Tuesday 21 August 2012

My Scarecrow Challenge

Tuesday 21st August.

Can't believe it's been 5 days since my last blog. The days go fast when you're challenging yourself! My last post was cut short as I had to go and make a scarecrow to be used to promote Cogges Manor Farm's Scarecrow festival this weekend. I'd had the idea for a Dame Edna scarecrow for some time. This all started with an electric blue sparkly long dress that my hubby had worn to a fancy dress party when he went as the Dame. It had been sitting in the back of our spare room wardrobe for about 20 years. so on Friday afternoon armed with the dresss, a hessian sack, a pink wig and Dame Edna glasses from the local joke shop, I made my way to Cogges to begin my creation.

I'd had it all planned out in my head how to go about it for weeks. Well, surprise! surprise! things didn't go as planned. I began by securing two long poles together in a cross shape as I'd seen in other scarecrows. Then I stuffed the sack with straw to make the body and secured it by tying some twine to stop the straw falling out. First problem. How was I going to attach this to the poles? So I had to undo the cross and open up the sack so I could place the pole through the body.  After a few minutes of very un-ladylike language and the loss of one of my recently done gel nails, this was acheived. I then reattached the pole across the shoulders for the arms. Next to put on the dress. I carefully placed each end of the 'arm' pole in the sleeves and started to pull down the rest of the dress. C**p! It wouldn't go down as the arms were in the way! So once again I had to undo the pole, after removing the sleeves of the dress, pull the dress over the body and once again attach the pole and put the sleeves of the dress on. Sounds easy doesn't it? Well naturally it didn't work out that way. It turned out that I had made her too fat for the dress, so I had to undo the bottom of the body remove some stuffing and do it up again before I could dress her. By this time I was drenched in sweat and wishing I'd never started this :S.

Next the head. which I made by stuffing a pillow case with straw and placing it on the top of the vertical pole forming Edna's spine. (You may notice that as the process progressed the scarecrow has gone from being a thing to a person lol). Finally, with the addition of the wig, the glasses, a sparkly necklace, rubber gloves as hands and using my "skills" as an artist (not!) to paint a face, Edna was ready for her tv debut! I went home on Friday feeling exhausted but very proud.

Saturday morning dawned, the day of Edna's unveiling. during the night i woke up and realised that i had forgotten to give her a tiara! I had one that I'd worn to my then to be daughter-in-law's hen do. After lunch, it always takes me a while to get going on a Saturday, I headed to Cogges with the tiara only to discover that I was too late. Witneytv had already been and poor Dame Edna had been filmed without it. Never mind, at least she will have it for the festival next weekend when she will meet her adoring public.

As a result of my choosing to do a Dame Edna scarecrow, Laura the Operations Manager has decided that the theme of the festival is to be the Royal family! I have been requested to make another one, possibly Princess Anne, to sit on a horse 'thingy' in the stable. but I think that I have used up all my creativity for this month. You can watch the clip by logging on to Witneytv and searching for the Cogges Scarecrow Festival archive. But I've attached a picture of my Edna for you to admire hee hee. I'm a proud mum!



In my next blog I will write about the Abba day I attended on Sunday.

My nail is fine by the way! I was able to stick it back on with false nail glue which I always carry for such an emergency :))))))))))

Flashmob Granny.

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