Suddenly I saw it.

Every time I do a craft show, someone (or several someones) comes up to me and says "do you know that all of the dolls you make look like you?"
Sometimes I am offended if they are particularly ugly.
I never mean them to look like me.
This one, when it was done, I kept looking at its face and thinking, MAN, I am so sick of this face I keep drawing.
Then I held it up to the camera - it had to be my webcam because the other camera was broken - and there it was...
um.
I saw it.
Yikes.

Anyway, this doll, which you are seeing backwards in my webcam, says "Bon Appetit" and is my Aunt Beast's 2007 Christmas present in honor of her redecorated kitchen. I would have liked it to have crazy wooly hair but I'm housesitting and there is no crazy wooliness to be found unless I shave the dog.

Busy busy busy

There is a lot of crafting going on over here, but I can't really SHOW it yet! Here is an older doll, I think from last year, for your holiday blog enjoyment.

Ok, I really have to get back to work. Things happening today are all coming from Instructables, for The Boy, things like a bike seat cover for protecting it from the rain, and a Cholula Holster (that one is sort of a joke, but only sort of), and maybe boxers made out of Patriots fabric I found at a tag sale, and I don't know what-all else.

And I want to decorate! And make little houses out of old cards!

All I want for Christmas is...

A Ravelry for sewing and crafting. Can't someone programming literate make a Ravelry-type website for sewing project organizing, pretty please? I have soooo many projects I want to do and I can't keep track! I like it that all the things I want to knit and crochet are at least in a list now, even if that list is, um, over a hundred things long.

Here's a picture to keep this post from being boring, even though she's from last year or the year before, I can't remember.

The next thing to work on with this blog is a list of links to other blogs, but there are so many that I read, it's hard to begin and I don't want to forget people I love.

too cute to poke!

This here doggie is a pattern from the awesome book Art Doll Adventures by Li Hertzi. He's a pincushion, but how could I possibly stick anything in this smiley guy?

I love this book - the idea behind it is to take images from other cultures and build them into new creations.... and do lots of playing and experimenting. This dog has beading, embroidery, fun fur yarn, an old dog license tag around his neck, and general wackiness.

I think (I don't have the book in front of me) that Li got the idea for the pattern from an African sculpture, and I just noticed that the yellow eye beads are beads that my uncle sent to me when he was stationed in Togo with the state department - how perfect!

A couple more views of him at my flickr.

This Little Piggy

Greetings if you are visiting me from Sewmama! My blog has never had very many readers and it is my goal for next year to build up some online blog community.

The Boy(friend) is obsessed with pigs - he told me that the only thing he wants for Christmas is a real live pig, which sadly wouldn't work out very well in our apartment. However, I made this one for him from the adorable (and free!) Wee Wonderfuls Pattern. He didn't want the whole pig-on-wheels-ornament, because he wants to pretend that it's his pet pig, so I'll just let him keep it like this. Although I think it need some embroidered nostrils, because the pig nose is my favorite part of the pig. Cute waving nostrils!

Believe Angel

I sincerely apologize that my camera isn't working, only my webcam, so you're not getting any nicely focused and bee-yew-tee-ful pictures right now, just whatever I can hold up.
I made this angel for my Boy's mom Jo Ann. It looks huge in the picture but it's maybe five inches tall. It has a little hanger on the back so it could be a tree ornament or hang on the wall or I guess even get pinned to her clothes or whatever - she's an angel fiend!

Snow Day! And Handmade Holidays!

I didn't want to do this because I haven't decorated my blog like all the people who have been featured, so I feel a little silly. but I'm celebrating that it's snowing right now and I'm lighting my pine-scented proud-locally-made Yankee Candle and lighting all my light strings and answering some of these questions to get me in the right mood.

It's funny, I was a little grumpy about the whole Handmade Pledge thing, because when you're an artist and you don't have money, you always make presents, without thinking about it. I can't remember the last time I bought someone something - oh, yes, I can, actually - but it was from another artist.
After a long time of being poor, you've given everyone all the handmade pincushions, aprons, eyepillows, stuffed animals, dolls, fabric boxes, record bowls, etc., their houses can take. This year I happen to have more money than usual and I was so excited to NOT have to make all of my own presents.

And then... I started seeing tutorials. And suddenly I have these lists a mile long of things I want to make in the next, oh, TWENTY TWO DAYS!
So I'll tell you some of them, but try not to say any of them where people who might actually read this might learn anything they shouldn't know yet!

My mom is getting a painting, which I have sketched out but not started because I haven't painted anything in years! It's called OUR LADY OF PERPETUAL DOG BISCUITS, because a thing we do together is walk her dog, and as we walk, all the dogs in the neighborhood come along and look into her pockets for treats. One day a few years ago, I had decided to start naming all of my dolls as saints, although she didn't know that, and that same day as we were walking, she proclaimed, I AM OUR LADY OF PERPETUAL DOG BISCUITS. So I'm going to paint her with all the dogs surrounding her looking for snacks.

My two obsessive fisher"man" cousins are getting scarves made out of old t-shirts (green crafting?!) for keeping them warm while they are obsessively fishing at all hours of the day and all months of the year, like this:

(they kiss the fish before they put them back in the water.) (My cousins are SO awesome and I miss them all the time and wish they lived closer to me, they are the funniest, cutest little boys! - even though now they are LARGE)

One sister who I hope won't read this is getting boots for her delicate dog and a front door organizer made up in some kind of fancy, Moroccan-style fabrics with mirrors and stuff for the way she wants to decorate her new apartment.

I have a lot of other things I'm making, but starting to read through this list, I'm thinking that I should stop blogging and thinking about all the cute ideas I have for decorating my blog that I haven't gotten around to yet and actually start WORKING! :)

I'll also tell you a couple of my traditions: I've been trying to START some new ones because even though we always get together and hang out, I feel like we don't have any actual traditions, so the two I've started so far are:
1. Watch the movie Elf which I love.
2. Make Espresso Shortbread. I made a recipe card as a present for anyone who is actually reading this... here it is! Open your present!

and here's a countown for beader-types...

Every day in December a new thing at http://www.suzannecooper.com/christmas/calendar.html