Saints and Soothsayers!

I've noticed a trend here! Most of my posts happen on the weekends. Clearly I have developed a housework avoidance behavior since there is always work I should be doing when I'm sitting at the computer instead. Procrastination IS my middle name. My family would probably mount the argument that it IS MY NAME. I call this my 'fermentation' process. I need playtime during which my brain works out any problems in my work plan so that when I actually get down to work it goes quickly and efficiently. Works most of the time. Right now I'm stewing on how to get Elvis' collar to stand up better and how I can QUICKLY make a guitar trick or treat bag since I still have two fairies and a Mrs. Lovett to get made by Friday!! Had planned to wrap Elvis up last night but got a call from Deirdre asking for permission to come rummage through my scraps for a homework project. Well one thing led to another and we ended up spending a bunch of time actually WORKING on the project! Why when I have so much to get finished, you ask? Nostalgia, that's why!! Every year the third graders at the private school my kids used to attend (which Deirdre still attends) marks All Saints Day by picking one of the gazillion saints to do a report and making a 'bottle doll' of said saint. Alyssa stayed true by doing St. Alice and they had moved so Andrew did not do third grade there. Mairead and Mari had UNBEKNOWNST to each other BOTH picked St. Mariana of Ecuador. It's one of the things I'm feeling bittersweet about missing with Julia so when Deirdre called asking for material I couldn't help myself!! So here she is with St. Dymphna in progress! Now how the school has not gone through and provided a list of 'acceptable' choices by now is a mystery to me. You see, St. Dymphna did not have a G or even a PG life!!! Can't wait to get the feedback from the other mother's after she reads her report to the class. Our 8, going on 28, Deirdre will spare no details of the incest and beheadings central to St. Dymphna's biography!!! Mari and Mairead would have blushed to their toes and begged to reselect once they had discovered the life story but Oscar bound Deirdre is salivating at the chance to sensationalize!! ...the 'bottle doll' moniker is as a result of the requirement that they be made from a two liter plastic bottle filled with sand to allow for optimal 'display' in the school foyer. The kids were kind of freaked by Deirdre's bottle before we added the clothing since it reminded them of nasty Syd's ( from Toy Story) SpiderBaby! Here's Mari posing with her St. Mariana of Ecuador! Yes, those are my PILES of mending and 'in-progress' sewing projects behind her!!! Since the night had gotten so advanced, I caved and let Deirdre stay for a sleepover. It's all good because this group has such great imaginations that they go off and play for hours leaving me to attack the sewing. This morning's antics just had to be recorded here on the blog!! So this is the sign that suddenly appears on one of my walls! I bite and follow the arrow.... and here in my tub I find the Magnificent Deirdre gazing into her magic ball ready to dispense my fortune!!! Apparently I will "gain fame for my sewing"?!?!? I'd have rathered it was "gain RICHES for sewing" but so goes the word of a mystic. I don't know about you guys but I'm always awed by their simple creativity! That's a battery operated 'flame' in a beaded 'art project' vase with a giant sparkle filled super ball sitting on top!! Mari's stand was more in the gypsy mode! That's a table runner from Guatemala covered with a sparkly scrap from my sewing room. Her hat is filled with her "Tarot" cards. My nine of spades foretold my VERY imminent death...."You vill die en nine meenoots" the soothsayer intoned as the card was laid before me!!! Yikes, I had a BUNCH to get done in a VERY short period of time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Good thing I had St. Dymphna and St. Mariana there to save my life!