Of Stories and Mermaids-A Handmade Childhood

Living in a rather rural area we have to travel quite a bit to do common errands. To simplify and economize we tend to do marathon trips getting lots done on one day and staying at home as much as we can the rest of the week. We all like it better that day. But on those errand days we spend quite a bit of time together in a small contained space! My (seriously brilliant!!) husband burned a collection of stories from StoryNory on cd for me for Christmas for these days. I say they are for me when really they are all children stories…but oh what a gift for mom!!! We really love them and have been known to even (*gasp*) sit in the car for a few extra minutes in a parking lot to finish up a story. Our minds have been dreaming through the tales of Hans Christian Andersen and Aesops Fables….although our collection will soon broaden…! The narrator for these stories is truly gifted. Pop over and take a look!

We recently listened to Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid, on the way to who-knows-where…or maybe it was on the way back from there…who knows!!! At any rate…we have been mermaids ever since. Willingly or unwillingly, we are now a family of mermaids under the constant instruction, inspirations, and enthusiastic direction of our own little mermaid. It is quite fun actually, and our next library trip will focus on the marvels of underwater worlds!!

Well…it just so happened that in the studio sat just about half a yard of fabric that could be described as none other than mermaid scales. Gold mermaid scales. It just waited for the right project…and a girl that could pull off fabric like this! Well…I most definitely had both of those…especially the latter!!! Photo by the little mermaid.

Using a favorite balloon hem skirt as a pattern we put together our own little mermaid skirt! It doesn’t have the drape that the orange corduroy does…but it works! She has worn it gleefully all day during her mermaid adventures! It was a quick easy project. I took pictures and will put together a tutorial for it tomorrow (possibly!!). I think I might even have enough fabric for one of these. Although I don’t think I have yarn with quite that much funk…we’ll see what I can come up with!