A Little makeover

Let me formally introduce you to Lilly. Lilly is a Bohemian Peace Blythe Doll, with an RBL head (which means she is super easy to do custom work to!) This is Lilly before I attempted any work

This is Lilly during work. Trixie and Violet looked away in disgust as I took Lilly apart. It took them a long time to realise I wasn't hurting her and it was for her own good.

And this is Lilly after!

-I gave her face a de-shine

- applied fake eyelashes

- corrected her gaze so she looks slightly upwards (although i did a tiny bit too much and so you can slightly see a black dot under the eye - where the next eye colour is)

Below is the small bar that you need to shave the tip off in order to make the eyes gaze upwards.

- gave her a nice hair cut, got rid of her "bum part" and gave her a fringe.

- replaced her pull-cord ring with a bead.

I have also removed her orange eye chips and am doing a little bit of experimenting and am trying to make some new ones from resin. The below picture is the "glue stick" method which is very quick and easy. You don't need to open the head in order to remove the eye chips. More pictures of that later though.....

And here are all my girls together. Violet and Trixie were sprung having a little 'gossip' behind Lilly's back....i think they're a little jealous of her sexy new do and her pretty beaded cord

More pictures of the girls and some more up close images of the custom work in progress on my Flickr site.

2 pretty girls....

The quirky cute Nicky Lad and the hippy-cool Bohemian Peace arrived in the mail today! I am so darn excited! I plan on doing quite a bit of custom work on Bohemian Peace. More photos and names to come!

Sonny Angel

My newest little purchase....

Pretty Stamps

I’ve received quite a few lovely packages in the mail recently – mainly from Japan and Hong Kong and i've realised they have some really beautiful stamps over there!

I used to collect stamps when I was younger, but when we changed over to those awful (yet convenient) sticky backed stamps it took all the fun out of stamp collecting. There was something quite therapeutic about soaking the stamps and then ever so gently removing them from the envelope and setting them out to dry.

I have no idea what to do with them now, Oshiny on flickr suggested wallpaper! What a hot idea! It would take a painstakingly long time, but how cool would it look!

Vintage Liddle Kiddle

Vintage 1967 "Liddle Kiddle" necklace charm. I saw here on eBay and just had to buy her. I like to wear one crazy piece of jewellery per day - and she will look just great on a necklace! You can also take her out of her little "jewel house"...too cute!!
(you can read more about them here. Plus there are a few on eBay if you want to own one too!)

To Open or not to open...

When I was a child I had a mini vacuum cleaner that wound up and the little pads underneath would swoosh around in a buffing motion.

With my recent regression into collecting 'toys' – such as my growing collection of re-ment items, restoring old Barbies and fixing up my Blythe Violet I got a bit nostalgic about some of the toys I used to love as a child – long ago donated to charity or played with till they broke.
So I Googled ‘wind up vacuum cleaner’ and whaddaya know – I found it! I also found the mixer which I had forgotten about and a sewing machine too!!



The lovely Amanda at ‘Hey Yo Yo’ on Etsy put them aside for me and I snapped them up toot-sweet. (Amanda – if you’re treading this thankyou for guiding me through my first ‘reserved’ etsty item purchase!!)



Now, the only question is – Do I open them??? Or do I leave them in the packaging? Yes I know that they’re ‘worth more’ in their packaging – but I’ll never sell them. Like a child, I am DESPERATE to see the sewing machine work and to once again see the vacuum cleaner buff away… Tell me – what would you do???

Mini dresses

Quick blog from the mobile today... I'm making some teeny tiny dresses for Violet.. with this hot sticky weather she needs a few summer frocks!

My new Pencil set

May I share with you...my new colour pencil set. Not sure if any of you adore pencils as much as i do.... I cherished my Derwent pencils growing up, so I couldn't resist buying these...




They're quite special though...because when you put a $0.10 piece next to them you can see how tiny they are!


Yes, re-ment pencils!! Amazing! And each one is an individual pencil that comes out of the case. They're a special "secret " item from the My Favourite Stationery set.....i am just besotted with them!

Waiting

Waiting patiently for this package to arrive....filled with Re-ment goodies from the love Jane at Harapeko Doggy Bag..

From Shirley With Love

Well this has all come around a little fast, but seeing as I got such a such a lovely plug from a really great gal – I just had to let you all know!

From today I will be selling my handmade jewellery on Etsy – as well as some Vintage items in time. You'll also notice when you pop over to the shop that the name of the shop is "From Shirley with Love". Well, the cats outta the bag and this is my new shop name – what do you think?


Shirley was my beloved Gram who passed away over a year ago now. Mr Honi and I live in her place which she shared with my truly inspirational Graf till he passed away more than 3 years ago now.

My Gram taught me how to knit and to sew and how to be a proper lady. Her famous line was "sweetheart, if you can read you can cook" which I still tell people today. She would sing "Alice blue Bonnet" to me when we went shopping and always had musk lollies in her purse.


This shop is dedicated to not only Shirley, but to all the strong women in my family whose influence have made me who I am today. To Shirley, Beryl, Doris, Anne (middle) and Diana (my Ma on the right). May the skills and crafts you've taught me bring happiness to others.


I'll still be blogging here, but also over here...

And now to all of you thankyou for your support. Whether you're just happy to read along, or you leave me absolutely gorgeous comments – thankyou. You are the ones who have made this all possible – 3 years ago I would never have dreamed I'd have so many lovely people reading my blog – and to be selling the "little knick-knacks" I make. Thankyou from the bottom of my heart. xx

My 27 'acheivable goals' for 2011

Well hello....it's been a while, I know. Thankyou very much to each and every one of you who said they were still here reading along. I really, really appreciate it!

The end of 2010 flashed past me before I could blink. Work has been so unbelievably crazy, I haven't had time to be creative.

So, a fresh new year – a fresh new outlook on life and I'm back on the crafting and blogging bandwagon!

So I thought I would have the first post of 2011 with a list of my "27 achievable goals". Not resolutions as such, just things I want to get done in 2011.


In no particular order:

1. Buy less Crap
2. Save more money
3. Waste Less food
4. Make my own clothes – no 'new' items of clothes for 2 months (to start ) this DOES however exclude underwear. I must buy nice good undies – i just couldn't bear to make them!
5. Buy organic fruit and veg at the farmers markets from Jan 8 onwards
6. NO FAST FOOD – Including, but not limited to Maccas, KFC, Hungry Jacks and Pizza Hut / Dominos
7. Always use my enviro bags (carry 2 with me at all times)
8. Build a vege garden in January
9. Build a compost pile in January (i posted about this AGES ago and still haven't got around to it)
10. Try to always buy environmentally friendly products (washing detergents etc)
11. Use the stairs more
12. Floss every night
13. Plan all meals the week before and buy food according to what is needed for the recipe only.
14. Exercise for 30 mins each day (hmm....this could be interesting!)
15. Have shorter showers
16. use rechargeable batteries and stop using "disposable" products like razors and 'single serve" items which use up a lot of packaging
17. donate all "read" magazines to nursing homes (and also stop buying so many magazines!)
18. start selling the things I make
19. Get in touch with old friends
20. have dinner in a nice restaurant once a month
21. see live music at least once every 2 months
22. do the following courses: Silver jewellery, glass/ lampwork beading
23. be more patient
24. don't let the little things bother me
25. watch less tv
26. read more books\
27. drop at LEAST 1 dress size

So, what are your goals for 2011??