28 July 2006

More octopi for your viewing pleasure

But first, a shameless baby picture: I never expected to be the kind of momma who liked to do her daughter's hair, but how cute are these pigtails? In this photo, V's eating a Club cracker at the Fryn Pan. I think she's concentrating so hard because it was her first Club cracker, and she wanted to do it right.

Here are a few more octopi...the light blue one with the closed eyes is out of alova suede and a summery cotton print underneath. The one on the far right is an orange, yellow, brown and white batik with brown velveteen on the bottom, and the octopus on the left is out of soft silver velvet with purple cotton that's printed with silver stars on the bottom. Depending on the fabric used, each octopus has different results: the alova suede makes the legs curl up adorably; the velvet makes the legs have sort of a candy-cane sworl pattern (as you can kind of see here). Velveteen is a bear to sew with but doesn't make the legs curl or twist, at least as far as I can tell.

I'll try to get a couple of close ups of the remaining octopi, if I can bear the heat outside....Stay tuned.

Update: Okay, it's too hot to go outside. Seriously, people. But you can click on the pictures to see larger images. The pattern is from this book, Adventures in Toy Making by Gillian Bradshaw Smith , which I bought at the Dakota Boy's Ranch (a local thrift store) 3 years ago or so. I paid no more than 50 cents, I'm sure. I enlarged the octopus to about 200%...she calls for about 400%, but who needs an octopus bigger than a 2 year old? Maybe when V actually IS 2 years old.

Octopus Parade


A week ago today, Shaun and I and V hauled 10 octopi (octopusses?) to Hendrum for Hendrum's SummerFest. Tables for selling stuff were free (!) so we had just the time investment. I sold 4 large octopi, 2 little ones, and 2 starfish. Also five pairs of earrings, for a total gross income of about $103. This was fun, low-pressure, and rewarding.

Pictured above are 2 of the octopi, both of which are now sold, and a couple of starfish. I should probably mention that most of our sales were to family members, but to be honest, much of Hendrum is related to me, and hey, their money is as good as anyone's.

I'll post more pictures if I can get Blogger to cooperate. Thank you for your support.

20 July 2006

Who put the alphabet in alphabetical order?

That's a song from They Might Be Giants, and if you've heard it, you've got it stuck in your head right now. Bwah ha ha ha.

Cricket over at repurpose has done her "Letter B" likes and dislikes, and since I don't wanna be behind in the alphabet, here's mine:

Likes:
1. Blue
2. Bacon (ooh. I love bacon. I was a vegetarian for a year and had to come back to the carnivore side just for the bacon)
3. Beer. Man, I miss beer.
4. Burping (geez, i sound like a hick. I love bacon, beer, & burping? classy.)
5. Black beans and rice
6. Blah blah babycakes

Dislikes:
1. Our old Buick, which needs a new muffler
2. George Bush
3. burnt chocolate cake
4. the bubonic plague
5. beastiality

Never judge the beauty of a day...

Today's weather is gorgeous: summer, but not so hot it hurts to go outside. I once read a sign on a hotel marquee...someone there had decided to put up little "truisms" everyday, and it made my commute more interesting...and one day it said "Never judge the beauty of a day by the weather." Which, in 6 years of driving past that sign, is the only one I can recall now, but I really like it a lot and think of it often. Especially in the winter, or when it's so hot it hurts to go outside. "Never judge the beauty of a day by the weather." Hm.

In crafty news, I'll be selling some of my wares at a craft sale in Hendrum, my hometown, tomorrow. Well, it's a craft sale mostly because I'll be there...I think my sister said to expect 2 other people to be selling. But that's okay. Whatever doesn't sell will be Christmas gifts, made well ahead. I'll post a picture tomorrow or the next day of the table: everything's in boxes right now, priced and ready to go. Mostly I'm selling jewelry, earrings I've been making for almost 15 years now. But I also found an octopus pattern in this book, which I adapted a bit, and made 10 octopi. Each is about 18" across and 6-8"tall. We'll see if they'll sell....it's so hard to price things, and looking on line doesn't offer much help, because Hendrum prices and internet prices are widely varied. And these suckers take FOREVER: forever to sew, forever to turn (like over an hour each), and forever and a day to stuff. Seriously, at minimum wage with minimal material cost, these should run around $60. But all of Hendrum would laugh and laugh and laugh, so I'm asking $15. Which means I'll make about $1 an hour for my trouble, plus materials. But since I did most of the work while watching TV with Shaun, I guess it's acceptable. Plus if people love them (and I do love them, which helps keep me optimistic) maybe I can make more, put a few in local shops, open an online store, quit my job and retire in 2 years. Don't you think?

I feel bad now that I have no photo to show you the results of said hard work. Perhaps you'll tune in tomorrow, though, and see what the heck I'm rambling on about.

19 July 2006

Worth the wait

Hallo, hallo. This is going to take 3 hours to load, but I wanted you to see that my daughter has GOT to be a comedian when she grows up. Look how hilariously she eats a graham cracker: And a shot of our fireworks from a couple weeks ago at Lake Belle Taine: Shaun's been talking about doing fireworks for years, but ... they scare me. So this year he just came home with a pile of explosives, which we carefully packed into the car around the car seat for the 90 mile trip to the lake. In the end, they were beautiful. And no one got hurt. What's not to love?

06 July 2006

Baby's first fourth of July




Shaun was very excited for V to see fireworks. V was .... less excited. Maybe sparklers are just prettier in the dark. We're going to try for a more enthusiastic reaction this weekend at the lake. I just think these two pictures are hilarious, as a pair.

Thank you Hilary...


I have been a bit obsessed with sewing lately. Here are my 4 Wee Wonderful creations, from the Put-Together Book from Hilary Lang. From left to right: Bella, Persimmon, RuRu, and Peek. I know the photo's lousy, and Peek's missing a shoe, but as I mentioned, I'm obsessed with sewing lately, not photography or details. These girls all have embroidered faces, to make them super baby-friendly. Plus, they like babies. Well, all but Peek. Peek suspects a baby stole her shoe.