Monday, April 6, 2009

The Pleasantly Plump Stylish Ladies Complete!





The Stylish Ladies are done!  I don't know which is my favorite, the senior lady or the tiniest one with the bee-hive, but they all sort of make my giggle.  They will be up in my shop shortly.   
The dance that I mentioned in my previous post was intensely fun, though none of my photos were post-worthy, sorry.  It's a shame too because one of my most favorite clients wore this dress from the eighties that had the most emormously puffy sleeves you could ever imagine.  It was completely great.  

So, has mother nature gone completely mad?  I don't know about where you are, but by me there were flurries!  I am boy-cotting though.  I WILL not wear my winter coat any more!  No sir.    

Saturday, April 4, 2009

What My Saturday Looks Like




My Stylish Lady Matryoshka dolls are going to need another day for me to finish them up.  It makes me laugh that I am calling them "stylish" and currently wearing black tights with white shoes.  I am all dressed for the Stone Belt spring dance.  Joseph (husband) made a comment before that I am not so good at style "from the ankle down", otherwise I wouldn't have Googled is it okay to wear white shoes with black tights just to be sure I was in the clear, which I am definitely not.  I am not, however, a "shoe" person.  I don't have any alternatives, so I am just going to wear them and pretend that I am "fashion-forward".  I am very excited about the dance, regardless of my fashion no-no.  I never went to a prom, and even though most of my friends say I didn't miss much, and then they recite the horrible-ness of it all, I think a prom-nightmare-story is better than no-prom-story at all.  But now, finally(!) a decade later, I get to redeem myself at the Stone Belt dance!  Woo!  

I will update you tomorrow on Monday with pictures of the event, the shoes and the finished matryoshkas which will be up in the shop then! Enjoy your Saturday!  

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Stylish, Pleasantly Plump Lady Matryoshka Dolls






I had fun with this one, and I look forward to the others.  Matryoshka dolls have such a great, humble shape---plump in all the fun places.  This particular Matryoshka Doll added a belt to define her waist (she learned that from What Not to Wear).  Despite having a great time last night painting and drinking tea, I am battling off a grumpy mood today, it came over me like a.....(insert quirky metaphor here, I can't think of one).  Mother Nature is not offering me up any help because it is gray and soggy here, so she's probably a grump too.  Perhaps the two of us should get together and eat cookies to try to lighten things up.  

Monday, March 23, 2009

Beatrice






Beatrice is a spring fanatic.  She has little tolerance for the color gray, and gets quite grumpy after the last fall leaf has fallen off the trees and the branches are all bare.  As soon as the weather becomes bearable, Beatrice is outside preparing for Spring.  The first thing she does is collect pine cones and buy up crunchy peanut butter from the shop.  Then she gets to work making and hanging her bird feeders on all the tree limbs that are starting to sprout buds.  She's pretty sure that she is personally responsible for the rising bird population in her county, but she doesn't mind.  Next Beatrice tends to her flower garden which features every color in her 100 colored Crayola crayon box.  The colors are important because Beatrice is an organic-enthusiast, and she refuses to dye her Easter eggs with food coloring.  Instead, she makes dye naturally with her flowers, and they come out quite nice.  The children in her neighborhood are so in awe of them that they don't even complain about the lack of chocolate inside of them at her annual-organically-dyed-Easter-egg-hunt.

Beatrice measures 12" tall while siting, and her legs measure 6 more inches.  She is 8" across and made with super soft fleece, brightly colored spring fabrics, vintage and non-vintage buttons, denim, felt and polyfill.  She can sit up all on her own and looks ever so lovely on a shelf.  She has posable arms and dangly legs.

Beatrice is up for sale in my Etsy shop!

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Not Ready Yet...

But definitely tomorrow!  In the meanwhile, listen to Lisa Hannigan who is amazing, and sews all of her own lyrics for her album cover!  I'm a little in love.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Sneak Peek



Just some sneak peeks at a pink cheek that will be ready tomorrow, I hope.  I used the most Spring-like fabric imaginable.  Today is beautiful where I am, and I hope it's beautiful where you are.  It has been a great Saturday so far, and I think it will only get better because tonight involves red wine, a couch, a husband, a dog and a Jimmy Stewart movie plus the windows will be open, which makes everything nice.   Earlier today I walked to a cafe and wrote a letter to a friend.  She sent me one a few days ago and when it arrived in the mail I got all giddy.  I love snail mail.  I used to write letters to my summer camp friends almost every day of the week, but I probably only sent a third of them because I wasn't as organized back then (sorry Mollys and Tracey and Kerry).  But anyway, I took along this old sketch book to write the letter in, and in it I saw all these year-old sketches for Pink Cheeks (back then Pillow Monsters) and it reignited my sewing flame.  But I also bought this teeny tiny brush from the art supply store, that honestly looks like 3 eyelash hairs, and that has me excited to paint tiny matryoshka dolls, AND I also have this intense desire to start a container vegetable garden.  Hopefully I can focus on these things and do and paint and grow them, instead of feeling overwhelmed and just watching American Idol instead.   I'll be back with a post tomorrow, have a lovely Saturday night!

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Super Matroyshkas Complete!






They're finished!  I feel completely rejuvenated.  Maybe these little Supers transferred some of their powers to me when I created them.  I really like these little fellows, but I am slightly embarrassed that I neglected to paint any Super ladies.  Maybe next time.  I like though that these Super heroes are a little awkward and ugly, I mean why do Supers need to be so attractive anyway?  These matroyshka Super heroes are definitely the type that play D and D when they aren't saving lives, and they probably don't know how to talk to girls, and that's why I like them.  More than ever now, I wish I knew how to do simple animation, because I think these 5 could really be some sort of Super team, like the Power Rangers (or maybe some other Super group that is cooler than the Power Rangers), and I think it would be incredibly fun to show them hatching out of one another when the time comes for them to fight crime.  Some day I will learn animation, some day.  Sigh.  I am going to list these guys in my Etsy shop today.  Thanks for reading and have a lovely evening.