Pink and Green Mama: Goodnight Peep Diorama -- Peeps Show IV

Pink and Green Mama: Goodnight Peep Diorama -- Peeps Show IV

I would like to share this wonderful diorama from Pink & Green Mama! She did such a wonderful job! Love all the little details!

my mermaids

I love these dolls. I haven't sold a single one yet. I almost had a few sold but apparently they might be too risque :/

MoonCake Felt Play-along

One of Dottie's fav stories is MOONCAKE by Frank Asch. So I decided to make her a play-along set. One of my good mama-friends is a teacher and has bought many of my dolls. She has been telling me about what kind of stuff her students really like to play with. It seems they always like toys to act out stories. This is my second go at making a playset (my first try is Goldielocks and the 3 Bears up for sale here: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=41256184).

I am not finished with this. I still need to make the bear, (which will be a modified peg doll), little bird (also some kind of wooden doll), and the felt stick-ons to change the seasons (make the tree go from summer to fall, winter, spring).

Pyrography

I am giving pyrography a shot. I really want to make toys that are natural and safe and eventhough the acrylic paint and varnish I use is labled non-toxic I wouldn't give it to very young kids that still stick things in their mouths.

So, I am going for wood burning instead of paint and beeswax instead of varnish. I bought a bar of beeswax at my local HFS and bought a small pot at the thrift store for 76 cents to melt it in. You are supposed to use a double boiler because the mixture is flamable but instead I was just very careful and stirred constantly and removed from the heat as soon as the beeswax was completely melted. What was the mixture? I used vegetable oil, tea tree oil, and lavender oil. I think this mixture will keep well and it smells nice, too.

So far, only the little chickadees have come out good. Pyrography is not easy. You can't make any mistakes, or you need to know how to integrate the mistakes, something I haven't learned yet :P

deer centaur

I love this doll and wish I could make many, many more! The doll itself came from a garage sale. Another treasure found by my mom and deliver to me. She was beautiful but all her elastic inside was dry-rotted and broken. She is a Madame Alexander doll. My husband tried to repair her but no matter how tightly he strung the new elastic we had for her, her limbs would not say in their sockets.

I took maters into my own hands and decided to make something I have wanted to make for a very, very long time. A centaur from cut up dolls. I had found an adorable deer doll at a garage sale the year before that just happened to be perfect for my designs. It had poseable limbs and was the exact right size for the doll. So off went the deer's head and the doll's legs. There was a thick wire that had gone into the deer's head that fit into each leg hollow of the now singular creature.

Dot was a little upset when she saw it but mostly because I wouldn't let her hold it than because I butchered her toys. It is my toy now. Haha. No, really I couldn't let her hold it because I still have not permanently fixed the two bodies together and they will fall apart easily. Fluffy stuffed animal guts everywhere. And I have a strange affinity for the beautiful doll that makes me protective (although as I write this I feel like a selfish mama, sigh).

Anyway, there she is.

bean bag for my babe

recently, i took Dot (my 2.5 year old daughter) to a story time at the local library. it was nothing like the one we used to go to. The old lady who dressed up like Mother Goose and sat on a rocking chair and knew my daughter from when she was just a few months old was transferred to another library and now only does story-time for the 18 month and younger crowd. boo.
so, we tried another library. it was ok. typical librarian lady in her librarian outfit (mostly polyester) and name tag. one of the songs included bean bags. each kid got one and was encouraged to place it on various body parts during the song. Dot became very attached to her bean bag. she held on to it for the rest of the story time and i only get her to relinquish it by promising to make her one later that day.

of coarse, my scissors were no where to be found so it actually took me several days to make her bean bag. I used the fabric from a crazy skirt I bought at a thrift store many years ago, even though it was several sizes too large. Who can resist a floor length, bright red peacock feather skirt? Apparently, not me.

Dot helped me fill the bag with beans from her sensory box. I really should have hemmed it in. It frayed pretty bad but she doesn't seem to mind.

so far not to great...

at keeping up with a blog.

i guess i am not so sure what i want out of a blog. a chronicle of crafting. special memories with my daughter. boost my etsy sales. all of that, i guess.

anyway, i think i will just get started......do i have to use capitals????? no.

uummm, hello?

ah-ha! i found the invisible (on my phone, at least) button that brings me to where i can write!

This is my very first blog post, ever! And i do it laying in my daughter's bed with her *finally* sleeping (on top of me, of coarse). i will try not to wake her with my phone typing or an inevitable cough - because i am sick as a dog, again!!

i hope this thing has spellcheck. i have come a long, long way since my (very) below average 8th grade spelling SATs but i know the perfect spellers' brigaide is always lerking.