Cup cakes for my son

I just made these cup cakes for my son, to celebrate his glowing report and grades from college that I got through the post from college this morning, soooooooooooooo proud of him, and knowing he is on the right path to achieve his carear goals. Well done my son!

A trip to Mum's

Hi again, this blogpost I am going to show you a little of where I used to live when I was younger and where my mum still lives. It's a little village in Lancashire.  Mum is 87 now but still in quite good health, she lives alone but has lots of  contact with my sisters, their families and my neice. Sadly we lost Dad three years ago.
We often go to see her on a Sunday and if its decent weather we sometimes go for a meal together at a nearby Carvery.

We always look at the water levels of the dam as we pass on our way to the motorway in Yorkshire, some of you may recognise it as Scammonden Dam. It was a lovely warm day.

This was my old primary school in the village where Mum lives. it is a house now, so you can tell how tiny it was. there was a hall, where our morning assemblies were held, and where we read our Catechism, on saints days we went to the church which was directly across the road, the church yard is on both sides of the road, next to church and school, my Dad's grave is there and only five minutes walk from Mum's house so she can visit there regularly.
There were just two classrooms in the school, and lunches were served in the schoolhouse kitchen next door, a cloakroom at the back and a small schoolyard and outside toilet block. I went to this School from being ten When we moved here from the town, until senior school at twelve. I think there were probably about 70 children attended. The 8,9 and ten year olds were all taught in one classroom at different educational levels, and the 5-7s in the other remaining classroom and hall.

This is the veiw from the end of Mum's back garden. A large field, it used to be fields at the front of the house as well, I could run through fields all the way down the lane and then uphill to the farm at the top where I used to play with a playmate who lived on the farm. Of course it has all been built on now and the farm was turned into a childrens home for a while.
These horses have been here for a large number of years now, they are rescue horses and there are five altogether, they come and look over Mum's hedge waiting for apples.
When the houses were first built and the hedge wasn't there, there used to be cows in the field , and on returning from a shopping trip, after hanging out the washing before we left we returne to find all the cows in the, as yet, unmade garden and all the washing being trampled under their feet!, I remember Mum being understandingly furious and us both being a little scared. But I also remember lying in the field on sunny days amongst the cows with my school books studying, and also remember Dad stopping me from trying to climb onto their backs to ride them, so I must have got over the washing experience.

This is my OH tucking into the carvery Sunday lunch that we had that day, £6.50 per head with free ice cream thrown in. - Can't be bad, can it?.  Mum loves to go there, and we all enjoy the meal.
Must go now, I have to go online to book which tutors to see at my son's parents evening at his College, it's the first time I've done this so I hope I don't make any mistakes, How life changes, everything computerised now, a far cry from life in that little village church school that I showed you earlier!

The making of a rag doll

Hi again. Well today I thought it might be interesting to show you what goes into the making of my rag dolls that I sell in the shop . I have had some comments from customers, that although good, saying the dolls are lovely and that they pleased with their purchase, that they expected them to be bigger, I make them  to measure about 13 inches tall. This is by no means a tell off to the people concerned, as I am very grateful and pleased with all who purchase but just thought it would be interesting really  to show the work that goes into making them.

I start by painting the face with fabric dye, shaping the head and sewing all the pieces of the doll together.

Then I turn the peices and stuff all the body components, with fire resistent wadding, and stitch the parts together to make the doll.

Then its time to make the hair from wool and sew it together.

And stitch it to the dolls head.

Then its time to make the removable outfit. The bloomers, all lace trimmed.

The dress, all the clothes are overlocked, trimmed with lace etc.

The broderie-anglaise apron, also trimmed with lots of lace and ribbons etc.

Little shoes made from either felt or leather look fabric,

And so we come to the finished doll, all ready and waiting to be adopted!

And finally, I digress, seen in Wilkinsons store when I went in today, a lady trying on gardening gloves! Now am I missing something here?,-- I always thought they were one size!

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.