Obligatory Pre-Christmas Freak Out!

I am sooooooo behind on everything I wanted to make/do for Christmas!!!!

*Calming breath*

I really shouldn't fuss. Last year this time, I'd just had my accident and I believe Christmas happened, though I don't actually remember much of it. Something about a wheel chair...?

So really, big picture, life is good, even if I don't finish everything I'd planned before Christmas.

It's like a wedding, right, you have an entire year to send a gift, Right?

Just nod your heads people!!!!!

*breathing into paper bag and feeling much better*

Merry Christmas to You and Yours!

Lookie what K made!

K wanted to make a gift for a friend of hers who loves also loves Doctor Who.

A 26" tall, squashy, plush Tardis!




Is that cute or what! K designed the whole thing and did 100% of the cutting and 95% of the sewing, (I sewed the stuffing hole shut with the truculent Kenmore.) The plumpy Tardis is made of no pill fleece and embroidery floss and is stuffed like a weiner dog!





"Adi Love Tardi"

It is pre-cuddled gift, the best kind.




Oh, yes. We are definitely making more!

Busy, Busy, Busy!

Is it really almost Christmas? Really? Oh good heavens.

K's Candy Canian hat was a big hit at school. Pattern coming soon!

Attack of the Crochet Turkey Fridgies!

A few weeks ago, Jennifer, paper pieced quilt square goddess, and sender of random acts of kindness that make little girls squeee and bounce, posted a pattern for a very cute crochet turkey on her blog on sewhooked. You can find Jennifer's pattern here. They are so cute and fast, your should really make a half dozen or so.

We did!

Some are fringies, some are finger puppets, they make great lapel pins too. We made them into Thanksgiving cards and sent them to all our friends.

And, because we just couldn't help ourselves, we've designed our own Turkey Fridgie.



Thanks for the fun pattern Jennifer!


Happy Thanksgiving!

The Tale of Lady Amber of Mossflower Woods

K's Halloween costumes follow a distinct pattern. Last year she was Sarah Jane Smith with a pull along K-9. The year before she was tough Ginny Weasley. One year she was Tiger Lily. Then there was Princess Leia, Jesse the Cowgirl, Sally, and of course Hermione. Do we sense a cute but tough trend? Yup, that's my girl.

This year for Halloween, K was Lady Amber, a character that appears in the Redwall Series of books by Brian Jacques.. Basically the books are about cute, little animals, that sing, play, occasionally eat under the table, with all four paws,... and fight continuously. There are 20 books in the series so far, with more in the works. K has read about 12 1/2 in the last 6 months and LOVES them! K says they are better than Harry Potter,... today. Tomorrow, she may change her mind.

K designed her costume in early October, even working out the tail attached to the belt.

The coolest thing about her costume is that it was almost exclusively made with stuff we found in the basement or yard. I crocheted the shawl from yarn I found in my stash. Just kinda made it up as I went along. (It's really very nice and warm, and I've been wearing it ever since.)

The tunic is made from a pattern based on a medieval garment found on a female body in a bog in Denmark. (Cool!) Since it was made of wool, it didn't decay too much, and it could be pieced back together. You can read about it here and here. I used this gown pattern

But left out the front gores, because K just didn't like them.

I chose this pattern because it was very easy, no curved seams, except the keyhole neckline, and because it was extremely economical when it can to fabric usage. (Makes sense really.) I was lucky enough to find 4 yards of brown cotton flannel on sale at Walmart as a remnant for 2$,... yes total, and it was just enough. Love it! The dress is so comfy, K is using it as a night gown and wants another one. In green, of course.

K designed and constructed her bag and made her sling shot from leather strips and brown peach suede we found in the basement.

Mr. Man helped her make her bow out of a crepe myrtle branch and twine. It works very well, maybe too well. I bought her 4 dowel rods for about $3.50 and and helped her collect duck feathers at the pond for her arrows. And I made her a quiver from an old shipping tube, peach suede and green fabric paint. K did the painting.

The tail was made from a heavy wire skeleton and covered with the only scrap of long fun fur left in the city. I searched everywhere and they just don't sell it anymore, except online for 20 bucks a yard. Yikes! The piece I finally found was perfect and happened to be right in my basement of all places. Just enough for a tail and one ear. I loaned K my wide leather belt and tied the top to a harness around her shoulder and we had a tail.

The only change we made was her hat. We found one picture of Lady Amber on the Redwall Wiki and decided to make the hat shown in the picture.

The hat was made from some red peach suede I found, you guessed it, in the basement, the cat's feather and a piece of jewelry to hold a feather (I'm sure it has a name ?) we found on the ground somewhere years ago.

I love the ear and you can't even tell it is pieced together from an impossibly tiny scrap of fur.

All toll, Lady Amber cost about $4.50 plus scrounged supplies. Not bad, not bad at all.

Pumpkin Slaughter!!!!!

Howling in Anguish, Redwall Castle, and Puffle.

(Contrast enhanced to distract from the terrible quality of the original picture.)

Hope your Halloween was Happy!

Took all of ten minutes. Yup, 10 minutes. Couldn't believe it.

We took our elderly neighbor, so we had folding cane chairs, snacks, drinks, coats, hats,... We were home in less than 20 minutes.

Anyone else have a story? No party affiliations, just how did the process go for you.

I saw Scarlett waited four and a half hours for early voting, WOW, but it sounded sort of fun actually. She posted pictures of the line.

If you haven't yet, get out and vote people! And then let me know how it went.

I'm off to claim my free Starbucks Tall Coffee and Krispy Kreme Star Donut!

The democracy in action has never been so yummy!

Lady Amber of Rewall

K designed her own costume this year...

Lady Amber of Redwall: warrior squirrel, archer, only one ear, lost the other in battle.

Once again, very few people know who she is is, but she's happy. The tail was pure luck and a complete and total success, it even sways when she walks. Or does the E-slide. The bow and arrows turned out to be way too functional. The arrows are now securely hot glued in their quiver.

And just for fun, long, long ago, in our very own kitchen,

I made K's Princess Leia costume 25 years to the day after my mom and I made mine

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

Just a few treats for the day.

I found these wonderful ping pong eyeballs at the grocery store and I just couldn't help myself. Modeled by my lovely assistant Igor...

A crochet Mad-Eye Moody Eye!

And, K's favorite hat...

It was K's idea to add the braids, so it would be like Ron's hat in POA. I've made three candy corn hats so far, and they are a big hit. We gave one to a friend of K's and she's worn it to school ever since. And for Halloween this friend is going as a "Spider nailed, goth angel, candy cornian!" Very cute!

Have a safe and Happy Halloween everyone!

K has actually stopped coughing!!!!!!

Party Time!!! Lamp Shades on Heads People!!!!

"Be the bass!"

K's practicing her bass in the living room, and I'm in the kitchen making dinner.

I hear "Mom, I can't see!"

I do not panic,... because I live with her,... everyday. I walk calmly to the living room and this is what I see....

I told her I thought her Halloween costume looked great.

After she extricated herself, I got the obligatory "Oh Mom," eyes and everything. I told her I'd be here till she's 18 and to remember to tip her waitress.

She looked at me like I was insane.

Coming from a kid wearing an imitating vinyl string bass case and gaucho pants. Please. Gaucho pants are so last year.

Adipose!!!!!

Is that cute or what! I love the the cute little tushie and the toes. Just love adipose toes!

I used the pattern posted by imaginarybf on crafty_tardis. This is a link to her post. Little Posie was slept on last night and tried to go to school today. Silly Adipose.

"Help me, Help me, Damsel in Distress,..."

I have been humming this little ditty for the last hour. I blame you Pren.



Damsel in Distress from Sue Fink on Vimeo.

We are hand feeding Hummingbirds!!

_

I know this is not a great picture, and I will get a better one, but can you see the hummingbird!!!!

They don't even wait for us to hang up the feeder anymore! I just refilled the feeder, the second time today, and there were at least 6 trying to eat while I held the feeder. The ones in the air fight and squeak and are generally horrid to each other. And they all look you over very closely, just in case you might be hiding something sweet somewhere. They are very interested in ears, especially those attached to little girls.

Harry Potter Paper Piecing... Oh, I like it!

The delightful and talented Jenn posts paper pieced quilt square patterns one of her blogs H P Paper Piecing. Her patterns are absolutely beautiful, and really quite,... easy is not the word, they are complex, but they are well presented and quite manageable. I have sewn two of her patterns so far, Fawkes the Phoenix, above, and Harry's Scar, which I made into a hobo bag for a swap this past summer

I've never been interested in quilting per say, but paper piecing is really fascinating. It appeals very much to the little mathematician that lurks in me, yearning for symmetry and curves approximated by straight lines.

Jenn is running a contest, design and make your own paper pieced Harry Potter based Quilt square. I'm not quite ready to design, but I can't wait to see the entries.

My Little Mandrake is growing out of her pot... sniff...

-

K found her Mandrake costume in the closet on Sunday. She can still fit in the pot, but, she can't slide down inside and hide anymore. At least not without a bit of a struggle. She's had such fun with this costume. She and her friend V attended a Deathly Hallows release party last year at the library dressed as Mandrakes.

They spent the whole time sneaking in and out of their pot. I guess that means they are ready for dicing and stewing. Which now I think about it, is about the best description of puberty I have ever heard.

Poor little Mandrakes.

Adipose anyone?

Pren asked for a stencil for K's Adipose T-shirt (oh, about two months ago,... so sorry.) You can download it here. K thought salmon was the perfect color for adipose babies.

If you used K's pattern, please let me know, she would be so thrilled.

Accio Tissue!

K is home sick today. She made some signs for her door.

She got the idea from one of her favorite books,

I am freezing cranapple juice into throat coolers as I type.

Look what we grew!

Pretty isn't it.

Ants do not like ginger.

We love Hummingbirds. Hummingbirds love sugar water. Ants love sugar water. We do not love ants. Ants do not love ginger. Therefore, must put ginger between ants and sugar water.

Solution: Take cap from a jug of milk, drill a hole slightly smaller than the size of the wire holding the feeder in center of cap, slide the cap on the wire, fill it with powdered ginger. No more ants! Hummingbirds don't seem to care. Cool.

Update: Ginger works really well with the tiny sugar ants, but the big red ants just arrived, and though they don't like it much, they fight through to the sugar.

Hum...

I've put a little oil on the wire hook and that has stopped them. For now.

K says the ants are evolving and will soon have feet that can walk through oil. She reads way too much, in a good way.

More updates as warranted.

Harry Potter Camp

K attended a week of Harry Potter Camp this summer at Sci Quest and she had a blast. This was her second year attending Pottering Around and it was new, different, and even more fun than the previous year. I've scanned the Camp itinerary if you would like to read it. ( Page 1, Page 2 and Page 3). It was jam packed with fun.

K, who feels she is a Ravenclaw, was sorted the first year she attended into Gryffindor and this year into Hufflepuff. Her house won the House Cup last year and came in a close second this year. K's detailed knowledge of all things Harry may have had something to do with that. (Although she did totally miss who the Half Blood Prince was on her first reading. Funny! She was not even 9 at the time and crying her eyes out over Dumbledor, but really.)

Along with dissecting owl pellets and applying scientific principals to the identification of Jelly Belly jelly beans (you can find the wonderful handout they used here), they made a couple of crafts that were just too cool. I was so surprised when she came home with a Dadcando wand.

She loved making it and it turned out so well, she made one for her HPC swap partner.

They also made a cauldron, which at first she thought was frightfully lame, but turned out really rather nice.

That's a raccoon finger puppet if your wondering. Kitty, as usual, has to check out everything I try to photograph.

My favorite craft was the Miniature Whomping Willow

Yup, it's a lunch sized paper bag, cut the top into strips, twist into shape and glue on some leaves. Isn't that great! Think of the goody bag possibilities!

Kitty liked it too.

It's hers.

K wants to go back to Pottering Around again next year. And volunteer at SciQuest when she's in High School and work there when she's in college. Not a bad plan.