1.13.2018

Making Stuff to Give Away



Stuff stuff stuff.

Can it have been this long since I paint-a-doodled a gift?  I think so, and that's craziness, and makes me sad that I misuse my time.  Here's a Christmas pig for Mom Owen, though. Who needs excuses to paint pigs?  (Sorry for the atrocious lighting.  It was 3 a.m.)







 A late baby gift set for the son of John's high school buddy.  Nick is an all-around great guy, but he's also a physicist who loves astronomy, to explain why I appliqued such ridiculously small planets on a baby onesie.  (Millie informed me that I did not create them to scale, so none of you other astronomy buffs need inform me.  Really now, I can't fit them all on a baby onesie otherwise. And thank goodness Pluto's been downgraded.  There was no room for him!)






Half the fun was rooting through my stash to find the right fabric for each planet.





I'm now in the habit of increasing my gift's appeal with an upscale handknit item, so I ordered Millie to produce!  (She was happy to oblige, using this wonderful pattern.)






Another paint-a-doodle, this time for a Peanuts aficionado

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I think you gave us this bowl, Mom O., yes?  It was solid white and waiting for paint, and the experience was a distant cousin of filling in a coloring book.   It was fun, though fussy and time-consuming in the tiny parts.  During the process, we discovered that Pluto is not as easy-going as he seems.  CARNIVORE!







A cutting board and spoon set.











An ornament that WAS a cheerful red until I baked it, at which point it turned mauve.  (Lesson: Do not bake cheerful red ornaments or they will turn mauve.)





And, yeah, another paint-a-doodle.  As long as the paints were already out...





This may be my favorite gift.  My brother Joel is still finishing up his (interminably long) doctoral dissertation on Aquinas, so I burned Aquinas on a cutting board for him.  Thomas Aquinas!  On a cutting board!  It's a Christian bookstore's worst nightmare. (Credit: I totally copied this.)






 And on the back, a subtle note.



on

4 comments:

  1. cadie1/15/2018 9:01 PM

    I believe I gave you the jar with the Disney characters. Grandma Purdy passed it on to me for me to paint. (Throwback to her days of ceramic work.) I never got to it, and didn't think I ever would, so I gave it to you guys in the hopes you would.... and you did! Yay!!!

    That outer space onesie is pretty awesome!!

    The ornament is really pretty. I love your designs on it.

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  2. Abigail1/23/2018 3:30 PM

    AHA! You're right! I remember now, and the girls are looking at me and saying, "We knew it came from Cadie. Why did you think it came from Grandma Owen?!"

    So thanks! And thanks again. :)

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  3. Rebecca1/31/2018 8:25 AM

    Honestly, I wonder how you will possibly outdo yourself every Christmas and then the following Christmas- you somehow always succeed! All these gifts are incredible. I can't decide which I like better- but the watercolors, I will say, convince me once again that you really really REALLY ought to illustrate books.

    My first thought on the Aquinas cuttingboard was that by the time he is done his interminably long dissertation on said Man, he might WANT to take a knife to him.

    And then I thought that might be in bad taste.

    Or...just taste bad.

    (Amazing gifts, all!!!!) And yes, it deserves that many exclamation points...and probably a few more.

    !!

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  4. Abigail2/01/2018 1:42 PM

    Yeah, I hadn't even thought that as a Roman Catholic, Joel might consider Aquinas on a cutting board sacrilegious, but, oops. He said he could always hang him on the wall as inspiration. (Or dart board? BAD TASTE! BAD TASTE!)

    And thanks, ma'am. I always enjoy seeing you outdo yourself each year, too! :) And someday, maybe on my deathbed, I'd love to write and illustrate at least one children's book with clumsy doodles.

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