finnegan mae monster...

Finnegan (or Finnie, as her cousin, Pennie, likes to call her) is a little mermaid monster I made recently. Caleb fell in love with her before she was even finished. He would sidle up to my desk, grab her unstuffed carcass, tilt her side ways, zig zag her through the air (as if to make her swim) and ask, "Is this a pish?" "Yes, it's a fish," I would say. Then he'd ask, "Is it my pish?" To which I replied, "Yes, I guess this will be your fish." After the exchange he would put her down, I would pick her up to work on the next thing, put her down for a split second and the exchange would begin again.

Later in the evening when I was ready to stuff her and sew up the gaping maw on the top of her head Caleb insisted on helping me. He would take the empty doll, roll her up from the head down, stick her in his armpit and then jump around on the bed. Once he was sure she'd jumped enough he was ready to sit down and begin stuffing her. It's a good thing she's a tiny pish because I'm positive I would have gone bonkers from all the "help" I was getting. Once Caleb was bored with stuffing I sprinkled some of his favorite board books and cars on the bed and proceeded to ladder stitch her head closed. Caleb snatched her out of my hands, plopped down, curled up with her and fell asleep. My heart nearly exploded.



She was so cute with hair in her sketches but when I started to put hair on the real thing it just wasn't working. Partly because I'm pretty sure the hair wouldn't stay the way I intended it to for very long and but mainly because it took away from the overall look of the doll. Plus, hair might tickle somebody's nose and wake him up and Lord knows we have a hard enough time having somebody sleep through the night as it is.



Here she is today, amazingly still clean, no marker tattoos or pudding smudges.