Great fury dragon picture and vacation

Esme's 'Great Fury' dragon page

drawn after watching How to Train your Dragon again the other night.

She says the symbols at the top right is a sword that if you cut it on it's tail the plastic beads inside will come out and it will be 'ded'.  It also eats fish, as indicated by the symbol on the left.

I have nine days off starting today.

We are preparing to go to a crafts bazaar in town.

I have a few plans for this vacation.. some sleeping in, some reading, some sewing... teaching Esme for her next week of school.  For now, we are having our 'weekend together - both of us', as she said this morning.  I finished the thick knit socks the other day and they have been a great thing to put on as soon as I am home and sit reading while Esme has bopped around making dragon lairs, fish dinners, penguin egg laying stations and other things with her Knex and other toys.

Probably some puppy pictures this week - they are still small but very lively.

Puppet prototype

This morning I sat down with a notebook, tape, scissors and a pen, then progressed to cutting and sewing scraps out of my bag over the course of several hours.  About three reworks later, attended to by Esme, this puppet was finally something that worked like a puppet should.

It was supposed to be a unicorn, but it turned out to be a dragon.

She said this one was a hug, and I had to include it.

There will have to be reworks in order to get the actual pattern 'right', but she likes this dragon as a finished product.  She thought his ears could have been better - and I didn't take much time on them because they were 'could be anything' type of thing - not needing as much work as the shape of a head or arm etc etc..  She said it is an ice AND fire dragon that eats sunlight.  His family is away on a picnic, and we are looking after him until they get back. 

harvest and dragon

 Sweet peas from today.. two different varieties

I tried to save about ten big ones for seed and a pod from the other variety

 Cucumbers (one that was hiding really well), pepper, zucchini, basil, beans and sweet peas  Esme said it had lots of spikes on it like a cactus.

A purple squishy dragon from the zoo gift shop.

Her name is 'Violent' the dragon.

Dragon Pillow

One of my workshop items was this dragon pillow. I'd planned a large bed pillow out of this nice red and white striped fabric. But not just any boring rectangular pillow - it had to be special and interesting, something unique. Mark helped me evolve the idea into something worth it's stuffing ;) This 30 inch wide dragon took about two hours to make and one yard each of the front and back fabrics. With 100% cotton ticking fabrics and good seams he should also survive the washing machine.


Shown on top of our plushy dragon blanket which also helped inspire it


Esme thinks it's an interesting toy too, with his curly tail, floppy arm and mouth full of teeth. Here she makes for good scale as she pages through a new board book.

I've been using the dragon as a head pillow at night the past few days as well. It makes me happy to make something that actually gets used. I think this dragon bears repeating. A couple of times maybe... in slightly different incarnations. Mark already says he needs one of his own because I'm monopolizing this one :)

Next: Purple bassinet quilt, more aliens and lots of fabric!