These Goats Are No Joke

No--they're very serious. They're for the the-a-ter.

In a break from portraiting, I've been solemnly (ahem) crafting three goat costumes for Annabelle's upcoming production of a "fractured fairy tale" version of "Three Billy Goats Gruff," in which she plays a cranky teenaged, yes, goat.
In case you're itching to have a goat hat of your own, though, for less lofty purposes (greeting your husband at the door? frightening the neighbor kids? eating grass?), here are some of the making details:

The hat and ears are made from this gorgeous organic sherpa--soft and furry and all-around dreamy. (Hey, Dory!) I cut two ear-shaped layers of sherpa and sewd them together right-sides facing and turned out. I made the hat using this tutorial, though I obviously omitted the drawstring/ribbon detail. I got horn advice from the genius of all-things-softie-pattern (Hey, Abby!) and drew a curved horn shape on brown wool felt, put this "pattern" over another piece of felt, followed the pencil line with my sewing-machine needle, cut around the shape, turned it out (the hardest part--I've got to invest in a hemostat!), and stuffed it. In the end, I just machine sewed all the parts onto the hat as best I could. (Picture me jamming layers of fluff under the presser foot and praying for the best.)

I kind of love the end result--and I only have to make two more!

Feeling Tah-Dah-ish

I finished one! I had such fun making this family portrait--Kristen, the mom with the beautiful red mouth, requested those birch trees, and I love making birch trees. Beyond the background, though, this little crew just spoke to me. Sometimes I receive the client's images and I think, "Oh, yes." A kind of chemistry maybe?
And I always feel like critters make a portrait come to life. Increasingly people are ordering pieces with pets included, and I can see why.
Well, my belly's full of what might have been the season's last soup (Broccoli Bisque), and I'm off to read The Subtle Knife with Miss A. Have a lovely Sunday afternoon, friends.

Battening the (Emotional) Hatches

This morning, at the other end of my second work surface (a.k.a. "the dining table"), while I sat sewing felt heads to linen canvas, a little girl sat with her math workbook. There are some real challenges to home schooling a twelve-year-old--at least this twelve-year-old (who is wickedly smart and terrifically funny but also stubborn as heck). Some mornings devolve into a battle of the wills before I'm in my street clothes, for instance, but this morning, seeing her there, working quietly and so close by, I felt a rush of love and gratitude (for the girl, for my life) of the kind that will get me through this afternoon's battles.

Progress--

--including my first pair of (worn-on-the-eyes) felt sunglasses! Miss A. helped me work out the effect, which entailed making the glasses (black rims sewn onto brown "lenses") and then stitching the eyes directly onto said lenses. Felty problem solving is my favorite part of portrait making, I think. When I figure out how to do something fiddle-y (with the help of my trusty assistant), I get so excited!

The "Recovering" Academic Gets Back on the Wagon

Grade final exams, papers, and portfolios? Check.

Calculate and post final grades? Check.

Celebrate with a burrito the size of my arm and two episodes of Mad Men? Yes, ma'am.

Return full force to portraiting? You betcha.

(This felty trio is awaiting the addition of their two puppies and, you know, their faces.)

This is a stick up.

Actually, it's a magnet. A set of magnets. A gloriously clever little set of pretty magnets for embroidery geeks, and I won it!
I almost never enter giveaways, feeling as I do about the accumulation of stuff, but when my friend Corinne posted these babies on her blog, I didn't hesitate, and voila! They're mine!

(I photographed them next to the window because, yes, it's still raining here. What do May showers bring? June . . . bugs?)

A Dozen Years of Girl

As I sit portraiting this afternoon, I'm enjoying the left over festival effect of Annabelle's birthday table--gorgeous flowers that foretell summer, criss-crossed bunting overhead. (The rosettes on a string came from this tutorial--try it--it's easy and lovely.)
Twelve-year-old wish, I wonder what you are.

Have you ever seen the rain?

Wanted to let you know that this sweet pair of critters in a puddle are available in the shop today, and more of their ilk will follow as I get better pictures of the other pieces that returned from Wintergreen. (If there was something you saw that you wanted from those in-progress shots, feel free to let me know, and if I still have it, I'll gladly create a reserved listing for you.)

Weather or not...

It's a rainy May so far, which is good for, you know, flowers and whatnot, not so good for photos--or for my energy level. It's been a long semester, my friends. I taught more than is usual for me (since quitting my full-time job), and some things suffered as a result. I am looking forward to the summer for so many reasons, not the least of which is an energetic return to more making and more blogging. I'm itching to create a tutorial, to think again about a portrait contest, to write a book proposal before the kind souls that asked for it change their minds. Come on, final exams! Come on, sun! :-)