More Shit for Gaby: Birthday Edition

This year for my dear Gaby's birthday I decided to paint up some of the blank nesting dolls I ordered from Golden Cockerel. Behold the Wu Tang Clan:
I used gloss spray varnish and shot these at night because I am a dumbass, so the flash pretty much blew out all the detail. Here's a closer shot of the big ones:
You may have noticed a little white girl in there. That's Gaby. She's always wanted to be in the Wu Tang, and I aim to please. Here's the back:
I purchased the 5 piece sets of nesting dolls, so this is two sets put together. They are all handmade so there is a slight variation in size between the two sets, which makes it look like maybe it's one big set. Do not be deceived.

Here's what Gaby got for Valentine's Day. I took an empty heart-shaped candy tin and spray painted it black, then decoupaged romantic stuff on it. The front:

The back:

Inside:

I made her a bracelet out of skull beads from Oriental Trading and a voodoo doll and some hearts from scrap fabric. Project: Fill Gaby's House With Love Offerings continues unabated.

Here's the one I made for my husband. Same deal, I spray painted an empty gigantic Altoids tin and then decoupaged it. Outside front:

The text reads "This time staying awake won't help you." I like to keep him on his toes. The back:

And inside:

Unintentional Moby Dick reference here. I just liked the image of the tortured whale. It seriously did not occur to me until my husband pointed it out. He was pleased.

One last item, since I've got Flickr open. While wandering around the Publix one day, I noticed that they were selling zip-up hoodies for $10. Why was the grocery store selling hoodies? I have no idea. Apparently Publix had no idea either, because the next time I saw the hoodies they were half off. $5 is a pretty damn good price for hoodies. So I bought the last three they had, which were baby blue, pink and black. If things go as planned, the blue and pink ones will probably appear in a future "More Shit for Gaby" post. But here's what I did with the black one:I don't have enough crap with skeletons on it, right? I painted this on with regular old acrylic paint. I almost didn't take this photo because I wanted to wait until after I washed it to get the pencil lines out. I'm glad I did, because this is what happened when I washed it:I have never had this happen. I paint on fabric all the time. I certainly didn't have this problem with the octopus sweatshirt. Maybe it's because I turned it inside out, or maybe I didn't let it dry long enough before I washed it, or maybe I angered the craft gods. In any case I think it looks even radder this way, and no paint got on anything else in the washer, so I'm going to put this under the Happy Accident column and tell everyone I got it at Abercrombie and Fitch.

That's it for now. I have to go order more nesting dolls.

Various Projects

Sometimes I like to torture my husband. He loves Lord of the Rings, and I always joke about what a gorgeous woman Legolas is. We keep getting PB Teen catalog for some reason. So I combined them both and left this for him one morning on the counter:

Legolas: I cannot waiteth to see what shall happen on the O.C. this day!
Babysitter: Yeah, well enjoy the first half, because your mom said you have to go to bed at 9:30.

Zeppo makes great shrines. I am jealous of her great shrines. So when I finished the chamomile tea that came in this tiny box, I used it to construct a shrine to Satan and Anton LaVey:

Inside I put Bible quotes, Hieronymus Bosch artwork, and a tiny devil that you use to decorate fancy girly drinks. (I have squids, too. Stay tuned.)

I'm actually not sure if it's finished yet. I wanted to put some of my skull beads in there, but I haven't decided yet. I'll let the voices in my head guide me.

One of my only fond school memories is from a music class we had in middle school around Halloween. The teacher spent a whole period on the Saint-Saëns piece "Danse Macabre." She explained the whole piece start to finish, telling us which instrument represented which part of the story, and handed out triangles and xylophones so we could play along at the correct time. She even had skeleton decorations up. I still love "Danse Macabre," so I commemorated the piece with this set of nesting dolls:


"Memento Mori" means "Remember you will die." Not sure what "Momento Mori" means, but I have since corrected the spelling. Don't drink and paint.

I purchased blank nesting dolls from Golden Cockerel, then painted them with acrylics. I have since coated them with spray-varnish, so they are much shinier now. The varnish claims to have "ambering properties" that I think will enhance the dolls over time.

Okay, last item - double point needle wraps:

If you don't knit, then you will have no idea what the hell these are for. Quick recap: When you knit tubes, such as sleeves or hats, you can either use two needles joined together by a cord (called circular needles), or you can use several small (double pointed) needles in this manner:


There are many types of needle wraps to accommodate regular long straight needles, but I haven't ever found one I like to haul around all my double points at once. (And believe me, I need them all.) Some will hold a few needles with a pocket for notions, but I already have a huge notions bag. So I developed this pattern:


(By the way, this is two needle wraps - the brown/blue one is lying on top of the green/pink one. I just realized it looks like a big gross hybrid of both wraps.) Each pocket is labeled with the size needle it will hold, the top flap folds over all the needles, and the whole thing rolls up into a neat little package. I actually made these because someone that saw mine requested some for her store. I hope she's not too horrified by some of my crooked lines.