new dolls in the shop

Alanna


Alanna has found a home, thank you






Baby






Betsy

Betsy has found a home, thank you.







Poppy

Poppy has found a home, thank you.





Pink tiny baby







Green tiny baby







Sweet poppet

Sweet poppet has found a home, thank you.





Sarah

Sarah has found a home, thank you.


All in the shop now

Exhausted!!!!!!!

A slow day for me at the market today but lots of lovely visitors and plenty of time for quiet dolly work.



There was heavy rain this afternoon and there seemed to be correspondingly light crowds, not so good for people watching, one of the delights of spending time at markets.

The Niche Market is on tomorrow through until Sunday, 10am to 4pm


I will be there with my very excited little dollies.

Who else will be there?



Behind the Door


Bikkuri


Black Eyed Susie


Bruno Barcodi


Dick and Dora


Four Little Poppets


Franrosie


Freshwater Cultured Jewellery


Hideyo


Hungry Kitty


Indeco


Iron Pot Bay


Isis


Life as a Bird


Loz and Dinny


Oliv


Perfecto Interiors


Rebecca Roth


Red Bamboo


Red Wren


Soewn Earth


Sugoi


That Vintage


The Purple Finch


Three Blind Mice

Are you old enough to remember when bubs and tots wore frilly knickers over their big bottomed cloth nappies ( diapers) ?

So, so cute.

Secrets

from a little sweetness



I have a little secret to share with you.


My friend Tasha of ' a little sweetness' is having a wonderful give away and she wants you to enter.

Tasha not only has a great time with her four beautiful boys and one darling daughter she also designs beautiful whimsical fabrics and embroideries and has recently opened an Etsy shop.

I bought some of her fabric a month or so ago and I have finally used a little of it to dress one of my dollies for the Niche Market this weekend.







Excuse the crazy lighting in these pictures as my camera
was having some kind of photographic fit.








I have used a panel of Tasha's fabric between some aqua and red mini polka dot fabric.

It's so pretty don't you think and she has added lots more lovelies to her store.

What an exciting thing to do, to design fabric, to choose exactly what colours you want and then have it printed.







So take a wander over to Tasha's blog
and then to her shop to choose a favourite and
quickly pop back to the blog and enter the give away.




from a little sweetness

This little one has found a home, thank you





This little one has found a home, thank you.

These two little guys are in the shop now.

Cute and cuddly and safe for all ages.

Oh, and I actually forgot to put anything in the shop yesterday.

I will do a small update when I get back from lunch.

I have a couple of little dolls like the one above but they have knitted caps rather than hair and they will have a little pinafore as well.

They are about 8" tall and a perfect little doll for a little one.



Catch you later! she said, skipping off into the distance.

Hello

Lots of wonderful dolly work going on here.

Custom order dolls and loveliness for the market are filling my days and my head.

The house is full, my boys are in residence getting to know each other after a year of hard work and a lot of time apart.

Kate is singing the week away with the school vocal ensemble visiting Nursing Homes and enjoying lots of morning and afternoon teas with the residents.


Today I am out for lunch to celebrate my little sister's birthday.
Remember Jenny,
no knitting,
do NOT take your knitting with you when you go out to lunch no matter
how tempting it may be.
Take a break!

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

Pixie poppet

Just popping in to tell you that the little poppet who should have been in the shop yesterday is there now.

Pixie poppet has found a home , thank you.

Isabelle

What about that rain, local ladies ??!!??

And I had to go outside to close the garage door to prevent a flood!!!


Good grief, so I managed photos of one doll and of course the sun is starting to peep out again now but I have other things to do so today's update will be just one doll.



But she is such a honey.

Meet Isabelle and her teddy bear.

Sweetness personified.

She is in the shop now.


Little Isabelle has found a home, thank you.

Shop Update

Small shop update this afternoon, if the weather/light co operates for a photo session.
It has just come over all dark and the word rain had been mentioned.



Only ten days until Niche, well until the day to set up our stalls.

Kate has had one of her sweetest friends to stay this weekend.

The weather was beautiful all weekend and Stephen worked/played in the garden all day every day.

We scored a second hand couch for free, it needs a new less bland cover but that will have to wait.
Also bought a really good second hand cook top to replace our less than stellar gas cook top that was always choking and was down to only two sometimes working burners.
We ( read Stephen) just have to organise an electrician to wire it in.


Kate goes away to camp on Wednesday - YAY!!!! ( of course I will miss her but she is excited about going on a proper camping in tents kind of camp, and near the sea)

Andy has his last exam on Wednesday - YAY!!!!

Louis is coming home on Saturday - YAY!!!!








I have done all the housework so now I get to play with dollies until tea time - YAY!!!!

Mess

I think this is politely called Creative clutter.

I think it is actually a big mess.

This is what greeted me this morning, the telling evidence of yesterday's events.


Yesterday afternoon I had to go out to the 'Big School' to pick up Kate after orientation day for Grade 7 next year.
Can you believe she is going to high school next year??!!

She had a great day and so did I.









I don't go over that side of town very often so I took the chance to visit the op shop and found a whole basket of glorious mohair yarn.
I couldn't justify buying all the beautiful colours, I stuck to suitable hair yarns.



The pattern is an etsy buy that both buyer ( me) and seller ( Sonja) had given up for lost, it was waiting in the letter box when I got home.








The other treasure from the op shop, apart from two pairs of trouser and a cute skirt all being washed as we speak, is this dear little book.
I have googled it and can't find anything about it or the author Dominique.
It is a Belgian book, translated into English and the illustrations are gorgeous.
The little boy, Kito, is just the perfect sweet little boy, somewhere between a Betsey Clark and that other Belgian Marcel Marlier.
I would love to be able to make a little doll as sweet as this little character.
The book is dated 1969.
I know I have at least one Belgian reader who is very interested in children's book illustrators so maybe Sabine can help me to find out more.









This little tin isn't an op shop find , it's a relic from my youth but it has found a home on my work table filled with wooden buttons.








And this is the little doll I abandoned when I left to go to school yesterday.



The other very important reason to visit school yesterday was for the official opening of Andy's senior photography exhibition.
His major project was an exploration of camera toss , you can see some examples of his work here.
I sacrificed my old camera to his camera tossing and his bedroom floor disappeared under mattresses and cushions to provide a safe landing.

So much variety in the all students work.
If you are a local you could pop into Poimena Gallery and have a look.



OK time to stop farnarkling and get on.

Andy Pandy

If you are about my age and grew up in Australia, New Zealand or the UK chances are you recognise this little chap.

Yes it's Andy Pandy.

Welcome to the world of children's television circa 1963.

My family didn't get a television until 1963, TV only came to Australia in 1956.
I was 4 and it was the year before I started Kindergarten.


Programmes were not on all day and I can't really remember too much but I do remember watching Andy Pandy in the afternoon ( I think ) and I do remember thinking he was a bit stupid.
I preferred the Flowerpot Men but only because of the way they talked.

Perhaps I was a little old for it all.

My initial early childhood reaction to TV was one of boredom.



Mind you within a few of years I had overcome my cool reaction and was totally in love with Adventure Island and Kimba the White Lion.








I found this almost destroyed book in the op shop and bought it for 20c.








It is an early television marketing attempt by the BBC








Lots of stories about their Children's shows, fun activities and so on.








But the title of the book, Watch with Mother clearly infers that they want TV to be a shared experience rather than to be used as a babysitter.
Interesting isn't it when TV viewing is often a solitary experience now for children while Mum gets on with the things she needs to do.
I wonder how many Mums in the 1960s sat down with their children to watch Andy Pandy.
I know mine didn't, did yours.








Actually the thing that most attracted me to the book was the beautiful end papers, torn but spectacular don't you think?

I was feeling a little glum yesterday afternoon.

There was knock at the front door and it was the parcel postie.

She said" a parcel for you Jenny."

I always wonder how she knows my name and then I remember Doh! it's written on the parcel.



I was expecting much needed wool supplies - why anyone who knows they have bazillion dolls to make before Christmas let her wool stuffing supplies get so low is beyond me.



But no, not wool.
Instead a wonderful surprise package from a dear blog reader.
Not only the sewing machine manual she said she would send but beyond beautiful 1930s style fabrics in all the colours of the rainbow, just perfect for everything to do with dollies, plus every attachment you could ever think of for a vintage sewing machine, and some I'm sure I never would have thought of, the manual to tell me how to use them and some sewing machine oil and grease.


I feel so spoiled, such a lovely , lovely gift.

Thank you so much.























This curly affair is the key for my sewing machine cover that Stephen fashioned out of an old bicycle spoke - pretty good huh.








And just to prove that dolls really are being produced here at Little Jenny Wren Central, here is a sweet little one who headed off to the US earlier in the month.


I am actually working night and day on dolls, the work is good, I am enjoying every moment of it.
Doing what I love,
surrounded by my family, home, pets and garden
- what could be better, I ask you.