Day #57: Doctors and Scientists Shocked as Woman Gives Birth to Puppet Child in this Exclusive Report!

A Richmond hospital became the  buzz of the scientific and medical community today when a local woman gave birth to a living, breathing puppet.

Exclusive photo of Mary Annette!

"It was the strangest thing," reports a nurse who spoke under condition of anonymity. "There was no umbilical cord, just a mass of strings. Then this wooden structure came out -- one of the orderlies got a splinter!"

 Doctors are baffled and unable to explain this strange event. "We're not sure how to fill out the paperwork on this one. Filing the insurance paperwork is going to be a nightmare!"

The mother reports that she had strange, unexplained cravings throughout her pregnancy. "We brought the crib home, and I kept sneaking downstairs to gnaw on the railings. My gums were in terrible shape, but I couldn't help it."

The baby, Mary Annette, weighed in at six pounds, five ounces. "We're not sure how to properly measure her length," reported the attending physician. "The strings are rather long."

The parents are thrilled with their new daughter. "She has great movement. We already figured out which string to pull to make her close her eyes and sleep! Most children grow up pushing their parent's buttons, but we will definitely be pulling her strings."

Happy April Fools' Day from Puppet-A-Day!!

Day #56: In the Doghouse at the Farmhouse

I've created puppets for this project in my studio, at home, and in moving vehicles. Today's creation happened in at Urban Farmhouse, a great farm-to-table restaurant in Shockoe Bottom.


There was a gathering of 365ers (a bunch of people in the area doing their own unique and fabulous 365 projects) at Urban Farmhouse, and the energy being around a group of creative people is really amazing. Today's project was born of this gathering.

I had the pleasure of sitting between Noah Scalin of Skull-A-Day fame and Madonna Dersch of Happy Homemaker. During the course of the conversation I was illustrating something with my hands and had the idea to create a "hand puppet" that I'm sure has been manipulated on many a restaurant table. The ubiquitous "hand dog."

I don't know if what I was doing  is really called that, but you get the picture. Kids do this -- especially making the dog raise a back leg so it can mark its territory, right?

But I was fortunate enough to be sitting next to Madonna...and we were both inspired! You see, Madonna is making houses and structures of all types in all sorts of media, both 2-D and 3-D. She has made houses from oranges, houses that would be great for Hobbits, and she's doing a great series of houses where she has a different house for each letter of the alphabet -- even Q (I told her they would make a great children's book).

I bet you can think of some sort of structure that goes great with a dog. Ta-daah! Two blogs in one fell swoop.

I didn't imagine we could actually pull this off in the restaurant, but Madonna had a bag that reminded me of Hermione's purse in Harry Potter Book 7 -- a bag that had an invisible expansion spell put on it so she could keep all of her books (a whole library's worth!), clothes, a tent, and all sorts of things necessary for young wizards on the run.

Me: Hey, does that sketchbook have any new houses in it?

Madonna: Not really. It's still pretty new. I only have some basic sketches in it.

Me: Wow. It would be so cool if I could actually make a real dog right now and you could make a doghouse! Then we would be done with our projects for today.

Madonna: We really should!

Me: But I need some scissors...

Madonna: OK. (She pulls out a pair.)

Me: And markers...

Not only did Madonna have just a few markers -- she had several zipper bags with a wide variety of markers. Even metallic markers!! (Seriously. Even metallic markers.)

Me: Um...glue?

She had two glue sticks. I was set.

And we both set to work.

The sketchbook became both doghouse and puppet stage. (See the glue sticks to the right?)

I'm so glad we were able to collaborate on this. It was so fun to talk with other 365ers about the joys and frustrations of doing these yearlong creative commitments. I look forward to doing it again!

After we left the restaurant, I headed to the studio for a little bit more work. I needed to shellac something so it would be dry by tomorrow morning. While there, I made a little video of my "hand dog" in action.

I'm going to have to get a bag like Madonna's for puppets on the go.

Day #21: Beastly Traffic

Loooong day today.

Today's post is dedicated to those who have known the pain of traffic jams.

OK. None of the magazines had miserable looking people. Just use your imaginations! The sunrise was beautiful today...

The alarm went off at 4AM (and I had just finished up yesterday's blog right around midnight!). We had a performance scheduled at an elementary school in Norfolk this morning. Our departure time was scheduled for 6AM. This allowed for a great deal of "tunnel traffic" padding in our schedule. Little did we know that the military bases in the area were doing special maneuvers of some sort and had tightened up security. Let's just say that the five-mile stretch between I-664 and the tunnel took us almost an hour! The total 95 mile trip took us 3 and 1/2 hours. Yikes! (And we were able to actually turn off the truck more than once as we sat on the highway-turned-parking-lot.)

We remained in contact with the school throughout the ordeal, and they were very understanding. A school in Norfolk would have to be understanding with such a large military presence. A number of parents and teachers experienced similar delays.

We arrived a shocking one hour and eight minutes after our anticipated arrival time. We were all a bit grouchy (it was waaaay past breakfast time -- and breakfast was in the trailer with the puppets). But we managed to get the show set up quickly and were ready to start just twenty minutes past our scheduled time -- huzzah! (Special thank you to Sam and Melanie who really, really stayed focus to get set up in record time!)

I will say, it was a great performance! I think there is something about stress that keys you up a bit and increases your focus.

We were pretty stressed out, too. It has been YEARS since we were not ready to begin a show at the scheduled time. I think I was pregnant with my first child the last time we had a delay; this was well before my husband and Melanie joined the company. Once I got horribly lost heading to Keysville, VA -- but that was before the advent of GPS.

Today's puppet is really toy theatre! I have taken some of my younger daughter's cars, made little people from magazine cut-outs, and created a crayola backdrop to go along with it! I thought about making a mini-cranky (we were all, in truth, quite cranky) to create moving scenery for the background...but our time in traffic was not really spent moving much. (And, let's be honest, I have to get up early again tomorrow morning...sleep is good.) Maybe this is just a form of puppet therapy for me...

A much more interesting reason for a traffic jam: DINOSAURS!

Those people should look a bit more worried...if this were a horror flick, they would be doomed!

We did drive past Williamsburg...I was inspired!

The beautiful sunrise was a treat -- our silver lining.  After setting the toy theatre up, I decided that the traffic jam would be much more interesting with dinosaurs. I mean, traffic jams caused by too many people are rather trite...but dinosaurs would be cool. Traffic Jurassic!

Tomorrow we leave the house at 5:30am and head North on I-95 for three performances in Manassas...wish us luck on the traffic front! (And no dinosaurs!)

Puppet #13: Dino-rama

When I was in elementary school, I LOVED making dioramas. I made lots of them. The two I remember the most were the Mayan temple (complete with human sacrifice happening at the top) and the revolutionary war (complete with bloody footprints of the soldiers in the snow).

Toy theatre has a similar appeal. The dinosaur toy theater was made using stencils and some wooden dowels. Some children can be very intimidated by the idea of drawing. They worry that what they make doesn't look like the "something" they had in mind. I think that using stencils could help children get over these concerns and get on with making some puppets and telling some stories!

(Thanks, Tricia, for having great stencils at your Valentine's Day party!)

Day #5: Cardstock Theatre

Perfect idea for a rainy day. Take a deck of cards that's a few cards short and make your own toy theatre. I had some playing cards lying around the studio. Literally -- I think my children left them out. Voila -- instant King and Queen! Cut out the characters you want; tape on some extra bits (a skirt, a cape, a bigger crown); attach a rod -- chopsticks are great for this. Then find some cardboard to make your own castle tower (I always wanted to live in a tower).

You can add bits and pieces to your characters using scrap materials.

Our valiant King will allow no harm to befall his Queen!

Or is it his Queen? (He might be on the lookout for the King of Clubs...)