The Friday Archives - Softies Revisited

Softie? What in the world is a softie? I had never heard that word before but here. I wonder where it originated in the first place?

Is this a softie? Well, back in 2004, I'm a bit embarrassed to say I thought it was.
Um..right. Funny now, in 2008, we in the bloggy craft world, know exactly what a softie is. Softies have come a long way.

What this is, in fact, IS a piece of foamcore with a printed image of Snowbear glued on it and covered with foil paper and ribbons. This is NOT a softie. It was a little ornament I made for a promotional item for a client. Oh well.

(insert cheesy grin here)

It is a bit soft (sorta) just to be fair---and in the month of December for the Holiday Hang-up Month of Softies, I submitted it.

Claire was nice enough not to say anything. Though I can't imagine what she must have been thinking....I guess the good part of it all was I found her and she found me.

But this little "softie" turned out to be my emergence into the mainstream of blogging. Previous to this I was blogging away by my own little self, thinking there wasn't a soul listening or rather reading. It was an experiment in self-exposure. I was toying with the idea of writing a tell-all memoir; something along the lines of Angela's Ashes and that's why I started blogging in the first place. I buried the link on my main website and as far as I knew, nobody knew about it. Then one day, a comment--I remember a flash of "oh, no--somebody is reading this stuff!" and I made my first blogging buddy--Roz. Roz introduced me to Illustration Friday and I remember being amazed that there was a whole community of artists and crafty types blogging away on the internet. So, it was right about that same time that I happened to find Loobylu and The Month of Softies.

January's theme for MOS was "Vintage Catwalk" and I was getting closer to making a real softie. I submitted "Hobo Kitty" who was made from pipecleaners and felt. I'm happy to report that technically he is considered a real softie according to Terese of Softies Central. That's good enough for me.
He's a tribute to my love of vintage holiday pipecleaner decorations from the 50's and the 60's which graced many a children's party. He's still one of my favorites in the studio. And I so do love Halloween! What followed for the next couple of months was more pipecleaner creations. An "Alice in Wonderland" theme and "Self Portrait as a Child" were my contributions for February and March.

In April, I finally overcame my fear of the sewing machine and made HARRIET for the "Recycled Monster" theme. It was in fact, the first time I had ever used a sewing machine. In 2007, she received a softie award. Not bad, huh, for someone who didn't know too much about softies...

Live and learn.
;-)
Many thanks to Claire for organizing that project which enabled me to recognize a softie when I see one and set me on a new path.
And also to Roz for helping me to break out of my shell and connect with so many talented people on the internet.

And thanks again to Claire for suggesting The Friday Archives. Now that I deleted my old blogs and I've been sifting through my old photos, I guess Fridays could also be known around here as "the best of Rock-Paper-Scissors" which sounds like a nice way to get me to organize some of my past work in a coherent manner.

Comments

[Madeline]

That is a really neat idea. I haven't been creating for very long. I've always been into words and so mostly what I did do was diaries and journals. I think when I lived in California, and just before I moved there, I dappled with pastels which was really fun for me and collage (not paper-piecing) which was also fun. I have no idea where that stuff would be right now though. Hopefully my hubby will be taking on the garage in a couple of weeks and that will help me access some of those precious things.