Pom-pom Head

*Update* I have listed the Bunny-girl and white dog in my Etsy shop now!

Here is a little "Pom-pom Head" I made yesterday afternoon while watching Nick & Nora's Infinite Playlist. This is another technique from the craft book, but I embellished it to make it "squishified."

The body/ears are made from pipe-cleaners, and the head is a handmade pom-pom created from 100% cotton yarn. I think she turned out really cute!

It is my intention to get the dogs and puppies listed either tonight or tomorrow afternoon. I may go ahead and list this bunny, or I might make a handful of them and list next week. I haven't decided ☺

We are off to my parent's new house soon so that my husband can with the finishing touches...I am bringing supper, so I better go check on the apple-crumb pie in the oven!

Jewel-tone Puppies

My pipe-cleaner spree continues! This particular pattern of dog is my favorite to make, so I sat at my mom's one boring Sunday and cranked these "little puppies" out. I am crazy for these curly chenille stems, which don't really resemble normal pipe-cleaners at all! I think the results is very cute and somewhat vintage-inspired.

Here is a curly black dog (you decide the breed!). I made the collars out of vinyl fabric, and on these particular ones I attached a tiny little bell...so you can hear if he tries to scamper off.

...and here is the white version with a contrasting black collar. I added a little gold grommet for some detail.

Last but not least, I made a litter of multi-colored puppies! Rumor has it that their mother only ate Jelly Belly's while she was expecting... They are somewhat smaller/shorter than the black/white dogs, but they make up for size with personality. Each has a little black collar with coordinating grommet details.

I think that these dogs (or any of the chenille animals) would make great little ornaments, shelf-sitters, or {adult} dollhouse decorations. You could stick them on a piece of dowel to make a floral pik, or just use as a gift package decoration. I have given a few away already, and people LOVE them! I need to work on photos, etc. and then I hope to have them in my etsy shop no later than Wednesday. What do you all think?

Jumble of stuff... want some ornaments?

Well, the Bazaar is over. Thank goodness! I worked Saturday night on making this cute igloo cake. It took 2 hours to bake since the mold is around 8 inches thick. As it was sitting on the stove cooling, I went to the bathroom and shut the door to get ready to go out to dinner. WELL... my husband was too busy clipping his toes to realize that 2 year old Bella was pulling the cake onto the floor. Can you say "speechless"? Luckily, I had made this smaller cake, which I frosted with homemade frosting. I made a powdered sugar snowflake on it for pretty.

To keep the plastic wrap from messing up my snowflake, I made a little marshmallow snowman (with a toothpick inside) to hold it up. This little cake had to suffice, as I did not have the time/energy/patience to do another igloo.

The "This and That" tables were very popular, and priced SUPER cheap. I am so excited about this vintage Japanese tree topper I found NEW in package. She has the cheinelle/pipe cleaner arms and coppery metal mesh skirt and wings. How cool is that for $1!

When I dropped off my crafts Saturday morning (the day before the opening), I fell in love with this adorable vintage stocking.

...and they sold it to me for a quarter. WOOT!

I also bought some of those vintage wooden plaques, still in the celophane wrappers, for 10 cents each. I am going to try my hand at painting on them one of these days.

As for the craft table... what a bust! My cute ornaments were hidden amongst a sea of lace-drowned granny crafts. (Do I sound bitter?? I AM!). People were really too busy eating lunch and looking for a bargain. Lesson learned, I suppose...wrong crowd!

I ended up putting $3/set on the ornaments, but I have decided to sell them to my blog-readers and fellow etsians for $2.50/set. There is a lot of work/time in the project, but it was always my intention to make someone else happy with them. Look at the pictures here and convo me if interested in a custom listing. I shipped several sets today for around $2, to give you an idea.

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Hope everyone is having a great mid-holiday-week! My turkey has been in the fridge since Sunday, defrosting, and is bound to be brined starting tomorrow morning. If I don't blog again before then, I hope everyone has a terrific, tasty Thanksgiving!

ps... Sorry about the spacing. Blogger is winning the battle on this issue :-\

Pumpkin Head & the Vintage Mother-load!

Getting on this new schedule of getting up early and going outside (to take Bri to school), I have been reminded how balmy and beautiful mornings can be! There is definitely a taste of Autumn in the air, and I love it. It is just warm enough to be comfortable, but a nice breeze reminds you to enjoy it while it is still here...before a foot of snow lies on the ground! With all of the Fall/Halloween decor hitting the stores, I have been inspired to finish a project I started a while back. I am quite pleased with it, and hope to have her (plus the kitties and some other goodies) in my etsy store soon!

Without further ado, I now introduce you to Ms. Pumpkin Head!

She is kind of a big girl, at about 2 feet tall. Her bottom is weighted with rice, and I sewed her some "knees" so that her legs can dangle. I have some cute pumkin fabric to make her an apron from, but I was so happy with the way she turned out, I didn't want to wait to share her!

Ms. Pumpkin Head is made from a variety of techniques, mainly sewed. However, her eyes are needle felted with wool roving, and the other details on her face are embroidered ☺ She will make a wonderful Autumnal friend and decoration for someone!

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As I had mentioned a while back, my husband's 90 year old great-aunt is moving from the family home she has lived in her entire life to an assisted living community. Imagine...100+ years of accumulated treasure! She was quite a crafty lady in her day, mainly crocheting, I believe. So yesterday, I was giving a black garbage bag full of 'stuff' of hers. There was no fabric in it, and I will shamefully admit, I almost chucked the bag. BUT I decided to wade through it... boy, am I glad I did! I hit the mother-load on vintage patterns! You name it... doll books, crocheting books, old Simplicity patterns and embroidery patterns.

There was a decent-size stack of these "The Workbasket" magazines, dating from 1962 to the 80's. I can't wait until I get the time to read them! Flipping through them, I found several cute patterns for toys...which is obviously what I enjoy making ☺

Here is an example of a cute toy duck pattern. Obviously, this was in the time before photocopies and printers... they give you a chart at the bottom of the paper, and you have to redraw an enlarged pattern yourself on special "blocked" paper. I remember doing something similar to that in jr high art class!

Here are some animals from a crochet book. My goal really is to learn to crochet SOON! (Bunzi sent me the link of some good tutorials, plus there are some how-to books in this vintage stash.. and if all else fails, I will ask my mom!). There was also an entire set of photocopied instructions to make crocheted, anthropomorphic veggie potholders (celery, onion, carrots, cabbage, etc. etc. etc.). And I believe I also saw a pattern for crocheted hamburgers, hotdogs, and pieces of cake!

Have a great "hump" day!

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Found Treasures

I am super excited to post about some of the golden treasures I found this weekend while rummaging through other people's belongs via a yard sale and an auction. I normally don't ever do auctions because they are much too long/hot/things go too high. BUT... my mom wanted to bid on some furniture, so I went with her. Unfortunately, a 500-ish lb. man decided to perch on the sofa she wanted for the duration of the 5 hour auction in an un-air-conditioned room... so it was probably a blessing that it sold for more than we thought it was worth. Yuck-O! Regardless, I found a sweet little brass grasshopper that I was able to make mine, for the low-low price of $2.50! First time I ever bid at an auction, and I was so nervous!!

I found a yard sale that was being put on by some retired antique dealers from Pennsylvania. They had a little wooden box FULL of antique postcards, and though I usually don't look through this sort of thing, but the top one had a peculiar-looking gnome on it. Lately, gnomes have kind of been my thing. I had to have it, and searched through looking for other fabulous finds. SO... I bought about 14 postcards between a trip Friday and then a trip back on Saturday. They literally had over 100, and all of the postmarks were from around 1909-1914. She wanted $1 for them, but offered me a deal since I am just so unhumanly cute (or something). Anyway, I got all 14 for like $8. I am not sure what to do with them, but they are just lovely and so detailed! I might frame them.

This little guy reminds me of a Jennifer Murphy creation! The background is a pretty brushed-gold, which isn't really seen in the scan. Postmarked 1910.

This one is quite pretty, with the gold accents. And the 4-leaf clovers are so green with very detailed leaves. This one is postmarked 1909.

I think this one is so sweet! I guess rabbits playing trumpets are responsible for the world's egg-hatching.

My absolute favorite! I suppose the only the in the world that can interrupt a reading-gnome is a rabbit bearing gifts :-)

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