What's-On-My-Work-Table? Wednesday: More Mercer Mayer

I was recently commissioned to make some more Mercer Mayer inspired Nubbins from someone who saw the Professor Wormbog inspired Nubbins I made for my husband's co-worker 2 years ago, and is a BIG Mercer Mayer fan.  This time, I have been challenged to do Little Critter! Luckily, I have a ready supply of my own Little Critter books from when I was a kid! No trip to the library was needed this time!

Preliminary sketch...

 Cut-out pieces...

 Placing buttons to get a feel of how the eyes will look with pupils.

I embroidered the pupils of the eyes to get that "illustrated" look... 

I still have to figure out how to do the hair and sew the buttons onto the straps of the "overalls", but I am so satisfied with how his face came out!

My next challenge that is a part of this commission is to do the "Little Monster" character (a character I was unfamiliar with until I got the book "Little Monster At School" at the thrift store!)  He's going to be much more of a challenge, since Little Monster's face is usually in profile...but I have a plan!  You'll have to stay tuned to see how I pull it off!

Tornado Warnings in NY??? (and Memories of Tornadoes in Kansas)

The day was mostly sunny and gorgeous yesterday while i sewed on the porch. But, in the late afternoon, dark clouds started rolling in...

(forgive the blurry photo. I took it with my phone and the focus isn't working right for some reason)

I kept expecting it to storm, but it didn't rain until just before CJ came home around 5:30, and then it downpoured. It only rained for a short time, but in that short time, the power went out in the whole town. We suspect that the wind blew a tree down into a power line or something. So, we decided to go into Medina for dinner. By the time we came home, the power was back on.

I heard there were tornado watches and warnings for Western NY, but they weren't near us. (I suspect we somehow have living so close to Lake Ontario to thank for that) Thank goodness! Living in Kansas in my childhood has made me really freaked out by tornadoes. I checked out some news articles on my phone while we were at the diner, and just the tornado precautions (ie: the safest place to be is in a basement, stay away from windows, etc) gave me anxious shivers because I remember all of the "what do do when a tornado is coming" stuff from childhood.

Of course, I know I shouldn't worry. God will take care of me (He has so far!) and whatever happens is His will.

*FYI: A tornado WATCH is when the weather conditions make a tornado likely. A tornado WARNING is when a tornado has actually been sighted. Watches don't scare me...warnings do!

But the funny thing is that the house we lived in in Kansas didn't have a proper basement...all it had was a crawlspace with a dirt floor! But when a tornado watch was in effect, friends of ours from church, who had a finished basement, would call us (knowing we had nothing but that crawlspace) and say "Tornado party at our house!" with the husband in the background, yelling, "Bring food!"

I never really saw a tornado, but I saw the damage that they did and saw the videos on the news. There was a big Tornado in 1991 in Wichita (not far from where I lived) that ripped through the Air Force base that my Dad worked at. It missed all the planes and weapons, but it demolished the base hospital where my mom worked (neither of my parents were there at the time). There is a video that a guy who lived in the barracks took of the tornado. It sticks in my mind (y'know...besides the tornado being SO CLOSE!) because you can hear a guy in the background yell "My car!!!" (skip to 2:21 on the YouTube video to hear it.) FYI: There's also a lot of swearing in the video (y'know...young, gutter-mouthed, military guys)...which I don't remember hearing as a kid, but I always saw it on TV, so all the cursing was edited out. Just watching it makes me tear up, thinking how terrifying being that close to it must be.

And the day before yesterday marked 20 years since it happened. I was 8 years old.

Polly & Me

During my visit to my grandma's house a few weeks ago, we were looking through this box of random photos, and I found these three pictures...

Yes, that blue-eyed baby is me! I had blue eyes for a long time when I was a baby, much to my mother's delight, who loves blue eyes and thought I would be dark haired with bright blue eyes. But then when I was two they changed to brown . Sorry Mom! I couldn't help it! I would have liked to have kept those lovely blue eyes too!

I have no idea how old I am in these (probably only a few months), but look who I'm hanging with! It's Polly Esther!

Even at such a young age, I loved my sock monkey!

I have a philosophy that every child needs a sock monkey. Until I started making my own plush toys, it was my go-to baby shower gift.

My First Christmas Gift...

There's a reason I have such a love for Sock Monkeys. This is picture of me sitting on Aunt Grandma's lap during my first Christmas (1982)...and guess what I have! My Sock Monkey, "Polly Esther"!

Every child needs a Sock Monkey! ;)

"Un-Toys"

A post on Apartment Therapy's kid blog Ohdeedoh sparked the memory of my favorite "un-toys" (things that aren't really toys that kids like to play with...like the classic empty cardboard box). Two of my favorite things to play with as a child were these two ceramic mice my mother had painted for me...a little boy mouse in overalls and a little girl mouse in a pink dress.


They were meant to be only for decoration, but I would play with them like they were little toy figurines. That's probably why they have chipped ears and feet now.

Other "un-toys" I enjoyed were bolsters, pillows, and blankets, which my brother and I would always use to make forts. (every kid knows blanket forts are the BEST!)

Thinking of "Aunt Grandma"...

I feel like I owe a lot of my crafty tendancies, as well as my love for rural, country life, to my Great Aunt Carrie, affectionately known as "Aunt Grandma". She was my father's mother's sister, his aunt, my great aunt. She lived on a farm where my dad spent his weekends and summers as a child. She and her husband "Uncle John" were was like a second set of parents to him, which would make them like grandparents to me. Apparently when I was two years old, I started calling them "Aunt Grandma" and "Papa Unk". When she wrote an autobiography of her life, she entitled it "Who is Aunt Grandma & Papa Unk?".


"Kira comes in like the wind and heads for the two toy boxes. She always has lots to do here... Kira has always called us "Aunt Gran’ma" and Pa Pa Unk". So now you know where the title came from. She is our Sweetie" - excerpt from "Who is Aunt Gran'ma & Papa Unk?"

Aunt Grandma liked to sew, and was good at it. I'm sure it comes from living through the Great Depression, where many people had to make due or make their own clothes. The thing I love about this old picture of me on her lap is that we are sitting at her sewing table (that my mother now has in her craft room) and you can see sock monkey pieces in the background, waiting to be assembled.

I wish I could say that the monkey in the picture above is the original sock monkey she made for me, but (alas!) it's not. The one in the picture is one I bought at Goodwill a couple years ago, for nostalgia's sake. But I believe I owe my love of sock monkeys (and by extention, sock monsters, and making them) to her.

My first sock monkey's name was Polly Esther (get it? Polyester?). In addition to the pun, the name had signifigance because I had an Aunt Esther (my mother's mother's sister), and she always wore bright red lipstick. I don't believe I was clever enough at such a young age to have figured all this out myself...I think it was really Mom and Grandma having fun.

Aunt Grandma and Grandma (mom's mom) made this quilt for me. It was my favorite blanket in childhood. Sadly, the quilt now is quite tattered and seems beyond repair...but I can't bear to part with it. I've had the idea to just cut a corner off and frame it, but it woud sadden me to throw the remainder away. So for now it covers my chair in my craft room.

Aunt Grandma was a wonderful woman, and I often wish she were still alive for me to appreciate her in ways I did not, or could not, when I was a child. She died at the age of 82 in 1993... if she was alive, she'd be 98 now. I'm glad she wrote her book so I can have it to remember her and read about her life...and marvel at how much she went through, and how much faith she had, and how much God did for her. I hope to organize her story with old family photos and possibly publish it someday. She truly was a remarkable and godly woman. Even though it's been 17 years since she passed away, I still miss her, and I look forward to seeing her again someday in heaven.

Terrible Yellow Eyes

I just discovered this delightful blog called Terrible Yellow Eyes. It has some wonderful artist interpretations of the childrens' classic "Where The Wild Things Are"...by various artists in various styles and mediums.

Can you believe, with my love of monsters, that I've never owned a copy of "Where The Wild Things Are"? It's been so long since I've read it... I should go to the library for a refresher. By the way, I absolutely can't wait for the movie to come out!

I'm feeling very inspired now to plan some "Wild Thing" Nubbins...one of Max and then one of the Wild Thing that is most recognizable...the one with the bulbous pink nose, horns, brown mane, round face and stripey body (most artists actually seem to favor this one).

Happy Children with Happy Monsters

There are a lot more children I have given my monsters to, but these are the ones I have pictures of with their monsters. (If anyone has any more pictures of kids with monsters I've made, please send them to me!)

Shana...my friend Karrie's daughter.

Holly...a girl at a church I was visiting.

Evan...Shana's brother.

Taylor...my niece.

Maria...my other niece (Taylor's sister).

Rayne...my soon-to-be niece.

Brian...my soon-to-be nephew (Rayne's brother).

Angela...the girl I used to be an aide for.

Maggie...my friend Rachel's daughter.

Caleb...my friend Amy's son.

Bedtime Stories on Tape

I was reading an article on Real Simple magazine's website, and saw this tip that was a blast from the past:

"If you travel a lot on business, record yourself reading your children’s favorite bedtime stories; they can listen to your voice as they flip through the book. Finish each night’s reading with a countdown of the days until you’re back home with them."

I used to have a cassette tape my mother made for me when I was little of her reading my favorite bedtime stories like "No One Knows Where Gobo Goes" and singing "Kumbya" at the end. I wish I knew whatever happened to that tape.

I still have this book though.