Big As Life

During the week before Easter when my friend sent me the box of baby clothes I thought I would be altering them to fit my bears and dolls. I never thought about making bears or dolls to fit the clothes. Among the things she sent is a darling hooded sweater that would be ruined if I tried to cut it down. At first I thought it would fit the doll that was my mother’s when she was a child but it isn’t a good fit so I set it aside and altered two of the dresses making four little dresses for the bears that I showed you in my previous post.

Shortly after finishing the quilt for the little cradle and the little pillows and pillow cases and the mattress pad I was left with nothing to sew. That wouldn’t do because I am trying to justify buying the new sewing machine. I thought and thought about what I could sew and nothing came to mind at first and then I remembered the sweater and that’s when I decided to make a pattern for a larger doll so the little sweater could be put to use.

Most of the dolls I make are 12 inches or smaller so I had to start from scratch with the pattern. The doll I made for the sweater is 30 inches tall. She’s a big girl and I’ve named her Mara after a character is a story my friend Linda wrote. The character in her story was named Splendora Maravilla. Those of you who have been paying attention know that I never make just one of anything so Mara has a little sister named Dora who stands 24 inches tall.

Mara is on the left wearing gray and yellow and Dora standing is wearing gray and purple. The dolls they are holding were made by my sister Maggie.

It looks like they've helped themselves to the candy jar.

Both dolls are sculpted from cotton fabric that I’ve dyed to resemble flesh. Their needle sculpted faces have been colored with a combination of oil pastels and water color pencils.

These are the largest dolls I’ve made and I don’t have plans to making any larger than these two unless I move into a house where they can have their own room. As it is I’m pretty sure I’m going to be buying them a little table and chair set and you know how one thing leads to another…

Close-up so you can see the appliques on thier tops and get a closer look at their sweet little faces. 

Here's Mara wearing that cute little sweater I told you about.

I did spend the day yesterday making underwear to match their little outfits and Sunday I went shopping for socks and shoes for the two of them. I love Mara’s fancy Oshkosh shoes. I also like the looks of the eyelet trim on her pants.

We have been getting more sunny days even though night time temperatures are still in the thirties which is a good sign that spring has sprung.

Have a great day and as always, thanks for stopping by.

The Second Wee Santa

I finished this Santa yesterday. He is the second of the four that I told you about that I’m making in this approximate size. The overall measurement for this jolly Santa is 6 ¼ inches tall including the ¾ inch thick section of Christmas tree trunk base he is mounted on.  This makes him ½ inch shorter than the first one in this series. Unlike the first Santa who has long skinny legs, this one has stubby legs and is quite rotund.

I’m picturing him here with one of my regular sized Santa figures so you can get an idea of how small he really is.

The Santa on the left is 6 inches taller but it's more than how tall he is compared to the newest one. He's bigger all over and until you see them together it really doesn't sink in.

I decided on green for his outfit with reddish colored fur trim. He has antique gold buttons down the front of his coat. He is wearing brown boots and mittins and is carrying a sweet little doll.

I did say he was rotund. Like the other Santa this one is standing atop a mound of snow. I used Martha Stewarts tinsel glitter on the snow mound but don't know if I like the effect as much as the glitter that I used on the last one. It doesn't seem to sparkle or glisten as much.

The painting seems to loose the depth I try to achieve when I photograph it and I was hoping that a close-up might show it to a better advantage but now I'm not really sure if it makes a difference. Not only that, but the color looks different. More blue than green.

I couldn't resist showing a close-up of the little doll. Her face is so small, just over 1/4 inch that I have a heck of a time seeing it let alone painting it.

Thanksgiving is only four days away and I have so many things to do to get ready for our holiday get-together. I make dinner for my family and a few friends and I still have cleaning, shopping and baking to do plus working on gifts and cards so I might not be back here until next Friday at the earliest so I'm going to wish all of my US friends a very happy Thanksgiving. If you're traveling this holiday please have a safe journey.

Happy Holidays and as always, thanks for stopping by.

FORGETTING SOMETHING?

In the dining room:

“Hey, Bellamine I know Mom said she wanted to hang this  pretty pumpkin thingy  that Oma Linda sent us on the wall but see how  it matches  this basket and it goes with our decorating scheme which is all about pumpkins. Well I’m thinking since it’s even the same orange as the orange of the basket and it looks like it’s the same diameter as the top opening, I’m thinking it will make a great looking lid.”

“Do baskets even have lips, Wendy?”

“Lids Bellamine, not lips and yes, some baskets do have lids.”

“Would you look at that? It fits perfectly and I can almost guarantee that Mom is going to just l-o-v-e it!

Are you about finished hanging the pumpkins on the tree? I’m getting hungry.”

“Don’t rush me, I’m almost done. Wendy, how do the turkeys look here under the tree? Should I move them out or push them further back or leave them where they are? Come here and take a look and tell me what you think.”

“Where you have them is fine. Now, finish with the tree so we’re done here. I need F-O-O-D!"

“Okay, that’s the last of the pumpkins. Is it too much or not enough? Do we need anything else? I keep thinking we’re forgetting something.”

“We’re not forgetting anything Bellamine. Remember, we decided to downplay the decorations because the weekend after Thanksgiving we’re going to start decorating for Christmas.”

“Are you sure we’re not forgetting something?”

“Well, now that you mentioned it Bellamine, I think we forgot to have our afternoon snack of toasted muffin with peanut butter and honey but we can take care of that right now. Last one to the kitchen is a snail bear.”

“When we get done with our snack we can watch Brave again? I really do l-u-v that movie!”

Meanwhile in the park half a mile from here:

“It looks like we’re the only ones here. Where is everyone?” - Pugsley

“I told you we didn’t have to leave so early to get here but you wouldn’t listen.” - Wednesday

“Look, the O’Dell kids just turned the corner into the park.” – Agnes May

“Looks like Donner couldn’t get away from us fast enough.” -Dory

“Dory you know how much he likes to be around Wednesday. I think he’s crushing on her.”

“Where are Bellamine and Wendy? I thought they would get here first. It was Bellamine’s idea for us to meet here so we can all go out to Snow Ville together so we could meet their snow friends.” - Danni

“Don't you worry. They'll get here. If Bellamine says she’s going to do something she’ll do it.” - Dory

“Ahhhh…. guys, how long are we going to wait?”  - Danni

While back home:

“WOW! That was great! Okay, who wants to watch it again?”

“What’s going on in here?

                      Bellamine aren’t you forgetting something?” - Mom

“Noooo…..I don’t think so. What??? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Weren't you going to meet your friends and you weren't you supposed to go together to Snow Ville so they could meet Crystal and Crispin? Well? I'm waiting for an answer young lady and your friends are down stairs waiting for an explanation.”

“This all happened yesterday and now we have to find a way to make it up to our friends. Mom said that if she didn’t know better she’d say we were both having a senior moment. All we can say in our defense is our heads are filled with stuffing. You’d better believe we’re not going to let something like this happen ever again.”

“Now we’re going to go visit our bear friends for Funny Friday.”

Hugs,

Bellamin & Wendy

My First Santa of the Season

I sure hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I ate so well that it's going to take me a month of riding my bike to burn the calories from that one meal. Then there's the leftovers.  Is it any wonder my winter and summer weights can be so far apart? Next week I start my Christmas baking and I'll need to make sure everything I bake to give as gifts and serve guests is up to my standards so there's going to be a lot more calories to add cushioning to my mid section.

I've been keeping myself pretty busy working on my ornaments plus other projects and don't see things slowing down any time soon. You realize that there's only 26 days and a wake up until Christmas. I'm so behind already that I don't think I'll catch up. I usually have my Christmas cards ready to be mailed before Thanksgiving but this year I haven't started on them yet. I also haven't gotten any decorating done. Now if you know me you know how far behind I am as I always have things going the day after Thanksgiving. I'm not one of those people who shop Black Friday (well maybe a little bit of shopping) as I use that day to get started on my decorating which usually takes weeks to complete.

Anyway, the reason for this post is to show you something that I've been working on the past couple of weeks. This is my first Santa since July 9th and thought I'd show him to you before he gets boxed up for his trip to his new owner.

sleigh bells ring, are you listening? 

a bundle of switches for naughty children, what's that all about?

I'd say about two axe handles, agreed?

Okay, that's better. I see the vintage teddy bear and the doll in the pocket. I love those over sized pockets. I wonder if there's candy in the other one. Well, that's all for now, I've got to get back to work.

As always, thanks for stopping by.

NOT MY USUAL THING

For the past several months I've been having problems with my right hand. I mentioned it awhile back on one of my posts so those of you who visit regularly know I have a bit of a problem. I won't bore you with the details but will admit it's been a struggle to work on my paper mache pieces.

I need to be making something or I feel like there's something wrong with the world so I've been trying to come up with something that's less difficult for me to handle at this time.  Something that doesn't require me to spend hours using files and sandpaper. I've thought about making dolls out of cloth but my sewing machine which is about 40 years old has been less than reliable in resent times so that idea was shelved.

A couple of days ago I played around with the machine and got it to where it isn't clunking and gobbling thread and breaking needles. I don't know if it's really fixed but I went ahead with an idea I had.

As some of you may know, I have a thing for teddy bears. I like dogs, kittens and rabbits too but teddy bears are the critters that I love the most. I follow several bear blogs and am so amazed at the talent that is displayed. I fall in love with a new bear on an average of at least one a day.

So...I sat down the day before yesterday and worked out 3 patterns for bears. Now you need to understand that although I've been sewing for most of my life and have made several dolls and animals in the past, I've never made a pattern for a bear and don't remember ever making one out of fur. I made a few many years ago out of calico.

Yesterday morning I cut out my first bear. I had fuzz everywhere. I never thought that I'd find another art form that's as messy as paper mache clay, but alas this too makes a huge mess.

I thought I had everything on hand that I would need to make a bear. Everything that is except for something to join the front and hind legs to the body and eyes. Off to the craft store and home again and then I was all set. I sewed like a little old lady behind the steering wheel of a car she can't see over. Slow. That's not my usual speed but what could I do? I had no real idea of what I was doing. So...I plodded along and by dinner time yesterday evening I had a bear of sorts. He still didn't have a nose and I wasn't sure what to do with the fur on his snout. I'd had enough for one day, so the bear and I watched a movie together while I thought about how I was going to finish his face.

Early this morning I sat back to work and this is what I ended up with.

I haven't named him yet. I'm open for suggestions. I used some suede cloth that I had left over from another  project that I worked on years ago for his foot and paw pads and the inside of ears.

I have no idea of how you bear makers get rid of unwanted fur on the snout. I used scissors and spent a great deal of time trying to get it to look right. It wasn't easy so if there's a better way I'm all ears. I stitched his nose with embroidery floss and then painted it. I may try waxing it but am not sure.

I may make the snout on my next bear a bit longer. I attempted to give him the shoulder hump but am not sure it looks right. I also think I may have made his ears a trifle bit larger than they need to be.

He isn't a total disaster and I'm thinking he turned out alright for a first try but there are things I'll do differently if I make another. I guess it's like everything else, you have to figure out what you're doing by doing and you learn from your mistakes. I also discovered that although making this little fellow was easier on the hand for the most part, hand stitching wasn't all that much fun.

I'm going to vacuum fuzz up for the rest of the day, but who knows, I might take another stab at bear making. I did make two more patterns that I haven't tried yet.

I hoped you weren't dissappointed that this wasn't another ghoul or a new Santa.

As always, thanks for stopping by

And the winner is......

When I was trying to decide how I would pick the winners for this contest/giveaway I thought back to all of the blogs where there had been giveaways and how the winners were chosen. My first thought was to borrow Santa's bag and write names on  pieces of paper and put them in the bag and have one of the elves reach in and pick the winner, but that or something similar has been done before. I really wanted to do something different so I put on my back-up thinking cap, (remember what happened the the original one) and I came up with what I think is a totally original way of picking a winner.

Here's what I did.

I set up a tripod in the back of the yard and placed a board covered in cardboard on it. The pink squares of paper are post-its with the entrants names stuck on it.

Yep...that's me and as you can see, I'm doing this the really hard and impartial way by throwing the knives while blind folded. This whole process took a bit longer than you can imagine. Truth be told, I'm not that great at knife throwing but I gave it my best. Remember, I had to go through this process twice as there were two drawings.

Tada.....and the winner of the mystery Santa is the entry sent in by Dawn in the Forest.

Here's the Gingerbread House that was such a hard thing to guess. I honestly thought it would have been an easy guess and I'd hoped more of you would have guessed the correct answer.

As you can see, I've painted the house and Santa's face and hair, but the rest is up to the winner to decide how it's to be painted.

Since Santa's hands are full, he's wearing his back pack to carry the toys. There's a bear and a doll that need to be painted too.

The winner of the second drawing is: Mina from Green Witch with Sprinkles. I should point out that most of the post-its on the board for the second drawing were hers. It would have been hard to miss. 

Here is the prize for the second drawing.

Perhaps you remember these little critters. Yes, these are the Egg-posters that I posted in April. They're all boxed up and ready to be shipped as soon as I can get an address.

If you're a winner in this giveaway I need you to contact me by email and give me your contact information.

I want to thank everyone who entered this giveaway and wish that you all could have won a prize. Since I've had so much fun doing this and because you all have been so great I plan on having another giveaway in the near future.

As always, thanks for stopping by.

DOGS NIGHT OUT

The very first thing I want to do is say thank you to Mina from Green Witch with Sprinkles for giving me yet another award. It's getting to be a habit with her. I'm starting to think she likes this blog. I'm supposed to pass the award on to five people who's blogs I follow that I feel are a ray of sunshine but can not choose just five. You are all special and are all a ray of sunshine to me. Please copy this button and display it on your side bar.

Thanks to all of you who have such enjoyable and interesting blogs. You really do add a ray of sunshine. I also want to take this time to welcome my new followers and to thank the ones who have been with me since the beginning.

Now that I've gotten the important things taken care of I'm going to introduce you to the newest member of the Santa Squad. As you can probably guess by the title of this post, there's more than likely some dogs in the bag. The reason we now have dogs showing up is because I've been thinking of my canine niece and sending healing thoughts her way. As those of you who follow my sister Marlene's blog all know, Daisy recently had surgery on her leg. She is such a happy little girl that even when her leg was bothering her she was still so full of joy. I know that she's probably keeping Marlene jumping trying to keep her from doing something to keep it from healing, hence the thoughts I've been sending her way.

So, not to drag this out any longer, here he is.

Since I've discovered black gesso I can't seem to stop myself from using it on my pieces at least in the areas of their coats. It really seems to give me the results I'm looking for.

Here's a little known fact that I'm going to share with you. Santa carries sweets in his pockets because he suffers from low blood sugar and has a sweet tooth. This time he has a ginger bread man cookie and a couple of candy canes. Two of his favorite snacks.

Here's a look at the two dogs in the bag. They are flanked by Annie and Baby Bear.

It almost looks like Baby Bear is trying to climb out of the bag. Maybe he is.  The scarf that Santa has stuffed in his pocket was an early Christmas gift from Mrs. Claus. 

I couldn't resist giving you another look at the pups. Have you ever noticed how looking at a happy puppy makes you smile even when you don't realize you're doing it? Maybe it's just me.

Now I suppose I'm going to have to put some cats in the next bag or my feline nephews are going to feel I like dogs better than cats.

I want to thank everyone who's expressed an interest in winning one of my Santa's in the contest/giveaway. There is still plenty of time to enter and come up with the guess that puts you in the bag for the main drawing. So far it's a pretty empty bag. The bag for the second drawing is getting quite full.

The clue for today is: Think Christmas, folks!!  
The item on the plate is something that you see  only at Christmas. It is edible but is not normally eaten. Does that help? Please feel free to put your guess on this post.

Happy Independence Day to everyone in the states and a Happy Canada Day for our neighbors to the north.  As always, thanks for stopping by.