madness

And while she snoozed in the late afternoon sun, visions of aqua and orange hobby horses danced through her brain - while others dream of tropical islands or fabulous castles this strange creature is swept away on a small cloth and wooden horse.
Oh dear!

Handcrafted and Thrifty

So I have been facing my Challenge of the Utmost Kind for a little over a month now, beginning September 24th.
And how has it been going you ask?
Well, pretty good I answer, very interesting really.


The first Monday of the Challenge the iron blew up in the most dramatic way-smoke, blue flames,loud noises - while Stephen was ironing his shirt for work.
My first thought , after making sure Stephen was unharmed , was 'does this mean I have to find a second hand iron' followed by 'I'm sure mum has an extra iron'.



Stephen , however, was sure that even though the iron had blown all the fuses on that side of the house if he just pulled the iron apart he could get it to work.
Luisa , another Tassie Challengee, was certain a new iron could be seen as a business expense and really I suppose she was right but as it turned out Stephen was able to repair the iron and I have hardly given it another thought.


Superman Stephen also restrung all the pictures that had been lying around since he repainted the bedroom managing to use the screws that he saved from the back of the washing machine that he dealt the death blows to a few months ago.
He has also used the glass from the front of the washing machine that was in fact a wonderful bowl shape, he has given it to Poppy as a new water bowl.
He has taught himself to use dad's welder so he can repair the scythe he uses to cut the long grass at the bottom of the garden and he fashioned a key for Celia the sewing machine's wooden cover, he used an old bicycle spoke.


All of this and probably much more and he isn't even on the Challenge, he doesn't even know about the Challenge.








Now I must admit to a couple of indiscretions but I'll blame them on birthday presents or the lack of.
You see in desperation Mum gave me money for my 50th birthday, to spend on whatever I wanted but I couldn't find anything at the time.
But even before the ink had dried on the Challenge I found several books I couldn't live without and decided it was OK to buy them as they were really part of my August birthday present.
That's fair isn't it.
Anyway , the money is gone now, the books have all arrived and the Challenge continues.



Oh and I did buy a magazine, Donna Hay, completely forgetting myself and reverting to old habits.
But you will be pleased to know I felt so guilty when I got it home and remembered my vow that I returned it to the supermarket still in its unopened plastic bag with accompanying free teatowel.








I do need some new summer clothes, which I will have to sew when I find the time and I'd love a couple of knitted short sleeved jumpers, 1940s style, made out of a fine cotton or similar.
But of course making your own clothes is not instant and while my knitting time is turned to toadstools instead of much needed clothes they will never be made.
I haven't actually finished the two cardigans I started earlier this year, although Kate's is so close to being finished .
It only needs a concentrated effort over a week or so and it would be done.




This is the part of the Challenge that has really made me think.
The number of things I begin and then don't finish or more likely take an eternity to finish, that clutter my cupboards while they wait to be finished, that stop me from being able to start something new or worse that I start anyway and then add them to the growing pile of WIPs.
Things that drag me backwards and hold me there.
It is shameful and also means that I have very few clothes to wear or in the past I might have bought something just to tide me over until I finished the thing I was supposed to be making.
Now I can't buy unless I can find what I want at the op shop and it is going to force me to finish what I have started.
WHAT A RELIEF.
It is freeing to know that the easy way out is no longer an option, the only way I can wear something new is by making it myself.
It is a slower option but such a great opportunity to truly get back to the way I used to be - a person who made most of her own clothes, not just the occasional skirt or shirt but I used to make most of the clothes I had in my wardrobe.



When I go into town now I don't have to look at anything with any thought of buying.
I can try on clothes to see which styles and colours suit without even having to consider whether I would want to buy anything because that option isn't there.
It is so freeing.
I don't have to think about shoddy workmanship or the difficulty of finding anything not made in China.
Not that I have bought many clothes over the past few years anyway but I guess the opportunity was there.
Now window shopping is all I can do and I can look at shops in an entirely different way, much like the way I used to shop many years ago, try on heaps of clothes styles and colours and then buy some fabric or yarn and make my own or what I will do now is check through my stash of fabrics and yarns and shop from my cupboard.



So 5 weeks into the challenge and I am finding I enjoy being forced to examine my actions and having to fall back on my own resources.
I think it will make a better me, a less lazy me, it will force me to use my time more wisely or go without - my choice, accountability,to know how much I can do and what I want to spend my time doing, to plan more and- GASP- be more organised and to use a little more of my creative moments on myself .

Can she do it, it's a Challenge of the Utmost Kind.

It's been all dolls and food here for the last few days.

Food because the family must eat and as long as I can keep some semblance of order in the house, keep up to date with the washing and have something yummy for breakfast lunch and tea then the troops are happy and will leave me to get on with my doll making.







This is my view for most of the day with my trusty radio keeping me company, plus a little to left I have a window to look out and watch the birds and garden and a little to the right I have the computer screen where I sometimes have a DVD playing.

Being an outworker for Santa takes up most of my time at the moment,
being that it's only about 8 weeks until Christmas,
about 6 weeks until Kate finishes school,
4 weeks until the Niche Market,
3 weeks until Andy's last exam,
1 1/2 weeks until Louis last exam,
1 week until Andy is home on swat vac ( study leave)
- you could say I am in count down mode.








These beauties should be heading off today after I embroider their pretty faces.

So many gorgeous fabrics to play with not to mention the lovely yarns .

Lots of new ideas to try out as well, some different things for the market to fill out the gaps between the dolls.

It is an exciting and sometimes tiring time.

Lucky I had some lemon butter for my morning toast.

Whoever thought that might be a good idea, to mix butter, eggs sugar and lemon was a genius home cook.

Mind you we hardly need more eggy things as we are getting about 3 dozen a week and that includes 7 duck eggs which make all cakes and puddings sublime.
We have had omelettes, frittata, scrambled, poached, boiled and fried eggs, egg sandwiches and egg rich cakes, puddings and biscuits and I have some to give to mum.



By the way, I'll do a Challenge update tomorrow.



And another thing.
The little doll below is Kate's birthday doll and while I was outfitting the Coccon dolls I made a new outfit for her as well.
Kate makes sure that little Tasha stays close by where I work so that I will be inspired to include her when I am dollie dressmaking.

Last night I was possessed by the need to knit baby toadstools.
I worked out this little design and I think it turned out rather well.








Maybe even a little bit like the real thing.

Maisie and Celia

Mum bought some bobbins around yesterday and Maisie's sewing machine knee lever.
Threaded Celia up and away she went.
She sews.


Mind you I would have been happy to have her here
even if she didn't work but this is just lovely.
There is no way to regulate the length of the stitch,
this must have been the best length I guess.
The tension seems fine but can be adjusted even though the little outer dial is broken off.

I do think it helps having grown up with a Singer sewing machine even though Mum's was a delectable Featherweight.


My Auntie Maisie sent around instructions for how to attach the knee lever and I realised how she had no idea of how much the workings of her old Singer sewing machine are inscribed in my brain, and neither did I really.

My mum kept her sewing machine in the laundry, it was used often but never left its special little place near the back door.

Maisie kept her machine in the loungeroom and it was always there unless it was Christmas or a birthday celebration.
Maisie and my two cousins lived next door to us and we were always in and out of each others houses.
My auntie was alone, a deserted wife and supported her family by being extremely frugal and taking in sewing.
She also sewed for her family and sewed birthday and Christmas presents for us.
The machine was in constant use.
I loved to take the knee lever in and out, it fascinated me - my mum's machine had a foot pedal.
As long as the machine wasn't threaded I could push the lever a little to make it start to whirr.
The machine seemed so big and so beautiful, black with gorgeous gold lettering and swirls.
Mum's was black too but so much smaller and less decorated.
All of Maisie's sewing things were a wonderland for me and as long as I didn't break anything, and put things back where they came from and as long as Maisie was in a good mood I was free to explore.



Not too long ago I spoke to my Auntie about the design of her very 1950s house and especially about the sewing table.
You see, the machine sat on a table top that could fold up into the wall and looked like a part of the wall with a decorative wrought iron panel down the front which was actually the table leg.
Behind the panel was a large shelved space, so deep it seemed to me that I could never get to the back of it even if I crawled right in.
I doubt that Maisie has seen the back of it for a long time either it is so full of fabrics and sewing notions.
There were curtains on a wire across the cupboard so that contents weren't on display when the table was set up with the machine.
Under the sewing cupboard was a firewood cupboard with a little door to the outside of the house so that it could be filled with firewood without having to carry wood all through the house.
Maisie said she designed that herself.
She also said she had wanted a stand alone sewing room but due to finances it couldn't be built when they were originally building their house and so she designed her sewing centre.
She told me how she spent many months working on the plans for her dream home and included all sorts of nifty fifities design features with secret doors and laundry shoots and slide out chopping boards and ironing boards and a breakfast nook.
Her home was built in the late fifties and because money was tight very few decorating changes were made to the house until the seventies so although my own home was constantly being redecorated Maisie's house next door was full of wonderful 1950s textiles and colours, an old round top fridge, the laminex table top in the breakfast nook, an old rough textured loungesuite, a glamorous maroon bathroom.
She still has her original 1958 telephone, the sound is so clear, you get your daily weight training when you lift the handset and it's a bit tricky trying to do phone banking without any buttons to press.


When I started up Celia yesterday my whole childhood , the Maisie part of it came flooding back to me.
And I thought about the sewing connection, you see though my mum sewed she was never as passionate about making things as Maisie , that was always the connection that we shared, Maisie and me.
And I think I learned a lot about frugal living along the way too, my goodness that woman could make do and mend, bake and sew, and bring up a family on next to nothing and saw it all as a challenge.
I'm sure there must have been some really hard times and at time she seemed hard and bitter but she never gave up.
And now in her 80s she is still going strong.



Any way, I promised you the Melting Moment recipe and here it is , from the pages of 'Sweet, Old Fashioned Favourites', a Women's Weekly cookbook, though you will find similar recipes in any CWA book I'm sure.







125g (4oz) butter

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

2 tablespoons icing sugar ( confectioners sugar)

3/4 cup plain flour

1/4 cup cornflour.



Cream butter, sugar and vanilla until fluffy and then stir in the sifted flours.

Now I just put spoonfuls of the mixture on to a baking tray but in the past I have piped the mixture onto the tray and they do look very pretty.

I like to make quite small biscuits but I saw some in a bakery yesterday that were huge, small is better I think after all once you sandwich them together you are getting two small biscuits which adds up to a nice sized medium biscuit.
I don't really like huge biscuits.


Bake them in a moderate oven for about ten minutes.

Leave them to cool.
When they are completely cold sandwich them together with the filling.



Filling

30g(1oz) softened butter

1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

1/2 cup icing sugar ( confectioners sugar)

1 teaspoon milk, approximately.



Beat together the butter, vanilla and sugar and then add enough milk to make a spreadable mixture.
If the butter has been out of the fridge for long enough and is soft enough it is easy to make the filling in a 1 cup measuring jug just using a fork to squish and mix, less washing up that way.

Oh and an Australian tablespoon is equal to 4 teaspoons.



Now today is St Mark's Church fair so once Kate has dragged herself out of bed we will wander up there to snare a bargain or two on the trash and treasure stall and the cake stall and maybe on the garden stall.


Have a great weekend.

The Great Unveiling

This is the beautiful Singer sewing machine I bought at the op shop yesterday.







From the machine number I found out that she was made around April 7th 1948 at Kilbowie, Clydebank in Scotland.






She is gorgeous and I have named her Celia mainly because I recently rewatched This Happy Breed and Celia Johnson was , as always, such a treasure and so is my pretty, pretty sewing machine.








I think it is one of the last models to not have a reverse stitch.
My auntie's machine was bought in the early 1950s and she says hers was one of the first to have reverse stitch.







It doesn't have it's knee lever which this model had instead of a foot pedal but Maisie ( my auntie) is lending me hers in the hope that Stephen will be able to fashion one for it.


It also doesn't have all the fancy feet so I am still investigating what special feet it should have.

Mum and Maisie both have some old bobbins I can use.
Mum used to have a Singer Featherweight, the cutest sewing machine ever made but she SOLD it to a dealer a few years ago without consulting me first - the cheek of it.


When I turn the fly wheel every thing is so smooth.
I hope that means that when I power her up she will take off as if she is only a year old not 61 years old.








Oh and I'll post the Melting Moments recipe tomorrow because Kate needs the computer for some homework and I am typing on borrowed time here.

op shop goodness

What could be better than Melting Moments for afternoon tea.

Yummo.








Melting Moments and some pretty new- to- me ramekins.








New ramekins all washed up and ready to hold some cheesy creamy yummy macaroni and cheese for tea.



Yes I did run away and visit the op shop today and boy did I buy something special, apart from these ramekins that is and a few books set to upcycled into beautiful handmade notebooks for Christmas presents - I'll show you tomorrow.

Cute Constance

I found this set on Flickr.

Is this not the cutest caravan you have ever seen?







I know nothing about the UK company
that has this van and lots of cute combi vans






but their pictures






and crochet are just gorgeous.

If you click on the pictures
it will take you to their Constance the caravan photo set.

My Place and Yours : on the shelf.

I decided to join in with Pip's My Place and Yours meme.
For once it's my kind of meme, no questions to answer and no one to tag.
Just talk about what's on the shelf, OK.



I am a doll maker as you know but I don't have large numbers of the kind of dolls I make in my house.
Kate has about five Waldorf style dolls and I have one.
The rest are only here temporarily until they find happy homes to go to.
Sometimes it is hard to send them off but each one I send means another one I can make.



I do, however, have a small collection of vintage and op shop salvaged dolls who sit on a little shelf seat that mum gave Kate a few years ago.
It doesn't fit in her room so instead it it outside the boys' room beside the linen cupboard in front of the door we blocked off to give the loungeroom one wall without a window or door.



It's not an ideal spot but until the heavens open and attach a wonderful lightfilled studio to the top of our house ( wouldn't that be wonderful) this is the only place they can fit and not be in the way.
It's a little corner that needs a bit of a facelift ...one day.



Now the doll in the kilt, the doll in the blue coat and the doll with the black bolero are dolls from my childhood.
The black bolero girl I called Marie and she was made in France, is marked the brand Bella and came in a beautiful box with lots of French writing.
The little doll in her lap is also from my childhood and is called Jane, after Jane Eyre.
The doll in the kilt and the doll in the blue dress are Colleen and Debbie, they don't have any markings on them but I have always fancied that they are English.
Mum made their clothes and several other sets including some knitted cardigans and jumpers.



The doll standing up at the back with the brown long pigtails came from the op shop, in perfect condition but naked.
She has the marking SIMBA STHK-171 on the back of her neck and is a German doll I think.
She is also a very lovely gentle looking doll.
There are a couple of little blonde dolls there too that came from the op shop with there hair all matted and naked ( and naked at the moment too) I washed their hair and slathered on hair conditioner and slowly combed out the knits and snarls.
I washed there dirty little bodies too and now they are as good as new.

There is also a boy doll with a blue gingham cap who I found at the op shop.
He had a twin sister as well but she had already been bought by someone else.
He is a Spanish doll I think.
He has the marking Panre and Esther written on the back of his neck and the date 26/9/95.


The girl with the plaits tied on top of her head with a white bow is an ebay buy.
She was made/ designed by Pauline Bjonness-Jacobsen and is part cloth , part china and very sweet.
There is a little Ginny doll too, naked but for her red shoes and waiting for her clothes to be repaired, she came from ebay.


There is also a Joan Walsh Anglund doll , the one with the bright yellow hair and a Holly Hobbie doll, Carrie, with the red and white bonnet.
These were both found on Etsy.


Not on the shelf but on the sewing basket are a couple of my handmade humpty dumpties.
You can see my old toy pram repainted by Mum and Dad to give to Kate for her birthday some years ago and that is home to Louis' old and very much loved teddy called Ted plus a couple of dolls made by me.


One day I guess I'll have a special place for the dolls.
It would be easy to get carried away collecting dolls but it it much too expensive for me.
I haven't paid much for any of these dolls, they are all a bit "used" as dolls should be and the real collectors seem to be looking for those in mint condition.
That always reminds me of Toy Story 2, and the sadness and bitterness of the toys that didn't belong to a child anymore.
Yes , I know I am strange.
I also feel sad for the abandoned dolls at the op shops, dirty scruffy hair usually naked or in torn clothes and completely unloved.


If you want to see more shelves in more homes visit Pip and check out the links to all the other participants in My Place and Yours.

Michael and Tommy are in the shop now.

Finally managed to upload some pictures, there was a problem with the lead that connects the camera to the computer.
I will be updating the shop tomorrow, two new dolls that should have gone in on Friday.


I have spent most of the day in the garden.


Hanging load after load of washing to take advantage of the perfect drying conditions, sunny and windy , but not too windy.


Everything is dry now and folded and waiting to be put away.


I did some weeding in the garden and planted some of ground covers and a couple of tiny azaleas down near the apple trees.
The chooks of course wanted to dig them out as soon as I moved away.
They love newly dug over dirt.
I had to keep putting the sprinkler on to keep them at a distance.



Working in the garden I could hear the chooks ( hens) that live around the corner.
Two families there have hens and funnily enough they are families that go to our school.
Must be a school for chookie people.



We have all been happily busy all day, each working on our own projects but there have been plenty of opinions offered and decisions discussed.
Nobody was too stressed or having a difficult time.
A nice day really.



Hope you had a nice day too, sometimes a nice day is just what you need.

Gasping

A cup of tea and a chance to put my feet up that's all I want.
Kate and I have been in town for hours trying to find a pair of
bathers/swimmers/swimsuit/cossie for her.
Something decent and cute and not too expensive.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!


Stephen just suggested I crochet her a pair.
You can imagine Kate's reaction.

We have had more rain, never ending showers followed by sunshine that is forcing the garden to grow in a chaotic , fertile, overwhelming way.
The sun and rain seems to draw the sleeping plants up out of the ground and force them into flower.







Nature always wins, as much as we think we can tame it .

Stretching growing reaching out to cover everything man made in ridiculously healthy life.

You can smell the growth pushing out of the soil as the sun warms the rain soaked ground.

Growth pushing out from the leaves that fell in the autumn and have rotted and nourished over the winter.
Stand still for too long and nature will reclaim you too, cover you in vines with flowers sprouting from your ears.








The incredible, in your head,down into your heart smell of wet , warmed jasmine, frothing and lolling in the morning sun.

Intoxicating and for some reason forever taking me back to the sunwarmed streets of Melbourne's inner suburbs, Richmond near west Richmond station near my sister's house so long ago the sweet frangrance mingled with the smell of gas from leaky pipes.

Our old flat in Prahran, jasmine in a tub at the door, living just across the road from Prahran train station and its little level crossing in Greville Street, the vintage treasure shops, the boot man, the biodynamic food shop, the hair dresser who wanted to dye my hair orange, the old record shop, the vegetarian restaurant and the Post Office just off Chapel Street where, rushing up the steps to pick up a birthday parcel from my family I ran straight into the English actor Michael York winding him and almost said something very rude.
Sitting on the steps outside our cosy little flat, sitting in the sunshine with the jasmine beside me listening to someone playing a trumpet at the empty train station.
It's all half my lifetime ago and it's all there every spring time when I close the gates and wave goodbye to my family, when I reach through the jasmine to draw the gates closed and walk back to the house and feel my earlier life walking with me.

1. Nurse Nancy, Illustrations by Corinne Malvern, 1952- Nursing Dollies,
2. dolly~ from German nursery rhymes, 3. E. V. Abbott - Doll's House,
4. Nog bij moeder, 5. Rene Cloke - front cover illustration,
6. Mabel Lucie Attwell, 7. Lost Doll, 8. Hush Baby my dolly,
9. Standard Plumbing Ad, 10. A Broken Head - And Heart,
11. Bathing, 12. Pretty curls

The Flickr group Dolly and Me is such a lovely group.
Why don't you pop over and have a look.

Why would a sweet little cat like Shackleton think that this is the perfect place to sit.
On the cupboard in the hallway on top of my Little Golden Books.
She sits up straight, usually with her eyes closed, apparently asleep.



You know we have four cats, Shackleton and Badger and their mother Maggie, as well as Phoebe who is the oldest.








Badger




Phoebe



Maggie has been unwell, she has a nasty wound on her belly and has been moping for a few days. This morning she disappeared completely and I feared the worst but she turned up round morning tea time, just appeared in the hallway and has spent the day sleeping on the table beside me while I sew very happy and content.
She ate a big meal for tea and seems to be on the mend.









If you fancy cats, I know some people don't,
but if you do you can see more pictures in my Flickr set.

Much organising, list making , checking of supplies going on around here.


Lots of pattern drawing, sewing machine whirring and scissors snipping.


I'm finalising all my lists for dolls for the rest for the year, allotting time and supplies to make sure each doll is made in good time.


Trips to the post office and lists to go with me there too making sure I have the packaging supplies I need.


It's exciting here in Santa's helper's studio otherwise known as the playroom, though just for today I have taken over the kitchen too because I have a lot of machining to do.


These pictures are old, from two or three years ago but the scene is much the same.
This picture below is one of my most viewed photos on Flickr - it looks like a complete mess or a genius at work??? Complete mess probably.














There has been a lot of baking and cooking going on too.
I do need to keep my strength up don't I.
This cold wet weather really make you hungry !!!

Just had the very best day today.
We drove up the north west coast to Port Sorrell to Kate's writer's camp.
We drove through the most beautiful picture perfect farmland, red and chocolate soil of the newly ploughed fields.
So many shades of green , the pastures, the crops, the trees, the hedges, the grass by the side of the road.
Not a direct road to be found just a series of straights and right angles as we threaded our way around farms through hamlets such as East Sassafras, Moriarty,Thirlstane and the elusive Harford.


Port Sorrell was calm and sleepy, the camp was alive with children who had willingly given up a public holiday and a Saturday to get together and write.

We had a picnic lunch, listened to the writing that the children wanted to share and then wound our way home.









We stopped at the Big Spud to buy a 10kg bag of locally grown potatoes and some brand new asparagus.


We stopped at the Christmas Hills Raspberry Farm and had the biggest raspberry ice cream cone I have ever seen.


The asparagus will have to wait for tomorrow, we are still full from the icecream and a toasted sandwich will hit the spot nicely.
Just the best day.