Caught My Eye This Week

Housewife Eclectic has lots of practical ideas and is usually my go-to site for IT/blog support but 

read here about the great "real" doctors kit she made.

I read a beautiful piece of poetry on a blog called "Mrs Smith"

It is titled "In The Night"

".....wriggling and writhing, emitting frost, like Jack,

garnered on her journey through the pitch...."

It's a delicious short read full of descriptives that will strike a cord in most parents.

Something super practical and good to know

"How To Use A Busted Cell Phone and Meet 5 Basic Survival Needs"

from the blog The Art Of Manliness.

And finally I wanted share a new to me blog called "One Pink Chair". It is the blog of a woman on a new stage of her life as she comes to terms with the loss of her husband. You needn't think it is melancholic or sad, but rather enlightening and sharing a candid glimpse into the "first year after"

In particular I loved;

Have you tried to talk to someone in Authority recently...?

and 

My Town Part III

Have a good weekend

Love Tx

Dolly Doctoring

I found this Pedigree doll at the local op shop for just $8.

I am ever on the lookout for things for the cubbyhouse.

I'm not sure which eye style or mechanism she may have had but I decided to fit some

for want of a better description,

always open eyes (static?)

After a bit of research on the net, I have found out that glue is a pretty big no-no.

The best advice I found was wrapping a sausage of Tac (eg: BluTac) around the edge of the eye and then going up the neck and fitting it into the eye socket. Once I had the eye in place I also packed more tac in behind the eye socket.

Here is the finished result. The tac will get quite firm but it will be easily removed if need be.

Certainly dolly would not stand up to vigorous toddler eye gouges but I think that is a lesson we teach them very early on.

No biting and no eye gouging

sounds a bit like World Federation Wrestling.

I have this pattern for the clothes now and my $1 bag of vintage scrap fabric

So that is one of my next projects.

Does craft or do children's toys for that matter get any cheaper?

Doll $8

Tac $1

Pattern $8

Fabric probably not even 50cents worth from the stash!

This doll I picked up the Evandale market for $3 just last weekend.

I had to fight my 80year old mother-in-law for it!

She has one lazy eye but I am happy to leave it as I am not a collector.

There is no branding on her and she has a simple eye mechanism that works on a weight system and is all one enclosed piece that fits inside a closed eye socket (ie: if you look up into the head via the neck, you only see two flesh coloured mounds where the eyes would be)

You can easily purchase the eye piece but it takes a bit of work. The method is to heat the head with a hairdryer or craft heat gun which allows the plastic to become more pliable. The eye is removed by prying it out through the eye opening while pushing from behind also.

Then the piece has to be pushed back in with the help of some reverse opening pliers (bridge pliers) and four hands are also a good idea!