A Productive time

Hi All ! Sorry I realise it's been a while since I did catch up, but have been busy taking my son around different uni's and taking him to Auditions, he is hoping for a BA in Musical Theatre, so all has been really busy around here, although it will all be worth it of course when he gets to where he wants to go on his next stage in his career path!

There has also been sickness in the house with winter bugs,but I think we're all getting over that now. Anyway for some of this week and all of last week I was on leave from the day job and able to catch up on tasks at home, and get some serious sewing done too.

This was what my kitchen table looked like for most of the week- busy busy!, with no room for anything else!

I sewed almost none stop from early morning to teatime, with lots of these to help me along -

And inbetween I had to keep doing this, otherwise I would have had complaints from my son, and my OH

And I also had some interference from him, I think he was trying to tell me I would do better making a start on the garden ready for spring ;)

But finally towards the end of the second week befor I went back to the day job, I managed to produce these!

And a few more besides. Now its just a case of photographing them all on the dolls, and loading them all into my shop, which has been rather depleted since after the Christmas rush.  Although I do have quite a large sale section in there at the moment.
I also am hosting a give away on this craft site at the moment if you want to pop on there to have a look just click on the Blog tag when you get there, it's a great site if you do something crafty yourself online you may want to put your blog or shop in there yourself, its well worth taking a look at.
Well onwards and upwards as they say, I must get on now with stocking up the shop and hope you can spare the time to pop in and have a look at all my work- when I have it all listed that is!
Bye for now and hope you all have a good weekend, and that this changable weather doesn't get you down too much. x
 -

JANUARY SALE NOW ON!

I hope that you all had a lovely christmas and heres wishing all a very happy, healthy and prosperous new year. Please do come and visit my January sale in the shop?

There's lots to choose from as you can see, and more besides .

Orders in time for Christmas please?

Hi there, hope everyone is coping in this awful snow, I have really had enough of it now as I'm sure most of you have!

On a lighter note I have been very busy with orders this year, and just want to remind you peeps that if you are thinking of ordering it needs to be in for the twelvth, so that I can get it processed and out to you for Christmas. Any orders after this date may not get to you in time.

Here are some of the outfits  I recently sold. Thank you to all my customers this last few months and I  hope that you are all pleased with your purchases.

In January I plan to have a sale for some of the items left in my shop so please watch out for that to grab yourself a bargain from Dotties dolls clothes.

Also I will be hard at work at the sewing machine to bring you some new spring designs.

Ballgowns for Bratz

I didn't realise it was so long since I'd posted on here!  I've been so busy with sewing,stocking the shop and getting orders ready that I have sold, so do please forgive me, anyway here and in the shop, as promised on my shop blog I think, also several months ago, are the Bratz ball gowns, they fit the regular 10 inch high Bratz dolls, Would love it if you pop by in the shop to take a look--before it all goes at this rate !!

Busy sewing to stock the shop

Hi there, What awful rainy weather we are having here in the West Yorkshire region, and I'm sure in other regions too, like many of you I am not looking forward to Winter, I am just not a winter person, however I have been keeping busy sewing new Items for the shop for the coming winter season. Coats and berets, a duffle coat, and hoping to get some more seasonal items on soon ready for Christmas shoppers. Oh no! I hear you say, she said that dreaded C word!, I know I'm not keen on it yet either, but it will come sooner than we think, so I have to be prepared. Here is a taster of some of the recent items to my shop :-

And of course before C********s we have Halloween!

I do try to sew for most occasions and seasons, I think it is important for dolly to dress accordingly!  ;)
I hope to be adding a lot more soon, -  time allowing so please pop into the shop from time to time, you are always welcome, until then have a lovely weekend despite the rain. xx

Goodies through the post

Hi there, my back and chest infection are slowly improving and actually managed to get some gardening done yesterday, only lawn mowing  and a little pruning but it all helps  doesn't it, am slowly getting there. I did have a lovely parcel of goodies through the post last week! Three lovely room spray from Cards, Candles and Karma, they sell home fragrances, candles and all sorts of scrummy smelling goodies, well worth a look. This was a gift/prize from them for being a facebook fan of theirs and liking their page on facebook. Pop over there and look at their goodies, I am sure you will find something you love.

Feeling lousy but had a sale

Hi all, sorry but todays blog is a bit of a moan, am I allowed?, ok I'll make it a quick one. Well I was going to do so many things with my two and a half weeks leave from the day job, which I am into the second day of now, but unfortunately had to retire to bed on friday evening feeling lousy with the start of a chest infection, now into fourth day of it and going to doctors later today to get some antibiotics, and as always happens my back has started to play up due to the inactivity. Ah well, onwards and upwards as they say, the upside is I had a sale yesterday after a very quiet period and sold this cute little coat set to fit Annabell, I can always make similar if anyone is interested.

Well thats all from me for today, sorry for the moan., and hope to get back to my usual blogging self soon.

Rainy Tuesday

Hi again, the weather here in West Yorkshire is atrocious! It has rained most of the night and all morning so far, Jazz, our cat went out for a short while but quickly came back after doing the neccesary and took his place by the fire-

And looked at me plaintively as if to say, " Mum why can't you make this rain stop?"

I wish I could little one!

Rainy Saturday

Hi there again, well isn't the weather terrible, and this morning I was actually quite cold when I first got up so I decided to put the fire on whilst I drank my first cuppa of the day!

Another reason I needed the fire on was because our  cat  Jazz had been out for a while and it had been pouring with rain, and this is the only entrance to the house that he will use.

Anyway when I'd had my cuppa I decided to make some jam with these blackcurrants and gooseberies from the garden, I know there are only a few gooseberries, it's only a little bush and didn't do too well this year, but the blackcurrants are giving a good yeild this year. I know they look a little squishy but thats because I picked them on Wednesday evening and was working on Thursday and friday morning so I froze them and thawed them out overnight to make the jam today

Oh dear !

Anyway after getting all my ingredients together Jazz decided to make an appearance and was loudly demanding his food so ----

It was feeding time

And warm by the fire time---incidentally whilst taking this picture I managed to take a better picture of the beady flowers spray that I showed you a couple of blog posts ago.

Do you see it curling to the top of this arrangement, if you click to make the picture larger you will be able to see the little red rhinestones set into the middle of each flower, I love to look at this, isn't it funny how such a simple little thing can bring such joy, must be the weather!

Anyway back to the jam,

I had my little ramekin dish of cold water all ready to test the setting  point.

And then for the boring bit of stirring ,stirring , and testing

I had to put it into two seperate pans at this stage because I forgot how much it bubbles up and I was afraid of it boiling over.

and finally, three pots of blackcurrant jam and a little half pot of gooseberry which will be guarded with my life --MINE!, Oh I don't mean to be so mean but I simply adore gooseberry Jam and don't see it often in the supermarket.

Well by now the rain had stopped so I went to inspect the blackcurrant bush to see if any more were plump enough for picking, it is getting rather ravaged now with the wind and rain, but hopefully there will be some more soon.

As you can see they're starting to drop on the floor with the wind and rain. And I picked a little spray to put on the mantlepiece to cheer up the room a little, don't know what these are called , a neighbour gave me the bulbs some time ago and they are just starting to come out so I thought I would pick some before the weather gets to them. Come on weather cheer up! its August for goodness sake!

It's quite pretty isn't it. Well thats about all today folks apart from to say thankyou again to Sherry from Alabama for her kind comment on my last blog, it really is nice to know I'm not blogging to myself all this time, and just to say I would really like to hear your comments, and what you have been up to, also look out for some more Rag doll clothes coming soon to my shop, http://www.dotties-dolls-clothes-emporium.co.uk/

Get yourself along there and have a nosey, thanks for listening and take care until the next blog.

Busy time sewing

I have had a busy time sewing the last week when I haven't been working ! I have been making one of my rag dolls for my great neices ninth birthday, she looked at my shop online then gave me precise details of what she wanted, eye colour, hair colour,  skin colour and that she wanted pink bloomers, not white, Bless her!

This was the finished result, right down to the little white felt trainers that she wanted. I do hope she'll like it!

You can just see the little pink dog daisies I embroidered on the sides of them.

This and That

Hi again, just thought I'd show you bits and bats of  my favorite things around the place today, This is a cross stitch picture I made that I have hanging in my kitchen, I used to do quite a lot of cross stitch before I started my online dolls clothes shop, don't have as much time for it now, although I keep promising myself I will finish my victorian house wall hanging that I have been stitching on linen for years on and off now, it is a delightful wall hanging showing all the rooms of the house in great detail, I will photograph it later in the week up to where I have got to in it, that may encourage me to finish it, and then show you the finished result, come to think of it I have loads of UFO's in my cupboards, have you many unfinished objects? perhaps if you talk about them in my blog here you may be encouraged to finish them.

The other thing I thought I might share with you is the stem of beady flowers I bought today on the way back from my hydrotherapy at the hospital, felt like treating myself it was rather expensive at £4.99 for one stem but I felt I deserved it after working hard at my underwater exercises.  Here it is peaping out of my grasses etc. It is made up of lemon beads and little red rhinestone set centres, thought it went well with the Valentine fairylights that I liked so much I never got around to putting them away until next Valentines day!

Sorry that picture is a little overexposed I'm not the best of Photographers I'm afraid, will try again in my next blog entry when I will show you the new outfits I have made for my shop to fit Annabell and Barbie. Meanwhile I will show you the last outfit I made for Baby born, still up for sale and I really did think it would be snapped up- just goes to show eh?

I think thats all I have to show you for know, don't forget to post about the UFO's, take care until we meet again.

Lobby - All done!

Busy Day, lots of things to show you

Well today is the last day of my weeks annual leave, and it's continued  to rain all week but still have managed to get lots of things done so all hasn't been in vain, it would have been nicer if I could have sat in the garden a little but, heyho!   -was not to be. I went out yesterday to do a little shopping , just general things , toiletries, some more paint brushes and a new doormat for when I have finished decorating the lobby, but couldn't resist coming home with this too,as It was really cheap and -- I needed it!

Really I did need it, you see I have Fibromyalgia, and sometimes it really hurts my hand when pushing the plunger of the cafetierre down, so now - yey, no more plunging in the mornings , and as I said was really cheap, just £7.99 from Wilkinsons, don't know if I'm allowed to advertise on a blog but anyway I've done it now.    So anyway I bet your thinking what about the progress with the lobby, well I'm still getting on with it slow but steady, it involves working in a confined space and a lot of looking up when I paint the ceiling which makes me go rather dizzy, but I am persevering and all will be revealed when I finish it, but for now just so that you don't think I'm skiving here is another progress photo.

Well as I say I made a lot of progress on the lobby, then when I'de done all the boring housework stuff I made these lovely buttercreamy good things, and a chicken curry for dinner tonight.

Remember the blanket I was inspired to make by Lucy at Attic 24?, well here is the picture of my progress so far, managed to do some more of that today too,

I am sooooo enjoying crocheting again after all this time, I think the last thing I crocheted  was a pram blanket for my freinds baby when I was about 24, and I'm 57 now!!, and the baby has daughters of her own!  And the last thing I have to show you today is a little sneak preveiw of some of the Barbie outfits I have been making for my shop to replace the ones I sold.

She wasn't being very good today, she was waving at someone I think. -- I did tell you I was getting a bit eccentric, if someone could come along and chat to me on here you could halt the progress of my eccentricity!  Well it's back to work on Monday so I may not have as much time to blog, but I still have the weekend to sew in amongst the household jobs. I hope you all have a good weekend, and also hope we all have some good weather in there.

Bye for now!

Annual leave- progress, and relaxation

Hi there, The weather is not being very kind to me on this weeks annual leave, it is very dark and dismal and sometimes rainy, however, I am progressing with decorating my lobby, have now got all the paintwork rubbed down and repainted, ta daa!

It isn't showing at it's shiniest because of the lack of daylight we have today but believe me, it is shiny!, now I have to keep both doors open until its dry as I have painted in the door jambs, so I am hoping it won't rain too hard---or thunder! !

Stripping and stackers

Hi again, Yesterday was stripping day---no not me, don't think that would conjure up a very good picture, but since we decorated  the lounge some time ago and didn't get around to painting the paper on one wall, deciding to leave it white for a while ( really because we'de had enough of decorating for a while), we also left the small lobby that leads from the front door into the lounge, so-- seeing how I have a week off work , decided to finish up on the decorating and this is the 'nearly finished stripping lobby'-----

Now you may think why is she showing such a disgustingly shabby picture, but watch this space and hopefully will be showing you a brand spanking new lobby soon. 

Made to order bathrobe for a Rag Doll

I recently made this little fleece bathrobe and slippers at a customer's request and thought I would share it with you, I like to make things specially for someone at their request , as it feels more special somehow, gives me a warmer feeling than just making something and putting it in the shop in the hope that someone will come along and like it.

I have a full weeks leave next week from my 'day job' so I can sew, list and blog to my heart's content, along with doing all those jobs around the house and garden that I have been putting of for ages, also have started to make a crochet stripey blanket to snuggle up to in winter when I get the 'shivers'. I got inspiration from the blog - Attic 24, a fascinating blog by a very talented lady, that I love to delve into now and then, her designs are so colourful and her blog is an inspiration in itself.

So as I was saying loads to do next week, don't know if I'll fit everything in but will have a good try.  I will post a picture of my blanket when it starts to 'grow more', which will probably take me some time as I havn't done any crochet for a very long time.