It's that time of year again.

Time to make pinatas!

I've been up to my elbows in papier mache paste today working on a pinata for another nephew who is getting married soon. He's always been a huge fan of Mario Bros, so I'm making a Mr & Mrs Yoshi for them. He will be blue. She will be pink. And they will both be adorned in wedding attire. It will be interesting to see how they turn out.

I'm also contemplating making one for Hopper for school. This is her last year, since she'll be 21 in the Fall, but she's not going to walk for graduation. She has a severe social anxiety disorder, and I think she's have a heart attack waiting for her name to be called. Then she'd likely have a major meltdown, and she'd never make it up and across the stage. So she will quietly end her school career, and I'll send out graduation announcements to close friends and family explaining the situation and that she would love to get a note in the mail from them.

It's sort of a hard situation to figure out how to handle. I am not even sure what sort of an announcement I'll send out. But the occasion does need to be marked in some way. And I will be calling the school tomorrow to ask, if I can make a pinata for the class to commemorate Hopper moving on. If I can, I'm going to have to hustle, since school ends in the next couple of weeks.

My mind is getting sort of fuzzy from some pain medicine I had to take for my back, so I think I'll stop writing while I'm still sort of making sense. 

That is, if I'm making any sense at all. :)

Whadda ya get? Pruuuney fingers!

My nephew got married about a month before our oldest daughter got married. He lives several states away, and we were not able to get to his wedding. They are having another ceremony a year from now, I think, but I'm not sure we'll be able to make it to it, either. It just depends on so many things. However, we will be visiting family soon, and we'll be having a bit of a family reunion. So I've decided to make them a pinata for a belated wedding gift. They can use it at the family reunion, or they can save it and use it at the reception for their official wedding ceremony. It's up to them.

I've made pinatas for a couple of my brothers who got married several years ago. They turned out really cute. I wish I knew where the pictures were, and I'd post them, but I have no clue where they might be. Maybe someday...

One brother collected Mickey Mouse stuff his entire life. He just loved Mickey. So as a bachelor, he had the Mickey phone, the sheets, the pillows, etc. It was just a part of who he was, and it was really kind of neat. So the pinata I made when he got married was the head of Mickey Mouse. However, one side of the head was Mickey and the other was Minnie. Minnie wore a veil, a pearl necklace, false eyelashes that went out to here, and blush. Mickey had a top hat and a bow tie.

We bought 3 5lbs bags of candy to fill it, and I apparently made it a bit too strong. After all the kids had gone through blindfolded, they then went through several times w/o blindfolds to hit it. Eventually people were getting a bit restless, so the men in the family took a baseball bat to it with no blindfold, and it still took several swings for it to break open. Still, I'd rather have a pinata that is tough to break than to have it break with the first hit and leave the little kids without a turn at it.

A couple of years later, another brother got married. He'd loved elephants from the time he was tiny. He'd collected quite a few over the years, so it was a no-brainer to choose to make a Mr. and Mrs. Dumbo pinata. Again they shared the same head and ears. But this time they both held flowers. Dumbo held his trunk way out in front of him and had a single red rose in the tip of his trunk, like he was presenting it to his bride. I can't recall, if he had a top hat, but I think he did as well as a bow tie. Mrs. Dumbo held her trunk much closer and it was curled around a little bouquet of roses as though it were her bridal bouquet. She also had the false eyelashes, rouge and veil. I can't remember, if she had the pearl necklace, but I think she did. They never broke it, and as far as I know, it still has 15lbs of candy in it. They've been married for over 10 years now, so I don't know how much I'd trust that candy!

I included a little card with each of the pinatas with the verse from Genesis 2:24 on it. "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh." The pinata was just my very loose artistic interpretation of the Bible verse. Everyone loved it, and I always thought of how I wanted to make one again.

Enter my nephew and his new wife stage left. The only thing is that I'm not sure what they like. So I'm going to do a moose....er...a Mr. and Mrs. Moose. I'm not sure how close it will look to Bullwinkle, but I'm leaning somewhat in that direction. It will at least involve a two-sided moose head. And once again, I'll make sure I enclose a note card with Genesis 2:24.

I got started on making it today. I put the first 6 coats of paper on the balloon. I'm hoping it will be dry enough tomorrow I can add the string and 6 more coats of paper. If not, I'll just work on the smaller balloons that will be the tips of the noses. My fingers are going to be so wrinkled and pruned for a few days. That's okay. It's for a good cause.

I'll take pictures as I go along and post them all in one post when it's done.

And I'll be using plenty of lotion before bed!