Inspiration: Elaine Bradford

I stumbled across the works of Elaine Bradford and was immediately blown away.  She makes wonderful sculptures with crochet, other mixed media materials and taxidermy animals.  I would love to see them in person.  You can check out her site and flickr for more info and photos.   Here's a few of my favorites.

"Little Guy" 2010  

I really like them when they are photographed outside.  Adds a sense of surreality to them.

'Family Portrait as Panda Bears" 2010     This is one of favorite pieces.  I love the little world she created. 

'Harry, With Worlds on Top"

"Divided Attention" 2006

'Of course it Quacks, It's a Duck"  This piece is amazing--the gold feet and bill are so great.

'No Legs" 2007

This elephant is just amazing.  Can you just imagine the size of this?  Wow. 

Well I guess that's enough---please go check out all of her photos.  She has a ton of work--each piece worth a look. 

Ode to "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is my favorite movie.  It has a wonderful cast and the writing is perfect.  It's a little quirky, but that just adds to the charm.  At it's core, it is the perfect love story. The main characters, Clementine and Joel (played wonderfully by Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey) are in a relationship that has taken a turn for the worse.  In their anger and hurt they both erase their memories of each other, which is where the delightful quirkiness comes to play.   We travel with Joel through the erasing process and relive his memories of Clementine and their relationship--from how they first met, to the special moments they shared. Some are so absolutely touching that I cry every time.  It is through this loss that they both truly realize their love is real and, in the end, they find each other again.  What more can you ask for in the perfect love story. I thought I'd see if there are any other fans out there, perhaps getting a little creative--so here's what I found.

I am in love with this paper doll of Clementine by claudiavarosio.  It comes with her orange sweatshirt and her ever changing hair colors.   Way too cute.

This lovely pillow by schinders with the phrase "Meet Me in Montauk" a very significant line in the movie.  You may remember this pillow that I received from her in a swap.  She rocks!  Check out her blog, too.

When I first saw this piece by theawkwardunicorn a couple years ago, I fell in love immediately.  This line, "Please let me keep this memory-just this one" resonated so deeply with me.  It's a perfect stitching the way the letters seem to fade away, just like the memory that was being erased, though Joel was trying so desperately to hold on to it.  Just wonderful. 

This lovely necklace by enamor is based on the necklace Joel was going to give to Joel.  He bought it at a flea market because she's the type of girl that likes unique things.  This is super cute. 

I first saw this piece in a MrXStitch post.  This is a movie poster created by Ezgi Genç.  It's a wonderful representation of the frozen river scene.  I love the little Clementine and Joel.  Super cute. 

I hope you were inspired by these wonderful pieces.  I love when a movie inspires creativity.  That is the true mark of something special, when fans start creating things based on their favorite movie or show or band or whatever.  Here's my favorite scene from the movie ( I could only find this one) and also the music theme by the wonderful Jon Brion. I love the music in the movie too, and had planned on walking down the aisle to the theme before my disk messed up and I had to pick a new one last minute.  But I imagined it in my head and it was beautiful. 

Hollow hearts and balloons

It's been H-O-T hot here in NC!  I've had to stay inside with the A/C and stitch--poor me.  So since I've been busy stitching I've got a finished embroidery to share.  I'm really loving stitching up these Sublime patterns on found linens.  I've got quite a series going now.  This is another Tara Mcpherson pattern.  (If you click that link you'll see my other Tara McPherson pattern being used on the SS site!--eek).  

The flowers and border were already stitched on the fabric and the crocheted border was already there, too. 

This pattern was really fun to stitch.  I chose fun colors and kept the stitches simple.  Now--I just have to decide what to stitch next!   Although I really should paint some...I'm such a procrastinator when it comes to my paintings. 

Yo-Yo dolls

I have two yo-yo dolls.  These are actually the only two yo-yo dolls I've ever seen.  I'm always surprised that I don't see them in thrift or antique stores more often.

 This one has a lovely painted face and yarn hair.  

 I love the face on this one.  

I found a couple of great tutorials here and here to make your own yo-yo doll if you are so inclined.  I would love to give it a try.  I have tons of fabric scraps that would be perfect.

Favorite things

I love this little vignette sitting on my TV stand. It's got several of my favorite things.

The flowers are my wedding bouquet that I made sitting in a beautiful milk glass vase.  The smaller milk glass dish holds my "rock babies" that I received in the Chuck Palahniuk swap (based on the book Choke).  The little figurines are all thrift store finds (the larger kitty now missing a chunk of her ear due to my real kitty).  The print is by a fabulous artist, Pinkytoast and my sister gave it to me. Even the doilies are treasured, I received them at our wedding shower.  It's just small things like this that make me smile.

Our "garden"

The best thing about summer in my opinion is fresh produce.  I look forward to going to Farmer's Markets, and getting things from family and friends.  They always want to share!  Since we are apartment dwellers we have no yard (sadsies), so I thought I'd try to grow a few things in containers this year. 

We've got some herbs; basil, oregano and chives and I'm also trying radishes, swiss chard and a salad blend. 

Everything has sprouted!  It is so hot here in NC right now that I'm hoping everything will make it through. I would still like to get some cherry tomato plants, too.

So keep your fingers crossed for me that my little garden will be fruitful for us!  What are you growing this summer?

Swap part 2!

Holy Jeebus!!  I received these super awesome stitchings from my partner for the Phat Quarter swap!  They blew me away!! 

It's Harry Potter and the gang!

Hermione, Harry and Ron

Hagrid, Ginny, Freg, George and Dumbledore!

Ron even has his broken wand!  I love it!

Weasley's

Hagrid is one of my favorite characters in the books (he even has his little pink umbrella!

These are just so great.  My partner really went above and beyond!  It's definitely making me want to do more swaps. Check out my partner's stuff here!  She does great work. 

Also fittingly enough, I received a sweet package from a dear friend.  She recently visited The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios and sent me a Chocolate Frog (it was tasty).  I received the Godric Gryffindor Wizard card inside!  Now I can start my collection!

I am both sad and excited about the final Harry Potter movie. I want to see it badly but knowing that it is the last one is definitely bittersweet. I'm sure I will need to bring a tissue or two. TTFN!