A Silly Green Hat, Birds and Bees, Dolls and Leaves

Hello Readers!

Not much happening in my world. The old body went into rebel mode a few days ago and I slept for hours on end. And as usual, when I'm sleeping, I get absolutely NOTHING done! Oh how I wish I could create while I sleep!  Lord knows I do enough sleeping for two!

At any rate, I'm feeling much better today, Thank you! 

A few days ago this green material came in the mail. When it arrived it was two legs off a pair of pants. My niece requested a LOZ Link hat for her Halloween costume. I happily obliged. I cut a hat shape out of one of the pant legs and Ma took it home with her and sewed it up on the machine. I really can't call this finished project all mine. Hopefully Allison will approve! She should get the hat on Wednesday or Thursday. Let's hope the post office doesn't lose it from here to there!

I don't remember if I told you all about the peanut critters in the last post or not. I think I had started on the hummingbirds when I wrote the last post, but I'm uncertain right now. The old head is still a bit foggy from the 18 hour nap I woke up from an hour or two ago.

I have since finished all the peanut critters.

First off we have hummingbirds.

They are all made from a peanut shell painted with acrylics.

They have toothpick pieces for their beaks.

And sparkly black with gold fabric for their wings. I cut a length of copper wire, made a loop in it and glued it in a hole in their head for a hanger. Their little legs are short pieces of crewel embroidery yarn. I used sparkly blues and green with a touch of red paint at the throat. I used hot glue to attach the wings and the beak. White glue for the rest of the gluing.

In all, I made a dozen hummingbirds.

And beings there were still stale peanuts left....

I made some bumblebees too!

Their wings are fine yellow netting material.

A dozen were made.

They too got the copper wire loop embedded in their heads. I'm not sure the bees are done yet. I think their eyes need a bit of detail before I call them done. And perhaps a coat of some shiny varnish. That clear coat I put on them didn't do them any good at all. I think they'd look better with a bit of shine.

I made some dottee dolls for a swap over at AFA. (The link is up there in the sidebar.)

I don't usually give my dottee dolls a mouth but one of the requirements was that the dolls had to have a mouth. So I embroidered one. This blue dottee has a striped fabric covered button for a hat. I think she looks quite 'arteest' like. She's made from wool suit material. Aluminum chain and an old earring. Her eyes are rubber beads sewn on.

this one is the wild princess. She's made from silk (that used to be a blouse), a red ribbon, some fake pearl strings, cotton string for hair, She has wings also. Brass wings. Her eyes are small wooden beads sewn on and she also has a fabric rose and a cotton button on her tummy. I'm not sure what that cotton button is really called. A rosette? Folks make them and use them in quilts. I got a bunch of them from somewhere and used this one as an embellishment for this dottee.

This is Uncle Eddie after a hard night out on the town. He's made from an acrylic fuzzy sweater, eyelash yarn for his hair and aluminum chain. His eyes are small wooden beads sewn on.

This is Aunt Gladys off to the market in her best striped dress with her walnut shell basket in tow. She is made from cotton material, her eyes are two metal bead caps, her hair cotton yarn and her danglies are ball chain. Her basket is a carved walnut shell.

I did get the leather book cover sewn into a book but I forgot to take a picture of the finished book. My phone is doing an update at the moment so no picture of the book. I'll get one for next post later this evening.

I haven't worked on the red ribbon basket since the last post. And the little houses are still sitting in the kitchen on the table waiting for something to happen with them. 

I cut down 17 aluminum cans and got them ready for crafting yesterday. I'm thinking of making some little houses out of them and leaving the graphics from the cans on the outside of the houses. We will see how that pans out...

This evening I am packaging things for a mailrun tomorrow. I have a fish that needs to swim to Washington state, that hat and a bee and a bird will go to my niece, I had a sale in the etsy store today that needs to go to Las Vegas, Nevada. Wish I could go to Las Vegas..... and one of the hummingbirds is flying off to Abilene, Kansas. No one there knows of its arrival. I love sending surprises! And there is probably another surprise on the way to someone else as well. Who knows who will find what in their mailboxes!

There is no update on the soybeans. That field looks exactly the same now as it did six days ago!  Something strange going on out in that field at night though. I've changed my nights and days around (again) so I'm up all night. For the last three nights running there have been coyotes out there singing at the top of their lungs! They are close!!! Very close to the house. Fred dog could care less about  coyotes. He pays them no mind at all unless he sees one. Then he gives chase and barks at the top of his lungs as well. I stepped out on the front porch the night before last because it sounded like they were in the front yard. Those coyotes stopped their singing and were quiet until I stepped back inside where they couldn't see me. I never laid eyes on any of them. It was dark out....The strange thing is that those coyotes shouldn't be out there in that open field. And if they are out there hunting for small critters; like mice and what have you, why the devil are they singing at the top of their lungs? Wouldn't that shoo off any potential dinner? Logic says there are definitely small rodents all over that field what with the soybeans popping out of the pods and falling on the ground. And the dead critters I keep finding on the kitchen floor everyday. The coyotes were out there earlier tonight. They didn't sing very long cause the dog on the other side of the river (that's about a quarter mile away as the crow flies) started barking. It isn't uncommon for the coyotes to use the field to get from one place to another....I don't know why the field hasn't been cut and I don't know why the coyotes have taken up howling in it at night. Befuddles me. I don't even know how many coyotes are out there singing at all hours of the night. Sounds like dozens! Could be only a few. I hear them singing in the field and there's another batch of them over by the river that sings at all hours! I don't mind the coyotes one bit. They were here long before I was and they have as much right to be here as I do. I've never had any problems with the coyotes in the 14 years I've lived out here so I'm certainly not going to start worrying for nothing now. I do wish they wouldn't come quite so close to the house though. I do worry about a cat becoming dinner for a hungry coyote. I can't control coyotes or cats so if a cat does become dinner for a hungry coyote, there's not a thing I can do about it! Therefore there is not much use in worrying myself sick about it. I am pretty sure my Billy cat was lost to a hungry coyote a few years back. Billy just didn't come home one morning in early June. 

Living in the country one must deal with the wildlife. How one deals with it determines how one fares with it! I prefer to just let the wildlife do whatever it is the wildlife do. My coyotes are too close to town to worry about hunters shooting them. I don't think coyotes should have a bounty on their hides, but as far as I know, they do.  

Here is the wikipedia entry about coyotes if you care to learn something new today. I found it good reading and will follow up with some other research later. 

I will let you all know if anything happens with the soybean field.

Last summer I came home from a visit to my son's house and found two new baby trees growing happily in my west yard. We also call this the back yard. They have both grown about two feet since they were planted. My mother and brother did the planting. I had no say in these trees. I was gone. I came home and there they were! I am not complaining, mind you! Oh no! Baby trees were quite welcome! The shade they'll provide is greatly needed.

It's getting colder by the day and the leaves are starting to change. I plucked these off the baby trees day before yesterday. 

I don't want the cold to come. I am pretty sure I never complained about it being too hot this summer. I will complain about it being too cold. I must call my sons and get their hides busy with fixing the skirting so I can turn on the furnace! Tonight it is cold! There will be a heavy frost covering everything come sunrise. 

That's all for me for now.

Thanks for reading through.

Remember....

Be good to one another!

It matters!

Peace

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