The eyes have it....

well, ... sort of.... guess we'll see when I get around to trying to use some for my next dolly.

I've been looking for some eyes without the whites.... and there don't seem to be many out there.  Or... maybe I haven't quite figured out yet how to track them down.  They must be out there ...somewhere...

Two doll making buddies did share their sites ...but, while I am looking... I also decided ...perhaps I can make some of my own.

My first simple attempts.... just colouring with pencil crayons... on water colour paper.  Wetting it down a bit.  Adding a pupil with a Pigma pen.

Then...using Glossy Accents.... dropping on some gloss.  The first few I did a couple of separate applications.  Began just covering the colour with a thin coating.   Then... after it has completely dried... at least 24 hours to make sure...added a second drop and on one set of eyes...a third layer.
You can see on the middle set of eyes.... they are getting progressively higher ... I was thinking to make them about as bumped up as the left eye....  but, you can also see that my blobs are not perfectly done on top of the other layer of gloss.

At first the Glossy Accents looks cloudy and murky...and seems to magnify the size of the pupil...but, when dry... it's clear and glossy and the pupil looks exactly the size I made it in the first place.
I like this stuff for several different things.  Some of you may remember I used it for the glass on my white rabbit's watch.

Just to demonstrate...the middle pair and also the lower right...have just recently been dolloped on.  Still cloudy looking 'til they dry.  Also, the eyes on the lower right I tried using only one single large drop instead of several layers  ...a large, slow drop  .. to keep it from overflowing the outside edge of my colour and also so that I don't have to try to keep it exactly on top of the first layer.. ...we'll see how it dries.  Seems to be staying in position at the moment.  I don't think it will spread out now... but, we'll see.  If so...that's definitely the way to go with my experimental eyes.  One good drop.

My next trick will be to learn how to cut around them perfectly...or see if I can find a punch that can punch them out without ruining them..or without hiding them in a portion of the punch from whence it cannot be retrieved!  lol....

Here's looking at you, kid!  Ack...scary eyeball ! ... big pupil... totally distorted til it dries... hahahha....

Wordless Wednesday..

Ooooh.... and it was tasty!

We never did get quite as tidy a slice as they did for the photo in the book....but.... it was very tasty anyway.  Ours seemed to have a few more crumbs stuck to the pink filling.... ah, well.... 

Recipe on my other blog if you'd like to have a go at making one some day.   It's called Black Forest Decadence.

Gwendolyn refused to look at the cake....

Somehow she knew she would not be included in the festivities.....
                                                                            

Wordless Wednesday..

I won socks!!!

Makes me feel a bit like Dobby!  wooohooooo

Anne had a giveaway and I won!   ....yes... I do get pretty excited about things like that!

Check out the beautiful socks she is going to knit.... and we even get to choose the colours. Some lovely new yarn she just received.  Here is my colour... ooooh...I can hardly wait to see them in person.

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And...in other news...

Gwendolyn found a friend in Frikkles .... they like to hang out together on the table... he really loves the attention.

Yep...she whispered her name to me the other night as I was pottering around doing something nearby and keeping my eye on them and the antics ...

She actually looks pretty ladylike here...but, she has a sense of humour too believe me... much like myself it seems.  Mostly conservative...but given to bouts of silliness on occasion.

Hey Anne!!

lookie here....

I made a "sponge"

and...

it's darn yummy!

Anne and some friends have a group that meets every so often to enjoy each others company and do some chatting and sewing on projects.  I have no stitch and bitch or doll or bear making group... so... I ate it all by myself.  Well... Mr. BV did help..

She sent me the recipe after I've had to endure drooling over it on her blog several times.  I faithfully followed the British version.. weighing and measuring... which seems so much more complicated than our method of baking.. just tossing in a cup of this and 1/2 cup of that.. and only having to wash up one bowl... but, it turned out to be quite a tasty morsel.

Forget Wordless Wednesday...it's dolly day...

Finally finished her.  I am pretty slow with all things doll and bear related.  But... I'm usually pretty happy with my results...so....that's a big plus in my book.

Decided to make her shoes the colour of the flowers on her dress fabric...it took a few tries and 3 coats to get the colour right.  She seemed pretty happy with them..

.... Although, she did seem a bit reluctant to pose for some photos...

But, then...it was like...."I'm ready for my close-up now Mr. DeMille"...






































Then...all of sudden she got cheeky and showed a bit of leg... woohooo,,,,,

Embarrassed herself I think...hahhaha..

...and soon....she was pooped.....

Here are my gals for inspiration.... The dolls of Black Eyed Suzi.  I decided to make one for myself, even though I don't actually know her techniques... all I gleaned was from some of her photos of her own works in progress.  What fun it would be to spend a few hours with some of the well known doll makers....

In the meantime... I'll bumble along on my own and see what I come up with .... hence the BumbleVee.....

.. and...no more time today...

Exercise to do... shovelling just completed.... and supper to be done next.

See what I mean?  Real life just gets in the way of fun, doesn't it?.

The dolly is not yet done... and I almost feel guilty posting without having a finished dolly to show for my boasting... ..hahahha... talk about putting pressure on myself.... whew.... but....I AM working on her... look.  Limbs... and she has some hair... I'm just still not sure about the attachment of the lower legs... working on it...

There. I got over it.

New year.... old stuff...

Some things I like to start fresh.  Remember how when we were kids and we started a new school year?  All new books...brand new pencils ...  even some things our Moms purchased for the year in the list of supplies that we had no clue about?  It was a surprise... to be leaned at a later date. The surprise of my little metal box of Geometry stuff is still a surprise... who knows what those bits were for...

January sort of feels like that to me.   And..  I want always to begin with a clean slate. {{ Maggi, if you read this... don't gag....this year..yes... I really am going to finish those projects... honest !! }}.... beginning with my Black Eye'd Suzi look-alike... 

Absolutely one of the reasons I don't bother with resolutions.... they just get sidestepped or moved to the back burner when something more interesting or pressing happens along.  It's just life. Come on...you know it happens!

So far I've been re-organizing my huge storage space ... because, for some reason I didn't do it last January.  Oh, I just looked back at my blog postings...and found out why.  I began making my little clay over cloth dolly in Jane's tutorial.  What fun that was for a beginning to the year.  See? Much more fun than organizing and arranging.  No wonder I got sidetracked.  

The Christmas decorations are in several boxes .. including one huge box for the tree..oh, and one smaller box for it's smaller twin.  It was a chore to drag them out over a bunch of other "stuff"... and I'm not dragging them back over top of all of that again.   This year I do have to stay on track.

First..I need to move everything around that was accumulated over the past two years.. shift golf bags.. roller skates, skies, motorcycle gear, old monitors and computer towers, box of door knobs and hinges, boxes of electrical and plumbing stuff (we've done a lot of our own renovating..can u tell?) a 9 X 11 rolled rug, crates of papers...even the massage table is in the way.... sheeesh.... etc. etc.. I'm sure you know the list. Time to purge.  Then... re-arrange it so there is a walkway down the middle of it.  I want to be able to see everything at a glance and to know where and what is in that storage space.  It's annoying not to be able to find things and then... you guessed it...to have to purchase the same damn things ...again!  Did that this year with my foam for sticking greenery into for making table centres... now...I found the old stuff...and.... have 4 chunks.  sigh....

Off I go to box up the rest of the ornaments and little bitty things.  I think I have two new better shaped sturdy boxes to use this year.  Perhaps I'll be able to whittle down the numbers or at least change the shape and amount of space the old boxes take up.  The tree is still up... and will be til the weekend.  I love the lights...and still love to sit with my coffee in the dark mornings and admire it... if it wouldn't need dusting in a month or so...I'd love to leave it up.

Later... I'm gonna play with clay !... and wire...and today...I am darn well attaching some legs and arms to that poor little patiently waiting, legless, armless, dolly.

Oh....and... bake the last eggnog loaf.  Gotta get rid of the good stuff in a clever manner.  Triple wrapped in the freezer ..it'll be as fresh in July as it is today.  And..... soooo good when I have a craving for eggnog in the middle of summer and there is none to be had.

Wordless Wednesday..