QUOTE

"I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way-things I had no words for." ~ Georgia O'Keeffe


Sunday, December 31, 2017

Happy New Year



May you all have a wonderful peaceful year ahead

Monday, December 25, 2017

MERRY CHRISTMAS


Wishing each and everyone a very Merry Christmas and a peaceful and blessed New Year.

Wednesday, November 29, 2017

Pickles!

This is Pickles. He is Santa’s absent minded helper. He has lost the all important list that Santa gave him, so he has got himself in a bit of a twist. Unlike his twin who is very meticulous and goes over lists with a fine tooth combe, Pickles is always losing things .



He has searched for it high and low

And in his favourite storing place behind his ears but he cannot find THE LIST.
I suspect he has it tucked behind in his PJs and forgotten about that storing placeπŸ˜„


I took part in a fabric swap where we swap fabrics and make a doll out of the fabrics that your partner sent. This is what I came up with.πŸ˜„

Monday, November 20, 2017

Destressing


I am trying to destress. Started several of these dolls just to keep my ming occupied. Mum fell last week. Luckily I had just come out of the shower so heard her call out. She hurt her head but thank goodness nothing serious. Have to get some eye procedure done hope she will be ok. 
Too scared to let her alone at home now. But sometimes it is not possible to be there all the time. So I just started these to keep myself occupied πŸ˜„.
I hope I will be able to finish them and they won’t hang around too long.




Thursday, October 26, 2017

Revamping craft room

My craft room is going to be revamped when I am away visiting mum. This is how it looks at the moment. Everything is in boxes in cupboards and I am finding it difficult to find things. Also a lot of space is being taken up by the cupboards so I am going to get just shelves put in to keep the boxes.




These are the boxes I am going to use.  I hope to get a work space on top and the boxes will go below. Also going to put some insulation in the gap between the space of the wall and the room. This room is under a slanting roof and doesn’t have an inner wall instead it is boarded up and in the winter it is freezing even though there is heating in the room. so basically I cannot use it in the winter.  I think it was used as a storage area before.  Anyway I am hoping that  the insulation will make it more habitable.  Unfortunately I  cannot do much about the ceiling because of the way it is built.


I hope all this will help me organise things a bit better.πŸ˜€

Today I came across a new craft shop in our town. Went in to browse and came out with stuff πŸ˜‚. Well they had many things very cheaply priced as they said it was not officially open. It was a soft opening (whatever that means) so they had all the items marked at way low prices. I could not resist a good bargain πŸ˜€



Thursday, October 05, 2017

Back to my doll

I have been beading and it seems never ending.  I think I have used up most of my crystal beads. This lady does seem to want moreπŸ™„

Tuesday, October 03, 2017

Last of them

Ok these were the last of my butterflies and dragonflies before I left. I must explain I was visiting mum for the last few weeks, as some of you might have guessed.
This one looked so much like a face of a tiger. Very appropriate for the place where I was. After a few showers there were so many different kinds of critters coming out. Amazing what a little bit of rain does.

This moth I thought was rather cute

After the thunder showers I saw literally thousands and thousands of these dragon flies flying by. One decided to rest a bit so I was able to catch him on camera. 



Thursday, September 28, 2017

Beetles and more butterflies


Looks like it's butterfly season here. Everyday I see beautiful butterflies flying around. Unfortunately they are not so easy to photograph. I think the best time to photograph them is around midday. I find they seem to want to rest at that time so they linger longer onflowers and plants. Like the black beauty. Isn't it gorgeous and notice the blue dots. They are not so visible in the picture but in the sunlight they are stunning.


This one was not so easy to take so I could not get a picture of the wings spread.


I saw this beetle skittling around. It had these unusual white dots on it but it looks like a stink beetle don't think that's the name for it though. When I was a kid I used to call them stink beetle because if you touch them they give out a very pungent odour. I found this out to my cost when I used to go collecting beetles in a match boxπŸ˜€. I caught one of them and soon my hands started stinking. I had to release it quickly and from then on I was very cautious if  I saw one of them πŸ˜€. Funny the things we did as a kid. Of course we had no television or computers then, so this was our way of entertaining ourselves. The added advantage was that I lived in a place which was surrounded by forests.  I distinctly remember searching for a kind of beetle or another insect in larvae stage perhaps, it had a soft velvety bright red body. They would come out after the first monsoon showers. I used to love catching those and stroking them until one day mum said not to or else I might catch a disease πŸ˜€. That effectively put a stop to my beetle hunting and I am sure the beetles were very happy about thatπŸ˜€. 

Friday, September 22, 2017

Butterflies,dragonflies and birds of prey

Mid day today this butterfly just sat there even when I got close to it to take a picture. Perhaps it was just too tired and decided to rest. It was good for me as I was able to get a good shot of it.


Then I saw this dragonfly. Again I got very close to it and still it did not fly away. In fact it was just sitting there for ages. Perhaps the mid day sun was too much for it so it decided to conserve its energy by sitting still.  I don't blame it as the temperatures sour to 34 degrees in the day time. 

Amazingly this bird of prey also just sat there while I took a picture. He was there even when I went close to him and then he flew away. Perhaps he is used to humans. It wouldn't surprise me. It is a common Indian bird of prey known as Shikra. For a moment I thought it was a pigeon.


The high temperatures are sapping the energy of both humans and animals. It should be raining but there has been not much rain. We are all paying the price for global warming in one way or the other.

Monday, September 04, 2017

Getting there slowly

I am hoping I will be able to finishe her costuming soon. As you can see  that the fabric is very glittery so I too am glittering like a Christmas tree πŸ˜€. I think my whole house is glittering now.





Thursday, August 24, 2017

Fun part now

I am now starting the fun part. Making up the pattern for her costume. I hope it will turn out ok because so many things went wrong while making this doll. It is going to take a while to finish her.  


Tuesday, August 22, 2017

New additions


The other day I was feeding my fish in the pond when I noticed something dart amongst the pebbles. So I stayed still for a bit and this is what I saw. I think I counted at least 3 baby gold fish. There maybe more as it is so hard to see them because of their colour. Have to wait and see what colour they will change into by next summer.




Tuesday, August 15, 2017

Out with the old

Out with the old but nothing new coming yet πŸ˜€. I have been clearing my old patterns which I used to just put them into envelopes and shove them into the drawers. Thought I would use them one day but there were so many cuttings and drawings that I have now forgotten which doll's I made with them. So I decided to get rid of all the ones I had no clue about. 
Now I can actually close the drawer without scrunching other things.



I was also trying to find a sketch of a leg. Well I did find loads of them some long some short some fat and some thin but did I find what I wanted nope. So I have to definitely get back to the drawing boardπŸ˜€. 

Thursday, August 10, 2017

Fairies are about

Some toadstools appeared overnight in our garden. But already something has had a nibble at it. Poor fairiesπŸ˜€



Then funnily enough this arrived in the post.  It is a cute book but I was a bit disappointed that I did not find and raggedy Ann illustrations as I had hoped. Neither many fairy illustrations 


Thursday, July 27, 2017

Got disappointed





Last year while I was shopping I came across these hand tissues. Usually when there is a design on the covering the tissues also have the same design on them. I thought the same was the case with these ones so I went and bought them as I had an idea what I would do with them. Unfortunately today when I wanted to opened them they were all plain inside☹️
What I had in mind was that I would cut out and paste the images on some surplus stitched heads that I have left over from my long time ago class doll's. 
I was greatly disappointed. It also would have been a kind of experiment to see how it would work out for doll's . Oh well it was not to be so I decided to draw a similar face on this head. I generally do the head last in a doll but this one I am starting the other way round. Now I have to make arms and legs. I will I think stick to the theme Frozen.


Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Faded rose

Elegant and beautiful even when faded.
 

Couple of weeks back they were advertising Hampton court flower show in our town centre and they were handing out a rose to everyone. I got one in yellow and gold. Left it in the vase and forgot about it. Yesterday when I looked, it had completely dried up , but I was struck by its beauty even when it had dried up.  It still looks so perfect amazing. Perhaps they had treated it with something so that it dried up without dropping petals or looking withered.

Friday, July 07, 2017

Doll for all seasons

This is the doll I made recently. I hope to make it available as a pattern. What do you think?
 She can be stitched up in any theme fabric and can be embellished to your hearts content. I hope you like her.





Tuesday, July 04, 2017

After a long gap


It is good to be back after a long time. On the home front things are better. But we have to give it another week to be sure that my husband's health is stabilised. So for the moment I am cautious.  At least we don't have to go to hospital often for checkups. That does free up a lot of time for me. I have been spending time in the garden and destressing. We have had some lovely weather and the garden is in full bloom. Here are some pictures I want to share.
I bought this Fushia last year from Hampton court flower show. This year it is laden with loads of delicate pink flowers




This flower pot I call it punch bowl. It is so pretty and full of different coloured flowers

 Alliums are one of my favourite flowers too. They look so lovely even when they have not bloomed and also when they have finished blooming. You can see both in this picture


You might remember this doll I made last year. I am in the process of making another so that I can write up a pattern for it. Hopefully it will be available soon. That's all for now. Will be making my rounds to all the blogs soon.




Wednesday, May 17, 2017

Spoke too soon

I think I spoke too soon. My husband was admitted back in hospital early this week. Unfortunately he has been suffering from a bug which is very resistant to most antibiotics. For the past 2 weeks we have been going back and forth to the hospital and eventually it all came to a head. Had to rush to the A&E Saturday night and they admitted him. He is being given intravenous antibiotics now. They will keep him in until the antibiotics course is over. He feels much better now I am hoping and praying that they can irradiate this bug from his system entirely or else it is likely to return again and again because of all the immunosuppressants he has to take.
So there is not much creativeness going on in this end at the moment. I do try and read your blogs whenever I can even though I may not comment. So please bear with me until I get over this hump.
In the meanwhile keep creating your lovely art it is such lovely eye candy for all

Sunday, May 07, 2017

Things are looking up

Quick update on my hubby. He is doing well and we are so happy that all is going well. With his track record with surgeries I never thought this would go smoothly but everything has gone according to plan. Doctors are happy and we just need to cross that 6 weeks bench mark to start sighing a sigh of relief.
Although we still have to go twice a week to the hospital I am now able to find more time as my husband heals and is able to do more things on his own. 
So I decided to finish my doll. I wanted to make her into an African princess but my thought processes got interrupted with my husband's surgery so she has become a bit of a mish mash doll. Does she look African enough? I have named her Alika which I believe means beautiful but I may be wrong.
I must look it up in google.
 
 

Thursday, April 27, 2017

Life happened

Some of you might be wondering what happened to my promises of keeping up with blogs and do a regular post. Well like it happens to many people life happened to me too. On Easter Day my husband was called for a kidney transplant. Although it was on the cards one is never fully prepared for these sort of things and it came as a bit of a shock. We were in Malta for the Easter Weekend and had to cut short our break and return immediately.  From then on everything happened so fast and like a dream. My husband was given a new lease of life. I truely believe that this is a miracle by God. My husband's kidney has been working only 20% since the 1st transplant and life has been quite a struggle for him. They said the 1 st kidney would last only ten years but it lasted nearly 21 years which in itself was a miracle. However for the past few years we have been living on a knife's edge expecting the kidney to give up anytime. Then the week before Easter his blood results were so bad that our doctor said he will have to put my husband on the transplant list. I was very apprehensive of going abroad with all this but we went. His name went on the list on Wednesday and he was called for the transplant on Easter Day. What a wonderful Easter  gift it has been.  He was not only called so soon but the match has been great and he is doing well so far. After waiting for 7 years for the first one this really is a miracle to get one so quickly and a perfect match at that. I will be out of action for a bit until everything settles at home. My doll has gone onto the back burner for the moment. Please know that I shall come back to visit your blogs once life settles down a bit.
Until then keep creating and enjoy your time doing all the lovely things there is to do in life.

Friday, April 07, 2017

Face painted

I never do faces with acrylics but there is a first time for everything. As I said before this was not easy to paint because the background was a dark canvas. I know many people who do some lovely faces on a dark background and admire their work. So I thought I would give it a try. I used this magazine that I got sometime ago as a reference base. I got the magazine purely for this reason as I think the photographer has captured this model's face beautifully. I know a lot of it must be enhanced as they usually do with these pictures but I still think it is beautifully done and a nice picture for reference to paint dark faces.
. 

This is what I did not exactly wonderful and I don't know why she has got a very stubborn expression on her face I thinkπŸ˜€. I just could not get her to smile!
 

Wednesday, April 05, 2017

Colour change

she changes colour yet again. I think I will use this colour. Painting her face is going to be tricky but let's see how she turns out.

Tuesday, April 04, 2017

Making something new out of old

Years ago when I was teaching cloth dollmaking in India I stitched up some doll bodies for my first classes so that I could initiate ladies into the world of dollmaking. I did this because I found that most of the women who came to learn did not know how to sew. So to make things easier for me and less stressful for the students I thought would first let them learn to stuff and make the body up. Later on they did progress on to learning how to sew. Anyway while clearing up some things in India I found several of these stitched doll bodies. So I decided to give them to the ladies in my doll club and asked them to make up the doll as a challenge. I am looking forward to seeing what each one comes up with.  So I too decided to make up one . I started with the face painting first. I did not like it much so decided to do something else. Now it is all painted white and I have to put my thinking cap to see what I can do. I think I will go for a dark shade of colouring and take it from there. The doll pattern is on the blog if you want to download it. Now  because either the weave of the fabric is a bit lose or I did not stitch these bodies properly the limbs have a tendency to turn a bit to one side. Painting the doll body helped the limbs to be straight a bit.  So let's see how she turns out.
The first picture is when I painted the face but that soon got covered with white paint.πŸ˜€
 
 

I still have a few bodies left so if anyone of you is interested I can send it to you. Just leave a comment in the box to say you would like one set. 

Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Fushia

 
Well I am back and my doll is completed at last. I managed to repair her wrists but she might develope arthritis in her old age πŸ˜€πŸ˜€.
I could not get rid of the Barbie look perhaps I should not have used the Barbie hair on her. When I look at her picture I can see all sorts of things that are wrong with her but it has been a huge learning curve for me with paperclay sculpt. I really liked her when she was not painted. Maybe I will make one that won't be painted another time.
I shall come and visit your blogs soon. I have neglected everyone far too long.

Thursday, March 02, 2017

Popping in

 

I have not been blogging and my doll project is at a standstill. The reason being I am visiting my mum who had had a mild heart attack month ago.  I just came to see her and heard she was admitted in hospital. Found her haemoglobin had dropped However she recovered from it and was sent home but within a week she was back in hospital with the same problem. So they are keeping her in hospital to find out where she is haemorrhaging from. Unfortunately due to her age they do not have many options and cannot do many intrusive investigations. At present she is doing ok hope she will recover fully. She is very weak and needs someone with her all the time even though she is still able to walk slowly. 
While she is dosing I drew this pretty leaf that I saw from memory with water colour pencils. 

Sunday, February 12, 2017

Disaster strikes

It was all coming on nicely and I thought end was in sight. I even mutilated an old doll that I made when I first started making doll.

 

I ripped off the hair she had on her to reuse it on my Fushia
 

But then disaster struck. She fell forward while I was doing her wig and fractured her wrists and fingers.☹️
 
So I am back to square one. I am not sure if my remedial work will work but I am trying. Her wrists are no longer the delicate looking wrists but let's see. I have not given up completely yet. I worked on her hands today. Now I will have to leave her till I get back from visiting my mum. Goodness I do have butter fingers sometimes!