Rest In Peace Leonard Nimoy

If you've been around me any time at all you will know about my undying love of Spock from Star Trek. I was heartbroken to hear the news that Leonard Nimoy passed away last Friday. Several friends texted me when they heard and I spent the morning listening to him sing music from outer space. (Someone is trying to sell that record on ebay for $750! People are the worst.)
I've seen a few sweet tributes to him around the web, I especially liked Katherine's post with her pugs all dressed in their science officer uniforms and Jes' post about his photography and view on large bodies. And I can't forget the interview Zachary Quinto did with Entertainment Weekly. 

My best friend Crystal texted me and suggested that I make a back patch as a tribute so I went to her house and made this:

I love how it turned out! I didn't get it sewed quite flat enough on my jacket, but I'll pull it up and redo it later. I made with with just a few layers or felt and some embroidered stars. I haven't really done anything crafty in a long time. It felt good. I've been wearing it the past few days and talking to lots of people about our love of Spock.

Leonard Nimoy was an incredible human being, and originated my favorite character in all of fiction. If you need me I'll be working my way through Star Trek, the original series again.

"Loss of life is to be mourned, but only if the life was wasted." - Spock

Adventures in Taxidermy

Don't worry, there are no graphic or bloody photos in this post!

As you guys know I have a little collection of vintage taxidermy here at camp Say It Ain't So. I just love it! I think it reminds me of campy dioramas at the local science museum when I was a kid. I had toyed with the idea of taking a taxidermy class at my local oddities shop, but the class I was signed up for got cancelled. My best friend Crystal, and my new friend Ashley both took classes though. Ashley got some rats that died from a woman who sells feeders to feed snakes and offered to bring them over so they could teach me how to do it. Here are some notes from my foray into taxidermy. I know most people aren't into this stuff, so it won't hurt my feelings if you skip this post. 

The rats were frozen and were pretty pee covered so first order of business was to wash and dry them. I  thought this might make me sad because I used to have pet rats and loved them but it really wasn't. These guys were destined for pet food, and once they died they would have been thrown away. Look at how cute mine is!

 Crystal got a black one.

 Ashely's was the cutest! This was the first time we've hung out in person, which might seem a little weird. Haha! But we met on instagram because of the taxidermy classes!

 Ok, so the first order of business is to separate the skin from the body. It took a REALLY long time for us to get through it. Hours and hours. I'm pretty squeamish and had to take a few breaks and go outside but I'm pretty proud of myself for getting it done. I'm not going to lie, it was really gruesome. I actually had nightmares because of it. I'm not going to go into the process, but if you are interested, we used this website for tips, along with what they learned in the classes. I'm not going to link the classes they took because the instructor is apparently pretty awful, but I've heard great things about Afterlife Anatomy, who also travels around teaching classes!

 You also have to create a little false body to go inside the rat. The eyes are just regular black beads. It's weird how realistic they look once they are in the skin.

 Here we are working hard! As you can see it is now dark! We worked from about 4 until almost midnight! With a little break for tacos.

Ashely demonstrating how were were all feeling about 6 hours in. Haha. So over it. But wanted to finish! Look at how cute her rat looks!

 Really, the worst part was all the skinning. I gave up once we got to the head and Ashley finished it for me. Bless her. Stuffing it and posing it wasn't bad at all. 

You wire the arms and legs into place, and try to make the tail look ok. I'm not sure how well I did that part, we'll see.

 Here is my little gal all done. She looks ok for my first (and probably only) try I think. We'll see how sh looks in a few weeks. Crystal took mine home so it could cure in her basement, away from curious cats.

All in all it was an interesting experience and I'm glad I did it. I know it seems weird for a vegan, but I really like taxidermy and feel like it honors the animal in a way. Do I expect everyone to agree with me? No. But that's ok. I hope you found it interesting at least!

My Holiday Project!

I refuse to wait until the last minute to get in the Christmas spirit this year! So I am giving myself a project to get me excited. I bought this vintage tree skirt kit from the Magpie Ethel shop last year, but never got motivated to start it.

 Here is a close up of the photo on the front. Sadly, even thought it was still sealed it is missing the instructions! And a few of the pattern pieces have faded. But I think I'll be able to figure it out. And maybe add even MORE sequins than they suggest!
To keep myself accountable I'm going to post a progress shot of it every week! Here's hoping I can finish it in time for Christmas!

Here is the little bit I started on. I can't tell if Santa's face is supposed to be felt applique or embroidered. I might leave those little details until last to see how I feel. This is is pretty big! I can't wait to see it fill out more!

My teeth

A few of you made comments about the teeth sitting on my kitchen window sill (which I kind of can't believe because they are barely in the picture!) so I thought I would show you what they are! I used to be in a craft club with some friends and those were one of the things I made for craft shows:

This was back in 2009. I was terrible at craft shows, and sold almost nothing. But I did sell some of these teeth. The ones in my kitchen are the leftovers. I love them! I made Santa teeth for the annual ornament exchange that year too. 

If you want to read some posts about our craft show experiences here and here. AND if you think teeth are cure, you should read My Milk Toof!  She doesn't post often, but when she does it is AMAZING!

Pom Pom Wreath!

Do you remember me saying that I was going to do more crafts this year, and use up my crazy stash of supplies? Yeah, that hasn't really happened, but I did finally finish my pom pom wreath! I bought this yarn in 2008 because I was going to learn to knit and make myself a Gryffindor scarf. Turns out I am terrible at knitting! But I did finally use it up!

It looks so cute above my mantle! There are million pom pom wreath tutorials out there. Just know it is going to take you FOREVER to make enough pom poms. I used almost 8 skeins of yarn.

The little deer was gifted to me by Love of the Hunt. Doesn't she look perfect in there?

Did you notice this guy on my mantle? My best friend gave it to me for my birthday! Her husband made it out of papier mache! I'm totally in love with it.

He is so cute. Marc said he wasn't making anymore because they took him so long. At least I got one!

Best gift ever?

I almost forgot to post about one of my Christmas gifts. Which happens to be one of my favorite gifts I have ever gotten! My friend Marc, who is married to my best friend Crystal made it for me! I have looked at this pug wall hook for a while, but always thought where would I hang it? And I didn't love the chrome color. They were actually selling them at a local store. Well imagine my surprise when I opened my gift and found one, but made 1000x better by the paint job Marc gave it! Sugar skull pug!It is just perfect.
I love it from every angle. I think my favorite part is the eyelashes.
Or maybe the bones on the neck.
I'm pretty much obsessed with it. I can't decide where to hang it. It is in the dining room right now.

Some other awesome gifts I got. I told you about that lion from Dana. But that sweet horse bookend was given to me by my friend Brittany. I love the gifts she gives me every year. We frequent one of the same antique malls and she always buys me something I talked myself out of buying because I don't need to spend money on myself near Christmas. I swear, I almost bought that little dude at least 3 times. I'm so happy he is mine now!

My other gift from Crystal and Marc was this great paint by number. I love the teal sky! Another piece for my western guest room!

Kistchmas Wreath!

I am so excited with how this project turned out that I can't even wait until tomorrow to take a pretty natural light photo! I have been talking about making a wreath like this, inspired by Betty Crafter's beauties, since the middle of November and I finally sat down to do it today.


My dining room table has turned into my work station, even though I have that whole craft room.


All my supplies. over prepared as usual. i've been collecting vintage baubles every chance I get.

I've been getting a lot of mileage out of my hot glue gun lately.

I get this far and run out of tinsel! that starts a 3 store journey, and I end up with a different kind and every place was PACKED because it is almost Christmas. So I'm really grumpy when I get back.


My little helpers, right at my feet as usual. Priscilla loves that sweater.

After much agonizing here is my wreath! I love it! It is hanging over the mantle, directly in front of me now. There are definitely some things I will differently if (when) I make another one. But it is still pretty gorgeous.
I also finished wrapping my presents today and bought travis' stocking stuff and cleaned our room and the craft room since I'm hosting a little bit of the Christmas festivities on Sunday. I'm working the next two days, so I bet they will go by in a blur!

Ornament Exchange!

Every Christmas my friend Lauren hosts an ornament exchange party. She invites all kinds of creative people and I look forward to it every year! This time I wanted to REALLY try and make good ornaments that I could be proud of. Here is what I did!

First I made pom poms! I took my supplies and made these during bar trivia last week. I LOVE my pom pom makers. I have four different sizes. You can DIY it with cardboard (Delightfully Tacky posted a great tutorial last week!) but they store bought makers are faster. I have a stash of yarn that I pick up at the Goodwill Outlet whenever I see it. It is only about 15 cents a skein!

I decided to make birds so I tied the smaller pom poms onto the bigger ones. I ended up trimming the yard on the heads to make the beaks stand out more, and to make the size difference between the head and the body more balanced.

Phyllis was really helpful and insisted on being in my lap. I ate lots of satsumas while I worked. Yummmmmm.

I wanted to make glitter crowns. Jade glue and Martha Stewart glitter are the PERFECT combo. I have had that bottle of glue since my "Intro to the Studio Experience" class in 2003! Memories.

Just lovely.

A whole flock of little birds.

Killing me with cuteness!  The beaks are cardstock and the eyes are pony beads. Hot glued of course. I made felt wings but they didn't look right. So they are just fuzzy birds.

Glittered the insides of the crowns next.

My little work station. I haven't crafted in so long. It felt really awesome. Art school/failed job hunt kind of ruined making art/being creative for me. I always get really anxious and feel like nothing I make it good enough. I need to do more stuff like this and get my confidence back. I also watched about 6 episodes of Rupaul's Drag Race while I made these. I made me want to call everyone darling. And put glitter on EVERYTHING. You can see the little bird I used as inspiration to the left.

Glitter fingers. I STILL have glitter stuck to my face, two days later.

The girls sat next to me all day. Lookit them holding hands!

Here is the finished product! I was dark by the time I was done so this picture isn't great, but look at how cute! I made two for myself. I was so happy that they came out like I imagined. That night I went to the party and had a really great time. I learned how to do a "tim tam slam". Have you heard of that? I should do a post about it because it was one of the most delicious moments of my life.