MAUREEN THE BALLERINA

My little corner of the world is never dull - one week whales, this week a Ballerina.....

Her working title was "Maureen always wanted to be a ballerina but her boobs got too big"!  

Maureen is designed for the 200 x 300 hoop (that's 8 x 12)......and there is hand sewing to put her together, and some sewing machine work to get some clothes on her.     Maureen can be found here.

She measures about 54 cm.   

She has ballet shoes

 

 

 

.....and bloomers.

 

 Bye for now!
Sue xxx

Whales

 

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Just finished a couple of weeks at the beach.   Weather pleasant enough although a touch windy.   Boating takes on a whole new challenge when trying to drive said boat on to a trailer with strong wind sending the boat in circles.......  So feeling all beachy and inspired, here is the latest batch of designs to hit my little corner of Etsy.   (This link will take you to the whole set, but all designs are available separately).  Designs come in 4x4, 5x7, 6x10 and 8 x 12 -appliques and there is also a whale toy/pincushion for the 8 x 12.   I have also included a 4x4 filled whale design for those with a small stitching field.  



 

 Filled design 4 x 4 size only:

I must be well rested, I managed to make these frames up in Paintshop Pro and......save them for further use without having to change all the colours every time.   Then as the final bit of non blondness, I saved the watermark in one go!   By the way, when you need that little "c" in a circle, simple hold down the alt button and type 0169 on the number pad on the right of your keyboard (the numbers along the top don't work for this) - so there you have it, if you don't know how to do the little copy write symbol - © .   ALT 0169.  

Now I can't do a trip to the seaside without O'Reilly pictures......

 

An evening stroll on the beach as the sun starts to disappear for another day.   Evenings were a bit cool!

 

Heading back after a chase of the birds wading in the shallows.....

 

Our evening meals are often of the barbecued variety.   Know what this is?      If you want the most tender calamari whether it be tubes or rings, this is the secret.   Not a chewy piece to be had.   Take a couple of kiwi fruit - those hairy things in the fruit section.   The only preparation I do is to remove the sticky label!   Now, pulverise, either in a food processor or with a stick blender, whatever is to hand, the entire fruit.   Don't waste time peeling it.   It wont be eaten.   Put your calamari into a container with a lid or even a plastic bag.   Pour the fruit over the calamari and make sure the pieces are all nicely coated.   Squish the bag or shake the container once or twice during the marinating process.    I like to leave the calamari soaking for at least two hours.    ALWAYS MARINATE IN THE REFRIGERATOR....   When the time is up, rinse the calamari to remove all the kiwi fruit and pat dry.   If you want to add some salt and pepper seasoning and flour do this after the pat down.   Now cook how you like.   Don't overcook -  I promise you will not be disappointed!



 

Now because I am a little strange, I find it hard to keep the mind off all sorts of craftiness even when on holiday.    I needed a coffee table that could double as extra storage  for those platters and things that take up space in cupboards that are already bursting at the seams.   So, how to get my able assistant into the same mindset?   I bought two cheap coffee tables from Crazy Clints.   I asked my assistant to cut them down and whilst he was doing that, I went to the hardware store and got the extra supplies.    A bit of ply, some edging timber and some paint.    Mr Underenthusiastic  was cajoled into finishing the shell and then I set to work.    I did find mirrors hard to come by, so had to travel a bit to get those.    Next I smashed them, as you do and set to work putting a mosaic together.  My assistant marvelled at my patience over a couple of evenings but I had to do something to drown out the 20/20 cricket games that were on every damn night!     

I had to work out the sequence, do I paint, do I mosaic, but in the end I decided to mosaic first and then the paint could be easily scraped off the mirror, I would put the grout in last.    I bought a slightly off white paint and whilst waiting for it to mix, I saw the sample tins of miss-tints.   Perfect, a blue for the undercoat for $2.   Bargain.     So, two coats of blue and then a rough coat of white paint, a bit of sanding and waxing and I think the coffee table came up very well.   We put wheels on the base so it can be manoeuvred  as necessary.  I borrowed a sewing machine for an afternoon and made the curtain - I think it has a nice beachy feel - and is perfect.   Somewhere to put the coffee cup and it means I can buy a few more dishes for serving!

 

Have a great week.   Sue xxx