threadmark

project 16/52 . . .

. . . a flock of tuis.

I'm teaching my felt bird workshop again at this year's Handmade and I wanted a couple of tuis to show what people can do when they adapt the basic pattern, and a couple of tuis to sell at the Handmade shop.

best. day. ever!

Little Man developed something of an obsession with dubber-dubbers (helicopters) after the February earthquake when they were flying overhead on a regular basis.

We now feed that obsession by breaking into those hyper-enthusiastic parental responses (you know the ones) whenever one flies by. 

"LOOOOOOOK. A HELICOPTER. CAN YOU SEE IT? CAN YOU? HUH? HUH?

Anyway, today we ramped up the obsession a notch by taking him along to the open day of our local rescue helicopter. All the rescue forces were on display - ambulances, fire engines, police cars, even those crazy-looking airport fire engines (which are HUGE, in case you were wondering). 

I had to work there for a couple of hours so the boys spent some glorious time together, marvelling at all the 'weeooooos' and dubber-dubbers. They also went on a HELICOPTER RIDE.  It was a relatively expensive six minutes over the the CBD but by all accounts it was worth every cent. Best. Day. Ever.

project 15/52 . . .

. . . the last of the hand puppets: blue cat. Little Man is a bit of a fan of this one.

I have now well and truly had enough of hand puppets. I am moving on. But in case anyone is interested, this is the book that spawned this recent obsession. There are also patterns for a panda and a bear hand puppet but I'm just not feeling the love for them. I feel my job here is done.

project 14/52 . . .

. . . hand puppet number 3: hot pink badger.

I was really looking forward to making this one - lots of interesting pieces. And I thought a hot pink badger would be kinda cool.

However, it would appear that a badger's quintessential badger-ness goes out the window when you muck with the black and white. As a consequence, I have made a hot pink dog-weasel.

project 13/52 . . .

. . . continuing with the hand puppet theme, this week I present a Mr Owl.

This puppet was surprisingly labour-intensive. The head looked simple enough - round ball, round eyes - but no. More like a ball-in-seventeen-different-parts-that-eventually-came-together-but-only-after-much-swearing.

I also had a crisis of colour halfway through. I really wanted to make a green owl and I am happy enough with the end result, but for a while there I thought I was making a cross between a frog and Yoda.

Lime green is my favourite colour which means it also has to be Little Man's favourite colour because I am a strict mum like that. His room is an ode to lime green. I've already shown you his alphabet, but there is also his wall:

His lightshade-thingie that doesn't actually hang on a lamp:

His lime green noticeboard:

(Trust me, if I could have found a lime green table and chairs, I would have bought them).

And his lime green cushions and lamp:

Now that I think about it, Little Man has formed something of an obssessive-compulsive attachment to green t-shirts . . . to the point where there are tears and tantrums if the green t-shirts are in the wash.

Suddenly realising that enforcing a colour on my son since birth may not actually be working in my favour . . .

project 12/52 . . .

. . . Mr Fox, the hand puppet.

One of the reasons I stockpile retro craft books like a woman possessed is that I want to make stuff for Little Man. It occurred to me the other day (or rather Muz pointed it out to me) that I have a limited window of opportunity when Little Man will be interested in what I make. In fact that window may already be closing, given that he's all about the diggers these days (good thing we live in Christchurch).

Now that he's showing some 'imaginative play' (with diggers) I thought I would give hand puppets a shot. Hand puppets - the obvious choice for a boy obsessed with demolition vehicles.

What I love about these old patterns is the gusseting. Hate the word, love the results. Love the way the head starts off as a collection of really odd shapes and comes together as, well, a head.

This is the first of four hand puppets that I plan to make. This time I stuck to the recipe but next time I'm going to modify things slightly. In the original pattern the head is one, self-contained piece but next time I'm going to create a way of supporting the head with your fingers. All that gusseted glory is hard to control - case in point:

project 11/52 . . .

. . . is a complete and utter failure. I found these beads and thought they would make good earrings. They are the sort of colours I wear often.

I dug out all my earring-making stuff (yes, I've been through the whole 'make my own jewellery' phase) and got stuck in. I was reasonably happy with the end result . . . until I tried to wear them.

No matter what I do, I can't make them sit right. After much wailing and gnashing of teeth I've come to the conclusion that it's the way the bead is weighted. It just keeps rotating round so that the colour is hidden, and I end up looking as though I have cat poo dangling from my ears. Epic. Earring. Failure.

I am not pleased.

project 10/52 . . .

. . . is late. Because I am sick. I have a sore throat that is suspiciously like the one when I had Hand, Foot and Mouth. As yet no blisters on my hands and feet so the jury is out. It is also something that you aren't meant to get as an adult. And you certainly aren't meant to get it twice. So not sure what the hell is going on there. Anyhoo . . . 

Behold, more obsessive compulsive stationery-making:

I needed to replenish my supply of cards plundered from Little Golden Books. I have rules though. I only use books that are already wrecked in some way - ripped pages, water damage, some little darling's free-form artwork, etc.

Now I have the envelopes AND the cards. I am sorted until at least 2015.

project 9/52 . . .

 . . . envelopes. Envelopes made from pages ripped from my now-recycled magazine collection.

I am a hoarder (no surprises there). Not to the point where I will end up on a TV show, but I do tend to 'collect' stuff . . . you know, in case it will be useful  . . . one day . . . maybe . . .

As part of my love this house you're in resolution I am attempting to downsize some of my 'collections' so that we can can all move a little more freely from one room to another. 

So goodbye magazines, hello envelopes . . .

Roughly 300 envelopes, which is about 250 more than I actually need.

Fair to say I got a little obsessive-compulsive about this one, but they are strangely addictive.

I ripped up magazines (very cathartic), made myself a cardboard pattern from an envelope and it all went downhill from there. Days passed in a blur of cutting, folding, and sticking. (In case you're wondering, I use double-sided sellotape to stick down the sides - so much easier than messing about with glue).

So all I've really done is replace one collection with another. At least this one takes up marginally less space.

just one more . . .

. . . pattern. I will get over this phase, really I will, but until then . . .

So I imagine the conversation went something like this:

"OK, can I get you to put your right leg forward.

Now rest your left hand on it and twist your body until you look as though you really, REALLY need to pee.

Hold it, hold it . . . we need a prop. Here, take this newspaper, grasp onto it until I can see the whites of your knuckles and then press it close to your right hip.

That's much better. 

Still not quite working for me though. Perhaps if you look to your right and down a bit. Down a bit more. More. More. Yep. that's it.

Perfect. That's the money shot."