Friday, August 31, 2012

Wax Seal Necklaces

Something new in the shops! Wax Seal Necklaces, made from vintage wax seal stamps from England and Italy. Each one is handmade (by Erin) in fine silver and strung on sterling chains. Lovely, sweet, and romantic!




Next week, we are off to the Brimfield Antique Show again! It sure seems like we were just there. 
Have a lovely week!

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Thinking ahead

Even though it is still summer, I've been thinking a lot about Christmas gifts. I like to hand make most of my gifts, so the sooner I start, the better. One gift I've been planning on making for a while now is a Waldorf-style doll for my daughter. Last fall I took a sewing pattern book out of my library, planning on making the doll, but was overwhelmed by the pattern. Being a very new sewer, it was just too complicated for me. I thought I might end up buying one for her, but after looking online at all the various choices, the high prices made me reconsider real fast!
So, I recently thought of the perfect compromise: buying a naked and featureless doll body (which was the part that was so daunting for me), and making everything else myself. Perfect! A partly Mama-made doll. Works for me. There are a few different Etsy sellers who sell the plain doll body, and at a reasonable price.
One of the parts I've been most looking forward to is spinning the yarn for the doll's hair. I already had this gorgeous braid of roving in my stash, and it will be perfect for my little redhead's doll.


 I decided to spin it up on one of my favorite Tom Forrister spindles (it's a low whorl). I spin on spindles while the kids are playing around me, and I like the idea of them watching this yarn take shape, even though they don't know what it is for, yet.
 I also finished wheel-spinning this alpaca fiber from Upstream Alpacas.
And finally... we are rich in zucchini!! This is about 1/3 of the squash harvest, so far this summer.

Have a lovely week!