All posts by Dona

Hollyhock Dolls part 2

Things, ,

Hollyhock dolls with a friend To make a hollyhock doll, pick a fully blossomed hollyhock flower from the stalk, keeping about 3/4 of an inch of stem (this will become the neck).

Now, pick a bud that has some of the color of the flower showing through the green sepal. Gently peel the green sepal from the bud, exposing the tightly closed bud and the white bit near where the stem was. Notice it has holes. Gently push one of the holes onto the stem of the fully opened flower. The other holes will create the effect of eyes and the part where the stem was attached is the mouth.

Your doll is now made and will last a few hours before closing up.

Secret Garden

Musings, Obsessions

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You know about me and fairies, don’t you? How I really believe they exist and all? So much that I use improper grammar when blogging about them?

Well, a few years ago I bought a fairy garden for Clare. She liked it. It grew. It died and then Dean threw away all the stuff that went with it.

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Recently Clare’s been thinking about that fairy garden. I saw a version of it, but it wasn’t the same — it had no house. Then, one day at an art store (of course) we found the identical fairy garden from her past and bought it, even though it was the same price as a huge canvas she needed for school (which, by the way is STILL in my trunk). (Don’t encourage your kids to get into art — it’s expensive! And messy!)

Clare planted the garden that evening and we thought it would be fun to do a time-lapse film of it growing.

It grew fast. And I think the fairies have settled in…

Hollyhock Dolls

Memories, Things

P8140377.JPG When I was a little girl my mom taught me how to make hollyhock dolls. We had hollyhocks growing next to the house where I grew up and I’d make hollyhock dolls whenever the fancy struck me and I had the right ingredients.

I taught Clare how to make them a few years ago, but have never been successful at growing hollyhocks myself.

first hollyhocks Until this year — and, while it is far from successful, we have two hollyhock flowers blooming as I type.

So, while I cannot make any hollyhock dolls this year, maybe the flowers will produce seeds which will sow themselves and we’ll be able to make them next year.

Keep your fingers crossed.