Introducing Nina

Well, she's finished! My daughter will be sooooo happy to see her tomorrow morning! She's been busting to play with her, and nagging me to finish making her. Please excuse the crappy pix -- I could not wait until daytime!

Today (on the way home from dentist visit #2 which was far less stressful than yesterday's butchering session) we stopped at "Bustle & Bows" to buy some yarn for Nina's hair. What a ripper of a shop!! I love it! I used to stop in at Bustle & Bows in Malvern when we lived nearby but have not been to the Surrey Hills one (the only one now) and boy oh boy am I ever excited to have discovered it! (Can you tell?) The flosses! The fabrics! The TRIMS! Squeeee!! When I left my paper bag not only contained Nina's hair-to-be, but THIS...


...with which to finally make THIS...

...how sweeeeeeet is serendipity!!

But I digress. I love how Nina turned out! I didn't expect to be so competent at doll-making. I know to proper doll-makers Nina is probably majorly flawed, but damn she looks fine to me! And my girl seems to agree, which is what counts the most. Credit must be given to the very well-diagrammed (and probably well-written, too, but HAH! I wouldn't know!!) Doll Nina book (ISBN4-07-249886-6) which I bought from my favourite Ebay seller ever Pomadour24.

The only thing I am slightly disappointed with is her hair. I have not cut it short -- it turned out this length which is much shorter than Nina's hair in the book. Not that I mind how my Nina's hair looks, but I would have preferred longer pigtails I could plait. Maybe because the yarn I used is stretchy, so it bounced back to a shorter length once off the "loom". Never mind.

Happy 7-month birthday to my lil' girl. You're not getting anything, dear, except for lots of yummy warm milk every time you disturb my slumber in the dead of night.

Frifty Friday

Went op-shopping today, and came home with:

A dinosaur puzzle, Lindy Chamberlain's autobiography (have been thinking about her lately thanks to our Uluru trip, and wondering about her side of the tragic story), two sewing patterns (check out the kids' one!!), two aprons (one very cute vintage "homemade" one with really funky pockets, and the other a tuck-shop lady smock-type apron which I have been after), a size 18 pure linen jacket (yeehar! heaps of linen), and all for $15.


Also an update on "Doll Nina" -- she's almost finished! Head's a bit square, but nothing that a bit of chocolate-brown mohair hair won't cover up. I'm very excited about her, and my 3yo loves her already. When she picks her up, she cradles her in the crook of her arm and nuzzles her -- awwwwwww!!! She must feel the love being sewn in.

Barbie: Adore? Abhor? Ambivalent?

I bought my first daughter her first Barbie as soon as she turned three. I would have bought her one earlier, but the box says "3+" and I am one of those overimaginative paranoid types.

When we were at the swimming pool a few weeks before her 3rd birthday she saw a girl playing with a Barbie in the water, and said, "Mummy, I want a woman like that, too!" I nearly drowned! Is Barbie really more "woman" than doll? I guess to a 3yo, she must be. Scary -- really truly scary. Not that it stopped me buying her one (uh, okay, two) (though it probably should have).

To be quite honest, I was really quite excited about it. I admit it -- I still LOVE Barbie!! I hate her anorexic alien "dis-figure" which (according to the experts) would not fit vital organs if she were real; I hate her freakishly thick (ever tried plaiting it?) freakishly-long hair; I hate her oversized eyes and manic smile, her tiny permanently-extended feet, and her upside-down boobs (they point UP for crying out loud).

But I still love her, and now so does my 3-and-a-half-year-old. At this stage she's just interested in shampooing her hair when she herself has a bath/shower, but I can't wait till she's interested in dressing her up -- then I can make use of the (possibly hundreds of) knitting/sewing/crochet patterns which I have been collecting (just check THIS out!). I have already made her a Barbie-bath-robe (using a purpose-bought face washer!) but she's not yet interested.

Am I instilling evil values into my 3yo? Oh God.

At least I draw the line at Bratz. Don't even get me started on those "dolls" modelled on porn stars/strippers with their drugged-eyes and silicone-trout-pouts.

Doll Nina

This arrived today!!

Yay!! I'm gonna be making dolls and their clothes!

Will post some inside pix soon, but can't at the moment due to bouncing an almost-six-month-old on my lap who has decided she doesn't "do" sleep between 9pm and midnight. Which used to be the only time I had to myself. Pfffffft.

Here dey are...