Spoonflowers latest contest category is "Mythical Beasts" So I was obliged to enter a dragon design.



It may seem a bit familiar since I used parts of something I had made previously.

If I hadn't run out of time I would have played around and done something more significant with the colors. Or at least, I would have tried. Color is my nemisis, so I really might have met my demise if I had had more time.

Whether you like it or not, please go vote for me here.

When I grow up I am going to be a 3d animator. Right now in my youth I don't have time for it, but when I grow up and settle down that is what I will be.... Or maybe I'll be a bus driver, a very mean one.

I took a class this past term at our local tech-school, and I made this.



I know very corny and cliche, the whole dragon/falling apart castle thing. Please excuse it's incompleteness, I ran out of time. I ignored my household duties and children enough as it was.

This is Halloween.

This young lady was the Infamous Generic Tinkerbell a.k.a. Stinkerbell. Unlike the real Tinkerbell, she is dressed modestly and warmly for the weather. The hat didn't quite make it through the evening and her wings were a bit lopsided, but she was perfectly delighted with her costume anyway. (Thanks for the help Grandma) She is already planning to be Snow White next year. I'm planning to ban Disney from my home.



This next kid didn't get a homemade costume, she is the poor neglected third child. She is acctually Eyore, but looks morel like the Easter Bunny with her basket. It took her all of about 1 house to figure out that if you can stand on the door step and and yell someone will give you candy. I think most people thought it was absurd that we were having such a small kid collecting candy, but I thought it absurd that some people would give her 3 or 4 pieces.



This next guy wanted to be b.o.b. from the movie Monsters Vs. Aliens. So he was. We had quite a fight over the way this costume would be made. He wanted to be completely covered so that he would "really look like b.o.b.", I knew this would pose a problem due to the fact that he requires oxygen to stay alive, and he can't see through fleece. I finally convinced him to allow me to leave a spot uncovered for his eyes and nose. By the end of the evening he had his whole head on the outside, but I think he "really looked like b.o.b." anyway. He made the eyeball all by himself.



See, they love halloween..

First of all... This baby of mine is the cutest thing since sliced bread. She is mean, but cute. By the looks of her you would have no idea how many times she pulls her sisters hair a day, or how many times she hits me on the head with a block, or how razor sharp her teeth and talons are.



Second of all, thanks for voting for me on Spoonflower unfortunately you forgot to tell your Uncle to vote for me too, and I didn't get into the final round, therefore, I for sure won't be winning 5 yards of custom fabric...sigh... If you are interested in seeing the final round contestants and voting for one of them go right ahead... See if I care...sigh

Third, I just got a new nephew and I made him this blanket. Highly functional and blue, just a good old blanket, nothing fancy.



And lastly, but not leastly, I present to you my sisters Birthday present. This is exactly what she needs-mold and mildew for her hair (they are barrettes.) Happy Birthday! (Yes, I know, it's just what you were hoping for.)

This is what I entered into the competition:



It's been bothering me, the horizontal flower stuck in there, they aren't right. Too dominearing, and they repeat in such an unpleasant way.


So I canned them, and came up with this instead:



I wish I had stuck with the vertical to begin with, too late now. But at least I will sleep better now, knowing that for my own happiness I fixed it. Except that I won't sleep too well, because the colors look acceptable on one of my monitors and like neon signs on the other. I have no idea how they look on yours. Plus I cut and pasted the little spoons from the other spoons and they are rather choppy, luckily you can't tell in low resolution, except that I just told you so you know anyway. Sigh...

If you haven't already, go vote for me...HERE. #48. Thanks.

Making Frescoes With Children



I taught a little class to a bunch of my nieces and nephews about Michelangelo and we made frescoes. Can you tell which one I did?

Needed: plaster of paris, a mold for the plaster (we used styrofoam plates), water based paint, brushes

Do this: Mix up the plaster and pour into your mold, wait for it to set up to the point that your brush won't sink in, but not too dry, then start painting.

With the older kids we also used a detail from the Sistine Chapel and poked holes along all the prominent features. Then we pounced it with charcoal dust over our plaster, so that it went through the holes and left guidelines that we could then paint. (Sorry, I don't have pictures of the older kids paintings, maybe I'll get them later...maybe)

It's time to stuff the ballot in my favor again!

There is this excellent little company called Spoonflower, they print fabric that you design yourself. They are still in beta mode, but seem to be making a name for themselves in the vast crafty empire. I am jealous that they thought up the idea before I could, but I am definitely not envious of the amount of work that goes into starting up a company like this. To give themselves even more stress and anguish they hold a design contest. I'm sure it's also their evil little plan to get some publicity too, as the contestants unwittingly tell their friends and kinfolk to go and vote on their website. Well I have fallen into their cunning little trap and now I am telling all three of my faithful blog readers to vote for my fabric design.

Click this to go to the blog post about the contest. Click this to go right to the voting.

I am number 48. Vote for number 48. You don't even have to take the time to look at all of them, I've made your decision for you. 48. Please don't start looking at them for the ones that are better than mine and voting for them instead of me. That would be so unfaithful of you. Except for that 19 and 45, I do happen to like those. Oh... But you don't, you only like mine. You are going to vote for me and tell all your friends about voting for me too. And while your at it, don't forget to tell me that I really captured the essence of the spoonflower and you think I am a great person.

Edit: I just wanted to make it clear that I'm not asking you to stuff the ballot in such as way that it would be cheating. Just vote once, please.

This was a birthday present for my horn tootin' nephew.

Dear me, I forgot to divulge the answer from my last "What is this?" post. It's the latest grossness that grows on a frame. You can see the little glob of glue that failed to hold this little fungi in place. Hot glue is crummy, crummy, crummy, but I knew that, and shouldn't have used it.



These little fungi are loosely based upon these... clickifyhere. So loosely in fact that I only knew about them after my sister Kim told me what they were, that's why she wasn't allowed to guess, I wasn't simply being mean. I'm sure I've seen them somewhere before, or some fungi like them somewhere in my life.

p.s. just found this... cup fungi... it matches much better.

We went on a little camping trip.

This little girl had the most fun.

Fair Winning Strategy...

When I entered my stuff into the fair I was thinking that my strategy needed some work. I was entering two pictures that would be competing against each other, thus making them less likely to win. Now I have a new strategy. I like to call it: Just Enter It, And You Will Win.

In the art show I won First, Second, and Best of Show. (Best of show was awarded by the judges, it wasn't a prize that the people get to vote for like I thought in the previous post, that would be Peoples Choice, and I don't think they're doing that this year.)

I don't mean to seem ungrateful for winning, but it seems as though I was the only one who entered anything into the category of "Pencil and Ink" in my age group so I was able to win all the awards for it.
Second...



First, and Best of Show...



In the Home Arts/Baby Items I also won first prize...so did almost every other quilt there. I am just happy I wasn't one of the 2 people that got the dreaded and shameful red ribbon of Second place.

Here it is in all it's First Place glory...



This picture pretty much sums up my sons happiness at the fair...can you tell he's happy?...okay, so happiness isn't the right word. He got Cloverbud ribbons on all of his. He's not old enough to for the frenzy and sweat of real competition, all the Cloverbuds got default ribbons. The whole time we were there he was only concerned about when we were going to get all this stuff back. He is pictured with his square clock in the background.



The dilemma now is that I have to decide if I should go to the State Fair... where the competition is a little more real...but just a little.

What is that a picture of? Kim can't play.

I would like to announce the debut of my son and I in the Cache County Fair. My son is participating as a Clover Bud in 4-H and has a few projects in the 4-H building. I entered the dragon/helicopter/city scape quilt, it will be in the baby section of the Home Arts building sticking out like a sore thumb amidst all the cutesy wootsy pink and blue items. I also entered 2 illustrations in the art competition, I think you can go and vote for me for "Best of Show" which would entitle me to collect the sum total of $10 (that is only if I got enough votes,) and I would have the opportunity to compete in the glorious Utah State Fair! I'll post pictures later on, after the fair opens, Thursday.

This is the best video I could come up with on my own, while battling children, please excuse the top of my head, just pretend it's not there.

Before anyone dies of the suspense...




...another puppet.

Yesterday I decided to clean the library/homeschool room/office/art/sewing room and before I got more than a few things put away, I realized that if I finished this project, I could put all the supplies away and be done with it, so I got to work and I still haven't cleaned anything up yet.

If you haven't visited my house and seen the big mess I've been keeping on my kitchen table, in hope that I can finish this project, then you can guess what this is a picture of. If you guess correctly I'll give you the first strawberry out of my garden this year, even if it's half eaten by sal bugs and earwigs.

I tentatively declared Fridays around here Art Day. We shorten our other homeschooling studies to short and fun things, and then we do something artsy. I am longing for some creative time for myself and figured I could eek it in if my son was also doing his own creative things. Friday is also the day I try to clean things up around here a bit more than normal. This morning was our first trial run. We played a matching game for math where the cards had equations and answers to be matched together, and we did a little reading, then I suggested some chalk on wet paper drawings. My son immediately said, "No, I want to make a stuffed animal." Hmmf, I thought, I don't want to. But not wanting to stomp upon his creativity, I said okay. I had him sketch the animal he had in mind...



It's a dragon. He drew pattern pieces, and I cut it out of the fabric then sewed it. He got the jobs of stuffer and face painter. It was a project that required more of my involvement than his, which isn't what I have in mind for Art Day, but the kid is very pleased with it.



It turns out that the baby doesn't like Art Day, she cried most of the morning. My other daughter took the lack of attention to be her cue to use the potty, no less than 20 times, and then run around the house naked refusing to get dressed. I also haven't had the chance to get anything but the mornings mess cleaned up and it's time to think about dinner. Who says art is supposed to be fun?

This is what went on a card for my Uncle Max because his birthday is coming up. We have always associated him with cows and sent him cow themed things on his birthday, probably because he is a rancher. I'll bet the cow thing is getting pretty old, but that's okay because he is getting old too. (I should have used that as a catchy phrase on the card. Oh well, too late.)

I am a puppet.

If you can guess what this is (or going to be), I'll mail you a dollar.

Before:



When I sat the baby down on the box my son exclaimed "It's her first time on cardboard!" And so I had to take a picture, when she is 16 and her first date comes by to take her out, we won't let them leave until we've shown him all her pictures. "Here she is climbing Mt. Everest, here she is winning first prize in the science fair, here she is with her team at the World Hockey Championships, here she is with her blue ribbon pig at the state fair....oh and here is our favorite, her first time ever on cardboard!"


After:




It was our goal to completely waterproof this box with crayon drawings, but we ran out of steam, and I am tired of it taking up the entire living room, so I think we'll call it quits. We have had fun while it lasted. It all started out innocently with a few items you might find in a spaceship being drawn, such as computer screens, steering wheels, and buttons for Chinese food. We ended up with everything but the kitchen sink, but if you need the kitchen sink while you're in space we did draw a few crayons that you can use to draw yourself one.

If you can't beat em', join em', or just take a picture.



This is a child who hasn't slept all day, it's nearly 5pm and she hasn't napped. We are both much more frazzled than she lets on in the picture. I figured I could take a picture of her screaming her head off and everyone could feel sorry for me and send their condolences my way, but as soon as I got the camera out she got happy. I kept pushing her away from me in the walker, but as soon as I did she would run towards me, laughing, with her eye on the camera supposing that I was going to let her have it to slobberify or something.

I guess you can't feel sorry for me because she is really cute, and that is all that matters, right?

Anyway, my last post was a bit premature, I still have a stack of thank you's that hasn't been handed out or mailed. It took me longer than I thought to simply put the sleeves on them. So save your eggs a little longer.

When does the statute of limitations run out on sending thank you cards after your third child? I think it should be their 3rd birthday at least. It's almost been 6 months since this third-ie of mine was born and I'm just now getting thank you cards out. The picture above is about what they look like, and then stuck in a little black sleeve, rather than an envelope, because most of them I'm not sending in the mail.

It's probably rude to post this because I will inevitably forget someone, and some kind act that they did for me, and then they will feel sad that I didn't give them a card too. If you are that person, feel free to cry, and then throw eggs at my house. Or you can fill out an "Application to Warrant a Physical Thank You" and turn it in at least one week before the child's third birthday.

We made bookmarks for my Dad for his birthday. His birthday was a while ago, but and we still haven't mailed them yet, I think I'm late enough that we need to make some valentines to stick in the envelope too. If we wait a few more weeks we could totally save on postage and put some St. Patrick's day doodles in there.

I love posting things that I draw with my childrens stuff because it makes me look really good. Actually I really like the one my son drew, the second one from the bottom, it is a picture of my dad in his garden. He's is very happy. And the plant all the way to the left is "very straight spinach." The flowery girly one is for grandma, so grandpa doesn't have to share. On the back of mine I wrote "You Are Here." Boy am I clever.

Yes, you may pet it, it won't bite. In fact, it's quite dead.

"What could be cuter?" I ask. "What is it?" You want to know.

It's a little pile of adorable baby collars... ahhh how cute... er, maybe.

I've always found collars on baby clothes to be annoying embellishments. They look fine on the hangars, but in practicality they just get in the way. This newest child of mine is excessively drooly, which drips down her lovely double chin and soaks into her clothes, which rubs against her skin and contributes to her eczema issues. Collars just make things impossible, so they have been removed. I simply took out the seams, and sewed the pjamas back up with a hidden stitch.

Anyone in need of a spare collar size 3 months-6 months?

Mostly I hide at home all day, but when I feel like I need a little attention I get all dressed up and hit the town. Okay, so hitting the town means going to the grocery store, getting dressed up means wearing my baby, and the attention I get is from little old ladies. It seems that the combination of the baby, snuggled ball-like, in the sling with the goofy hat makes for some great entertainment for all the other people who don't get out much.

The sling. Yup, I made that. It's just one piece of fabric sewn into a loop (with what I think is called a french seam) and both sides hemmed. The only tricks to it are curving the seamed end convexly, and getting it the right length. Fortunately, for me, my right length is just shy of the width of a 60" piece of fabric so it takes less than a yard. At $2 a yard, this is the cheapest most usefulest baby item ever.