Thursday, December 23, 2010

Merry Christmas


Merry Christmas! For your present, I got you a better designed blog (thanks Mike for your help!). My little family is hitting the road for celebrations. Thank you for all your support this year. It fills my heart up more than Russian tea cookies have been filling my belly this year (very much). I hope everyone has a very beautiful next few days full of family and friends.

The image above was a present from Joseph. We opened them yesterday for a mini-family Christmas (it was popping-corn). We also watched Planes, Trains and Automobiles which is about getting home for Thanksgiving, but we pretended it was Christmas. That movie is hilarious and then so sad. Maybe that is a directing trick to open you up with the funny bits and then sneak in something incredibly sad right when you are feeling vulnerable. Whatever it is, it's good.

Merry Christmas!

Monday, December 20, 2010

And the Winner is....


Confetti
Originally uploaded by ADoseofShipBoy
My super sweet friend GENEVIEVE SULLIVAN (it was completely random, I pinkie-promise)! Congratulations Genevieve, Merle will be snuggling with you soon!

Giveaways are super fun, I'll do more.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Two Lovelies


These two lovelies are off to a woman I met at the Bloomington Handmade Market. She and her husband make these beautiful leather wristlets and pouches. They practically sold-out at the market because their work is so beautiful. I am really flattered that they wanted to buy a few of my Pink Cheeks. It's nice when anyone loves your work, but there is something extra special about other crafts people liking it. I want to buy one of their wristlets, wear it on my wrist and prance around to show it off!


Herman loves shadows. In his room, his mom helped him hang a sheet from the ceiling, and then she got a very bright light to shine on it so that Herman would be able to put on shows for the rest of the neighborhood children. The shows are quite elaborate. He does the musical numbers with a kazoo he hangs around his neck. Sometimes his shows require big monsters, so he gets to be the shadow. Other times they require little tiny creatures, so he borrows his sister's dolls. He has a pet hermit crab named Peter. Sometimes he tapes a GI Joe to Peter's shell and puts him in the show. That creates an interesting effect.


Betts is attracted to the nocturnal lifestyle. She prefers soft, dark light to the fluorescent ones in her school, which make her head feel wonky. Sometimes, during the day-time she sits in closets and works on her night vision. She is pretty good. She makes drawings in her room at night, by the light of the moon, which she thinks is a pretty artsy thing to do. She does this while eating moon-pies. She calls her drawings "moon-scapes". Sometimes bits of her moon-pie melts on her fingers and gets smudged on her drawing, but her mother thinks this adds to the overall effect. She signs them "anonymous" and tapes them up on the walls at her school.

My little Walter took his first couple of steps today. It's just incredible how they teach themselves.

Friday, December 17, 2010

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.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

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.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

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.

Monday, December 6, 2010

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.