Day #89: Carrot-top!

I'm used to finding oddly shaped carrots at the Farmer's Market. Not this one! Straight from the Trader Joe's bag...it's Carrot Guy!

Had to add that kale "bonnet" to give it a bit of, um, decency.

Love it when they come out of the packaging just like this. Puppet-made!

Day #85: Dinner and a Show (Farmer's Market inspired!)

A few days ago, my family headed out to the Byrd House Farmer's Market. It's one of two markets we frequent and always fun! We have a number of friends who farm and grow veggies (and are even trying our hands at it ourselves this year), but most of our stuff comes from Charlie and Gina Collins at Victory Farms.

My daughters love, love, love, love "Charlie's carrots," as they call them. We visited the farm last year and the girls were picking them out of the ground, rinsing them, and devouring them on the spot. (They are not so enthusiastic with other carrots, I must say.)

My sister-in-law spotted a lovely carrot at the market that is the inspiration for today's post: a "two-legged" carrot! I carved up part of a zucchini for the head.

Perhaps I should've taken a "before" picture?

Well, this is what we really did! (Thank you to my older daughter for being the videographer on this one!)

Day #82: Strawberry

My mom will be the first to share how, as a child, I would not eat strawberries. Not with a fox, not in a box, not here or there or anywhere! Fortunately, I've grown out of it. Today at the farmer's market, there was a strawberry that looked remarkably like it SHOULD be a puppet.

I can't decide if it looks best in right or left profile....

This would have probably haunted me as a child given my strong aversion to strawberries. My four year old just wanted me to hurry up already and take the picture so she could EAT IT!

Day #64: Breakfast Theatre

Puppets: Part of your complete diet!

Ahhh...if only I were able to devote hours each day to this blog.

Today we will take a trip into Heidi's brain. This will be a bit of imagination theatre on your part, because I want you to envision the puppet act that I saw at the breakfast table today.

There was one lonely leftover pancake. So sad. We were all full. The pancakes were great -- I've been working on my gluten-free variations. Today I added chestnut flour that my sister-in-law brought back from France. It gave everything an extra special touch.

But there was one left. I hate to waste it, so I wondered if I could make a puppet...

This is what my brain saw... Imagine a beautifully laid out breakfast table. Pancakes, maple syrup, a bowl of fruit and some almonds. Coffee. Tea.

Cue music. (Something classical with flute.) A banana moves upright and peels itself. The peel wanders over to the plate of pancakes and taps it with one of the peel pieces. One of the pancakes "stands" up. The peel separates and morphs into the legs and arms...and hair...

Two little almonds then leap from the bowl along with an apple slice. They bounce along and leap onto the pancake to make a face. The puppet does a pirouette, wanders around the table, burns its peel on a bit of hot coffee, explores the breakfast table...

I could go on and on...

I would have to build a break-away marionette (of sorts) to make this work. I'm sure if I was having breakfast with Phil Huber or Joe Cashore or Albrecht Roser I could totally have pulled this off!

Play with your food and have a great day!

Day #59: Flea Circus

I was in the studio snacking on some raisins when I came up with this idea. Perhaps I'll do more of these in the future with staging and props!

Day #39: A Radishingly Beautiful Ballerina

Well, yesterday's ballerina was a bit of a...well, a dog. During dinner tonight, I noticed a vase of seedpods. I love seedpods; they look so alien, some look so bizarre. These particular seedpods look like this:

If you know what this actually is, please let me know. I just like the way they look!

As I was looking at it, I noticed that if you were to invert the shape...it looks a lot like a tutu. What can I say? I just have ballerinas on the brain. I do have two daughters and my house has been swathed in pink crinoline for a while!

It took me a bit of rummaging through cupboards and the fridge before I found the perfect head: a radish!

I strung her up so she will spin -- my daughters will have fun with her in the morning.

Day #38: Dancing Avacado(g)

We just returned, just walked in the door, and I still needed a puppet for today. I had no ideas and feared I was back to my paperbag back-up plan. I walked into the kitchen to look around desperately, and this is what I saw:

I love avocados. I wish they grew on trees in Virginia. That would be awesome. But look closely at the mesh bag...do you see those two holes on the top part. I don't know why the manufacturer put them there, but I had a genuine "Ah-hah!" moment of clarity. I knew what to do.

I cut off the mesh part, flipped through a magazine, cut out an image, and applied tape.

Ta-daah!

I took the extra meshy material and made a tutu. The holes from the top photo are under the tutu and meant for fingers!

In action!

Now I really, really need to go to bed!

Day #1: Going Bananas or Worst Puppet Ever!

It's my birthday, and I am celebrating with an edible puppet that, in many ways, truly encapsulates this 365 Project. I must be bananas to do this project. After all, I am busy, over-committed, I homeschool my girls (with help from my amazing husband), and run my own company. So I know that I really need to do this. Need to reconnect with my own creativity and my favorite medium: puppetry. So, yes, I am totally bananas!

Banana Octopus Puppet

This puppet is part of my "Play With Your Food" category of puppets. I took a banana, peeled it carefully, and used slices of it to make the suckers. I should give credit where credit is due; it was my older daughter who came up with the idea to use the slices as suckers. I stuck them on with peanut butter "glue" and then used banana slices with chocolate chips for the eyeballs...Mmmmmm....Bananas, chocolate, and peanut butter! After all, it is my birthday -- so I have a great treat to enjoy in a few minutes. And though I am sharing this post, I will not be sharing the treat!

My alternate title for this is "Worst Puppet Ever," which requires some explaining.

A few weeks ago, I attended a workshop with the Richmond Comedy Coalition. It was great and lots of fun! It's been a while since I've done improv, but I find it's a great way to get the creative juices flowing and be creative with a group.

At the RCC workshop, one of the warm-up games we did was called "Worst Improv EVER!" Creative work is very personal. Oftentimes, when you do something creative or performance related, there's a tendency to be concerned about doing a bad job.  That your scene (or show or jewelry or book or whatever) will be awful, that everyone will hate it, that you will be mortified with embarrassment.

The point of the game is to get that fear out of your system. It's important to remember that before you can become good at something, you need a period of allowing yourself to make mistakes and mess up. For the game, everyone lines up, does a short scene of a random nature, and then the other workshop participants shout out in unison: WORST IMPROV EVER!

So, I will say, "Worst Puppet Ever." This gets it out of my system.

Detail: Peanut butter as glue!