dusty day.....

.....a  crisp,frosty day with the most glorious luminous light-perfect for photos without a flash.Also perfect for exposing a winters worth of dust,did I get out my feather duster? Did I heck I got out my trusty old camera instead! These were taken around my workroom,in the tidy spots! So many treasures....

Grey sky,red shoes......

......January is the time for new beginnings,a fresh start,a clean page,the first chapter in the 2010 year-book,so much potential,my head is dancing with imaginings on a grand scale for this decade of dreams! Dreams of;stitching,drawing,making-sorting,gleaning,baking,writing-reading,reading,reading!!!!!! But January is not an eager participant in all this activity,it's brooding & sulky after all that December merrymaking-occasionally cracking a smile with some winter sunshine. My mind may be turning cartwheels but the flesh is weak & I fight a daily battle to stop me from doing this..................... ......& as well as taking comfort between the,all enveloping,pages of my new book,my ears are being soothed & caressed by the velvety tones of Morrissey,whilst I fritter away the first month of this year of promise.....its all in the planning!

.....however,having cast aside the brooch I started stitching during the 'snow' (it wasn't holding my attention) I took up with an old friend instead-this was a little vintage doll I started 're-dressing' last year,it was to be for my mama for Christmas until time ran out! This is a little 'hobby' of mine which I find very therapeutic-I buy old souvenir costume dolls,which are in abundance at car boots across the land,those funny little dolls brought back from happy holidays,cherished in childhood then abandoned.I strip off their 'national' attire & then make new tiny clothes for the plastic people,the dolls themselves are so charming with their chubby cheeks & quirky expressions,I have always had a soft spot for them and have adopted many dolly orphans over the years. Some of my favourites have macabre painted toes in place of shoes,this little cupie however has painted ankle socks & red shoes,she also has spiky fingers & a very stroppy demeanour-I love her! Here she is in my 'sofa-sewing' box,most cross at having to wait for me,originally she was dressed in a kind of Dutch costume but with a dear little felt pixie hood which I retained & trimmed-the red shoes & hat meant she was destined to become Red Riding Hood in polka dots...........

...........so,here she is today,all dressed up,just before going to live with her new mama-better late than never-such a cutie pie but still stroppy-mama is used to naughty girls,she had 2 of her own!

This big girl needs to pull her thermal socks up & seize the day before January becomes February,there will always be grey days but there beats within a bright red shiny heart!

Work in progress......

.....at last there is some stitching going on here! After a frolic in the snow,me & the snow babies spent an afternoon infront of the goggle box,fire blazing up the chimney,chipping away at dad's Toblerone. I started on this brooch last night,late last night-a habit of mine,I am an owl never a lark. Wonderful to wake the next morning & remember you have a new project in the offing,like opening your eyes & seeing the shoes you bought yesterday,waiting to be worn-since childhood I have left new shoes where I can see them when I wake. While the mornings chores were carried out, the sewing was begging my attention downstairs,while upstairs my book was trying to get me back into bed-as it was I managed a bit of both,it is a very good book! As for the brooch,the idea is a kind of cameo,the pendant part attaches onto the bow by means of a very vintage hook & eye,which is part of a large ebay haul I never knew what to do with-until now! The 'portrait' is drawn & stitched,I am unsure how to finish the raw edge-blanket stitch maybe-as the pendant can be unhooked & turned round I can put another design on the reverse. A nice little project to start the year & get 'paperdolly' up & running (ok jogging) again. If only I could read at the same time,I can hear the Brontes calling me up to bed.......

New shoes,blue shoes.....

.......... these are the most perfect shoes I have ever seen! My mama bought them when she was in her 20s and a shoe shop was closing down,me and my sister were but a twinkle in her eye,she just bought them because she loved them! They are Start-rite and as mama says,like the Royal children used to wear,I can just imagine them worn with white ankle socks and a woolen double breasted coat,with velvet peter-pan collar. The colour is a perfect powder blue,the shape and button fastenings are just like in the story books of their era,and inside,printed in gold is the Start-rite logo of two cutie-pies walking up a path,my mama says as a child she would look at that picture and worry about where the children were going all alone!Their box is tatty and faded { the best kind of boxes are} but inside the shoes shine out like new,their pale leather soles have never touched the ground. I remember them as a child being in the bottom drawer of my mamas chest in her room, nestled among many other treasures;a tiny rosebud doll with a hand knitted trosseau of the smallest stitches imaginable,the pale pink bodice of a tutu, exsquisitely embroidered in silver,from mamas days as a seamstress at the Royal Opera House,impossibly small ladies white kid leather gloves,fastened with baby pearl buttons, and most fascinating of all for a small child on a rainy day,a fox fur stole-complete with head,tail,legs and beady glass eyes-gruesome glamour, lined in silk satin! Now Mama is clearing out many such treasure troves,crammed into drawers,boxes and under the bed,and though,thankfully Mr Fox is long gone,the' Rolls Royce' shoes and other delights have come to live with me.The shoes will be set free from their box { the box will be filled! } and will sit so prettily in my bedroom,I have photographed them on my best Jane Clucas 'moon baby' bag.....be still my beating heart!