Sweetie Chicken!

So, I'm well known for the nickname that I have for most everyone that I come into contact with - chicken. And for those that I especially love and adore, the term transforms into Sweetie Chicken.

I'm afraid to say that Sweetie Chicken is not a creation of my own, rather it was something Lori used to say all of the time. Lori is the amazing woman that I used to nanny for in high school. I adored watching her love her pets, just as I have always loved mine. We are kindred spirits that way. She is from New York and has the thick accent to prove it, and is a knock out beauty. Wearing lipstick never stopped her from planting big, fat smooches on all of her pets - which of course meant there was ALWAYS evidence of Lori loving everyone that lived in the house, including husband, child, pets and the babysitter! Anyway, I could go on about her (I simply adore her more than I could ever really convey with words), but to the point - she used to have a beautiful Siamese kitty named Davey and I will never forget watching her love him in particular, saying "There you are Davey, my little sweetie chicken! Come here you, sweetie chicken, you!" and then she would plaster the top of his little kitty head with lipstick kisses. And he loved every minute of it. It was a joy to watch.

Eventually I moved away and was no longer an active part of the family anymore, but I suppose something unconscious in me wanted to keep Lori and my love for her family alive by adopting the "Sweetie Chicken" term and it's stuck ever since... we have since reunited and now Lori and her family have met my partner and are absolutely in love with him, as we both are with them. Their daughter I used to nanny has grown into a beautiful young woman and I am so excited to see the things she will do in this world. They are, hands down, some of our favorite people in the world.

Which brings me to the point of this post, which is, I call lots of people Chicken at work and many folks, even after working with me for so long, still don't get it - but some do. And one of those people is Jocelyn. I adore her. She's great. I love how level headed and calm she is and she has the loveliest smile and contagious laugh. Her birthday passed recently and I wanted to make her something, but I wanted it to be something that she would use.
So...

I thought I would delve into the world of eyeglass cases. It's the first one I've ever made. It was made in honor of her being one of my favorite Sweetie Chickens in my life right now. I like how it turned out, I hope she gets lots of miles out of it. I might have to experiment with these some more...

And I should mention that the book the case is sitting on is something I asked for, for Christmas this year, Craftivity: 40 Projects for the DIY Lifestyle. It's an awesome book full of kick ass projects. I held craft night at my house earlier this spring and had a bunch of women from work come over. I picked bleach stencil shirts from Craftivity for the night's project. I tried it out first and found that the directions didn't work for me, rather using a Clorox bleach pen was a lot easier and allowed me to improvise whatever design I initially had in mind once I started to "draw" on the shirt. The picture below is of one of my best girlfriends, Jodie, and her design from that night.