Sidetracked by Frowning Francis soft sculpture!

I don’t know how I first came to be at Frowning Francis’s website – but once there I was hooked! I immediately ordered the pattern for the crow and got to the fabric store as fast as I could (within a couple days!) and started! I think it took me about two days to make this. I LOVE IT! I went to the antique stores and hunted down the key hanging from his collar and I made the propeller at the top of his hat out of a sheet of copper. 

He’s first made out of muslin then stuffed then painted then decorated. I made the goggles too – and I see they are upside down in the picture! Oops – I haven’t glued them on so they come off once in a while. I intend to remake them some day…I’m not terribly happy with them. I think I have to clean my copper better before soldering.

In other news we let this little guy go yesterday - (that’s the tip of my thumb at the top of the picture. It gives you an idea of how tiny he is.)

We brought him to a quiet area next to the Mississippi and wished him the best. lol. (No people live within miles of the place) I don’t know why but I really like turtles! Speaking of which – did you read this article?

Happy Crafting!!!

New needle felting project and weekly organization…

Well, it looks like the summer blogging schedule is going to be less often but more content. lol! Here is what is in the works at my craft table -

I have plans for these little guys and they will hopefully be a little further along next week.

This little lady is in the works also -

I’m happy with the shape and scale but she’s missing a little pizzazz…I have ideas though.

This little bird was sitting so still in the back yard that I thought it was a decoration. Then I remembered I didn’t have any decorations that looked like this – lol! So I got my camera -

And the little birdie posed prettily for pictures for a moment and then scared me half to death when it flew away – I hadn’t realized it could fly so well! I also found a baby snapping turtle on the road…in the middle of town…it didn’t stand a chance…and it is now living in a container on our front deck. We’ve had it for a week and I’ll take it out to the swamps later this week and let it go. It’s been fun observing it. It slurps down worms like they are a piece of spaghetti. I want to get some good photos this week – I’ll show you next week. lol.

I’ve also been playing around with the idea of a planner. I just hate feeling out of control – and I often feel that way in regards to our schedule. There is always so much going on and my husband has such a weird work schedule in the summer that I even forget what day it is half the time. My weeks seem to naturally follow a Monday through Sunday week. The weekend should be lumped together for me and Monday is always the start of the week. I’m always looking forward to the weekend so that should be at the end of the week…makes sense to me – lol! I kept this “bare bones” and not overly embellished because I like to doodle while making phone calls and I can put little frames around the boxes and just be silly. I use that open spot in the middle to make a grocery list…I’ve been using this for about four weeks now and I can say I’m waaaaay better organized! I just have to remember to look at it every day and make a little mark to show the day is over. The best part is that no fancy computer skills were needed to make it up – just doodled and copied. I print on both sides of the paper so a year takes very little paper…and because it’s bare bones – very little printer ink! The things that happen every week – like pay bills on Friday, different meetings on Wednesdays, etc – are part of the original copy. I can’t forget them – sweet! The list on the right will be changing to a more permanent list…right now I’m just playing around with the weekly chores that need to be done and they can be crossed off as completed. I’ve truthfully spent very little time making this up and I’m content with that. Some day if I really feel the need I can pretty it up – not now smile.

This week is already filling up – my office is a nightmare – again! It’s just too hard to try to neatly fit 1,000 things into an area that can only hold 100 things. I either have to build a bigger room (not gonna happen) or pare down (and I have a really hard time paring down!). It’ll take at forever to clean it out and organize it again.  Hope you all have a great week!!!

Happy Crafting!!

Pillowcases

 

I actually sewed last week! (Julie made some pouches and I realized it’s been a loooong time since I sewed…thanks for the encouragement Julie! I even used my serger…which made these go together SUPER FAST!) I made  these pillowcases. I’ve been hoarding thrifted sheets for a long time now and…not using them. Well, that’s enough of that. The sheets used to make the cases on the ends was sooooo soft and made wonderful pillowcases. The one in the middle is also soft but not quite as soft as the other. I love thrifted sheets because the quality is usually better than what I find in the stores. Also, I’ve noticed with newer sheets there is always a “chemical” smell in them. I can wash them ten different ways but they always smell “chemically”. It’s got to be some fire retardant something they put on them. Well, these smell like fresh sunshine!

Also, my dryer is eating my clothes so I’ve stopped using it. So this is how I’m keeping up with laundry now -

 

I have the clothesline you see the pillowcases hanging from, and a drying rack on my back deck and this clothes rack on the deck. If I hang the clothes on a hanger and leave a little room between each garment I can get a lot of clothes dried at once!! I match the socks before I clip them to that blue thing you can barely see on the end. So aside from having to hang the towels it’s not much different than when I did have a working dryer. The socks have to get matched anyways and the clothes have to get hung anyways. Then I bring them in at the end of the day and leave each kid’s pile on their kitchen chair. When the weather is bad I move the racks to the basement where I always have a dehumidifier always going in the summer and I turn on a fan. The only tricky part is blankets (if we have rainy weather) although I think they would dry just fine in the basement too, and there’s a Laundromat about 4 blocks from my house in case of emergency. I’m thinking about how to put a rail on the outside of my deck railing to hang clothes from – they could hang between the pickets…and it would be permanent. Or maybe something attached to the house that’s on a hinge and can fold down…well we’ll see. I’m still going to get a dryer but I’m not in a big hurry anymore. I can wait an find the right one at the right price. And I probably won’t use it as much as I used to!

Happy Crafting!!!

PS: I’m waiting for pictures from Grandma Mary before I blog about the Graduation party – it was an awesome day!!!