“The more I know about people, the more I love zombies.”

It's almost Halloween so what better time to stick the Popes and Twink zombie video on here. We are having so much fun making these videos and making random puppets is definitely keeping us out of trouble... for now.

You can also find Popes and Twink on Instagram: @popesandtwink

"As children, we all live in a world of imagination, of fantasy, and for some of us that world of make-believe continues into adulthood."

 

It has been so long since the last time I wrote, for so many reasons. But it feels like the right time to give myself a push to get going again. Like many of us it seems, I have been struggling for motivation with many parts of my life recently, waking up each morning and feeling like we are just repeating the previous day... and many before it. One thing that hasn't been lacking motivation though has been my creative side and I put a lot of that down to that amazing boy of mine and his constant need to be making something new. 

A few weeks back he came to me with his latest idea and I was over the moon as it was something I had tried to get him interested in years ago (with no joy). As with many things with kids though, they initially don't share your motivation for an activity until they see a YouTube video (with completed product) and its all the motivation they need. So Opeie started playing me some vides by a very talented chap called Adam Kreutinger and I was hooked from the get go. I went on a bit of a binge for a week after that watching design videos and learning various creative techniques every evening before buying various supplies to get us creating. 

 Once things started to arrive, I tried not to over think the process and just throw ourselves into it and learn from our mistakes etc, that way of creating has always worked out well for me. There's something really magical about learning new creative skills and it always puts me in a happy place.

The plan was to build puppets of ourselves and we were both very excited. We wanted to create something really playful and not too serious. Making the Foam bodies was super easy and I think contact adhesive is my new favourite thing. Once those were made it was on with the sewing and thankfully we had a few good days of weather in a row so we threw the beanbags outside and sat in the sun chatting while we stitched. It was so much fun watching them come together and really great seeing Opeie so focused on what he was doing. As expected we made a a few mistakes along the way, like cutting the fleece the wrong way round and losing the stretch but that's the great thing about learning this way, that will never happen again.

One of the things that I love about attempting these new projects is realising that actually, craft wise, I can put my hands to most things and come out with something I'm pretty chuffed with. But more importantly, the confidence that it gives Opeie in his ability to create is incredible to watch. I love a creative project but that is massively magnified when the two of us are creating something together.

Making the outfits for the puppets was really satisfying. I made myself some dungarees using the leg of an old pair of Opeie's shorts and although the thought of it seemed quite daunting I managed to pin, cut and restitch an old shirt of Opeie's to fit his puppet nicely. I love being able to use things from around the house, sadly my washing rail is looking a little worse for wear now though as I've pulled lots of the rails of of it to make the army rods, oops!

And now it's time for the real fun to happen. Opeie wants to learn how to make videos about all the things we get up to which I think is going to be lots of fun. So we're setting up a Youtube channel to document that and hopefully have a ton of fun along the way. Check it out HERE.

"anybody know how to get cream filling out of suede?"

I was so excited last night about getting home from our friends house as they had very kindly brought us the Sesame Street DVD, Iron Monster and Sesame Heroes after reading my previous blog post about Sesame Street. I couldn't find it for sale anywhere and had given up looking. I couldn't even find it when we were in the states. Anyhow now thanks to some great friends (http://gingerjamphoto.com/ and wifey) Me, Opeie and Mrs M sat down and watched it last night and it was well worth the wait.

Super Grover is probably my favorite character and being Iron Monster just added to that (as you know i love anything Marvel related), you certainly wouldnt want to mess with someone that  "can iron out any trouble, straighten out any dilemma" and  "can permanently press out any problem". He really is the hero of the laundromat. Seth really enjoyed the 'Furry Four' episode, i probably should have started Opeie off on this sort of thing rather than jumping straight in to Spider-Man.

 

Opeie inevitably fell asleep on me half way through which i love because its usually Mrs M that he drops off on. After Mrs M put him down and the DVD was over we were still feeling in a Sesame Street mood so we decided to watch 'Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey'. It was by far one of the best documentaries i have ever seen. Im still shocked now that Elmo's voice come out of that chap. What a nice guy Kevin Clash is. Ive never really been much of an Elmo fan but i think after watching that i may look at him a little differently.
( EDIT- It's Mrs M here, I am one of the biggest Elmo Fans EVER. I actually think on a daily basis how I would love a pet Elmo, because " Mrs M loves you" - Said in the style of Elmo.
The thing I love about Elmo is that he is so loving and I think that is rare in today's world of TV, Film etc for young children, you never hear the word LOVE being used. I think that it is amazing that a little red monster ( when he's not really a monster) can bring so much happiness to so many little children across the world in such a positive way. ) Pauly is giving me a weird look for the constant tapping on the MacBook , and said "are you rewriting it about Elmo?"  I will write more about Elmo soon!!!! )