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"These guys are cool; and by cool, I mean totally sweet."
-- Robert, Real Ultimate Power: The Official Ninja Webpage
Do you remember this little Ninja? Well it looks like he's back... and he's brought some friends with him. You know the drill, no sudden moves because "These guys are so crazy and awesome that they flip out all the time."
Once I'm finished with the Mod Dots Shop (which will be very soon, I promise) these guys will be available!
NOTE: Site update in progress.. please excuse any messes! I'm working on The Mod Dots Shop now and it will probably take me another day. *sigh*
This morning Mark brought me a cappuccino and two packages that arrived in the mail from my mama! This image is off of one of the sweet little cards that she gave to me. No time for a nice long post... I am off to lunch at one of my favorite places (Black Labrador) and later today, to fulfill my birthday request, Mark has promised to help me finish setting up my shop and upgrade my site!
p.s. I'm gonna get me a cupcake today.
Apparently, that's how they say it here in the South, "I'm gonna get me..." then fill in the blank. Mark (you know, the writer and MFA) says it is an appropriate use of the words but I can't believe it and it drives me crazy! Of course, that is probably why he does it. :) I should probably add that even though he grew up in the South, Mark doesn't have an accent. Go figure.
I added these images to the "Vintage Fabric" group on flickr. If you'd like to see larger (and better) versions and/or more vintage fabrics you are welcome to go visit the group. (If you just want to see my photos, click here.) Clockwise from top right are: vintage pillow cover, children's vintage hospital gown, my grandmother's apron and the little hospital gown again.
I found this puppy at a shop in Vicksburg, MS and couldn't resist bringing him home with me.
These cups are from a thrift store here in Houston. I love their shape, color and pattern.
A great big thank you goes out to Amanda at Soul Mama! I received my wonderful tote bag from her and inside she surprised me with all of these goodies. I love the magnets and the strawberry trim! You too can own a tote made by the talented Amanda if you watch her blog for updates - but hurry because her bags go fast!
Drumroll please... This is why I haven’t been posting much lately:
Teensy Birdies + Mod Dot Pincushion
Teensy Pups + Mod Dot Pincushion
Curious Hugo (I love this picture!)
I am so thrilled to announce that soon you will be able to order these two sets of Teensy Pins from Karine’s amazing online shop Lili Confetti. (I made several of each set!) Karine suggested the colors of the birds and of the Mod Dots pincushions – wow was she right! I absolutely love them. A few sets of each are about to leave Houston for England and as soon as they are up in the shop I will let you know.
In the meantime I highly recommend that you check out her shop. Everything she sells is limited-edition handmade cuteness! Be sure to check out my favorites: the Retro Bag Charms and the Kitschy Cloth Doll.
♥ I want to thank everyone who leaves me such nice comments and encouragement about the things I make. I know that there are thousands of other places to visit and I am grateful that you take the time to stop by Liquid Paper. For those of you who are hanging in there with me, I can tell you that I have made some progress on setting up my own little shop and still hope to have some items up for sale by July 30th – my birthday!
p.s. I almost titled this post “Leaving on a Jet Plane” (in honor of the trip that the Teensy Pins are about to take) but that dumb song got stuck in my head so I only mentioned it down here for those of you who like to read the small print.
Here are some images for the pets + softies flickr group. The softie here is one of the first things I ever made – a little orange and yellow fish pincushion. The way that each cat interacts with the fish tells you a bit about their personality. (I included an image of the two cats together so you’ll believe me that they are not the same even though they look identical – almost.)
Update: They look a lot like Siamese but are actually Tonkinese. Their coloring is Platinum Mink which makes them white w/ grey points and their fur is really, really soft to the touch. They are also know as jumpers because... well... they jump a lot. Yep.
hugo + softie
He is my friendly cat, he is always there to greet every single repairman and follow him around the house. That includes jumping up onto the counter to put his head under said repairman’s hand. (The hand that is trying to write out my receipt.)
clive + softie
Clive’s look says: “Don’t even think about taking this fish away from me.” He might look tough, but he is a total scaredy cat (anything that bounces = disappearing cat) and he runs away whenever anyone comes over. However, as soon as they leave he is trying to tag along with me wherever I go in the house and yelling at me. If I knew how to do an audio clip I would so that you could hear how insistent he is. He is the most talkative cat ever.
hugo + clive + softie
And here they both are together. Note that Clive still hasn’t let go of the fish.
I just couldn’t help myself, all of this Ninja talk and Mark’s (did you read his hilarious Ninja post?) urging inspired me to make a Teensy Ninja. I’m thrilled that I was able to capture him on film. If you read my earlier post on the Ninja Secrets of Invisibility, you know that if a Ninja stands perfectly still it is impossible to see him. Now, do you understand how amazing this photo is?
He even has a small shuriken and I’m pretty sure that he was about to throw it in my direction. Fortunately, I too have read the book and was able to remain very still and evaded his detection. Phew.
Update: You can buy your own set of three Teensy ninjas in the Mod Dots shop. Each set contains 1 ninja armed with shuriken (throwing star), i ninja armed with a sword, and one ninja armed with nunchucks.
In his early years my husband had aspirations of becoming a Ninja. I mention this because today Momo of Candlelight tipped me off that Stella at Momomoogie had new felt patches up for sale. I’ve missed out on all of Stella’s previous shop updates so I ran over and bought these two patches:
Now it all becomes startlingly clear… the Sneaky Ninja patch, in a twisted but sweet way, reminds me of my dear husband. It also reminds me of a book that I found on one of his old bookshelves titled Ninja Secrets of Invisibility. I found it one day when we were invited to a little get-together at our friends’ house and everyone was invited to bring something to read aloud. I missed the part that it was supposed to be a book that we were currently reading – but by the time I realized my error it was too late. Plus, the chapter that I had chosen to read was called “The Art of Hiding” and is still one of the funniest things I’ve ever read. There were several different hiding techniques in the chapter and best of all there were illustrations. Little Ninjas all dressed in black with white eyeholes in their facemasks. My favorite hiding technique was called “Hiding Behind Nothing” and showed the little Ninja standing out in the open with his arms held up about halfway in the air. Apparently, the trick to hiding in this manner is to remain perfectly still. Ahh… so that’s how they do it!
It makes me giggle just thinking about how funny it all was. Today I couldn’t remember the name of the book’s author so I looked it up on Amazon and I started laughing even harder when I was reading the reviews. Please allow me to share a few of my favorite snippets with you:
This guy is not Ninja. I bought this book and wasted money. If you want to learn Ninjutsu, buy books from Hatsumi sensei or Tanemura sensei. These are real masters.
– Master Lee
Forget these envy-oriented reviews! This book contains REAL invisibility techniques! If you dread those horrible togakure postures and so called invisibility techs, then do yourself a favor and study this book by Ashida Kim, a gentleman, a great writer and a man who has been hated by hundreds of misguided teenagers only because he IS DIFFERENT! If Ninja is the one who endures, man, HE is Ninja!
– A Reader
This book is a waste of time and money. But worse than that, using nonsense techniques from this book will probably get you killed, or captured on the battlefield.
– A Reader
Oh the perils of the Ninja world. Why can’t they all just get along?
****
Now that I've outed his early Ninja aspirations, Mark posted some of his memories... go read them.
A great big thank you goes out to Tania for swapping with me. In return for some of my Teensy Pins, Tania sent me all of this:
I enlarged the little "Go" necklace charm (which I love) in the image. She also included some of her post cards, a button and a little drawing on pink paper which I think is my favorite. Although... its hard to have favorites when everything is so cute.
p.s. I have much more mail to go through so if you haven't heard from me yet, don't worry you will soon!
Before I left Houston to meet Mark in Minnesota, the one thing that I looked forward to was the cooler weather. At first all was right with the world and I wasn't disappointed in Minnesota. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for Illinois, Ohio or Pennsylvania. After the first lovely day in Wheaton, lets just say that the weather went bad and it was as though I had never left Houston. The heat was positively stifling and the rain, which can usually be counted on to cool things off, acted as though it had come straight from Houston and responded to the heat by turning everything into a steamy mess.
But enough about my traveling woes… and on to the greener pastures of thrift stores! To my delight (and that of the other WVA faculty wives Liv, Linda and Regina) the shopping was great. I must admit that one of the best finds was an international market called Jungle Jims just outside of Cleveland, OH. It was the most amazing shopping experience I have ever had. The entrance sign reads “Foodies” with an arrow pointing to the door. You’ve got to love that. Liv and Brandon (parents of Søren) actually found this place by accident and soon everyone was taking a trip to see it too. There was a specialty section for almost every part of the world. I’m afraid I went a little overboard when I got to the Japan aisle and found all of this wonderful candy. You may notice Hugo's nose in the top lefthand corner of this image. He just wanted to be in the shot -- I know for a fact that he does not like chocolate.
In a St. Paul, MN thrift store my sister spotted these wooden figures for me. I love them! I’m not too sure what their original purpose was but they have a hole at the top of their heads that goes all the way through to the bottom of their feet (or stands) so my guess is that they were on strings or something. Any ideas out there?
And then there was the fabric…
…fabric…
…and more fabric!
I picked up these buttons and the trim at St. Vincent’s Thrift in Harrison, OH. The thin velvet ribbon is my favorite. The necklace was picked up in a West Chicago thrift store and I hope to use the beads for some project or another.
Last but not least, this is a 1953 Presto Deluxe stapler made in Chicago. I bought it in a West Chicago thrift store for 75 cents. I was drawn to the design and thought that it would look great on my desk.
