Saturday 23 December 2017

Gingerbread Houses

Every year about this time, my husband and I go and see the gingerbread houses created by local bakers to raise money for "Habitat for Humanity".  (I do have to twist my husband's arm at times for this event to happen)

This year, the theme was "Canada 150" of course, and the gingerbread houses were displayed at a new venue, the Parkside on Humbolt St in Victoria (on until Jan 3rd I believe).

Admission is free and if you want to vote, you donate to Habitat for the privilege. Also they are selling gingerbread cookies and coffee for only $2.25 and the money goes to the cause.

Here are some of the wonderful houses:












I vote for this iconic entry, although it was tough choosing.






Thursday 14 December 2017

Broc and Cara's Picnic Party

I was at the Sidney First Chance craft show this October and I was approached by a local children's book author, Dave Wilson.  Dave loved my wooly critters and commissioned me to make characters from his children's book using my wool sweater technique.

Here is the cover of his book, "Broc and Cara's Picnic Party":

The book is to encourage children to eat healthy and include veggies in their diet by making the vegetables into characters that children can identify.

The first character I made was the beet:


He became my favourite character even though he only has a supporting role in the book.  I had just enough of both the baby blue sweater for his uniform as well as the lovely green shaded sweater for the beet leaves that form his hair.  How cool is he?

Next came cool Cuke, the cucumber with cool attitude:

 I made the shorts using teeshirt material and appliquéd teeshirt flowers to mimic the illustrations in the book.  I love his wee toes.


I found the perfect orange sweater and green sweater to tackle  the main characters, Cara, the Carrot and Broc the broccoli:


I used baby shoes to mimic the runners he wears in the book
When making Cara, I wanted to make her hair using wool as well as yarn.  I have a stash of yarn and I found three shades of green yarn for her hair that is stitched over her kelly green head.

Finally, I wanted to make the busy bee who is crucial in keeping those yummy vegetables coming.

 He is quite the jolly fellow with warm wool wings as well:
Yellow sweaters are hard to come by and I lucked out when I found this cashmere sweater that was riddled with moth holes and so very affordable.

All the characters were so much fun to make and I am happy to report that the author, Dave Wilson, was thrilled with the results.  He wants to use the characters as promotional material as well as giving his son tangible characters to play with this Christmas.

Do go and check out brocandcara's website. He is writing another book in this series about "inner health".

Monday 6 November 2017

First Chance Craft Show

The First Chance Craft Show in Sidney (Mary Winspear Centre) was a great success.  A big thank y all that visited me at my Zia Joey booth!  A shout out to my sweet sister that flew in from Toronto to help me this weekend!  Here are some photos:

Wooly Critters galore



Angled view of my booth

Me and my booth

My sister Mirella
I hope you will come to visit me at the Coast Collective for the Gift and Wishes Show which starts on November 15 and runs through December 23rd (Wed through Sunday, 11 am to 5pm).  See you there and come early and often for the best selection.

Wednesday 1 November 2017

Halloween Kitty Witch

I love Halloween and this year our doll club had a Halloween doll challenge in October so I decided to use a pattern by Pixie's Thimble (Etsy) and adapt it to make a Halloween Kitty witch doll.  What fun I had, I made her a smelly kitten, a coffin, pumpkin friends (polymer clay) and funky spider hat:  
















Sunday 15 October 2017

Maggie Goes Shopping

A couple of weeks ago about a dozen members of my doll group, the Cloth-a-Dollics, met at Heritage Acres in Victoria for a three day doll crafting weekend.  The weather was perfect, crisp, sunny with fall in the air.  The company was lively, giving and ready to play dolls.  

About five of us had decided to make an elinor peace bailey doll pattern called "Maggie Goes Shopping".  e p bailey is the guru of cloth doll clubs and has introduced many of us into the fun, fantastic world of cloth art dolls.  Her patterns represent cloth dolls that are made from colourful patterned fabrics.  The finished dolls are full of personality and represent girls/women and boys/men at their best.

I decided to make two "Maggie's", as I had too many colourful fabrics to use in only one doll.  This doll pattern was created by elinor for her grand daughter and has about 16 colourful yo-yos as part of her outfit as well as wooden beads for joints at the wrist, elbow, shoulder, thigh, knee, and ankle. What fun I had in making my "Maggie" and "Maddie" dolls:  First comes Maggie with jewel tones and purple hair:



A close up of her yo-yo Monkey I made her

I used "Halloween" hair from the dollar store for her funky hair-do!

She just loves to shop and cannot help but wear all her new clothes at once!

Next comes Maddie with soft pastel colours and pinkish/mauve hair, holding a bunny:
Maddie is a "girly girl" that loves soft pastel colours in her outfit, she would have fit in nicely in the 60's peace movement

I gave her hand crocheted flowers and silk bows for her mauve/pink hair

Instead of a monkey, she has a shy, soft fuzzy bunny that I made for her.  She takes her bunny with her everywhere.


Maggie and Maddie are sisters and best friends.  They love, love to shop together!


Have fun making colourful dolls of your own and indulge your inner child!  See you in a week with a Halloween witch kitty.

Ornaments Galore

  It is mid October and I have just finished making a gaggle of Christmas ornaments in preparation for the holidays: There are reindeers, pa...