Sugar Plum Poppy, Baby’s 1st Xmas, and Wintery Weirdness.
Entry posted by Mushy the Mushroom in cinnamon toast?
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Sugar Plum Poppy! Her Christmas gift. Wanted to make a camo cardigan for Pug, but he’s sometimes a fashionably disagreeable little slug.
6.5 hours
Made from a shrunken thermal shirt, scraps, and serged 3x fullness skirt from grandma’s basement gingham roll.
Pops, being a gracious midnight-thirty model.
Decorating Without:
A fireplace, a plan, energy, budget, indoor lights
Or a tree!
♫Every morning, every evening
Ain't we got fun?
Not much money, oh, but honey
Ain't we got fun?♫
We’ve excluded the tree for the past few years for certain reasons, and I threw away all our Santa stuff for similar causes, but haven’t gotten around to making any proper ornament hanging boards. These are canvas paintings,with tablecloths safety-pinned on, then window screen mesh for the hooks to hang on. Then covered in outdoor net lighting because that’s what I rummaged out of the shed.
Decorating style:
Spending New Year's, Christmas, Thanksgiving and Halloween in the hospital a few years ago taught me that you can do a lot with paper, paint and glitter. So much glitter. Bet it still haunts the crevices of that common room in its shiny glory. That was the greatest decorating experience of my life, that blessed craft tote. They dropped it off with the instructions of “This unit’s been asked to make ornaments for the lobby tree”. Only superglued the scissors together three times. Dragged a bunch of dirty magnolia cones in from a pass, dunked in glitter. Can’t believe the nurses let us go so wild with it. The whole unit got hit by a paper blizzard. Nurses FTW. Yay! Poster-board painted into a brick fireplace and paper ice sickle garland materialized then, now has evolved into this stuff. Wish I had more energy to make a snowstorm.
Swiped this extra banana box and turned it into a 3D fireplace. Top box bricks are cut from foamy sheets, then spray painted the whole thing metallic silver. Ribbon edge & tablecloth wrap for lower box. Plug-in candlestick to illuminate the fake fire. Wanted to pry the light off the wall because ugly, but parents, so switched the bulb to a flame-type and we’re now going with the “Yep, definitely a chimney” cover story.
Two dogs might have been snoozing under this card table in their crates/castles. Pops’ Mega Bloks doghouse castle has somehow stayed intact with daily use for a year now. Superglue magic?
This might not be an ancient barn basket that one scrubbed the mold off of with dish soap.
Recently occurred to me that I wouldn’t have to cut new card stock icesicles each year with lamination powers.
Garland also could be artificial wreaths cut open and twisted together into a straight strip.
TV looked ugly to me so covered that up.
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My dad’s very-WIP train village. Always beats me to prime (LEGO train) location. The poor engine is somewhat disassembled at the moment.
Not sure what the story is behind this:
Our ornaments, a finely curated collection. AKA: The Ornament Hall of Shame:
Random toys, odd, old items we didn’t have another use for, a few creatures I’ve created over the years, and some my mom describes as “We hadn’t any ornaments and tried to make some”.
Sent these few particularly sickly ones to the ornament hospital. I didn’t take before photos, but I promise, they did look worse than this. Translation: I don’t know what to do, spray paint and super glue? Angel was before a doll I made supposedly of my mom (sorry, mom!) out of a ping-pong ball and wooden clothespin. Green thing was a nut I found outside a hospital and for some reason, really fancied.
My first attempt to crochet, circa long ago.. Was supposed to be a strawberry…I think...or a nightmare. Napoleon, the sweetest baby duck from the first trio, painted salt dough,. Almost-one-eyed marshmallow from ages ago, also tried knitting then. XD. Sewn snowman. Mr. Narwhal and blanketstitch bunny, from Idon'tknow. Nutcrackers also got mini-makeovers, mostly their eye designs, because they will always sort of freak me out.
Dining room didn't escape deranged decor, either. 2020 brought the fun permanent edition of a curtainwall and string lights, year-round merry & bright. New snowmen made from an unconventional material, and lotion bottle lady, old candy lights into ornaments, no material is off-limits. Nothing is sacred.
The new neighb-ornaments.
13.5 hours for four. Stiff felt, beads and blanket stitches.
Some sewn while sipping Barium milkshake and getting injected with Gallium. PET scan.
The truth of what my primary patterns look like:
+ Peppermint bark brownies and gingersnaps, photo circa 4:53 am..and 40 minutes later...
*limping and questioning if going to die of tired, but no regrets. I have good tiiiimes*
[TOPSECRET] Plan left for delivery because:
1: Flipped sleep.
2: Love for people but fear of talking to them.
3: Miracle mom agreed to do door-to-door delivery (Bonus bribe, though).
Card making method tests.
Ran out of time to do a painting for them, just used my pencil drawing. Printed 4x6 ones on card stock and laminated. made base-cards by gluesticking wrapping paper over card stock folds. Finally realized it would be easier to copy the inner greeting onto card stock and cut out instead of hand-writing each one. Sixteen, I think? Gold star Gliiiter. Still everywhere. Even found a piece in a loaf of cinnamon bread I’d made.
Stuck it all together with double side tape, this stuff is miraculous. So fortunate to be able to use all these adhesives/tapes/supplies again without allergic reactions. It’s much easier than using one brand of not-so-great glue in everything. Imfreeeeeee!
Speaking of which, I discovered it’s possible to make a Thanksgiving dinner using 4 slices of bread. I nearly cried tears of joy because it tasted like the real thing. The tiny table is a water filter stand and a cake pan.
My mom said it was sad, I disagree, it made me incredibly happy.
Wild to reflect the medical madness holiday tradition crash of the past. .. [The following content is a backlash against Hallmark movie depictions of life] I haven’t seen many relatives in almost a decade, severe peanut allergy and illness, travel wasn’t feasible. Then Alpha-gal allergy hit..or, more accurately, bit. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha-gal_allergy ) I had to prep all my own food separately from my family using under 15-20 raw ingredients that weren’t cross-processed/fertilized with mammal products. Contacted every company. Had to make my own “flour” for “bread”, out of rice I ran through a coffee grinder and baked in a separate toaster oven. And scrub all produce in baking soda to get off the wax. Dedicated no-dairy/mammal cooking utensils. Mammal meats were entirely banned from entering our house. One member of my family didn’t follow rules. Profound stress. Airborne reactions. Wearing gloves in public to avoid skin-reactions and throat constriction (Frozen’s Elsa was quite relatable!) I am so profoundly sorry for how my allergy grieved my family during these times. My heart goes out to anyone who's been in a similar situation. We skipped all holiday cooking, travel, normalcy, for those 2.5 years. I begged every day and night “Please let alpha-gal allergy go away, please don’t let me have another allergic reaction”…for about two years, before pretty much surrendering. Then one day, sweet freedom returned. Thank goodness it isn’t always permanent. What a miracle. I was able to eat and cook everything imaginable from late 2017-2020. It was a dream. Magical how losing a lot makes the “little things”, those once taken for granted, like literal gold.
[I made the real Thanksgiving meal for my family, as I can cook/touch all food now (yay!) even if I cannot eat it for new reasons. Doctors have dubbed me a mystery Zebra ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zebra_(medicine) It’s not seeming Celiac, and nothing aside from breads and bullion since August. Crazy, but I’m still here?! Three months until an opening for a more complex repeat of a failed GI procedure. And others. 1.5 years until genetics clinic. One day I hope to blog about these medical misadventures. Strange stories are stacking into a tall Google Doc. The chapters come quickly. It is funny to admit, but that worry over getting a diagnosis has vanished. No pressure to prove anything, anymore. And that’s brought an unexplainable, sweet contentment. I’m so glad, just to be here. I guess I surrender, again. A repeat of that old lesson. Oops. I am not proud of how many years I wasted by choosing fear. What a gift it is, to be alive! The present!]
*Time for mom appreciation post*
My mom wanted to figure out what her passion was. So she said she would try to knit again, this time a dishcloth. I told her I couldn’t bear to see her art used as a mere rag. So I asked her to knit multiple and I’d sew them into a Child’s cardigan. She was terrified, but she did it to please her precious grandchild.
Her: “You know, we just aren’t right, Sara”
Me: I know! *grinning*
Her diligent weave work:
Then assembled during Macy’s Parade:
Child’s Christmas present, now wrapped: (Hat made from extra square test piece, I just added elastic, crochet straps and a pom.)
And then she moved onto this test hat using 50 cents-worth of experiment yarn.
She made it for me (appropriate Zebra colors), but Mum had to model. She made a pom scarf too, but it wasn't done during this forest frolic.
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The same pattern with "proper" product. Convinced her it should be for the bro’s Christmas, so he feels loved (like Mum!) I can’t believe he’s here this year!
Dubbed the “Silver Tuna” Set. She used a pattern by Sheep and Stitch.
Made her some quick tags. Leather acrylic stamped tags for official feels. Not the best stamp, but okay for now. 1.25" strips of cotton secured with Steam-a-Seam.
Knitknitknit.
So beautiful when people pursue their passions. I am rejoicing over her newfound creative zeal! ;_;
Paper Packages tied up with strings. Trying to figure out how to wrap stuff in a non-blobbly manner, I've never excelled at this. Spent too long covering this box in fabric for a cousin:
This may or may not be the very top of our now-rejected-tree. Needed for styling. My brother's masks, I didn't ask...
How to spam parents in person with doodle thank you's
Poor Mum.
[I still don’t know how to embed videos here. Sorry.]
Wishing you a merry, goofy, or whatever-you-like little Christmas, or whatever it is you celebrate!
Edited by Mushy the Mushroom
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