Overalls and skirt

Some of my granddaughters wanted me to make overalls for them, so I did.  The little sister already had a pair, so she wanted a twirly skirt.  I made it for her, but she says it won't stay up so she just wears the leotard and leggings that I bought to go with the skirt.  She loves to run around in bathing suits anyway, no matter what time of the year it is, so I knew she would love the leotard.

Dot wanted light blue. Top stitching
is in white.

Lucy chose dark blue.  Top stitching
is in gold.

Annie in her twirly skirt that falls off.  It has a tie on the side which should make it be as tight as she wants, but she prefers to actually just wear the leotard and leggings.  That's my Annie girl.

Cross stitch lighthouse

I had to have carpal tunnel surgery and while my wrist was healing, I could not do much of anything as far as crafting is concerned, but I was able to do cross stitch using a frame to hold the hoop while I worked the needle up and down.  I healed enough to be able to continue working on the piece while riding down to Florida. I always have to be working on something while riding in a car for long distances.  I was able to hold the hoop with my hand without it hurting, so I was able to finish the piece.  I decided to give it to my best friend, Nancy, for her birthday. She also likes to do cross stitch and I think she will appreciate the work that goes into it.

Dragon cake and shirt

I had to make a dragon cake for Zoe for her birthday.  She is crazy about dragons so it was quite appropriate that we would be doing a puppet show about dragons at the same time as we were celebrating her birthday.  Here is my version of an edible dragon.

It took three cakes to make the dragon.  One was used for the body,
one for the wing and tail, and the head, feet, and tail tip came from
the third one.

I also made a dragon shirt for her, using a picture I downloaded from the computer and then put it on iron on paper.

I did not get a picture of the shirt, but it was black and this is the dragon head that I put on it. It is very appropriate for a little girl that loves dragons.

Puppet show

I have been working hard with my grandchildren to produce a puppet show.  I helped them design and make their puppet characters out of foam balls or sheets and paper mache' for a story that was written by my grand daughter, Dot.  I put the story into script so they could perform as puppets.  The story is called Dragontopia and is filled with princesses, a knight, a wicked queen, two evil fairies, an evil goblin, and a wicked troll.  Of course it also has the dragons who are honorable characters. What fairy tale would be complete without some magic, and a magical mirror is often good, and so there is also one of these in the story.  I am going to attempt to show the pictures of all the puppets, some with their human performer, some are just the puppets.  Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of all the puppets before they were destroyed by some after the performance.  I had to screen shot them from the videos that was taken during the performance. The quality of these pictures is not that great but they will have to do.

Princess Safire with magical wings
Annie Vieira age 3

Princess Scale, daughter of the king of the
Dragon Riders in Dragontopia
Dot Vieira age 9

Scale's dragon, Flame
Ezra Vieira age 5

Front of Claw, dragon of Sir Drake
Portia Vieira age 6

Side view of Claw

Sir Drake from the front
Ellis Vieira age 10

Sir Drake from side view
(resting on a lamp shade)

Wicked Queen Black Widow's magical mirror
Dot Vieira

Evil fairy, Shadow
Lucy age 8

Wicked troll, Venom
Joey Guild age 8 

Evil fairy, Poison
Lexi Guild age 7

Back of Poison

Wicked Queen, Black Widow
Zoe Vieira age 9

Evil goblin, Victim
Jackson Vieira age 7

Puppet theater created by me.

This completes the character puppets and the theater.  The kids also each drew one of the background scenes for the theater.  I put them on a scroll which was wrapped around  the back of the theater and it was easy to just roll the scenes along from one to the next.  It was made from a refrigerator box covered with blue plastic table cloth and a lot of duct tape which is the most amazing thing to make anything with.  With all the wonderful colors that it comes in, it makes it easy to make things bright without doing so much painting.  I actually did none in this.  The letters for Dragontopia were made by Dot.

This was a very fun project and a dream come true for me to do this with my grandchildren.