London Fashion Week comes to Manchester

London Fashion Week comes to Manchester

Dress, jewellery and wig by ME!
Goggles - Makielab
Shoes - Integrity
Model - Cosma - Makielab

We can't decide - Goggles

We call this Nyctophobia

or No goggles

Or perhaps Untamed ferocity

 

A Close up with Goggles

Either name I'm just FABULOUS

POM POM PONCHO - Patagonia - here we come!

Well, in spirit anyway. With all these dismal grey cold days here in the UK,  Cosma thought she would add a bit of warmth and color to you day!  In this spirit, we would like to offer as a prize this cosy handmade by me rainbow soft fleece poncho and co-ordinating handmade brown wood bead necklace with green dyed emblem turquoise charm. All you have do is post in the comments,

 I love to hear the Pan Pipes of Patagonia!

The pattern was adapted from the Makielab cape pattern and the necklace was designed by Moi.
We'll draw an entry from a hat when we get at least 10 replies! Everyone is welcome to enter (including Makielab employees)  Good Luck!

Warm and Fuzzy Makie pom pom poncho with necklace

Ready to Trek in Patagonia- Where's me pan pipes???

Need I say more?

Double Posting today as I share my WONDERFUL prize made by Duckiemonster, from Makie Couture -a hand sewn tartan dress. We won it in a raffle over the new year. It's suit's Millie to a T, especially with her red Doc Martens and her gorgeous red cats eye specs. Millie says, THANKS DUCKIE!

Makies RULE OK

Out for a stroll?

Millie decides to take Dottie and Dasher out for a walk. Of course in all the lastest Paris Couture

Just walking da dogs

Not your average Family Photo

Ted the one eyed tentacle pirate, Cosma Shiva da Diva and Millie the lightsaber wielding minx

Arrrgg, whonnng whooong

Theres a New Girl in Town...

We've not been properly introduced yet.Just before Christmas this little Makie snuck in under the radar. I've really not had time to redress and photo and play much over that time, so today I set aside some time and took a few pix.

Without further adieu, let me introduce Cosma Shiva...

Looking very studious in with her new tortoise shell reading glasses

A bit glammed up

This is a VERY good book!

This Gal is ready to PAAARTeeee

A Very Hairy Experience...

Here is my step by step experiment on 'rooting' a cap! I have to say that with the Welsh wool I used it was easy to create this effect

I got the idea from a Pullip Japanese magazine, though it's not too informative and I can't read Japanese :-O It uses wefts of hair sewen onto a strip. I will look for these in future or try to sew my own! Please note I didn't put wool in all the holes, just 3/4 of the front of the cap and sides as I had too many holes and my wool was too thick!

I start off with cutting lengths of Welsh wool and a needle threader (though some fine wire looped and twisted would work well too)

You can see the underneath of the cap, I have been pulling yarn though and then knotting the end to keep it in place. I didn't do it but if I was doing again, I would snip off the end of the yarn so it doesn't get too full. When all is done, a little glue could be applied to the underneath to keep it all in place.

I pulled the threader in from under the cap

So the loop came through the top. I would then slide the yarn into the loop
and gently pull the yarn to the underside of the cap

I then tie a knot and pull the yarn from the top end so the knot is against the skull cap

Then ta daaaa! It's a wigged cap

This is just a simple first step version. I've never done any sort of root work before but I think for Makie dolls this came out great.

Some more experimentation to come!

Drilled Skull Plate Tutorial For Makie Doll- Part One

Part ONE!


Ok this is a LONG post, it is instructions on how to drill a skull cap to allow you to make a rooted wig. I started this back in November so this is the first part I had posted over at the Makie forum. I have posted it here too so you can use for future reference.

So - started off marking the cap with pencil dots

Lots of dots!

I then used my beadsmith metal punch which works perfectly on the nylon and punched as many holes as I could. It doesn't have a long neck stretch so I will have to drill the remainder.
I also found that towards the back of the skull was harder to punch so they will need drilling too.

The tool of choice for punching thigs!

As you can see I can't reach all of the holes but I got a lot done!

As Far as I could punch- the rest will have to be drilled

Out comes the heavy artillery for the drilling- I used the biggest tiny bit I had which is a 1.5mm. I accidently broke it before I completely finished it so I have decided to order 2mm ones which is close to the beadsmith punch. The nylon is VERY easy to drill. I had no issues at all

Drill on hand, good ole fashioned stanley handrill

This is it for now, the skull came went back on fine, just have to wait for my new bits to arrive and I'll be able to carry on. I did think about sticking some pins in to create a pinhead from Hellraiser effect but the holes are too big for dress pins, so that would need to be another project another day LOL

Times where a hole in your head is useful!

Something is rising in the North...

I decided today for breakfast to treat the family to freshly made bagels. Four hours in the making I can tell you it was all WELL WORTH IT!. Paul Hollywoods book, 100 Great Breads didn't have a recipe for them, so I did a search online and found a recipe by Rachel Allen. I've seen her on tv, and she's pretty good, so I thought I would give her bagel recipe a try. I woke up quite early around 6.30 to start the dough. (Millie was still sleeping so I didn't want to disturb her) As the recipe stated I could use a mixer or do it manually, I decided to try using my dough hook on my Kitchen Aid mixer (as normally I am quite the traditionalist and like to make anything bready by hand) So needless to say as long as it took to make these bagels, they were absoultely the BEST bagels I have ever eaten.  I'm not sure now if I will be able to eat another supermarket bagel again. Millie finally got up about the time that the proving had finished, so she was able to help me with the rest. It was a fairly easy recipe to make and I highly recommend it! Millie below shows you how easy it's done!

The proof is in the rising... Now that's a nice dome

Punch down the dough on a lightly floured surface

Divide the dough into 7 portions

 

 

 

Poke a hole in the middle and place on a prepared baking pan.

 

 

They need to prove again for another 10 mins or so, Time for a cuppa!

Boil them in water, this gives them their chewy texture- Careful there Millie, we don't want to poach you!

Brush with an eggwash, add topping and bake in the oven- OOOh they look so tempting

There you go! Sesame seed bagels- NOM!

The human's breakfast, scrambled eggs, juice and freshly baked bagels!

Lavroche It!

I meant to post this last week, so will be doing a double post today. I remember when I lived in California and we had a shop in Poway called Trader Joes who used to get in wonderful foods from around the Globe. One of these items gems were little crispy crackers called Lavroche, hailing from Cyprus. Sadly after I left the US I never had them again, until last week. I was looking though Paul Hollywood's book, 100 great breads when I came across the recipie for them.
Much to my delight (and sore hands from a lot of kneading) they came out exactly I tasted them before!
Perfect with Dips, Millie and I shall be making them again.

Brush them with an egg wash to give them a lovely golden colour

The are cut traditionally into odd shapes, Oh so light and crispy!

Serve with dip- NOM!

The Great Makie Bake Off

Today, the new preorder slots have opened up at Makielab - 100 new Makies are going to be made available for you to design and buy. This is part of the makie cruel summer collection.
My Makie Ted has been ordered so hopefully will have delivery of him within 3 weeks :)

In all the Excitement, Millie decided to do some baking to celebrate the arrival of the new Makie

Yum- They look delicious

But as we pan out....

Um.... Millie when I said that we are baking for Makie, I meant ONLY for Ted, not the whole 100 new ones!!!

Actually I think I did MOST of the baking and Millie supervised as Project Manager. They are actually baked goods I made for a friend who has a wheat intollerance. I have a son who is a Coeliac and bake for him all the time. Believe it or not, ALL of the above items are gluten free (including the mini victoria sponges with real french style buttercream. I also made 4 different muffins- Blueberry, Apple Crumble, Banana and Cheese and Bacon. I made Oatmeal Raisin and Chocolate chip cookies(12 dozen cookies in total)

Just a trifle bit busy...

...Of late. The whole move to the boys to their own bedrooms have been fine, but alas, the sorting and weeding out of things from the two other rooms into ONE room is another story. I can see light at the end of the tunnel - hopefully I will have something positive to report in the next few days!

In the meantime, poor Mille has felt quite negleted, so yesterday we decided since our friend Jamie was coming to visit, that we would make one of his favourite desserts - Trifle. It light of the current Olympics, Millie has decided to treat this like a sporting event...

The placing of the raspberries have to be just perfect...

Of course everything had to be just the right distance... Can she do it?

Making the final adjustments- Each Raspberry has to be placed equally appart to get that perfect score

She's DONE IT- Perfect score of 10 across the board from the judges- Millie gets gold!

Enough of that- Lets get stuck into it!

Retro Time

Millie has decided to go a little retro today. Been shifting rooms about in the house for the last week or so and I needed a little downtime.

Matches my glasses PERFECTLY!

I love her in this dress, it's a Tiny Kitty Collier outfit called Fiesta and fits Millie perfectly. Shoes were too small so I put on some gold and cork wedgies, though it probably would suit better if the weather was warmer !! Mohair wig and pearl drop earrings made by ME.