Candy canes and Santa

HI,

Today has been a pretty good day, My dad is wanting to get up and move around again. Says he is getting bored just sitting. He is even talking about wanting to go to Walmart and Winn Dixie. So I think if you are bored, you must be feeling better.

The hardest thing I had to do today, was take a stray cat to the pound, I hated to do it. It was a male cat that came up here 2 days ago. I made the mistake of feeding it, because it was so skinny you could see his ribs. Last night I woke up to something in bed with me, and no it wasn't my husband, it was that yellow cat, who came through the cat door and found me and decided to nuzzle my face. I wanted to keep it so bad, but we already have 2 male cats and 2 dogs. The male cats were already fighting, the stray wasn't fixed. We have already been through the spraying thing, nothing worse, than that smell. Plus we live in town, and have already had several cats disappear. If it would have stayed outside, I think I could have talked my husband into keeping it, but it didn't want to stay outside. I talked to the lady at the pound and she said they would do their best to find it a home and they would not put him to sleep for 14 days. So hoping he finds a home. She told me how many cats they are getting lately. All of her cages are full of cats. It is so sad to see, when we drove up, they had prisoners there walking the dogs. That was kind of nice to see. I just wish everyone would be responsible pet owners and get their animals fixed so these poor animals didn't have to be put to sleep.

Well, onto my next project, you know those porcelain ceramic Santa heads and arms you see in the store. I took one and made a Santa body and clothes and then hot glued sheep's wool onto his head and for his beard. I love the way he turned out. I just drew up a body pattern, then made some clothes. I have about 6 of these ceramic heads laying around, so now figured out something to make out of them.

The head before I added the beard, I stained the face lightly with brown shoe paste polish.

Here is full body picture. I just need to figure out what he can hold. I am planning on a bag of toys or prim looking bear.

Next, I made about 25 candy canes. These are made on those plastic candy canes that you see every year at Walmart or the Dollar Store, for about $1.00. Peel off the stripe if possible, then tear or cut muslin strips about 2" wide and start wrapping around the candy cane form. I just used tacky glue to glue the ends into the opening at the bottom and top. Then cut your red fabric and tear into strips that are about 1 1/2" wide and wide around in the same direction until you reach the end. I leave a little extra fabric at the ends, so I can tuck the ends in and glue to secure. I tie a green homespun bow around the cane and add a rusty safety and bell. Then attach the card that has the Legend of the Candy Cane on . I think this really helps sell them faster than anything, everybody has to read the story, then they seem to gather up several.



Closeup of the poem. I have put the poem in the share box on the side. It is in Microsoft publisher, so hopefully you won't have trouble opening it.

Hopefully, tomorrow will have more for you. Thanks again for all your kind words and prayers for my dad, I think he has finally made the turn for the better.