My First Toy Society Drop

Yesterday - finally - I did my first toy drops for The Toy Society. I left three toys - one doll and two fish - at Carteret General Hospital, Morehead City, North Carolina. The two fish were left on chairs in different waiting rooms, and the doll was left on a chair in the hospital chapel. You can walk around, put things down, take pictures of them, leave them and, basically, no one pays any attention to you!

There have been over 500 toys made and distributed by members of The Toy Society. My drops were #514, #515, and #516. Clicking on those numbers will take you to the Toy Society's blog where you can see the six pictures and the descriptions. Now to make more toys....

Free Note Cards

I make notecards featuring images from my art quilts, mixed media work, and from my photographs. I sell these cards through one of my Etsy shops, Paper Press. I have lots - and lots - of cards that I printed when I was first getting going, and they won't be sold through Paper Press for a variety of reasons, like I changed the way I do my copyright information on the backs of the cards. Thinking about preparing toys to drop for the Toy Society got me thinking about dropping packets of my cards as well. I made the "free cards" insert (click on pictures to enlarge), and put together packets of three notecards, each with a different design. Did I mention that I had a few extra cards? So far I've put together 46 packets of three cards each....

I've started leaving packets of cards around town. Friday morning I was at the waterfront in downtown Morehead City and left half a dozen packets. (The last thing my husband had said to me before I left the house was, "Don't get arrested for littering.") The top photo shows part of a statue that includes ceramic fish. There are lots of benches in this area, so I left a packet on one of them. However, my favorite drop of the morning was at the statue of Neptune.

You can see the cards in the palm of his hand. That stone bench in front of him is a normal size. This guy is big!

This was out of the wind, so I expect the cards stayed there until someone noticed them.

This packet looks like business cards in his large hand, but they're actually 5 x 7 inches. He has a big head, too, but then, he is the god of the sea!

Prudence Needs a Home

This is Prudence, and she needs a new home.
Let me start by explaining about The Toy Society, which I've recently joined. It's an international group of people who make small toys that they leave in various public places, like on playgrounds or in libraries or hospitals. These toys are in see-through bags and contain a visible note that says, "Take me home, I'm yours," and includes The Toy Society logo.
This sounded like a fun idea to me, and Prudence was my first attempt at making a doll for the Toy Society. She didn't come out real well (understatement). Nothing went right when I was making her. Of course, I thought I could do this without any kind of pattern or much forethought, and it shows. For one thing, I used a textured beige fabric for her head. (After seeing Prudence, one of my friends suggested that I should name her Oatmealia.) She has weight issues - not that she's heavy - quite the contrary, but she sure is lumpy. (I hadn't bought doll stuffing yet and was trying to make do with quilt batting.)
Anyway, the bottom line is that I don't feel I can use her as a drop for the Toy Society because I'm afraid she might frighten a child. I was going to throw her away, but Prudence just kept smiling at me and I was consumed with guilt.
Would anyone like to give Prudence a home? If so, let me know, by email, or comment or whatever. If no one wants her, I'll understand. If more than one of you want her, I'll draw a name to decide where she'll go. Deadline is Monday, July 13th, at midnight.
I've done another doll, and I feel I learned quite a bit from my experiences with Prudence.

This is Greta. I used phototransfer for her face. Both dolls have crocheted hair. Greta is not lumpy. Legs and arms on both dolls are made from ultrasuede. I will be using this doll as a drop for the Toy Society.

Both dolls were a lot of work, so now I'm trying fish. They go faster, and I get to use fun fabrics from my stash. If you'd like to see some of the other toys that people have made, check out the Toy Society Blog. I first heard about the Toy Society through Naner Lady. Pictures of the toys that she's made are posted on her blog. Her toys are really cute!

Rosilia

I'm finally getting back to a CD of family pictures that one of my cousins sent me. Rosilia Theroux (above) was my father's mother - my paternal grandmother. She was 15 years old when this picture was taken. There was a pretty bad crack in the picture, so I put my Photoshop skills to work. I prefer sepia for these old pictures, so I adjusted the color too.

She later married my grandfather, Joseph Edmond Marchesseault, and they raised eleven children. My dad was lost somewhere in the middle of the pack.

Here's another picture of Rosilia. This one needed less work than the first one. Is anyone who is reading this blog old enough to remember when women wore real animal pelts around their necks? I remember a fox that one of my aunts had. She'd wear it over her coat when she dressed up to go to church. It still had the fox's head at one end, with some clipping mechanism that made it look like the fox was biting its tail when she fastened it across her chest.

At least this pelt doesn't seem to have a head on it!

July 4th At the Beach

Yesterday morning I decided on an early walk at the beach. This was a new stretch of beach for me - right in the town of Atlantic Beach. I went around 7:00 a.m. to beat the heat. Lots of folks were already there, getting set up for a day at the beach.

Other people were out walking.

There was a good surf and some cool waves.

Lots of kids were already in the water.

These umbrellas were further down the beach, waiting for occupants.

A dad and his son.

My best wave picture of the day.

I enjoyed my walk, felt righteous about getting some exercise, and was back home before the holiday crowds took over the town.

Etsy Treasury

One of my ACEO prints, called "Fireworks," made from one of my art quilts, is in a 4th of July treasury on Etsy today. It's in the lower right-hand corner. Clicking on the image will enlarge it. Here's the link to the Etsy site.