Bjork would be proud

Seriously.  Bjork would be so freakin' proud of me if only she knew....(insert misty sigh)...

So what am I talking about?  Well it was around the time of the wedding that my brother-in-law Brendan let us know that his improv group was going to auction off home-made Christmas tree ornaments to benefit a community agency that encourages kids to write.  It's called the Young StoryTellers Foundation in L.A.  I love doing arts and crafts so I jumped at the opportunity to help out!  Especially for such an awesome reason.  :)

A couple weeks after the wedding, I was perusing up and down the aisles of Michaels.  I love that store but it unfortunately really feeds my inability to make any decisions about the project that I might be under-taking.  I can't tell you how many times I get a call from Rich while I'm at Michaels asking where I am.  Why?  Because I can easily waste 2 hours in that store without even knowing it!  But anyhoo, I digress...I had a basic idea of what I might want to put together for an ornament but all of my ideas were too traditional.  Too expected.  Too boring.  I wanted something that would auction off big!  And then suddenly, an hour and fifteen in to my search I came across the boa aisle.  Yes my friends - the aisle full of furry, lovely boas!  And it came to me.  The Bjork swan dress.  Yes, yes, yes!

I was determined to make a christmas ornament based off of Bjork's infamous swan dress that she shocked the world with at some big event or the other.  So here are my supplies...

ps - I love my hot glue gun.  That thing is fabulous.  :)

I had a cardboard mannequin that I got at some point to practice decoupage with.  It's been laying around the den for so long that I decided that it was time she was transformed in to Bjork.  I used the white feathery boa and wrapped it around the body of the mannequin to simulate Bjork's skirt.  Next I made the neck and head from an old (and clean) sock.  Using some expert...or not so expert...sowing techniques I made a tube out of the sock and fashioned it around the mannequin.  Realizing that my swan was faceless, I got some markers and colored in a beak.  I used beads from a teddy bear photo frame to give the swan eyes.  Next I assembled everything together and voila I was done!  Seeing that it is the holiday season, I used a scarf (from the teddy bear photo frame) and wrapped it around the swan's neck.  And voila!!!

What do you think?  Not bad, eh?  I actually was so thrilled with it that I wanted to keep it for myself!  Here is a pic of the head (with the scarf too).  Can you see her little beady eyes?

Isn't she so cute??  Bless her little heart!  Yes - I did just say that for a hand-made swan.  :)

Isn't she lovely?  Her feathers would look so lovely on a tree!  Kind of like snow.  :)

As hard it was, I said goodbye to my little pretty and packaged her gently in to a shoebox and sent the box off to my sister and her husband in L.A.

They got it 2 days later and fell in love with it!  Success!  I haven't yet heard how much it auctioned for and I'm hoping that it sold well.  It better have or I want her back!  On my Christmas tree!!

So why Bjork??  Gosh I just don't know.  I've always had a wierd fascination with that dress.  Every year for I don't know how many years, I have wanted to make that dress for halloween but do you know how many feathers that would take??  And how much effort it would take to make that dress?  Maybe one day I will be so inspired to make it but since I haven't ever been able to make my dream come true just yet (hey - some dreams are smaller than others) this seemed like the next best thing.  :)