Sunday, January 30, 2022

Peace...


www.allposters.co.uk

Father, Mother, God,

Thank you for your presence during the hard and mean days.
For then we have you to lean upon.

Thank you for your presence during the bright and sunny days.
For then we can share that which we have with those who have less.

And thank you for your presence during the Holy Days.
For then we are able to celebrate you and our families and our friends

For those who have no voice, we ask you to speak.

For those who feel unworthy, we ask you to pour your love out in waterfalls of tenderness.

For those who live in pain, we ask you to bathe them in the river of your healing.

For those who are lonely, we ask you to keep them company.

For those who are depressed, we ask you to shower upon them the light of hope.

Dear Creator, You, the borderless sea of substance, we ask you to give to all the world that which we need most.....PEACE.

Maya Angelou

(4th April 1928 - 28th May 2014)        

Friday, January 28, 2022

Happy Birthday.....


...to my Gruesome-Twosome 😍  Hard to believe they've turned 31 today, really doesn't seem like five minutes since they were the mischievous pair in the (somewhat blurry ~ sorry!) photo above 😃

 

Wednesday, January 26, 2022

Pretty dishcloths

 

I whipped up another set of dishcloths, this time using some of the variegated yarn from my stash: King Cole Bamboo Cotton.  It's a 50% bamboo viscose/50% cotton yarn, so ideal for dishcloths.  I love how the patterns form with variegated yarns, with no effort required on my part whatsoever 😄


I don't see why dishcloths should be dull and boring.....


....these look very pretty sitting by the sink, patiently waiting to be used.


As you might have guessed, Ethel-Maud was very interested in these cloths, too.  She seems to have her eye on a fourth colourway, still in the stash bag, that I didn't use this time ~ I may have to make her a blanket sooner rather than later 😉

This latest batch of dishcloths isn't destined for my kitchen this time, I made them as a little gift ~ I do hope the recipient will like them!  Mind you, I'm pretty sure that I have enough yarn left to make a set for myself too, so I've added it to my ever-increasing list of things to make LOL

Little words of wisdom


 

Monday, January 24, 2022

Out of my comfort zone


My sister belongs to the Redditch Kingfisher Rotary Club, who do all kinds of fundraising/awareness events, and Seahorse Conservation is one such of these.  Last week the club held an online silk painting craft event and Amanda invited me to take part, too.  Now, I'll be perfectly honest and say that I really wasn't looking forward to taking part because a) painting is really out of my comfort zone, and b) I wasn't feeling too good but of course I'd told my sister that I'd love to join in.....so I didn't think I could back out 😄

After a somewhat fraught time trying to get connected to the Zoom meeting on the tablet (I would have much preferred to use our "big" computer but space is very tight where we have it set up), I eventually got there and was able to join in with the class.  Emma (the tutor) took us through all the steps clearly but I confess that I did struggle and didn't find it the relaxing exercise that everyone else seemed to be enjoying!  Now I must stress that this had nothing whatsoever to do with Emma's teaching; it was all down to my own internal dialogue of how bad a job I was making of the painting and how good everyone else's efforts were in comparison to mine.  I really struggle with the belief that I am creative in any way; whenever I make something I look at it and just feel that I am such a bumbling amateur.  That inner voice can be terribly discouraging 😩

Anyhoo, I plodded on and managed to complete the painting.  And to be honest, for a very first attempt at silk painting, it's not turned out too horrendous!


Of course my knee-jerk reaction was that I would never try silk painting again.....but I have leftover paint so perhaps I will have another go at some point, after all 😉 

Using the tablet was a tad difficult as the screen is small, and I did find it a little hard to see exactly what Emma was doing.  If I ever take part in any other online classes, I will just try to make as large a working space as I can with our desktop computer.

Sunday, January 23, 2022

Peace...


www.allposters.co.uk

Father, Mother, God,

Thank you for your presence during the hard and mean days.
For then we have you to lean upon.

Thank you for your presence during the bright and sunny days.
For then we can share that which we have with those who have less.

And thank you for your presence during the Holy Days.
For then we are able to celebrate you and our families and our friends

For those who have no voice, we ask you to speak.

For those who feel unworthy, we ask you to pour your love out in waterfalls of tenderness.

For those who live in pain, we ask you to bathe them in the river of your healing.

For those who are lonely, we ask you to keep them company.

For those who are depressed, we ask you to shower upon them the light of hope.

Dear Creator, You, the borderless sea of substance, we ask you to give to all the world that which we need most.....PEACE.

Maya Angelou

(4th April 1928 - 28th May 2014)        

Friday, January 21, 2022

I admitted defeat...


image from Clipart Library


...and phoned my GP surgery on Tuesday as I'm still not feeling well, and it's been nearly six weeks since I had that nasty cold *sigh*  Anyhoo, I phoned the surgery just before 12, had a call from my GP for a telephone consultation about 2pm, and she asked me to come in for an examination that afternoon at 3.30pm!  Turns out that I've got a chest infection and bronchitis, so I'm now on antibiotics and an inhaler 😟

I also had to see the practice nurse on Wednesday for blood tests checking liver, kidney and thyroid function, blood count, signs of inflammation, etc.  She had no problems finding a vein but had trouble getting the blood to flow ~ we got there in the end, though.

On the plus side, despite feeling incredibly breathless when I move about, my blood-pressure was perfect (for me) and my oxygen level was 99% 😉

I started the medications on Tuesday and although I am still pretty breathless, I do feel a bit better in myself.  I'm also still coughing but at least it now seems to be "productive" rather than the dry hack it's been up to now.  Hopefully I be back to my old self again sooner rather than later 😊

RIP Meatloaf...

 



one of my favourite Meatloaf songs

Thursday, January 20, 2022

A winter outfit

 

I finished the skirt for Ethel-Maud I showed you previously and as I said, it is a little wider than I would have really liked.  So, as I was getting mightily frustrated trying to work out the best way to make a matching sweater.....


...I decided to just add a bodice to the dress instead LOL  It was simple enough to do and it actually now fits a little better than before.  


And here's the second headband I made.  It's a better fit than the lemon one and looks much better.


I also altered the base of the headband by cinching it in with a few stitches; it fits much more snugly now and the little "knot" sits beneath Ethel-Maud's hair very nicely.  She is very taken with these headbands ~ I can see that I will be crocheting a fair few more in colours to match all the outfits she's hoping I will make 😄  Still, as the headbands make her less self-conscious about her receding hair, I really don't mind.

By the by, it dawned on me the other day that since Norah Wellings stopped production in 1959, then Ethel-Maud is at least two years older than I am! 


Of course a strapless dress ~ even a woolly one ~ isn't the best outfit for winter so I decided to make a frilly capelet to cover Ethel-Maud's bare shoulders.  Again it was a very easy make, done in a similar way to the skirt.

I made a length of chain to fit comfortably over her head when joined into a ring, then did treble crochet stitches (US double crochet) into each chain.  On the second round I put three trebles into each of the previous stitches, and on the third round I crocheted two trebles into each stitch.  I then did two more rows simply crocheting one treble into each stitch.

I think there is a little too much fullness in this capelet, to be honest.  If I make another one (and I suspect Ethel-Maud would rather like a few, of varying lengths, to add to her wardrobe!), I will experiment with the two increasing rows a little. I think I shall either crochet two trebles into each stitch of both the rounds, or do two in the second round and two in every other stitch in the third.

Don't tell her I said so, but every time I look at Ethel-Maud in this capelet all I can think is that if she had a bowl of fruit on her head she would look very much like Carmen Miranda 😄

Tuesday, January 18, 2022

Temptation...


"I generally avoid temptation...unless I can't resist it"
Mae West

I do try not to get tempted by pretty/unusual/vintage/whatever "stuff" but buttons are one of my (many!) little weaknesses.  So not only do I have a yarn stash, I also have a button stash.....and for some reason, bearing in mind that I am not a sewer, I have a little fabric stash too 😏

Anyhoo, I was cruising through Etsy looking for pretty hair elastics and I came across EcoBlue...

...I wasn't actually looking for buttons...

...but since I was already there, it would've been rude not to have a look at Gill's pretty little wooden buttons.  So I had a little look.....I swear I was just going to look ~ for future reference, of course.  Somehow, though, these cute little buttons ended up in my basket 😉

And yes, since I'm sure you're wondering, I did get some new hair elastics whilst I was there, too, so I didn't totally abandon my original mission LOL

Monday, January 17, 2022

A little spending spree...


I've had this mini art museum sitting in the "saved for later" section of my Amazon basket for absolutely ages.  Since the building of Groatie Bay has rather ground to a ~ albeit, temporary ~ halt, I couldn't really justify buying it.  But I had Christmas money burning a hole in my purse so I threw caution to the wind and ordered it 😉

At the Seaside by William Merritt Chase; The Great Wave by Katsushika Hokusai; The Boulevard Montmartre on a Winter Morning by Camille Pissarro

I never had any intentions of using it as it came in the box; 

Snap the Whip by Winslow Homer; Gardanne by Paul Cezanne; The Harvesters by Pieter Bruegel the Elder

instead, I'm going to frame the pictures and put them in my Minikin's homes and/or an art gallery in Groatie Bay.

A Wheatfield with Cypresses by Vincent van Gogh; Self Portrait with a Straw Hat by Vincent van Gogh; Still Life with Apples and a Pot of Primroses by Paul Cezanne

I have to admit that not all the artwork is to my own personal taste...

The Monet Family in Their Garden at Argenteuil by Edouard Manet; The Gulf of Marseilles Seen from L'Estaque by Paul Cezanne; Study for "A Sunday on La Grande Jatte" by Georges Seurat 

...but I am pretty sure that there will be plenty of folk amongst the Minikins that the paintings will appeal to! 

Madame Manet at Bellevue by Edouard Manet; Dancers Practicing at the Bar by Edgar Degas

Someone else is also rather interested...

A Bouquet of Flowers by Clara Peeters; Washington Crossing the Delaware by Emanuel Leutze

...yes indeed, Miss Ethel-Maud ~ how did you guess 😄 She particularly likes the bouquet of flowers painting above.  She said that it would look really rather lovely in her bed-sitting room.....the same bed-sitting room that she only mentioned a few days ago and I have barely started to think about, let alone come up with a plan for making!  Ethel-Maud clearly isn't going to forget about having her very own little private space, though, so I guess I should start to make some plans and hunt for a suitable cardboard box to convert into the room of her dreams 😮

Sunday, January 16, 2022

Peace...


www.allposters.co.uk

Father, Mother, God,

Thank you for your presence during the hard and mean days.
For then we have you to lean upon.

Thank you for your presence during the bright and sunny days.
For then we can share that which we have with those who have less.

And thank you for your presence during the Holy Days.
For then we are able to celebrate you and our families and our friends

For those who have no voice, we ask you to speak.

For those who feel unworthy, we ask you to pour your love out in waterfalls of tenderness.

For those who live in pain, we ask you to bathe them in the river of your healing.

For those who are lonely, we ask you to keep them company.

For those who are depressed, we ask you to shower upon them the light of hope.

Dear Creator, You, the borderless sea of substance, we ask you to give to all the world that which we need most.....PEACE.

Maya Angelou

(4th April 1928 - 28th May 2014)        

Thursday, January 13, 2022

Stripy dishcloths


I mentioned in a previous post that I keep getting distracted from the blanket I'm crocheting for the guest bedroom ~ and not just by making clothes for Ethel-Maud 😉 

I've been making my own dishcloths for a long time now ~ I find they are way better than the ones you can buy, even if I do say so myself!  

I did get tempted by a pack of Dream Cloths last June, though, when I placed one of my bulk orders with Who Gives A Crap but to be honest I much prefer my home-made cloths.  


Despite being washed frequently it wasn't long before the Dream Cloths were looking stained, and they have now been relegated to the bucket beneath the sink to be used as cleaning cloths.  Still, at least they can be composted when they look too gross even for that 😄


I made these in double knit cotton yarn (from my stash) with a 4mm hook, and they get chucked in a hot wash with the towels and tea-towels on a regular basis.  I've made this latest set a tad larger than previous ones as they do tend to shrink a little when they've been washed and tumble-dried.

Ethel-Maud was very interested in these new dishcloths as they are just the right size to be a cosy blanket for her ~ she particularly liked the one in the photo above!  She's been making little comments about how lovely it would be if she had her own bed-sitting room so now I've got a whole load of ideas swirling around in my butterfly mind for making said room!

I'm beginning to think that the blanket I've started for the guest bedroom is going to take an absolute age to finish, let alone get a second one crocheted to go with it 😏

Tuesday, January 11, 2022

Winter undies...

 


These vintage knitted undies are indeed "dainty" compared to the set I crocheted for Ethel-Maud last year!

It's not easy to find suitable patterns to fit Ethel-Maud; at about 9.5" (approximately 24cm) tall, she is very much bigger than my dolls' house people but conversely is rather smaller than fashion dolls.  She is also a totally different shape to the latter, being much broader and flat-chested ~ very rectangular, really.  She also has extremely "chunky" arms, legs and feet in comparison to the likes of Barbie or Sindy.  I have crochet, knitting and sewing books for both dolls' house people and fashion dolls, most of which at first glance are proving not to be particularly helpful for making a wardrobe of clothes for Ethel-Maud!  My poor brain is going to have to do a helluva lot of computing to rehash the patterns I've got to make them fit her 😵 

But needs must, and poor little Ethel-Maud definitely needed something to protect her modesty (and keep her warm), so this is what I came up with ~ Adrian thought it was some sort of bikini!  I basically just crocheted some rectangles of half-trebles (US half doubles), using a 3mm hook and some Adriafil Azzurra (a 3/4ply yarn) from my stash.  I then sewed them up to make the bandeau bra top and knickers; I also added a simple picot edge to the knicker legs to make them prettier.

To be honest, whilst they serve a purpose for the time being, they are not ideal as they are somewhat bulky.  Both the bra and the knickers could also have done with being a tad less wide ~ although the latter would have been better had they had a little extra length to the body section!  With Ethel-Maud being made from a velvet fabric, the knickers in particular don't slide up her body very smoothly either.  As I say, they are fine for now but I will have to rethink how I make clothes for her at some point.


Whilst I made the undies last year (just about the only things I did make!), I made the headband last week.  I mentioned in a previous post that Ethel-Maud is rather conscious of her receding hairline, so I had made a flowery headdress which has since been lost ~ hence the simple headband to replace it.  Again, I made this a little too big but have now made her a new one ~ I'll share photos in my next post about her 😊


I have also crocheted a skirt, which I've finished since I took the above photo.  I again used a 3mm hook and yarn from my stash: Zauberball Crazy in Grune Woche.  The variegation of this sock yarn worked out really well and has made a very nice pattern for the skirt, although the finished article, like the undies, could have done with being a fraction less wide ~ I'll share photos when I've figured out how to make a matching sweater 😉  

As a starting off point for the skirt I used a pattern from Miniature Crochet Projects in 1/12th Scale by Roz Walters, which is worked from the top down.  Instead of using double crochet I've worked in half-trebles (US single and half double respectively) for the waistband, changing to trebles (US double) for the body of the skirt.  The pattern called for the first row after the waistband to be increased by working three stitches in each stitch; I thought this would be too bulky so just worked two stitches instead.  I then simply worked additional rows with no further increasing until it was the length Ethel-Maud wanted (in this case seven) and finished with the final row in half-trebles to make a nice hem.   

I've never really done any kind of dressmaking (when I was at school, it took me a whole school year to make a very simple skirt!) but at some point, I think I shall have to overcome my fear of attempting to sew some garments for her 😳  One of the fashion doll sewing books I have, Top Outfits for Teenage Dolls by Nesta Hollis (published way back in 1972), says this in the introduction:

"This is a book written for all ages, from eight to ninety-eight.  We have endeavoured to make the instructions simple enough for the under-tens....."

This gives me hope that even I could tackle the patterns, albeit I shall have to adjust them to take into account Ethel-Maud's very different body shape.  Having looked through the book, none of the designs appear to be complicated and the instructions have been written with the hand-sewer in mind rather than a machine ~ another plus point for me as although I do have a sewing-machine, I've never really got to grips with the thing!  Two of my cousins are very good seamstresses and I'm sure one or t'other would've been happy to give me some sewing lessons.....unfortunately, they both live in Devon so couldn't really be much further away from where I live up here in the Northern Isles 😃

Not only do I have a yarn stash, I also have a fabric stash too (nope, I've no idea why I get tempted by fabric when I'm not a sewer!) so I'm determined to have a go at sewing some clothes for Ethel-Maud ~ as they say, watch this space 😉   

Monday, January 10, 2022

Guest bedroom... part four

image from Clipart Library

I was going to wait until the rest of the "tweaks" were done before sharing any more photos, but I got a tad over-excited at finally being able to release some of my little treasures from their plastic tubs so here are a couple more pictures 😄  

The cupboard is already living up to its storage potential.  The space at the very top has various bits and pieces of Adrian's that he doesn't want to have on display, but equally doesn't want to discard.  The sections behind the little wicker chair are also now filled.  The triangular door at the top is held on with magnets and it would be all to easy to catch the coomb ceiling when removing it; we therefore decided that it would be sensible to keep things in there that we don't need to have regular access to...in this instance, the ashes of, and bits 'n' bobs belonging to, our dogs ~ probably best not to let our guests know that, eh 😉   The cupboard section below now holds: spare towels and toiletries for the upstairs bathroom; gifts and wrapping paper, etc, for upcoming birthdays and Christmas; and on the bottom shelf, single-sized bedding for if we ever need to make up a bed on the sofa downstairs.  The section behind the double doors has a hanging rail for our guests' clothes (and the ones Beverly has left here on a permanent basis LOL); I've also re-used a couple of the plastic crates we had under our bed to store games and the things I (try) to collect over the course of the year to make up Beverly's Christmas advent gifts ~ she still shows no signs of tiring of this rod-I-made-for-my-own-back Christmas "tradition" 😵.  My clothes-horse is now stored in the cupboard, too, along with a few other odds and ends.

Whilst all the work has been going on, we've been to-ing and fro-ing over whether we should have a double or king-sized bed.  In the end though, because it will be so close to the bathroom wall, we have decided to order a double ~ hopefully those six extra inches of space will help to make it more comfortable getting round the end of the bed.

The length of blue tubing laying on the floor is the protective packaging of our Silent Gliss curtain pole.  Needless to say, the ordering of said pole didn't go smoothly; when it arrived, it had been made using the wrong measurement and was too short!  Of course, this was all going on whilst I was away south, so Adrian had to contact the company to sort it out.  To be fair to them they confirmed straightaway that it was their mistake, and supplied a new pole very quickly.  Hopefully, this will be one of the things Shug will be able to get put up for us this next week.  I will then make a decision on curtain fabric; we're having a single curtain which will be pulled round to the right.  I'm no seamstress so will have to have it made-to-measure for me. 

Adrian has now got the television and DVD player, which have been languishing beneath our bed since we moved up here, set up on the white stand beside the window.  What I am now using as a blanket rack is actually the towel rack that used to be in the downstairs bathroom before it was refurbished.  I would hate for our guests to be cold whilst they are staying with us!  I have made a start on crocheting a blanket for the bedroom (and have more yarn from my stash in mind to make a second at some point), but it will probably take me quite a few months to get it finished as I keep getting distracted by other things!  In the meantime, at least there are a couple of blankets ready should they be needed.

The chest of drawers has a vintage china dressing-table set on it which I purchased over 40 years ago from an antiques market.  Before I went down south I ordered a shelf from The Shelving Company on Etsy, in eggshell white, to go above the chest of drawers (another of those finishing tweaks on poor Shug's list!); I have a rather sweet vintage wall-cupboard, that has a little mirror in the centre, that I want to display on it.  The magazine rack had been painted green when I bought it a few years before we moved up here.  I had thought of perhaps painting it either white or a deeper blue than the walls to tie it in with what has turned out to be a blue-and-white-with-pink-accents bedroom colour scheme, but must confess that I am rather fond it's shabby chic green finish so will most likely leave it be 😉

The somewhat shabby looking wooden stand with the basket of teddies is more or less at what will be the end of the bed.  It's actually meant for folk to put their suitcase on although it doesn't seem quite large enough to be honest.  Still, when we have guests I shall put the basket beneath the stand, then they can use it if they wish.  This is something that I will most likely paint at some point as the colour really isn't all that attractive.  Whilst it isn't shown in this photo, we now have a nice new heater on the bathroom wall.

The sweet little oak chair in front of the window was given to me by my Auntie Mavis many years ago, and is something that I treasure.  The darker stain that was used on the wood sometime in the chair's history has worn away back to it's natural colour in places, and ideally I'd like all the wood stripped back and simply finished with a coat of beeswax.  I'm going to have a chat with a local furniture repair and upholstery company not that far from here, as the chair is in need of a complete overhaul and is not something that I would want to tackle!  (The vacuum cleaner is not a bedroom fixture, by the way 😉)

I have no idea what the plant is beside the chair.  Beverly "rescued" it when our local food bank relocated to different premises ~ I don't think that any of her colleagues there really wanted to take it in and she knows what a sucker I am for half-dead plants 😃  Anyhoo, it's come back to life admirably and seems to like living near the bedroom window.  The photo on the windowsill, by the way, is of my sister Amanda and I when she was a very new baby and I had just turned four.

It's amazing, really, just how very much the bedroom has changed over these past few months ~ I still can't help smiling each time I walk into the room.  There aren't that many more things that need to be done now and I'm so looking forward to having our first guests up to stay, hopefully sometime this year 😊

Sunday, January 9, 2022

Guest bedroom...part three

I'm way behind, as usual, with my show-and-tell guest bedroom photos ~ a lot has happened since my last post!

As you can see, the painting is all finished now...

...and the carpet has been laid.


We are really pleased with the lovely job Mark has made of the painting 😊


It all looks so very crisp and new in the bedroom now...


...a far cry from how the room was before the updating work started!





There are still a few things for Shug (our lovely joiner) to finish and hopefully he'll be here this coming week to get them done.  In the meantime, we've put the furniture (apart from a bed, which we need to buy) into the room and I've started to do the bit I like the best ~ putting out all the pretty stuff.  More updates to come in due course 😊