Unfinished business- part 3

Part three, aka the March edition.

These two fake taxidermy heads have been hanging around gathering dust at work for a year.

The original idea was to have these mixed up animal parts making up an imaginary animal. 

Hence the horse head with a rhino horn.

They are made of newspaper covered in handtowels glued on with a home made papermache paste.

As the person I had started these with isn't working with us anymore, the project took a different turn.

Off with the rhino horn and up with an unicorn horn.

And a hat for the fox.

The paper mache paste is one part flour, four parts water boiled until bubbly and cooled a bit. Unless you want to burn your fingers that is.

Ask me how I know this...

The hat was covered with newspaper, for the animals the hand towels gave a great texture.

We worked on these for several days and finally got to the fun part of painting.

Meet Mr. Fox.

His bow tie is made from an old tie, his glasses are wire.

The unicorn's horn is shiny and shimmery, there's some glitter paint in his mane too.

The bases are double layered cardboard covered with newspaper.

They are now up on the wall looking pretty.

We overheard one of the kids wondering why I had made the animals and then chopped their heads off :P

We are thinking of adding a few more next year.

Literary or legendary animals.

I mean we already have the fantastic Mr. Fox and a unicorn.

Toad from Toad Hall (Wind in the Willows) is on my list.

Can you think of more candidates?

Pretty please.

My other project was smaller (but only on the outside..)

I finally knitted the other Tardis sock!

It's a good thing these are so cool, because they were a pain to knit.

The Whovian in me is pretty geeked out.

Unfinished business- part 2

This was finished in January.

My aim is to finish one thing a month, anything more is a bonus.

So, yay, a bonus!

It was buried under s.t.u.f.f. on my desk at work since November.

Our principal is retiring this spring and all grades are making a piece for a rag quilt.

I had an idea for this piece of fleece for a while.

In the end it was done in a couple hours spread over two work days.

I always think of our Club as a circus.

I drew a circus tent and then handed fabric pens to the kids.

I cut small bits of fabric for flags and then sewed it all together several times with black thread as if drawing lines.

The last part was embroidering underneath.

Cute, even from the back.

Unfinished business- part 1

 

I love that as the year changes, Elizabeth comes up with an inspiring plan.

(last year was all about lists)

 

Who doesn't have unfinished things or plans?

I am best friends with Procrastination, if given the chance.

I have many UFOs (UnFinished Objects) as all crafters do. You get bored, something else comes up.. it happens.

It could also be something that you just don't want to do. Something that is easy to ignore.

 Like cleaning the laundry room..

I've given you peak into the basement sauna area when we spruced it up a bit.

In all honesty, in 1999 when we renovated the house, we should have renovated the basement also. But at that point, it seemed like a lot of money we didn't have. Needless to say we have regretted that decision for 15 years. Hah. 

Maybe soon. Maybe. Keep your fingers crossed.

In the meanwhile, it should at least be cleaned occasionally right?

See, during our renovation we installed a central vacuum. It is awesome, I love it. We have  two outlets for it, upstairs and downstairs.

Not in the basement though.

Can you see the problem emerging?

Yes, I sweep there.

Not enough.

Dust bunnies?

Nope.

We are talking carnivorous dust dinosaurs...

It is also the place stuff accumulates.

Stuff that should either be donated or thrown away.

Instead it comes here to die a slow dusty death.

So last weekend as Mika spent hours shoveling snow, I thought I'd just get it done.

Ugly towels that nobody uses on the bottom shelf there.

The kids have also outgrown Winnie the Pooh towels :)

 

Rugs that should be upstairs, a jacket waiting to be washed, old pillows.

And really? Lilac towels? Gag.

 At least the snowmen made me smile.

  

Old clothes, too small or broken.

Peach towels? Gag.

Pastels are not my thing.

I believe my in-laws have bought us both sets of gagworthy towels...

  

I had no idea what was under here except spider webs.

 

Nope. It doesn't work. 

A gift.

Guess who gave it to us?

Your first guess is probably right.

*grin*

And yes, that is dust on the paneling.

 Oh well. I'm stocked up on detergent.

 

 I hauled a regular vacuum cleaner in and simply started in one corner. It took me three hours and the washing machine was working right along side me.

I had one tea break when I came up for air.

I hung up three loads of laundry.

I hang all my laundry.

We do not own a dryer, nor do I have a reason to get one.

Better right?

(and yes that sauna door still hasn't been replaced, sigh)

The round mirror is an old tabletop I still hope to use somewhere.

The pillows were thrown out.

Jacket washed.

Old clothes went onto a donation bag or trash.

The rugs went into the laundry bin...

As well as spider webs, there were old magazines.

The boxes contain two lamps I hoped we could use here instead of the bare bulbs.

That may never happen, but I'm holding onto them just in case.

Organized is good.

 I ended up with more laundry than I started with, but that's OK.

Laundry I can deal with.

 I also found money from an old board game.

I snuck it there as a tip of sorts for a job well done.

I have to say it is nicer to go down there now that it's all clean and organized.

Plus the peach towels are in the donation bag and the lilac ones I dyed black.

Huge improvement.

I've got another unfinished project to be finished in sight already.

This one is at work.

Luckily there is no dust or sweat involved.

It's in fact a fun project that just got stored away last spring due to lack of time.

Eager to get back to it :)