Flower arranging, quick as a flash.

Vintage glass flower frogs

Now I am not a natural flower arranger, more of a find some flowers and stick them in a jam jar kind of person. Most of the year I manage to find something in the garden or hedgerows to use, even if it is only foliage and seed heads. 
At a recent fete I found some green glass thingies and my Mum told me they are flower frogs?? used by flower arrangers in the days before oasis foam.

Now I bought them because they were pretty and green, but I thought I would try one out.



Just right for a short stemmed lily.

I had some late Stargazer lilies in the garden and they only had short stems so the frog seemed perfect. Two minutes later, with some slightly geranium scrappy foliage and crocosmia and I had an "Arrangement" for the table.




Finished

 

 Not too shabby really.

Vintage dolly makeover

More than a hint of Katy Perry

I have  an ever growing collection of vintage Polish dolls, mostly dating from the 1950's and 60's. Some of these belonged to my family, and I really liked them when I was young, but didn't really play with them much as you couldn't dress them up.

Recently I have picked up some more from car boots, ebay and charity shops, usually in terrible condition and needing some loving care. So I decided to spruce them up.




Some of the girls (and boys)

The question is how to dress them?

 

Should I recreate their original outfits with tiny spriggy prints, or make new special ones for Christmas?




Clara is one of the oldest and looks to the right.

I started with some help from a small visitor who helped me name them all. Then we stripped off their manky clothes and gave them a wash.




They look a little worried about bath time.

 

I kept the old clothes to use as templates, which worked well. They all had a nice new pair of plain white knickers to start with and then I had a play with my lace and doilies.



Knickers under construction

 

I may need some time to work out the best look for each one, as each has her own distinct personality and will have to have something to suit her.

 

A few need some new hair. The original hair was mohair, but I may just see what I can find in my wool stash.

 

I will post more pictures as I finish them.




Annabelle says goodnight