Mike the Monster

Meet one of my new best friends. Okay, okay, maybe it is slightly pathetic for a 20 year old woman (I'm old enough to call myself woman aren't I?) to have a stuffed animal for a friend, but just look at him! How can you not fall in love? Doesn't he look like one of those friends that will love you for the way you are? Someone that finds imperfection beautiful and lovely?

I think that is why I love him so much; he's not in the least bit perfect or symmetrical yet he is wonderfully beautiful. The different eyes, the crooked smile... who does not love a crooked smile? I mean check out those super hunky guys in movies: they have all mastered the art of crooked smiling. But I think I especially love his ears. Probably because they are different sizes and shapes, but probably more because they are big and they stick out. Much like my own ears...

I was very sad to see Mike go. But not too sad. He was made for my brand new nephew Nash! Do you think he will be one of those stuffed animals that Nash needs to take everywhere, who stands at the washer just WAITING for him to come out, who had fought with all his might to make his mom see reason that Mike did NOT need to be washed? Do you think Mike will be the stuffed animal that hides in Nash's backpack until the 3rd grade because the friends just can't say goodbye (and of course Nash will sneak peaks and smiles to him throughout the day)? Do you think that he can become one of those friends that becomes not-so-fuzzy anymore but that worn-out type of soft? Do you think he will be so loved that he needs to be re-stuffed and sewed a few times regardless of Auntie Hailey's sewing expertise? I sure hope so.

Mike has also inspired me. I want more than anything else to start my own quilting charity. But I think I would also really love a charity or an organization that gives homemade stuffed animals to kids that enter foster care or who have been victims of domestic violence. I think this is much more feasible than quilts on a large scale. So I see many Mikes in my future. And Mirabels (see previous post) and of course, others. I have so many I want to make! I have caught the sewing bug and I don't think it will ever go away... maybe I should call it a sewing parasite, or sewing virus. I know, I have caught the sewing endospore! Nearly impossible to kill! I know, I am a Biology (micro) nerd...

Any way, I hope you all love him as much as I do!

Hailey