Gwendolyn, girl of many hats....

Gwendolyn took all the suggestions to heart.... well, she must have, mustn't she?  She's managed to find other hats, and, therefore...other duties.  It's not only golfing notes she holds now..... look at this...today she is holding a recipe...Energy Bars if you please.  And, ....the other day it was just hats......who knows how she found them.  The bears must have helped.  They are always up to no good it seems.

so...I got right on it...and made the bars.

YUM!!  Very tasty!  But.... they are still not the perfect recipe I am searching for... ooorr.. 'for which I am searching' if you must see it correctly.  I am looking for a truly tasty bar, but one which stays totally intact upon being sliced.  This one still crumbles a bit at the edges.... and still seems a bit softer than I want.  If you have a great recipe.... please let me know.....

I will post this one on my food blog eventually...and place a link to it so you can try it as well.

AND.....now...for a fun thing.

What is this?  Send along your guess in the comments....and if there is more than one who gets it correct...I will have one of the boys make a random drawing from a pot of names.... for a little prize.  Let me see..... perhaps I will give it til Friday so that a few more of my now long lost "regulars" might have a chance to drop by ......

.. 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.

playing with clay

Finally I'm getting around to making some arms and legs for my funny little dolly I began waaaay back... can't even rermember when...

She is my take on Black Eyed Suzi's well known dolls...

Having made only a few things using paper clay, it is mostly still a learning experience.  The head and face seemed a lot easier than the spindly legs and arms.

I used a piece of wire wrapped with tin foil to give it a bit of shape and something to begin to attach clay.  It sure is a fiddly job...and they look pretty rustic so far...but, it is a start and should be easier to add more clay when dried... then some sanding and shaping and hopefully...a "voila" !  moment.

 I'll keep you posted Dear Diary.... lol....

I'm not sure about sizes.... I'm just a hit and miss kinda gal most of the time.  It's why it takes me soooo long to do everything.
I made the tiny foot first, but then thought it looked a tad small for the body and the length of the leg.  So... second leg is larger overall.  Today I'll place all the limbs near the body and check for size...then... make a second leg ...  in what I deem to be an appropriate size for her.

Not to worry about all the lumpiness... when I add more clay... it can all be smoothed over... and don't forget...sanding.  One thing about this clay...it sands wonderfully... and easily.

How do you like my ingenious drying rack? hahahhah......

I'll have to move things around today...I need to use that mixer....

Photo a Week

Finally..... here she is.  I originally was hoping to have her done for Valentine's Day... to post her on the Cloth and Clay doll site.... but... she missed her date.  So...I did away with any idea of making her too, too Valentine-y.  Then, she was also late for her date on Monday as Photo of the Week.... a gal with a mind of her own I guess.

I think I will name her Tina... short for Valentina ....

Her face is paperclay over cloth.... painted with acrylics.   Her "ruffle" was the excess I cut off after attaching the waist band to her skirt.  Not that I am short of a stash of fabric to use...but, it just popped into my head to use it as soon as it dropped to the floor after cutting it off.   I added a bit of trim to cover the white stitching line.  I always find it strange how ideas just happen....  .. 

Paperclay on bodice painted... arms are just fabric gessoed and painted...  the trim is some selvedge from a lovely piece of burgundy velvet.   I didn't have any ribbon or trim that I liked and then I spied this bit of lovely...it's perfect to my eye.... love the three little copper threads running through it....

Here....a little experiment in how the search for a background fabric is so important to the photo..  ...

The fabric for her skirt was so snowy white that I dipped it in weak tea to tone it down ever so slightly....

These dollies are such fun to do ... it could be addictive, because unlike most of my other projects... they really could be done in a week... and just to have fun playing with colours and making up little costumes is great.

Here they are ... the two little friends....