A Mini-Merle Giveaway

Merry Christmas from Mini-Merle.

To win Mr. Merle please leave me a comment (if you are reading this on my Facebook feed, please click on my blog to leave a comment). You can simply say "hi!", or tell me your favorite kind of cookie, or your favorite thing to do in the snow, or your favorite Christmas movie. Any of those will do! Comments will be closed 12 pm on Sunday the 19th and the winner will be chosen out of a hat on Monday---then Merle will be on his way to your doorstep before Christmas.

Good luck to you! Here is Merle's bio again. He's a bit Scroogey (sort of a stretch), so I thought it was fitting.

Merle is through with the fast-paced life in the business world. He made this decision after getting very worked up over smudged up ink on a very important document. He started growling like a savage bear and pouncing around the office inspecting everyone's pen cup to find the guilty ink-smudger-upper. When he discovered that he, himself, was the ink-smudger-upper he felt like a ninny. He quit his job, and immediately went out and enjoyed a piece of honey cake and hot cocoa. He now leads a very soft and gentle existence. He sells cotton candy on a busy street corner to make money to buy honey cakes and support his cats, and in his free time he sews all his old business ties into quilts for people who don't have warm blankets. He does all of these things in his bear suit to remind him of his previous, ridiculous ways.

Worker Elf

I have been sewing my little fingers off, finishing orders and making secret presents for loved ones. I'm not going to photograph my top secret projects for obvious reasons, but I do plan on making Walter some jingle-mittens and I will post them. As attracted as he is to the keyboard I don't think Walter can surf the web yet, so I won't be spoiling his surprise.

In the meantime, I wanted to draw your attention to Mummysam's give away! She makes lovely, little things. L.o.v.e.l.y. So go over to her blog and try to win many lovely things!

She inspired me to host my own give away. Details tomorrow.

Margaret for a Give Away at Indy's Child

Margaret is dressed for winter time. She spends her Autumns going to rummage sales and buying various hats that she thinks have some magic stored up in them. Then when winter comes, she puts on her polar bear hoodie and sneaks up behind snowmen in the neighborhood. She puts various hats on their heads and then she runs very fast and dives behind a snowy bush, and camouflaged in her snow-white polar bear hoodie she waits to see if the snowmen come to life. So far, no snowmen have come to life, but she hasn't lost hope, and in the meantime she's quite certain they appreciate her keen eye for hat styles. When one does finally come to life, she is going to ask him to the school social. He will wear his fancy hat, and she her most special bow.

Walter thought her placement for the photo needed adjusting.

Margaret is going to be heading off to the kind people at Indy's Child for a give away! I will let you know when that happens so that you can win her for that special wearer-of-bows in your life.

Merle

Merle is through with the fast-paced life in the business world. He made this decision after getting very worked up over smudged up ink on a very important document. He started growling like a savage bear and pouncing around the office inspecting everyone's pen cup to find the guilty ink-smudger-upper. When he discovered that he, himself, was the ink-smudger-upper he felt like a ninny. He quit his job, and immediately went out and enjoyed a piece of honey cake and hot cocoa. He now leads a very soft and gentle existence. He sells cotton candy on a busy street corner to make money to buy honey cakes and support his cats, and in his free time he sews all his old business ties into quilts for people who don't have warm blankets. He does all of these things in his bear suit to remind him of his previous, ridiculous ways.

Merle is off to Chicago for Oh No! Doom's Soft Served Plush show opening December 11th. Go to it and give Merle a snuggle.

You know Dasher and Dancer....

We started decorating in the Holsapple/Brinkman abode. We haven't reached our full twinkle-potential, but it's starting to feel warm and festive. I like a lot of twinkle. When my mom passed away a few years ago, I had to clean out her home. In the beginning of the process, every object caused tons of emotional turmoil when I had to decide whether to keep it or donate it or throw it away. After awhile I made a firm conviction that my mom was not her old furniture, wooden bowling ball trophies, or her gargoyle collection---this conviction was easier to make since I was moving with my husband to a tiny one bedroom apartment with no storage space. I kept all her old photo albums and a few choice things, but the rest went. These Christmas ornaments stayed. She painted little Christmas scenes on them, glued some velvet ribbon down the middle, and on the back wrote "Merry Christmas 1978". They are friendly and charming, like she was. She painted them before I was born, when my brothers were toddlers. It's different for me to look at them now because I know what it is like to balance creative time with taking care of your young ones, so I can picture what it must have been like for her to be painting those while simultaneously preventing her mischievous boys from pulling down bookshelves. I love having them hanging in the house, they make it feel like she's right here in the room with us, drinking coffee.

One thing I didn't keep is this giant, stuffed rudolph head. It was one of those whimsical objects that made Christmas seem full of magical possibility. I am a bit busy this month, but I really want to make a papier mache version for our house. The more I think about it though, the more insane I feel. When I sew or draw and watch Walter I can just set down what I am doing and tend to the monkey, but with papier mache there is a hand-washing step in there that I think won't add up to good parenting. We'll see.


Here is a sneak peak of what I have been working on for a show in Chicago at Oh No! Doom which is happening December 11th! I am almost done with him so I should be able to show you the rest soon.

Betsy

At summer camp, Betsy created her own baseball team, the Yams. She named her team the Yams for 2 reasons:

1. Yam is an under-rated vegetable that can be candied.
2. Yam rhymes with all sorts of things (wam, bam, slam, cram) which makes rooting for the Yams a lot more convenient when inventing cheer lyrics.

Betsy's team will go far, she is certain of this. She works her team very hard. In the cafeteria, none of her team mates are allowed to eat cheesy puffs the old fashioned way. They are to promote team work by throwing them up really high into the sky and then the Yam that wants the cheesy puff the most is to call it loudly and then catch it with their mouth. If Betsy catches you eating a cheesy puff the old-fashioned way, she will for surely bench you.

Thanks to Stacie for this other special request! I hope the special Yam in your life enjoys her.

Freddie

Freddie can't wait to go to summer camp. His mom tells him all about it, and he thinks it sounds like the bee's knees. He has started preparing now even though he has a few years to go until he is old enough. He calls his koolaid bug-juice and has started practicing tying knots to prepare to sail a boat. Anything resembling a string gets tied into a knot: cords, knitting yarn, Skippy's tail. He's not sure if he is using proper knot-tying form, but he carefully recites some jibberish about bunnies and trees and holes in the ground as he ties like all good sailors do. He can't untangle the knots when he is through, so he is fairly certain he is well on his way to earning some type of award.

Freddie was a special request from one friend to another who has a bun in the oven. Both friends went to my summer camp. The shirt he is wearing is one that my son wore, and it was handed down to him through another little future camper boy, so I think it is pretty special. Normally I don't re-purpose clothing into Pink Cheeks unless it is stiffer fabric like jeans. It's not very green of me, but I have tried and the results are usually disappointing. The shirt on Freddie works though. It's a knit and it stretches in a way that makes for a charming little muffin-top.

Joseph thinks Freddie looks a little crazy, but I think I captured the camp Eberhart spirit in him. Which is colorful, charming, and a little random. I miss that place. I get so nostalgic for it that my belly hurts sometimes. It was so nice to be in the woods with a bunch of friends. The days would stretch on and on for an eternity and we'd fill them with songs, rockets and choco-tacos.