Mermaid Awesomeness!

Yesterday was my lucky day, I received a box of mermaid awesomness from Kerry! I was positively giddy as I unwrapped all of the goodies Kerry sent! So now to share, here are some of the goodies Kerry sent.


Just look at this amazing mermaid pincushion. I have long admired Kerry's pincushion creations. I'm so excited to have this beauty! I think this is the beginning of my new pincushion collection!


Kerry also sent this beautiful mermaid ornament, 3 spools of ribbon, a beautiful seahorse pendant and some of her homemade raspberry jam. The jam is delicious! I enjoyed it on my toast this morning.


She also included goodies for my daughter. My daughter was so happy to be included and loved the owl pencil set, fun eraser set, a mermaid that grows in water, plastic shells, mermaid glass charms and this adorable owl/ladybug apron, bag and toy pattern Kerry sent.

Kerry, you really spoiled us! Thank you so much for this amazing box of mermaid goodies. We loved everything! This was an awesome package! Thank you!!!

Finally Some Mermaid Creativity

I've been very excited about this month's mermaid theme but haven't been very productive in terms of creating mermaids. We have a new puppy who has been taking up a lot of our waking hours so I've been slow to create. I have my mermaid ornament done but haven't created anything else. Last night I decided to try my hand at making my mermaid dotee. I have this great sparkly fabric that looks like scales that I psyched to use. I made a mermaid costume for my daughter using this fabric 4 or 5 years ago and didn't remember struggling to sew with it. I almost called it quits last night and considered scrapping the whole idea when my machine tried to eat the fabric because it was so lightweight. I persevered and figured out how to add some weight to the fabric. This was at midnight and I still wasn't happy with the my dotee's skin and almost threw her out, but I broke out my paints and started painting skin and hair instead. I finally dragged myself up stairs to at 1:30 am feeling better about my dotee. When puppy woke me up at 6:30 this morning I was tired but finished my mermaid. This wasn't my original vision for my dotee but I'm happy with her. Now that I'm feeling a little better in the mermaid creativity department it's time to finish up my mermaid package for Kerry.

here are the two mermaid dotee dolls I made for YOE.

July's Theme!

With it being so HOT and DRY here, my mind keeps wandering back to the water.......and since I had a requested theme that goes with the water, I thought we would revisit it!

By looking at the matchbox below can you guess what it is?

image link

That's right! Although we did a mermaid last year, there are so many types of water maidens, I think any one of us could play with the theme and come up with something perfect and/or perfectly different!

July's theme is mermaid, siren, water sprite or water nymph.

July's challenge... Make dotee doll and incorporate the colors of the sea

July's activity...enjoy a water based activity.
If you are TOTALLY land locked with no local pool, try playing in the hose while washing your car, have a balloon fight, or run through the sprinklers with the kids.

"...surely woman rose from the frothy sea, as resplendent as Aphrodite on her scalloped chariot."
— Margot Datz (A Survival Guide for Landlocked Mermaids)

My mermaid arrived

I received my mermaid from Jenny today. She is a beautiful embellished paper mermaid with glitter, button, and cutouts and ready to hang on the YOE tree.

 She also included ocean fish chewy candy.  So cute. Almost too cute to eat!! AND some shell/beach napkins. And cute post it notes and note pad and a bunch of  little gel pens.  Oh, and a flea market style magazine.

Thank you Jenny for a great package.

This is the mermaid I made and sent to Jenny. She's a paper mermaid top and glittery pompoms for her lower body, legs and tail.

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The Mermaids I Made

Here is what I sent to Courtney. Thanks for being so patient Courntey...I had a killer UTI for 2 weeks, but now I'm getting better.

Here is the ornament I made for her. I used the lid to an Altoids can and then some old beads and seashells I had. I tried to make the mermaid deminsional by cutting out different layers of her and then added different colors of glitter on her tail.

Then instead of sending a lot of little things to Courtney I used some vintage bathing beauty fabric I had and added it to a tote bag for her to use. Now on to the gnomes~~~~

Mermaids from Natalie

I received my package from Natalie this weekend. Thank you so much! It was a fun package to open. When I opened the quilled mermaid I had a little fit of giggles. She is so cute! I've only tried quilling once and it didn't work out very well. You found lots of fun mermaid things. I have never seen a cookie cuter mermaid before.  I haven't put the mermaid magnet up on my fridge yet because I'm afraid it will get knocked off and break. I'm putting her away until I have my sewing room. Love the bookmark and the little iron on mermaid. Wonderful package. Thank you so much!

Mermaid Tutorial

If anybody is curious how I made my metal mermaid for Valery, I blogged about her and her enchanting entry into our world. There's a few other mermaid sites I mention as well that are fun to glance at...

http://ruhammie.blogspot.com/2010/05/metal-mermaid-tutorial.html

I enjoy gnomes almost as much as I enjoy mermaids!! (but not quite, mermaids are my ultimate favorite!) June's challenge of creating a gnome for the rest of the year has inspired me to finish a gnome I started two years ago...my Alan Dart knitted gnome. He'll be a cutie! But I just might have to find a ceramic one to paint up as well. :) I REALLY dig those ceramic ones!

Happy Memorial Day!

What I sent Sherry :-)

Miss Sherry has been a little under the weather, BUT she did get her package.. so I thought I would post the contents of the package I sent  her for you all to see :-)

This is the ornament I sent her.. it's embroidered from a BadBird pattern with some vintage lace as a hanger:

I also sent her this bag of lace for her stash:

And this necklace I made with a handblown glass pendant.. the colors reminded me of water.. to go along with the mermaid theme..

Finally I sent this necklace earring set.. the pendant is hard to see in the pic, but it's green shell.. also going along with the theme.. guess I was in a jewelry making kinda mood :-)

I can't wait to get started on the next theme.. this on-going swap has been awesome and Val is a doll for all the hard work she puts in for us :-) Hugs to Val!!

ACK!!!!!!!!

I got my mermaid ornament today from Ramie!

Isn't she AMAZING! I love her 'lady parts' and hair!

Ramie also sent me a starfish candy dish and yummy chocolates (which are in the freezer getting hard again)....a sweet mermaid pouch with jewels...see it on her wrist?



some mermaid papers...much too pretty to use!



Fun fabric...and....a wonderful toadstool panel!



I love EVERYTHING and feel so very spoiled.

Ramie, THANK YOU!

Perfect Timing (Update)

There's been a few posts since I blogged about my package arriving yesterday. Now that I have a bit of time, heres some pics of my fabulous goodies...first my mermaid...

Isn't she wonderful!!! I just love how it's all put together!! And everything in the rest of package was blue! So fun! Blue beads, blue flower seeds (Morning Glorys), blue mardi gras beads (love!), blue crocheted covered notebook (SO soft!), blue book mark, blue bath salt....oh, the oyster shell wasn't quite blue, all the way down to the blue tissue paper, confetti and filler Easter grass!!!

Thank you Val for such a wonderful themed package. My mermaid is just beautiful! Your package is on it's way!

The New Girl Goes Overboard! Yay for Me!

Yesterday, a huge box with this beautiful mermaid label was barely squeezed into my mailbox! It was from my Swap Partner, Missy!

It was filled with loads of goodies, mermaids and more...

Check out this beautiful ornament! The colors are fabulous! I'm afraid my photography doesn't show much of the details. I love the bracelet with legs hanging on her wrist!

And this beautiful book mark makes me want to drive east to the beach. I like to dream that my hair looks like this when I float in the ocean. I have no delusions that my body looks anything like this! A girl can dream!

This beautiful pin will work with so many of my brightly colored outfits! I just love it!

I opened the raspberry chocolates first. I intended to only have one or two and save the rest for later. An hour later, I was hiding the empty box below some papers in the trash! I did wait until today to open the mint truffles. Gone by lunchtime!

I have not opened this yet. I hate to open this and finish it off today, too! Missy even made the jam! Check out the vintage pin up label. Love it!

And, apparently, no package that comes to my house can be mailed without a chicken inside! Don't you love this goofy bird! I sure do!

Thanks Missy! I promise, you will be getting a package from me soon. I have a lot of work to do. You have set the bar high and I'm only 5'3"!

Welcome to our Swap Group!

Perfect timing!

Not but 15 minutes ago, just as I was gathering Val's ornament and goodies and eyeballing the right size box to put it all in the doorbell rang. I ran down the stairs with baby on hip (not an easy nor fast thing to do), answered the door and no one was there! I looked left, then right and saw the mail man a few houses down, so I looked down and what-do-ya know??? A PACKAGE!! WOOHOO! My mermaid and some super fabulous goodies arrived all safe and sound just HOURS before I'm leaving town. That's right, it's 1:00 here and I was heading to my parents around 3ish (it's a three hour drive) and I don't plan on returning until Monday. PERFECT TIMING!! THANK YOU Val for such wonderful goodies and very lovely mermaid!! I will get a pic up if I have time today, still got lots of packing to do, if not today then soon. And mine will be in the mail tomorrow, she's traveling with me to my parents, I'd like to show my mom before she gets sent (that means she turned out veeerrrryy interesting). :)

bit of a tease

While creating havoc lovely ornaments on my dining room table today, it occurred to me that I had not made a teaser photo......so these uber close ups will have to do!

May's theme and a reminder!

May's ornament: Mermaid

May's challenge: paper

May's activity: create a birdbath or water feature and put in your yard for the wee folk and birds to enjoy.

"Though inland far we be,
Our souls have sight of that immortal sea
Which brought us hither."
~William Wordsworth

Now for the reminder: Please send your packages out by the 3RD Saturday of the month and email me letting me know you've sent them. If anyone needs a refresher of what YOE is all about, just click here for the original post!

Now...on to the big reveal:

May's partners!!!

Val & Ramie
Robin & Natalie
Sherry & Courtney
Anna & Missy B.
Sandy & Melinda
Gin & Jenny
Kerry & Missy H.

I hope you all love this theme as much as I do!