Turtle Power...With a Little Help From Their Friends

A couple of weeks ago I had a babysitting job in San Marcos.  I decided to stop at the theater building at Southwest Texas State to take some pictures of the turtles.  Okay, it's actually called Texas State University now, but I refuse to accept that!! 

Okay, I'm over it.  Moving on...  :-)

So, I went to take pictures of the turtles.  At first I only saw a couple in the water but they dove down so I couldn't see them when I got close enough for a picture.  I ended up walking all the way through the little park and at the other end I found some cute little ducks to take pictures of.

Aren't they cute??

I guess they thought it was really hot, too!

Close ups!

I took a lot of duck pictures but decided that since I was running out of time before I had to go babysit I better give the turtles one more shot.  I'm so glad I did.  I hit the jackpot!!!  There were at least 20 (probably way more) turtles in the water on the other side of the building!  The pictures aren't the best because they were in the water, but I couldn't stop taking pictures!  It was so hard to choose which ones to post!  :-)

This is just the few that I could fit in my camera range from the bridge.  There were so many turtles!!

This is one of my favorites!

I changed my mind.  This is my favorite!!!

There were a few different types of turtles out there.  I wonder what they are called.

That's all for now.  I have so many wonderful pictures of the ducks and turtles.  I could go on and on for hours! 

I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did!  :-)

Archie

I am very pleased to introduce you to another new friend.

Meet Archie!

Name:  Archie (Short for Archimedes)

Date of Birth: 8/28/2010

Favorite Color:  Purple Pizzazz

Favorite Food:  Pizza

Favorite Hobby:  Flying Kites

Favorite Song:  Higitus Figitus - The Sword in the Stone

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This is the story of how Archie came to be...

A couple of weeks ago I made my mustache owl, Pierre.  I thought he needed a little friend so I made a mini owl for him.

I made Archie about the same size as Stella (my mini monster).  I drew a mini owl pattern and cut all of the pieces out of felt.  I used a blanket stitch to sew the pieces on and to sew him together.  I had to stitch the feet to the bottom before I could blanket stitch the rest of the owl together.  I didn't really like the way that looked on the bottom of the owl.  Any suggestion for how I can stitch that and still make it look good? 

I named Archie after the owl from The Sword in the Stone.  I shortened it to Archie.  I thought Archimedes was a little too long for such a tiny owl!

That's it!  I can't wait to work on more plushie projects.  I've actually had a couple of requests from some friends for character and custom plushies so I have a lot of work to do.  I have ideas for some original plushies, too!  Some of them are a little more complicated than the plushies I've made so far so I have to figure out how to make them.  Hmmm...I can't wait!!!

Tiny "Art" - Let My Love Open The Door

This is a great song!  It makes me think of all the awesome movies it’s been in and that makes me happy!  ;-)

I think part of the reason I love this song so much is because of what it says to me.  It is a good illustration of what I feel God is saying to me all the time.  When things are not going so great I just have to remember that He loves me and He will take care of me.  That’s what this song says to me.  It’s probably not what Pete Townshend meant when he wrote it.  Oh well!  Everyone hears songs and relates to them in their own way.  This is a fun song to sing along to any way you hear it.  :-)

When everything feels all over

When everybody seems unkind

I’ll give you a four-leaf clover

Take all the worry out of your mind

Release yourself from misery

Only one thing’s gonna set you free

That’s my love

When tragedy befalls you

Don’t let them bring you down

Love can cure your problem

You’re so lucky I’m around

Let my love open the door

I just realized that this is my second Tiny “Art” card inspired by a Pete Townshend song!  I guess I’m a bigger fan than I thought I was!  ;-)

Okay, let’s look at the card now!  :-)  I made this one very simple.  It was more about the meaning of the words than having an elaborate card.  I wanted to have a little something to look at as a reminder of what the song means to me.

I decided to round the corners on this one since the door was going to be squared on the edges.  I just made a little door with a heart button door knob.  I was going to make the entire door heart shaped but I didn't think it would translate in felt.  It would just look like a heart.  So, I made it an actual door.

At first I was going to cut the heart key out of felt but it was so tiny that I couldn’t make it look right.  I lucked out when I looked in my button jar and found this tiny yellow heart button.  It was perfect!  I stitched the rest of the key with yellow craft thread.  I finished the card with my very favorite blanket stitch around the edge.

That’s about it!  It’s just a simple little card, but I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.  It was great practice for my blanket stitch.  I’m trying to get as much practice as I can so that I can improve my stitching for my mini plushies.  I’m going to try to work on one this weekend!  I’m very excited!


What are you working on this weekend?

365 Project - Week Seventeen

I have to say I'm pretty happy with my pictures for this week.  I got some pictures I have been wanting to get from the very beginning of this project.  I wanted the fountain across from Bass Concert Hall and I wanted the frog mural.  I got them both in the same week!  I'm so happy!!!  And I got some knit graffiti!  Woo hoo! 

Okay, time to enjoy week seventeen!

Day 113

My mom and I went to see Jersey Boys at Bass Concert Hall in Austin on Saturday.  The show was great!  This fountain is across the street.  I love fountains.  I was so happy that it was actually running when we were there this time.

Day 114

this painting is on the side of a bridge on Barton Springs Road in Austin.  I walked over there after church ended on Sunday and took a quick picture.  There is another one on the other side of the street so I will have to go over there and take a picture of that one another day.

Day 115

Katja from Maedchenmitherz sent me these lovely buttons!  This made my day!  I love them so much!  I can't wait to wear them.  :-)

Day 116

Tuesday was one of those days where I had to improvise a picture.  I wasn't feeling well and it was supposed to rain so I had to rush to get a picture when I got off work.  I saw my hummingbird but wasn't quite fast enough so I took this picture instead.  I think it's actually kind of pretty.

Day 117

I'm so happy about this picture!!!  I finally got a picture of the frog mural by Daniel Johnston!  I was at a back to school event at UT on Wednesday for work and as I was walking on Guadalupe I remembered the mural.  I walked to where I thought it was but it wasn't there so I asked someone (like a big nerd) and they told me it was just a couple more blocks down the road!  I was so happy to get this picture!!  This is one of the pictures I had in mind when I decided I was going to do this project.  Mission Accomplished!  :-)

Day 118

I went to the Knitta, Please meeting at Domy Books in Austin on Thursday.  This is one of Magda Sayeg's beautiful knit graffiti pieces outside the store.  Isn't it awesome??  I was such a star struck nerd when I talked to her.  Oh well.  She was very sweet and I was so happy to meet her.  :-)

Day 119

I took a picture of this pretty little angel in the flower bed outside my parents' house.  I thought it looked really pretty sitting in among the plants.  I just took a picture of the first pretty thing I saw.  I didn't really put a lot of thought into the picture.  It's been a long week.  I think it came out very nice.  :-)

That's week seventeen!  I'm excited to see what I find to take pictures of next week!

Coffee Break - Art Bus

Good  morning!  Do you have your coffee ready?  It's that time again...coffee break time!!  :-)

I went to a back to school event at UT for work yesterday and when we were driving back to the office I saw the Austin Art Bus!  It was awesome!  I saw it again when I was driving to church last night!  Weird!  I had never seen it before and all of a sudden I saw it twice in one day???  I had to share it with you.

I was driving when I saw the bus so I couldn't take pictures.  I found these on the internet.  They didn't have a picture of my favorite part!  You can see part of it on the second picture.  I loved the little light bulbs with wings.  :-)

According to Arthouse Austin this is a project sponsored by Capital Metro and 3M.  The artist is Cybil Guess.  I would love to find more of this artist's work.  Does anyone know where I can find it?

This is just one more reason why I think Austin is so great!  Art is everywhere!

Okay, back to work everybody!  Break time is over!

Have a great day!!!

Happiness is...Nap Time

{weheartit}

I love naps!  It's one of my favorite things.  I just wish I had more time to take naps.  I get so busy that I never have time to just stop what I'm doing and lay down to relax.  Remember when we were kids and didn't want to take naps?  What were we thinking??  I long for the days when naps were a required part of the day.  ;-) 

Naps are the perfect way to refuel.  I think that I am more productive when I have time to stop and rest every once in a while.  When I feel too tired I have more trouble concentrating and I am way less productive.  I would love to live in a place where everything just shuts down every day for a while so we could all rest.  How wonderful would that be???

{weheartit}

Are you wondering what prompted this little ode to naps?  Probably not, but I'll tell you anyway.  :-)  Well, I have been thinking a lot about nap time a lot lately.  I made a nap mat cover and pillow case for a friend's daughter this weekend.  I think it turned out pretty good.  Hopefully it fits the mat.  I'm a little nervous about it.  I used the measurements she gave me and added the seam allowance and an extra three inches so it would be loose and easy to slide over the mat but it looks a little small.  We'll see!  Maybe I'll be making another nap mat cover very soon.  ;-)

I made a little Craft Academy drawstring bag to match the sheet set, too.  I thought it would be a nice little gift.  I was so flattered that she thought of me when she needed something sewn for her. 

Makes me happy!

The Sweetest Thing

Look what Katja from Maedchenmitherz sent me! 

Aren't these the loveliest buttons you have ever seen??

When I got home today and opened the mail box to find this, my not-so-great Monday turned into a magical day!  Thank you so much Katja! 

This made me smile!  :-)

365 Project - Week Sixteen

This was a week of taking random pictures and praying something good came out of it.  I couldn't upload anything to my computer for most of the week because of my computer issues so I just took a ton of pictures and hoped they came out.  Sure, I could see them on my camera but you can't really see how good the pictures are until you upload them to your computer.  So, some days were better than others.  I think my motivation was kind of lacking this week, too, since I couldn't look at my pictures.  I just took pictures of something on some of the days.  I think I got enough good pictures to call it a successful week.

Here's week Sixteen...

Day 106

Well, I didn't get a good picture on Saturday.  I was so busy dealing with computer problems and I took a quilting class so I didn't have a lot of time to take a picture.  I took some pictures of quilts at the quilt shop but I didn't really like them so I went out that night and took some pictures of City Hall in Buda.  Unfortunately, this was the best picture I got.  Oh well.

Day 107

This pretty flower is outside my front door.  Don't you love it??  It's a kind of hibiscus.  I love this kind because the flowers are really full of petals.

Day 108

I drive by this sign everyday on my way home.  I just decided to take a picture of it.  No big story for this one. :-)

Day 109

Everywhere I look I see a pretty cactus.  Usually is the cactus with the pretty yellow flowers.  This one has these little reddish round bulbs.  I liked the way it looked so I pulled over and took a picture.

Day 110

I was walking down Lamar Blvd. on Wednesday to get a picture of something but I saw this statue up in a tree before I got there so I took a picture of this instead.  I'll get a picture of the other thing another day.  :-)

Day 111

My friend Velma and I were talking about the funny fads in the crafty world.  Everyone is crazy in love with owls and mustaches!!  I can't lie.  I think some of the owls are kind of cute, but I don't really get the mustaches.  Well, we decided it would be funny to combine the two things together and start a new fad...mustache owls!!  This is my first mustache owl, Pierre.  :-)

Day 112

I had to babysit on Friday night in San Marcos so I went over to the theater building at Southwest Texas (Texas State...whatever!) where all the ducks and turtles hang out.  This was one of my favorite turtle pictures.  The little one was following the big one all over the place.  So cute!  :-)

I took a bunch of pictures of the turtles and some ducks that were swimming in one of the ponds so I'll probably be back later this week with another picture post for you! 

:-)

Hey, I'll Be Gone Today

I say, hey, I'll be gone today

But I'll be back around the way

Seems like everywhere I go

The more I see, The less I know

But I know one thing That I love you

Hello everyone.  I'm just dropping by to tell you that my 365 post won't be here until Saturday again.  I have a babysitting job tonight so I will not be home until very late.  I'll have it ready to post first thing in the morning.

It's going to be another crazy weekend.  I'm babysitting tonight.  Tomorrow I have to get up early and go buy fabric so I can sew something for a friend of mine.  In the afternoon I'm going to see Jersey Boys with my mom.  I'm so excited!  Then I'm going home to finish up my sewing project.  Sunday is church so I'll be out and about most of the day.

Do you have any big plans this weekend?

Pierre Says Hou-Hou

Meet my new friend Pierre!

Name:  Pierre

Date of Birth: 8/16/2010

Favorite Color:  Rouge (That's french for red)

Favorite Food:  Crepes

Favorite Hobby:  Finger Painting (or should I say wing painting?) ;-)

Favorite Song: 

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This is the story of how Pierre came to be ...

My friend Velma and I were having a conversation about some of the things that are popular in the crafting community.  Owls and mustaches seem to be the "it" thing.  I can't lie.  I do think some of the owls are kind of cute.  :-)  We decided it would be funny to combine the two things together.  So, I was on a mission.  At first I was just going to make a tiny art card with a mustache owl but at the time I hadn't learned to embroider so I wasn't sure how to do the mustache.  I decided to just go for it and make an owl plushie and give him a mustache.  Of course, he had to be french since he had a mustache...so he became Pierre.

I put a lot of work into this plushie.  I think he turned out pretty great!  He is nowhere near perfect (he came out a little un-even) but I have improved so much from my when I first made Seymour.  I think they'll just get better and better the more I make.

I used a blanket stitch to sew all of the pieces for the face and body.

I embroidered the mustache all by myself.  I didn't use a pattern or draw it on the felt or anything.  I just started sewing and kept going until I had a mustache.  The first side was pretty easy.  The other side...not so much.  I had to try to make it match the first side as much as I could.  I think I did pretty good...especially since I just learned embroidery a couple of weeks ago!

I only planned on making one owl but I really like Pierre so I may have to make some more.  I want to make a girl owl and maybe some little mini owls, too.

I can't wait to get to work on my next plushie.  I'm not totally sure what it will be.  I'm thinking it's going to be my second monster.  I've had an idea for that one in my head for a while so I need to get to work on it!  I can't wait!!!  :-)

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All this talk of french things has made me think of Amelie.  This is one of my favorite movies.  Anytime I'm feeling sad I watch it.  It is impossible to watch it and stay sad.  It's just so happy!  :-)

I Heart Stop Motion - Surprisingly Alive

I’ve been having some minor computer issues that I was hoping to have resolved this weekend.  Things never seem to go the way I hope when it comes to computer issues.  Hopefully it will all be resolved today or tomorrow!  I’ve been trying to come up with some fun things to share with you while I’m waiting for my computer.  I just didn’t want you to think I had completely abandoned posting my own projects since it’s been a while, so I thought a little explanation was necessary.

I have been keeping up with my 365 project.  I just haven’t been able to upload the pictures.  Hopefully I’ll be able to get it all uploaded in the next day or two so I’ll be ready to post them this weekend.  I also have two really fun projects I’m finishing up and two more that I’m going to start this week.  So…as soon as my computer is back to normal I’ll have lots of fun things to share with you.

This weekend I’ll be working on a sewing project for a friend, too.  It’s not really crafty but I think any opportunity to sew is an opportunity to improve my skills so I’m excited about it.  And it made me so happy that she thought of me when she needed something sewn for her daughter!

Since I can’t post any projects today I thought this would be a good opportunity to share another of my favorite stop motion videos!

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Surprisingly Alive

T-Systems Multimedia Solutions

By: Florian Stumpe, Melanie Spintig and Sebastian Manger

Music: Toxu Kim.

Surprisingly alive. T-Systems Multimedia Solutions from helloflorian on Vimeo.

I’m sure you can guess why this is one of my favorite stop motion videos.  First, it’s a stop motion video!  Second, everything in it is made of felt!!!  This makes me happy!

This is a commercial made for T-Systems.  The idea of the video is to illustrate that T-Systems is a part of every community.  The video starts in the country and then moves into a village and then a town and finally a big city.

I love that they used such a simple way to share the company’s goal.  They could have used all kinds of high tech gadgets.  Instead they cut cute things out of felt and attached them to strings to animate them.  Sometimes simplicity is the best way to go.

They posted some behind the scenes photos of the whole process on Flickr.  It’s so fun to see all the work that goes into these videos.

Ishful Thinking

I love to look at books in the children's section of the bookstore. 

{weheartit}

That probably sounds weird since I haven't been a child for a while and I'm not a mom.  I just love them!  I guess that's what happens when you spend so much time reading to kids.  I have this dream in the back of my mind that I'll write a children's book of my own one day.  It's weird because a few people have mentioned that to me recently and I've never told anyone that before.  Unfortunately I don't have my big idea and I really, really, really need to work on my drawing skills.  :-)

Well, I've been a little frustrated creatively lately so last week after church I decided to go to the bookstore and wander around for a while (one of my favorite things to do).  I wandered around all of my regular sections of the store and then decided to go over to the kids section for just a minute.  If all else fails I can always find a book that brings back good memories and leave the bookstore feeling better.

This time I found a book I had never read before.  It's called Ish and it was written by Peter H. Reynolds.  It's about a boy who loves to draw.  He draws everything he sees.  One day when he was drawing a vase of flowers his brother told him that it looked nothing like the vase of flowers he was drawing.  So the boy crumpled up his picture.  From then on everytime he drew a picture it wasn't good enough and he crumpled it up.

One day he was drawing a picture and crumpled it up and threw it on the floor.  His sister picked it up off the floor and he chased her to her room.  He found that she had uncrumpled all of his pictures and they were hanging on the wall.  She said she called them his "ish" pictures.  They were vase-ish, tree-ish...

From then on the little boy loved to draw his ish drawings.  He drew everything he could find and loved every ishful picture he made. 

And he lived ishfully ever after.

I thought this was such a great story!  What a great message!  I felt very inspired after I read it.  The purpose of my blog is to try new things creatively and even if they don't come out great it will be a lesson learned.  The more I try new things the better I will get.  Sometimes the perfectionist in me comes out and steals all of the enjoyment in a project so this book was a perfect reminder for me that it doesn't have to be perfect. 

I own this book now so anytime I start to get frustrated with a project I'll remember what it's like to just enjoy what I'm doing and embrace every marci-ish imperfection.  :-)

{weheartit}

365 Project - Week Fifteen

Here we are...week fifteen!  That means I made it to day 100!!!  Wow!  I can't even believe it!  It's getting harder and harder to come up with something every day but I'm determined to complete this project.  Some days the pictures won't be great, but there will be a picture!  ;-)

Here's week fifteen!

Day 99

I almost forgot to take a picture on Saturday!  That was close!  It's harder to remember on the weekends because I get sidetracked by weekend things!  ;-)  Well, this was the best thing I could find around the house.  It's a really cool dragon fly.  You should have seen it in person.  The little eyes were wiggling around.  I think he was watching me.  I couldn't get a picture of it with a better background.  It just kept flying in a circle and landing on this little twig over and over.

Day 100

This is a picture of Flip Happy Crepes in Austin.  It's actually located in the same parking lot as the building my church meets in.  I wanted to take a picture of it filled with people but for some reason they were closed on Sunday.  I decided to take a picture anyway.  Then I wouldn't have to worry about people not wanting their picture taken and posted on the internet.  :-)

Day 101

The president was in Austin on Monday.  That means Air Force One was in Austin on Monday!  I work close to the airport so I see planes coming in to land all day long.  One of our clients came in and asked me if I had seen it yet.  Not 10 seconds later a huge plane with a jet following it flew by.  I couldn't get a picture.  Then the second plane came a little while later.  Couldn't get that one either.  I was so bummed!  It would have been a perfect picture!  After work I decided to drive over to a parking lot that was across from the runway where the planes land just to see if there was any view of the planes.  There wasn't.  Plus, I was pretty sure Air Force One was gone.  So bummed.  As I was turning my car around to leave I saw this beauty coming in for a landing so I stopped my car and hopped out real quick to snap a picture.  I was so happy!  I've been wanting a great picture of a Southwest plane forever!  YAY!!!  It may not be THE Air Force One but it's MY Air Force One!  :-)

Day 102

I wasn't sure what I wanted to take a picture of on Tuesday.  I ended up just wandering around outside trying to find something.  The sun kept getting in my eyes so I looked up and saw the sun peaking through the tree and took a picture.  I think it's kind of pretty.

Day 103

It's another picture of Buda!  Yep, this is what you get to see in Buda.  :-)  I live pretty much across the street from the train tracks so I see and hear a LOT of trains.  This train car is just parked on the tracks right now.  I think the graffiti is interesting.  And a train is the best place for it.  Just think of how many people will see it if it's on a train!

Day 104

There's nothing really special about this picture.  I just thought these blue flowers were pretty.  I love the color!

Day 105

This is the last weekend for the Zilker Park summer musical so on Friday night we went to see Annie.  It was such a great show!

You know what?  I think I got a pretty good set of pictures this week!  Looking back at the week I'm pretty proud of it.  :-)