Beetlegirl Design

...in the distant future

Yesterday, my sweetie passed his qualifying exam.  In other words, we have shifted from one transitory state to the next, this new one being the ambiguous period of dissertation research and writing.  At some unknown time in the distant future, he will complete said document, and be a professor of history. Because no one is ever too old for a stuffed animal, I made him a wiener dog from the above pictured book.  This is no average wiener dog either, but a French intellectual wiener dog named after Jean-Paul Sartre.  In three months my sweetie will depart for Paris, and Jean-Paul, Pesto, and I will hold down the fort at home until I can meet up with my boy in Paris for Christmas.  And so, this academic adventure continues.

Flora

I believe I might have mentioned this in past posts, but, be it fatal flaw or not, I rarely draw before I begin to create three dimensional forms.  I have always felt intimidated by the act of drawing.  To put it simply, what I envision in my mind and what I am able to put to paper do not translate to be the same idea.  This jump in patterning often leads to a process I call "play." 

My play last weekend was inspired by my surroundings.  When we moved to the central coast of California nearly two summers ago, which is within two hours of the city where I grew up, I was struck by the scents of my childhood.  In particular, that of wild  grass (not the domestic lawn variety). 

When I was small my neighborhood was not quite peopled yet, and where homes would be in the future, were lots of open fields of tall grass.  My brother and I spent hours building grass forts deep in the midst of these fields.  My family also went on lots of hikes and picnics out in the hills of the surrounding area.  Were I at my parents' house, I know exactly which picture I would include here: me, five or six, on a golden grassy hillside, running with my brothers, all the while blowing bubbles, with the knots of my hair hidden by the wind captured in the shot.  Scent-bound memories have rekindled when I returned to my home state.  Despite the tiny fact that I am highly allergic to grass and it makes my nose tingle and skin itch, I cannot help taking in full lungs of my childhood at this time of year. 

This is a long introduction for some soft-sculpture grass (that came out like sea kelp on the first attempt), but this is the memory that inspired the creation, and which the creation now inspires.

Beetlegirl Design Mascot

This needle-felted rhino beetle is now available in my Etsy shop.  I realize at this point that my signature beastie is a snail, but if Beetlegirl Design is to have a mascot, it would most certainly have to be the rhino beetle. 

A San Francisco Play Date

A foggy drive up the Pacific Coast Highway...a nostalgic ride on the BART to the Embarcadero.   A window shopping meandering through the Ferry Building Market...a walk from pier zero to pier 27.  A lung and knee exerting trek up the Filbert Steps...and a stomach filling lunch at the Fog City Diner.  A sensory overload walk through Chinatown to Union Square...a jostling ride on the Muni train to 11th street...and a wide-eyed adventure at the Discount Fabrics Warehouse.  Followed by more walking, another Muni ride, a goodbye, and a slow puttering along the coastal highway home.

It is a day later, but I am still too tired for grammar.

Productive Procrastination

...everything that could be dusted has been dusted, or vacuumed...vacuumed.  all the plants have been repotted  and watered, the ladybugs photographed and praised for their aphid eating, the craving for homemade cookies satisfied and documented.  staring contest with the wee fuzzy one who was trying to sneak off to dig in the carpet was won; wee fuzzy creature was also petted, and given banana.  emails have been returned, phone messages have been left.  craft area has been cleaned and prepped for three simultaneous projects.  eggs are on to boil to add to lunch.  blog has been nearly updated.

it seems my only option is now to do the one thing i intended to be doing all along...craft. 

happy saturday to you...may you get around to do the things you really want to.

Wee Snails and Other Tidbits

These three cuties are now in my Etsy shop.  They would have made their appearance sooner, but the first round of photos didn't quite turn out.  Today was my first experiment with only using natural light to photograph my snails, and I wish I had discovered this technique sooner.  It means moving the bunny cage whenever I shoot photos, but the wee fuzzy one seemed to think this was an exciting adventure, and I am more than happy with the resulting images.

These are the last few snails for the moment.  I am redirecting my focus for the next little while on my Plush You creations, and two plush projects that I hope to unveil in a month or so.  (More to come when my ideas have gained actual form.)  I also hope to make a few needle-felted rhino beetles available in the next week. 

Ta ta for today...and happy springtime to you.

Happy Thought

Yes, "x" is a letter.  This is precious. 

A few months ago I lucked upon this $1 copy of Richard Scarry's Chipmunk's ABC, as well as a $4 copy of Where the Wild Things Are.  This particular page is definitely my happy thought of late.  I simply cannot look at it without smiling. 

At some point I should also share with you my ultimate smile-inducing happy thought object: my Carol Zoo stuffed bunny on which I neglected to pay careful attention to where I was affixing the safety eyes.   

Departures

This weekend our two porch kitties from the apartment next door moved away, along with our cherished quiet neighbor.  We will miss "trouble" and "bear" (our own names for them), as will our own fuzzy one, who loved to taunt them at the patio door.  On a happier note, the birds already seem to have noticed the lack of kitty on the patios, and I had several little finches chattering and hopping through my potted garden yesterday afternoon.

We found out last Friday that my sweetie was accepted into the UC in Paris program.  There are only three positions available, and mister smarty pants got himself a TA position for Fall semester.  I won't be able to meet up with him until the semester is over due to my own job, but we will be spending Christmas in Paris together if all goes as we are presently pondering it.  I am still stumbling my way through how I feel about all of this emotionally.  I am proud of him, but simultaneously lonely and sad for myself as I cannot imagine spending a third of a year without my partner in crime of eight years.  I do imagine that our wee apartment will become an epicenter of craft, and that I will fill my soft-sculpture bestiary with friends to keep the fuzzy one and I company.  And that I will dream up the most fabulous packages to send to my sweetie.  I know I will have adventures of my own while he is away, and that my friends and family will chase me out of doors, but at the moment, I keep coming back to what it will feel like to drop him off at the airport and go to bed alone that first night and the nights thereafter.  So, I am feeling a bit emo at the moment, but I do have a craft table covered in multiple projects that are begging for completion.  And nothing is more comforting than a cup of coffee, some hand-sewing, and a bunny named Pesto sitting on my feet.

   

All Things Handmade: The MiniBlog

This is simply a wee shout out to the lovely miniblog: All Things Handmade, of which I am a happy participant.  If you have ever spent an afternoon, or a week of afternoons sifting through Etsy, you know how overwhelming the number of shops and categories can be at times.  All Things Handmade was created by Etsy sellers as a means to extend the Etsy community and further promote the shops of the many talented Etsy creators.  The format is extremely user friendly and focused on highlighting just a few spotlighted items from each seller's shop.  Being a visually oriented individual myself, I love that I can easily identify the general aesthetic of particular Etsy sellers, simply by scanning a category page of the miniblog.  So, if you haven't yet visited the miniblog, I highly recommend you do, and if you haven't yet joined, now is the perfect opportunity to expand your own networking beyond Etsy, while maintaining your ties to the Etsy community.  For information on joining, please go here.

My Morning Walk

Now that the light is again waking when I do, and not after, I am revisiting my morning walk routine.  I have witnessed some incredible mornings through the course of my walks.  One such morning I saw the sun rise red through the smoke of fires in the hills, and on another, a thin fog with the sun shinning behind it made the water appear as silver as mercury.  I have promised myself that when I leave this odd, but visually stunning city, one regret I will not have is not taking advantage of my proximity to the ocean. 

P.S.  Fear not, I am in the midst of crafting, I simply do not have anything photo worthy as of yet.