lub dub, luv gluv

summah tiiimmeee and the weather ain’t freeeezyyyy...

that’s right, it’s summer!  which means no school!  which means free time!

and i have more good news: i’m done with grad school in less than two weeks, so give me a high-five if you see me around.

i found this pair of gloves in may when i took two weeks off from student teaching high school to student teach at a local middle school.  i would smile all the way to school every morning.  whoever says middle school is a terrible place has never visited this place!  i’ve never been so happy to be around 6^th graders!

driving home one day, i spotted a glimpse of red on the roadside.  being me, i immediately pulled over to check to see if was a glove.  it wasn’t a glove.  it was TWO gloves!  hot damn!  i picked them up, skipped back to my car, and grinned all the way home.  two months later, on summer break, i have finally finished the glove doll.

it was so fortunate to find two red gloves, since the majority of gloves i find are neutral in color or leather work gloves.  i decided to take advantage of the color by creating a glove doll that resembled the shape of the human heart.  the stubby fingers look a little like arteries.  to mix things up a little, i put snaps on two of the fingers.  they are fun to snap together and pull apart.

please beat your drum for...

Aorty! (pronounced ar-tee)

SPRING BREEEAAAKKKKK

i apologize for my extended absence.  the past few months have been busy with grad school and student teaching.  buttttt i will not bore you with those things.  instead, why don't we talk of spring?  the flowers are blooming, people are sneezing, claritin never had so many admirers.  life is grand!

so you know what spring means?  SPRING BREEEAAAKKKKK!!  which is how i actually have the free time to make a glove doll and then post about it.  oh how i have missed having free time...

glove 1

i found this glove a long time ago when i was driving home from student teaching.  i spotted one glove near the baseball field in the street outside the school and immediately pulled over to snap a picture and grab it.  i hopped in my car with a big grin and kept driving home, only to spot *another* glove just a little ways down the road, near the curb.  by then, i had driven too far to pull over, so i flipped a u-turn (legal?) and headed back up the hill.

glove 2

after maneuvering through the school's parking lot and then driving out the other side, i was able to head back down the hill.  i pulled over again and retrieved the second glove.  it was the mate of the first!  twins!!  i honestly think the two gloves may have belonged to a student that was practicing sports on said baseball field, but who cares, the gloves were MINE!  MUAHHAHHAHAH!!!


several months later, i actually have the time to make the gloves into something awesome. the gloves are sporty, made of leather and some sort of stretchy synthetic, with nice padding in the palm area.  the wrists had elastic bands with a velcro closures.  i decided to cut those off because i've sewn through rubber before, and trust me it's not fun.

so after cutting off the wrists (that sounds terrible), i cut the fingers (OH GOD) off one of the gloves, leaving the palm connected to a thumb.  i sealed the top part of the palm/thumb to create a head with a very long nose.  then i sewed the fingers on top of the head to make a very striking headdress.  after stuffing the second glove and attaching the head, i added button eyes and a pompom nose. i started out thinking it would be a bird, but it ended up more like a moose dog.  i think he's pretty cute, apart from his massively lopsided face (he has an enormous right cheek that i have concealed in this well-posed glamor shot).

enjoy the new post, because i don't know when i'll be able to post again.  i've miss you guys!
and now, i present to you....

Mooseldorf!!

intelli-gent

hey yous guys!  first off, i'd like to wish you a happy and healthy new year.  2011 is gonna be a great year, i just know it.  i am pleased to report that my year has gotten off to a beautiful start!

just a few days ago, i saw two gloves within two miles of my house.  another tragedy, of course, for both were in the middle of a busy street and doomed to stay there until being picked up by a gust of wind or a sticky truck wheel.  after frowny-facing for a while i got over it, because life is good and there are other gloves to be had.

two days ago, i was at the pepperdine west LA campus for class.  i was heading down a ramp in the parking structure when i noticed a little black thing on the pavement.  i didn't pay it any mind since i was keen on finding a parking space and getting to class on time.  after class, i hopped in my car and started up the ramp again, glanced sideways at the black being, and drove on.  but wait, was that a thumb i saw?  could it have been a glove?  i had to be sure.  quickly finding an empty spot, i pulled in and hopped out of the car with the motor still running.  oh glee, it was a glove!  a fine specimen, too!  it looked so clean and well-kept, nothing like the greasy gardening gloves i've been finding as of late.

i joyfully snatched up the glove and got back in the car, placing the glove gingerly on my passenger seat.  when i home, i inspected the glove to determine how best to handle it.

to my surprise, the glove was from nordstrom and 100% cashmere!  a beauty like that had to be handled with care, but i wasn't about to shell out the big bucks just to dry clean one glove.  instead, i hand-washed it in cold water and hung it up to line dry.

the glove had a long wrist and a ruffle at the cuff, so i removed the ruffle and fashioned it into a mohawk (i want one so badly).  instead of making the wrist into legs, i decided it would be appropriate to make a glove with an enormous cranium to house an enlarged brain, since i found the glove at a place of education.  the fingers form two arms, two legs, and one long nose.  the tag transformed into a tie to make the glove presentable and interview-ready.

he's one smart cookie, he's one good-lookie.  meeeeet....

Ed!

part two

hello again, my glovelies! this will be a short post since i pretty much explained the story in part one. my dad snatched up this glove in the same place as Richter, and although they weren't lonesome, i'm sure they were both quite happy to be rescued bathed, and repaired. since it is a motorcycle glove, i'm sure it's been on some wild adventures! this glove required two small repairs where the seams had come apart. she and Richter are glove mates, and her name is Eugenia. she's a little bitty dinosaur.

just a little personal update: grad school is going well, and i'm really enjoying my classes. i can't wait to start student teaching! this is going to rock!

part one

SUCCESS!!!!!!!!!

what a great day in the world of homeless gloves! about a week ago, i spotted a glove on silver spur road while i was driving. it was in the center divider between the two lanes (some random neutral space protected by the double line forcefield). several days later, it seemed as if a second glove had appeared nearby. and still later, i spotted a third glove on pv drive near hawthorne! after about a week of driving up and down silver spur road and longing to rescue the glove, i decided to take action.

today was already an exceptional day, since it was my first day of graduate school (ooooo smarty smart student-pants!). anyway, after getting back from my evening class, i waited til it was dark enough and then proposed an adventure to my dad. "dad, will you come on an adventure with me? i want to rescue some gloves." "right now?" and dad agreed to drive me. now i'll only tell you about the first part of the story and leave a little somethin' for you to look forward to.

i grabbed my camera, the flashlight, and a baggie for the dirty gloves. i was ready for action! we drove down silver spur and turned into that asian church thing and parked in the parking lot.

cars sped up and down the street with their beamy lights illuminating the road as they went. as each car passed, the headlights showed the two gloves in the middle of the road. just as i was handing my dad the flashlight and camera to make a run for the gloves, he said "no way am i going to let you go out there and risk your life!" and so, my brave father put his life on the line for my weird glove obsession, and ran out into the road and rescued the two gloves from peril.

fun fact: there was some sort of manhole cover where we stood by the side of the road. it smelled real bad.

meet the first glove:

Richter