Circus-a-Day Project Recap of Week 12
Day 78: Custom Bracelet (K) & Quilled Elephant (M)
Saturday’s circus for K was a custom order bracelet for our friend Kyla Kahn, who we met at Wild Wild West Con. I stamped the center piece, engraved the letters o the brass discs, and assembled the piece to put in the mail to Kyla.
M worked on her quilling skills and made an elephant. Using eight different quilled pieces of paper and lots of white glue, I formed the body, head, trunk (two pieces), ear, tail and legs. He is only about 3 inches long from trunk to tail.
Day 79: Decoupaged Hand (K) & Quilled Gears (M)
For Sunday, K decoupaged a papier mache hand we purchased at a craft store. M wanted a hand for display in the booth, and this one looked a bit like the one our website homepage, so I got out the decoupage glue and lots of tiny ephemera images, including miniaturized Barnum & Bailey posters, and got to gluing. It’s not perfect and has a couple of blank spots, but I ran out of prepared images, and considering it was the first time I decoupaged such an irregular shape, I’m pretty pleased with it!
M continued her quilling education and made 
three little gears. Each gear is a center circle with 6 “teeth” that were quilled as circles then formed into squares by pinching into shape by hand. The largest gear is only 1.5 inches in diameter. Working in miniature requires patience, as does the step by step process of building the object from individual quilled pieces. It is kind of zen-inducing and I hope to make more art in the future as I get better and more consistent in my coiling abilities.
Day 80: Food Circus Animal (M)
M played with her food tonight and made this animal prior to eating her dinner. I was trying to use up a bunch of odds and ends in the fridge before heading out on the road again so I made a hodge podge dinner of green beans (steamed, of course!), garlic bread, chicken tenders stuffed with chipotle cheddar cheese and garlic and wrapped in bacon. I then used the items to form my animal. I have no idea what animal it is. Oh, yeah, and it has raspberry ears!
Day 81: Mutant Siamease Strawberry (M)
M is again using her food as the circus. Today at lunch I was sharing strawberries with a friend when we came across the circus freak of the fruit world! These strawberries looked like Siamese twins and so we threw up a backdrop and took their promotional photo. Probably should have saved it for a while, but it looked so tasty that we ate it. I guess it is probably a good thing I do not run the circus!
Day 82: Circus Neck Ruffle (M) & Cookie Cutters (K)
We spent most of the day packing for AnomalyCon, but at one point M had a few minutes and so whipped up this neck ruffle with some ribbon and trim she had laying around. It was pretty quick to sew up and I managed to have lace that matched the ribbon perfectly. It closes at the back with a single large hook and eye fastener. I like how the ribbon ends splay out around the neckline like octopus tentacles. Ooh, that gives me another idea!!
K worked on more cookie cutters for stock, but was seriously hindered by the zombie cat bite on her right hand (her dominant hand, of course, and right by her thumb). K’s cat was diagnosed with liver disease and given a death sentence by the vet, but K refused to give up and Xena was feeling much better at her vet appointment this morning and showed her feisty side by biting K repeatedly as the vet tried to take her temperature. We are keeping an eye on the wound and hopefully K will be just fine and back to her productive self soon enough!
Day 83: Magic Marker Line of Infection Spread Deterrence
We drove from Ohio to Kansas City today on our way to AnomalyCon in Denver. K was bitten by her cat the day before in the midst of our packing. K was a real trooper and took it all in stride, until the wound and surrounding area started getting red, swollen and hot to the touch! We are counting the fact that we created the amazing Magic Marker Line of Infection Spread Deterrence as our circus. K decided the signs of the Feline Zombie Virus could no longer be ignored and we marked the edge of the swelling to keep an eye on it until we could get to an Urgent Care Center and get her some antibiotics. By the time we settled in for the night, we were exhausted and K was far too sore on her right hand so we decided to get some sleep.
Day 84: Kit Carson Carousel Visit – FAIL
We drove from Kansas City, KS to Denver, CO today and tried to stop and see the Kit Carson Carousel along the way. Apparently this carousel is something amazing and was a bit of a scandal at the time it was acquired by Kit Carson County Colorado in the 1920s leading to three county commissioners losing their seats in the election following the acquisition! Today it is a National Treasure and one of the only remaining complete wooden menagerie carousels in existence in the U.S. 
Unfortunately for us, it is only open from Memorial Day to Labor Day and around Christmas time. BUMMER! But we for sure want to make the trip out to see it in December all decked out for the holiday. Steampunk Meet-Up anyone? We picked up some information booklets and a DVD of the carousel instead and will dream about it for months to come!
