Mew Mew the Blue Winged Kitty Cat

The title of this blog is supposed to be a play on Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. The fact that I'm explaining that to you readers is testimonial to how threadbare the reference is. THEY CAN'T ALL BE WINNERS!

This is the third plush I made for my aunt's order for Christmas and it's another hybrid animal. This one is for a little girl and luckily for her, I didn't prick my fingers while making it so there's no blood on it! yay! Blood free toys.

I'm a little off today. Can you tell? Oh well.

Meow meow, I can fly.

One of the limitations I had on making these toys is that there couldn't be any buttons in case one of the kids gnawed it off and tried to eat it. So for the eyes I used fabric paint and for the nose and cheeks I used fabric glue. Using new materials was fun especially since they made things go by a little faster. 

Okay well just finished the other toy as well so keep your eyes peeled! 

A Monster Undertaking

I mentioned a while back (in this post) that my aunt had asked me to make her four plushes. At the time I was working as a part time secretary with ample time on my hands to do whatever. That lucky, lazy, in the past me. I now have a full time job at a school so I've really let this project drag on. To date I have three finished and with only a week left to finish the last one. Damn it, even typing that is making me panic. ANYWAY the second one I did was also for a little boy, though a bit older than the child getting the Puppy-saur.

Who wants a hug? 

Bring it in, bro. 

This is the hug monster. He's shaped like a pillow and a darn soft. His big arms are great for giving a monster hug or for smacking around any bad monsters you might have lurking under your bed. Once again, I hope this kid likes this. It's hard to make things for children I've only met once before. The next set is for two girls as soon as the fabric paint dries on the one I'll have it up. 

Why did I take on this many projects? I still have two other gifts to make for people. Am I insane? I'm insane. I'm tired and insane! 

Thanksgiving's Day Post

Hope everyone is enjoying their Thanksgiving! At the very least I hope you all are stuffing your faces with sweet sweet thanksgiving dinner. This year me and my mother decided to stick together rather than split up with me at my father's side and her at her cousins. So far it's turning out awesome. We're currently sitting on the couch digesting while watching An Always Sunny Christmas special. Good Times. We've also had some time to do some season crafts. Martha Stewart would be proud. Here's some pictures I took of our banging ass meal and what followed ...

Our Feast and what we will be eating for the up coming weeks.

Baked Pears with balsamic vinegar, pecans, blue cheese and cranberries. Freaking awesome. 

Pine cones covered with rock salt to make them look frost covered. 

Pine cones with glitter covered fake plants. OoOo.

Okay well, its almost time for pie. I've got a million things to be thankful for and hope you all do too! Cheers to family and leftovers! 

Halloween Costumes!

It's raining! And I'm drinking, time for a blog! On Saturday night me and my friends got together for a Halloween/My Birthday party and party'd it up costumed style. Me and Anthony went as Peter Pan and Captain Hook. Right away I started looking in Goodwill for pieces for our costumes. Perhaps I hadn't thought things through in the beginning because if I had I would have realized that there is no such thing as a long red men's coat. All there is, especially in Goodwill, are red 1980's women's coats which were pretty much the opposite of what I was looking for. So I had to make most of our costumes from different pieces from goodwill. 

This used to be a really nice polo.

Pirat-ification process. 

Peter Pan beginnings 

I had to make a pirate hat because guess what? I'm not paying 20 bucks for one! Spirit of Halloween shame on you.  This was once an ugly women's sun hat. To make the trim I crocheted two chains of yarn and hot glued it around the edge and then hot glued the sides up to make it more piratey and less lady on a beachy.

Peter  Pan hat.

This was the easiest to make. I just googled a how to make a Peter pan hat and BAM made one. Put all these parts together and you get:

And this:

So there you have it! Our totally mind blowing costumes! Now back to drinking and looking at the storm roll in. WOOO! 

More fall stuff: Pumpkin Carving

       It's hard not to just continually flood this blog with fall related things. I've been baking, and making costumes for the past month. I'll show the costumes when it comes closer to my Halloween party, as they will blow your mind.
      On Tuesday me and my boyfriend, of officially one year what what!, carved pumpkins. Oh how I love to carve pumpkins. I've fully embraced the entire process from the picking out the design to digging through the slimy guts to pick out the seeds (which I bake for half an hour at 350 degrees covered in butter and salt. Mmm.)
      Here's what this year's Jack-O-Lanterns looks like, also here is what their guts looked like,

"The Gooper Scooper" Yes i bought this just because it looks like this.

The process has begun. 

All of the guts together, MMM.

Mine's on the left and Anthony's is on the Right

Here they are on the step with us looking fresh to death. 

I'm sure my net post will involve more fall stuff or even more pumpkins. You best come back and see!
     

Fall Back

It may be because I was born in November, but I think you'll agree with me when I say fall is the best season. Summer is fun and all but I sweat like a linebacker and there are absolutely no holidays. Unless you count 4th of July which I don't because no one gives me presents on 4th of July. After months bland hot days I finally get to decorate my house. Granted I don't have a lot of decorations because for some reason most decorations either cost a poop ton or are like, hanging decapitated clown heads that talk. I went into the Spirit of Halloween the other day and almost had a heart attack. The little kids in that store were less scared then I was. Suppressing those memories and moving on; here's how fall looks in my house.

There are some decorations visible but this is mostly of picture of my cat. 

Still watching Beetlejuice as I type this.

My favorite little guy.

The front step set up.

Little coffin I painted.

As well as the little figure I painted.

I went through Michael's Craft store the other day and had to pick up that coffin and little batty dude. Just some low intensity crafting. I've been spending more time in my craft work space since we've hooked up a TV with a VHS player so why not pick up some mini projects.

Anyway, I hope you're all making your home's adorable and fall themed and posting pictures of them online so I can gawk at them!

Tweedledee and Dum

Tweedledum and Tweedledee

    Agreed to have a battle;

For Tweedledum said Tweedledee

    Had spoiled his nice new rattle.

Just then flew down a monstrous crow,

    As black as a tar-barrel;

Which frightened both the heroes so,

    They quite forgot their quarrel

Ah! Alice's Adventure in Wonderland, perhaps one of my favorite stories of all time. I have a large collection of books and figures all placed lovingly in a china cabinet in my room. The little old lady inside of me loves it. I have two Alice in Wonderland tattoos as well. The badass 22 year old that I am, approves. My collection features most of the characters from the story and it's sequel but not Tweedledee and Tweedledum. So in a moment of exaggerated self confidence I made this: 

Because of all the different colors and details involved in this it's taken me a long time to finish these two brothers. Technically they're not even finished seeing as they are floating in a sea of white, a dimension without space or time...

I'll post an update whenever I get around to sewing the twins a home. For now, they're just one more piece to my every growing collection. 

Puppysaurus Rex!

At some point this year my Aunt Linda asked me to make her 4 stuffed animals for her 4 young great nephews and nieces. Having a recipient in mind always helps inspire what I make. Nothing can help you get your ideas off the ground than imaging how to make someone else love your product. So what could I make to make these little kids squeal with joy?

Like my Snail Pig I started this project with another animal mash-up. For the first little boy I combined the cute fuzziness of a puppy with the terrifying awesomeness of a T-Rex. Meet the puppysaur!

He's a little top heavy.

Razor sharp plushy fangs

I hope when the time comes, this kid loves Puppysaur and that all my stitching can survive a 3 year old dragging it around by one of his little ineffectual arms. Eventually I would like to get a small dog tag saying "rex" to go on the his collar but one of the hindrances in this project has been not adding any elements a child could potentially kill itself with so no metal tag or choke-able button eyes. But that doesn't mean this hybrid won't be able to chase away a bad dream or a ...man, I don't even know what other toys kids play with anymore!

Creatures for sale!

I've lived in my suburban neighborhood for close to, god, 4 years now? I used to have no urge to explore the center of town or check out any of the stores there mostly because I missed the city. So it stands to reason why in all this time I've never been inside Hobbs. Hobbs is a coffee/cafe type of place. Aside from being freaking adorable inside it had a shelf of locally made items. This was my chance. I talked to the very excitable man behind the counter named Salvatore and a week later I was lugging a suit case filled with three of my plush creatures to Hobbs to be sold. Woo!

The awesome sign that I wish I could take credit for made by Salvatore. 

YAY! 

Salvatore working behind the counter.

So if you're just dying for one of these cuties they're on sale at Hobbs Cafe in Swarthmore next to the train station. While you're there you can get some coffee, eat a sandwich, ya' know chill out.  You can also buy what looks to be home made hot sauce and jams there as well, I mean, if you're into that type of thing.

How Kafkaesque

My very good friend Becka Cohen came over last week. She too, is a crafter as well as an artist. Along with a lot of other things, she makes rugs and seat covers by wrapping yarn over plastic bags, creating a spiral effect. Here's one she gave to me a awhile back. MARVEL AT IT.

Keeps your buns happy and comfy.

So in the spirit of giving I made her a little present. Like most things, I started this  awhile ago and stopped after pricking my fingers one too many times. Once she was over, though,  I figured might as well finish it for her.

One of the things me and my buddy have in common is that we both like terribly tragic books. In high school we were all about Franz Kafka's the Metamorphosis. We also we really into sitting in a taco bell for hours with friends and trying to win a free taco by dropping coins into a water jug. Memories.

Any way this is what I made for her:

If you're not familiar with the book, the line above the bug is the first line from the Metamorphosis. Also if you don't recognize the line you should read the book and start getting into some existential shit. Impress your friends with your new morose outlook on life! Any way what's great about having creative friends is that you get to have some of what they make so hopefully me and Ms. Beckalaroo will continue trading cool stuff back and forth. HINT HINT BECK.