New Beads

The weather has been a bit warm so I haven't had much time to get to the torch and I've also been busy with dolls and pixie elves. Last Wednesday I thought why not and went out and light the torch and for once I knew what I wanted to make. So I decided I wanted to perfect my dragon beads a bit more, well it maybe wasn't the best type of bead to start with as they are complicated and I did forget to pull a stringer for the eyelid. 

 Well as I suspected it ended up as a bit of an ugly dragon but I wasn't too worried and made another couple which were a lot better. I will give these two dragons to Beads Of Courage run by BCCA here in the uk.

I was running out of time at the torch (I had to go in to help make tea) so I just made a few quick spotty beads with some lovely CIM glass, Eggplant and Poseidon

. 

I had a lovely few hours at the torch and I hope it won't be too long before I get back to it.

see you next time
Vic xx

More New Additions

Our broody hen has been sitting on a few eggs, usually she is a good mum and rears the chicks really well. This year we don't know what went wrong but its been a bit of a disaster as she got disturbed and came off the nest and wouldn't go back on. Unfortunately some of the hatched chicks got cold and perished, also there were three eggs that were hatching so we had to quickly put them in the incubator. They all hatched but two were a bit weak, so the strongest one went out with the hen while the other two gained a bit of strength. Sadly a neighbours part feral cat got one of the chicks that was outside and the weakest chick in the incubator didn't recover which was very sad. So out of  8 eggs we ended ended up with just three chicks they are really tiny still but very very cute. 

I took these pictures this morning and my labrador decided she also should come out and play so the chicks decided to hide in the undergrowth in their pen. 

Chirpy aka Godzilla has been moved out of quail pen as he was getting quite big and put in with the chickens. I was trying to get a photo but he was hiding away from the other hens as they are beating him up. The ducklings have also grown a lot and are still cute and comical. It won't be long before their feathers come through and they will no longer be yellow and fluffy. 

Until next time

Vic xx

Back to Baking Cakes

I've not been baking cakes as much as I used to mainly as my girlie has been making them so I've used the extra time to create. But last week I really wanted to make some cupcakes for my friends to enjoy when we got together for coffee the next day. Also I really wanted to experiment with some flavours and see how they turned out. My Mum had given me a small bottle of natural raspberry flavouring, so I thought I would make raspberry and chocolate cakes.
First I made plain chocolate cakes and then while the cupcakes were baking  I made a pale pink raspberry frosting. I piped the frosting on, which is something I rarely do, next I added white shimmer pearls and just to four of them I used some really pretty flower and butterfly toppers. It was a good thing I put the four with the toppers in a separate box as by the next day nearly all of the cakes had gone.

 Making these really got me wanting to bake more regularly again and I'm planning to make some soon  maybe either Rose or Black Forest cupcakes.

Until next time

Vic xx

New Pixie Elves

Last week I needed to make something and as much as I would've liked to a doll I thought it would be nicer to make some Pixie Elves. So out came the bodies and the paints but what to do. First I wanted to make a family in neutral colours for a challenge over on the Craft Pimp forum. I chose Iris pink, soft grey and Ivory paints, cream felt, a large and two small elf bodies. I love the colours of those paints they are so soft looking almost shabby chic. 

Next I decided to repaint an old elf body, I had sandpapered off all the old paint and gave it a coat of white gesso last year. She did start off with a stripes of paint in blue, pink and green but it just didn't look right so I quickly washed off the paint and repainted it green with ivory spots. I still have a few felt wings left so she ended up as Dotty the winged pixie elf. 

For some reason I wanted to make a halloween family set painted in purple, orange and green. I then drew a bat on their fronts and painted it in black, the bat on the tiny pixie elf was a bit challenging but it looks great. 

I had a bit of experiment with taking the photos of the family sets, usually I take individual photos but this time I've left the other elves in the background and it looks a lot better than on their own.

Until next time

Vic x

Holidays

The holidays are nearly here and in a few weeks my children break up for school for the summer. What a year for both of them, my lads first at senior school and my girlie chosing her options. So I will have six weeks of trying to get kids up the normal time as I will want to shopping when all they want to do is sleep through until the afternoon. Then there will be the arguments, the laughter, the fun and also me trying to create or work on the computer while trying to amuse them. This year I'm planning some visits out, they have already requested Boscastle, and I have found a project to give them something to do, I might even let them on here to tell you about it. 

See you next time

Vic xx

Baby ducks.

I really thought we wouldn't have any ducklings this year as our drake passed away earlier in the year, our ducks had other ideas. The oldest of our ducks went very broody so with no drake we needed some fertile eggs, hubby managed to find someone local with eggs luckily. Last week we heard cheeping and my lad had a quick look and he said he saw three fluffy yellow ducklings. We waited for a day or two and then mummy duck brought them out, they are so cute. Yesterday I managed to take some photos, as mummy duck is still very protective I couldn't get too close so they aren't too great.

As you can see they love swimming in the old paddling pool in the duck run. I also noticed that the other two ducks are also protective towards the ducklings which is unusual.

Now we waiting for some cute fluffy chicks as we have two broody hens sitting on eggs, though my lad has said he could hear cheeping in an egg so it might not be too long.

Until next time
Vic xx

Doll Heads

I recently purchased an E-Pattern from Colleen Babcock's Etsy shop called all about the face. I love Colleen's patterns as she explains things really well, and I've learnt a few more little tricks from them. So one Friday last month I made two heads they didn't take long and used up a few scraps of fabric, the colouring took a bit longer as I was trying out different eye placements. After a few hours I had two lovely heads but what to do with them? Luckily Colleen's pattern was in two parts and has lots of ideas of decorating the head and I decided to finish them off with bead embroidery.

The first was inspired by a challenge on the Craft Pimp Forum, the challenge was to make something summery and colourful. For some reason I had a rainbow idea in my head so I decided to go with the idea and luckily I had the right colour beads in my stash. 

The top of the head I made some fringing and I was really pleased how she turned out as it looks like she has a carnival  headdress on.

I waited a week to start the bead embroidery on the next head, this one I wanted to be an opposite to the colourful one. In my stash I had one of  Lynn Davey's Mini Mojo Pots and it had some lovely accent beads in black and silver tones, which inspired an art deco look.

I really enjoyed making these and I can have a few heads ready made to be embellished and then made into fridge magnets or brooches or I can add them to a doll body. They have also given me some great ideas for halloween and christmas. 

Until next time 

Vic xx