Back Home From My Kidnapping

Hello Readers!

Better get something warm to drink, maybe a smoke and settle in for a long post covering the last 23 days or so. There's a lot to show! 

My kidnapping was pure joy! I got to spend time with my grandkids, my son, his wife and other relatives and friends. It was a long time to be away from home, but not too long.
Five year old Annabel is a hoot~!  So many laughs, so many hugs! I let her borrow my big fat black Sharpie and that got me 'the best grandma EVER' award! And I had forgotten just how hilarious 12 year old boys can be. Brenton kept me laughing a lot as well. And when you get three 12 year old boys together at once, there is never a dull moment!
I needed this vacation from home! Glad to be back where all my art supplies reside though. I exhausted most of what I took along except for the wool roving, which I never even touched.
The cats had mixed feelings about not having seen me for three weeks. Lola still isn't wanting any petting to speak of. Tippy and Murray have made up for it though. Murray has made sure I know it is my job to fill the food bowl. She hasn't stopped meowing since I got home on Tuesday. And Tippy has made sure I know she is here and wants all the petting I'll give to her!
Those of you who read regularly will know my hands were not idle while I was away from home.

This basket is made with that yellow poly rope you all were getting tired of seeing some weeks back. I took a small hank of it with me with no idea what would happen with it. 

The dogs, Fred and the puppy, Half-Pint (or HP as I'll refer to him here) were getting on my nerves one evening. Fred sometimes did not tolerate the pup too well and they'd get to fussing and arguing. Fred had the dog rope and HP wanted it. Fred wasn't giving it up and a growling, yipping session commenced. I took out the poly rope and made the pup his own dog rope. No picture of it, sorry. They ceased their disagreements once HP had his own rope. So the rope got made into two things. I did not bring any unused rope home with me. 

I didn't bring the basket home with me either. It's sitting on a shelf in the gift shop at The Grassroots Art Center in Lucas. KS right now.

It is just a coiled basket sewn together with crewel embroidery yarn. 

The stop at Lucas on the way home was a very profitable detour. I have a medium sized wooden suitcase that I fill with handmade things every now and then and take to the folks at the Art Center. That suitcase was so full I could barely get it shut. When I came home, it had only 4 things left in it. They'll be getting a box of stuff they requested once I drag all those things out of the closet in the other room.

I made this teddy bear mug rug one afternoon when the kids were at school. This is the only mug rug I made while at my son's house. I left 19 mug rugs at the Art Center to go in the gift shop, including this one.

My son brought home some canned ice tea and I immediately snagged the aluminum cans to make some little birds. This one has a chain on it that I also made.

I didn't get around to making a chain for this one or it would have probably ended up with the other one in Lucas.

I also made a paper bird that I didn't take a picture of. It stayed with Annie at her house.

I had to go visit my sister at least once while I was in her neck of the woods. I spent the whole day with her last Saturday doing nothing but sitting at her dining room table doing arts and craps! 

My sister is obsessed with fish at the moment and she asked me to draw her some fish. She said these were fine fish but could I please draw her some fish without all the fancy lines? Her words. So I drew her about 20 fish without all the crosshatching. I'll color these fishes sometime in the future. I have no idea what will become of them! They're drawn in pencil, then in sharpie, on heavy brown paper that came out of the bottom of a box of six one gallon cans of mandarin oranges. Sister is the lunch lady at an elementary school. That brown paper is excellent drawing paper! I'll be making something out of the four or five sheets I brought home with me.

I brought along some stuff to work on while I spent the day at my sister's house. Here, her cat, Smudge is being nosey, sticking his head in my sack of bookmaking supplies. I put the bookmaking stuff in a cut down puppy food bag so Smudge really liked how it smelled. Sis says he eats the dog's food all the time. One of the little books you'll see later in this post was made while Sis was working on fish pictures built on flat advertising magnets. They turned out really good. I didn't take a picture of them though. 

In the last post I was going on and on about all those balls I took to my son's house. 23 of them.

I only got four of them done.

I got bored with sewing balls.

I brought only this ball home with me. I left the others at the Art Center.

My son's friend, Mike (who is my age) was taken aback by my goddess doll. Course my son telling him I made a "Booby Doll" for his father in law (who lives there) didn't help with the reaction he got out of Mike. You had to be there to get the full effect. Mike is so funny! The look he gave me was priceless! Son and Mike give me so much crap it isn't even funny. I just roll my eyes and shake my head at their shenanigans! I am amused with the pair of them!

I brought the goddess doll home with me cause she isn't quite done yet. She needs a hanger of some sort because she doesn't stand up on her own. She's made out of a couple of plastic bottle caps for her head, made the same was as embroidered balls are, only not quite that large. Her body is a wire armature covered with sweater scraps and then more scraps sewn over. Her outer shell is cashmere scraps. Her hair is black and silver eyelash yarn. I made her one day when both the grandkids were at school and I was on my own while the kids were at work.

My son's father in law does live there also. He and I pretty much ignore one another for the most part. We are civil to one another and we don't not get along. We just have nothing in common and we do not agree on much of anything. It's just easier to ignore him. Keeps the peace. He does his thing in one room and I do mine in another.  It works out well for us. He'd get the wrong idea if I had actually made that goddess doll for him. Not interested....not at all. He really doesn't seem to care one way or another in that department but I don't want to give him any ideas. Son thought it was hilarious to insinuate I was giving the old man ideas. If the boy didn't give me a load of crap every now and then, there would be something wrong with him. 

I played Dr. Grandma with a few patients on my visit.

This is grandson's monster you all saw in the last post. HP, the puppy, got ahold of the monster and put a few holes in him. I patched him up. Not a pretty patch up but Brenton was pleased nonetheless. He said it looks like monster has some serious scars! So I guess I have made a zombie monster of sorts. I just sewed the gaping holes in monster's hide with crewel embroidery yarn. My goal was to close the holes securely. Mission accomplished! 

Monster has no horns now either. A hornectomy was necessary. The felt I used for monster's horns was some very thin stuff and it didn't hold up to the kids using the horns for handles....they were perfect for hauling the monster around. Brenton said monster didn't really need horns so we did away with them all together.

Monster also got a wound on his backside.

I was at son's house from the 13th of January till the 3rd of February. That is 20 days. I didn't do arts and craps everyday I was there. I was elsewise occupied on a couple of days. Whenever I say I'm going to do some arts and craps, five year old Annie always says, "It's arts and CRAFTS, grandma!" I made little books on quite a few of those 20 days.

These two little accordion books are made out of part of a root beer box and clear tape. I'm going to add more to these two before I call them done. They're about an inch and half tall and an inch wide. Maybe a bit smaller...I didn't measure them. Never touched the ruler in the making of them.

This one is about 5x7 inches. It's made from a brownie mix box covered in holographic gold tape.

I brought most of the paper for the little books with me, already cut. I had to trim this paper down to fit this cover. It has (I'm guessing, cause I didn't write it down anywhere) it has 10 signatures of marker paper. Somewhere around 100 pages. Sewn with crochet cotton that I covered up along the spine with the tape.

This one stayed at the Art Center to be sold.

This one is made out of a brownie mix box also. It's covered in pink plaid packing tape. Sewn with crochet cotton string. My son has a sweet tooth and loves brownies! He baked both batches of brownies these two books came from.

It has computer paper pages, 10 signatures, somewhere around 100 pages. This one is at the Art Center.

This book is 6x6 inches with 14 signatures of construction paper sewn with crewel embroidery yarn in the long stitch. The cover is part of the rootbeer box the little accordian books were made out of.  I brought this one home with me. 

This one is 3x3 inches with 5 signatures of computer paper, somewhere around 50 pages. The cover is black leather from an old skirt and sewn with gray embroidery thread in the long stitch. This one stayed in Lucas.

This one is 3x3 inches with one signature of 10 pages of computer paper sewn in the pamphlet stitch. I brought this one home with me.

This one is 2.5x3 inches 5 signatures, sewn with regular sewing thread. It has about 50 pages. The green leather was once an old jacket. This one is in Lucas.

You saw the puppy food earlier in this post with a cat sticking its head inside. This gold foil paper covering on this book came from that puppy food bag. The inside of the bag is silver foil paper. I covered some 4x4 inch cardstock with the foil paper and glued 2 together for each cover, to give them more stiffness. This one has about 10 signatures of marker paper in it. That's about 50 pages. It is sewn in the coptic stitch with white crochet cotton thread. This one is in Lucas as well.

This one has 12 signatures of computer paper, sewn in the long stitch. Not sure that is the long stitch, maybe a variation of it. I hadn't made any leather books in this stitch till I made all the leather books in this post. I brought this paper with me, already cut to fit this cover. I think it is about 6x7 inches. I left this one in Lucas too. The cover is brown leather that was once part of a recliner chair. 

Another book made from the rootbeer box. I didn't cover up the graphics from the rootbeer box. I thought they were rather nice.

This is the same book as the one above. Construction paper pages. I cut the construction paper pages for all of these books at my son's house. Thankfully he owns a guillotine paper cutter! I like mine at home better though. Mine cuts better but his sufficed! 

This book stayed in Lucas at the Art Center.

Another green leather book, sewn with regular sewing thread in the long stitch. It has 8 signatures of computer paper pages, 5 x 7 inches or so. 

Another tiny leather book, 2.5 x 3 inches, sewn with gray embroidery thread, computer paper pages. Not a good picture of it for sure! It stayed in Lucas.

Fat little brown leather book with construction paper pages sewn with thin nylon cord. 3x3 inches. Leather from the recliner.It is in Lucas.

And yet another brown leather book sewn pretty much like all the others. It too stayed in Lucas.

This a 3 x 3 inch book made from a cardboard box, scraps from the rootbeer box covered in holographic tape and nylon cord to sew it all together in the coptic stitch. The pages are construction paper. I gave this book to Cody, Brenton's friend who really wanted to learn how to sew his own books but never stayed long enough in one spot to learn! He told me he wanted to be a writer when he grows up. He is 12. He was tickled pink to have his very own handmade book! 

I sewed the closure on with nylon cord so it would hold much longer than just taping it down.

Little books are so sinfully easy to make!!!!

I made 16 of them while I was away. And I have a whole box of them in the closet in the other room. I really thought the wooden suitcase was full of little books when I took it out of the closet to take on my kidnapping. It didn't have any little books it in. It was full of mug rugs, paper mache bowls and squished baskets! I will have some repairing to do on some of the bowls as they stuck together and when I pulled them apart, boo boos happened. Nothing that can't be rectified though. The Art Center got three little bowls that didn't get buggered up. One of those paper bowls sold, seconds after it came out of the suitcase! It still simply amazes me people are willing to give hard cold cash for things I make out of things those same folks throw away!

You all saw this basket in previous posts. Back then it was just the bottom of the basket/totebag and about three rounds up. I got it out one morning after the kids went to school and had it completely done by noon. It's a bit wonky but I like it. I didn't measure it but I'll take a guess at the measurements and say it is about 12 inches across the round bottom and about 16 inches tall to the last complete round  of crochet. I stuffed it full of all the things that came out of the wooden suitcase that I didn't want to present as a candidate for the gift shop in Lucas. It holds a LOT! I may keep this bag for toting stuff around.

As happens every single time I go to Nickerson, I end up in Hutchinson at Hobby Lobby to spend some dough! 52 dollars this trip! We recently got a Hobby Lobby in Hays (40 miles south of home) but I make it to Hutchinson more often than I make it to Hays so I always go to HL when down south. I usually go with my sister but this time I went with my daughter in law. I got some good buys on the clearance shelves. People who live in a larger city are spoiled rotten having a nearby craft store. And some of you have more than one to choose from! In my neck of the woods, the closest craft department is 40 miles south.

This basket is the result of my trip to Hobby Lobby. I found this sparkly red rope ribbon on clearance for 90 cents. It was originally $9.00. It behooves me why anyone would pay $9.00 for them!  I bought four of them, not knowing exactly what would happen with them. I was seeing a basket when I found them on the shelf but wasn't sure just what they were made of. When I got them home and got one out of the package I found a plastic rope about 3/8 of an inch thick, with a wire running the length of it which made it flexible. It was covered in red glitter. I had a choice of red, gold or green on the clearance shelf. I chose only red. My son's wife will be vacuuming red glitter off the playroom floor for the next three months! It shed terribly while I sewed it together with the black nylon cord I bought at HL also. I still have two packages of the sparkly red rope and will make another basket, just like this one, but maybe with a different color of string to sew it together with. And then Ma will be vacuuming up glitter from my floor for eons.  I didn't even show this one off while at the Art Center. It will get a coat of clear varnish to tame that glitter before I offer it up. It is about three inches tall and about 7 inches across. A very sturdy basket! I used two ropes for this basket and that equaled out to 30 feet of the rope. I worked on this basket for a couple days. I also worked on more than one project everyday so it didn't take as long as it sounds like it did. Probably about 6 hours total time in making it.

This basket is about 7 inches long, 3 inches wide. It is rectangle shaped on the bottom and round at the opening. I crocheted it in single crochet with a size J hook. It's made out of thick nylon cord. The cord is about a quarter inch thick. This basket is wonky...seems all my baskets are a bit wonky this go around. I brought this one home with me.

This is a tiny coiled basket made from the brown cord in the above basket, sewn together with crewel embroidery yarn. I brought this basket home with me. It's a wonky little thing, not one of my favorites.

I got to my son's house on a Wednesday. By Friday morning 

this monster was almost done. By the time Annabel was ready to go to sleep on Friday night, she had a new snuggle buddy. (Mr. Cuggles will not like this!) I told her to sit there on the sofa beside the monster. She snuggled up close to him and put his arm around her shoulders. 

Mr. Cuggles is a pink bear who has been loved almost to death. Now that I think about it, Mr. Cuggles is quite healthy. He's never been booked an appointment with Dr. Grandma for any mending. He's been through the washing machine a hundred times or more and his fur is no longer shiny and smooth. His arms and legs sag from having been dragged around for three years by them. Annie sleeps with Mr. Cuggles every night. Mr. Cuggles has been to my house on numerous occasions for a sleepover. She put her monster on the foot of her bed when she went to bed shortly after the photoshoot. No need to upset Mr. Cuggles.

He is made from an acrylic sweater, felt for his facial features and horns, black and silver eyelash yarn for his hair and he's filled with polyester stuffing. I sewed his body, arms and legs on the sewing machine. 

I had to do surgery on this guy again. This is the very first monster I ever made! Way back in 2011. He's made out of a couple of different acrylic sweaters. I've patched him up many times! He has a place of honor on the bed too but he doesn't go visiting. His arms have both been patched. I put the striped heart there on this visit and another patch somewhere else, I don't remember where. The heart is a scrap from the other's monster's sweater. You can see other patches on his legs and you can see his both of his legs have been sewn back on more than once! His legs never totally fell off but they had issues!

And the dog needed some stitches on his belly. HP got ahold of him a few days earlier. 

I'm glad to be back home! 

Thanks for hanging in there through this very long post! 

Remember to be good to one another!

It matters!

Peace

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