Wandering with Wren - Tapnell Farm

On Wednesday Wren had a wander around Tapnell Farm.  She saw some fun creatures.

This bearded dragon is called Brenda.  That gave Wren a giggle.

She loved seeing the guinea pigs.

This house was pretty cool

Sweet guinea pig too.

A lovely rabbit.

She liked watching the wallabies eating.

But you had to watch out for Wallaby poo!

Always loves the donkeys.

A map of the park

Must support Isle of Wight Farming of course.

 Not that the ice cream van was open.

Having a little rest.

The ponies were sweet, but we would rather have seen them on the grass instead of in a noisy barn.

Some sheep.

Some cute piglets.

There were also some Kune Kune pigs that we felt very sorry for.  They too were in the barn, and looked quite unhappy compared to a friend's that used to live happily in a paddock on her property. 

There were lots of activities for children, and there were various school groups having a lot of fun on bouncing pillows, swings, slides, bouncy castles, flying foxes etc...

 

Let's Meet the Triplets.

I am really enjoying my American Girl Dolls at the moment.  There is something very comforting about them.  Of course that also means I regret selling most of my collection a few years ago, but does mean I can buy some new to me dolls.   These three below all came at bargain prices as they were TLC dolls.  I think they have cleaned up so nicely and look great with their new dresses I knitted for them. I think of them as the triplets as they are similar, but different.

Alice, confident, Amy a bit of a dreamer and April oh so sweet. 

Two are number thirteens, one an earlier PC one who is also the tallest, and one is a number 19.

April was the first to arrive, she is very pretty with her green eyes.  She came with her ears pierced. April is a JLY No. 19

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Amy arrived next with a wonderful bundle of clothing and accessories.

She is the sweetest little girl, a bit of a dreamer.

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Next up we have Alice a JLY No. 13, confident Alice who needed a bit of work to tidy her up when she arrived.

She is an older Pleasant Company doll and also a JLY No. 13 like Amy. You can see she has what is called 'pie bangs' which is different from Amy's fringe.  She is wearing a dress knitted from the same yarn I made Amy's dress from. 

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Welcome to Robyn Emily Bennett

A friend dropped off a long awaited package for me.  Fortunately they picked it up from being left outside our house while I was away having more tests and appointments.  This package was held up in a local delivery depot for almost a month.  Such a dreadful delivery company I really don't understand why people still use them.  They were pretty unreliable before their name change, and are still unreliable, and this is in different places I have lived.  Not only that but they LIE about 'attempting delivery' when they have clearly not attempted delivery at all.  Fortunately the package arrived relatively unscathed considering how long it had been languishing in the delivery depot and possibly a van as well and the seller had packaged it really well.  It is a shame I forgot to take photos as she wrapped everything so nicely, it was like getting a present.  In fact she did include some gifts, hand care treatment, a face mask and a mini doll.

So here she is and what she wore to travel in.  She is an American Girl Emily Bennett with a hair cut but she told me her name is actually Robyn.  The little mini doll is a Rebecca with her hair cut too.

Such a cute face with the bobbed hair.

Mini Rebecca is wearing a Julie top and a handmade skirt/dress.

I redressed her in one of my hand knitted dresses.  The sun was very bright and caused reflections on her face, so her eyes look a little strange.

Here is Mini Rebecca, such a sweet little face. 

She got changed to have her photograph taken with Saffron in front of the roses.

Today Saffron had a chat with Robyn about her journey.

Robyn is wearing a knitted top I made a few years ago and a sewn skirt I made the other week.

I think this doll will go on a few adventures as I don't have to be too 'precious' about her as she has been well loved.  She has a few marks on her, and a stain on her body which I will try to remove at some stage, but in the meantime she just wants to go on with things.

While I am unable to do many mini things aka doll housing, I am enjoying the bigger dolls, and especially the American Girl Dolls.  

 

80th Anniversary of VE Day

Rose Cottage Friends celebrated the 80th Anniversary of VE Day.

It was very gentile with tea and cakes.

Peggy Sue is having a conversation with April, whilst Saige and Henry look on.

The twins have been serving the tea.

At the little table we have Bowie, Kiwi Sindy, Marie and Wren.

Lindsey and Chrissy are having a good chat too.

Something has caught Saige's attention.

I think they are having a lovely afternoon in the sun.

The twins wonder if anyone needs a top up.

Little Saffron sits with Chrissy, she is the smallest member of the party today.

 

Summing up April - A Creative Month

April turned out to be quite a creative month, and I also feel like my love for my dolls has finally come back and I feel inspired again.  Oh how I had missed that.

Now I had been doing some sewing and knitting in March as I am working on a little wardrobe of clothes for a Corolle doll I will be giving my grand daughter for her birthday, but I won't include those as the focus will be April

I made this lovely little dress at the beginning of the month for my sweet Peggy Sue.

Of course every dress needs a little cardigan to go with it.

This cardigan started off as a dress, but I didn't have enough yarn, so I frogged it back and turned it into a little cardigan.  So that little almost disaster ended up a happy accident.

I continued making some clothes for the Les Cheries Corolle doll.

I may keep this one for myself, I am not sure yet.

This dress I ended up knitting on larger size needles by mistake, so another happy little accident gave Crissy a new dress...now I just need to find her some shoes!

I've knitted a few dresses for my American Girl dolls.

and a friend is working on miniaturising an 18 inch AG pattern for the Mini AGs.

This was too big for Mini Samantha

Too big for this OG Lori doll

But will work for Little Gem

I knitted another of smaller needles...

and it is a much better fit for Mini Samantha.  The collar/neckline still needs to be done on these, and they are supposed to have long sleeves.

Lastly this dress:

I almost finished another mini AG dress, but had to frog it back and start again, and I couldn't quite get it finished last night.