Stitch Loves Kare Pan

My son asked me to make curry buns yesterday. I made the chicken curry from scratch but I cheated and used some frozen bread dough. On Mondays I stop in at a local thrift store, that's where I found this Stitch bobble head. I'm not a big fan of Disney products, especially not the endless parade of princesses. But Lilo and Stitch are cool.

A Productive Saturday

Feels like I've gotten things done today. I've been working out with my husband and I got my own gym membership today so I can go by myself if he's busy. My car is mostly loaded up for the American Made Craft Show tomorrow in Chester, I've gotten some more time in on the sewing machine and I have a 16" x 20" toy telephone painting started. Could it be that I'm a little nearer to finding a reasonable working balance in my life? Of course, it's always a work in progress. It's funny how things can work out. I've been mulling over how to do a top hat for my Halloween costume - the Mad Hatter, of course! But I wasn't thinking about it when I stopped in the thrift store today. We needed a lamp for the living room since the knob broke off the old one and we've been turning it on with pliers. They finally had one I liked, and then it dawned on me that I could use the lamp shade as the structure for my top hat. Excellent since I was planning to keep using the larger shade from the old lamp and didn't need the new one. I use this lamp shade as a swift when I need to turn a skein of yarn into a ball. The skein sits on the shade. I put the lamp on the floor, unscrew the finial so the shade will turn freely and away I go winding the yarn into a ball. My husband and I love Halloween so, naturally, we produced a kid who isn't into it at all. I kinda let that put a damper on my celebration but this year I've decided to get dressed up and hang out with my friend who lives on Main St. in Newtown. It's a trick or treat hot spot, unlike our house. Nobody comes here at all. I was going to take pictures today but I'm having trouble with the camera battery. These pictures are recent anyway. I'm really pleased with the pendants on this one. They are made of the seams that are leftover from deconstructing the felted sweaters. It pleases me that I keep finding ways to use almost every scrap.

Tag Sale and Thrifted Swag

I hit the textile and tag sale at the Monroe Historical Society, my usual thrift stores and a church tag sale this week. The milk glass and ceramic containers are for mushroom gardens, the fabric is for hats and the yarn has already gone into a hat. I also got an old book about drawing the human figure for Dan. It was a great day to go out for a drive and now I'm home painting. (taking a break for this post.) I finally feel like painting - probably because I need to deliver paintings on Monday. Nothing like a deadline to get my butt in gear.
Sifu Dan is having a good time teaching his Sat. morning Kung Fu class in the back yard. It's kinda cool how that came together. In the space of a week, four guys stopped to ask about his wooden practice dummies in the back yard. Guess this was the pay off for clearing out the old treehouse, the dummies are more visible from the road. Tomorrow our son's band friends are coming over to record some songs. I asked him when and his reply was "first thing in the morning." What about church? No problem, they're coming over at 12:00. Never a dull moment.

Silly Putti

Years ago I had the idea to open a museum called House of a Thousand Tchockies. Like my other idea, The Museum of Avian Architecture, it never actually came to fruition. This cherub and egg planter would have been a perfect exhibit. I got it years ago from a thrift store. Somebody did a rather crude job of scratching off the backstamp, which makes me think that it is a Japanese copy of a European piece. To my mind, that's irrelevant. It is what it is, a divinely silly little planter.

It's A Good Day

Happy Thursday,All. The sun is out, the wind is invigorating and I bought myself new (to me) clogs at the thrift store. I saw these the last time I was there but I was being parsimonious with myself and didn't buy them. This time I knew that If I walked away again I'd regret it forever. I'm sewing today after blocking in a painting yesterday.

Hot Colors Beret

Today's new hat is a hot color beret. Next up I need to get back to painting. Dan and I are working on one together and I have reference for more in the mason jar series I'm doing. Unfortunately, I lost track of time yesterday and stayed up way too late. I took forever to fall asleep, had a string of weird dreams and woke up discombobulated. I've felt wrong footed all day but if I can get some painting done I know that will help.

Zipper Hat

I've been seeing some wonderful things being made with creatively used zippers. (Check out Wooly Fabulous on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/woolly_fabulous/) so I went through my stash and found enough zippers to use them in place of my usual crocheted trim on a spiral hat. I'm very pleased with the finish on this hat. The spiral is lightly stuffed with fiberfil so it will hold its shape. The zippers did add a little weight though not enough that you'd notice it when wearing the hat. It's lined with very soft lambs wool. Feels like I crossed every t and dotted all the i's. Most of the materials were thrifted, the exceptions being a bit of interfacing and the green tapestry wool I used to finish the edge. I love tapestry wool! It comes in so many colors and can be felted too. It's always a happy day when I find a bag of it at a thrift store or tag sale. Sometimes I get in the mood to crochet and felt little patches with a single strand and a small hook. The possibility for color blending are awesome!

Mushrooms for Morticia

It was so much fun making this piece! I've been working on a collection of these tabletop mushroom gardens and this story suddenly popped into my head. Cousin Ophelia has opened a floral shop - kept in business mainly by Gomez's frequent stops to purchase presents for his Cara Mia. These are Amanita amourica, poison love mushrooms. Eat them and experience ecstasy and possibly die. As Gomez would say,"Either way, what bliss!" I found the footed porcelain cup in a thrift shop years ago and it was just perfect for this project. The mushrooms are sewn from felted sweater wool and even the stuffing is from a bag of thrifted fiberfill. The only parts I bought new are the ribbon and the pipe cleaners in the stems. The mushrooms can be gently bent and arranged to suit one's fancy. I find it far more interesting to design with thrifted art and craft supplies rather than running out to Michael's to get new stuff. They'd never have a cup like that!