Clearing out the dust rhinos

My, my, my. It's already February, and I haven't posted since Christmas. That's just pathetic. My studio has been sitting dormant, collecting dust rhinos (forget the bunnies...this is Texas), for the last several months. My mojo went on extended leave. Has that happened to any of you? Are there times--days, weeks, MONTHS when you just don't or can't bring yourself to create? I hit a horrible dry spell starting about September of last year and it lasted until about a week ago.

I was uninspired

unmotivated

non-creative

Blah.

But, I'm happy to say my prodigal mojo has FINALLY returned.

It's about darn time.

My cousin's daughter (does that make her my second cousin? or 1st cousin once removed?) is having a baby and her shower is Sunday. You know me...I don't buy presents. For starters--because I'm usually broke. And more importantly...because I'd rather create something myself. I decided to make another fleece baby blanket. And, with the leftover fleece, make a stuffed animal to match.

But then I remembered the HORROR I went through creating that stuffed bear for my cousin's baby a year and a half ago. You remember...and if you don't, here's a link to it

 Da Bear

I chose some really fun fabric with brightly-colored creatures (aliens, monsters...whatever). I made the blanket reversible with neon green on the flip side.

Well, I wasn't about to attempt another of THOSE (points to link above) bears. Never again. Besides, a bear really doesn't go well with the material I chose. I decided to make monsters. Guess what? Monsters are EASY. I made up a monster in my head, free-hand drew the pattern directly on the fleece, cut it out, and sewed it up, zip, pop, WE HAVE MONSTERS! SOooooooo cute.

Super soft, cuddly monsters!

The monster on the left I named Nom Nom...because he reminds me of the toothy character from the video game "Cut The Rope". His "teeth" are a strip of rick-rack that I sewed into a crease.

Nom Nom (extreme closeup)

The second monster I named Legz. The hat he's sporting in the top photo is actually a hat (complete with horns) that I made for the baby using some of the extra fabric. 

I found the pattern at FleeceFun.com. It was SUPER easy to make. I like that website...there are TONS of FREE patterns for all things fleece. Bookmark it, you won't be sorry. I specifically made Legz to fit the hat so that when the baby outgrows his hat, Legz can wear it. When you take Legz' hat off, you can see his "hair".

 

Legz (with and without his hat) 

The last "thing" I made is a soft rattle and crinkly noisemaker. I call him Sunny. I made the rattly part (inside) out of an empty lip balm jar. I filled it with little plastic beads and screwed its lid back on. Instant rattle mechanism. The crinkly part is in the handle...I cut up a cheapy plastic water bottle (the kind that totally collapses if you grab it even remotely firmly) and put in 2 strips of plastic that run the length of the handle so that when he (the baby) grabs it, it makes a really nice crinkly sound. The sun "rays" are made from giant rick-rack. I figure it will give him something to grab/chew on...mostly chew on. 

  Sunny the Rat (tle)

That completes the whole gifty kit and kaboodle. I think 5 gifts from one chunk of fleece is AMAZING, don't you? I have one small scrap left of the monster material...I wonder what else I could make?

Tomorrow I'm making a card to go with all this. I'll post it tomorrow. I'm also making a card for my mom to give. I'll post it too.

Ok, off to clean up my mess. Ciao for now.