My 70s girl

I don't really have much to post about. I reformatted my computer and now it's not reading my camera. So I have no new pictures until that is fixed. I was doing my usual reading of random blogs in my bookmarks list and came across Pioneer Woman's blog. I love it so much. You must see the pictures of her house, they're so lovely. Makes me want to just drop everything and go buy a ranch (did I mention my dream house is an old ranch house. I'm not asking for much). Anyway, she has a section on her website that talks about photography. It's no surprise that I have this amazing camera but have done nothing more than point and shoot since I got it. It's on my to do list. But I digress. On her website she has some action sets that you can install in Adobe Photoshop CS2 (and higher?) that will allow you to edit your photos. I was really loving the 1970's look of a set she had done on her blog so I knew I had to have it for myself. I also just happened to have the perfect picture to make into a vintage 70's look.

I love love love the way it turned out. I feel like going thru all my pictures now and tweaking them. Mind you I should be doing that anyway since I have Photoshop but usually they're straight out of the camera shots because I can't be bothered. But I'll definitely be playing with some of the other actions in the two sets so perhaps my posts might be more geared towards photography in the next few days?

Vegan Waldorf doll

I finally finished Ayla's doll. I had bought some fabric from Fabricland to make it with. I didn't want to go thru the online buying when I had decided to try my hand at making a Waldorf doll. I wanted to see how it would turn out with things I could find easily in any store. Mind you not everyone has a Fabricland near them but it was good enough for me. I think it was some generic skin toned cotton interlock fabric that I had stumbled upon when I was there that gave me the idea to try it this way. I wanted to use dental floss to shape the head but I had some dishcloth cotton on hand from when I knitted up my dishcloths so I used that instead. As you can see I really was just trying to get it done with the basics. The hair is made from some acrylic yarn I found at Michael's as well as the DMC embroidery floss for the eyes and mouth. I'll definitely have to work on my shaping for the eyes to make them more round but I'm really happy with making the mouth like that. The pattern is the 11' baby doll from Dancing Rain Dolls. I actually went ahead and ordered some real doll making supplies while I was at it.

So I'm thinking about making these dolls to sell around here, I won't be using the same pattern as this doll for obvious reasons. I actually have a completely different design in mind for the dolls I want to make. I haven't gotten the supplies yet so look out for that in the coming weeks. I must say from the time I mentioned that I'd be doing this to the time of completion was very long. It actually took me very long to do the hair because I wanted it to be very full looking. I put it in pigtails so that Ayla wouldn't have it looking too messy too fast. I also wanted to mention that it's stuffed with 100% bamboo fiberfill that I also got on sale at Fabricland. I'm really loving that aspect about this doll. I'm going to be buying some natural fibered yarn from Knit for Brains to make this new doll hair. I know the Waldorf dolls out there are all made of wool stuffing and a wool/mohair yarn blend for the hair so I'm really going for an authentic vegan doll that doesn't lose that natural fiber charm. Mind you I still think my acrylic hair baby is charming.

I made the diaper and shirt using the pattern that came with the pattern for the doll. All from fabric scraps in my stash. The shirt fabric is actually from Ayla's first birthday dress last August. I'm thinking of knitting her up a little sweater and making a pair of shorts to finish her off completely.

A blurred picture but this is what she'll be going thru for the rest of her dolly life. Ayla walks around calling her 'bebe'. We took her out this morning and she was quite the picture in her 'Jackie O' coat and a bebe cradled in her arms. I could hear the hearts melting that's for sure (not to mention the 'Ooh would you just look at her' comments). Go make some dolls!

Changes

I've been thinking about making some big life changes lately. So the blog posts might become even more spotty than they are now. I'm also thinking of starting a new blog. I'm needing a fresh start in all aspects of my life right now. I'll keep you updated.

In the meantime I'll leave you with two projects I'm working on. One is this dress I made for Ayla. I still need to fix the neckline and take in the waist or something so that it falls more nicely on her. I had meant for it to be a dress. But I think it's going to end up a long shirt instead.

Second is the doll I said I was going to make for Ayla weeks ago. It's been taking me awhile. I started it one way then found a better pattern on Dancing Rain Dolls. I think I could do this as a profession. It's quite gratifying. I wonder if there is a market for vegan Waldorf dolls. They all seem to be made of wool. I'll get more into what my doll is made of when she's all done. Ayla has been stealing her from me every chance she gets. She walks around the house cuddling her, patting her back and calling her baby. I have her stashed in my knitting bag now out of her reach. Now I wish I could have gotten a picture of that! Ahh!

I'm off to read a new book I bought today called Made from Scratch: Discovering the Pleasures of a Handmade Life by Jenna Woginrich. So far it's really good. For anyone that's thinking about getting back to the land so to speak it's definitely a winner. I've been actually looking to buy an acreage or rent one as you know for just that reason. Hopefully just the right place will come up soon enough.

Good Friday

And what a good Friday it has turned out to be. I'd show you pictures of just how lovely and sunny it is outside but my neighborhood is not very photogenic. So picture blue sunny skies and balmy spring temperatures. Just lovely.

I was perusing Kijiji yesterday night looking for houses to rent and decided to see what people were selling. I found this really cute wooden rocking horse that I couldn't resist. Yes I know Ayla already has a wooden rocking horse that I've spoken about in my other blog. But this one was so much cuter. How could I resist. And the price was practically begging me to buy it. A mere 30 bucks. These retail for way more than that in the stores if you've actually been looking. And I like to look just to be sure I'm not getting swindled. In any case, it's beautiful and hardly used because the owner bought it after her daughter had outgrown such things. Lucky me!

And speaking of daughters, Ayla has a thing for putting on sun glasses. Just look at that toothy grin!

Soon enough it will be time to sport those babies at the beach. Would have been nice if we were living next to one... Yes, I'm still bitter (see previous post).

Oh yea, Happy Easter! I might pop in on the actual day. I'm off to make Ayla a doll.

The not so good days

I think I'm going thru a quarter life crisis. I hate that word though, crisis. Makes it sound like I'm on the edge ready to fall off at any moment. We've been looking at places because I'm really growing to hate the one we're living in now. We went to see an amazing log cabin house 35 mins away from the city. It was beautiful, magnificent, amazing. It was even owned by someone from back home who had kids that Ayla could play with. There was a lake right around the corner, a huge backyard, heated ceramic floors and a fireplace? I started to daydream about us living there and waking up every morning and feeling as if we were out camping for the summer.

It was too small. A lovely open concept but only two bedrooms. No room for my sewing, no room for all the junk we've accumulated. We'd have to sell things. Our modern Ikea furniture would be out of place. We started over when we moved out here, I'm not sure I'd be willing to do that again. It was slightly out of our price range as well, for the size, considering we'd be downsizing. But it was lovely. I told them yesterday that we'd take it. I felt elated but then doubtful. Were we doing the right thing? How would we pay the bills and save at the same time plus pay off our student loans. I began to get really doubtful. They called back the next day to confirm. I told them we didn't want it anymore. Now I'm having my crisis. Wondering what we're living for, why we wake up in the morning to slave away at our jobs. I also discovered I owe on my taxes this year because my company didn't deduct enough. Now they'll have to take an additional $300 dollars off my paycheck every month so that I won't have to pay next year. It hasn't been a very good day. But the wheel keeps turning and life goes on... I wish we could have had that log cabin house.

Feeling knitty

You would think that since I haven't written in an entire week that I'd have loads to say. But sadly that is far from the truth. But I have been feeling quite knitty in these last few days. I've even been listening to a great new knitting podcast called Cast-On with Brenda Dayne. It's a really good one and I just love her voice. But anyway, I love listening to podcasts while I work down in my sewing room.

This week I was working on Ayla's bolero or shrug if you prefer. It's from the Debbie Bliss book I bought on a whim at Chapters the other day. I've actually taken out quite a few knitting books by her from my local library. I have yet to start on anything but I have a lot of bookmarks. I'm actually thinking of just sticking to the more spring/summer type knits right now as doing a load of winter knits is not going to get me anywhere. Well, I guess I'd be a lot more prepared for winter but it won't be fun showing that off right now.

So back to Ayla's bolero/shrug. It took me a week to knit this up. And not because I'm a slow knitter. Which I am but because it wasn't my only project. I've actually been in the sewing room making some summer dresses for the little princess. So I've been trying to divide my time. It's done up in a worsted weight silky Bernat yarn called Sultana Raisin. I don't really like that fuzzy halo it gives to the finished garment. I could do without it. I bet it will be a mess once it's washed.

About this pattern. I liked it but I must say my work is not without errors. And there are many, thankfully they're not horribly noticeable. If I didn't already have like 100 things saved on Ravelry plus projects from the books I've taken out from the library to cast on then I'd do this again. But sadly I think this will be my one and only shot at it for a long while. Speaking of Ravelry, did I ever mention how much I love that site? I could really spend all day there getting nothing done. I think the next thing I make will be for myself. Ayla seems to be getting the better end of the deal around here.

I love (Sunday edition) ...

A thrifty ten dollar find

Beautiful quilt fabric on sale