Birthday stuff and melon pan turtles

My right hand hurts so I'm not going to type much. I had my birthday at the end of September and it was a wonderful day. I went out for lunch with the knitting group, got a few unexpected gifts and had pasta with my husband at home later that night. My husband had asked me what I wanted for my birthday so I picked out a few Sylvanian items. We ordered late so they actually arrived exactly a week after my birthday. He went and surprised me with the Watermill Bakery on the day itself, because he's sweet like that. I had been staring at the bakery at the local toyshop for months, but never got it because I already had another bakery.  A couple of my closest friends from Brunei sent me the Toymaker set because they thought it was just right for someone who made toys. And my brother-in-law unexpectedly gave me a couple of the baby carry cases. <3




Another two friends pooled together and got me a Lalaloopsy doll. How awesome is that? It's something that I think is cute but would never have gotten  on my own. They're expensive here and I'm already spending all my spare money on other things :P



I got my first teaching paycheck today too :D. Yay!

I've also been working on some sample packets of mini food for the Sylvanian Families forums. I thought that would be a good way to get over feeling iffy about the quality of my product. I've been working on Turtle melon bread, you'd think something that looks so simple would take a lot less than 10 hours to make... I'm sure it took at least that long because I went through a few Midsomer Murders eps and a good chunk of the American version of Life on Mars while working on those turtles. Speaking of Life on Mars, I love that show. It's a pity it never got renewed for a second season. I'll have to pick up the British version at some point because it looks like they actually finished the series and had a sequel besides. I just hope the characters are as fun as the ones in the American version. I love Lt Gene Hunt!

Anyway back to the turtles; I decided to brush some green pastel over the 'shells' because I saw some very cute green melon bread turtles on the net. The colour ended up too bright so I brushed some yellow ochre over the green, which made it look less radioactive.

Some WIP pics:









Tailless, unbaked turtles. They all have tails now, but they're still unbaked. I like to make a whole heap of things before putting them in the oven. Unfortunately that opens up unbaked items to risk of damage. One of my turtles ended up with an unexpected gouge on the top of its head.




I'm also working on decorating that gingerbread house. Not entirely sure how to proceed from here, but I'll figure something out.

I also spend most of my hobby time last night trying to make a kiwi cane. This was my second attempt. The last time I tried I ended up with something that had some very big seeds among all the small ones. I ended up having some parts with no seeds this time. I squashed the cane and tried again, and this was the result:



GAH. The wonky lines! The wonky seeds! Ultra Fail. Squish and retry tomorrow.