Tuesday Treasures

I'm starting a new feature on my blog called Tuesday Treasures. Every Tuesday I'll share something new or old I found that I love and vintage treasures I've had since childhood. I hope you enjoy my treasures!

This book I've had since I was 3 or 4 and was the book I probably learned to read with. It has some sentimental value but also has awesome simple line graphics and two color printing that was so popular in the 60's and 70's. The copyright is 1965.

 I love the sweet little rhyming story of the boy who rides the bus from Chicago to visit his Grandma in I'm guessing New York.We lived in Chicago when I was young and I remember wanting to ride the bus that Mr. Gonzago drove from Chicago.

 All these years later I still treasure this book and remember reading it with my mom. Do you have any favorite books from your childhood that you treasure?

New Dolls I'm Working On and Other New Things.

These little felt dolls will be available in my etsy shop. As you can see they are multi ethnic. Some are Ballerinas and some mermaids. I'm thinking of doing some fairy tale dolls too.

I've put the rest of the Wonderland dolls on the back burner for now. My time is very limited so I'm concentrating on things I can finish quickly. 

I've been working hard at the other side of my business, the stationery side. Moving just about everything off eBay, organizing and re-working some older graphics in preparation of getting my sad little website filled up and running. 

I've also re-worked this blog design and created a blog just for my stationery business. This current blog will be for only my etsy items, my fun creative efforts, rants, sharing fun things I find and photos of my dog. The other blog will be for my stationery, website and eBay promotion. I hope to be able to give each equal time.

Another new bit of news is that I've opened a Zazzle shop and have a lot of my newer fun graphics available there for t-shirts, mugs and more. I'll post a link soon.

Now that the Girl has gone back to school I can roll up my sleeves and really get some work done!

Happy Easter and a Frosting Covered Chihuahua!

Easter for me is all about family and the food, especially a good coconut covered lamb or bunny cake and I've been craving one all week. Apparently though it's almost impossible to find one unless you make it yourself. And since I sold my lamb pan some years ago on ebay I was stuck buying a lamb cake. It was NOT coconut covered but since it was the only one I found I snapped it up.

It looked more like a frosting covered Chihuahua and the Girl (my daughter) refused to eat "the dog cake". I didn't understand why the poor thing was stabbed with a Knights Templar/Crusade banner and plastic flower! Oh, ha I get it now it's a cross, still weird to stab into a cake though! But anyway how bad could it be? It must taste good right? Oh you would be so, so very wrong! The frosting had no taste at all and the cake inside was so dry I'm sure the baker left some ingredients out. Very disappointing. 

One amusing thing happened with the cake though. My mom thought the head was a plastic piece and grabbed it to pull it off and discovered it was really cake and mushed half it's face in, now that was worth it! We immediately named it "Zombie Lamb"! LOL!

On a happy note I was able to find my deviled egg tray with bunny and bouquet salt and pepper shakers. I just love this goofy thing! Isn't it cute?

My brother stopped by with both his boys for about an hour and then went home to cook his own Easter dinner. His family and ours don't do any family holiday dinners anymore. Long, stupid story. His youngest (19 months) proceeded to terrorize my dog. At one point he grabbed her out of my arms had her by the head and a large clump of my hair too! He just a baby so I wasn't mad at him but at my brother who just stood there watching while I yelled for help. Poor Lita couldn't breathe and I was getting a large portion of my hair ripped out! Oh what fun we have on the holidays with family! Things calmed down after they left and we had an enjoyable dinner, so other than having the dog plastered to me and shaking in fear it was all good.

Trolls!

I'm not actually writing about these Trolls but since I am on the subject thought I'd show some of my Russ Troll collection. These were huge when I was a kid and I never had one and was jealous of my friends who had whole collections of them. So as an adult I started picking them up at yard sales etc. I recently found a box of them stored away and decided to give them a home in my studio. This is only some of them, maybe one day I'll share my complete Troll obsession with you! O.k. so maybe this post is a little bit about these Trolls! LOL!

Now on to the real reason for this post. For some reason, who knows why Trolls have been on my mind lately. I know I'm weird, but that's o.k. cause I like myself that way. Sitting watching t.v. I did a quick sketch (kind of embarrassed to show you) then made a quick pattern on the computer.

In the beginning Trolls were flat, without features or life.

They come into the world naked and grumpy.

(kind of like me in the morning, only not naked)

Even with warm tunics they still are not happy.

(Must be a Troll personality trait)

Please meet Granite. He's a Rock Troll. They live in

caves but prefer a good bridge where they can waylay

humans, play mind games, impose tolls and crunch bones.

  

They also have the cutest bums but hate to show them.

(this one bit me after I took the photo)

I have a forest Troll in progress so stay tuned for his debut.

Sneak Peek and a Tale of Pain.

I was hoping to show you all the Monster/Troll I've been working on but my back had other ideas. It's been bothering me for a while and decided to throw itself into spasms yesterday. The spasms prevented me from raising my arms above my waist without pain so I couldn't sew or do much of anything. The Troll itself is mostly finished but he's naked so I'll just show a sneak peek until his outfit is made.

A face only a mother could love!