Busy Bee

Wow, it has been a long time since I've blogged here! I guess it is a testament to how busy my life has been lately. Most of my time in the past few weeks has been taken up with the adoption process. The rest of my so-called free time has been filled with random projects; including sewing, crocheting, and gardening!

I am making another Marky the Monkey, this time for a friend's soon to be born baby girl. I'm currently in the process of making felt eyes for the little rose and cream monkey so the whole thing will be very baby friendly. I hope to complete it this weekend and will post photos when I do.

This year was the year I finally decided on taking the plunge and doing the work to put a vegetable garden in my back yard. This consisted of killing off and pulling up grass, installing framework and a fence and fertilizing and tilling the soil, plus indoor planting (I'm starting it all from seed!). It has taken me weeks to do it all since I'm only using hand tools (for both the money-saving aspect and the extra exercise it provides me!). I am almost finished and should be able to plant the plants in the ground in the next few weeks when the danger of frost is finally past. I can not wait to eat produce that I grew myself! I've wanted to do this for years and figured I better do all the hard work now so that I can enjoy the garden with less work after the adoption is finalized and I have a new baby to care for :)




Lastly, my mom commissioned me to make my own daughter's birthday present from her this year. She found an old doll that was mine as a girl and asked me to replace the clothing. She also asked me to make a dress in matching fabric that Anna could wear. I found this challenge quite intriguing as I wouldn't have a specific pattern to work from other than deconstructing the old clothes and working from there. My mom chose a cute lilly pond fabric from our local craft store and I got to work. The doll is a reversible doll of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. One way it looks like Goldilocks, but if you turn the doll upside down and lift her skirt up over her head then it looks like the three bears. Here are some before and after shots, sorry about the poor lighting in the after shots. I'm not totally done as the doll itself needs a good thorough cleaning and I'm going to replace the hair as well. I have a good start on the dress for Anna - I am making a pillowcase-type dress and it is looking very cute so far! I still have some embellishments to do and then it will be done. The thing I love about this style of dress is that it can easily become a trendy little shirt when she's older and it doesn't fit as a dress any longer!