Finished Object Dance

Last night I stopped by Windsor Button, picked up fabric paint to do the Florida-headed flamingo eyes, and some extra stuffing, came home, applied the first paint, and went out to dinner with Lucy while it dried.

At dinner, Lucy said she's getting the next batch of sock yarn ready for dying and she's looking for colorways. If you have color requests, she's taking them (there's an email link and phone number for the shop at the bottom of the page). She's thrilled the Etsy store had done so well in such a short time.

Above, this morning the flamingo is ready to be stuffed. Shown is the initial amount available, trying to finish up the remains of a couple bags of stuffing-fluff. In the end, I wound up using a couple ounces more out of an unstarted bag.

Shown on the left is the stuffed bird, in the early morning light. (Those Folgers people and I aren't much different, I just know enough to not play reed instruments before 10 a.m.)

Shown are the right is a close-up of the painted eyes. The trick is to work the paint into the fabric, which is, of course, fuzzy. Glom it on thick. What you don't see is fuzzy bits that absorbed paint, trimmed off with fingernail clippers, after a night of drying. I did a second coat of paint before going to bed, but I'm not sure it was needed. The original plan had been to embroider eyes but between my skills (lacking) and the tightness of the space in the head cavity, I'm glad I went with paint.

Shown on the left are the three baby Nalgars that will be going with the flamingo to Florida. I've received the invitation to the shower on June 24, so it's time to get these in the mail.

I also received an invitation to the other cousin's shower on July 1, for a baby due early August. I had been led to believe that baby (and her sister's 4th) were due in the fall. So, cousin expecting her first is getting the Nalgar with the colors that didn't fit the color theme of the triplets. I have no idea what to give the cousin expecting her 4th, as the shower invitation suggests giving her something, too. I have a couple weeks to figure that out.