Back...

Ok, so things have been busy and I've been gone for quite a while.  Here are some things I've been up to in the in between time...Started teaching Kindergarten at a montessori school.  Our main focus for the summer was SCIENCE! and it just happened that the first KC Maker Faire was this summer too.  So in anticipation for it we tore apart many unused and non working electronics, learning how they functioned, and brought tons of "junk" from home to recycle and made a robot: 
He's completely non-functioning except for a "Twilight Zone" sound chip from an old greeting card but they LOVED him!

I started playing around with layered embroideries.  The idea is to embroider a little bit of a scene/image on each layer of tulle creating a dimensional aspect to the 2D work.  The first one I did was of the Crab Nebula and turned out decent for a test of concept.  Needs much more detailing though to be a good depiction of a nebula.

Photo of the Crab Nebula from NASA.

                                                  Layered embroider, 5 layers deep.

 Each layer was mapped out individually and then layered in between a section of the wooden frame.  I think for my next attempt I will do something much less complex.

Halloween.  Good old Halloween, time for the fun and stress of a completely different home-made costume than the years before.  In my daughter's class they have animals that begin with the same letter as their first name that help them recognize their coat hook, cubby, etc. Her animal is a Macaw so it seemed like a good costume idea.  After 9 hours of sleep total in 2 days (I'm great at budgeting time.) I completed a very successful Macaw costume:

 The feathers were cut out on each side of the wings differently, to match a real scarlet macaw's patterning.

 She also had a skirt with a "tail" on it.  The hood had eyes with embroidered pupils on it.  She loves to run around in it "flying"!

Lastly and the most recent project accomplished are my Apple Pie Pies. Hallowed out apples, chilled, and filled with warm apple pie filling and topped with pie crust stars:

I brought these as wells as peanut butter and chocolate dipped granny smith apples to all the Fall festivities.  Keep posted for pictures of all of my new giraffes I'm in the process of making as well as Christmas projects, gifts, etc.