Btw, only half a year to Yule...

What Can You Learn from Crafts You Dislike?

"Choose three crafts or creative projects that you have very little or no interest in. Then spend just five minutes researching each of these, just enough time to find out something you didn't already know."

Hmm... What ""creative project" am I not interested in? Quite a many, actually, and I am not intersted, because I have tried and found out that I am not interested. I have no interest to learn anything about them. But then there are a couple that I haven't even tried, because I think those are waste of time. For example:

Decorating flower pots. Decorating mirror frames and other such things with fake jewels and such.
Making things by gluing stones together, painting stones
Making things by gluing beads and pearls and sequins, or fabric on styrofoam base.
Making plaster figurines in ready-made molds.
Making paper clay figurines with ready-made molds.

I really don't want to learn anything about that.

But, here we go.

When painting flower pots, it's important to seal the pots from inside to stop the water damage on the surface. I thought one SHOULD not do this, so that the pot would "breath".

If I would decorate flower pots, I would do something like this, I think...
These are... well... kind of cute...
It might also be fun to paint simple patterns with the same colors, like stripes and polka dots and so, to have in a group with simple, colorful flowers like geraniums, African violets or such.

About painted rocks.
These "Stone Books" are pretty interesting.
Actually, I have a stone my sister has painted, and it means a lot to me :-)

This is something new I learned about this:
"If a smooth surface is preferred wood filler can be used to even out pits or imperfections in the rock."

I actually like these rock projects by Martha Stewart...
And this is what I learned there:
"Use little cushions of nondrying clay to support parts while the glue sets"

Huh... I am actually enjoying myself LOL

I learned that one must use water based paint when painting styrofoam, or the styrofoam will melt.
I also learned that styrofoam shrinks rather nicely in oven and becoming hard plastic.
And even though this is an interesting idea, I still hate styrofoam.
I like these styrofoam gumdrop trees...

I learned that plaster of Paris doesn't like cold and should not be applied on frozen surfaces.
This is rather interesting.
I know how to make molds of clay and cast plaster... and it's not bad... Hmm... I'm sure one could make molds for paper clay too. It really isn't the craft itself that I hate, just the readymade horrible figurines, kittens and angels... Brrrr.

Barbie dolls

I have been knitting and crocheting Barbie doll clothes lately :-) I have made bikinis, a bath robe with Elizabeth Zimmermann's "surprise jacket" pattern, I have made towels, a skirt, pretty blouse and a dress. I plan to knit a pair of trousers and a sweater too.

But to other matters... When I was about 5-6 (~1975) I got a Barbie doll from my Godmother. Her face is smudged and I removed the make-up all together about 20 years ago. I also cut her hair, because it had been twisted up and had a permanent hook... She has been nibbled by a dog, so her body has a couple of holes and dents. I would like to replace her, but I have serious problems in finding out who she is!

She is the one in the middle in bikinis, flanked by Malibu PJ (standing) and Malibu Barbie (sitting). If you click the picture a bit larger, you can see the color difference of their skins in the middle, where Malibu PJs arm disappears behind my barbie's waist.

She looks like Malibu P.J. but isn't... because she isn't tanned. This is what her face looked like before she got... well... when she was new. Except that mine has lighter skin. This one is Malibu P.J. Mine isn't. (Yes, I keep repeating it, because I have been asking around the internet for some 10 years now, and everyone says "that's Malibu PJ", and leaves it to that. Yes, I know, THAT is Malibu P.J. MINE IS NOT. Unless they made them untanned. Which, to my knowledge, they did not.)
Here's the technical details: "Steffie head mold, long, blond hair, parted on left, no bangs... I don't think she had ponytails... But that was like 35 years ago, so I might remember wrong.
blue eyes, painted eyelashes, pale salmon lipstick, almost peach.
she was wearing one piece aqua swimsuit (Yes, it was aqua, turquoise, not pink, purple or lavender). It wasn't the halterneck model, but a straight model. I don't remember any sunglasses or towels. She had no shoes and no stand.
her legs are straight, non bendable and her waist turns. "TNT diagonal slit" She also has rather narrow hips.
And, as said, she isn't tanned, so she is NOT MALIBU PJ. She is pale, pink skinned, as any other "normal" Barbie would be.
Marking: ©1966/Mattel, Inc./U.S. Patented/Other Pats. Pend./Made in/Japan
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So - if you know which Barbie this is, and if you know where I could find one, I'd be very happy to know too :-)

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Lilis y Barbie alemana
Originally uploaded by FORGET ME NOT!!!

I think this is her...

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Yeah, this is her. She's a Barbie made exclusively for European market. I found my replacement from Germany.
Thanks to no-one for help. :-)

Tiny needles :-)

My preciousssss..... Click on the picture to see it better - if you want to, that is.

All the needles in the picture are thinner than 2 mm. If you have been following my blog, you remember that the whole May went whining and venting about the lack of small needles in my life. This is the result of what was done to correct this lack ;-)

In right three packages of Addi steel needles, in sizes 1 3/4, 1 1/2 and 1 1/4 mm (2/0, 3/0 and 4/0) and on the left, under the Vaasa wristwarmers, two pairs of Addi steel circulars in 1 1/2 (000) mm in one package. Those I ordered from Helylle.

Vaasa is being knitted with the 1 1/2 mm steel needles of German label "Heureka" my hubby found for me in my LYS, Dominiques garn och handarbete. It seems like Heureka doesn't exist anymore... the folder is of paper, all printed in red, and it looks old, at least 30 years old... I wonder where she got them :-D
(You can also see my genious husband's invention to help me with fleeing tiny needles - a needlekeep made of two syringes and a rubber band :-D Works perfectly. It doesn't look especially nice, but I plan on knitting two fingerpuppets and glueing those over the syringes.)

In the middle the newest member of my tiny needle family - arrived already a week ago, but somehow the package card was lost and I received a reminder today... I have been waiting for those needles for a month now, so you can guess I a) wasn't very happy to find out that they have been waiting for me already a week and b) ran straight to the post office to fetch my preciousesssss. These beauties are steel needles from Purse Paradise and I bought them through ebay. They are of sizes 1 mm (00000 0r 5/0), 3/4mm (000000 or 6/0) and 1/2mm (00000000 or 8/0) - that is half a millimeter! I use that size lead in my mechanical pencil! I know I bought them to be able to reach the gauge in socks, but I will not knit socks with half a mm needles! My Dearest Husband was happy, "now you can knit bookmarks that aren't too thick!" he said :-D