Lavender harvest with Lonka and Simon - two handmade natural dolls

It was a really hot summer day, from the kind lacking any little whiffs or clouds. Our little family was heading towards Lake Balaton, where Lonka and Simon accompanied us.

- Are we there? - Lonka was asking in every 5th minute during the two hours long roadtrip. Simon, being the calm and smart boy as always, was telling her stories all the way long about flower fairies and other magical nature carers. 

We wanted to pick some huge bouquets of lavender for making some tasteful syrup, which reminds us to the tastes of summer all around the whole year. We also want to make some moths sacks to prevent all our little wool-friends from the always hungry moths. Lonka and Simon are big nature lovers, but they aim at avoiding any kind of moths, its a kind of loving each other from a well defined distance relationship.

The lavender plantation belongs to the Balaton Upland National Park, the huge brushes are under the hill of Tihany, where the beautiful Benedictine Abbey can be found. Lonka and Simon had planned that trip for weeks, so they were kind of excited, when we could catch a glimpse of the Lake.

 

When we reached the plantation Little Miss Tittle-Tattle lost her power of speech. The endless lines of these beautiful lilac-greenish bushes enchanted her. Simon took care for a harvesting tool for everyone, he put a little knife, or scissors in each bag.

Their little pair where so helpful, they were picking lavender flowers for two hours, without taking any break. Both were really careful not to pull on the plants too much, or not to step on the little seedlings. We collected two full bags of the lilac flowers, before decided on having a well deserved rest, eating brilliant handcrafted ice-creams in the shadows of the Abbey.

The tastes of the pale lilac syrup we made will call out of our memory not just summer as it is, but this beautiful trip all around the year.

Here you can find the recipe, if you want to make some lavender syrup for yourself or your loved ones as well:

Cut off the freshly picked flowers from the stem. 

You don't have to remove the little flowers from the stem, just cut off the excess, where there are no flowers at all.

Fill a pot between to its 1/2 or 2/3 height with the flowers.  

Filling it half you get a more fruity flavor with not so harshly characteristic lavender in it, if you want stronger flavors, you should choose to fill up to 2/3 height. 

Pour as much water on it that fills the pot completely, and please count how many liters you used. 

Add a thoroughly washed and sliced organic lemon for every 2 liters.

Put a plate or a cover on it, and let it rest in the fridge for two days.

Take the pot out of the fridge, and add a teaspoon of citric acid for every 2 liters of water you added.

Adding citric acid makes the lavender to stain the syrup into beautiful pale lilac.

Filter it through a dense sieve or a clean kitchen towel. 

Heat it up to a point when it is easier to dissolve the sugar.

Add 3/4 kg sugar per every liter of water you added.

Steer it until all of the sugar is dissolved.

Put it back on the stove and boil it for 5 minutes.

The longer the heating is, the more of the lilac color fades away.

Pour it into sterilized jars with screw on lids, be careful to fasten the lids as much as you can. 

Let the jars cool down under blankets, or other warm-keeping material, to slow down the cooling process.

Our jars rested in an armchair covered with two warm blankets, and cooled down completely in three days.

We are already enjoying this little gift of nature, the other day we had some picnic, and as usual, Lonka and Simon were playing all hide-and-seek, running competition and who-finds-the-prettiest-flower-faster all day. When I could convince them, to have a rest, and sit down for some minutes, they drunk off a bottle of refreshing lavender syrup. Lonka and Simon likes our syrup so much, that they are trying to convince me, that 16 liters won't be enough for us for the entire year.

I hope I'm still in time with this recipe, so if you feel like, you can make some syrup as well. Please let me know, if you used this recipe, it would be nice to know. If you have any questions, feel free to comment as well!

Lulu

A mini doll - say 'Hello!' at Instagram

This little Spring Fairy was my Mother's Day present for my Mom, and I share her photos with you to announce, (tadadadaaaa...can you hear the drums?) that I created an Instagram account for Puppenka some months ago. 

It seems that Instagram is the platform where I can share glimpses of my dollmaking the most frequently, somehow it feels more comfy and friendly for me to share bits ad pieces of my planning, sewing, crocheting, and sometimes, everyday-life-beauties as well. I also found lots of inspiring makers there, checking their photos always means a creative push for me. So if my dolls rouse your attention and you have an account as well, you can follow Puppenka at Instagram to be informed at first about new posts, as well as other little bits and pieces of my creative journey. 

Spring Fairy - a natural handmade mini cloth doll by Puppenka

My little Spring Fairy is 8,5 cm high, her head and hands are made of cotton jersey, her green dress is made of micro-corduroy, and her crocheted mohair scarf closes with a tiny wood button. Her mohair wig is braided into little pigtails, with tiny chenille chords on them. She also have a little white, wool-felt flower in her hair. She was a complete joy to work on!

Spring Fairy - a natural handmade mini cloth doll by Puppenka

Spring Fairy - a natural handmade mini cloth doll by Puppenka

Spring Fairy - a natural handmade mini cloth doll by Puppenka

Spring Fairy - a natural handmade mini cloth doll by Puppenka

Spring Fairy - a natural handmade mini cloth doll by Puppenka

Spring Fairy - a natural handmade mini cloth doll by Puppenka

Have playful days!

Majorane and Laurel - two little handmade natural dolls

These little babies had to wait so long to introduce themselves.

They are cousins, Majorane is the older one. She is a secret - fairy. Her ears are elfin-ears, but she prefers to hide them under her braids. Majorane keeps it a secret, that she is a fairy. She lives at a small village, a farmhouse with a large vegetable garden and goats, chickens, goose, pigs, rabbits, dogs and a cat. She loves to play outside and always hums when she catches a glimpse of a birdie.

Laurel lives in a small town, but he loves to visit Majorane at the countryside. He collects leaves and little flowers, and loves to press them down, and keeps them in a secret scrap book. He loves books, although he didn't learned to read jet, but he loves turning over pages of any books, especially picutre-books. When Majorane visits him they love to go to the playground, because they can play with the sew-saw!

Majorane and Laurel were gifts for my niece and my little son. The photos were taken at their last weekend together, when they were strolling at the nearby forest. It was such an exciting learning process to create them. They are my first little dolls, I planed this pattern to fit in the hand of the smallest ones.

They are just 23 cm tall, they have a simpler body, made of brown cotton-jersey, stuffed with clean wool and their facial features are embroidered with cotton threads. Majorane has a mohair wig, shining brown eyes, and a double sided apron dress. Laurel has an embroidered hairdo (my first one) from merino, dark brown eyes and double sided dungarees, matching Majorane's dress.

I'm planning to create these small dolls with colourful or patterned cotton jersey, with much more simple hairstyles, permanent hats or caps and just some symbolic clothes in the future.

Have playful days!

I found Puppenka! - a new logo for my handmade natural dolls

Poor little Majorane and Laurel got ready so-so slowly, because I was working on a new logo and blogdesign for Puppenka. I was not completely satisfied with the previous one, but I wanted to start the blog and focus on doll sewing rather then primping the layout forever. And now I feel I find the real logo for Puppenka.

The bloglayout is not totally ready jet, Blogger tricked me at some point, but I am so so delighted with this swinging little girl. She represents everything for me, what I want Puppenka to mean.

Kindness - I wanted her to be pure and sweet, having a smile hovering over her lips. For me, she is kind as an innocent always heart upon her sleeves three year old little girl.

Playfulness - swinging is one of the most basic ways of playing, a great way of calming a baby, and also develops lot of skills such as sense of balance and movement coordination. Hence it has an effect on body and soul.

Simplicity - I want my dolls to be simple but delicate. I think simplicity does not means that it has to be unexacting as well. She has simple facial features, a simple but pretty hairdo and a nice dress. I'm not fun of too much ruffle and glitter. 

Connection to nature - Swinging is usually an outdoor activity, which connects kids to nature. When you swinging you hear the birdies, feels the warm rays of the Sun. You experience the effect of gravity, and the flourishing of the wind.

For all this, she is Puppenka.

I kept the thread and nail trick at letter 'P' as well, referring the way these little dolls are made. I hope you like it as much as I do.

Little Majorane and Laurel has to wait just a wee longer, but I promise to introduce them soon. In advance you can find pleasure in the photos of their spring walk.

Have playful days!

Valais Black Nose Hairdo - handmade wool weft for Lonka, a natural doll

I have mentioned before, that Lonka is a special doll for me. I tried out several techniques, while creating her. Creating her hair was one of the most significant experience for me. This is not a tutorial, but you can follow more-or less the whole process from cleaning the wool to sewing on her wig.

The wool, I made her hair of, was originally the possession Pimpa, the Valais Black Nose Sheep.

When I started working with the wool, I cleaned it from plant - pieces and other contaminations. It means I picked every single dirt by hand, paying attention not to damage the beautiful curly locks. During this process, I also made groups from the locks, separating the too short or shaggy ones. To be honest, I watched a million tutorials, and searched as much info as I could, but it was more difficult, than I had imagined.

 

After a long long time, I managed to get a queue of semi-cleaned locks. 

Then I heated some water (it was not boiling), put in some detergent (I used shampoo), and rinsed the locks in it.  Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture on this step. I tried not to agitate the locks too much to avoid felting. I picked the locks out and laid them carefully on a towel.

The next step was dying. I used red and normal onion-skin, approx. the skin of a dozen onions. I boiled them in not too much water, turned off the heat, and soaked the locks in it. As far as I remember, I re-heated the liquid two times, to make the process faster. To fix the dying, I used approx. 1 dl vinegar. When I was satisfied with the color of the locks, I laid them on a towel again, and let them dry. This part was maybe the most exciting, I didn't go for a color, since I never painted wool before. I used onion-skin t paint easter eggs or a few times, but that was all my experience. I love that she turned out to be ginger!

When the locks got dry, I sewed them together, to create a long weft. I crocheted a cap to serve as a base for the weft. Since I couldn't find wool-yarn in a matching color, I dyed the yarn as well.I used 100% wool one stranded yarn, what got the color much faster, than the raw wool. I crocheted the cap, and hand-sewed the weft to it. It is possible to crochet the weft into the cap, but I was not sure, whether I had a long enough weft for this. As a final step, I sewed the cap on Lonka's head. However I really love how she looks, I won't do self-made wefts too often, I'm sure.

Following these steps you may be able to create your own weft, but as I mentioned, this is not a proper tutorial, I neither I took proper photos of each step, nor wrote detailed instructions. If you have any questions concerning Lonka's hair, I'm happy to answer, if I can.

Have playful days!