Thank You

"It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us the freedom to demonstrate. It is the soldier, not the lawyer, who has given us the right to a fair trial. It is the soldier, who salutes the flag, who serves under the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag...."

Father Dennis Edward O'Brien, USMC

Thank you to each and every one who has served and who is serving in the military. I appreciate the gifts you give us so much.

Chez Nick's Crackers with Toppings

Chez Nick's Crackers and Toppings
Originally uploaded by joanieponytail57

Yesterday afternoon my 10 year old son asked me if I wanted to see a menu. This means he wants to play restaurant.
The menu is hand drawn with pencil on a folded sheet of printer paper.
On the front in a decorative border it says "Menu."
Inside the menu reads :
Breakfast
crerios: brings down heart burn, made with honey

Lunch
sandwich: choose
crackers with toppings:
Ham, chedder, ollives and Deli crisp
chees sandwich: buns with melted chees

Beverges
Milk
Orange juich
slushie
water

On the opposite side are a hand-drawn tic-tac-to (with a note to remind me that x=kiss and o=hug), and maze and two coupons. One is for 3 cents off. The other, complete with a bar code, is for a free breakfast.

Next to the crackers with toppings listed on the menu is a circle with TOP!! inside. I'm sure that means that it is the chef's recommendation so that is what I ordered. You can see what I got.

Chef Nick is an artist.

Some Things I'm Looking At

Have you seen these wonderful colored pencil sculptures by Jennifer Maestre? She strings them together using a beading technique. It will certainly give you new respect for the humble pencil stub.
I have also been seeing lots of little houses. How cute are these little ornaments by Pimp Stitch? Complete with a tutorial.
Non dairy Diary has a template for a little house appropriate for elves, birds and even teddy bears. If you click on the link you find there you can see what she has done with the templates and download those.
Nichole Heady has a pattern for a birdhouse ornament here.
Last, there is a pattern from Cheeky Magpie for flat houses for all you two-dimensional friends

More Mail

More Mail
Originally uploaded by joanieponytail57

Here is an update on some mail I have recently received.
On the top, in the middle is a zine from peanut butter in Australia. It is for the Quote Zine swap on swap-bot. The very first quote in it is about peanut butter which I think is appropriate. She also used some techniques that I will keep in mind for future zines.
Below that, starting on the left are two ATC's from PansySuz. They are for the Thread Embellished ATC swap. The green one has a tassel on it. I love tassels and I never would have thought of if. Below that is one that has and interesting embroidered motif. It will be a fun technique to play around with.
In the middle is an ATC from Sabrina in Italy. It is for the Halloween ATC swap. Very cute.
Last, on the right, are two more Halloween ATC's. These are from USS Angell, though the one on bottom, with the cat was done by Lori Otto.
Everyone included extras which I have scattered about the picture. There were also some lovely fibers, which I forgot to include in the picture. Sigh.

Bookmark Box

Bookmark Box
Originally uploaded by joanieponytail57

I had a small container made from an envelope that I used to keep bookmarks in. Somehow I now have way too many bookmarks, so I needed a bigger container. Which gives me an excuse to make another plastic canvas box. I used one of the designs on the orange inchie container and a bunch of scrap yarn. I like it.
The problem is that there isn't room for many more bookmarks in it so I will have to make something else in the future. Probably in plastic canvas. With more of the scrap yarn. Or maybe with some not-scrap yarn which will give me more scraps for future projects. It's the circle, the circle of crafts.

Crocheted Christmas Ornaments

Crocheted Christmas Ornaments
Originally uploaded by joanieponytail57

These are from a pattern by Roxycraft. If you compare the bottom of the one on the far left with the next two, you will see that the middle ones have a pointer bottom. So does the one on the far right, but it is hard to see in the picture. To do that I made this change:
Round 1: ch 2; sc in 2nd chain from hook, 3 times; join with slst in first sc.
Round 2: ch 1; 2sc in each ch around; joing with slst in first sc.
Pick up pattern at its Round 2.
The three larger ornaments are for swap-bot, and are in colors from my partners' profiles. The small one is for me and is made with self-striping yarn, so no yarn changes.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Today is my mom's birthday. There is an elaborate mathematical formula for figuring her age that means she is now younger than me. In the how-old-would-you-be-if-you
-didn't-know-how-old-you-are model she is probably about 37.
Anyway, happy birthday, mom. It is especially important to wish her a happy birthday this year because she is having her kidney's pounded with sound waves to break up some stones today. That whole cake and conical hat and friends model of celebrating is just so last year, for those of you who, like me, are out of the loop.
Since she is not going the traditional route this year, I thought she might enjoy looking at some cool things I have been looking at this last week.
Mimi Kirchner has some wonderful pincushions here and here.
There are amazing paper sculptures here.
And because platelets seem to be important in the lives of my mom, who donates them, and my daughter, who went through a little episode when she was 3 where her body decided it did not need platelets cluttering things up (her body was wrong), I thought they would both enjoy seeing these happy little platelets (of love). I know they look like little suns, but they are platelets.
One last thing. You can find the pattern for the Matryoshka dolls here.

Matryoshka Dolls All in a Row

Matryoshka Dolls 2
Originally uploaded by joanieponytail57

Here is another shot of the dolls so you can see the little ties on their babushkas. I think you can also see the colors a bit better in this shot. The baby is wider than I would like but I made him first, and I didn't want to undo him. Dark thread, dark felt. Ooh, my eyes hurt just thinking about ripping it out. And yes, I could have made another one but he needs a family even if he is a tight squeeze.

Matryoshka Dolls Nested

Matryoshka Dolls Nested
Originally uploaded by joanieponytail57

This is a set of dolls I did for yet another swap on swap-bot. It is hard to tell in the picture but the mother doll is purple and the baby is dark blue. The person these are for said she likes jewel tones of blue, green, red and purple. I don't have jewel-toned green felt so this is what she got. After I embroidered the outlines on the mom's facial features I filled them in with colored pencil. I also gave the mom and little girl colored pencil roses for their cheeks. The flowers on the mom's and little girl's babushkas are hand embroidered.

Making Up Your Mind Is Over-Rated

Inchie Container
Originally uploaded by joanieponytail57

I signed up for the Inchie Container swap and had in mind to make the container out of plastic canvas because I really like to make boxes out of plastic canvas. Of course, if it turned out the partner I was assigned said something in her profile that made me think she would hate that, I would do something else. Turns out my partner did not say that -- that will teach her -- and that her favorite color is orange, so I made her this container with all sorts of (almost) one-inch motifs in mostly oranges.
Ah, but the day partners were assigned my copy of Crochet Today came in the mail and it had these cute baskets in three different sizes. I also like to crochet little containers. Really? Now I have to choose? Really? I hate that.
So she is getting both. So there. Hah!