Faerie update

Well I wasn't happy with the way my other Faerie was coming along so I decided to use a pattern for the body out of Patti Culea's book Cloth Doll Making. The body is now painted and is air drying as I write and while a bit bigger than I had wanted at least it'll come out the way I was hoping the body should look.

Later tonight I'll assemble the body, make a decision on the face, and then start embellishing the Faerie and her clothes. I'm working with the water theme still and that's all I'll say. Come August 25th I can give the big reveal. I will say this fingers and toes are hard on a pint sized Faerie!

Faerie Hands???

I'm participating in a Faerie Swap over at Etsy Cottage Style ( a .ning.com social network) and the challenge it to keep it under $15. No problem there, the big problem is deciding what to pull out of my stash to put my Water Nymph Faerie together with, since Faeries are small there are a lot of options when looking in ones vintage piles and in ones scrap fabric pile.

Here I've been making hands and arms with natural dye painted cotton fabrics. Oh and you cannot listen to just any ole music while working on a Faerie, one must listen to Faerie inspired music, GOOD LUCK!!! So I've pulled out some classical piano music loaded it onto my computer in hopes of further inspiration. If that doesn't work I'll go check out some Tasha Tudor and or some Beatrix Potter from the library.

Got Pickles???

Process for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath and your done! Consult the Ball Blue Book for more specific directions.

The color of the pickles changes from bright green to that cooked pickle look with which we are all familiar.
The boiling spice solution is then mixed in with the newly drained and rinsed cukes and onions and brought to a boil.
Spices are mixed together with sugar and vinegar and brought to a boil.
You start with some pickling cukes, and a whole lotta onions, they are soaked in some pickling salt for awhile to draw the water out of the fruit.

Dh helped me put together three batches of Bread and Butter Pickles tonight. I do the pickle making around here, as everyone loves the way they taste ;-) Here's some pic's of how it all went together.