young to work, anyway, so a bit more illegal makes no difference to speak of....

Amanda Skinner doll II : Nother pic of the little girl

looking sideways, te seems...:-)

Amanda Skinner doll

I just saw my postie , who brought a lovely doll ( Elizabeth), made by Amanda Skinner ( USA). Usually I buy kits , I love dressing dolls, but her children are plain irresistable!!! I love it how the little girl seems to be looking in other directions, whichever way you face her. It is very cleverly done .Thank you Amanda!!

The rest of the teaparty arrived

 

Today the postman brought a trio of old ladies, who will keep Adella company- when I have dressed them. They are also by Nancy Cronin. Here is the pic snagged from the flyer she sent round in the MSAT minidolls group. I find them adorable.
Now I do devoutly hope I have got the right glue; I have got two kinds of two-component glue.....Otherwise I will be chasing legs and arms for a long time to come!

Adella in her cottage

After having dressed her , I have brought Adella home. She is sitting in front of the fire now, curled-up cat at her feet.It is really her home, isn't it?

Adella, with picture an'all...

BUT : I finally dressed Adella today.Remember I got stuck some months ago, as she was losing her arms all the time, as if that was the nature of creation? Well, of course I could not agree to that,so I had plonked her into a box and left her there.
Last week however, I heard some hollering, first softly , then very loud; and then I saw someone waving from the box. Spooky, but it WAS Adella, wanting her tea after a two months wait.
Of course, my camera died on me before I could take her pic, but I promise to add her tomorrow here.
Mine is not the best attempt at doll-dressing ever seen under the sun, but given that everything went wrong while I was dressing her, I am really glad I brought it off this time!!
Time to put up my feet and think what a clever little thing I am!

Working on another doll

I have loads of nekkid dolls. Amongst them was this beauty, made , wigged and decorated and bejewelled by Stacy Hofman .
Because of the green colors in her jewels and hair decorations , I searched high and low for fabric to go with it.
This brocade was the best I could come up with ; unfortunately it does not sit well in a victorian dress, or at least the one I had planned for her.
So I gave her this vaguely Edwardian one(based on Emilie by Cynthia Howe, from an earlier class) with some modifications and additions of mine. Now for the fun part : I still need a lot to do to this dress, I think most of it will be making lotsa roses, either silk or cold porcelain ones. Anyone seeing this any ideas ??? Each suggestion welcome !

Adella

I just received my Adella kit from Nancy Conin( the best witchmaker I know of :-) ), she will make a delightful inhabitant for Bluebell cottage, I think. Must make the kit up first ,though.....

There will be some more ladies of this ilk, coming for a teaparty !

Isn't she sweet ? Thank you Nancy and Moonyeen making this possible. I already love her to bits!

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Frustration !

I was nearly nearly there with Renatta, was wigging her, then tried to burn
off the fuzzies ( like I always do ) , but as I had forgotten that I had
used all that hairspray for draping -which I usually do not use at all , if
it can be avoided, or only last thing while I finish the doll - the whole
thing started to burn .Faucet open, full speed; still a half- burned doll.
Bwaahaaaahaa !!

Well , she is now nekkid again as the day she was born. sorry
( Umm, no pic of the fire, nope ).

In between

working on Renatta ( Renetta ?), a workshop by Dana. Although the doll is lovely , I am basically happier with sewing than with glueing and draping , so it is a bit hard going.
Work on her further today ; this is how she is looking up to now.

working together on the new doll

Today Dafna and I nearly finished her next doll. It was hard going, as nearly everything had to be done twice , nothing seemed to go right in one go.

Well , she is nearly there. We do need to do some draping of the skirt and maybe something must be done to he wigging/ bonnet combination, but we are nearing the end !

Here, at least , is Dafna, devotedly ironing some ribbon to be used.

Pics of the doll to follow when she is really ready.

As you can see, my red tomcat, Floris, was happy to oversee the project.

Angry witch done !!

After I had had some decorators in the house and spent a lot of time cleaning and organizing around, I decided to take a mini-day off yesterday.
As told, I had acquired a witch-kit by Nancy Cronin ( left over from the Sturbridge class ). Due to all that decorating I had to shelve her ( the witch , that is ! ) at the time, but yesterday I did take her out and had a go.
The kit went together like a dream. The face is really mad ( the scene is called : the bad-tempered witch , spell gone wrong ) and I laugh each time I see it.

Thank you so much , Nancy , for this entertaining kit . I loved doing this !