Cats in the Kitchen, Flora in the Garden

I have been so busy these past few days. Every spare moment has been spent preparing for the first Daisy Fae's entry into the world of humans. I have experimented with three different bodies and decided that the third will be the style of body I want. There are so many small decisions to make, such as, she is an adult fairy, so should I stuff her to give the impression of boobs from within or should I add boobs on top of the body? Ah, decisions, decisions! At the moment she is made of a lightweight cloth but I have an idea of trying her in felt, also I may try one with wires in arms and legs. The first prototype is almost ready, I will photograph her in the next day or two, she says she needs to have her hair done before a photographic session [she is a very vain girl], I have a film in the camera with just enought shots on to capture her, then I can send it away to be developed. I would imagine around 1st September she will make her debubt.

One of the main problems, I found, was that although doing sewing and patchwork, I had not made dolls, for a good few years, well about twenty years, but I try to ignore that length of time. Therefore, there is a lot of makedo in this trial fae, I had to tear and crumple quilt batting to stuff her, and really she is made out of bits and pieces I had in my workboxes. She will always be my favourite as she is the one I worked out my designs on but I am afraid, in a short time, she will be outshone by later glamourous sisters. I know once I have finalised how Daisy Fae's look they will not take as long to make, thank goodness, because I still have prototype Lupin Elves and Daisy Gals to make. Next step is to order some proper toy filling, other materials and equipment.



I noticed not too long ago that one or two blogs had posted about their childhood teddy bears, I left comments on some blogs, but thought I would post here about my favourite bear, apologises to anyone who has read any of this before. I still have my teddy bear, he is a golden yellow and about one foot tall. He is almost as flat as a pancake, from being hugged, loved and children rolling on top of him in bed in sleep. He has hardly any fur left and is bald with all the hugging he has had. He is blind as well, unfortunately, and part of his paws which were the softest brown velvet felt have been eaten away by moths at some stage and he lacks stuffing in one arm. Both my children at different stages in their lives took a shine to him and he accompanied them to bed for many years, but now he is back in my room and I still love him dearly and he knows more things about me than anyone, even myself, as I have forgotten a lot of my deepest secrets that he has been party to. He is called Teddy Robinson, after a childhood storybook character. I could never renovate him as I feel he has achieved a venerable state and I feel that his shabbiness just goes to prove what a loved teddy he was. The picture above, that I found on a site about Chad Valley Bears, that was his make, shows what he looked like in his prime.




Summer seems to have disappeared for the moment, it is grey and chilly for August. What strange summer we have had, starting with rain, then weeks of sunshine and now you would think it was late September not the middle of this month. Come back sun, all is forgiven, I won't moan that its too hot to sit out, but I have a lot of things to do in the garden which I would love to be able to do with the sun on my back. I also need to store up some sunshine in my bones, sitting reading in the sun, before the long cold days of winter. I am just about to start reading The Time Traveller's Wife which a lot of people have raved about. I have got to admit that I have had my copy a few months but over the past few days I have kept reading references to it and it has made me decide that it's the book I'll read next.

I don't often cut flowers from my garden, apart from sweetpeas, as I think my garden is too small and the blooms will be missed, I know that sounds silly, but that's me. This time of year, though, mid August to late September, I start to indulge in cut flowers, I always have plenty dahlias and windflowers and usually end up cutting the gladioli before early autumn gales attack them. Once the nights start to get darker a little earlier and the sun leaves my garden sooner causing a chill in the air, these are the signs I look for and then bring the joy of the garden indoors, to enjoy in the early mornings and evenings.