The Real Moe

Meet the Real Moe.  The other one was just an impostor.  Actually it is completely embarrassing, but I kept losing Melissa's email that had a picture of Moe attached.  There's no excuse---it was just me being a complete dunce.  So, I was too embarrassed to ask Melissa to send yet another picture of Moe, so I simply google-imaged Corgi and relied on my brilliant memory to pick out what Moe must have looked like, I thought for sure I had it right that he was orange and rather Twinkie-like, but I was completely mistaken.  Melissa was so great and understanding about my mistake!  If you'd like to see the inspiration for the pillow monstered Moe, go here.  Isn't he cute?  That other one is Emmit, Melissa's pug and he looks like he is such a great companion.  I am a dog person, most definitely.  I think they are incredible creatures.  For me, they are evidence that the world is a good, good place.   

Moe for Melissa

Moe is sometimes referred to as a Twinkie with legs.  Moe doesn't mind this reference.  He knows he's sweet, and he prefers Twinkie's to hot dogs any day of the week.  Moe has many dear friends because his sweetness can't be matched.  As soon as he struts into a room he has the affect of making your teeth ache because he's so darned sweet.  Most people believe that Moe's sweetness is a birthright, but the truth is, when Moe is home alone, he practices on his sweet technique and he practices quite diligently.  His practice pays off however, and he is quite loved, so the proof is in the pudding.

Moe was a special request from Melissa of whom I am a big fan.  Her shop is here and her blog is here.  

It's funny to think about Twinkies.  As a kid I craved them like mad, and of course, I was only allowed one in my lunch, which as a youngin' was considered to be a human rights violation.  I also craved Lucky Charms.  As a kid, when I pictured myself as a grown-up, I thought my main diet would involve all those cereals that turned milk a sugary rainbow color, peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches on white bread and anything Hostess or McDonalds.  Thinking about all that stuff now makes my stomach turn.  You couldn't even pay me to touch a Twinkie with a 10-foot pole.  What exactly is it anyway?  Why does it glisten?  Have you seen the fried Twinkies at fairs?  Crazy.

Clarence for Melissa

Clarence is a charmer.  Whenever he meets someone he can instantly think of 5 nice things to say to them, and he often does.  He says these nice things in a hushed sort of voice because he is out of breath most of the time.  The problem is that his legs are so short, he has to walk twice as fast as he should just to keep up with people.  Clarence appreciates beauty.  He keeps a beautiful rose garden and each morning he picks two.  One he wears as a corsage, the other is for the first person he sees, because he loves to spread joy.

Clarence is for Melissa of Pugnotes on Etsy.  I imagine Clarence and Melissa to be very similar (minus the short legs of course.  Melissa is one of the most positive women I know!  She is a definite joy spreader!  Thanks Melissa---he is on his way to you!

Gus and a Giraffe

Gus lives in a house that is on a busy street.  His mom doesn't let him play in the front yard because of this.  Gus is fascinated with the trucks that drive by.  His favorites are the ones that are super huge.  At night, he turns on the lights in the main room, opens up the curtains, and tries to get all the trucks to make a big honking noise by dramatically pumping his fist into the air, like his older brother Ronald taught him to do.  Sometimes they honk a few times, and then Gus feels satisfied.  When Gus grows up, he will drive trucks, most definitely.  He will ship cereal all over the world.  When he is filing up at gas stations, he will buy milk and treat himself to a delicious bowl of whatever he is shipping as a reward for being such a terrific driver.

If you adopt Gus over here, he will gladly sit shotgun until he's old enough to drive.

Here is another Giraffe lady.  I don't have a story for her yet.  For some reason it is hard for me to think of stories when I know exactly where the pillow monster is going.  I am sending this giraffe to HGTV.  They have this new show coming out that is geared towards crafty teenagers and they are looking for people to show their crafts.  Here is the info.  I wanted to send along this sassy giraffe to work her charm on them (work it, sassy giraffe!).  I think she needs a flower though. 

Clementine and Marty

Clementine loves the smell of Lilacs, but her favorite flower is the kind that grows out of broccoli.  She boycotts broccoli because she thinks they should be allowed to grow to bloom in gardens rather than eaten with ranch dip.  Clementine has a pet rabbit, Snooky, and she and Snooky enjoy playing in the garden in Clementine's backyard.  Clementine uses the Daisies to decorate her hair.  She also picks dandelions and smashes them up in water.  This makes a kind of yellow paint, and with it Clementine paints bright and sunny pictures.

Marty owns his own cinema.  HE calls it Marty's Magnificent Movies.  He loves popcorn, so it doesn't bother him that the smell has seeped into all of his clothes.  He doesn't take any butter on his, but he takes double the salt.  Marty's favorite movies are anything by Frank Capra.  He cries every time at "It's a Wonderful Life", but they are warm and happy tears.  Marty gives big discounts to senior citizens, and if you have a well-behaved dog, then you can bring him or her on in.  When Marty shows sad, tragic movies, he stands at the door and passes out soft tissues to everyone who enters.  He loves his job.

There they are.  Have a nice and sunny Sunday.

Benjamin and a paper pirate

Benjamin is perhaps the only honest used car salesman there is.  He feels very passionate about his job.  He wants to find the perfect car match for people and give them the best deal ever imagined.  Sometimes he actually loses money on the deal, but he doesn't care.  The vision of a happy couple speeding off in their brand new used car is priceless to him.  People often don't trust Benjamin's friendly nature at first, but after 10 minutes, his charm wins them over.  What Benjamin loses in finances due to his aim to please, he gains in chocolates that people send him out of gratitude.  This suits Benjamin just fine.  

And now....  Look who's back!  It's Jeremiah the Pirate!

Here he is in his tighty-whities.

And, here he is fully dressed.

Here is his pirate-y wardrobe.

And, here he is in his tighty-whities and his paper hat!

Yes, I found the paint bucket!  Thanks Kuky, and thanks Joseph who helped me.  Photo Shop is FUN!  I am still 99% confused, but I feel much better now that the paint bucket has been located.  I had a lot of fun coloring Jeremiah's wardrobe.  It's not quite where I want it.  I am really interested in the idea of scanning in fabric and using that in Photo Shop, but that seems light years beyond my capabilities.  Once I figure out some more stuff, I'd like to offer a series of paper dolls in my shop.  Sometimes I can't bring myself to sew a duplicate, so this is a nice way for me to bring some characters back.  

Christopher the Cat and Miho

Christopher loves to spread joy.  He thinks he was born to be a joy-spreader.  Actually, his mother told him as much nearly every day as he was growing up.  He spreads joy by whistling as he walks and smiling very genuinely at people as they pass him by.  He picks flowers and attaches little notes to them that say "the birds thank you".  Then, he leaves them on park benches where he knows older people will be feeding the pigeons.  He is known for his hugs which give people warm-fuzzy explosions inside themselves.  He's Christopher the joy-spreading cat.

Miho is studying very hard to be a Geisha.  Her mother is a Geisha, and Miho thinks her mother is the most beautiful, graceful woman to walk the Earth.  Miho is clumsy, so she is having difficulty learning the proper dances, but she plays the shakuhachi very elegantly and this makes her feel good about herself.  Miho has a pet kitten, Yuki, and she practices dancing in front of her.  Yuki is very supportive.  

Speaking of joy-spreaders, I ran into one at the grocery store the other day.  I was in this special grocery store called the Sahara Mart.  I like it there, they have a large variety of coffee with interesting names like "Midnight Magic".  I was looking for chocolate to send to my friend Alice, and there was an older woman there, also in the chocolate aisle.  We had to kind of dance around each other to look closely at the chocolates, and she turned to me excitedly and said, "Isn't this fun?" and I thought it was, so I told her yes.  I asked her what was good (she looked experienced) and she picked out the most surprising choices.  She said that she really liked the chocolate lavender, but that day she was gong to try the chocolate bacon.  I thought maybe she was joking, but that really exists, and she really was going to eat it.  It was really fun talking chocolates with this woman, and it made my day. 

Morton the Frog

Morton loves fancy espresso drinks.  He rarely orders them though because he is in love with the barista at his local coffee shop.  So, he orders a triple-dark-black coffee in order to appear tough and manly when all he really wants is a fluffy, butternut, soy latte with whipped cream.  Sometimes he walks clear to the other side of town to indulge in his sweet espresso drink anonymously.  Little does he know that Sally Lou Lou, the barista, is in love with him, not because he orders manly coffee beverages, but because he wears a sunflower on his shirt every day.  One day she is going to draw a heart on his paper cup and write:  "From:  Guess who?".

If you look closely at the stitches on Morton's shirt you may be able to notice that I have a new sewing machine!  But, the way this came to be is a post all its own.  I can tell you now that it is amazing---I worked through the transition and am now in a heaven that allows for heart and flower stitches at the slightest push of a button (the flower stitches are near his wrists).

Simon the Frog and Beatrice the finger puppet

Simon loves sunflowers.  He is not married yet, but he dreams of his bride walking down the aisle with an enormous bouquet of sunflowers, and an extra one for her ear.  In addition to sunflowers, he loves the sun.  He has a pet ferret named Peanut that he takes for walks in the sunshine.  He smiles at everyone, but is shy with the ladies.  He has been a groomsman 24 times!  Always the groomsman never the groom, sigh.

Beatrice is very jumpy and nervous.  She gets startled at the slightest thing.  She has a dog named Woofers.  Woofers is a miniature Pinscher, and he is just as nervous, if not more so than Beatrice.  Together they sit on Beatrice's purple velvet couch and they watch cartoons.  They turn the TV off during the commercials so that they don't catch any previews of the news!

I have a miniature Pinscher.  You may have noticed from some photos.  His name is Albert, and I adore him.  He is so serious.  Dog owners can understand this:  Joseph and I have a voice we do for him.  Sometimes we speak in his voice and pretend like he has his own talk radio show about being a "good boy".  He is a really dog, and he is so, so serious, that I just imagine him obsessing over how to be a good boy and really analyzing his choices so that he always does the most "good boy" thing to do.

Julie June-Bear and Charles Mc Cheese

Julie June-Bear blushes easily.  As soon as you say her name, her face turns pink.  She is unbearably shy, but incredibly kind.  When she sings "Happy Birthday" to people, she sings so beautifully, but only if there is a large group of people in song, so that nobody will notice her voice.  She has a pet parakeet named Kelliana.  she takes very good care of Kelliana, and every morning they share a banana.

Charles Mc Cheese is very outgoing.  He has read the Dalai Lama's book, The Art of Happiness, and because of what he learned from that, he tells everyone he meets three nice things about them right away.  He can always think of more than three, but he doesn't want to over-do it.  One of his secret talents is that he can curve his tongue into four squiggles.  Most people can only do three if they can do any squiggles at all!  He also loves Superman flavored ice cream and that show about meerkats.

Wa POW!

Liam, Cecilia and Danielle, all waiting in Etsy to be adopted.  After I did Daniella yesterday, I went to the fabric store and bought some stuff to kind-of throw me for a loop.  Not too crazy of a loop, but I wanted to try to force myself out of the comfort zone of felt-hooded creatures.  I got some fleece and some denim and some different prints that I normally wouldn't go for to see what would happen.  And, Cecilia and Liam happened!  I'm also working on a new one that looks a bit Humpty Dumpty-ish.  

On a side note, I am MAYBE, if he chooses me going to paint a mural for a cafe here in Bloomington.  Send him some "hire Nichol" vibes please!

Lenard

Lenard is a mentor.  He is one of those guys born to give advice.  He can advise you on most anything, but really he is an expert on personal relations.  Lenard has really been coaching Dwight, and Dwight has grown quite attached to Lenard.   Dwight is the only one Lenard permits to call him Lenny.

Ernie

Isn't he cute?  I decided to go for a few that aren't in costume, but are actually friendly animal fellows.  Ernie is a very proper elephant who likes to "pop to the shop" rather than "go to the store".   He's over yonder at Etsy if you'd like a new friend!