Back Into Boxes and Another New Girl

It must be that time of year

I love making these but there are lots of bits and pieces and it really is a labour of love.  It’s just from time to time I am inexplicably drawn to making another one

– or in this case, two.

 

The last big vide grenier of the year took place recently and this was on the first stand I came to so I wrestled Mr. T to the ground   persuaded Mr. T we needed yet another antique mannequin in the house and a deal was done.

The covering is more like silk than linen and surely shaped for a corset so probably late 19th century.

She is what I call ‘headmistress shaped’ because my fearsome headmistress at school was engineered by vicious undergarments  to look rather like this – she used to remind me of a figurehead at the prow of an old ship.  So ‘Miss Viner’ has joined my other girls but I will never refer to her as ‘cheap and nasty’ as she used to do to us if we committed any misdemeanour, even one as small as talking in class (as I did – often)

I am doing quite well with my dog bandanas in aid of the local rescue.  There will be a stand at a big Christmas Fair this weekend and I am going to send some along for sale there.  Somebody told me about soaking them in an essential oil mixture which makes the dog smell nice and also repels fleas and other nasties so I am waiting for the recipe and might give it a try.  In the meantime, the patient Stan has posed for more photos.  Just wait until he sees what Mlle. Tialys the elder forced  persuaded me to buy for him when I was over in the U.K.  Even he might draw the line at it – watch this space!

Speaking of my U.K. visit, as well as the obligatory fish and chips, Indian meal and high street shopping, I also indulged in a bit of culture.  I  bribed Mlle. T. the elder to accompany me to see ‘Mr. Turner’, the film about the genius painter which was very good and set me up for my visit to Tate Britain to see the Late Turner Exhibition the next day.

Joseph Mallord William Turner

Snow Storm – Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth

This is one of my favourite paintings which was on display at the exhibition.

I have to say Mr Turner  is not really her sort of film and I did have to keep glancing sideways at her to make sure she was still awake but, afterward, she pronounced it ‘interesting’ which is all a mother can hope for.  By way of compensation I took out a second mortgage and we went to see the West End show ‘Sunny Afternoon’ which is a sort of biopic about The Kinks  and it was excellent and here is a reminder of the songwriting skills of Ray Davies and the band’s very distinctive sound.