Avant / Après

You should all know by now how much I dislike Barbie and anything remotely related to her and her friends, so you'll understand how much I enjoyed seeing this transformation.

Vous devez savoir maintenant à quel point je déteste Barbie et tout son univers. Alors, imaginez ma joie de voir cette transformation s'opérer devant mes yeux.

Before /Avant

After / Après

Probably one of the best "Before" and "After"s I've ever seen...
It was also done for a good cause. Remember these posts about the Folksy Upcycle competition for charity? There were lots of really clever entries, all of which are now up for auction on ebay. Go take a peek and see if there's anything you fancy for Christmas.

Probablement un des meilleurs "Avant" et "Après" que j'ai vu... et tout ça pour une bonne cause. Rappelez-vous ces créations que je vous ai montrées. Maintenant le concours est terminé et toutes les oeuvres ont été mises aux enchères sur ebay pour l'oeuvre caritative Sue Ryder. Allez-y jeter un coup d'oeil, vous trouverez peut-être un cadeau intéressant pour Noel.


In keeping with the recycling theme, I also came across this very smart recycled suitcase unit yesterday. It's made by a Polish company called redotdesign. Brilliant idea don't you think?

En parlant de recyclage, J'ai découvert cet intéressant meuble très désign à base de vieilles valises hier. C'est le travail d'un jeune créateur polonais redotdesign que vous pouvez trouver par ici. Pas mal non ?

Move over Barbie

Framed tattooed lady doll by Sarah Young

Just what is it with Barbie? Why an earth are little girls and boys inevitably drawn to the whole Barbie universe? I personally don't recall ever wanting one, more of a Tressy kinda a girl (remember, the one with the long hair whose wavy locks you could twist back into her skull to create a cropped Jean Seberg look???). I've made a conscious effort to steer my kids away from all things remotely connected to Barbie & co so I understandably cringed in horror when a sweet French lady gave Savannah her daughter's entire unsold collection at the end of a local car boot sale a couple of years ago. Lots of gaudy plastic shoes, boots, hairbrushes, party frocks...

Yesterday, I caught my three children playing with Barbie and Ken on the balcony. The game consisted in placing the two bods in Barbie's big blue car without strapping their seat belts then sending them hurtling down all twenty odd steps at full speed. Needless to say, K+B did not fare well. I smiled to myself, remembering a brilliant post by one of my translator friends Gail Armstrong, on her excellent, now defunct, blog Openbrackets. How right she was...

There are so many beautiful, original dolls around at the moment so I thought I'd take this opportunity to show you some of my poupée finds, after all, Christmas is not that far away (did I really say that?)

Articulated paper-doll set by woolandwater

Papier mâché doll by Paola Zakimi

Hanging lavender-filled Russian dolls by Beaky

Reusable, removable paper-doll style wall decals made from fabric by Mae


Primitive folk art rabbit doll by PieCake Primitives


Pretty fairy pegdolls by The Magpie and the Wardrobe

Custom-tailored peg doll families by Goose Grease