Kayaking Frogs!

Here are three kayaking frogs who are going to go above the bed of a camp friend's niece.  They will sing loudly, and unharmoniously, but with soul.  This particular friend is from a particular camp in wild and wonderful West Virginia.  It really did feel wild there.  Louisiana feels similarly wild, but doesn't have any mountains, so maybe West Virginia wins in the wild contest.  Though alligators exist here, so that makes Louisiana a close second. 

I still have my calendar booked for several weeks, but I am aching to develop some new mobiles.  This one was quite fun.  Do you have any crazy ideas, I have some of my own, but I love hearing others and letting them stew around upstairs in the noggin.

Tea Pot!

This mobile is headed to a wee little one in Thailand who has elegant and beautiful parents that enjoy tea and macaroons! The tea pot and tea cup are based off of their own tea set which features intricate drawings of iron chairs and benches. 

Rodent Family, Astronauts and Project Runway

I made this rodent family for a cute family in Spain.  Neus, the mom, wanted to make sure the rat head on her husband had a chewed up ear.  I just love little details like that.  Whenever I see/think of a raccoon, it makes me sing Rocky Raccoon in my head.   The in-my-head-music-video of that song looks like a Wes Anderson clay-mation with animals.  I always thought Rocky Raccoon was literally meant to be an anthropomorphic raccoon.  I remember talking to Joseph about the song and being surprised that he didn't think the same way. 

We are getting ready for Halloween over here.  This year I actually bought a pattern and am sewing Walter a costume from it.  He's going to be an astronaut.  I have never sewn from a pattern before, except for one thing I made from a Lotta Jansdotter book.  It's so weird.  I am glad I taught myself to sew before trying patterns.  There are so many arrows, dots and triangles involved in the real deal.  Had I learned from patterns initially, I probably would have been too intimidated to try my own thing.  As I am working through this astronaut monstrocity (labeled "easy") I find myself just having to veer off and make bits my own way.  I just can not comprehend certain steps.  The pocket directions might as well have been written in German.  I even spent some time Googling in the hopes that some sweet mom out there posted a tutorial on you tube pertaining to this particular pocket I needed to make.  Man, there are a lot of variations of pockets in the world.  Holy geez.  Oh well, I sewed it on my way, and you can definitely store stuff in it.  Do astronauts really have pockets on their suits?  For moon rock collecting, maybe.  I will tell you that when I bought the pattern, I thought it would come quite easily to me.  I will even tell you that in the back of my mind I imagined this costume launching an interest in fashion design (and, more embarrassing, a spot on next year's Project Runway competition).

Can we talk about Project Runway for a second?  Are you watching it?  I've been upset with this season.  They seem to be upping the drama factor pretty hard.  I never liked those high drama reality shows.  I lived through junior high, I don't want to go there again.  Some of these contestants seemed highly unstable and put on the show solely for the purpose of acting irrationally or immaturely.  It's too silly when it gets like that.  The best "reality" moments are when the designers are generous with one another, or speaking admirably about other contestant's work.  And, the best part of the show overall is seeing how people are creative under pressure.  I feel like Tim Gunn needs to have a stern talking to with some of the decision makers behind the show.   What are your thoughts? 

A Rabbit for Charlotte's Friend

I made this rabbit man for a friend of the gentleman pictured above with the twig crown on his head.  Isn't he dreamy?  He reminds me of The Perks of Being a Wallflower, because he is how I imagined the main character to look.  Almost exactly.  Maybe Charlotte, his friend who ordered the rabbit, looks just like Hermoine (whose real name I forget and who played Sam (in the movie adaptation of the book), Charlie's very good friend).  I was very pleased with how the bunny turned out.  I had to stitch on extra fur to make it longer, can you see the seam?  The proportions before made him seem too young (in my designs, being young means you basically don't have a torso).  So, the extra seam made it look slightly different in just the right way for me.  It looks more like the bunny suit wearer stitched it up himself in his hidden tree fort.  It just adds a tiny bit of mystery.  It's so exciting to see the power of little details.

I am getting Summeritis down here in Louisiana.  This is my first full summer down here, and it has been going on (temperature-wise) since May.  It is still so hot.  The leaves aren't changing, and when they do they only turn turd-brown for a little while and then they fall.    The only real notable seasonal change is that Starbucks has started serving Pumpkin Spice Lattes.  I ordered one to revel in the idea of fall, but then after my first sip I remembered I didn't like them.  So really this fake fall has burned a $4 hole in my pocket.  Curse you fake fall!  I guess I can make some applesauce, extra cinnamony, and that will feel like fall.  I must remember the glorious Louisiana winter that has a fall-like breeze with a spring-like warmth, inviting you to comfortably visit zoos in January. 

Also, thanks so much to Niki for commenting on my last post.  How have I not stumbled on your work before:  Go see everyone!  So beautiful and mysterious. 

Hot Dog!

Hurray for something new to show you!  I have been doing a lot of custom work, which I should share here too, but Facebook is just easier.  And, lazier :(.  I'm also confused by this blog a lot of the time.  I am not sure what it should be like.  I like reading other people's tangents and getting glimpses into their lives, so that is why I let myself keep things the way they are here.  What do you like reading when you some here?  Or, not reading?  What should this blog be exactly?  

In the mean time I'll tell you about this mustache man.  He's eating a hot dog and has a pet weiner dog.  He seems like someone who would be boisterous.  The kind of guy who laughs so hard that he can't help but let potato chip crumbles fly out of his mouth!  Nobody minds though because he is so endearingly enthusiastic about things in the world that are good.  He could be all about Hot Dogs the food, but really he is about "Hot Dog!" the expression.  

One of my secret missions of motherhood is to try to get my son to use old timey expressions.  He does say "Drats!", and (my favorite) "Wait a ding dang minute!".  But, I need to throw "Hot dog!" into the mix.  And "fiddlesticks". 

Anyway, this guy is going to Maker Fair in Cincinnati via the Plush Team.  He'll be for sale at the booth they will have there.   Have fun in Ohio, friend!

Luchadors!!!

In a non-direct way, these luchadors I am working on keep making me think about wanting to take a tai chi class.  That is sort of a moot desire though, in a small town in Louisiana.  Did I use the word "moot" correctly?  I hope so.  One of my favorite lines from Friends is when Joey calls it a "moo point",  like a "cow's opinion".  I like that.  I wish I had some connections to Merriam or Webster so I could request a little word switcheroo.

Lately, I have really been wanting to design my own wall paper for miniature scenes for some little plush people I want to make.  I want to print it in a simple way, like how Lotta Jansdotter teaches in this book.  

I also want to print some simple designs on bags that I sew that will need to have zippers on them.  The bags will really be just an excuse for learning how to sew zippers.  Zippers have intimidated me since the dawn of time (drama).  I need to learn because I am planning to reupholster my couch and sew new cushions.  My couch at its current state is pretty sad except for one decked out arm rest that is covered in drawings done in crisp black permanent marker.  

I got the idea from an Apartment Therapy blog post title Aah or Eek!?   It had a lot of images of couches like the one pictured below.

In the comments people were saying how it maybe could be a great idea if it was designed a little better or filled in more.  I thought it was a great idea too.  I also thought that I would have the work ethic to draw on the whole couch and make it awesome!  But, it turns out that couches are pretty big.  Also, my sponge-brain (that's a compliment) toddler took a note from his ma and drew all over the backseat of our car with sharpies too.  Regardless, I now want to reupholster it, so I am going to rev myself up with a line of cute little zippered bags for you soon!  Just wait! 

One last thing.  I watched Drunk History last night for the first time.  So funny!  I was laughing so hard that it felt like I had done a bunch of sit ups.  It was literally equivalent to working out at the gym.  My favorite was the Booth Brothers story which is in the second half of this episode.  Adam Scott is in it and he reminds me so much of my husband.  Please watch!  So funny!

Beach Baby, Beach Baby (sing along...)

We took our beach trip.  It was such a relief.  Working from home is both phenomenal and total poop at the same time.  It is a strange sensation to have your work be something that you love to do and do from home in the same room that your family eats burritos and colors pictures of dinosaurs (side note:  these coloring books are the most fantastic coloring books!).  Designing and sewing and drawing are the top three things I would choose to do with free time and I already do them constantly, so it's pretty essential for me to force myself to do other things and carve out some special time for my family that is out of our little house/studio(s). 

I can already tell my son is developing his home-body chops, just like ma and pa.  There is nothing he loves more than staying at home and playing with toys.  The other day I surprised him with some batman pajamas and he asks really sweetly if he can put them on as soon as he comes home.  I better never introduce him to a Snuggy.  What I am trying to say is that it is really good and healthy for us to drive away from home every once in a while and sleep in a hotel or on a friend's floor.  This time it was a hotel in a casino!  I thought it would be really sparkly and glitzy, or at least tacky in a delightful way, but really it was just boringly sophisticated.  Should I write a review on Travelocity?  "I was expecting more velvet paintings and framed photographs of Elvis.  What a disappointment!".

The actual town itself will charm your socks off.  It was so darn cute.  There is a folk artist from there who started painting in her 60's.  We went to see her paintings at the visitor's center and the nice lady working there gave us $40 to spend in the town!  They had won some sort of grant and they wanted to give the money from it to their tourists so they printed out their own special currency for the town called Magnolia Bucks.  We felt like royalty.  We had ice cream.  Three times!  That's what kings and queens do in a Southern, Mississippi beach town.

We splashed around the ocean for a good while.  Something about shallow ocean water makes me want to do cartwheels and handstands.  

Walter really liked splashing while running.  It was his first time experiencing it, really.  I always wonder at the stamina children have to do the same thing over and over, like running through water. I have to remember that it is brand new to them!  That is the very nice thing about having a child:  they make things new again.

We had pizza and beer at a place called the Ugly Pirate.  The inside looked like what a pirate ship would look like.  Plus we smelled of the ocean, so it was a multi-sensory experience! 

Thank you Bay St. Louis!