beetlegrass

Pillow Talking

Two more pillows with needle-felted family sayings to show.

The first has a little ditty my dad quotes a lot:

"When in trouble, or in doubt, run in circles, scream & shout."

It's dad's subtle way of saying, "Stop getting whipped up into a frenzy about NOTHING."

"Wuz you there, Charlie???" is something my paternal grandmother would say, and if you'd like to give it a whirl, narrowing your eyes aids in the delivery.

For a relatively short saying, there are 2 implied messages:

1. "What do YOU know about it, anyway?!?" 
2. "Back off!"    

This is like writing a family tell-all book. Using wool.

Craft items, concepts & images are © Megan E. Jeffery.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Smothered With a Love Pillow

While I'm Photoshopping another series of fotografias to share with you, thought I'd sneak in this project that was started on Monday & finished yesterday. It's a needlefelted pillow top, measuring 12" x almost 16", with 2 gauges of variegated yarn. Eventually it will be finished as an actual PILLOW. Maybe I'll show you when it's done. But there's a really good possibility that I won't.

I've wanted to do this saying for a long time (a punchline to a joke?), and even attempted it within the last year as a couched project, but that just looked... ugly. Needlefelting to the rescue! Having some of the letters attached & having others be singletons looks sooo much better. 

I'm looking forward to doing other "saying" pillows, which may include these family quotables:

• I can talk louder if you'd like.
• It's made to serve me, not me to serve it. 
• Good behavior is expected; Bad behavior is not rewarded. 
• Lungs don't like Water. 
• Ignorance of the Law is no excuse. 
• Get ahead of the hoarders. 
• You're in love with Love.   

 

A coupla topography shots.

Craft items, concepts & images are © Megan E. Jeffery.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Illustration Friday -- Wise

 

Since this week's word made me think of "wise guys", here are my mobster finger puppets.
Sal is the one quoting his hero, Al Capone, while Vinny "the Fingers" (in the red shirt) and Fabriczio look on. Sal fancies himself a bit of a motivational speaker, particularly before a heist. Or a caper.

The concept & design of these puppets and their stories are the property of Megan E. Jeffery.
These images are © Megan E. Jeffery.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Booty Call

Santa saw fit to pay me another visit this year, even though some would say that I have been Nothing But Naughty.
Fortunately for me, my Santa is fairly lenient with me as regards behavior.
Without further ado, here's the bounty of treasures that was bestowed upon me:

Above: A sock giraffe! Asked my sister what I should name him, and, after a moment's consideration, the answer came back, "Nehi." Heeheehee... I said, "Nehi needs a necktie!", so of course, there needs to be a kids' book entitled, Nehi's Neckties, wouldn't you agree?

Awesome pail, more pix below...
Too-cute Ladybug racers, more pix below...

Wooden zwieback, so funny. Toast seems to be becoming a theme in my work right now. Guess I'll have to ride that wave for awhile.

A Box O Fun! Nehi's maracas are just ONE of the treats (out of 25!) that were inside. I will save the others (each individually wrapped) for dinner parties, etc.

Above: Ladybug races often bring out the worst in their participants.

Above: Zapp welcomes the Robot Pail into the fold. The inside of the pail is cool, too, with stars and a moon and the earth at the bottom.

Above: Robot puzzles (contains 3!) and miniature toys which I can't wait to use in future photos!

Above: Close-up of the miniatures.

Above: Stuff for the home and for the home office... Chopstick holders, Hello Kitty chipboard pieces (for scrap-booking or what-have-you), Lego coasters (perfect colors for my dining room), notebook paper reinforcements in funky colors/patterns, Santa Post-it notes, stickers, and Tiki pencil toppers!

Above: Fun crafty things: stickers & elastic & sequins & ribbon & postage stamps & a funny head pen.
(The Inanimate stickers are to put on items around your home to turn them into 'friends'. I'll follow up with photos on how I use these, don't worry.)

Above: A close-up of the Polish postage stamp featuring finger puppets! So cute. Love the blue hand on the left.

Above: Ways I can entertain myself... a movie, a homemade CD of Christmas music, and a reprint of a 1940s book, called How to Get Along with Boys. It may be too late for this book to have any good effect. Here's an excerpt:

"Dates" rarely happen. You must first meet a man and manage to impress him sufficiently to be asked. Then, if you like, you may affect surprise.

Do not neglect your girl friends; some of them have brothers; or their boyfriends have friends. In the normal social activities of a group, you may meet someone you like.

If you live in a small town where the eligible males are numbered and it is impossible to meet other men, you might prevail upon your family to move to a larger city. It is not advisable to consider moving to improve your marital opportunities unless you have family there or at least obtain your parents' consent and approval.

Also: A lip balm and some ham & egg bandages will see to my health care needs for the next year.

Above: More books to read! Hooray! All comedic memoirs, too, even better...

Above: Chocolates & Gum!
(Notice how I've cropped the cookie box and the blue bag of Kisses... Yeah, they've been opened and are being eaten...)

Above: Close-up of the gum with quite possibly the best. name. ever.
I'm almost afraid to chew it, I mean: look at those sad eyes! How do I dare?!?

Above: 3 tags that were on the gifts -- Santa is a right artsy old elf...

Singing in my Elvis voice: Merry Christmas, Santa, sure did treat me nice...

Click on images to see them larger.

These images are © Megan E. Jeffery, 2007.
The concept/design/image of the robot finger puppet is the property of Megan E. Jeffery.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Thankspugging

Just making it under the wire with this month's calendar page... Whew! That was a close one!
I am thankful for Life's Trifecta: Shelter, Food, Work.
Am also grateful to Simon & Garfunkel for their lyric from The 59th Street Bridge Song that seems to sum up today perfectly:

Got no deeds to do,
No promises to keep.
I'm dappled and drowsy and ready to sleep.
Let the morning time drop all its petals on me.
Life, I love you,
All is groovy.

This image is © Megan E. Jeffery. All rights reserved.

Li'l Things Mean A Lot

Today at the Seekonk (MA) Flea Market, a few small purchases were made; a small amount of money was spent.

Above: A bracelet charm, $1. I'm not trying to advertise (or AM I???), but thought that this would look cute with a Cupid finger puppet, or for puppets to give to each other come Valentine's Day.



Lyrics: Bernie Taupin.
This little music box dancer and the stuff in the photo below, all for $1.
I have no idea what I'm going to use her for, but she doesn't take up too much space while I ruminate.



The star fish above I thought would look good with Mermaid finger puppets, maybe the other star will be used for a military puppet???
I liked the rhinestone thing. It looks like a little frame.



Above: Cast iron hitching post, $1. This is 4.5 " tall.
Lyrics: Apologies to Gregg Allman.



Above: The reason I bought the hitching post.
Was feeling sad cuz I don't currently have a horse puppet in residence that I could tie to this thing.
Then thought: "I've got a Cowboy, I don't NEED to have a horse in order for there to be a story!"

Today's Total: $3.
The people who run the flea market say that they're going to try keep it going 'til Thanksgiving, weather permitting, of course.
Hope it stays nice!

These images are © Megan E. Jeffery, 2007.
The puppet, its design, and its image are the property of Megan E. Jeffery.
Images are not to be used without obtaining express written consent FIRST.

Creativity Quote, 4

It's a wonderment to me that we all start off on a 'level playing field', but look at the variety of results we get!

You've heard it said,

 What has been is what will be,
         and what has been done is what will be done;
         there is nothing new under the sun.
  Is there a thing of which it is said,
         "See, this is new"?
  It has already been,
         in the ages before us. (Ecclesiastes 1:9-10)

So what's left to create? What IS new?
You're new.
I'm new.
Working individually and working collaboratively can inspire a work of art that has NEVER been done before, and has NEVER been seen before.
Chalk it up to our being carefully made & specially created.
(It's like my dad has told me, "You're unique in all the world".)

I was thinking about the 'digits' part of this quote. Couldn't decide if Ruth Ross meant 'fingers' or 'numbers'.
Then decided: both fit, why choose?

(Thrown into a border design I did for some other project.)

Creativity Quote, 3

Don't quite know what this says about MEN and Creativity...
Guess you're plumb outta luck guys. 

Creativity Quote, 2

This week's quote on creativity, thrown into a border design I've done sometime over the past 18 years.
This quote was recorded when I was a Senior at RISD, and I still get that "Yup" feeling upon reading it now.
Have always admired Sendak's illustrations, but am equally impressed with how he captures feelings/concepts with words and is illustrative in that translation, too.
Another bit of wisdom in this Sendak creativity quote.

Creativity Quote

It's not National Creativity Month or anything, but now seemed just as good a time as any to share some of the quotes I've collected on the subject over the years. I'll be slamming the quotes into border designs I've illustrated. Sometimes the borders'll make sense. No guarantees though.