Ma Na Ma Na

Everyone needs to watch this to improve the quality of their Sunday.

Herbert

Ever since he was a little tot, Herbert was attracted to cars.  Whenever his parents couldn't find him in the house, they always ended up finding him underneath the car in the garage looking at all the oily whirly-gigs.   As an adult, Herbert is pretty sure that he is related in some way to Click and Clack (the car-talk brothers on NPR), maybe a long lost cousin-twice-removed or something.  Herbert knows the answers to all the questions people call in to ask Click and Clack.  Sometimes he answers them out loud and pretends to be a part of Click and Clack's dialogue.  One day he will write a letter requesting to be a co-host on the show---his name could be Clonk---and it will be great.

I found that car fabric on Etsy.  It's from Japan--isn't it great? Through out my life I have had extremely bad luck with cars.  I know some people exaggerate when they say things like that, but some of the things that have happened to my cars are so weird and unlucky and strange that they seem unbelievable.  One of my favorite stories is about how some sort of animal ate up through my car engine and actually built some sort of nest there.  I had let someone borrow my car before I found it like this, and I was so furious at first, I thought they had played some bizarre joke on me, but no, an animal actually just made my car's engine their home.  I don't even eat meat, but this animal ate my car---it seemed so wrong to me---and against some sort of karmic law.  

Herbert is here available in my shop!

Edward

Edward is a bit shy with the ladies.  Whenever he comes up to one he would like  to marry, his tongue gets tied up in a knot.  So, Edward did his research and decided in order to become someone's prince, his best bet would be to don a frog hood.

Edward is made of corduroy, cotton and wool.  I'm kind of in love with him.  He looks so vulnerable in his wool frog hoodie.  So, the gray weather outside has started getting to me.  Come on sunshine, come back to me!  It makes me want to put on fluffy slippers and bake away my depression using only the most fattening of pastry ingredients.  

Edward is available right here in my Etsy shop.  Bring him into your home and let him be your prince.

Mary

Mary lives in a mid-sized town in a part of the country that has all four-seasons.  Its summers are very hot and its winters are very cold. Mary dislikes the cold very much, she even keeps a pair of mittens near her refrigerator, so that when she needs to get her cherry ice cream out of the freezer, her hands don't get chilly.  On days when it is gray and cold outside, Mary will stay in bed, drink hot chocolate and pout with her kitten, Toonces, who pouts most days for reasons that Mary is unaware of.  But, for Mary, the winter is saved by the snow.  She loves it.  She'll stay up all night watching it fall and will even brave the cold to venture outside and look straight up into it and imagine that she is the star of her own snow globe.  She didn't believe it at first, when a neighbor informed her that no two snowflakes are alike until she examined each one that fell on her window pane and noticed all the intricate details of each flake.  Toonces, however, remains underwhelmed.  

Mary has been dancing around my sketchbook in various forms for weeks.  It is nice to have my special requests done and be able to get back to sketching and developing new ideas.  

Joseph and I are watching Mad Men on DVD now---it is such a good show, I am really hooked, which is kind of surprising because there is not a single character in the show that I would want to be friends with or even sit next to in a cafe.  Most of them are greedy, snobby, meanies, but still--it is so good.  And, I really want the early sixties style to come back so that I can wear dresses like the girls in the show---they seem like the perfect dress for twirling, plus I bet they would be flattering for girls like me who have some "junk in the trunk".

Mary is available here in my shop.

Alex Project #7 and Group Shot

The Alex Project is complete!  This last one was a bit of a challenge---it is strange to sew sweater-type of fabric----the straight lines don't really work out, but I like how this one turned out anyway---especially the bow-tie.  I think all men should wear bow-ties.  So the dog outfit and ears are made out of Alex's ribbed sweaters, the face out of a Trading Spaces T-Shirt, the cheeks are that same plaid that I have been using for all of the cheeks, and the nose is from a Jerry Garcia tie, the dog nose is fabric left-over from the pirate hat and of course there is the denim for the jeans and the corduroy for the hair.  I am pleased with how they all look as a group, because they look like a family and they are for a family.  Working on this project has been special for me, I'm a little disappointed that it is over.  I hope Tracey's family likes them and that I did his clothes justice---I know how important memory-holding objects are and I hope these guys make the Perez's feel nostalgic and happy when they look at them.  

Alex Project #6

Here is the pirate of the Alex Project---or maybe less pirate and more little boy with pirate-leanings.  His patch is one of those leather rectangle jean logos, his cheeks a plaid shirt (same as the inside of his ears), his face is from a Trading Spaces t-shirt, his shirt is from a blue striped casual shirt, the pirate patch is from a little Halloween pirate hat and his jeans are of course Alex's jeans.  Also, his hair and eyebrows are wool from his over-coat.  

I have one more to do and no real plan for this next one, but I think it needs to involve one of Alex's sweaters.

Joseph and I don't have cable here, but yesterday I was really wanting to work to some TV shows, so I watched Grey's Anatomy over the internet----I watched 4 episodes and I think I went through a whole roll of toilet paper because of all the water-works the show produced in my eyes.  Phew.  

Alex Project #4

Here is the fourth doll of the Alex Project.  He is a Super Hero!  His helmet is made out of a blue dress shirt, his red suit out of an "Indiana" t-shirt, his belt out of an Indiana University tie and his logo is made out of well-worn jeans and a plaid shirt.  I want to make a "tie" cape, but I am leaving it out just incase I need ties for the other two dolls.  In the top picture he is flying past the tree that I see just outside of my front door.  Its leaves are this extreme shade of yellow that make it seem like it is glowing.  

Election day was amazing.  I feel like America actually shifted under my feet.  I know nothing is really different yet, but at the same time it feels like everything is different.  Today when Joseph and I took Albert on his morning stroll I felt a real connection to the people we passed.  I actually had this urge to hug everyone and jump up and down in glee like they were doing in Grant park last night.