It’s only January and I’ve already started sewing Easter ornaments and making them pose for photos. Obviously I’m a big Easter fan. I always have been. When I was a kid, the Easter Bunny came every year, bringing me and my sisters and brother baskets …
In 2010, Rob and I dug a little goldfish pond in our backyard and surrounded it with a picket fence that we stained dark green. Since the first day of its existence, the pond has been a big success. Very soon it was brimming with …
Over the rainy Thanksgiving weekend, Rob and I put up our Christmas tree and I started sewing some new felt ornaments for it. The cats got busy too—messing things up (lol). On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, as Carl splashed in the water in the tree stand and Becky, Softee, and Frankie napped and bathed themselves on the tree’s red flannel skirt, I sewed and listened over and over to Love at the Thanksgiving Day Parade, the best holiday romance movie ever.
By Monday I had finished a felt pig, a deer, and a penguin. The little pig is probably my favorite because her veil and pearls remind me of Jackie Kennedy—she’s quite elegant. But I think all three characters are pretty cute. I made sure to give everybody a few pink accessories so they’d match the camellia blossoms when we did our photo shoot in the yard on Monday afternoon.
This weekend I got to decorate the house for Halloween. It was a nice distraction from the news. I had quite a large stockpile of homemade ornaments, and I found a place for every one! Making ornaments helped me get through the worst of the …
Two Saturdays ago, I finished this ridiculous portrait of my teddy bear Cecilia. I spent a pleasant three weeks working on it, sitting at the dining room table in the evenings and on weekend mornings, the cats gathered around me to nap or take very …
I took these photos to document Cecilia and Winnie’s new outfits, which are quite elaborate and took months to find and put together. In April, May, and June, it seemed I was constantly scouring eBay for well-aged pinafores, petticoats, and pantaloons in extremely rare sizes. Almost everything the girls are wearing is antique or vintage, including their dainty jewelry.
The only thing that’s new is Winnie’s hilarious little crown. I made it out of cotton lace that I soaked in fabric stiffener so it would stand up straight. When the lace was still wet, I wrapped it around an old soy sauce bottle to give it a circular shape. I let it dry, glued the ends together, spray-painted it gold, and then embellished it with tiny fake pearls.
It’s very, very hard to find clothes that will fit chubby, potbellied stuffed animals, so my new plan is to buy a sewing machine and start sewing my own!
For several weeks in July I labored over this portrait of Josefa, a sweet little doll I adopted in 2019. It was a very challenging project for me as a beginner in acrylics. (I said “Crap!” a lot as I worked.) I had no idea …
I spent the last couple weeks painting this hilarious portrait of my teddy bear Marigold. (Yes, I know. I’m a ridiculous fool.) I worked on it every night after work and early in the morning on weekends. It was so much fun sitting at the …
It’s so much fun taking pictures of my toys, but I want to get better at it. I want to acquire some better props (a petite parasol, a pint-sized picnic basket, a very small vanity) and make use of more exotic locations (not just my own yard). I have ideas galore. For example, I have a little stuffed frog named Hammy, who wears a pink sweater, and I’d like to seat him on a real-life lily pad and have him strum a tiny guitar. I imagine pink waterlilies blooming in the background . . . and shimmering dragonflies cooperating fully in this photo shoot, striking the perfect pose.
