Buttercup Betty ~ My Spring Doll Challenge Completed

Hi everyone, hope you are having a lovely weekend.  It is still warm here but a change is coming or so they are forecasting.  It's cloudy and a bit breezy today and rain is coming but that's OK as it is getting very dry around here and the forest fire season has had an early start.  So a little rain to add some moisture and some cooler temperatures will be welcome.

I posted a while back about Wendy's Spring Doll Challenge that she was hosting at her blog, Ravenwood Whimzies.  Wendy provided us all with a doll body pattern and then we were to create whatever (or whoever!) we wanted with it.  I decided to combine Wendy's challenge with one of my Cloth Doll Artistry challenges (How Does Your Garden Grow) and Buttercup Betty was the result.

Here she is waiting (rather impatiently I might add!) for her bonnet and dress.  She is constructed of muslin and has a needle sculpted nose and painted features.

And here she is, ready to head out to the garden, where she resides and tends to all of the flowers and birds that live there.

Her prairie bonnet is framed with buttercup petals;

and her muslin apron is adorned with flowers and leaves that I've sewn and painted into place.

Even her shoes have flowers on them!

She carries with her a watering can filled with more flowers and moss so that she can spread Spring wherever she goes.

And she also cares for and protects the birds that visit her garden, as you can see by the wee wren that she has cradled in her arms.

I am so happy with the way that she turned out.

Thank you to Wendy for a fun challenge!  Make sure you head on over to her blog to see the other wonderful dolls that folks have created from her pattern for the challenge.

Buttercup Betty will actually be doing triple duty for me!  She will also be one of my new items that I will list in my Etsy shop for our Old Farmhouse Gathering team's "Summer Fun Celebration" that will be starting on May 20th.  Now to get to work on the other three items I promised to list for it!  Have a lovely weekend everyone and to all of the Mom's out there, have a wonderful Mother's Day tomorrow and enjoy your breakfast in bed xoxoxo

Deb

Mixing It Up

Good morning everyone!  It is a glorious day here in beautiful British Columbia; the sun is shining,

the daffodils and tulips are blooming,

the birds are singing and I have lots of dirt under my fingernails from digging in the garden.  I have the perennial garden and the garden by our front door cleaned up and dug so I brought out a couple of my garden 'decorations'.

I painted this little garden stake years ago, you can see it is getting a little worse for wear but it's so cute, a Terrye French design I do believe?

And this pretty 'jardin' stepping stone was a gift from my brother and his family several years ago as well, love it!

Last post I shared with you a picture of some items I had gathered together for my Cloth Doll Artistry mixed media studio "Altered Bottle" challenge.

Well, here is what I ended up creating.  I'm calling it my "Altered Mason Jar Fairy Garden Light" :O)

Mixed media is new to me, I have long admired the works of other talented artisans who so seamlessly transform everyday items into works of 'heart'.  And now that I have tried my hand at it, I can certainly appreciate the draw of this particular artistic genre.

A mason jar, some tissue paper and some vintage stamps, good old modge podge, some moss and butterflies, a battery operated votive candle and voila, a fairy garden light!

I used the beehive textile bobbin as a stand for the light and wrapped it with some jute twine and some pretty wire wrapped beads that I found in the jewelry making section of my local craft store.  The trick, of course, is knowing when to stop, I could have continued to embellish the heck out it but decided to use a little restraint ;O)

All in all, I'm very pleased with it and plan to put it into a planter near the front door.  I kind of failed to take into consideration that I'd have to manually turn the votive off and on each evening when I conceived of the idea so it will be much easier to keep it close to the house so I can turn it on and off!

We've now been challenged to create a glass garden sculpture utilizing bits and bobs of glass and porcelain plates, bowls, vases, etc.  I'm going through the cupboards and drawers now looking for my 'components' and am thinking of a bird bath.  I have some lovely old willow pattern plates that are chipped and cracked that would make a good top piece and have to find my 'supports'.  And then a paper swap was proposed a couple of days ago as well, we are to create a 'Z-fold' card for our swap partners that they can then send to their friends or family.  I had to go look up what a 'Z-fold' card was, thank goodness for the internet!  Looks like fun, I've made simple folded cards before but never one like this, finally a chance to use the million and one stamps that I've collected over the years!

So what have you been up to lately?  Have you been 'mixing it up' as well?  Whatever it is, happy creating everyone and get outside and enjoy those gardens!  I've lots yet to do around the yard so best sign off for now and get back to digging.  We'll talk again soon,

Deb

Nope, That's Definitely NOT Primitive!

Yes, I am well aware that the picture above has absolutely NOTHING to do with primitive crafting but boy, oh boy is it FUN!  I signed up for a class called "A Whole New Doodle" with Stephanie Ackerman and I can't stop doodling!  Who knew that the letters of the alphabet could provide one with endless possibilities?  I did the page above while watching the NHL hockey playoff games last night (Go Canucks or Go Habs, just one of you please, please win!) and I've been itching to get back to more but I have lots of other things I should be doing.  My ADD is in high gear at the moment and I am going in 16 different directions!

I'm finally getting close to completing the pillow shams that my wonderful (and patient!) customer ordered, we ended up making them from burlap and stenciling some bunny images onto them.  It's been a long haul but I'm happy with the way they are turning out.

I'd never worked with burlap before and all I will say is that it is a "challenging" material to work with!!  I will have them done by Sunday and then get them into the mail along with the daisy ornaments I made for her:

The ornies have been completed for weeks as we've been hashing out the sham details and I am so thankful for her patience in waiting for the whole order :O)

I also finished up some new items and got them into my Olde Primitive Peddler shop for the 1st of the month.

I was in stenciling mode for the pillow shams so did a couple of wood signs and made my "test stencil" of the running hare into a little rag stuffed burlap pillow tuck.  And for my Prim Nest shop 1st of the month listings, I made another stenciled wood sign and listed my sheep door hanger.

I LOVE the "housework" sign, words to live by in my house!

The deadline for Wendy's "Spring Doll Challenge" over at Ravenwood Whimzies is looming closer (we have until May 12th to get our pictures of our completed dolls to Wendy) and I am a LONG way from finished yet!

I have doll parts but no doll yet!  She's there in my head, I know what I want to do with her, so she is next on the priority list once the pillow shams are 100% completed.  The buttercups are blooming in our yard and I was inspired by them in her design, hope she turns out the way I am imagining her (and I promise to get her done in time Wendy!).

And what do the following items have in common?!

A mason jar decoupaged with vintage stamps of fairies, butterflies, flowers and birds; a vintage beehive textile bobbin; a jar lid with an insert of burlap; jute twine; and a battery operated votive candle .... nope, I don't know yet either but I am hoping that somehow they will come together as my entry into the Cloth Doll Artistry Mixed Media Altered Bottle challenge.  Wish me luck, the concept is still very "unfocused" at the moment!

For those of you who are wondering how in the heck I can work on so many different things at one time all I can tell you is, that is how I've always been, this is normal for me.  Some folks can focus intently and single mindedly on one project but I've never been able to do that; my mind races in 16 different directions at once and I feel compelled to work on them all.  As you can well imagine, that makes for a rather chaotic workspace (OK, I admit it, it's a disaster zone around here at the moment!) but creativity for me evolves from chaos, what can I say!

And since I have so much spare time at the moment, we went for a hike up in the hills above us today with the pups and I took some photographs ;O)  The trees and flowers are just starting to emerge around here and I spied these sweet wild violas as we walked through an open meadow.

So pretty, makes me want to break out my watercolours .... no Debbie, no more projects, enough already!!  Have a great and productive weekend everyone!

Deb

What's Wrong With This Picture?!

What's wrong with this picture?!

And this picture ....

And this picture!

Yep, this is what I awoke to this morning!  Actually, the storm woke me up from a dead sleep at 4:00 a.m.; the wind was howling and ice pellets were pounding off the roof.  I dozed off and on till 7:00 then got up and looked out the window, yuck!

This site really concerned me ...

Our hummingbirds returned two days ago so I had made up a batch of syrup for them and hung out the feeder but when I saw the snow and the temperature this morning my heart sank, would the poor wee guys be able to endure this weather, would they survive?

Apparently they are much tougher than they look!  Mr. Rufous Hummingbird is definitely a little 'puffier' than normal but he was at his station, guarding the feeder and chasing off any other Rufous or Calliope hummer who dared to invade his turf!

Hang in there buddy, this weather can't last much longer .... can it?!

Deb

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The Name Says It All

Hi everyone, I just have to share with you this amazing pinkeep that I purchased from Nan Lewis over at Threadwork Primitives.  She calls it her "Cottage Charm Pinkeep" and my gosh, the name says it all, it is so charming!

I have to tell you that the picture does not do this beautiful pinkeep justice, the colours are exquisite and the stitching, oh my!  Nan stitched her design on 32 count antiqued linen, the delicacy of the stitches is quite amazing.  And look at the edges!

Perfect little cross stitches all around the edge of the pinkeep, so lovely!  If you are not familiar with Nan's work or her designs, please pay her a visit at her blog www.threadworkprimitives.blogspot.com and at her Etsy shop www.etsy.com/shop/threadworkprimitives.  She has wonderful finished items as well as her beautiful patterns for sale for all you stitchers out there.  Thanks so much Nan, I will treasure your pinkeep always.

My last post was about the challenges that I've commited to over at Cloth Doll Artistry and also at Ravenwood Whimzies.  I'm going to combine one of the CDA challenges with Wendy's Spring Doll challenge and have started on that doll.  Here's a peek:

Hee-hee, that's all your getting right now.  Wish I could show you more but I put my back out when I bent over to wash my feet in the shower a couple of days ago (sad but true!) and so my sitting and stuffing time has been curtailed significantly.  Fortunately the combined effects of Voltaren emulgel and ASA have worked their magic so it is already starting to feel better, thank goodness!  And it had better stay feeling better as not only do I have a lot of items to make and stuff but we are about to start on the destruction and re-construction of our back deck and I will need a  strong and healthy back for that particular endeavour!  DH will be home later today and then will be off work until the 28th so there will be much cursing and swearing hammering and sawing going on over the next few days around here ;O)

Since I probably won't be back for a few days here in Blogland as we work on the deck, have a great weekend everyone and I'll update you on the doll and the deck in a few.  Wish us luck!

Deb

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Challenges and Rain Drops

Good Saturday morning everyone.  As I sit here at the computer this morning, the world outside of my window is wet and, finally, warm.  It's been raining something fierce for the last 24 hours or so, we even had a couple of rumbles of thunder yesterday afternoon.  And I am so HAPPY!  Yep, happy to see the rain; to smell, for the first time this year, that fresh, alive, growing things smell that perfumes the air after a hard rain.  The ground is soaking up the moisture, the creek is leaping over it's banks and racing pell mell down the valley, the trees and bushes are starting to leaf out and I now have two crocuses in my garden, happy days!

And as for the challenges; well I am referring to three challenges that I have entered over at Cloth Doll Artistry.  Hopefully I'm not setting myself up for failure signing up for three to start but hey, that's me, in for a penny, in for a pound!  The first challenge is to create a fantasy garden denizen in a folk, primitive or vintage style.  I'm leaning towards a prairie garden fairy or elf or guardian and may incorporate Wendy's pattern (Ravenwood Whimzies) from her Spring Doll Challenge so I can fulfill two commitments in one doll.  She's mostly in my head right now so nothing to show you on paper (other than Wendy's pattern of course!) and I have to go visit my fabric stash to see what inspires me.  I'm envisioning a prairie bonnet on her head that is framed with flower petals, lady bugs and birds and bees as her companions, a watering jug in her hands??  Hmmm, getting there!

The second challenge is to make something utilizing rag fringe, you know, like in a rag quilt?  I've 'ragged' some little hearts as you know (see my tutorial here) but have never made anything larger.  So for this challenge I'm considering some ragged Christmas stockings.  And yes, I know it is April but I've been meaning to make DH and I and the three pups new Christmas stockings for years now and this may just be the ticket.  First things first though, I have to go do some internet research to find out how to make a rag quilt; I've been wracking my brain trying to visualize how you sew the corners where the ragged squares intersect and join with each other and I'm not seeing it!  Thank goodness for YouTube!

And finally, the last challenge I've entered is to make a fantasy soft animal.  Initially this seemed like the easiest one until I started to try and visualize a fantasy animal.  Everything I drew became a real animal, I couldn't help myself!  I doodled and doodled and doodled and then totems came into my mind.  I spent most of my youth living on the coast of British Columbia and the art and culture of the West Coast Salish people is a strong influence here.  Totems led me to Thunderbirds, that mythological bird of prey that brings the thunder and lightening, and from there came my Sumabird, Bringer of Summer.

As you can see, I'm still very much in the conceptual phase but I'm liking where she is headed so far.  She is a much kinder, gentler bird than the Thunderbird; her head is crowned in flowers, the sun and the clouds reside on her belly and her tears bring the Summer rains.  I've doodled some more since taking this picture and now her wings have become the bringer of the gentle Summer breezes and her feet are covered with flowers so they will grow wherever she lands.  I'm having a lot of fun with this and am so happy that I've joined CDA to expand my horizons, learn new techniques and get me out of my comfort zone.  Sumabird is still very much me, but I don't know that I would have come up with her if not for the challenge.  I'll post pics of my challenges as I progress; both the primitive fantasy garden denizen and the fantasy soft animal are to be completed by June 20th.  Fortunately the rag quilt creation is a 'bonus' challenge and I have until November to get it completed, thank goodness!

 And just to add to my list of things to do, our Old Farmhouse Gathering team will be having their Summer Fun Celebration in May and sign ups start at the end of this month.  So I have to get my thinking cap on for that as well as I usually try to make four new items to list in my Etsy shop for our celebrations.  And let's see, what else??  Wendy's Spring Doll Challenge as I mentioned above; I'm still working on the special order pillow shams for my customer (I have discovered that my tried and true image transfer technique no longer works as Golden appears to have changed the formulation of the Tar Gel so I'm searching for a new method!); new items also need to be made for my Olde Primitive Peddler shop and my Prim Nest shop for May 1st; and a new pattern or two for PatternMart .... ummm, I'm thinking that is more than enough, I need to get more sticky notes plastered on my computer so I remember to do all of this STUFF!!

 So having said all of that, I had better get off of this computer and get to work :O)  Have a great weekend everyone and we'll talk again soon,

Deb

Where For Art Thou Spring?

Well, Spring was here for a short period of time; it was so warm and sunny and beautiful at the end of March that I made a very serious mistake.  I  ... gulp ... broke out my flip flops and ... gasp ... wore them!  So yes, I am admitting it here for all to see, the crummy, crappy, snowy weather we are all suffering through right now is my fault because I wore my flip flops in March.  My deepest apologies to everyone and all I can say is, it won't happen again!

It has snowed here off and on for the last few days as well as hailing intermittently.

We even had a bout of freezing rain the other night, the car was encased in a coat of frozen rain drops when I took the pups out for their walk.  Fortunately the snow has not been sticking down where we are but above us on the hill, it is looking very wintery.  And with the rain and melting snow and hail comes the mud!

 Sorry that The Queen looks blurry in this photo, she hates having her picture taken and immediately bolts as soon as I point a camera at her.  And The Delinquent was off coursing through the bush trying to sniff out some woodland creatures so I didn't get her in this frame either.  They all love the mud though, a very favourite pass time is to find the biggest, deepest, muddiest mud puddle and lie down in the middle of it; nothing like sitting next to three soaking wet, muddy, smelly dogs on the return drive home!  But at least it is a hopeful sign that we have mud rather than frozen earth.  I, like so many others around Blogland, am longing for Spring to truly arrive; when the song birds returned in mid-March along with the beautiful warm weather I thought she had made her debut but apparently it was only a sneak peek, the main attraction hasn't started yet.  So I wait, impatiently I might add!

To pass the time, I've been doing some more cross-stitching.  I love doing it, especially in the evenings, but found that I was struggling to see in the dim light we have in the house.  So I broke down and purchased an Ott-Lite at Michael's (50% off sale, woo-hoo!) and what a difference it makes.  They are expensive to be sure but well worth the money, I can see what I'm stitching now!  Here's my latest finish, I combined a couple of subrosa's free patterns to make this little pinkeep.

I started out to stitch her 'Happy Easter' pattern but since Easter had come and gone before I got my Ott-Lite, I used the alphabet from this sampler to letter the words "Mom's Pinkeep".  And I used a wonderful free software program called KG-Chart LE to lay out the lettering; check it out if you like to design your own cross-stitch patterns or if, like me, you need lots of help to make sure everything is aligned properly!  I used my favourite Valdani floss again, this is O 126, on 14 count Aida cloth and then backed it with a teal floral cotton print and did a little tea staining.  With Mother's Day just around the corner, I thought it would be a perfect gift for any Mom who loves to stitch, either to use as a pinkeep or as a tuck or bowl filler.  It's listed at my Prim Nest shop if you are interested.

I bought a lovely stash of Aida cloth from Barb at Barb's Heartstrokes and there are several pieces of 18 count and 22 count so I am going to give those a try next.  As a newbie stitcher, I've only ever stitched on 14 count Aida cloth and after seeing some of the amazing and intricate stitching out there in Blogland I am eager to try some different foundations.  Stitching on linen would be the next step to take but think I'll use up my stash from Barb before I venture into that  medium.  I just ordered some more Valdani floss from Michelle over at The Raspberry Rabbits and Barb very generously added some skeins of DMC floss to my parcel when I ordered from her, so I will be stitching up a storm here soon.  Now I will have to invest in some proper needles, I've been reading with great interest on Marly's blog about the difference in stitching needles; who knew?!  I always just grabbed whatever was closest in my pinkeep and whatever had the biggest eye so I could easily thread it.  Apparently this is not a good approach to be using!  What's that saying about the more you know?  I think it is something along the lines of "The more you know, the more you realize you know nothing"; Socrates I think?  Smart guy because isn't that the truth!

I'll leave you today with a picture that I just took in my front garden this morning.

Our first crocus of Spring has pushed it's way up out of the detritus!  She's not open yet but hopefully she will blossom and show me her beautiful stamens later today once the sun hits the garden.  So there is hope, hope that Spring will arrive soon.  And for those in Boston affected by the terrible tragedy yesterday, I send hope that you will be able to rise above the horror and the pain and flourish once again.  My thoughts and prayers are with you all,

Deb

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Spring Doll Challenge At Ravenwood Whimzies Primitives & Folk Art

Have you heard the news?  Wendy over at Ravenwood Whimzies Primitive & Folk Art blog is having another one of her fun creative challenges.  In a nut shell, Wendy provides you with a simple doll pattern and it is up to you to create your very own, OOAK doll based on Wendy's pattern.  The sky is the limit on what kind of doll you make, you are only limited by your imagination!

Wendy's challenges are a lot of fun to do, I participated in her Basil the bunny challenge a couple of years ago and the variety of bunnies that were created from Wendy's pattern were amazing.  Here's a picture of my Basil bunny, Basil Lepine, that I created from Wendy's pattern:

So hope you'll join in with this challenge, just click Wendy's sewing machine image above or click here to head to her blog post to sign up.  Doll's are to be completed by May 12th and a picture of your finished doll submitted to Wendy so she can share everyone's creations :O)  Thanks so much Wendy, it is going to be fun!

Deb

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