All at Sea - with a bucket and spade!

This is Harriet. Harriet is a student nurse. She likes cookies. She takes one to work with her to eat in her break. She keeps it in her own pink bag. The bag makes her happy because it’s pink. With a smiley face button.

Harriet was made for a special friend’s birthday. I like making presents by hand if I possible can. I don’t always have the time. But this week, I had the time. Just. Harriet is made from felt. And stuffed with the insides of a discarded cushion. Her arms and legs are attached with buttons. See. Her face is stitched with embroidery threads. I used a bit of pink felt for one rosy cheek. I’m not sure why one cheek is rosier than the other. Maybe she got punched by an angry patient. I doubt she is teething. She’s a little old.

Archie the incontinent, as he is currently known, wanted to make friends. He is a very friendly bunny. Quite quite lovely. Unfortunately rather smelly as well. So I whipped Harriet away and wrapped her up in tissue paper of my very favourite colour. I also made some cookies and packaged three of those aswell.

Although my friend’s birthday had passed some days earlier, I did put a candle in a lemon muffin, to mark and celebrate her birth 32 and a bit years ago. I am quite glad she was born. Because I like her. She is a fine person. And one day she will be a fine nurse. The kind that really cares for patients. And doesn’t have to work at preserving dignity. Because it’s second nature.

Happy belated birthday Barry xxxxxxxxxx

Tomorrow is Aunty Sue’s birthday. Aunty Sue also goes by the name of Emma’s mum. I made a cake. With my lovely new bunny rabbit muffin mould. The pink bunny cake was made from a plain muffin mix with a few drops each of pink colouring and strawberry flavouring. I sliced it and sandwiched strawberry jam between the two halves. Then I covered it with pink frosting (vanilla frosting with pink colouring) and added some glittery sprinkles.

The chocolate bunny was made from the chocolate mix but I did add a little extra chocolate. This one was filled with chocolate spread and covered with chocolate frosting. I added three chocolate strands for whiskers.

The sunshine is plain mix with a drop of yellow colouring and a couple of drops of lemon flavouring, filled with lemon curd. I covered it with yellow frosting (vanilla with a bit of yellow added).

Icing pens are great. I decorated the board to look (slightly) like grass and sky and put the cakes on it.

Obviously I didn’t just make one of each. I have several spare bunnies and fairy cakes of various colours and flavours sitting on the tope shelf of the freezer. All neatly labelled. Ready for decorating to give away. Or scoffing after a particularly depressing shift on placement!

I came across lots of handmade felt cakes and cookies on flickr and was prompted to have a go at making my own. I cut out these circles a few days ago. Took about 5 minutes.

Yesterday I blanket-stitched the tops and bottoms, stuffed them, stictched the icing on and added sprinkles. This is the end result. It was very much fun. And incredibly quick. I think I’ll make more at some point. When I need to be creative but don’t have a lot of time.

Leah tried them last night and was impressed. But found them to be slightly crumbly. She is a tidy eater and managed to catch the crumbs in her hand.

I had an old cheap doll, a bit bigger than a dollhouse figure. Originally it was dressed in welsh national costume. I think I got it from a charity shop but it would’ve only been a couple of quid anyway. I’ve got a few such dolls and doll bits. The odd doll head with a pretty face. Like the one in the second photograph. A few arms and legs. I don’t know why I’ve kept them. They’re in a little box. I always have a bit of a funny turn when I lift the lid. It’s like something out of a horror movie.

Anyway, I strippedthis particular doll down. Unfortunately, the hair came off with the hat. Oh well. The new hat and boots were made from an old fur baby’s snowsuit I got from a charity shop about 8 years ago. I remember where I was working. The lilac for the tunic was the bottom of a pair of trousers. I always have to take a few inches off and I usually keep the spare bit. The pink rabbit on the tunic was out of a pack of ten from hobbycraft. I made her a little rabbit to keep her company. Just from a scrap of felt. They live with Leah now.

You can look at it here.

The pumps I dyed on Saturday. How fab have they turned out?? The cardigan wasn’t bad either, although I tried it on when it still needed a bit of an iron.

Lots of things have been changed over the last couple of weeks. I have shortened a gazillion pairs of trousers. Well, four. I happened to pop into H&M at the right time. For one day only, they were reduced from £15 to £7.50. I like them a lot. They’re linen so I think they will be good for placement. I have three more to do. A pair I bought from Tesco some time ago, and two pairs I bought from Primark this week. All bargains. I don’t think I shall be running out of placement trousers.

The other day, I had a clearout. I was looking to see what smart clothes I have for said placement. I came across this top. It was long. I never really liked it that much. Anyway, it’s short now. And I like it.

As I type, there are a pair of pumps and a cardigan going round the washing machine along with a packet of purple dye. I’ve wanted some purple pumps for ages. I’ve looked and looked and looked. But I have found every colour but purple. So I got these white ones from Primark for £4. I also got the cardigan for £3. I bought two because they were so cheap. One will stay white. The other, will hopefully end up purple. I figured if I’m dying pumps anyway, I may as well throw a cardi in. Fingers crossed and all that.

Not much to say on this one. I made these from the paperchase wrapping paper I bought on my unbirthday. The lazy susan and the pin tray  are from a book by Rick Beech. The pencil pot is from the internet. I can’t remember where exactly. I printed it out years ago. It’s nearly impossible to follow. I had to cut through the paper towards the end. And use sellotape. I like the results though.

I made this for Emma about 5 years ago. It’s a pea pod full of peas. It’s funny. But reeeally badly made. The little peas all have faces. But they’re so awful, they don’t even look like faces. I really couldn’t ever properly photograph them let alone put them on the world wide web. In my defence, it was one of my early creations.

It ended up on her desk at work. I’d completely forgotten about it until it came home three weeks ago as part of the mass exodus of Emma and Emma-junk from Swanswell Trust. Thankfully, she’s taking it to her new desk next week (at Warwickshire County Council) so I don’t have to look at it any more. By the by, she seems to be enjoying her new job

Today, in fact NOW-ish, I’m going to do the last bits of reading for my assignment and add the last bits to my essay plan. My reward tonight, Dr Who (lovely lovely David) followed by casualty!

I’m almost done with these twin rabbits. They’re going to be a present. They were meant to be done for easter but, well, life happens and things take longer than expected. I’ve finished one set of clothes and one set of pyjams. The stuff’s all cut up and ready for the second set of pyjamas and the second set of clothes. Then they’ll both have a tutu and a little top. They’re all cut up and ready to sew aswell.

Bessie’s stuck in the middle of the pics because I don’t like to leave a gap on the page. Seems like such a waste of a few square centimetres. And the pattern for the bunnies, once it’s finished and done, will be named after her. Aaaaah