Her Bed Is Ready

With the Nappy Choo baby due any day I've been scurrying around getting her room ready.



Finishing off the crib was loads of fun! I added decals purchased from eBay seller, wildrose2828 to either end of a crib made by Etsy seller, Bruce Dawson of bedMiniatures. I then made sheets, a dust ruffle, bumper pads, and a little pillow and pillow case.



The pretty quilt was a gift from Flickr friend, SaraBeara2.



I've been watching Canada Post tracking obsessively, and she has now cleared Canada Customs and has been sorted at the Richmond postal facility. Next step will be Chilliwack and then "out for delivery"! Hopefully that will be tomorrow.



If she is somehow delayed and arrives on Tuesday, she'll have the same "birth" day as my oldest granddaughter!

Hats for Sara's Two

I'm expecting a baby! A Nappy Choo baby that is. She shipped from Korea today and, barring any hold up in Canada Customs, she should be here some time next week.

A Flickr friend made my incoming Nappy Choo a really cute quilt a while back, and with it she sent along a tiny "Sophie the Giraffe" chew toy as well as a few things for my Realpukies. Later she sent a tiny Fisher Price Rocking Stacker too. So generous and kind! In appreciation I've knitted a couple of hats for her little Nappy Choo baby pair.

Pukifees and Nappy Choos have about the same size head, so I've asked Serenity and Neelie to do some modelling for me before I send these hats off to Sara.



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Sometimes Life Feels Like This

 

Yes, It's a Bun Cover

It's main purpose is not decorative, though it is that as well.



The primary purpose for a bun cover on a six year old is to hold the bun snug and prevent it from coming loose during a busy day of school and rambunctious playing!



It's something a few hair pins cannot successfully accomplish on their own!

Bun Cover?!

Things are still really busy around here so I haven't had a lot of time lately for crafting. I did manage to whip this one thing up yesterday though. It's not what it might first appear to be!



It might look like a hat for a Pukifee doll, but it's actually a hair bun cover for my five year old (nearly SIX year old) granddaughter's hip length hair. Yes! Her hair is past waist length now!



At school (with the ever present threat of head lice, yuuck!), she keeps her hair tied back all the time, either in a ponytail, a braid, or a bun, or some other well secured style. She quite likes having a bun, but with the busy movements of an energetic young girl the bun tends to unwind in a big hurry. I thought maybe a bun cover might help contain it.



I wasn't at all sure how well such an old fashioned hair accessory might be received by either her or her mom, but I went ahead and made one anyway. They don't take much time, and it's easier to show how they work and look, rather than try to explain it. 

When it didn't initially seem to be well received I placed it on Neelie's head and was surprised how nicely it worked as a doll hat!



But now Kaylen does seem to like it and she wants to wear it. I guess we'll soon see if it works as well as I hope it will. And more importantly -- if it's well received by her friends and classmates -- which would mean it might see more than one wearing!

Hopefully I can get a picture of HER modelling it soon. 

Roasted Rubber Chicken

A couple of goofy gigglers playing around with a rubber chicken.

Doing the "Rubber Chicken Dance"!



Shake it to the right, shake it to the left, shake your rubber chicken with all your might! Shoo-bee-dooby, shoo-bee-dooby.Ohhh, ohhh, shoobeeeee dooby!



My five year old granddaughter got my doll house all set up so that she could invite my Realpukies in for a visit --- supervised by Grandma of course!



First they decided to roast the rubber chicken -- which led to the question: What do you serve with roasted rubber chicken? Woody peas and instant potatoes?



Bobby doesn't mind playing house with Becky but he sure wishes she'd serve real food.



Well if pretend food doesn't exactly taste great, at least it doesn't taste too bad either.



When Bobby wandered off Becky decided to go up in the dusty attic with her baby sister to explore.




Hmmm, what do we have in here?

It Fits!

Yay! The outfit I made for the Secret Doll Person fits, despite the fact that I didn't have an actual SDP model to try it on.



I knew that the head size was approximately the same as Minifee so I used Shannon as a size model for the hat. Shannon has since received an identical hat of her own.



I also knew that the body size of my friend's doll was approximately the same size as a Pukifee, so I used Serenity as a size model while doing the crocheted dress and the sewn, bloomer style panties. I just made the dress a bit longer because Secret Doll Persons are a bit longer in the body.



I think the resulting outfit was quite successful! I think Nicola was happy with her unexpected gift too.

Now Shannon Wants One!

I actually crocheted this hat for a friend's Secret Doll Person, but Shannon looks so pretty in it that I've immediately started on another, just for her.

Happy Valentine's Day!

It's only about half of my crew,



But these are the lucky ones that were able to find something appropriate to wear for Valentine's Day.

Bobby says his hat is too a Valentine's Day hat. He's wearing it to scare away any woman that might try to pinch his cute little cheeks.

Random Neelie Photo

I've been crocheting a little dress as a gift for a friend and Neelie has been an adorable and patient model. At the end of the day I set her down beside my Minifee, Panalaya, and she looked so cute posed there that I just had to grab my iPhone to take a quick picture.

Knitting for Strong Start

The Strong Start preschool program had a naked baby doll and the program leader said she had not been able to find clothing to fit it. She had one shirt that would not do up, and a pair of pants that could not completely cover the doll's bottom. I had to do something about it!

I borrowed the chubby little thing for the weekend and she/he went back with this outfit.



My daughter made the adorable earred hat.



I made the bib,



a pair of panties,



and a little knitted sleeper.



I custom fit the sleeper and panties by using the numbers for the width of the largest size but knitting only to the length of the smallest size.



I also altered the pattern to include buttonholes rather than separate, crocheted, button loops.

A Baby Sister for Bobby and Becky

Bobby and Becky have a surprise, a new baby sister!



She is a "ElfinHugs" baby and she was a gift from SaraBeara2 of Flickr. SaraBeara2 also made the lovely mattress, bumper pad, and hood liner for the little buggies I've painted.

Beribboned Cloche

I found a hat pattern that coordinates perfectly with the little baby dress pattern I made earlier!



Neelie is modelling the first one, but Serenity is saying that she would like one too. Hmm --- I think they may have forgotten that both dresses and the hat are intended for the Nappy Choo baby I ordered. She should be arriving in late March or early April if Soom keeps to their schedule.

A crib for the baby has arrived. It was custom made by Bruce Dawson of Etsy. The baby in the picture is just one borrowed from my granddaughters. It's a stand in for the approximate size of the Nappy Choo.



The darling little quilt is a gift from "SaraBeara2" of Flickr. She also sent the cute little "Sophie the Giraffe" teething toy.

New Avatar

New avatar alert. 

This is a fairly true to life picture of how I look now. The previous avatar I had been using here was at least a few years old, and I've changed a lot in the past few years.

In December I had updated my avatar on Ravlery, Flickr, and Den of Angels, but I did not like the severe hairstyle I was resorting to then. It aged me a LOT! This one is at least a bit better.

My daughter-in-law is a hair stylist and she talked me into highlights and "low lights" to add some colour to my hair. As it gradually greyed it was growing drab and mousy looking. I'm not at all against grey hair, in fact I kind of liked a few of my greyer streaks, but the slow turn to grey was giving me a washed out salt and pepper effect that was very unflattering. I was also wearing it in a rather severe, pulled back style that aged me a lot.

I'm still prone to getting a rash on my face if my hair is not pulled back some, but this is at least a compromise.

Fly By Post

Life lately has been stressful and frantically busy and I haven't had much time or energy left over for the dolls or crafting for them. Here and there I have been taking a few moments in the evening to crochet on mindless little projects that don't require too much thinking. In the process, over a period of many days, I've managed to actually complete a few things.

Please pardon the poor photography. I haven't had much time for proper photography and editing either, so what I do get is usually taken with my iPhone camera, in low light, and without much staging or posing happening.

There is this one,

 

---which since the picture was taken has acquired a deep, dusty rose coloured ribbon. It actually looks quite cute now. It was the prototype for the ones that have followed. I based it on an actual baby dress pattern, but I downsized it by using 2/16 weaving cotton and a .75mm crochet hook. It fits the Pukifees but is a little on the short side, which means it will likely fit the Nappy Choo baby that should be arriving sometime in late March or early April.

Then with the same basic pattern I made this one using size #30 cotton crochet thread.



And last night completed a third one, using a combination of green size #30 crochet thread and natural 2/16 weaving cotton.



In all three renditions the ribbon and yoke ruffle were my own innovations to the pattern.

Quite the Combination!

 Modelling today we have Morganna's body, Shannon's head, and Panalaya's wig.



This unusual combination was put together because I needed a small bust body to model a corset I made for a friend's doll. Morganna has the only small bust Minifee body I own, but her red hair and the colouring in her faceup clashed terribly with the grape purple of the corset. 



Panalaya's wig, on the other hand, went beautifully with the purple....but....she's "white skin" and that small bust body of Morganna's is "normal skin". 



So I nabbed Shannon's head, popped it on Morganna's body, and topped it with Panalaya's wig. A winning combination I think!