Possum on the Brain...

I have been searching for possums on the internet forever...still trying to find one that will show it's profile just right...so I can TRY to copy it's facial features onto my 5 Ft. Possum that I'm working on for the shop.

I have come to this conclusion...Not all Possums are alike...

*sigh*

So, I continue to scour the internet and magazines that might hold that right facial expression that only I know I want on MY possum! If I have to see it in my shop on a day to day basis...it might as well be what I want...LOL!

The Last FIVE FOOT POSSUM Standing!

While on Facebook one day, I decided to post an unusual request from my FB crafting friends...would anyone be up to the challenge of making me a five foot possum for my shop.?  An innocent enough request...I thought...
The result:  Two of my newer friends, Brenda and Sacha...immediately jumped on my post with a vigor that kinda took me off guard. Sacha, who lives in France, hadn't really heard about a "possum" until she began learning  from other FBer's...full length descriptions of the possum...or Opossum for those of you who want to pronounce it correctly.

Brenda, quite playfully...stated that we should post a possum blog to entice any deranged doll designers out there to help me out with my problem and also to let the world know of the beauty that is....THE POSSUM...
They both also started discussing how we would dress the possum for each season. Now, I happen to be five foot tall...so with my typical tightfisted approach towards money...I thought the possum could wear my cast off overalls or dresses...along with pink bunny ears for spring...courtesy of my sister in law's old Halloween costume...
They both also got a kick out of the fact that I live just off Possum Creek and that happens to be the name of my small country shop and tea room...But the best part was the fact that some idiot on FB actually WANTED A FIVE FOOT POSSUM!
Oh...the joys of riding a dead...*Ahem* ...possum...
So, in a nutshell...Brenda suggested a possum blog...I dared her...we now have one. You can visit...at your own mental risk, our blog at:  http://opossumboudoir.blogspot.com/ 

But! There has been a switcheroo...with a helpful tip from Vergie Lightfoot, a Wonderful Artist who's work has been bought by Jay Leno and others...I managed to score off  Ebay, a soft, poseable nearly five foot maniquin to use for the standing possum...
I'M GOING TO MAKE THE POSSUM!!  
Have I ever made a possum...NOPE...have I any sewing or crafting ability that would qualify me as talented enough to even attempt this rather large project?....NOPE!  But undaunted, I shall go forth to sew a possum that other possums would love to hang around with.
I have to admit though, some of the most wonderful crafters on FB  (I couldn't even begin to name them all)
have been helping me out with either words of encouragement or words of wisdom. So, we'll see how it goes. I'm notoriously slow with sewing, but in the end...when my AWESOME POSSUM is standing on the first landing of my shop's staircase for all to see...I know it will all be worth it!  Possum photos to come!

I want my Mother's Pink Atlas Sewing Machine back!

I've acquired through my years...a Singer treadle, 3 Singer Featherweights, a Brother, 2 Jamones, a White and a Kenmore. All excellent sewing machines...all work. And yet....
Yesterday, while babysitting my 3 ill and very fussy grandbabies...I pulled out some photo albums to show my eldest grandson, pictures of his G-G Ma. (short for great-grandma) Johnny who is nearly 5 was 3 when she passed away, can still point her out in photos and call her G-G Ma.  He leans over each photo of her and gives her a sweet kiss. (A trait of his that my Mother adored! She loved kissing her babies and being smooched back!)  As we all snuggled together on the couch looking at the photos...I saw the two pictures that made me smile then cry at the same time...
My sweet Mum at around the time I was in high school, sitting at her sewing table sewing like mad with her pink Atlas sewing machine! The very next pic, she had turned around to face me, sticking her tongue at me...
I had forgotten these pictures taken by me so long ago that my Mum's hair was dark blond instead of shiny silver. But I had never forgotten her sense of humor! Now, I want that machine back! I want to sew at a pink machine again...stick my tongue at anyone who dares sneak up behind me and yell "Cheese!"
 My Mum had given me her pink beauty when we moved into our two story 80 year old farmhouse...and I sewed many a patch on Charlie's overalls with it. I even sewed my first nine patch quilt on it...although it wasn't the Atlas' fault that it was lop-sided and didn't quite square out...hummm. I made two years worth of Halloween costumes on that wonderful machine until the day our beautiful farmhouse burned to the ground.
Our neighbors managed to save my Grandmother's oak table by running it through a small doorway at top speed! It still has a tiny chunk out of the top to prove it was bigger than the doorway! We lost everything but that table and a lamp that I snatched on my way out of the smoky house.  I also lost my pink sewing machine...Mum's sewing machine.
So, on Ebay I have went searching for a replacement. Oh, I'll find one eventually and I know it'll just be a replacement that looks like Mum's sewing machine. But I'll soon be making new memories down the road with my grandsons and for myself.
So watch out Ebayers! I'm on a search and acquire mission...stay out of my way!