We have had an eventful morning… spent an hour or two lying on the sofa bed reading the same books over and over..

(and just when I was getting into doing the voices and making it all very animated, I was usurped by someone needing to watch The Snowman.

Me: “Sweetpea, will we read “The Paper Caper” again?”

Herself: “No. Me like ‘Nowman now”…)

Then we wandered out to the garden to pick some tomatoes for lunch- our Autumn fruiting raspberries are only  coming into fruit outside, but are ripe and delicious in the polytunnel. We picked a bowl for our dessert, and  before we got as far as the back door …

Me: “Hey! Where did our raspberries go?” 

Herself: “Heh heh heh” (evil cackle) 

“We” made egg fried rice with some left-over rice 

(Me: “do you want to scoop some coconut oil out for the frying pan?”

Herself: “yes” (and scoops out a spoon. And eats it. Then we have a minor altercation over allowing me to have a spoon of it to fry the rice)

Someone had to test each tomato before I could cut them up

and artfully toss some over the rice

(“Isn’t that pretty?”

“No”)

And then after lunch we decided to be creative and cut up the felted blankets to make cushions and a photo tutorial too (cue: delightful images of mother and daughter measuring and smiling and working completely in harmony)

Well. That daughter of mine!

she is so bloody independent, decisive, impatient (with me!!!!) single minded (where did she get all these traits from, I’d like to know?) determined, creative…

funny and soft and cuddly and warm…

I have to run… Hi ho, hi ho, it’s off to work I go!!!

I have the doll almost finished, and am decidedly chuffed with her. I’m been busily sewing while our little one is asleep, and like every doll I make, I love the process and am so excited to see this little “person” emerge at the end.

I’m hoping to sew some clothes for her tonight, and make a little pair of shoes, because, as you can see, I have the slight problem in that she is completely naked.

The boys made her a toga out of toilet paper to protect her modesty, but that didn’t quite cut the mustard.

(Just a note: although this was made in the “Waldorf Tradition”, most Waldorf dolls have no detail at all, but our birthday girl is “into” bums, bellybuttons, boo-boos for nursing, toes and fingers at the moment, hence the extras!!)

My youngest sister is getting married in 2 weeks time, so I’ve been up in my parents beautiful home for the past few days fitting dresses and talking weddings.

Needless to say my production rate hasn’t been quite what it usually is…!

(Not that I’ve been lying on the couch watching TV, eating cake…

…unfortunately!!)

So once again, I come to Lush Friday with a project in the making… 

There’s no point in telling you about all the “bits” of paintings I’m working on, none of which I photographed, but I can show you part of a doll that I’m making for Grace’s second birthday in a week and a half.

This is a Waldorf style doll- I’ve made around ten of these over the past two years, and I LOVE watching the little faces appear, stuffing the bodies, making little nappies (diapers) for them. I have a fantastic book by Maricristan Sealey: Making Waldorf Dolls, and have trawled the internet to find a complete tutorial (with lots of photographs) on making a doll, but haven’t found one comprehensive enough. The first tutorial was from a blog (now finished (, but accessible) called Echoes of a Dream, and have since found another Moonchild Studios which did an excellent head tutorial. I’ve been answering my own questions as I’ve gone along through trial and error, so now I’m in the process of documenting and photographing a complete and full tutorial on how to make a doll from beginning to end. 

 This has been my inspiration from before I ever started a doll:

 ” ……a handcrafted doll is one of a kind, an individual which carries the spirit of the maker in its stitches and absorbs the spirit of the child who loves it”

…which I think has to be inspiring in itself.

Waldorf dolls are fantastically easy to make, and can be adapted to use whatever materials you have on hand. We are going to be stocking much of what will be required- needles, wool etc in the coming weeks, and I’m sure you will see plenty more of these dolls in the coming Fridays!!!

Where do I start? Well, I got up that little bit extra early today and trotted out to the polytunnel to get the handful (literally) of ripe fruit there (raspberries and strawberries) before my delightful little monsters children cleared the branches. So, with my 120gms of fruit, I cooked them up with 120gms of sugar while I made a few scones and whipped up some vanilla sugar in the cream. 

 Beloved and I had our scones in a rather boring fashion- jam with cream on top; Wee One just dispensed with the scone altogether and just ate the jam and cream (definitely my daughter)

(Mother, and all those doubters out there, this photo is pictorial evidence that we are actually out of bed before 11am)

So, with brekkie out of the way, and the menu for the day planned, I finished off the sewing I needed to do. (Didn’t want to disappoint anyone and be actually organised)

And here it is!

The hand-stitched, thrifted, recycled, crocheted bag!

I used a cream vintage, Irish wool blanket that I bought for a song in a charity shop, felted it in the washing mashine, hand stitched with a running stitch in orange, then top stitched in cream. The crochet granny squares were stitched to the front; I covered a button in the wool felt ( that was the HARDEST bit!!) and made a little crochet loop. 

I’m thoroughly delighted with it, and am in the middle of making a tutorial, I’ll hopefull post it tomorrow or Sunday.

Thanks Andrea for hosting such a great “Lush Friday” event! Pop over to her blog: Lush Stuff to see all the other great makes!

A sneak peek of what I’m making for the “Show & Tell Friday” that my friend Andrea from Lush Stuff is hosting tomorrow- pop over to her gorgeous blog and join me in being green with envy at her considerable sewing talent, and join us tomorrow, here for my hand-stitched, thrifted, recycled, crocheted creation (sounds….. interesting…   hee hee), and there (at Lush Stuff) to see what everyone is up to… sure to be a great party!

(vintage French tablecloth I bought in Romans last year, lovely, isn’t it?)