help me rhonda wah wee waah wahh

 (I recently had to make a call to cancel my federal insurance, which led me to being on hold for two hours and nine minutes, during which they had one minute-thirty instrumental musak song that looped for the entire two hours. I happened to also be listening (I can multitask like no one else) to a studio session of the recording of Help Me Rhonda which was essentially just them repeating the chorus while the Wilson boys' awful father yelled at them that clocked in at 40 minutes, and ever since the two songs have melded into one horrible never ending nightmare mash-up that has been stuck in my head for the last four days. I may be slowly going crazy.)

     After a long time of being too busy/lazy to make anything, I've been able to do some crafting lately, and it's been really great!  Sometimes it's hard for me to find motivation past any planning stages (I love planning stages- the more research, the better), and a lot of things I want to do never actually get done.  In addition to the Ikea shower curtain coat in my last post, I was able to make a short jacket out of a skirt that I found for a quarter at my favorite secret thrift store last time I went with my thrifting buddy (I also found two 3 yard lengths of fabric for a quarter each! Aaaah! In this town, that does not happen, ever.) and I started on a blue/yellow/black floral version of this pattern for my work's late-holiday party that I ended up not a) finishing and b) attending.  I'm going to do some reworking and finishing on it and hope to have it wearable soon.

     Another thing I've been working on is a project for a employee art show I'm participating in. I've never participated in anything resembling an art show before, so I'm very excited to have my stuff on display. The theme is very loose, and I chose to take a literal path and make a felt, calico and embroidery portrait of Portland historical figure, Dr. James  Hawthorne, whom the street we're locate on is named after.  I was inspired  by a Victorian era Masonic banner I saw at an antique store that I could not afford. Haha!  I'm really happy with how it came out, as I usually don't do "realistic" style art at all, especially faces.  Here's a bad photo if it in my dark room. I'll post better photos of it when it's on display later next week!

 

The blue floral print background was part of a bunch of Civil War print fat quarters I've toted around with me since high school that miraculously didn't get infested with spiders during my time at the last house, and I made the tassel with help from a Martha Stewart pattern. Ha!

Here's the real Dr. Hawthorne, who is buried in my favorite cemetery, Lone Fir!