Little Miss Muffet, Tuffets and fun Spiders!

Hey y'all!

Little Miss Muffet detail of painting

by Scott Gustafson

Little Miss Muffet

Little Miss Muffet

Sat on a tuffet,

Eating her curds and whey.

Along came a spider,

Who sat down beside her,

And frightened Miss Muffet away.

Poor little Miss Muffet!

Let's make some cute spiders,

so next time she won't be so frightened!

     

Spider Pretzels 

These arachnid treats are easy to make and they look positively lifelike
crawling across your child's snack plate.

For each:
2 round crackers (like Ritz)
2 teaspoons smooth peanut butter
8 small pretzel sticks
2 raisins

With the peanut butter, make a cracker sandwich.

Insert eight pretzel "legs" into the filling.

Place them 4 on one side, and 4 on the opposite side.

With a dab of peanut butter, set two raisin "eyes" on top, front.

Makes 1.

I do have a photo, but I can't figure out how to get it to the blog. Sorry.

Use your imagination, and I'm sure they will be cute!

So just what is a "tuffet"?

Well, it can be a little stool to sit on,

or it can be a patch of grass, like a tuft of grass.

In most of the pictures/illustrations/paintings that I have found,

Miss Muffet is sitting on a low stool.

A vintage Jessie Wilcox Smith postcard

Here is a great Spider Iris Folding pattern, courtesy of Chona:

If you can't quite remember how to do Iris Folding,

type into my search box "iris folding" and a nice tutorial should pop up,

along with several more patterns. These will be in different blogs.

1889 vintage illustration

There is a charming coloring page on Mary Engelbreit's web site:

http://www.maryengelbreit.com/

She has several super coloring pages!

I have a simple scherensnitte (papercutting) pattern for you next.

The pattern page has Little Miss Muffet on the top,

and Little Jack Horner on the bottom.

2 for 1!

vintage illustration, courtesy of http://www.mamalisa.com/

 

 

So what are curds and whey?

Sounds icky....

 

Whey is the watery part of milk that separates from the curds

when making cheese.

I kind of think of it as watery cottage cheese!

Miss Muffet embroidery pattern from TurkeyFeathers

 

Here is another fun 'Spider' to make!

 

Spider Pops

You will need:

black pipe cleaners (chenille stems)

Tootsie Pops (lollipops)

googly eyes

glue

1. Hold four pipe cleaners, center them at the base of the pop and

         wrap them around the stick once so there are 4 legs on each

         side of the round pop.

2. Bend the pipe cleaner ends of each leg to form eight feet. Just

         about 1/2" or so.

3. Glue on googly eyes to the bulb of the pop, in front.

4. Spiders can crawl around anywhere you want them to, on their 

          pipe cleaner legs!

Wouldn't these make cute Halloween party favors or hand-outs?

Note Miss Muffet's MUSHROOM tuffet!

note the slightly different verse on this one.

courtesy of http://www.andrewfinnie.blogspot.com/

He creates interesting digital photography art.

 

I have had fun with Little Miss Muffet today.

This is the blog that I had done in July,

only to have blogspot eat it.

Grrr....

But I'm not mad today, so we had some tuffet-fun!

 

inkspired

http://www.inkspired.etsy.com/

dominoes@myinkspired.com

http://www.inkspiredmusings.blogspot.com/

 

 

B movies, crochet, paperdoll basics and Tummy Mint tea

'allo!

(British, informal, 'hello')

I'm feeling like a  home-body today.
Some days are just like that.  Good days to curl up with a book,
or do some beading while listening to music.
I'll play a little piano (no, my piano is full size!!!).
Tanner will get lots of pets, and we may watch a movie.
I have another couple of loads of laundry to do today, so that can fit in with the other stuff. I have hamburger cooked and a load of fresh veggies to make into dinner.  Who knows? I may even try to pull a few weeds (although Michael has scolded me and said I was NOT to do any weeding - sweet man).

c.1918



I have 'promised' my self to finish learning how to crochet in September.

I have wonderful instruction books, easy patterns

and a sister-in-law that lives with me, who crochets beautiful things.

I have yarn.

Lots of yarn.

I'll let you know how it goes.

embroidery pattern by turkeyfeathers

 Don't forget to check out her very nice blog.

Think I'll make a comforting cup of tea.

We toured Celestial Seasonings plant in Boulder, CO, USA.

very nice!

We found one of our faves - Tummy Mint.

It is just a wonderful mint tea that is very calming.

We haven't been able to find it in the stores for like 3 years,

so we bought a case! That's just 6 boxes, but it sounds impressive!

photo by fitnessista.com

c.1918

Here is a pattern for a very simple apron, by turkeyfeathers.

This could easily be done in an afternoon.

Change the fabrics, and you can make a variety for most occasions!

Remember, right click on the image and it should come up larger!

DOW Jamaica, Barbie 1992

I love her bright apron!

Here is a book I have been meaning to purchase for awhile.

I have gobs of fabric, and the one yard wonder sounds just perfect!

you can find this book easily on amazon

You know, I may have to make some more Collage Art Dolls,

or work on my paperdoll prototype.

Making your own paper doll clothes is very fun and very satisfying!

Here is a good basic doll you can use to get you started:

She is from 'Sugarland Sally'.

Here is a more adult version of a basic paperdoll:

She is from 'Sue, the Airline Hostess'; a British paper doll I believe.

This one is for those glamorous movie star-type paperdolls!

from a vintage 'Connie Francis' set of paper dolls

Oh do, please, send me photos of your paper doll clothes!

I wouldn't complain if you sent me the actual clothes either!

You can always send things to me here:

dominoes@myinkspired.com

I was watching a horrible vintage science fiction movie last night.

Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet

1965, Color, with Basil Rathbone

The dialogue was trivial,

and spoken like someone was not placing the cue cards up fast enough!

The color went in and out. Sometimes the guy had a red face, or the gal had a blue face, or all the guys in the space ship were blueish black and white,

except for a natural color stripe at the top!

Ah, I do love those cheesy sci fi vintage movies though!

It was too bad that Basil Rathbone only had maybe a dozen words to say in the entire movie, with maybe 3 minutes total screen time.

Any way, while I was watching there was plenty of time to do something else,

so I cut out magazine pictures to make Collage Art Dolls,

and snipped a few arms and hands that will work nicely while I was at it.

I was enjoying the papercutting, so I decided to watch the follow up movie:

Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women

1968, color with Mamie Van Doren

Oh my goodness.

I can't believe they got funding to do this.

I can't believe they wasted cameras and film to make this.

wow.

While I was going to do a brief review, I found this one by "Kestifer".

www.kestifer.blogspot.com

He puts things so well, I have just copied them for you.

Check out his blog, he has some great humourous blogs on B movies!

 'A lot of old B Movies I’ve been watching certainly deserve a fair amount of ribbing for bad effects, acting or storytelling, but most of the time it’s of a good natured sort. I don’t usually “hate them” hate them, because with the best cheesy B Movies, there’s at least one or two elements of quality and/or effort involved.

The next film flat out pissed me off. So much so that I almost decided to throw in the towel and quit this entire reviewing project. It was THAT BAD. So instead of doing that, I figured I could try and briefly explain why 1968’s Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women almost did me in.

Story
First, some context. The bulk of the footage is from a 1962 Soviet film called Planeta Bur which features a group of cosmonauts and their robot landing on Venus and fending off various monsters as they explore it. It was dubbed with some new footage of Basil Rathbone dropped in to make 1965’s Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet, and then the new footage was replaced with newer footage of Mamie Van Doren as Venusian leader Moana and a group of bored looking clamshell clad women standing around on a rocky shoreline and all new dubbing.

So basically, this movie is thrice recycled. Which is a bad sign. The plot jammed together from this awful collision is something about American astronauts (with suspiciously red stars on their rockets) trying to rescue a downed exploratory rocket on Venus and as they wander around, one of them thinks he hears a woman singing and frequently gets distracted. The search party eventually shoots down the Venusian women’s pterodactyl god Terah (I wish I was making that up) and after some surprisingly boring gyrating, the women conjure up several natural disasters for the astronauts.

It’s godawful.'

Definitely time to look at something prettier:

Wild Rose Pot holder to crochet

Size: About 9” diameter

Materials: Worsted Weight Cotton Yarn – 1 ½ oz, 72 yds, White (W); ½ oz Pink (P); small amounts Green (G)

Crochet Hook: Size I-9 (5.5 mm) or size needed to obtain gauge.

Gauge: With 2 strands of yarn, Rnd 1 = about 2”

Special Stitches: V-stitch (v-st): (dc, ch 1, dc) in indicated st.

Popcorn (pc): 5 dc in indicated sp, remove hook from lp of last dc, insert hook into top of 1^st dc, pick up lp from 4^th dc, draw lp through top of 1^st dc.

NOTE: Use 2 strands of yarn throughout

Directions:
Rnd 1: With 2 strands W, ch 4, 14 dc in 4^th ch from hook; join with sl st to 3^rd ch of beg ch-3. (15 dc)

Rnd 2: Ch 3, dc in same sp as joining, 2 dc in each dc around; join. (30 dc)  Finish off W.

Rnd 3: Join 2 strands G with sl st in any dc, ch 4, dc in same sp as joining, skip next dc, (v-st in next dc, skip next dc) around; join. (15 v-sts) Finish off G.

Rnd 4: Join 2 strands P with sl st in any ch-1sp, ch 3 (counts as first dc), 4 dc in same sp, remove hook from lp of last dc, insert hook into top of 1^st dc, pick up lp from 4^th dc, draw lp through top of 1^st dc, ch 3, (pc, ch 3) in each ch-1 sp around; join with sl st to top of 1^st pc. (15 pcs) Finish off P.

Rnd 5: Join 2 strands W with sl st in any ch-3 sp, ch 3, 3 dc in same sp, 4 dc in each ch-3 sp around; join. (60 dc)

Rnd 6: (Ch 4, skip next dc, sl st in next dc) around.  (30 ch-4 lps)  Finish off and weave in all ends.

Here is a charming vintage paperdoll from Berlin, West Germany

1940 - 1955

I'm thinkin' that cup of tea is sounding better and better.

Time to start that new book too.

I just finished Michael Jeck's "The Bishop Must Die".

I am out of Knight Templar books now, so I will need to go to the second hand store, Barnes N Noble, and Amazon to see what I can find.

Ta-ta!

inkspired

dominoes@myinkspired.com

http://www.inkspired.etsy.com/

The North Dakota Wild Prairie Rose

Namaskar

('Hello' in West Bengal, India)

Today I am going to be covering the State Flower of North Dakota,

and some fun trivia facts,

gorgeous photos

and who knows what else!

You'll never guess what the state flower is...

Oh, yeah, the Wild Prairie Rose.... guess I said that at the beginning!

Of course, it had to be a rose,

as that is the flower of the month!

The correct, botanical name is

rosa arkansana

I also found some sites that list it as:

rosa blanda

I'm going with rosa arkansana, as that was by far the most frequently listed.

Enough technical stuff, let's get on to the fun!

Here is a coloring page with

 both North Dakota's State Flower, and State Bird:

When I started researching the wild prairie rose, North Dakota, etc.

I found something really cool!

We have a pair of Western Meadowlarks that are nesting at the corner of our roof!! 

Now, ours don't look near this fat, but everything else is right.

They both have beautiful yellow underbellies and under wings,

along with a little on top of their head.

No dull female colors for this pair!

http://www.fourwivesprework.com/

Before this, we didn't know what kind of bird we had.

I think that's cool!

http://www.papercutting.blogspot.com/

I found this wonderful papercutting site, which offers each state and bird, with a silhouette of the state in the middle.

Very clever.

Very cool.

I guess cool is the word for the day....

Next up, a lovely decoupaged wood frame with probably flower gift wrap, although you could certainly make this with dried and pressed flowers, torn catalog listings, botanical print old books,

dictionary definitions, etc.

This particular frame is for sale on etsy,

but I do not have the creator's shop name.

Let me know if you know who I should credit, please.

dominoes@myinkspired.com

How did you make out with the New York famous people quiz?

I find biographies just fascinating.

Do yourself a favor, if you haven't read a biography or an autobiography lately, do it!

Ready for some North Dakota trivia?

AAA (American Auto Association) rates North Dakota as

 the most affordable vacation state.

North Dakota (referred to from now on as 'ND')

 is also rated as the safest state to live in,

and the #1 state for high school completion rates! 

That's some pretty good PR going on there.

'Dakota' is derived from the Sioux word for "friend".

ND is home to many tribes of the Sioux nation,

notably Lakota, Dakota, Hunkpapa, Hidatsa +

Hunkpapa Sioux leader, Chief Sitting Bull,

surrendered at Fort Buford, ND,1881.

He was murdered Dec.15, 1890.

North Dakota was the original burial ground for him.

The International Peace Garden

is located on US (ND) and Canadian (Manitoba) borders.

State Motto:

Liberty and Union

Now and Forever

One and Inseparable

Great spelling word there - inseparable!



The Dakota Dinosaur Museum in Dickinson

holds the world's largest intact triceratops skull.

It weighs 1,500 pounds!

Okay, I just have to include this trivia fact:

Grand Forks, ND holds

the World's Largest French Fry Feed

 every year, during Potato Bowl USA.

In 2006 a new World Record was set

with 4,620 pounds of French fries

served at the French Fry Frenzy.

Around 10,000 people were served

about 113 gallons of ketchup also!

I bet the air smells like cooking oil for miles!

Lovely embroidery, courtesy of http://www.turkeyfeathers.typepad.com/

Next up is a peyote beading pattern.

You could make this

into a wall hanging, amulet necklace

or as a beaded 'patch' to be sewn on another item.

Wouldn't this be a gorgeous wedding gift, with the beaded pattern section sewn into the middle of a satin or taffeta pillow?

ND Trivia:

In 1877 there were strong efforts to make the Dakota Territory to become both as a single state, and as two separate states.

Sounds like a lot of high feelings in the air.

On November 2, 1889

both North and South Dakotas were admitted.

President Benjamin Harrison tried to obscure

the order in which the statehood proclamations were signed,

so the exact order of each state was unknown.

Things like that can be important, at the moment, for some people.

Because of alphabetical position,

North Dakota is considered to be the 39th state.

(You know, 'N' is before 'S'.)

I bet there are a LOT of interesting stories attached to that!

North Dakota is home

to more wildlife refuges than any other state.

North Dakota AMERICAN DREAM COME TRUE:

Lawrence Welk was born in Strasburg, ND.

This famous "Champagne Music Maker" went

from a simple sod house (preserved)

 to national television fame 

and on to his very own television program,

much beloved by many.

They still show re-runs of his shows!

This stained glass pattern is available from glasshauntauctivacommerce.com 

Famous actresses and singers born in ND:

Angie Dickinson

Peggy Lee

Ann Sothern

More famous people born in ND:

Louis L'Amour (author)

Sacagawea (Lewis and Clark interpreter)

Sondre Norheim (pioneer of modern skiing)

Leonard Peltier (American Indian Activist) 

Judge Ronald Davies -

(ordered integration of Little Rock Central High in the 1960's)

this photo shows the rose hips from the rosa arkansana

Well, I'm about North Dakota'd out.

Obviously there is tons more to the state,

but that's all for today, for me.

I hope you are starting to recognize the different roses.

There are literally hundreds of species and colors of Roses.

There are appoximately 1.2 BILLION roses produced annually.

I'm pretty sure that must be worldwide!

Feel free to send me some!!!

:0)

inkspired

http://www.inkspired.etsy.com/

dominoes@myinkspired.com

http://www.inkspiredmusings.blogspot.com/