A Canadian Barbie

Well, I've had this idea for a long time, and I finally did it! I made what I feel is a true Canadian Barbie. The official one made by Mattel many years ago was of a doll with a similar face to this one, but they dressed her in an RCMP uniform. Okay, that's like dressing a doll in a New York State Trooper uniform and calling her New York Barbie.

I had to bring out a few stereotypes though......the tuque, the Lumberjack Jacket,

the Mukluks.

I made her Mukluks out of sheepskin, but authentic ones are usually made from sealskin. Sealskin is quite hard to get and VERY expensive....so I went with what I had on hand.

Her mittens are sheepskin also. Her tuque and scarf are handmade by me out of alpaca wool. Alpaca wool is becoming very popular here where I live. It's softer than sheep's wool and every bit as warm. If I had lots of money, I'd move away from the city and raise alpacas for their wool.
I'm sure that's something Canadian Barbie would do too!

A Valentine's Box of Chocolate

I decided to make a miniature box of chocolates today to match the one I received as a gift, and I felt I should show it off on this blog because I used a Barbie doll for scale. This particular doll is named Leah, and she's one of my daughter's favorites. When I bought her, she was wearing a kerchief on her head . We removed it only to find that at the factory, they decided to scrimp on the amount of hair she had, because they never planned for the kerchief to be removed. Well, the resulting bald patch ruined her otherwise lovely appearance, but my daughter played with her nonetheless.
But my son started making her act dumb and my daughter soon imitated her brother. Then poor Leah became abandoned at the bottom of the basement stairs. So I scooped her up and put her with my "to be altered" Barbies. I just recently re-rooted some hair for her, and now she's right back up there among the "to be played with" Barbies.
So I felt it was only fitting to use her as the model for the Valentine chocolates.The chocolates are made of "Sculpy" and the box is cardstock, carefully covered with velveteen and ribbon.