Anne of Green Gables Peg Dolls & House

So, here is my latest project. I finished it yesterday for my 2 yr old granddaughter. Her mom is a huge Anne of Green Gables lover. I purchased the house from Dollarama for $4. I carefully pried the back off with an exacto knife...it took a bit of time and patience. I then used the back to make the top floor. I forgot after I cut the back that I really wanted to put hinges on it so the people could be contained inside. :(, but it turned out really cute anyway. I used craft sticks to support the floor. I glued everything with tacky glue...it really worked well. I used scrapbooking paper for the wall paper and carpet, glued with tacky glue. Everything was finished off with a couple of coats of glossy sealer! Min saw it before her birthday when I was spraying the people outside. She said she wanted to play with the people. HaPpY bIrThDaY!

Hello all!
I'm not sure how many people read this but I need to be better at blogging and updating my stuff. I have been busy working on a few projects. One of those projects is preparing for my Level 10 Royal Conservatory Examination for piano! After 33 years I had the opportunity to take lessons again. It has been tough and a bit of a leap of faith, but I'm enjoying it. One of my reasons was to learn music harmony. I have been working hard at the practical side of things though. I have added more to my Etsy shop. I now have a Space Mobile Pattern available, A Deer and Flower Mobile Pattern, and Rainbow Mobile Pattern. I designed the Space Mobile for my new grandson.




I designed the Deer and Flower Mobile for a former piano student and friend's new baby, and the Rainbow Mobile was designed at the request of a customer.


I am also working on a pattern for little rag dolls. I will have some of the actual dolls for sale on Etsy when I get the clothes made for them. They are pretty fun to make, not practical at all, which is why they are a little more fun. After a bit of trial and error I've found a really great way to make the yarn hair seem more realistic so that little girls can braid it or have it down. Here's a sneak peek! Be sure to check out my Etsy shop PickledillyCircus

 

'Tis the Season for Rhubarb

Okay, so I'm not a super rhubarb fan even though we have three huge rhubarb plants in our garden. My hubby is the rhubarb crisp connoisseur. I'm okay with it if it has enough strawberries in it, forget the rhubarb!
I decided today that I really need to make more use of the rhubarb that we have, since it is so packed full of Vitamin C,  and I remember my mom making slush that was divine. I searched my recipe books and Pinterest for recipes, found one I though was good but added my own little touch (again, nothing completely rhubarb). This is what I came up with (I ended making 72 cups of slush mix so I've reduced that recipe to a more manageable size):

NEW! Pickledilly Circus Etsy shop is now open

I have exciting news! I now have an Etsy shop called Pickledilly Circus, just like my blog. My patterns for the fun projects that I have designed will be available at my Etsy shop. Also available, music, music, music. I have binders full of music that I have written or arranged. I have all of my original piano songs available now for purchase. Please check out my
Pickledilly Circus
I am ready to post a few new items...all of them are new in the past week since my shop just opened, but I have some really fun patterns for the Jane Austen fan; little felt dolls or finger puppets (your choice) of each Bennet sister and the three gentlemen (Darcy, Bingley, and Wickham) from Pride and Prejudice. Go check it out!

Flying Bird Mobile

It's been almost 2 years since I made this mobile for my first granddaughter. I really love how it turned out. I wanted a, some what, realistic looking flying bird and combined a couple of different patterns I found online with a little tweaking of my own. It took a bit of thinking to come up with five different embroidery patterns that would work on the bodies and wings of each bird. I unpicked the paisley one a gazillion times to get it just right. I'm fussy that way. I usually use a metal hoop covered in ribbon for the ring at the top of my mobiles but this one just needed a grapevine wreath and cherry blossoms. I bought both at the craft store. As an almost 2 year old, she still loves her birdies. They hang beside her crib (safely out of reach). I have used this bird pattern to make cardinals and blue jays and they have turned out wonderfully. I used the cardinals to decorate my Christmas tree last year.

 

Painting the Roses Red...

So, it's been a while since my last post but I haven't been idle. My problem is that I try so many different things and I get obsessive over something for a while, find something else to obsess over then go back and forth. I also need inspiration for my mobiles. This Alice in Wonderland mobile was for my new granddaughter. My daughter LOVES Alice in Wonderland. She has loved the Disney movie since she was little. She read the books in grade school and loved them even more. She was working as an Educational Assistant the past two years and, having the perfect (natural) blonde hair and build, had me make her a dress for Halloween so she could be Alice. So, when she told us she was expecting a baby girl, this was the natural choice for her mobile. 

The best part was making the roses. It was a brilliant thought, at least I thought so, to make them of white felt and then use fabric paint to paint them red. My teenage daughter came home for lunch one day during school and asked what I was busily doing. I  started singing, " I'm painting the roses red, painting the roses red...." and that made it all worth it. I'm not sure if I've mentioned that it takes me between 40-60 hours from designing to completion of these mobiles.

 My finishing touch was adding the petit four complete with the words "EAT ME". If you've read the books or seen the movie, Alice is constantly finding things labelled with the invitation to "Eat Me" or "Drink Me." Every time that she does, she changes size dramatically.

Oh, the teapot is also my favorite. I embroidered the pansies and daisies with ribbon. I hadn't done ribbon embroidered for about 15 years! It all came back to me quickly though.

I originally designed Alice to be standing and was ready to begin when the idea came to make her falling like she was being poured with the other characters, from the teapot.  

 This is the first mobile that my hubby helped me with. I purchased the plastic hearts at the dollar store because they said they were beads, once I opened them I realized that they didn't have holes in them so my husband drilled holes so I could use them to represent the Queen of Hearts. The detail on the other beads that I used is difficult to see, but they are porcelain with hand-painted roses on them, representing the Mad Tea Party. The Dormouse's umbrella was another brilliant idea. It is 3D with bugle beads as the umbrella handle to keep it stiff and in the proper position.

Finished 

Finger Footie Anyone?

Well, here is one of the projects I made for my little nephews to entertain them on a flight over seas. My brother-in-law is from Scotland so football is a huge part of his childhood. My three youngest kids have also enjoyed playing as well as two of my sons-in-law (one from the U.K. as well). In fact, my one son-in-law was quite envious of this game and told me that he and his friends used to play a "ghetto" version during class using a piece of paper as their pitch and just their fingers as players (sans puppets). The instructions and pattern are available in pdf at PickledillyCircus on Etsy.
 I got the idea from a doll/puppet I used to have when I was little. I have also designed some fairy finger puppets and the main characters from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.

can you guess my BIL's team? I did the
home and away kits so everyone can be
an M.U. player!

folded up in the pocket