Clowny Clown Doll

My clown doll is pretty much finished. I need to figure out how to put a label on it and what I want it to say.  If I thought I could hand carve a stamp small enough that said Pigglewiggins I'd do that.  Sometimes I wish I'd picked a shorter shop name.

I like the way the doll came out.  I'm torn between tea dying the fabric for these types of dolls or not. There is more about this doll in my art doll blog.

Rapier and Archery Practice

It was a very busy weekend. I hardly got to work on my clowny clown doll at all. But today at archery practice, I skipped the archery part and sewed on the clown hair, the hat, the mouth, the eyebrows and the costume trim.  One eye of the clown is made from a fabric button I learned how to make in a mini class on Saturday. Now I'm almost done except for the designer tag.

Juggling silhouette.

I spent Sat. at an SCA rapier championship and fiber play day and Sunday at the archery range in Long Beach and also grocery shopping.  I picked up a sleeping bag for Great Western War at Big Five for $20 on sale. I juggled both Sat. and Sunday and found out some of the rapier guys could juggle too.

Guy Taylor from http://www/greenmanarchery.com.

A self portrait.

There was a die with these symbols on it. Whatever the fencer rolled, that was the secondary weapon they used.

Duel

Chivalry

Herald and King

Waif with knitted sock monkey.

Clowny Clown Clown

I've been hanging around with too many clowns lately, because halfway through this new doll, she/he/it suddenly became a clown. Once I made the pointy leg, and put it on the doll's head, I couldn't get the clown thing out of my mind.

When I was in San Luis Obispo, I bought a red photo box to keep the current doll in. Then I will finish that one before I start another one. The finished doll comes out but I leave all the needles, pins, fabric, buttons and so on in the box, and that becomes the next doll.  So far it's working.

I also stitched up a needle book out of felt to hold my needles and pins. That way I won't have to keep digging around for different needle packets.

Beverly the One-Eyed Girl

I decided to make today a work day and finished my doll and got it listed on Etsy. https://www.etsy.com/listing/105269058/beverly-prim-style-folk-art-doll-ooak I named her Beverly because that's where I got the parts for most of her.  The blue velvet neck trim is vintage from Goodwill. It takes a  long time to sew a doll by hand, and not much less by machine, because the only part you can do by machine is sewing around the body parts. So even at $40. I'm not sure I'm making a profit. That's the way it goes with arts and crafts. Lots of love but not much money.

Back view.

Beverly with her one good eye.

Me holding her when she's all done.

Beverly shows off her hip hop moves.

Getting ready for "So You Think You Can Dance"

Self Portraits

I've decided to start doing a daily self portrait again which will be shown here: SP. I guess I quit the last time I tried because I got sick of looking at myself, and others had much fancier and impressive self portraits.  But now I don't care what others are doing as long as it helps me to document my life and what I was doing at the time. Another reason I stopped doing it before is because one guy comments constantly that he wants to see full body shots including my feet. I don't need a director, and seeing all of me at once is a bit too much for me. I don't want to be the BFG (Big Friendly Giant). And I'm not doing it for his viewing pleasure.

Me making a doll.

Deleting the Kunoichi Redirect Widget

My boyfriend found a page with a fix to the bogus redirect on my blog. To make it quick for anyone else being redirected to http://kunoichi.info/ the bogus code is in the widget for showing current comments. I deleted the widget from the layout page and the problem went away.

If you need the more complex version, it's here: https://productforums.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/webmasters/fogtwoOVQsc

An SCA DAY

I just got back from Lyondemere Anniversary.  What perfect weather at a great shady venue in Long Beach, CA.

I tried to work with my new knitting book, but kept ending up one stitch short so I quit for the day.

I got 6 tickets to the basket raffle and won a set of 4 sketchbooks. I think people mostly picked the handcrafted items, so not that many tickets went into the envelope for the sketchbooks. But I can never have too many sketchbooks so I'm happy I won! I only put $5 into it so I got my money's worth.

I was so excited to see a guy dressed as a jester. I admit I stalked him. I was hoping he'd come by for a juggling lesson but he never did. My first SCA persona was as a jester back when I was in college. My friend Ted knew me in college and took this photo of me in the very first garb I ever made (even the head piece).

Me in the '70s.

Wulfric the Jester

Woman in choli

Jester backview

Jester shoes and all.

Choli

Trying to Fix This Issue

My apologies if you get redirected while viewing this blog. If I knew how to fix it I would. I've spent so many years on this craft blog that it makes me really sad that this has happened.  Hopefully it's only temporary.

Knitting and Life

My grandson Weston went to gymnastics this morning and I got to watch him from the loft. I also got to work with my new knitting book on making ripples. But I wasn't very far along when it was time to go again.

Now I'm off to my daughter's doc appointment to hear the heartbeat of my future grandchild.  It's still the first trimester. It's a special day for me since I live far from them.  I stayed an extra day just for this.

Weston and Heather

Weston tries out the bridge.

Weston in gymnastics class

The day I came home. Mitchel Park in San Luis Obispo, CA.

Goodwill Makes My Day

Unlike the Goodwill's in Orange County, that seem to want new prices for used items, the one in Atascadero still has great deals.  In fact if I'd gone there before I made 4 trips to Beverly's Fabrics, I probably would have saved $40.

Today at Goodwill I bought 2 large zip-lock bags full of sewing notions and trim and tools.  Of the things I had already bought at Beverly's there were plenty of needles and buttons. There were also four tiny pairs of scissors, 2 zippers, a latch hook, a tracing wheel, pins, safety pins, sequin pins, elastic, button covering kits and eyelets. There were five partially filled bottles of glitter, including 3 colors my daughter was out of in her face painting kit. And there was a small bag inside that looked like it had beads in it, when actually it had about 3 yards of beaded trim and red and pink feathers. Each bag of notions was $5.25.

I also picked up a bag of velvet ribbon for $2.25.  You'll see the photo of it once I get home, but it easily had 30 yards of ribbon in it in red, pink, white and more.

I looked for knitting needles and they had about 8 of them but none of them matched.

They also had sewing patterns bundled together. But they didn't pay any mind to matching them by size or design.  So there were home dec patterns mixed in with adult's and children's clothing patterns.  If I sold patterns on Ebay I would have been all over that. I don't remember the price on those, but it was per bundle.  Not more than $5. I don't think.

I had to be careful and not buy anything big because I'm going home by train.  They had a beautiful shallow basket that I think would have been the shape for separating the wheat from the chaff that would have been perfect for our craft booth but awkward to bring home on the train.

Much of what I got can be used on dolls or costume accessories.

Ripple Knitting and Doll Making

This morning my daughter gave me a discount coupon for Beverly's so I went back to get a book on ripple knitting that I'd spotted yesterday.  I also got some more knitting needles to try out the book. It turns out I'm going to be here two more days so I splurged on craft supplies.

I got more doll supplies. I'm about to finish with my primitive doll. I'm taking Junker Jane's advice and finishing one whole doll before starting another so I can focus all my creativity in revealing that doll's personality. And maybe that will help me break the habit of starting 20 dolls and not finishing any of them.

Prim Doll

I thought my shawl was looking a little bland in taupe colored yarn.  So I got an alpaca/acrylic blend in a medium gray to add some visual interest to the shawl. I would have been content to stick to that project for the rest of my trip until I happened to be in a Barnes and Noble and ran across my Etsy friend's name on the front of a craft magazine.  Right there on the cover of Stuffed was her name in bold letters and a promised Artist's Profile inside.  Congrats Junker Jane.

So then I was bitten by the doll bug and had to go back to Beverly's to get some doll making supplies.  I got needles, thread, dark brown muslin, embroidery thread, eyes, and a bag of assorted trims. By the time I got around to making it my daughter was soon off work.  So so far I only have the head, and the eyes sewn together.  I cut out the body and legs. I have no idea how to add the arms yet. I wanted to work on it more tonight but the family wanted to watch a gory vampire movie, so we did that instead. No way to sew in a dark living room. I think I'll use buttons to hold on the arms and legs.

Sitting in Linnea's Cafe garden making dolls would make me happy if I could do it every day.

People passing by gave me some funny looks seeing this doll in a box.

I have one more leg warmer to make.  And some sort of necklace. Almost done.

Sunday in Atascadero

I'm in Atascadero today working on some fashion collages. I cut out a bunch of magazine photos on the train and sorted them into a blank composition book, then once I got here I bought a drawing tablet and started gluing them onto their labeled pages.

 I slept too late to go with my daughter to SLO, so I'm waiting for her to get home and hopefully get some lunch. In the meantime I took some photos in her dance studio, trying out some creative shots that I'll share when I get home.

The baby isn't a baby anymore.  He's napping at the moment.  He's learned to walk fast and climb on things so it's a challenge keeping up with him. He loves to chase birds but doesn't look where he's going. He can open some of the doors in the house. Like a boiling pot, he can never be left unattended.

I feel like I need to sleep a whole day before I have the energy to go home on the train. 

Dance studios used to feel like my home away from home. Now I feel like a stranger there.

Right now the dance studio is being used for photography sessions and painting.

Self portrait

Face Painting at the Kennedy Center

I knew face painting was going to go well when the very first customer tipped me. The crowd was in a great mood.  It was at the Kennedy Fitness Center in San Luis Obispo, CA.  People showed up with kids in tow for the many activities.  There was a bounce castle, a huge raffle with prizes including an $800 camping set-up, and a new car. There was free pizza, cinnamon rolls and snacks.  I heard there was beer and wine too, but I was there to paint faces, so once I started I didn't leave my spot till it was over. My goal now is to have a face painting gig every weekend only closer to home. Anaheim are you listening?

My daughter Heather painting faces at the Kennedy Center in San Luis Obispo, CA.

Puppy Dog Face

Me in the crocheted top hat I made.

Red dragon I painted on my hand.