Beetlegirl Design

february bps postcard

This will be my last postcard for the Benevolent Postcard Society project.  I will continue to create paper collages and post those here, with the hopes of eventually having a few printed for my Etsy shop.  But, as my life is going to be a tad unpredictable for awhile, I have decided to be careful about the commitments I make in twenty-ten.  I wouldn't want to disappoint anyone waiting at the other end of the mailbox, should I find myself unable to snail mail from one month to the next.  Participating in the BPS has been a lovely nudge that inspired me to sort through my paper collection to see what might come of the bits and scraps.  It has also led me to ponder creating some of my paper creatures into three dimensional forms.  This year is going to be an adventure for me, and I am looking forward to seeing what new things I dream up as I begin to create for my daughter-to-be.

baby xx...

...yep, it's (going to be) a girl!

bunny mock-up

A particular wee fuzzy one might comment that my drafting a pattern for a bunny is far overdue.  In fact, the torn scrap paper with the original sketch for a bunny was drawn far over a year ago.  Somehow, the squirrel interceded, and now that I am not so pleased with the squirrel's tail, and need to reconsider that, shifting my attention to a bunny seems a more pleasant task.  This doesn't mean that the poor squirrels who have been waiting patiently to be stuffed for too many months now won't come to completion, it simply means that there are a plethora of bunnies (currently in the state of a pile of fabrics) waiting expectantly at the cutting board's edge.

This mock-up is one-third squirrel, the main body is the same, but all the other pieces are new.  I love all the bunnies that my fellow crafters have been creating, but, being that I am constantly kept company by a bunny of seven years, I wanted to create a bunny that resembled all of those parts of a bunny that I most adore.  This includes over-sized hips, slender little front paws, the nook at the nose, floppy ears (mini Holland lops truly have me by the heart strings), and a leaf-shaped tail. 

This will also be my very first attempt at a child-friendly soft-sculpture.  To date, it is also my first creation that does not require a wire armature.  I will have glass-eyed versions, but I will also be sewing up an all-organic fabric version, stuffed with bamboo or cotton, and with safety-jointed legs and eyes.  I intend to play around with some thread-jointed versions as well, and some bunnies who will be closer to a velveteen rabbit model without legs and arms entirely. 

Anyhoo, that is about it for now.  Off to convince my sweetie to change a dead light bulb so I can actually see what I am sewing.  

running on empty

 

I think this image sort of says it all.  I had a lovely wee whirlwind of a trip up to Oregon and back, but I am now slowly mucking through the repercussions of such excursions in my nearly two-thirds of the way there state.  The baby shower, the first of a few, was lovely, and due to the great talents of our friends, and of generations past, it seems our wee one is going to be swathed in knitted garb, which is absolutely fine with me. 

So, I am off to ponder the wind and rain over a cup of lemon-ginger tea, and slowly attempt to recapture the enthusiasm I had for the bunnies and squirrels on my cutting board.

10 years in the making

Ten years ago this afternoon, my sweetie and I became boyfriend and girlfriend at the tender ages of 21 and 22.  He, an undergrad historian and dishwasher by day, and playing in a nerd rock band by night, and me, an undecided undergrad (perpetually anticipating the creative writing major that was never visualized) who ate little but toast from the oven broiler, and as shy as I was, assisted with ballroom dance classes by night.  He wooed me with cake, and with a patience that hasn’t faltered to this day.

Ten years later, he continues to be an academic, and I continue to wander and explore in an endless adventure to determine what it is that I would like to be when I grow up.  Throughout the decade we have spent together, we have lived here and there, and traveled near and far, lived together and apart, thought we were broke only to find ourselves even more so (and oddly enough, happier too), experienced tragic losses and near misses, supported one another’s creative ventures, celebrated our own exchange of vows, and traded smaller, but more critical, vows…to continue to support one another’s independence, individuality, and to treat one another fairly and honestly.    

And so, today, I fondly recall the shy girl who was embarrassed to wear her glasses in front of her boyfriend, not knowing that he loved the glasses more than anything, and the boy who continues to love her despite the fact that she has become more sarcastic than quiet and refuses to let go of any of her three toasters.  I wouldn’t have chosen anyone else for a companion in this adventure, and I look forward to another decade of mis-adventures, unexpected turns, and pleasant surprises, always knowing I will be in the best of company.

(The above image is the first picture that was captured of us…I believe it was taken a week or so after we began dating.  I never realized it was blurry, despite the ten years it has sat on my sweetie’s, and now our, dresser, until I went to scan it for this post.)

Happy New Year!

(My January postcard for The Benevolent Postcard Society project.)