Commissioned with Confidence, Payment in Cuddles

Or: “Miniature Things I Have Made At My Daughter's Request”

My three and a half year old daughter is my biggest fan. Anytime she sees me stitching anything, or comes across something I've finished, she exclaims with adorable enthusiasm, “Mummy, that's AWESOME! I love it!” or some similar exclamation, inevitably followed by, “Can I have it?” Bless her. If she had her way, her tiny bedroom would be overflowing with Mummy's creations. Obviously, I say “No” a whole lot. So every now and then when she requests something specific, I like to oblige her.

A while back, she saw another baby at Mothers' Group with a robot toy, and she declared that her Quackybaby (duck wheat heat that is her closest companion) LOVES robots and really wants a tiny Quacky-sized toy robot, but it needs to be soft so he can take it to bed at nap time. Then came the, “Mummy, can you sew one for Quackybaby?” Her delight in seeing the finished product was more than a little gratifying. She promptly named the robot “Tick-Tock”, and loves to make Quackybaby's arms cuddle it. She also frequently loses Tick-Tock down the side of the bed.

More recently, while she was playing with her Quiet Book during a car trip, she announced that she needed a tiny teddy to go in the bed on the bed-making page. "You can make me one, Mummy!" she states with certainty that makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. That night, while she slept, I pulled out my travel stitching supplies and just happened to have enough felt scraps to make her a tiny teddy in pajamas. Win. 

Earlier this week, I woke up to this same sweet, quirky girl clambering into my bed, whimpering that she wanted to go to her grandparents' place. Once I calmed her down, I was able to ascertain that it was not actually her grandparents she was pining for, but rather a little penguin softie she played with while there on a recent visit. "Penguins are my FAVOURITE! Please sew me one, Mummy." I told her I couldn't that day, as we had a busy day planned. So next day, as she was heading to bed for her nap, she reminded me of the penguin I had supposedly "promised" to make. "How about you sew it while I am having a rest, then when I get up, you can give it to me. Is that a good idea?" "Ummmm...not sure I'll finish it by the time you finish your rest, Sweetie," I replied. "But you can try, hey." 

Ahhh, the sweet confidence. The delightful joy upon receiving her "order". I have asked myself more than once, "Am I spoiling her?" But my answer to myself is this: "She has a Mummy who spends many hours making stuff for other random people she doesn't know. It is good for her to benefit from these sewing skills for herself, and it's good for her to catch a love of creating and a confidence that it can be done. In a few years, she will have seen this process of design, sketch, cut out, stitch enough times that when she wants a new softie, she may actually sit down and make it herself." 

Of course, she may not. But I suspect she will.

The happy miss with her new penguin (note the penguin pajamas too!)

 #icantresisthersewingrequests

She's Making Jewellery Now!

A happy Wednesday to you. Here's a little clip, courtesy of Portlandia, to make you crafters giggle.

Friday Fun: Kimono's Townhouse

Can you believe it is Friday again? Hooray!! 

Just because Fridays are supposed to be fun and laid-back, I thought I would share some fun with you today. 

Have you heard of Kimono's Townhouse? I have been reading it for about a year now, I found it via Frankie. 

It is a wonderfully unique comic strip about ponies (think My Little Pony) living in a townhouse, updated each week. You might wonder why I am sharing about a comic strip on a craft blog. I have a perfectly good reason - it's because creator Dava Butler is a craft whiz!! This comic strip is photographed rather than drawn. Yep, that's right. Dava sets up each scene, often creating incredibly miniscule props to support the dialogue. It is really incredible work, but you kind of forget that because you get sucked in to the story and the characters and just enjoying the wit and craziness of the actual comic. 

Anyway, I like it. And I thought maybe you would too. 

 

[Pics are small due to copyright issues - click on them and they will take you to the original pages. Images  from www.kimonostownhouse.com]

"Craftaster"

Yep, it was a serious "craftaster". A major craft disaster.

I have been eying off a tutorial I saw a while ago  (read 18 months ago) in a magazine. It was a tutorial to make a doily lamp. "Wow!" thought I. "What a GREAT idea!" I bought some doilies at the local Salvos store, and packed them away for a rainy day. 

Then recently, I saw the tutorial again on Pinterest. I pinned it to my "Can't Wait To Make" board, and dug out the old doilies. When my hubby told me he was thinking about what to do for a light shade for our bathroom light, I immediately thought of the doily lamp and told him not to worry as I had it covered. I even bought a big balloon, and some Mod Podge glue in order to be prepared.

A few weeks passed, and for some reason, I decided today was as good a day as any to give it a shot. Never mind that in re-reading the blog tutorial, I noticed that heaps of other people had tried it and it had not worked for them. "I've already bought the stuff," I thought. "Might as well have a try, maybe I'll be one of the lucky ones."

Maybe some of my husband's eternal optimism has rubbed off on me. Maybe I was too involved in my fond recollections of "helping" my Mum do paper mache pinata for Sunday School picnics year after year. Or maybe my brain has gone off with the fairies. Because I decided to do it as a craft activity with my two and a half year old daughter. Ha!

The set-up went very smoothly. I put lots of newspaper and old plastic shower curtains down (thank God I at least thought to do this!). I did the first few steps, blew up balloon, hung it up, and started painting doilies in Mod Podge. Eliza helped with this. Even that went well for the first two doilies. Things looked great, the doilies stuck nicely to the balloon, no glue got where it should not go. "Wow, this is so great!" I thought. 

 Sorry for the more-dodgy-than-usual photos, hubby had our camera at work, so I had to use my dodgy phone camera. 

Hubby arrived home from an appointment just as Eliza decided to taste test the glue. Thankfully she did not swallow any, it came back out as soon as she put it in her mouth. I was thankful for the spare pair of hands to give her some water and clean out her mouth....

...Because by this point, I was trying to attach the third doily to the balloon, and it WOULD NOT STICK!!! Also, I ran out of glue, and had to crack open the hard coat Mod Podge earlier than I had planned. But no matter what I tried, I could not get the third, fourth or fifth doily to stick (yes, I did stupidly try to do more even though I could not get the third to stick!). Husband left for work, I was frustrated and very sticky, and Eliza tried to taste the glue AGAIN!! (Seems she gets that from me - I ate a LOT of paper mache glue while helping Mum. But that was just flour and water and I loved it!!)

I cut the balloon down and tried to make the doilies stick with even more glue. Still did not work. I finally gave up. I rolled up the glue-covered doilies in the shower curtains, with the empty Mod Podge containers and dumped them in a garbage bag. Then I popped the glue-covered balloon with a pin, while it was still on newspapers. NOTE TO SELF: put wet glue-covered balloon in garbage bag BEFORE popping with a pin. If you do not, you will have to crawl all over the floor spot mopping Mod Podge off the floor, walls, furniture... 

Due to very sticky hands, I do not have pics of the craftaster. But use your imaginations! Thank God Mod Podge is able to be cleaned up with warm, soapy water!  

Put A Bird On It!

  

You may have seen this before, it's been floating around for a while now, but it's still funny second time around (and third and fourth!). It's from Season 1 of the TV show Portlandia, apparently.

This one is for you, Hannah and Sneha!