What To Do When Nothing’s Good On TV

That’s the million dollar question, isn’t it? Well, I’ve been spending my usual evening television time sculpting and beading and trying to cool down because it’s been so hot  these days. It’s so hot now that my beer needs a beer.

I used to do some beading because I could never find the kind of customized necklaces that suits my taste. Sure, there are a lot of them over at Anthropologie but they cost an absolute fortune. Since I was too lazy to read about how to finish a necklace off properly, my attempts usually committed suicide before the day is out. Luckily, my mother-in-law is an avid beader and she took the time to show me how to finish off a necklace or two and now I can’t get enough!

The original version of this was made years ago for a friend’s Hawaiian-themed bridal shower.

I took that London tube stop name literally with this piece: Elephant and Circus. The original one was made years ago after I adopted an elephant online.

Remember my gingerbread house from last Christmas? This is the beaded version of it.

 

These are the Cinderella Necklaces…inspired by a little girl with a princess fetish.

It wouldn’t be called a Cinderella Necklace if it didn’t have a little glass slipper charm hanging off it, right? It wasn’t easy tracking down the right charm (or the right size) for these shiny things, but I have the knack of finding the most obscure items so I wasn’t fazed by this task…although I am still looking for that old game “Build a Better Burger” from my childhood.

I mean, the only thing it teaches you is how not to mess up an order while you’re working at a fast food joint, but I believed with all my heart that this was the game that spawned my lifelong obsession with miniatures.

A Real Faux Fox Stole

I am very jealous of my friends in the States. Their Facebook stats are all Snow This, Ski That. In the meanwhile, I’m sweating up a storm here in Oz, thinking longingly of flannel PJs and hot cocoa and mittens on kittens and wooly scarves. Heat’ll do that to you—make you unreasonably delirious.

I can risk a heatstroke by putting on my woolen goods, but that’s just not a smart move, especially when your partner is of the sarcastic and unsympathetic variety. So I made a hot weather wintertime accessory.

It’s a needle-felted fox stole necklace! And one that won’t get me in trouble with the anti-fur people!

The best thing about this is I can wear it both during a heat wave AND a cold spell!

Star Wars Ceremony

My homegirl Jean It thought it would be fun to have the end of Star Wars Episode 4 immortalized in matryoshka form. Done and done!

While the boys are looking rather natty with their medals of valor, Princess Leia even more so in her fancy gown and silverware. This time I kicked in Obi Wan as well, as he was left out of the previous sets.

There are times when the ordinary matryoshka doll just won’t do for what I have in mind—this is one of them. I made R2D2 out of Sculpey and a paper clip. He looks so awesome that I’m tempted to turn it into a necklace so I can wear it with this:

How cool is this skirt? It’s made by Ashley Mertz of NYC and can be purchased from her etsy shop.

Moonrise Kingdom Pocket Sets

Sometimes variety is the key to not going nuts.

Here are two mini sets of the Moonrise Kingdom kids.

These guys are of the “mini” varieties! The biggest doll stands to be about three-and-a-half inches tall!

This time Sam’s got a bouquet for Suzy instead of his usual cap gun.

There were so many scouts to choose from, but I finally settled on Panagle (largely because I got a bunch of train set scale trees that I’m desperate to use for something—anything), and Lazy Eye, so I can paint a cyclops.

And here are the girls, with Suzy as the Raven, her friends as the Owl and the Sparrow.

BoBo Babushka Key Chain

Did everyone have a good holiday break? I certainly hope so! I ended the old year with a whole slew of new projects and I hope to share them as soon as I’ve tweaked it up a bit.

In the meanwhile, I got my hands on a huge batch of unpainted key chains. They’re a treat-and-a-half for someone who’s forever looking to liven up their hardware. I personally adore my key caps (in the shape of menacing-looking cupcakes), but I have no fun little things to go with them.

Here are a couple I’m trying out:

This one is Sybil from Downton Abbey for a gal whose taste in television is far superior than my own.

Does this guy look familiar? I’m a little wary of attaching anything onto objects that gets banged around. But the hat is needle felted and I’ve stolen the Hubs’ super duper adhesive for this one so maybe it won’t fall off. Cross fingers!

Little Suzy Bishop from Moonrise Kingdom.

Steve Zissou key chain. So going to be using this one for myself!

…Or this one. This is Vicki the Robot from the 80’s comedy “Small Wonder.” Remember that one? Or am I as old as I think I am?

 

Last but not least, my first (and possibly only) ever Boba Fett key chain for a gal pal whose Star Wars set is not going to include the bounty hunter. When I suggested this alternative to her, all is forgiven.

Now, this one has nothing to do with anything I’ve got going on in my sweat shop at the moment, but my brother has a habit of forwarding me bizarro objet d’art links when things are dull at his office. I think this is by far my favorite matryoshka EVER—and that’s including the one with Michael Jackson’s gradual transformation from an ordinary-looking human to some sort of lab experiment.

This one’s called The Chernobyl Matryoshka. If they’d pop these dolls in “The Chernobyl Diaries,” maybe the movie would’ve done better in theaters!