I haven't made a parade float for the library in years.  This year though, the library is putting an operating levy on the ballot and I thought we needed to be a presence in the annual Grand Fair parade. At first, I was going to make an igloo from milk cartons with the theme being "S'now Better Time to Read", but the Mom and baby I had in mind to ride the float turned me down, so I had to think of something else.

The fair had a weather theme...it was "Forecasting Record Fun at the Pemberville Fair". 

I decided to go with a pun, because well, I always go with a pun.

I decided I would make a giant goose, and dress up as Mother Goose, with the float theme being,  Fair Weather..."Fowl" Weather.

I had leftover cardboard from a local church's bible school. I believe this was a flying saucer for them.

I painted all the pieces white, as I knew the "feathers" that I would have covering the goose might show any color underneath. It was a white goose afterall.  I built a wooden frame to hold the goose down and strapped it to the trailer. I also added furring strips to the inside to give it added strength. The cardboard was held together with zip ties - my favorite cardboard construction tool.

The feathers were made from quilt batting. I used a low loft batting as it was cheaper. I looked at photos of feather patterns on geese so it would look more real. The feathers were applied with a staple gun, with hot glue holding down loose ends. I also used white spray paint to give the feathers a more shadowed effect.

The head and neck were built from concrete forms which can be purchased pretty inexpensively at Home Depot. I used 2 twelve inch wide forms, and one smaller form for the beak. After I cut the pieces, I taped them, and primed the entire head with white paint. I added feathers for the white part of the head and used orange tissue paper on the beak. I covered it with Mod Podge, so in case it rained, the bill would not drip orange!

I added eyes made from sparkly fun foam. It was sticky-backed foam, but I didn't trust it to stick, so I added a screw into the head to hold them in place. All I needed was for an eye to fall off mid-parade.
Parade day was beautiful. I made myself a Mother Goose costume. The skirt used $5.50 worth of a blue/green plaid material from a garage sale, and I cut a blue tank top down the middle to give sort of a bustier effect. I borrowed a witch hat from my daughter and added some ribbon to it, and I made a mob cap out of white scrap material I had lying around. My shawl was a vintage tablecloth!

The parade day was beautiful and I was glad we participated. The light parade is coming up in December! I will have to start thinking of ideas!

Using the resources provided for us!

This past week my Director looked up at the mobiles made from tree branches with Ellison die cardinals in them (that are hanging from the children's room lights) and asked what I was going to put up there for summer. This was a fair question considering those branches have been up there since the first weekend of December. I have to say though, I have never received so many compliments on any idea before. And it was so simple.  Naked branches with a red cardinal in each...the perfect winter decor. I thought about adding spring blossoms to them with tissue paper, but I was so busy with decor for Summer Reading Program workshop that it just didn't happen.

So anyways...back to the question...what was going to replace the cardinals? I hadn't considered it at all.  The Dig Into Reading theme is all about underground and when you are hanging things up, well...how do you hang up the underground?  And then it came to me, hang up "slices" of the underground with underground dwelling animals in them. At first I thought I would just use brown posterboard, cut out tunnels and laminate the creatures inside....but I don't have a laminator that is big enough. Then I looked at this year's poster. It showed underground burrows with yellow backgrounds. I could cut out burrows and glue yellow posterboard over the openings.

The best thing of all though, is that I could use Scott Nash's wonderful illustrations that were mine to use as they came on my SRP cd-rom. I enlarged them to the size I wanted and also copied and pasted to a second page which I then flipped horizontally...this way I could hang them up and they would be double-sided.

I cut out the brown posterboard first, traced the cut out part over the yellow posterboard, cut the yellow posterboard out with about 1/2" overhang and glued the yellow posterboard over the opening on the brown posterboard. I used clear tacky glue and put it on the floor of the storytime room with heavy encyclopedias on it to keep it from warping.  I cut out the Scott Nash characters (in color!) and when the posterboard was dry, I glue-sticked them to the inside of the burrows. I used my thin sharpie marker to make the details that had been cut off...the mouses tail and whiskers, the porcupine's quills, the hatch-mark shadowing.

 I used markers to add the detail to the layers of dirt, and I cut the bottom of the brown posterboard so it wasn't perfectly straight.  To hang them up I will use punch a couple holes through the top and hang it with monofilament.  So that's it, my easy idea. I let Scott Nash do all the artwork and all I had to do was cut and past. And a little shadowing.

Puppy Storytime

Last night we had a puppy storytime at the library. I haven't ordered "Charley's First Night" by Amy Hest with adorable illustrations by Helen Oxenbury, or I would have definitely used it.

 The books I included were "Some Dog" by Mary Casanova,







 "Good Boy Fergus" by David Shannon,







 and "Little Dog Lost: the True Story of a Brave Dog Named Baltic" by Monica Carnesi




I have done quite a few dog storytimes, and I needed a new craft. After looking online for a dog front and back template, I thought to myself..."I am capable of drawing something better than that."  I drew my pup front and back and made copies of it on cardstock. My storytime kids are pretty young, so I cut the shapes out myself, leaving the coloring, folding and gluing up to them. Each dog will need a strip of paper (approximately 2" x11.5)  This will be accordion folded and glued to the front and back of the dog. Please glue the folds so they face sideways and not up and down. If you glue up and down, the dog will sit down, and I think the kids would prefer that they stand.  I wish I had thought to take pictures of the finished dogs that were every color of the rainbow. 

Here is my sample: 


And here is the template. Feel free to use it.

Lilly and I share an appreciation for 1960s fashion, especially dresses from the mod era.  Anything that Twiggy would wear. And most especially an appreciation for Yves St. Laurent's 1965 Mondrian dress.  I decided I would try to make a version of this iconic dress, using a vintage pattern.  I found Vogue 4304 at an estate sale, and decided that, with some modification, this pattern could provide the basic outline of the dress.  I modified that pattern by removing all darts. I also used a finished Vogue Paris Original 1715 dress (designed by Patou) to give me some guidelines as to where the dress would be divided into rectangles.

    It was no trouble to find a nice solid knit at Joann Fabrics, however, I couldn't find a blue (too royal!), or a yellow (too orange!) that would suit. I ended up purchasing a blue polo shirt and a yellow polo shirt that were closer to the original colors at a thrift store. They were very inexpensive and I didn't feel wasteful cutting them up for fabric.

  I also bought a lighter white knit to be used as lining for each piece. I felt that if I didn't use lining, all my careful cutting would pull and stretch. One of the reasons this dress took so long was that I hand basted each piece of lining on to the dress fabric. I was being meticulous, but now that I'm done, I'm happy with the results. And here they are!

I did it! I did it! uh-huh, uh-huh

Okay that is me being all celebration-y. I sewed 4 bridesmaid's dresses, 4 junior bridesmaid's dresses, one flower girl dress (which was definitely more of an alteration of a dress I previously made...but still counts!) and one bride's dress. And veil. And it isn't even July yet. So there. I did it.

The past couple of weeks I would wake up in the morning with bridal dress anxiety and could not get back to sleep and would have to get up and sew. I would just be lying there thinking that I had to hem something or put a zipper in or what have you and no matter how hard I tried to think of something else, I could not get that thought out of my mind. So that's gone. I don't seem to be having any anxiety about hemming Al's pants or taking my dress in. I'll get around to that.

Maybe now that I'm done with major sewing I can also hang up all the things for my sewing room wall....thimble cabinet, thread and bobbin holders, bulletin board...maybe I can get that done on Friday afternoon. Now that we're just 2 weeks ahead of the wedding, it may be time to start the major cleaning. Cleaning that includes interiors of stove and fridge. Making sure that cobwebs around the ceilings are gone. Steam cleaning the carpets...I would so rather have them replaced. "Sorry, I don't want to vacuum these ever again, just rip em out and replace with hardwoods." Oh, sorry, I was having my lottery winner fantasy day dream again.

Oh, another word about the dress. Did you know that sewing patterns are sized for B cups? How many people out there are that size? Why do they not warn you, or tell you how you can adjust your patterns to fit someone larger? (the majority of women I would say) Thanks to this website's tutorial, (sewmamasew.com) the wedding dress fits. I would still be struggling with fit if I hadn't found this site. Can anyone say serendipitous?

It Must be Summer if We've Got the Air Conditioning on...

...either that, or spring is very humid. Yes, it is humid consistently, and although I am not a big fan of air conditioning in warmer weather, I am an unpleasant person when its humid. Everyone is spared my unpleasantness when the air conditioning is on. Although I do tend to look longingly at the back porch. (I could be sitting out there reading a magazine and enjoying the flowers blooming in the garden!) Please humidity, go away a bit.

I'm workin on the dress. The important dress. I am actually researching how to put the boning in correctly. The whole bodice is quite a piece of construction if you do it right. I may have an engineering degree when its all over. We dropped the waist about 4 inches which is a huge change to the look of this dress. It may end up looking quite different from what we envisioned. As long as it looks good.

As a back up I have a white bedsheet and white duct tape. Its called draping.

I am sort of thinking I may not wear my vintage hat which makes me sort of sad, because if you can't wear a hat to a wedding, well then, where can you wear a hat? As a matter of fact after being pooped on a by a pigeon with excellent aim at A.J.'s wedding, I would even say that wearing a hat is advisable. That was right before we got into the church. And all over my hair! Damn pigeons.

My dress was to be the last one I made, but now I am wondering if I will really have time to make myself a dress. Attention must be paid to the bride's dress and I do not want to rush it. (okay, the bodice is done- fetch me the bedazzler!) Also, when I looked at Joann Fabric the other day, I did not see fabric I liked in the color I wanted. Actually, I found the perfect color and pattern but the fabric was so heavy...unadvisable for July.

The better half and I went suit/dress shopping the other week which was a painful experience. My daughters know all too well that I am at my most impatient if I have to wait for someone to try things on. It turns on my boredom overheating sign or something. I also do not like pushy salespeople and lines for trying things on. The place we found the suit had lines for the dressing room, so after trying on the jacket we went to Dillards to look for a dress for me. (after promising we would come back to try on the suit). Right away the saleswoman was offering to help me. After finding out that I was a Mother of the Bride, (thanks Al!) she tried steering me toward these bespangled long dresses that screamed MOTHER OF THE BRIDE!!! I HATE those dresses...H-A-T-E! As in barf and yuck. She kept offering her "help" and I just wanted to be left alone to try on...it added a whole new dimension of pressure and unpleasantness to the experience.

We also stopped at the Dillards at Fallen Timbers where the saleslady was just pleasant, not pushy, and only as helpful as I needed her to be...Thank God! Unfortunately, I didn't find a dress there either. Again, bedsheet and duct tape. Afterall Duct Tape comes in so many attractive colors now...maybe Tiffany Blue!

The good thing was that Al found a suit that looks lovely on him. I need to hem the pants. (Duct tape again!)

I am in the process of refinishing a coffee table for Kristin's apartment. It was considerably less of a buy than the other things we found the previous week because of its really lousy scratched up condition. I should have talked him down to 5 bucks. Anyways...its closer to being done and will look so much nicer than the cardboard box she is using now.

Oh, Summer Reading Program has started at work. We are very busy. So there's that too. I remember a time, so very long ago when summers were long weeks of time spent at the pool and playing kickball in Janet Craig's backyard. Oh sweet nostalgia.

Spring Break! Spring Break!

Good Lord, I didn't post at all last month. Okay, so blogging is one thing I am not accomplishing every day. I sewed a bridesmaids dress yesterday. I made another sample bodice to send to Leann, (the first was too small). I sewed Lil an Easter dress last Saturday from an old pattern of mine. So I am definitely sewing and enjoying it.

This past week I had a week off. We took an actual spring break trip which is a first for me. We went to Chicago and I enjoyed it and would go back. Maybe fewer museums next time, although I would go back to the Art Institute in a heartbeat. One of my favorite moments of this trip was climbing the staircase to the Impressionist galleries and seeing "Paris Street; Rainy Day" ahead. I was so thrilled I almost cried. Everywhere we went in that museum were paintings and artwork I was familiar with. It wasn't until we got home that I realized that the game "Masterpiece" used only artwork from the Art Institute of Chicago. I used these paintings to decorate my Barbie houses! (Apparently Al had this game too)

Just a word about the Shedd Aquarium's dolphin show. No, one word won't do it. Dissapointing? Hokey? Over-produced? Stupid? Yes, all of the above. The show is called Fantasea and pretends to pull a random girl out of the audience and about three seconds into that you realize that this girl is a plant. The trainers are dressed in these hideous costumes, they bring these panicked penguins down in front of the audience where hardly anyone can see them, they ask do you like Belugas? Do you like sea lions? And then there are neither sea lions or Belugas in the show. We really wanted to see the belugas and the new calf and his Mother were not on display...which I understand, but you couldn't provide a video camera for people to view them? After paying 30 bucks a person to get in? I really left the Shedd feeling ripped off. The whole audience was like..."That was it? We paid extra for that?" I wonder if Second City does a parody of this show...they should, it was so terrible.

I needed Friday as a mental health day (read: totally lazy do nothing day) and then I felt like sewing again. I have to wake up early if I'm going to sew. If I sleep past nine, the day is shot and I've lost all motivation. I am definitely an early morning type of person.

So tomorrow is back to work and I am sort of motivated to get my butt in gear for Summer Reading Program. Oh so much to do. And oh so much to do at home. It will get done.