Things I bought

Well I wanted to post this on a Thursday to follow my "Things I Bought Thursday" theme but it just didn't work out that I had the time on a Thursday so you are getting it today!!! I recently bought myself two tiny birthday presents with my birthday money.

First up is an adorable little bear by Knitting Dreams on Etsy. I have been a fan of Knitting Dreams for quite awhile now and am so excited to finally own one of her little guys. This is Gilbert and you can get your very own if you want as they are not one of a kind. He is so cute! I love his little hat most of all.

And the second little one was a really exciting purchase. I have been a huge fan of Brewer's Bruins for so many years now. I found this little gal on ebay last week for a tiny fraction of what these bears retail for. I was sooo happy!!! I was also very happy to find out that in person her bears are so well made and detailed....definitely worth the purchase! I went to find her website to show you more of her work and it appears to no longer exist. Here is someone that sells Brewer's Bruins patterns though. You can see more of her adorable little guys there.

Thanks for sharing in my new additions!

Maine Part 3

Hey all... I wanted to finish up with the last day I spent in Maine. It was the first day since leaving the west coast that I got to sleep in. When I woke up the sun was shining and I sat out on the porch in the sunshine reading for several hours. Awesome! We had a BBQ in the afternoon with the newlyweds and other friends.

Later we walked down to the beach and messed around. It was a totally relaxing perfect vacation day.

Maine Part 2

Wedding day!!!! We started at 8 am on Saturday by heading to the salon where all of us bridesmaids, as well as the bride, got beautified. Then it was off to get a snack and then back to the homestead to get ready. Momma Lomba hired a limo to take us to the wedding so after being dropped off we were ready to go. It all went by pretty much at light speed and they were married.

Wedding party....

Reception...

Dance party!!!

And then there was more dancing back at the house but I was so tired and my feet were killing me. After I sat down when I got back up I almost collapsed. So like the geek that I am I went to bed before everyone else. As Tim says, "best wedding ever!!!"

Maine Part 1

Well I was thinking I was going to write one post about my trip to Maine for my pals Sarah and Adam's wedding but I was looking through all the pictures and I decided it would probably be best to do three posts, one for each day I was there. I was honored when Sarah asked me to be in the wedding as a bridesmaid and I had so much fun traveling to Maine and meeting all the people I have heard so much about for so long.

Sarah and Adam are from the east coast but live out here in the west due to Adam's work. I was so lucky to meet them....they are my bestest friends!!! Unfortunately because of school obligations I was only able to be gone from Thursday until yesterday as I had school bright and early this morning. I am so tired but happy!!!

I left for Maine from Katrina's house in Portland OR at 4:30 am on Thursday morning. I had a layover in Chicago and then flew into Portland ME in the evening. Sarah was waiting and I was so happy to see her!!! We went for a quick dinner with the boys and then to her Mom's house where we all collapsed around 10pm. Her family had been working all evening on paper flowers for the wedding. I wish I would have taken a picture of her Mom's house because it was sooo old and neat... Sarah probably has a picture somewhere but I am too tired to search for it.

Friday morning Sarah and her Mom got up at 4 in the morning to start working on cupcakes and other projects. Good lord it felt like 1 in the morning to me so they kindly didn't wake me up until around 7. We had to get ready and get out to Bailey Island where the wedding was going to take place. There were so many things to set up and decorate. The delivery truck arrived around 9 with the tables, chairs, dishes, etc. Sarah's family is so awesome and between her Mom, Dad, brothers, brother's girlfriend and me we worked our butts off. Her brothers spent most of the day putting together all these paper lanterns and they looked so cool at the end.

Sarah!

Her brothers were hilarious putting them up. I was laughing so hard my face hurt. By the end they were wearing them!

Papa Lomba and her brothers figuring all the decorations out.

Sarah's Mom and her brother's girlfriend putting up pretty lights.

Sarah and Adam got married at a cove and the reception was in a building nearby called library hall. It was so fun to see all the decorations that Sarah worked so hard on all year coming together so beautifully.

Sarah's fiance and groomsman Tim hanging out at the wedding party table.

Later that night was the rehearsal dinner at Cook's Lobster House. I had never tried lobster so I was excited to give it a go. Turns out it is not my favorite food in the world but I did enjoy learning about the proper way to eat a lobster. We also had steamed clams (also yuck), corn on the cob, potatoes and a delicious Maine blueberry cake. Here's Sarah and Adam towards the end of the night.

That night and for the rest of my stay I was at a rental house with a bunch of people. I will post more about that tomorrow. Now I will probably be passing out shortly because I have so much homework to catch up on tomorrow. Ta-ta for now!

See You Soon!

It's been quite a while since I posted and it hasn't been because I don't have new things to show and it isn't because I don't have anything to say. I haven't posted because the things I have to show are a secret and the things I have to say are negative. I guess I have been in a bit of a funk and pretty much everything has been irritating me. No one wants to read about that! Today I thought of a couple positive things so it felt like a good day to write a new post.

The postcard above is the back of a RSVP card for my pal Sarah's wedding in Maine that is coming up on May 15th. They asked everyone to draw them a picture on the back of the card before sending it back.

I am so happy that I will be traveling to Maine for the wedding and I am also super excited to be a bridesmaid. The secret work in progress is a plush present for her and her man. I can't post any pictures until afterwards or she will see them duh! :)
This is my new hair I got today. I have always liked doing funky things with my hair and since I no longer have a job I thought it might possibly be my last chance to do something colorful. I think I like it... It definitely looks brighter in these outside pictures. Fun!

Argus

Hey all! The Plushteam's March/April challenge is "World Mythology Plush". There are several categories including gods/goddesses, magical artifacts, magical creatures and mortals/demigods. Even though the challenge was announced quite a while back it took me a while to get in the groove. On the surface it sounded like an awesome challenge. I love mythology from all parts of the world so I thought I would have no problem finding something to make. However when I started looking on various websites I realized that many mythical characters are human or part human and I really didn't want to make a person (or at least I couldn't envision how to make a human). Then I found this site called MusesRealm.net. They have a magical creatures and beings area with tons of creatures listed in alphabetical order. I nearly looked and read every single one but settled on one of the first ones I saw, Argus, a giant with 100 eyes.

Here is his description from the site:

"Argus was a Giant with 100 eyes that were placed all over his body. He never closed all of his eyes at once, sleeping with at least half of them open. For this reason he made an excellent guard. The Goddess Hera had him guard the maiden Io, a lover of Zeus who had been turned into a white cow. Zeus sent Hermes to rescue the maiden, which the god was able to do by singing to Argus and getting him to close all of his eyes. When Argus was completely asleep and unaware, Hermes killed him. In return for his service and sacrifice, Hera placed his eyes onto the tail feathers of the peacock, a bird which from then on has been sacred to the Goddess."

This is my original sketch of Argus:

It's funny how different a plush can come out from the original sketch (at least for me). I guess he came out pretty much like the drawing except for the face. I like them both. :)

A little bit about my Argus... He is about 13 inches tall from his toes to the tip of his head. He is made from a shaggy blue fake fur and a complimentary blue fleece. He does have 100 eyes all over his body (hopefully). I have to admit he may or may not have 100 total eyes although I am pretty sure he does. Due to some confusion and a couple breaking off I did lose track once or twice. It was a lot of eyes! All of the eyes except a couple are glass (the ones that aren't are plastic) and they are all different sizes and colors. I love how they hide in his fur.

Argus has a lot of details such as a ton of needle sculpting on his hands and face. His fingers are wired and need to be bent so he can stand but you can unbend them if you want.

His nose has warts as you can see in this picture.

When he was done I decided he needed something to break up the blue body so I made him a vest. It is made from brown wool felt with misc. fur and felt patchwork added. There is also a wooden button to finish it off.

My Argus came out sweet and he even loves other creatures.

He is weighted in his feet and stands freely. His arms are jointed at the shoulder with plastic joints so they do move. His legs are not jointed and don't move.

The biggest problem I have found with working on these challenges and plush that is so different from what I normally do is that when the piece is completed I don't want to sell them. I am creating plush that I would buy...maybe that is good but it isn't so good when it comes to responsibility and the need for $.

What do you think of him?

Sunshine Adventure With Maisy Part 2

Remember when I said there would be an adventure with Maisy part 2 and we would walk the other way at Alton Baker park? Well we never did it over spring break but we did today! Over the past week we, here in Eugene, have been hammered by a storm that has given us a ton of rain, wind and even some hail/snow. The weather has kept Maisy and I from going to the park but this morning when we got up the sun was shining and the news said it would be in the high 60's today. Even though I had a ton of homework we couldn't spend the day inside so we headed to Alton Baker and started at the duck pond.

The pond is funny because it is all cement with lots of poop. I was pleasantly surprised to find a fence up because they are remodeling the pond to be less poopy and more natural. Once my Mom and I brought one of my little cousins to the pond when he was around 3 and he slipped on the bird poop and rolled into the pond. It was pretty funny (the water is really shallow and it shocked him more than was dangerous). Anyhoo I thought this sign was funny as if anyone would attempt to swim in the slime. The seagull on top is cute.

Off we go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was super hard for me to get a picture of this graffiti because it was under the bridge and like I said before Maisy is afraid of everything especially the noise of cars zooming by overhead. I liked it but I wondered if the blue was covering up a cool face.

Maisy was ready for dip when we reached an old boat ramp on the river.

Halfway bridge!

Pretty view of the river from the bridge.

Geese!

So I forgot to bring a poop bag and Maisy was acting like she was about ready to unload one so I was taking her off in the bushes in the hopes that should the time come she would discreetly excrete where no one could see her. You know how dogs always go at just the wrong time (like right in front of a bike cop or in the park sand box just as a daycare center arrives). Well anyway while we were traipsing through the bushes I found this stencil and I thought it was pretty cool. Guess you never know what you will find when you are on the hunt for a perfect poo spot. Oh and p.s. she never ended up going.. whew..

Hope you had fun coming with us on our adventure walk! Sorry about all the talk about poop!

Are you Sick of them Yet?

I snapped a couple pictures of my Blythe and my Pullip today. They both have new outfits from the toy store. I am amassing quite a collection of clothing from Liv dolls and also I bought one Wizards of Waverly Place doll whose clothes fit them. Don't they look cute!!??