Problem Beverage?

Is it just me or do you people have Beverage Problems?

Not as in problems discerning a beverage: if it slops its a beverage.
And not as in construction of a beverage: there's a reason companies generally label their products before they decorate the supermarket shelves, but then again, if you keep buttons and trims in a tea-caddy you deserve all you get (guilty!).
Mind you, there's the story of someone who kept their grandfather's ashes in a cocoa tin marked 'gravy'...(no offence intended)

No, I'm talking of the sort of problem where you create your desired beverage and then misuse it accidentally.

Tea, mainly. Although there have been problems with ink. Luckily turps, white vinegar and white spirit each have very distinctive aromas...but hot cocoa  and left-over gravy sauce have interchanged themselves in the past...

Back to the beverage problem at hand- literally...

I'm working on dolls at present since I've managed to convince M. that I am a competent enough doll maker to give an Autumn workshop at her place. (Faith is the key: Amen, sister!) I don't like white dolls and love working with tea-dyed calico, regular readers will no doubt recall previous accidents?

I guess regular readers can also see where this is going...

So as I am working very hard I make myself a nice cuppa tea. Oh look there's hot water left in the kettle, two more tea bags into the wide necked plastic water jug, add hot water, stir to a nice dyeing colour, gather the snippets of calico needing attention and... very carefully.... drop the lot... into... my lovely fresh cuppa cha.

AAAAAAGH! GRRRR!

Now I have to wash the soya milk out of the calico and start again.

Nothin' easy, I'm tellin' ya!

Like I say: grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.....

Doll Factory and Snowy Rose!

The Doll Factory continues to stitch away, and two more commissioned dolls were finished this morning: a girl doll...
...and a boy doll, the first boy doll I've made. I was wondering how to dress him so I looked up some illustrations of Tom Sawyer for ideas! Both dolls have the children's names stitched onto their boots, as they are intended as Christening presents.

I started this doll last night, just for fun, and finished her late today, so she will go into the Shop presently. Youngest supervised the 'hair-do'!!

When I was out earlier there were some late roses bowed under the weight of snow, which looked quite incongruous! I bet they are sorry they hung around so long!

The roads are gradually clearing and the snow melting a bit each day, but the highest day time temperature is only 1 degree, and by 7pm last night it was already -3 degrees: this is almost unheard of for here. Driving is hairy!!

I forgot to finish making Middlest's curtains, so I'm working on them now, and adding a length of thermal lining I had stored in the trunk, as I reckon it might help keep the cold out. Of course she could re-hang her old curtains, even if they do clash with the fresh painted bedroom walls, but no!!

And now to School, for a few hours of Music and Carol Service chaos...I mean, practising!!

Don't forget, the December Special starts in the Shop today!!

Santa's Workshop...Sorta...

Santa's Workshop is going nineteen to the dozen here after my brief stint in bed. I'm having a great time creating dolls!

Anyone not 'in the know' would think I was the next Sweeney Todd with the amount of body parts littering the work table!!!

There's a Princess doll, for a special small person:

I've been working with the new Jan Horrox book, to make her, and would REALLY recommend the book if you are into doll making! Further progress:

After Christmas I'll show you the properly finished doll, as I don't want to spoil the surprise for the recipient!

Then, for another very, very small person I returned to the usual style of Prim pattern, with an embroidered face, to make a Prairie style doll:

...forgot to swivel her around!

One is to be posted tomorrow, and the other taken to Dublin on Saturday, possibly to a Rugby International, but hopefully will be delivered first!!

Any more orders better come in fast as I've another two to do yet and posting dates are a-creeping!

And then Santa's next trick is a Craft Workshop for the Mothers' Union. Back in August, the 24th November was so far ahead I thought nothing of agreeing to do it...ha! No, actually: HA!

The last two days have been spent packaging 25 personal Craft Packs

(templates, fabric, ribbons, etc)

and four similar Supply Baskets with identical contents

(beads, sequins, buttons, lavender potpourri, toy filling, misc fabric pieces, Biros, etc).

I didn't realise how much work would be involved, but I also figure that if its worth doing at all, its worth doing well.

These are the demonstration lavender bags...as in; 'here's one I made earlier!' And long live Blue Peter!! (Is that a cultural joke?)
I hope I survive the evening, and I hope the ladies do too, of course; I've actually never done anything like this before.

This evening I have been working out the step by step progression for the evening...but if even one bottle of beads gets knocked over it will turn into a shambles....

And then, this afternoon I glanced out the window and there was a rainbow!

God's promises?

Perhaps I'll survive after all!!

Challenge Check #9 and New Challenge from heckety!

First of all thank you to EVERYONE who helped me with the Boring Bag! ( Hey! that would have been a really good title for my blog, wouldn't it?! 'Adventures of the Boring Bag' or maybe 'Heyday of the Horrid Hag' or maybe...get on with it heckety...) I am working on it and will show you a photo in due course...

So this week I have something to show for both Challenges, and am adding a Challenge of my own too down below! With spot prizes no less!!

Dottie Angel's Challenge of the Utmost Kind (click on logo in side bar to read her):

I was rummaging through the press on Saturday and found some old curtain fabric so put together a few more light coloured fabrics, all recycled or scraps from Mom's dressmaking, to begin making this table runner.
Then I found some lovely turquoisy/green which looks very much like the fabric of my favourite dress when I was about 10, and am adding some appliqué flowers. If it turns out well I'll put it in the shop.

Its lovely working with 'spring coloured' fabrics, really brighteningly uppish!

For the CED 'Art Story' Challenge I'm showing you some very battered dolls which sit on a little chair in the sitting room:

Meet Katie Emma and Jemima!

When the girls were little we had no access (or money) for buying toys so when people gave me fabric scraps I sewed things for them.
These two dolls are from an old 'Prima' magazine pattern (people gave me magazines as well, and my Granny in South Africa posted me 'Your Family' magazine for years and years- from which were made every one's clothes, and all the baking!). Katie Emma came first, and then, because we lived in East Africa and it seemed weird to me for the girls not to have a coloured doll, Jemima was made.

I sewed them when Sos was a baby(nearly 19 years ago...oh my giddy aunt!), to prevent Dilly from treating the baby like a stuffed toy! They are stuffed with old socks and also kapok from the tree in my FIL's garden at the time. They have had a lot of loving, battering, washing, dragging...so you see, when I make dolls to sell and I tell folks they will withstand wear, I know exactly what I'm talking about!

And now for the Challenge I'm giving you!

What Music inspires you?

For me one of the most empowering songs I know is Whitney Houston's 'One Moment in Time':
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poaXgXQmdIo
I listen to it and I'm able for anything- the higher the volume, of course, the more able!

If you have time to add a YouTube link to your comment, even better, then we can all listen and opinionate! If there's more than 4 songs I'll draw four names for spot prizes! Howzat?? And you have until next Monday morning-ish (GMT!) or hIT! (heckety's Irish Time, of COURSE!!!) to enter!
I love hearing new Artists and Music so BLOW ME AWAY!

FYI !

My girls use 'FYI' whenever they think I haven't moved with the times sufficiently, but I'm using it as 'For Your Interest'!

I wanted to share with you some of my recent favourite places, (all the links go to the blogspot, not any specific page) (at least, I HOPE they do...!):

The Background Fairy and Shabby Blogs are both good for free blog stuff, and also tutorials and information on how to use it, as well as becoming more proficient. Also I really like their artwork!

Babes from the Woods is an amazing doll maker, carving her own dolls in the style of the Early English Queen Anne. I tell you, I'm starting to save for one now! What's more, she is very generous about answering emails and questions which I find fascinating.

Raven Moon Magic is an Artist, and her work is gobsmackingly wonderful! Check out her little girl, 'Moon', paintings, and also her lit up birdcages- bet you've never seen anything like it!

Field Trips in Fiber produces a collection of hand-dyed fabric to dye for-ha! ha! This is her blog site, but her Etsy Shop is a credit card disaster zone: I haven't yet found anything of hers that I DON'T want to buy!! Just warning you, that's all!

365 Days of Free Motion Quilting is a really inspiring site if your machine quilting needs a bit of a 'giddy-up', or, as in my case, you want to learn. Leah posts little videos as tutorials too so although the 'doing' might take practise, the seeing how its done is dead easy. I've been frequenting her place a lot recently!

And last but not least, Crafting a Green World is a useful site for information on how to prevent one's crafting from 'costing the earth'. They find products and post information which is relevant to crafters, rather than being the source of items themselves. It makes one think, and perhaps more able to make informed decisions.

I could go on and on and on, but I won't!!!