Zebra for Zion

I did make Zion something for his birthday, by the way. I'm not a completely failed crafter. It was a pretty easy project; I'm trying to make my gifts for the kids smaller in general because I have to find places to store all these things, and at the rate of 6 stuffed animals a year, that's a lot of places to find.

zion's zebra

zebra for Zebra

I made the body of the zebra from the arm of an old sweater. (Old being a relative term. It's not as old as it should be to end up in the scrap pile, but old enough to not fit over my fat post-pregancy shoulders. Seriously, what happened to my shoulders these past three years?) I did the stripes with ric rac sewed on after the zebra was stuffed. The tail and mane are also ric rac. I'll give you a belly shot so you can see how the ric rac was spiraled.

belly of the zebra stuffed animal

belly of the beast

Harvey also made a present for Zion, a train that we assembled from a kit with glue and paint and lots of frustrated perspiration.

harvey and the painted train

that artist and his creation

It's not that I don't like doing crafts with my child. I get frustrated trying to do something as simple as read a book to Harvey. Anything other than playing blocks on the floor, and Zion crawls on top of me, bites the book, and then starts screaming. In this environment I don't know why I thought it would work for me to hold the pieces of a train model together as the glue dried.

Suffice it to say that I don't have process photos.

It's a good thing Zion liked both of his handmade presents. When you're actively trying to please him he's rather easy to please.

zion playing with his presents

birthday boy, with lots of makers who love him

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