A break at last!

Well, no more fairs until next year lol - well next month really! York as usual was a fantastic show for us. Aidy was fully booked at his workshop and had to get extra chairs to squeeze everyone around the table ;o) He was in his element lol and Deborah who runs the show kept telling me what a good job he was doing!

I really like the york venue as there is lots of space, it is well run, advertised lots so loads of people make the trip and there are around 100 stands so lots for people to see while they are there. We have a nice following at York too so it is always so nice to meet up with old customers.


Now we just need to make 6 more commissions before Christmas including a swimming pool??? Not sure how we came to be doing that but she is a lovely lady and is now a friend not a customer so how could we say no? I will show you lots of pictures when it is finished!

We had a great commission for a hells Angel while at york so looking forward to making him too but we have until the new year for that one!

And finally I am off to a wedding in Ireland tomorrow - Aidy and my dad are staying at home so it is just Mum and I making the trip and I hate flying so not looking forward to that at all!!!! But I do love Ireland and most of my family on my mums side live there so it will be nice to catch up!

Hope you are all finding the time to relax before Christmas ;o)

One left!!!!

Well, we had an exhausting weekend! We travelled down to London to stand at the Kensington Christmas Festival and then went back up to Manchester to stand at the Altrincham show on the Sunday - Madness lol

Kensington was well worth the trip ;o) and we had a customer who came all the way from Denmark to collect a doll. Her friend had bought one of our characters in Arnhem and so she had to have one too. So as soon as the doors opened she found us and luckily she loved him ;o) and she even promised to let him travel back home in style lol

We had a great show and as we were next to the cloakroom we had people passing our stand all day long! One problem with this is we now have a very empty stand, almost no dolls and no fabrics and only less than a week left until York - Major PANIC!!! We have 8 orders for dolls which are being collected at the show and we are doing a workshop! Sooooooooooooooooooo much to do this week and I am not home as I am with my mum all this week!

But the end is in sight and then we can relax...well almost! Aidy is giving up work to work full time on Lilyelf from next year so very exciting times ahead!

Welcome

A very warm welcome to all our new followers and a huge thank you to old ones! Sorry we are not posting much at the moment but we are just so busy with work, shows and commissions.

We had a great weekend. We did our very first talk to a dolls house club on Saturday and for me it was a bit daunting (Aidy being a Teacher had no such worries) but they were all such lovely people that I soon felt at ease ;o) and we even sold a doll and lots of fabrics and bits and bobs which was unexpected but nice!

On Sunday we had a stand at the Brentwood fair in Edinburgh http://www.brentwoodfairs.com/

Although quiet compared to the same show earlier in the year it was still well worth the trip to Scotland! Thanks Pat ;o)

D-A-M-E also had a stand run by Beverly Read and they did very well too so thanks to everyone who sent items along to sell, you did the group proud!

Sorry there are no pictures as everyone forgot to bring a camera!

One down...four to go!

Well, we are back from Pudsey. It was a very strange show as it became very busy around lunch time and then went quiet early afternoon, which never happens at this show! It normally stays busy all day. It was bad on the sales front for most people around us which again is strange for this event but maybe all this credit crunch talk has finally hit?

Doreen always runs a very good event and this time was no different as she got the public in - they just left early! They raised a huge amount for Children in need too, which is fantastic, I think it was around £800! So there is one very good positive about the show ;o)

We were lucky in that we covered costs and have four people who bought dolls and are picking them up and paying for them at york at the end of the month! It seemed lots of people were saving money until York this time. But then times are hard and what we sell are classed as Luxury items! We also had 6 bookings for our workshop ;o)

We have been very lucky as Lilyelf and have not felt the pinch so you have to take the good shows with the bad!

Roll on next week at Edinburgh, I love the Scottish shows!

The picture is of Priscilla one of our cats looking most unimpressed at having her picture taken!

Getting ready....

Not for Christmas as the picture suggests, but for the last 5 shows of the year! Yes, 5 shows in 4 weeks, we must be mad!?! Although Christmas will be here before we know it... and I have yet to make 10 Christmas cakes for family and friends, not to mention go to a wedding in Ireland...PANIC!!!

We are really looking forward to Pudsey tomorrow (http://www.doreenjeffriesdollshousefairs.co.uk/leeds-fair.php) as we have so many friends who stand very close to us at the show so we get to have a lovely chat and plenty of laughs throughout the day!

We have made some new characters for the show but not many as we have so many commissions we are working through to meet the Christmas deadline! It is at times like this that I wonder why we do what we do??? Oh yeah...because we love it!

I have loved 'meeting' so many talented artists through blog land, online groups and Facebook, it is truly amazing what some people can do with a few simple materials! I love seeing what you are all up to and WIP pictures, so we are going to try to return the favour by making some tutorials and taking some WIP pictures of our own to share some of what we do! Although we are not the most organised and we tend to forget to take pictures as we get caught up in what we are doing!

We hope to get the website sorted out as soon as we can. It has become a tad bit neglected of late, but it should be up and running soon! We have lots of very new exciting things planned for next year if we find the time to do them and we can't wait to share them with you! December is going to be a very very busy month...

Workshops

Details..

The Glasgow Dolls House fair run by Pat Kay of Brentwood Fairs are holding workshops at the Premier Inn, Glasgow on Saturday and Sunday, 27th and 28th February 2010. The fair takes place on the Sunday. http://www.brentwoodfairs.com/

Saturday all day: Gardener and vegetables with Lilyelf and Solway Miniatures.

In the morning you will learn how to sculpt and paint your own ooak Gardener with Aidy of Lilyelf Miniatures, 9am to 12.30 pm.

In the afternoon you will dress and wig the Gardener ( approx 2 hours) with roz of Lilyelf miniatures and then you will make his wheelbarrow of vegetables with Helena of Solway Miniatures. At the end of the day you will have a gardener with all his vegetables to take home. Students need to bring an apron to protect their clothing. Cost £50.00 minimum 5- 12 students.
Please bring you own lunch.

To book a place please email Lilielves@aol.com or solwayminiature@aol.com

***

Saturday all day - Regency Doll, circa 1812 with Hazel Dowd

Doll ready made up ready to be dressed in a Regency Gown; underclothes in fine lawn, trimmed with lace, stocking with garter, viscose for hair. Ballerina style slippers. Students will be shown how to wig the doll. The clothes patterns will be pre-cut to save on time but extra fabrics will be included in the kit. Please bring your own scissors. Cost £45. - minimum 8 students. ALSO A MUST : Bring your own lunch!

***

Saturday all day - Old Liverpool 3D scene with Joe Wareing.

The students will make a 28cm x 20cm x 8cm deep framed 3D scene wall hanging showing a frontage of an old Victorian house which still exists in Liverpool to-day. I assembling this project you will learn finishing techniques for brickwork; tiling and stone effects using ready available materials. Various methods of colouring will be used and the knowledge gained can be applied to any future projects of your own. All materials, tools and accessories (NOT THE DOLL) are included. STUDENTS NEED ONLY BRING AN APRON TO PROTECT THEIR CLOTHING Cost £50.00 Minimum 8 students. Please bring your own lunch!

***

Saturday all day; 1.12th scale porcelain Doll with Isabelle Wood
Make and assemble a Porcelain Doll.

***

Morning classes

Saturday: 9.am to 11.30am French Style patisserie cakes and mini cakes. with Solway Miniatures. No equipment required - everything is included.
Cost £8.00

To book a place please email solwayminiature@aol.com
***

Saturday: 9.am to 12.pm Dress a 1/24th Tudor Doll with Lilyelf, Doll and Fabrics provided - no equipment required - everything provided. Cost £35.00

To book a place please email Lilielves@aol.com

***

SUNDAY:

9 am to 12.30pm Simple Bead Bags with Joan Wareing. These bags are very simple to make, even for a complete beginner. If you can hold a needle you can make these bags! The simple method used can look completely different by using beads of varying size and shape. The kit will contain needles; extra fine Nymo thread; a special soft beading mat; enough beads ( of your choice) to complete three bags and written instructions for you to use in the future. There will be extra sets of beads available should you wish to make more bags. No Equipment needed - everything is included. Cost £10 - maximum 10 students.

***

Sunday 9 am to 12.20pm Jams; Pickles; Marmalade and Preserves with Solway Miniatures. All jars will be provided No Equipment required. Cost £15.00 5 - 15 students.

To book a place please email solwayminiature@aol.com

***

Sunday 9am to 10am, Learn to make removable wigs with Roz of Lilyelf. No equipment required Cost £10.00. 5 - 10 students.

To book a place please email Lilielves@aol.com

***

Sunday 10am to 12.30pm Learn to make a variety of Hats with Aidy of Lilyelf.No equipment required.Cost £10. 5 to 10 students.

To book a place please email Lilielves@aol.com

***

For workshops without contact info, please contact Pat Kay at pat.kay@tiscali.co.uk

Places are limited so book now!

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween to you all! I hope you all have lots of wonderful parties to go to, we are staying in with some nibbles and the TV lol Both parties we were invited to are at least 3 hours away! I do love Halloween and I am reminded of some very strange parties from my teenage days ;o) with some even stranger costumes!

I was going to make pumpkin soup or pie but no pumpkins left in the shops! That will teach us to wait until the last minute. It is odd to see Halloween become ever more popular in England but it is a good thing!

Have a spooky time whatever you are doing!

Griselda

Griselda is now for sale in our Etsy shop - All very new to us! I hope you like her ;o)

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=33528798 it is unusual for us to list dolls as we mostly sell them at shows or on a commission basis but as it is Halloween tomorrow we thought we would offer our last witch for sale - we do have lots more witches planed - we love making them!

Welcome to our new followers, almost 5o now! Thank you to all our followers for taking an interest in our work =o)

We had a great day yesterday, went to Bury Market with mum and had tea and cakes, saw my gran and had more tea and cakes lol then we made a surprise visit to Julie and Ruth's dolls house club (only Julie the organiser knew we were going) we had talked about it in Arnhem but they thought we had decided not to come. We had a wonderful night and yes, more tea and cakes lol

Julie's dolls house collection is just fantastic and it made me ashamed of my empty houses back home lol I must try to get some work done on them over Christmas! She has spent years collecting the perfect miniatures for every scene and the little bear and pram she bought in Arnhem finished the little girls room off perfectly - they were worth all the money they cost!

Thank you for such a warm welcome girls, I just wish I lived close enough to be a member but going off last night, we would never get anything made lol see you all at Pudsey!

Arnhem

Well, we are back home! We had a fantastic weekend and it was well worth all the effort to make the show.

We left on Thursday from Newcastle to Amsterdam, I didn't quite get seasick but I went to bed very early feeling quite green lol the 2 tablets I had, just about managed to keep me from actually being sick!

We woke up bright and early and after a much needed coffee and orange juice we disembarked in Amsterdam. None of the roads matched the map so we found the fair by dumb luck rather than by skill lol

But Aidy managed the drive really well and remembered to drive on the wrong side of the road lol We found the venue and I was given a really sweet miniature Russian doll to celebrate our first time at the show - I always wanted one of those!

We were placed facing Lynn (Matlock Miniatures) Bob (Country Contrast) and Doreen Jeffries so we had a laugh with them all weekend as we see them at all the English fairs. Every time we looked across to them they were all either laughing or eating something lol Aidy kept them entertained with his antics.

We were not too far away from Pat kay and Dream In miniature so it was really nice to see friendly faces.

As the show opened, One of our regular customers came up to us (we knew she was going to the show) and she asked if we knew where her hotel was, well we were delighted to find we were all staying at the same place, although we had failed to find it earlier.

Ruth, told us she had been to Germany and back looking for it so we said we would all go together at the end of the show, it took us 2 hours to find it as we spent most of the time stuck in a one way system lol We were all ashamed to realise the hotel is 8 minutes from the show! We were so happy to finally find it, but had to make do with a sandwich and drink from the bar as the restaurant was closed ;o)

The next morning we all had breakfast together and Aidy and I were having so much fun we nearly missed the start of the show! We had a great day and sold some dolls and lots of other bits. I was sad to see Gwendolin and Percy sell, but they are going to Denmark and the lady who bought them was lovely! We sold our gardener to her friend so that was really nice.

Our work got a fantastic response and we now have a some new customers to add to our ever growing fan base. We ran out of all our postcards!

We had a lovely meal with Ruth, Dot, Julie and Robert, but we all missed Ruth's daughter Julie who had stayed back at home in England. We had a very funny waiter who loved the fact he could make fun of us English lol so we never laughed so much for a long time, we all had a great night!

We managed to have breakfast with them again and then another mad dash to make the show, we had another great day and we were sad when it was all over.

We had to rush to catch the ferry home but made it with time to spare and the crossing was not too bad going home, we even had a nice 3 course meal on board.

We can't wait until next October when we get to do it all again and the best bit is that Ruth, Julie, Dot, Robert and Julie (Ruth's daughter) are all thinking of going again too! They made our weekend more than just a show, so thank you to you all we had a ball!

Check out ooakdiddydolls...

Check out the wonderful work of Lesley Hughes http://www.ooakdiddydolls.moonfruit.com/ She makes such fabulous dolls! Since her recent appearance in a miniaturist magazine she has been inundated with commissions which is fantastic to see as she is such a lovely person and she has been a very good friend to us.

We met Kev, Lesley's husband for the first time at Miniatura and he is just as lovely as she is! I am sure you will agree Lesley's work is very good! Please take a look at her all new and improved website which now has an online shop.

She will have work for sale at Pudsey and Edinburgh as part of the D-A-M-E table.

Keep up the great work Lesley!

Getting ready for Arnhem

(Pictures - A closer look at the Battish Airways Characters)

Well, we are getting ready to do our very first show abroad ;o) in Arnhem. We were supposed to do this show last march but I had an operation just a week before and I was not fit enough.

Better luck this time! We leave on Thursday So, the ferry is booked, hotel is paid for, we have a stand at the show, Sea sickness tablets are bought lol. All we need to do now is finish 6 dolls and pack the car and then we can be on our way!

The most important thing is our cats Cilla and Elvis and they are being looked after by some very good friends who will stay at our house for the weekend so that is one less thing to worry about!

The nice thing about doing this show is that not only are a lot of our friends from the British fairs standing but one of our favourite customers is also going to be there so that will be really lovely and it is her first time at the show too.

It is a 3 day show, well, one evening and two full days! Lots of well respected names from all over the world will have stands so I am going to have loads of fun looking at all the wonderful miniatures - you never know if we have a good show, I may get to buy some lol although I always buy things for our dolls such a fancy fabrics or unusual trimmings and not for my own collection!!! Mind you it is nearly Christmas...

It looks like a great event and we have heard only positive things about it so we hope to have a really nice time. It feels like a mini holiday anyway! We will take lots of pictures to bore you all with when we get back and we will give a full show report :o)

http://www.arnhem-poppenhuisstad.com/us/us.html

Miniatura

Battish Airways!

We had a wonderful show, it was great fun and went by far too quickly! Well, here is our show piece 'Battish Airways' it took all summer to make but the response we had was well worth all the hard work! It moves up and down, the bats flap their wings and it lights up lol

Aidy had to carry it up and down the show to take it to the 'studio' to have pictures taken by the magazines, miniatura and the local paper lol so his hands were killing him by the end of the weekend as it is heavy! It does all come apart and pack neatly away inside the boxes it stands on but there was no time to keep on packing it away ;o)

It was so nice to see peoples reaction to it and a lot of them thought we must be daft (which we are) to come up with the idea in the first place! We have had lots of really nice messages today telling us it was the best thing at the show and that made our day as some very talented people loved our work. We also had interest from some shops who liked the idea of having it as the window display!

We hope to have it on display at Arnhem, Pudsey, York and Kensington so if you are around and would like to see it please come and say hello. It is for sale but we would like to have the chance to add a few more finishing touches to it first as we ran out of time!

We also had a great time as we were surrounded by all the girls from D-A-M-E and Helena of Solway miniatures so lots of laughs in our corner of the show! We all stayed at the same hotel and 5 of us had the same room so you can imagine how much fun that was too lol good job we get along so well! Edith from delicious delights also kept on popping by to say hello as she did not want to miss anything ;o)

D-A-M-E had a fantastic and well deserved response from everyone who stopped to have a look at our display - The members really did a good job!

We would like to say a huge thank you to the following people, Bev, Lesley, kev, Helena and Simon for helping with D-A-M-E and all the D-A-M-E members who sent work to display or came to see us all at the show.

We would also like to thank Andy Hopwood who also continues to offer great support and encouragement to both D-A-M-E and Lilyelf and obviously works so hard to not only to help run such a successful event, but to promote the hobby to anyone who will listen!

Roll on march!

Busy, busy, busy!

Sorry it has been a few weeks since our last post! We just have so much going on at the moment and both of us are chasing our tails ;o) Our website should be up and running properly over the next two weeks or so, we are having some new features added for us by a very good friend and talented website builder!

Well, the picture above is of a witch we made as a gift for a very special customer of ours, in time for the Stafford show, she was delighted with her ;o) and this lovely lady made us a shawl, hat and basket and brought us some wonderful chocolate things to eat in return, which was unexpected but very nice. Thank you Margaret - we shall see you at Miniatura!

Talking of Miniatura, we have a ridiculous amount of work to do - today's list includes, dressing 6 dolls, flocking 50 mice, pouring porcelain dolls, cleaning and firing them and making a cauldron and that is just my list - Aidy has his own!!! LOL that is why I am here...to escape. I may get a 1/4 of my list done today if I am lucky ;o) I bet we are not the only ones with daft lists like these ... I know a few people who are quietly panicking!!!

We are so pleased that we are next to the D-A-M-E stand and we are also next to Helena of Solway Miniatures, so if you are standing or visiting the show you can find us all on L6-L8. We are in the middle at L7 lol

We are going to have something very, very special on our stand all being well ... just a few more dolls to make for it ... It will be available for sale and will never be repeated by us and will hopefully (if it works out) be a nice talking point and be one of the many high-lights of the show - I can't say more as it is a surprise!

Falkirk show

Well, we had another fabulous Scottish fair! 3 Scottish fairs in a row that have just exceeded our wildest expectations!!! A Huge thank you to Pat of Brentwood fairs for organising such a great show ;o)

Another huge thank you to our ever-growing Scottish customer base you make the trip worthwhile at every show! We had two customers pick up some commissions (both have bought our dolls before) and we had an order for 4 more dolls and a camel from one of these customers so that was great and I am sure we will have fun making those.

We have had a lot of knocks this year with mum being ill and a lot of petty playground antics from a few people who should know better but our customers speak for us and continue to support us -that is all that matters! We also have lots of very nice friends on the miniature scene who it is always a pleasure to see and we have a lot of fun with!

Mum is doing well, she has more treatment in October but I am keeping her busy on facebook games LOL

It was so nice yesterday as we were surrounded by D-A-M-E members and we were next to the D-A-M-E sales table and Helena of Solway minis who is also a member so we had lots of laughs all day. We were all really pleased that every single member of DAME who sent items to sell sold at least one item and it was the first sales table we have had as a group so CONGRATULATIONS to everyone who took the time to send work to the show!!!! WTG Girls and Boys!

Now panic sets in as we have so many large shows coming up including our first trip to Arnhem and Miniatura which we love to do. So thanks to everyone who has been there for us through all the bad and good times ;o) especially Lesley Hughes of Ooakdiddydolls and Beverley Read who have been beside us at every turn - You are both wondeful people and very special friends.

The dolls above are two new characters for the shows ahead!

Where does the time go???

Where has this month gone? We have been so busy it is hard to believe it is almost September. But what a lovely summer we have had. Most of our outstanding commissions are finished or at least sitting naked on my table and waiting to be dressed - this is the racing driver who now happily lives in the Isle of man -


We have made some wonderful new characters who will be on show this Sunday at falkirk and the following weekend they will be at Stafford ;o) We also have a very exciting and extremely large project which will be on show at miniatura it will have loads of characters and really will be something worth coming to our stand to take a peek at - pictures to tempt you coming soon!!! Lets just hope it fits on our stand LOL

It has not been an entirely worked filled summer as we have had lots of guests coming to catch up with us which has been really good as we have had a nice break without having to leave the house and we still have one friend staying with us ;o) Now Aidy's dad is also on his way for a weeks stay - this means lots and lots of visits to bookshops and interesting places we find along the way ;o)

Hope everyone else is having a great summer, even if the weather is not always nice!

A rude commission...

We have just finished this commission for this gentleman who is about to be spanked! We had a lot of fun making him as it is something very different for us! Although my dad was shocked when he saw the pictures lol so this is the censored version!

That is why we love doing commissions as you never know what you will be asked to make ;o)

6th Wedding Anniversary

Well, today was our 6th wedding anniversary;o) So we decided to go shopping, have a meal and see Harry Potter.

We bought loads of books and I was delighted to find Alan Bennett 'Untold Stories' for £4.99 brand new - it was reduced from £20.00! We also got loads of work related books with pictures of people or sewing techniques ;o)

Then we went for a mexican meal and we had just had a few sips of our drinks when the fire alarm went off! so we had to go outside and wait for the all clear. Around 10 minutes later we could all go back inside. Our food order arrived a little late but the food was delicious! Then we asked for the bill and it was FREE!!! So that was a nice anniversary gift that we were not expecting!

We then went to see Harry Potter and because our meal was late we missed all the adverts - perfect ;o) We were both unimpressed with the pace and the love plot got a bit sickly at times but it did look great. Now we are full of dolls we just have to make so back to work tomorrow ;o)

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Witches

We have just finished this piece 'you are never too old to learn to fly' It is one of those sculpts that has been waiting to get out for a long time ;o) She is now sold but we would make a similar idea if requested.

Gwendoline and Percy are collecting mushrooms for a spell! We have just listed them on ebay - something we never do with our OOAK dolls as most of our work is either stock for shows or commissions!

You can see them here http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190323210781&ssPageName=ADME:L:LCA:US:1123

We hope to start listing dolls on ebay, etsy, CDHM, D-A-M-E and fuzzb in the next few months as we are members of them all but never use them!

Our main aim for this summer is to try to keep our website updated and keep on top of all our commissions as at the moment we never have any spare time to make the long list of ideas waiting to pop out!

We have six weeks to get organised ... HELP!

Candy Witch Workshop

We are running a workshop with Helena of Solway miniatures to make a candy witch!

Witch Workshop
28th July 2009
10 am - 4 pm
Holywood Trust Community Hall
Holywood, Dumfries
(Map will be provided at time of booking)

Sculpt, Paint, Wig and Dress a Witch and make her candy tray!
You will spend the day with Helena, Aidy and Roz who will each take you through a stage to complete your very own candy witch. It is a full day workshop, Coffee, tea and biscuits will be provided but please bring your own lunch.
Costs £50 per person for everything you need to make a witch, all tools and materials are provided.

To book this workshop or one similar contact us;
Email: Mimeworkshops@aol.com
Phone: 01388 451 539

http://mime.yolasite.com/

First 1:24 dolls

This is our first attempt at 1:24 scale dolls. They were a real challenge to do! It was hard finding fabrics small enough and Aidy found the sculpt very difficult to do and still keep detail. It is amazing how small the face and head have to be in order to stay in scale - a lot of people make the head too big. This was advice we had before we started and now we can see why it is so easy to get it wrong!

These are a commission hence why we were mad and gave it a go ;o) But we did have fun and now we have the summer looming, we may make some more! We already have a few people interested in what we make next lol so watch this space.

In 3 days Aidy breaks up for the summer (he teaches) so we are going to spend the time making dolls and keep our website updated for once! We have lots of exciting ideas and some irons in the fire so our blog should also be more active...well maybe lol

We are at a show in Altrincham on Sunday so we will try to take lots of pictures to show you all. It is a really nice fair as we get to meet up with lots of friends and some regular customers which is probably one of the best parts of doing fairs!

Pigeon update

Percy has left us, so I hope he will now find his way home. He was obviously just tired and in need of food and a good nights sleep, bless him ;o) so although sad as we won't know if he makes it or not, at least we gave him a good chance.

Pet Pigeon???

Hi all, we have a new pet...Percy/Phillis the lost racing pigeon who was found last night by the annex door and it was too tired to move or fly away...sooooooooooooo after a lot of scratching our heads out came a cat carrier and in went Percy. We then googled 'what to feed a Pigeon' and 'what to do with a lost racing Pigeon' and we had a look in the cupboards for Pigeon friendly food so out came the rice and sunflower seeds!!! Percy then spent a night on the kitchen floor with seeds and water to munch on ;o) It was worrying as it was just sat there doing nothing...do pigeons do stuff??? But today it had eaten everything we put down for it and was bright and alert so we decided to clean the box out before Aidy went to work ... outside ... Pigeon is now on the roof and won't come down =o( so not sure what to do now. I have googled 'how to get pigeon off the roof' but not really into shooting it down!!!! And it says on lots of sites that the owner will just kill it as it failed to get home. Is this true??? So what do we do now???? Can't let it be killed, can't keep it on the roof...

Our first Goth...

Meet Raven Snakebite ;o) she is our first ever Goth doll. She is already sold as she was a commission piece but we had so much fun making her we are going to make lots more similar characters. We hope you like her.

New characters

Hello! Sorry we have not posted anything for ages, we have just been so busy (which we are not complaining about)! We just have so many commissions these days that we are constantly chasing our tails but it keeps us quiet lol

But we thought we would show you these 3 new characters the witch is not quite finished yet but she will be available soon, the other two were commissions so are sold. We had a lot of fun with these 3 and I have to say I have a soft spot for Gwendolin the Witch :o) She has glass eyes so has a very nice twinkle to her and they make her look a lot more realistic - this is only the second time we have used them but we now think they look better than the painted eyes. Mind you it depends on the look you want ;o)

We had a wonderful phone call on Saturday, a gentleman asked if we would make a doll for his wife as she was too embarrassed to ask us - she wants a man bent over a chair with his trousers pulled down as if he is being spanked and she even wants hand marks on his bottom lol so that should be a lot of fun to do!! That is why we love commissions so much, you just never know what you will be asked to make. Has anyone else had any strange requests?

Update

Well, yesterday was a long day! Mum and I were at the hospital from 9 til 5 so a days work for some ;o) Mum needs another operation to remove some more of the growth they thought they had removed (apparently they now think some was left behind) and will be having more tests and scans over the next two weeks. So lots more days spent at the hospital...

Mum wanted me to say thank you to all those who have emailed and sent cards to wish her well, it means a lot to us both ;o)

The staff were all lovely and we had lots of cups of tea made for us and mum even got a free lunch so not all bad!

So, now I can hide myself in dolls again until the next visit...we have a new witch on her way ;o) maybe you can meet her tomorrow...

Darwin

Well here is Darwin ;o) who hopefully made it to Kensington in one piece. We offered him up for auction as we couldn't make it to the show. He did not want to play and refused to get dressed for a few days but after a good talking to we got there! Hope you like him, he is the second Darwin we have made but both are different as they are both ooak sculpts. The first one played fair and got dressed right away and was sold at Miniatura ;o)

Now back to commissions...

Trying Times

As some of you know my mum was diagnosed with cancer two weeks ago today. She had an operation to have a growth removed around a week before and it was found to contain cancer. So the last two weeks have been awful as we have not known how bad it is or even if she was lucky and they got it all there and then.

We finally got the dates for her scans and other tests, a week today so we at least now have something to work towards. So positive thoughts please! I bury my head in the sand over these things so will try not to think about it until next week when I have too ;o)

I have passed on all the well wishes from the girls of DAME and CDHM and mum wanted me to thank you all. It does help to know people are thinking about you!

So, we have pulled out of the Kensington Showcase as we just could not put the time and effort into making something special to display and to be honest our mind has not really been on Lilyelf. We are just working through commissions while we wait for news.

Things are not helped with my own health issues and now my dad is having problems with his recently replaced knee - I think Aidy is the only healthy one!!! Oh, and the cats appear to be healthy too ;o)

If anyone is going to Kensington or any other big show we hope you all have a great time and sell everything!

Thank you to Wendie for our first award ;o) and for showing me the way to revamp our blog...don't know why we were pink!

We would like to pass it on to the following,

Back to Wendie for being so thoughtful and nice as always!

To Eileen, who makes some of the best pieces of art in doll form I have seen and she is lovely to go with all that talent ;o)

Lesley of ooakdiddydolls who is a very dear friend and has always been there through the good and bad times. She also makes fantastic characters!

Jill Miles, who makes some of the best food around and is one of the nicest people I have met through fairs. She also gets this award for allowing me to look at cakes and not gain any weight!

And to all those who have taken the time to follow our blog ... is that cheating?

New characters

We had a lot of fun making these two! The witch is carrying a tray filled with spooky biscuits made by Helena of Solway Miniatures, her website http://solwayminiatures.webs.com/ is well worth a look!

We are known for our man in the bath having his back washed and we wanted to do another one but very different to the original so here he is, rubber duck and all ;o)

Hope you like them both!

It is nice to put a bit of fun into your sculpts and be daft. A lot of our work is commission based so we are working to a set list of requirements which can be a lot of fun too as sometimes customers come up with ideas you would never have even thought of, whereas making dolls for shows can be a chance to make all those dolls you think about just before you fall asleep and those that you add to the growing wish list and lets face it, it really is a chance to be silly;o)

I would like to say a quick thank you to all the girls on D-A-M-E who have been very supportive these past few weeks in what is a very difficult time ;o). Life is good at throwing up new challenges and upsetting situations but I know me and my family have all the support we need to get through the testing times ahead - so thanks girls you are a great bunch!

Edinburgh

Yesterday we were in Edinburgh at a Brentwood fairs show. We had one of our best fairs ever and took more than we did at miniatura which is just amazing!! Now we have a very full order book and we were just getting to the end of the last lot of orders LOL. Think it must have been the shock of the warm weather - brought everyone out for the day! Hopefully it is a good sign for all us makers that things are picking up and the doom and gloom of the credit crunch will soon be in the past.

The picture is of the Obamas - unfortunately Michelle is now alone as we sold Barack but we will make her another husband so she is not lonely! We did have complaints that we split them up LOL

This weekend we are at Pudsey so now we have to have a busy few days making as much as we can, in our now, very cluttered and messy workroom - I knew tidying it was pointless!