Thankful - The Little Things are the Big Things

This is my daughter, wearing her mangled eyeglasses.  She was in her room recently, doing her homework and talking via FaceTime with a friend, when her brother burst into her room in a bubble of 16 year old exuberance. He demanded to know what she was talking about, and picked her up, spun her around (flinging her glasses off in the process) and then dropped her on her bed, the better able to demand from her friend a recounting of what they were talking about. It was all fun and games until...

Crunch. She stepped with both feet on her glasses. 

There was yelling... Screaming, demands to "get out of my room" countered by halfhearted excuses made by her brother, who truly meant no harm.

Now, you want to know why I put all this in a post about being thankful for the little things. Because this "little thing" is that the next day they were joking about it. He was sheepish, and she was willing to pose for my picture in the mangled glasses. And the glasses were able to be fixed. And more importantly, they like each other again, which is a big thing. And I am thankful.

Play Season! Scenery, Props, Costumes and Crap!

Ursula backstage at The Little Mermaid Jr.

When you like working on plays, you tend to think about them for most of the year, even though play season is fairly short.  And for some reason, it seems the entire world schedules their plays for the same time.

With Halloween just over and play season just beginning, costumes are on my mind.  I volunteered myself to make Willie Wonka's outfit as an assist for my friend, who is the costume creator at her school.  More on his costume in another post.  My sister tells me that her district is doing The Little Mermaid this year, which reminded me of this, one of my favorite costumes.

For those of you doing The Little Mermaid, this costume is really easy, even if you're not an accomplished seamstress.  We used a long gown as the base.  We then found a wide, black leather belt as the base for the tentacles.  The belt allows the tentacles to stay in place, not be too heavy for the actress to drag around, and not affect the integrity of the dress underneath.  The belt buckle allows for easy dressing and undressing, and can accommodate two different sized actresses (which we needed).  I drew out a tentacle shape for my friend, who then chose this burgundy fabric (I would have picked purple, but this is nice also) and then she made 6 tentacles.  We then proceeded to have a debate about how many tentacles Ursula should have ("eight" I said, "Ursula is an OCTopus"… duh!).

Here is the basic shape of the tentacle:

I would suggest not blowing up this exact shape on a photocopier and using it as a pattern, since it would probably have to be elongated a bit - make a test one out of paper first and hold it next to your actress to get the sizing right.  You do want it to drag on the floor a bit, so don't make it too short - err on the side of too long, if necessary - you can always fold any extra over the belt when attaching each tentacle to the belt.  When you have a size and shape you like, cut 16 tentacle pieces from your fabric.  Sew sets of them together (sew right sides together, leaving the straight edge open) and then turn the right side out so that your seams are inside.  Stuff each tentacle with pillow stuffing until it has the desired stiffness and then fold the open end around the belt and sew down.  That's pretty much it!  The tentacles will slide back and forth a bit on the belt, which is a good thing.  You can adjust to the wearer.  The year after we used this costume the way you see it in the picture, someone borrowed it and had me add a section of tulle in between each tentacle to make it look like the octopus' webbing.  I would suggest something in a coordinating color with maybe a little sparkle.  Use a tulle or other light, semi-sheer fabric so it doesn't look too heavy. Leave the section in the back open so Ursula can walk, or spread her tentacles out to the sides if she needs to sit down.  These tentacles drag on the floor, which helps to give her that creepy, leggy look.  Have fun, please don't hesitate to ask! If you make an Ursula costume, I'd love to see your pictures!  Happy Play Season, everyone!

Best - Job - Ever

I once had the best job ever.  It was quite a while ago, but I still miss it sometimes, and I think about it especially at certain times of the year - Halloween, Christmas Party Time, April Fool's Day and the first day of each new school year.  Those of you who worked there with me know those were the best days of that best-of-jobs.

While having a job you truly love is really a wonderful thing, if, for some reason, you don't have that job any longer you will spend the rest of your working life looking for a job to match it.  Sometimes I wonder why I never found a job like that again, and I suspect that more than a little of the reason is that I was young, and I didn't really have any other focuses in my life.  Even so, there were lots of other people there at the time who did have other important things going on in their lives, and they agree that it was a pretty great place to work.  I've spent lots of time in the years since then wondering and analyzing what exactly made it so great, and here's what I've come up with:

1. We were a community.  We cared about each other.  We did things together.  We played softball, and had parties, dressed up for holidays, and made each other laugh.  We were each others' counselors.  We were there for many of each others' big life events, and were the support system we sometimes took for granted.

2.  We were important an valued as employees and as coworkers.  The tone of a place comes from the top, and the top appreciated us! We mattered. We were asked, "How is it going in your room?  How was your weekend?  You got a new haircut - it's nice!" but it wasn't bullshit - the person asking really cared.  We were asked for things kindly, thanked personally and told on a regular basis that we did a great job. Our individual contributions were noticed and appreciated.

3. We were given challenging work by people who believed in us.  As a result, we believed even more in ourselves.  I can't say enough how much this meant to me in particular.  I - cannot - say - it - enough.

4.  We were treated as human beings with full lives.  If someone had something going on in his or her life, accommodations were made.  There was flexibility, consideration, understanding.  As a result, you felt as if you would put on your armor and fight for that place.

5. Our creative contributions were used and appreciated.  Thought of a new way of doing something?  Let's hear it!  If you had a real concern about something and things couldn't change, an explanation was given. We felt like our input mattered.

I miss you, friends and coworkers! At the start of another school year, I'll be thinking of all of you!

Making a set of Angel Wings - wall decor

    I saw this project on Pinterest. Not sure how it's going to turn out, but it looks easy enough. I found some shapes I like on the web, and I taped together about 4 sheets of newspaper to make one large sheet for me to sketch my

shape onto. 

     I sketched a preliminary angel wing shape, then tweeked it a bit by cutting and taping here and there - mostly so the shoe fit onto the cardboard box I had in mind to use.

     I traced it onto the box with a Sharpie, cut it out two of them with my

box cutter, and here I am, ready to cut out individual feathers. I plan to glue them on with a hot glue gun, then paper mâché to unify the wing. Wish me luck. I was planning to hang it in my

daughter's room but she is very opinionated, and she's telling me that they won't fit. We'll see - if they don't, maybe I'll find someplace else to hang them!

Finished Paper Maché Trout

I finished another project.  I'm not sure if I like the paint job, but I'm giving myself kudos for finishing this.  Sometimes you just have to get over your original picture in your head and move on.   Here's how it went:

After my last post, I sanded the fish a bit.  Not too much, just enough to take the really rough spots off.

Believe it or not, this stuff dries hard enough that I could have sanded for quite a while before I got a really smooth texture.  I might use a top layer of something smooth next time if I want a really smooth texture - I could probably use the back side of used copy paper…

Next I researched online to see if I could find any pictures with colors I really liked.  My favorite was this one.  

I liked all the colors.  

I started painting….

… and I was really lukewarm about the results.  When you layer the paint on thick, it does tend to soften up the paper maché layers again, which added to my annoyance.  I had to let it dry and think on it.  

I decided to water down the dark green color and add some spots.  I briefly thought about painting over the whole thing in a less realistic, more folk art color scheme, but then enough is enough, you know?  I have a couple of other things I want to work on, and now this fish is standing in my way!

Now that it has those few added features, I can live with it.  I added some Mod Podge for shine, and I was thinking of maybe putting on some fine, clear glitter.  But then again, I might not.  I'm not sure the hubby wants it in his den, so, since it is 4 feet long, the big question is…

What do I do with it?  

LOL

Progress on the Paper Maché Trout...

Here's an update on my paper maché trout.  It's going well, and moving along quickly, thanks to the dehumidifier in my basement!  It's just about 48" long from nose to tail.  I'm still finishing the Bounty paper towel layer (the back side of what you see is still just covered in the craft paper.  The front portion is impressively sturdy - almost like thick plastic.  I'm not going to strive for absolute smooth perfection, although I think I WILL sand it a bit when the paper towel layer is finished and dry.  I think the slight bumps and valleys will contribute to the hand-done look.  I'm anticipating being at the painting stage by the weekend.  My spouse better deem this "Den Worthy" or I may have to put it on Ebay.

I can't wait to try more shapes!  

Revisiting the Paper Maché Fish Idea

I've had a hankering for some paper maché…  baking, although it involves squishy flour and water mixtures, is just not cutting it.  But how does one decide what one wants to make?  I keep picturing a very large fish hanging up like someone just caught it - but this one is very colorful - a joy to look at, so that's what I decided to make. Plus, this reminds me of summer!

My last attempt at a paper maché fish was not coming out the way I wanted.  It's still in the basement, unfinished. (I guess eventually I'll finish it…) With that fish, I was trying to make an armature I could use again and again, and I wanted the fish to be very light - paper maché ONLY - nothing inside.  With this one, I decided the armature would remain in the fish - so much easier and sturdier that way.

I started with a fish shape I liked.  I wanted the shape to be realistic, so I settled on this picture of a rainbow trout:

I found it with a quick google search.  It's the kind of fish shape a fisherman might get - you don't usually see fisherman with giant angelfish on their hooks.  

I bought a roll of poultry wire with 1" holes from Home Depot, cut a piece the length of my fish including the tail.

I folded the piece in half lengthwise, and sewed it closed with some floral wire.  This does not require any advance sewing skills - just loop the sides together with your wire.

 I stuffed the middle with a few bunched up pieces of wire to keep it from flattening.  

At this point, I had a tube with a tail.  Next I squished together the front end and tightened up the bulky, pointy sections by grabbing sections of wire with my needle nose pliers and twisting them slightly.  I tried not to do TOO much cutting, since experience has shown me that cut pieces of poultry wire are a pain - literally!  I wore my gloves whenever possible, and my fingers are very happy!

Then I consulted my picture and added some necessary fins where appropriate. 

Once I had the shape finished, I ripped by craft paper (from a package we received that used this as the packing material - recycling at its best!) into long strips and circled it around the fish.  I attached it by taping the ends and/or side edges with double-sided tape (LOVE my scrapbooking ATG gun!).  Where I couldn't attach to another piece of craft paper, I tucked the paper through the wire and taped it back into itself inside the fish.  It was a lot easier than I thought it would be, and it saved me loads of time by 1. giving my first layer of paper maché something to stick to, and 2. providing a separation between the goo and the table, making clean up SO much easier!

First I covered one side with a layer of paper maché, then I put it downstairs near the dehumidifier, and about 8 hours later, it was dry enough for me to cover the second side.  

Going to cover the remaining holes now, then look into my options.  I AM going to finish this fish, I promise!!  

If anyone has any ideas, techniques or questions, post away!

Later, friends!