New eyes and hair

Ante in Spring Flowers, a photo by elizabeth's*whimsies on Flickr.

I like this combination better! I didn't really like the blue eyes very much. I like the brown much better!

I'm considering having a contest to name this little one.  Anyone interested?

Pukifee Ante

Ante with her toys, a photo by elizabeth's*whimsies on Flickr.

This little elf moved in a few days ago. She is Pukifee Ante and look at her little pointed ears! She's very small. I redid her face as I did not like the original, but I may send her faceplate out to a painter and have it redone again, since I'm not sure I like my own painting job. It's very hard to paint something that small evenly! Her dress was made from a pattern HERE and her toys are from Target.

Picnic table fun!

Picnic table fun! a video by elizabeth's*whimsies on Flickr.

The goats are not even a little spoiled....I don't know WHO could have bought them a picnic table to play on!

A little early for strawberries!

Amelie in Spring Overalls, a photo by elizabeth's*whimsies on Flickr.

But Amelie doesn't think so! I made her some little overalls. I tweaked the pattern from a Rosemary Ionker one but I think I need to re-tweak it before I use it again. It works fine for Amelie, though! I attached a felt strawberry to the bib and used embroidery to accent it.

Zoe's New Dress

Zoe's new dress, a photo by elizabeth's*whimsies on Flickr.

I have been hoarding this bird fabric for quite a while! I finally decided what I wanted to do with it. It worked out nicely for a dress for Zoe. The pattern is my own.

Josie's Evening Greeting

Josie's Face, a photo by elizabeth's*whimsies on Flickr.

One goofy goat face to brighten up your evening!

Bachelor Pad for Ducks

Bachelor Pad for Ducks, a photo by elizabeth's*whimsies on Flickr.

My drakes from Little's hatch last year were being terrible and fighting each other for the attentions of the females.  I came to the conclusion that the only way to stop this was to separate them.  I tried to give some of the boys away, but alas, no one wants drakes.  So now, the boys are separated from the girls (with the exception of Roger, who could never be separated from Hattie without a terrible commotion). I built the boys a bachelor pad to stop their endless fighting. And it's working GREAT! I separated Nathan, Mark, Charlie and Edward into this new run and cut another hole in the side of the duck house. The inside of the duck house now has a removable wall to separate it into two parts. I also installed drains into their pools and attached them to hoses which end in the ditch behind the duck house. All is well in duck world! Hooray!  Below are Roger, Hattie, Little and Pearl with their new pool setup.  PS:  Note to self, even though ducklings are bewitchingly cute, NO MORE!  I found Hattie's kids a great home, but the responsibility of finding an excellent home for duckies is just too much!  So many people don't take good care of them and they end up fox food.

A little hike today

Beaver Pond in Upstate NY, a photo by elizabeth's*whimsies on Flickr.

The beaver used to live about 1/2 mile downstream from us. Last summer, they moved upstream and started to clear out the brush behind our house. They now have a large, shallow open pond and they have built a lodge in it that is about as tall as one story of my house!  The pond attracts a large number of Canada geese, Mallard ducks, Wood ducks and various other wildlife.

 
 I took a closer photo so you could admire their handiwork.  They chewed down this tree and ate the bark.

 
 A closer view of the end of the log.  See how much they chew?



The beaver have been around here for a long time.  This is the decades-old remains of a tree they felled last time they were up at this end of the stream.

When we moved here seven years ago, there were no beaver in the stream at this end at all.  They were all upstream.  They moved down a few years ago and now even closer.  I enjoy having them around, although I must admit it takes some time to get used to hearing the CRASH and SPLASH of trees falling in the night!

Version one of the dress

Emma by Dianna Effner, a photo by elizabeth's*whimsies on Flickr.

And this was the first version of the dress I was trying to make for Classic Bethany. It fits Emma Effner perfectly but is much too broad for Bethany across the shoulders. It's from a Rosemary Ionker pattern in the book A Closetful of Doll Clothes. Maybe I didn't make it right, but it did not fit my Bethany the way I wanted.

Pretty Doll, Pretty Dress

This is Basic Bethany, by Helen Kish, and I added her to the household a few months ago.  She is a "Classic Kish" meaning that she was made in the pre-Riley days of Helen Kish.  She's all-vinyl and 12 inches tall.  Her dress was a second attempt.  The first attempt was made last week, from patterns specifically made for this doll and it was ill-fitting, in my opinion!  The dress was too broad across the chest area and too loose overall, so I donated it to Emma Effner and tried again with a different pattern.  This attempt came out much better!

Josie's Birthday

Josie's Birthday, a photo by elizabeth's*whimsies on Flickr.

It was Josie's birthday on April 6th (goat on left) but Anza wore the hat! Josie would not wear the party hat at all, and when I went inside to get the camera some new batteries, I came back out and Josie was galloping around the run with the hat in her mouth, trying to scare Anza with it. Anza wore it for the photos, but only after a generous treat bribe. After the ridiculous hat-wearing session, they were both frisky and head-butted a LOT! It's nice out and they're enjoying the weather today.

Here's a good action shot:

  

And Anza demonstrating that goats like to view their world in different ways (she does that a lot):