Yay! Gingerness!

Ooooh! Lookie! Lookie! Lookie! Lucky! Lucky! Lucky!

Look what I got in the post this morning. My fantabulous dolly from Katy at imagingermonkey.

As Katy hinted at, she has made 'dolly' with a Moomins theme. Her dress is made using some of that gorgeous Moomins fabric she had.

Psst! Go on. You can turn round and show everybody your face.

How great is she? I'm so excited. It's like all my birthdays and Christmas rolled into one. She has ginger hair and her stripy tights remind me of Jemima, the rag doll on Playschool that I always wished was mine! Yay!! She has 2 cute little Moomin button badges as well.

Katy also included some 'extras' in my parcel. Three pieces of great fabric (see middle picture) - fish, bubbles and ricrac prints. I just wish my machine was better so I could make something fab with them. I also need to get Katy's doll done - that's the whole idea of a swap, right?

Swaps are just fantastic! I must look out for more when my machine is better. I have actually signed up for another one already. LucyKate Crafts is doing a toadstool swap and she even provides the tutorial to make them. They look so cute and quite easy to make, so pop over to her blog, take a look and sign up.

Yesterday I went as an 'adult helper' on a school trip with Evie's class. We went to The Potteries Museum and Art Gallery in Stoke. It was a really good day and a great place to visit. Their topic at the moment is the Ancient Greeks, so first they had a talk from a lady who showed them some genuine, actual Ancient Greek pots. It's amazing to think that these things were over 2000 years old and yet the conidition was amazing. The children had to draw some of these ancient artefacts and then design one of their own. As I just happened to have a little sketch book in my handbag I had a quick doodle too.

This big vessel is a Krater and was used for mixing water and wine, apparently. A very ropey drawing but hey, at least I did one. :0)

In the afternoon they went down to another room and had a go at making their own coil pots using air-drying clay. We grown-ups didn't get our own lump of clay (booo!) but I did do a lot of 'helping' so managed to get my hands dirty. Yay for clay!!

This fantastic mosaic is in the entrance foyer. It is huge and I just love it. All the largers pieces inside each circle and the bottoms of broken ceramic ware with the makers mark showing. It's kind of like a ceramic equivalent of Jodie's selvedge scarf. Using all the bits that aren't normally meant to be shown, but I love this use of text and the 'unpretty' bits of a pretty thing. The backs of patchworks quilts are another example. They are often nicer than the front you are supposed to see.

Well, onto the other 'gingerness' in my life at the moment - my Ginger Spice dress. Here are the two flags as at 9am when I got back from school. I have been working on the frock all day and should really be doing it now but I had to have a break. I will post the (hopefully) finished article later on. When OH gets back from work we are going to the fancy dress shop to buy wigs. Stay tuned...