Happy

Many years ago, when I was about 6 or 7 I had a little doll just like the one above.
I called him Happy.
He was a cuddly pixie and he went everywhere with me.


One day with my sister and my best friend we built a little cubby in the bushland opposite our house, just behind my best friend's house only from our cubby you couldn't see any houses only scrubby bush.

We had it all set up with various fallen tree limbs marking out the walls of our little house.
Happy was sitting on a rock in one corner while we worked.

Mum called us to lunch, we were surprised that we could hear her because we felt like we were in another country, so far away.

We ran off and poor Happy was left alone in the cubby.


You have already guessed what happened next.
When we came back to our little world after lunch Happy was gone.
No amount of searching and calling would bring him back.



Can you imagine how I felt , all these years later when I visited the Vintage Pixie Flickr group and there he was as if no time had passed at all.



He still makes me happy.

This little poppet is heading off to United Arab Emirates.

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES!

The Middle East!

That seems so foreign to me.
I have friends who have spent time working there, I have had post cards and even Christmas cards from there but I can't imagine what it would be like to live there.


My dolls have gone to Canada, the US, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Romania, Japan, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, and a little gnome went to the Himalayas - I hope he came back safely.
And of course many many dolls to all the states and territories of Australia.


Now to complete the map, I need to send a doll to the Central Americas, South America, Africa, mainland Asia, Antarctica.
So still a long way to go before I have a doll on each continent.


Me?

Well I have never been outside Australia,
may be one day.

The view from my kitchen sink.

The rose in a drinking glass sitting on the bench beside me while I do the dishes.







The view from the kitchen window while I do the dishes.




All week I have been held captive by cute little dolls and this afternoon I am breaking free to meet Kate, my own cute little doll, as she returns from camp and whisk her away for a delicious hot chocolate and something scrummy at the chocolate shop.

Dollytime

I have just made the most wonderful discovery.

A discovery I could have made much earlier if I wasn't such a lazy blogreader and took the time to actually visit people's blogs.



My bloggy friend Eli, who does have a wonderful blog,
now also has a wonderful Etsy shop, Dollytime,
selling her beautiful, beautiful knitting patterns.









Remember the lovely little sheep I knitted back in May and the wonderful tales of Eli's international jet setting sheep.


Eli has lots of free patterns on her blog.
She is such a generous person.


And now she has her shop as well so you can buy a pattern for her sweet sweet dolls and mice.

So lovely.

I bought the dolly patterns for the dolls in the first picture - to be enjoyed
once the madness of the pre-Christmas doll-a-thon is over.


The little Christmas mouse below is her latest creation.






Enjoy.

ct rainbow lightstrip 338
Originally uploaded by andyofmars

Andy's photography work has been selected to be a part of the ArtRage travelling exhibition next year.

ArtRage is a selection of the best art works by Grade 11 and 12 students and it is a great honour.

I am so proud of him, he worked so hard for this and really was very innovative, making the best use of what he had and producing some really great work.



And, even though I am his mother and I want to show off his work Flickr will only let me have this tiny little picture.
To see more you will have to go here.

OK, I managed to make a mosaic of his work
but you can still visit his Flickr set if you want to see more