Dobby II

Posted by: Paulette
I got a request for another Dobby. Not wanting to make the exact same doll as before, I decided to make this Dobby slightly different. Without trying, his face and body turned out differently, and then with the addition of his socks and hat, you can tell that this is a whole new doll.

 

His hat and socks are made from clean children's orphaned socks.

Hagrid Cloth Doll Completed

Posted by: Paulette

Hagrid

Hagrid is an original cloth doll. He's 23 inches (58.5 cm) long. He sits about 12 inches tall. His hair is made from three different yarns, wefted together on the sewing machine between pieces of copy paper, which are torn off before hand sewing the wefts to the head.

The most challenging part of this doll was the "leather" clothing. His vest is made from vinyl. And I found it to be too stiff to make his coat and boots from. So, I had to make some faux leather.
This was done by mixing Sobo Glue and acrylic paint together and then painting it onto a doe skin fabric.
 The variations in color were accomplished by using different colored paints, in layers.

Close up of clothes

Norbert hatches from the egg

Norbert is made from an armature of aluminum foil and wire and Super Sculpey, and then painted with acrylic paints
The umbrella is made from a dowel, fabric, and wire covered in Super Sculpey for the handle and then painted with acrylics.

The Hogwarts Gang

I've already sold some of the dolls, so this is the best I could do to get them together to show the size.

The Making of Hagrid a Cloth Doll

Posted by: Paulette

I thought I'd share some in progress photos of Hagrid.

Head needle sculpted, shaded with colored pencils and painted

Head sewn to body and hair added

Partially clothed

I still have quite a bit to do before he's finished.

Sewing Table/ Night Stand

Posted by: Paulette

One of my favorite things about having a cottage chic house is the flexibility in furniture styles. Beside my bed, I have a small ladies desk for my night table and Dave has a 60's sewing table. It's the kind that had the sewing machine attached. We have a similar one from the 1900s in our living room that has the sewing machine still intact.
Since I love to sew, it makes sense to have this kind of ephemera in our house.
I was getting tired of all  the brown and after looking at some pictures on the net for inspiration, I decided to paint it. I'm so glad I did. It's so much more charming than it used to be.

The stool underneath is one that I've had for years and just keep on recovering. That's the great thing about antique and vintage furniture. You know it's built well, and has withstood the test of time. I've stood on that sewing table before. It's SOLID.

The Water Closet Doesn't Have to be Ugly

Posted by: Paulette
This is the finalization of the decorating and painting the master bathroom. We have a separate water closet, as it's called in Great Britain. It's the place where you sit to meditate, read, get away from the kids, and oh, yes, ahem...take care of business.
Just because this is a tiny room doesn't mean that it needs to be over looked. So, to continue the master bath makeover, I give you the water closet.
I will spare you and not actually have pictures of the toilet. I assume you know what it looks like.

 This is the best picture I could get of this window. The window treatment is the finials from a curtain rod screwed directly into a wall with a crocheted cord hanging from them. Then the "curtains" are place mats that I'd purchased years ago because I liked the embroidery motif on them. I'd played with the idea of sewing them together into a pillow cover and scrapped the idea. They are hung using clothes pins.  The shelf above was one found at Goodwill for a few dollars. And the stuff on top are things that I had around the house. I love to shop my house for accessories. Putting something in a new place makes it seem new.

This is what you are looking at while seated. Just underneath this is a small table with a drawer in it, just the right size for magazines. In an old chippy metal drawer, extra TP rolls are stored on the shelf of the table. Everything you need within reach!

Harry Potter- The Boy Who Lived- One of a kind cloth doll

Posted by: Paulette

Harry Potter OOAK cloth doll

Harry is available for sale in my Shop. More pictures can be viewed there too.
The next doll on the drafting/ cutting table (Heck! Let's call it what it is, okay? My messy desk) is Hagrid. I can't wait to see how he's going to turn out!

I love paint

Posted by: Paulette

When I get tired of something it doesn't cost very much to change it when using paint. Paint a piece of furniture, and then change the accessories, and it feels like a whole new room.

Before

The above picture is before I put a back on the hutch. So, that is the wall color showing through.

I've added some new pieces to my milk glass collection and was finally able to fill the top shelf with it. I've also painted the inside of the hutch a pretty light blue. A new color was mixed by adding some blue craft acrylic paint to the leftover paint from the bathroom. The darker books on the bottom shelf help to ground everything. Little changes. Big impact.
The vintage clock worked when I bought it for Dave for Father's Day, but has since stopped working. That was a sad day. I loved hearing it' s happy ticking while I went to sleep at night.

Pinterest inspires me to get things done!

Posted by: Paulette
I think there's some kind of Pinterest challenge going on somewhere on the web. I guess you're supposed to show off your projects that were inspired by Pinterest. Can you believe some people just pin things and then don't do anything with the pictures?

Where do I start?

I've been tearing out inspiration pictures from magazines and catalogs for years. Pinterest was the perfect place to start filing all of my idea pages. Here's some of the projects I've done recently that were inspired by Pinterest.

Pinterest picture

Guest bathroom mural

Pinterest picture

Back door arch

Pinterest Picture

Antique Birdcage with lights

 

There's so much more than this, but I think I've made my point. Maybe I'll post more later, if you're willing to put up with my poor photography skills.

Some things take a whole day to complete, and some just a few hours. The birdcage idea was accomplished in minutes. There's so many inspiring bloggers out there and I love to get ideas from them.

If I spent all of my time looking at blogs and pinterest, I wouldn't get anything done. Perusing other peoples stuff can eat up a lot of your time. Use what you see constructively, and it can be rewarding and cheap to decorate your home, or craft for others.

What do you think?

Posted by: Paulette
I'm playing with the idea of making a doll that has no embellishment, or wig or clothes, just a blank canvas to sell in my Etsy shop. Something like this:

Not posed, just standing. For someone to buy and make their own through their own efforts at embellishment. Do you think that you might know someone who would be interested?

No Hope?

Posted by: Paulette

My newest conversation with Paul (my biological father) centered on life philosophy. And by that I mean religion or lack there of. I started by asking him what his plans were for the next few years. What did he have to look forward to.  He responded with a comment about waiting for his lease to be over in six months. I asked him if he had a social life. He said he didn't, and that he was too old to be hanging out with singles and too young to be hanging out with retired people. To this I said something to the effect that it sounded like he was waiting to get out of life. He said that it was difficult to make friends because of his circumstances. I asked if he had tried religion. He said, "well, you know, I'm an atheist."
I  think out of all of the things he could have told me, this was the saddest. I've never had problems making friends, but even if I did, I know that Jesus is my friend. He gives me hope in all circumstances to get up and start again. And I know that He understands me like no one else. Christianity, to me is not exclusively a Sunday religion. It's the way I live my life and effects everything that I do, think, say, and plan for. I can''t imagine not having the hope of Christ in my life.
He thinks that I want to convert him. I don't. I want Christ to convert him. I want him to have the peace and hope that I have in my life! I may not know Paul very well yet, and I may not call him dad, but I believe that in the future if he were to embrace faith in God and His Son, that he would be a happier man. He would know that all of the things that he has done in the past can be erased and he can become new again. This is what I want for him. Not just the fellowship of the saints, but a whole new world view.
I've told him that I'm not sure where our relationship is going to go from here, but I do not want to abandon him to his hopelessness. Maybe our phone conversations about comedians and books and movies and world events...just chatting, will be enough to show him that someone cares. And maybe after a while, he'll wonder why I even bother to call and talk with a man who played a physical part in the making of me, but has had nothing to do with me for the last almost 4 decades. Maybe he'll wonder what makes me tick.

Master Bath gets a new look

Posted by: Paulette

When we moved into this house almost all of the rooms were painted the same peachy beige. At first I liked it, but as the years have gone by, I've tired of it, and have wanted a cooler feeling atmosphere in our Arizona home. A few months ago I picked up some paint for some furniture repaint projects as well as a can of oops paint. For the color in my bathroom, I mixed a robin's egg blue, with some of the oops paint, which was a builder beige, and some antique white. The color I got was exactly what I was looking for. A very soft aqua.
In the above picture you can see the peachy beige in the next room. That's my bedroom, and if I have enough of this paint left, I will be doing that room the same color as this one. I still have to remove the (evil) wallpaper border first. There's also a smaller room you don't see to the right of the silk that is the W.C. More wallpaper border to remove there too. As if painting isn't bad enough!
More pics:

 

That lovely distressed white mirror used to hide a HUGE hole in the wall. I had to cut a piece of stud to replace the one that was missing, and then inserted it in the hole, attaching it to the stud top and bottom that remained, by sinking the screws in at a diagonal, and then cut the drywall to fit, screwed that to the stud, and taped it to the existing drywall with drywall tape and then used drywall compound to patch all of that up. Too bad home improvement projects can't be easier and faster.

This is the facing wall and the shower curtain made from a sheet. I love the new color, and now all of my accessories pop!

Dobby the House Elf

Posted by: Paulette
Yesterday I went grocery shopping with my 5 kids. It was 108 degrees here in Arizona, and we were gone for three hours. When I got home, I was exhausted from the heat and the challenges of loading and unloading 2 kids from car seats and groceries from two stores. So what's a girl to do when she's too exhausted to do housework? Make a doll of course!
I introduce to you Dobby the House Elf.

Dobby the House Elf doll is inspired by the character in the Harry Potter books series. In this version he has just received a sock from his master, through some crafty maneuvering by Harry, and is so pleased and shocked that he has been gifted with clothes! He has been set free, and will not have to wear the filthy pillowcase anymore.

He stands 9 1/2 inches tall (24 cm)

This doll was a challenge to construct because of his body shape. I used techniques that I've not used before, and I'm becoming more confident in my pattern making abilities. I also think that I'm getting better at the face painting. I still need some work on my photography skills. Oh, well. It will come with practice.

Dobby is available for sale in my shop.

Now that I've finished him, I guess I better get to that laundry. Yuck!

Are You Ready For School to Start?

Posted by: Paulette

Recently I was shopping with all five kids when, one of the kid's teachers asked me if I was ready for school to start. I told her no, that we were having a lot of fun. And we are.
We've been going swimming, and having play dates with other kids. We made a trip to Utah to visit relatives for a week,

Grandpa and Grandma Burton

 and then came home and had Grandma Diva (my Mom) visit for a week,

and then had some long time friends from New Mexico visit for a week. We've gone to Goldfield (a local ghost town)

Goldfield 2007

and the library, and the park. We've gone to the movies and seen the latest Harry Potter film. It's been one really fun BUSY summer. But now that the kids have only nine days before the first day of school, I think it's time. I ready to have less mess makers in the house 24 hours a day. I'm ready for less fighting I'm ready for less "I wants."
I'm looking forward to taking only two children shopping with me, and more time for home projects, and less laundry. The quiet at nap time is calling to me.
The things I'm not looking forward to are getting the kids out of bed and dressed and ready to go before 8am. And coaxing children to do their homework before Daddy gets home and the yelling starts. I like having a relaxed schedule where I don't really have to have dinner ready before 7. And we can play outside in the sprinkler and the kids can wear their swimsuits all day if the want to.
There is opposition in all things.
And really, I'm okay with that. We'll just be trading one kind of chaos for another, and one kind of orderliness for another. It's all good. It's LIFE!