Do you have a Mimi-Friend? (I hope so!)

Happy (Belated) New Year!  

I've been wanting to make this post for a long time...  well finally... here it is!

I have a friend named Mimi (many of you do too!).  She is a little Creative Dynamo.  From a personal perspective, I like her Creative Dynamo-ism because from time to time I am the recipient of one of her "Mimi-Things".  It is usually a surprise, which is the absolute best kind of gift.  

Here is a zippered pouch with a punch needle embellishment and wonderful lining.  I mean, c'mon, this would take me weeks to make!

Mimi loves colored pencils.  So do I.  Colored pencils make me think of school days and art projects and that little pencil cup full of kid-style chewed up writing instruments that sat on my desk at home when I was growing up. As you can see, Mimi has taken the pencil box to a new level.  She made the wooden box from scratch, painted it, wood-burned the scene on the lid and then painted that, and lined the inside of the lid.  (That little bunny is an artist trading card that I love.  It just happens to fit right in there.  Every time I raise the lid it makes me smile.)   Oh, and Yes... I did say "wood-burned the scene on the lid".  More on that later.

 

The lowly placemat takes on a whole new life when guided through Mimi's magic sewing machine.  This is what I call my Pocket Bucket.

At the bottom is a round wooden piece to make it sturdy.  See how the placemat has been sewn to create organizer pockets inside?

It can hold lots of stuff.

This pencil came with it... not just any old pencil!

 

 Just in case the Pocket Bucket alone is not quite cute enough, check out the gift tag...  it's a keeper.

Mimi has a bit of a fetish for pincushions.  Who could blame her?  If I could make them this cute I'd want to make them all day!  From time to time I give Mimi "raw materials" to play with.  A decorator friend of mine was going to throw away a whole trunk load of fabric sample books - the little ones.  I could not bear it - so into MY trunk they went.  Mimi sifted through them (with glee) and into HER trunk they went!  Several weeks later she showed up at rug hooking with this... for ME...

The little cupcake pincushion below is made from old sweater cuffs.  Did I mention Mimi loves to recycle?

 Thrift stores, flea markets and garage sales are her hunting grounds.

 Here is another darling pincushion with embroidery and bead embellishment.  If you give Mimi a round plastic lid from an orange juice container... you MIGHT get it back someday - looking something like this...  (Yes, my much-loved old squirrel wears a tiara.  Doesn't yours?)

 The little pillow-shaped pincushion below is made from selvages!  Waste Not Want Not.  The snippet bowl (emptied of snippets for the photo) is made from fabric-wrapped cord sewn into a bowl shape on the machine.  I know there is a name for that process but it escapes me.  What truly makes this a Mimi-Thing is the little flower and leaf embellishment.  I mean it is Just Not Enough to have made a bowl out of clothesline cord - it must have beauty too.

Here Sylvester presents a handmade tray for your viewing enjoyment.  Handmade by Mimi of course.  It is covered in all sorts of charming ephemera and has corners artfully tied together with ribbon.  Normally, this is on my desk, full of all my little highly-technically-digitally-gadgety things - like camera cards, card readers, flash drives, cables, cords, instruction guides (ha ha) - all items I use everyday but have no idea how they really work.  Thank you Sylvester.  Nicely done.

 

OK, back to wood-burning.  I really want to watch Mimi do this someday.  Of course I would never use this spoon to stir the chili!

 Another snippet bowl featuring Mimi's painted wood-burning.  This is a wooden bowl, probably "scrounged" from a garage sale or thrift store.

I TRULY HOPE you have made it all the way through to this photo because here is my most recent Mimi-Thing, and it is the Piece de Resistance!  Let me say right off the bat that I Purchased This One Fair and Square!!!  Mimi offered this wood-burned hand-painted vase at the Handcrafter's Show last Fall.  I bought it thinking it would be a Christmas gift, but my husband said "No Way!  We're keeping it!"  We kept it.  That little dog is so happy to have a new shelf companion.

Thank you to my friend Mimi for all my wonderful Mimi-Things!  If you want to see more check out Mimi's blog.  She is always up to something!!!  I think you'll see things to stir your creative juices.

I know I said I would not post any more about rug hooking until I finished something.  But I am ALMOST finished with #1 in line of my unfinished projects.  I'll post the whole project (two pillows) when I can truthfully call it "finished", but until then, here's a tiny little peek at the fun I'm having with color.

Have a great day.  Go Forth and Make Something!