new sign

Feng-Shui Doo-Hickies

Gourds, feathers, wire, & beads.

Protection Device

Sunny Day Printing With Sis

Design process

Testing the carved rubber stamp and cut foam stamp:

Print!

Making a stamp using cut adhesive foam:

Foam stamps. This is a quick, inexpensive, and easy way to make re-useable stamps.

Sally's flag:

and, on the Farm front....the salad greens are IN!

Green Grin meets Crafty Underdog

For those of you living locally, I'll be doing my first show with the Crafty Underdog this Sunday, June 12. It'll be a big shin-dig at McMenamin's Mission Theatre in NW Portland. I'll have a table full of Plush and some Mitts for Musing, including new cotton/hemp/lycra summer Mitts.

Stop on by and say "howdie"!

Success Story

About a year ago, Jess bought a couple of Pocket Buns from me at a craft show. She thought they would be perfect for her second grade Spanish class; the children could take turns holding the stuffed toy while they shared during the morning circle. 

The softies were named "Y" and "Z" and became the darlings of the classroom, especially "Z", or "Zeta". The children took turns being in charge of her for the day, and someone was always holding her. 

After a year of intense, loving cuddling, Zeta developed some holes. Jess asked me if I could make a duplicate to replace her, and she sent me the original to copy. I had to laugh when I opened the package; Zeta had been squeezed and caressed so much that she'd grown about twice as tall as she'd originally been! Right around her soft, palm-sized middle is where the holes were, where the continuos kneading of small hands loved her right through. 

I took this photo after I'd mended the holes in the original Zeta, but you can see how loved she is. The darker one is Zeta #2; she's super soft, made out of a thick cashmere sweater and reinforced with double layers of fabric.

Jess also wanted to give her kids something special at the end of the school year, so she ordered a set of WeeKinnies, one for each child.










I had so much fun with this project and am super happy with how it turned out. Thanks, Jess!

Little Mr. Tuffet

Big Louie likes to visit me occasionally while I'm at work in the studio. I thought it would be nice to create a special spot for him.


I'd been inspired by the Hassock in Elizabeth Abernathy's winter Nuno Magazine (page 50). As much as I was craving to dip-dye an old wool blanket, add some embroidery to it, and create a stunningly lovely hassock, that project will have to wait for another day when I have more time. Instead, I opted for the instant gratification method. I dug out an old, semi-felted rainbow sweater (huge!). I cut two large circles for the top and bottom, and a wide band to sew around for the sides. I used two bags of tiny scraps left over from sewing projects for the stuffing (and a handful of dried catnip!).

Big Louie is such a sweetie; he nestled in as soon as I showed it to him. 

A new tuffet!

Horny Head

I've created another large, strange head as part of my on-going "Heads-Up" series.

This one is about two feet tall including the horns. There are pockets hidden under the white "fur" for the three small "fairies" to hide in. The mouth is a pocket, too. 

 A Forest FunKinnie waiting to see the Horny Lord.

Green Grin does Earth Day

Holy Cow, Dear Readers! I almost forgot to let you know about an imminent event I'm to be involved in. I apologize for the last-minute posting (for you readers living locally).
It's my first vending event of the season: Portland City Repair's Earth Day Festival.
Saturday, April 23rd.

I love doing this event, even though this time of the year, the weather can be quite unpredictable. At least I have sides for my canopy this year! Actually, it's supposed to be a sunny, warm day. (I'll believe it when I see it!). There will be two stages with live music, a few food booths, tons of groovy informational booths, and a smattering of vendors. It's not so much a craft fair, as a fun festy event.

I'll be sharing my booth with the ever-so talented Carrena of Skrappy Joy fame. She'll be debuting this year's collection of cute & comfy Skrappy Joy clothing crafted from reclaimed t-shirts.

I'll have plenty of the ever-popular fingerless Mitts for Musing

Baskets of Pocket Buns

Other misc. Plush goodness

a rack of OOAK Green Grin clothing, and a sale table

(and maybe farm-fresh duck eggs for sale!)

I hope to see you!

Some Hoodie Sewing

In an attempt to make a dent in my overwhelming fabric stash, I've been sewing up some clothing, lately. 

I love velour, and often pick up large pieces when I see them at the thrift store. I pulled out some colors I thought would look nice together. The dark gold is from a large men's shirt; the lighter gold and stripy piece are scores from the thrift store fabric bin. (I ended up not using the rose-pink top).

I used an old favorite pattern, which I re-traced and drew in the pieces for the color-blocking, then cut up to make patterns for the different-colored piecing. 

Cutting out the pieces.

Here are the pieces laid out. The cutting surface is a folding card-board cutting board, found at a local thrift store for $1.00! It's perfect for cutting on the floor. I just plop it down and instantly have a clean, firm surface for working on. It folds up for easy storage. The squares are handy for when I'm re-working a pattern or for measuring. 

I hand-stitched a little leaf motif on the front. 

Bright hoodie for spring!

Adding to the Flock

I decided to try a little realism while making a recent plush. Sweetie's birthday was coming up, and he has a little collection of duck decoys.

I'd found this folk-art duck pattern at a thrift shop and thought it would be fun to make a stuffed decoy. 

I wasn't satisfied with the pattern as it was, so I flipped through the bird field-guide and couldn't resist trying to make this loon.

I reduced and re-drew the folk-art pattern to make it look more loon-like.

I'm so pleased with the results! Sweetie likes it, too.

And speaking of ducks, I finally stitched up this pre-printed duck I picked up awhile ago at Knittn' Kitten.

I love these pre-printed patterns, especially the sort of realistic looking ones. I buy them whenever I find them at thrift stores. The nice ones are rare enough that it's a bit of excitement when I find one.

There's something about this duck that is neat and strange at the same time. I'm saving the second one to use flat as an applique element. ('though it is tempting to sew up another one of these goofy ducks!)