Llama Llama Duck.

Okay... technically this post is about llamas. And toothbrushlets. So I used a duck icon to make up for it. Ha.









Yep. Llamas. I have mentioned once or twice that I am a vlogbrothers fan. Back in May, I tried to participate in Hank Green's birthday video, but my pictures were not included. I showed them to you, in my moonlit walks and gardening post. The theme was "Hank plants".

Well, this August was John Green's birthday. There were two projects to participate in. One, was the first half of his birthday video. Hank recorded himself for two minutes or so, talking. Then he got thousands of people to take frame by frame pictures of themselves doing the same poses he did. The result was actually quite weird, and kind of really cool. I took three of such pictures. And this time I was included! YAY! The thing is, with thousands of people taking pictures that add up to only two minutes of video... you don't see me very well. In fact, I could only find two of my pictures. I'm not sure if the third picture just wasn't included, or I just can't find it. lol. But I could find the other two pictures, because I had the bright idea to wear a hat those two times.







If you're curious to see the end result, here we go. I can be seen for a fraction of a second at 1:40 and 1:42. I'm wearing a cowprint cowboy hat. Hee.


There was a second project for this video too, for those who wanted to participate in both projects, or who couldn't participate in the first one because they didn't have a webcam. The theme to the second half of the video is "French the Llama". Once upon a time, John Green was unaware that "ftl" meant "for the lose". The result was French the Llama. lol. And so I wanted to participate in this section as well!


First, I decided to make a French Llama. But then... "French the Llama" sounds more like french kissing a llama. So I'd make two french llamas, and then have them kissing. Perfect! I was going to make two clay llamas, but then I wanted to make them move. Like, bend their necks. So, I changed my mind. I used wire to make a skeleton, and needle felted some stuffing to the wire.



And then I covered the taller one with some lovely gray wool I got from my ED Friend mayple. And then he needed eyes and a tongue, and a beret. Then I gave him a white shirt that I then drew stripes on with a black marker. And a red scarf. I named him Jean Luc.

For the female, I wanted her to be a blonde. But I didn't have blonde wool. I had blonde yarn though... so I unraveled the yarn, and tried to smooth it out as best as possible. Then I gave her a skirt, with a matching scarf and flower. I also found one of my old rings that's missing a stone, so I gave it to her as a bracelet. I named her Colette.


Tada!! My llamas.

He has a tongue, she doesn't. I thought he looked adorable with one, but I liked her without. The "flower" in her hair is the same fabric as her scarf, just glued on to a thumbtack. So it can actually come out of her hair. And her scarf is just tied on, so that can be removed too. The skirt was sorta sewn on her, so I don't think it's removable, and none of Jean Luc's outfit can be removed.


So yeah, finished the llamas. Yay. Then, to emphasize the fact that they're french llamas, I painted a quick scene of the Eiffel Tower:

Eee hee hee

And there they are with their names to identify them.



And there they are, french kissing in France.


Awwww. Yep. So yeah, I made a very short, like, 10 second video of them kissing and whatnot, it can be found in the video above at around 4:36. Hehe. I'm very happy to see it there.


But that's not all!! The email that informed us of the theme and whatnot said we'd get "extra points" for llama cakes. Now, the extra points are imaginary, but since I tried to participate in the last birthday project and was unsuccessful, I wanted to try and participate in this one as much as possible. So yep. I went and made a llama cake.

Progress! I've never carved a cake before. This was an interesting experience.


Finished llama. Halfway through my frosting it, the neck started tipping over. I guess it makes sense, since I'd only used a straw to keep it all together inside. A... bendy straw, which probably started bending... wow, I'm a genius. So I stuck some toothpicks in it, to try and keep it up. Which worked for a second. I then needed to stick a bamboo stick in it. Which worked for a second longer than the toothpick. Finally, I snapped a bamboo stick and propped it up under the chin. That held, but I didn't know for how long it would. So I very quickly finished the llama. From this angle, it just looks like the llama is hugging a stick. lol. I added text to the picture before submitting it.



The beret used red frosting that was actually really runny. It's my fault, it's not premade frosting, I made it myself, and made it too runny. lol. So the beret looks terrible. Almost like the poor llama's brain is just sorta sticking out of his head. I added the extra dot on top to hopefully make it look more like a beret and less like bloody brain. ROFL. This picture can be seen in the above video at around 3:56.


When I was finished taking the pictures, I sat there, wondering what to do with the extra runny red frosting....


I poked a hole in his tummy and oozed some red in to it. Ha. I killed it! And it was so much fun, I added more.


ROFL...


Added new text too. Hee hee. The best part? The stick that's holding up the head? Even though it's not even straight standing, is still holding up the head. Ha! Success. When my brother saw it, he asked if "that was supposed to be his brain sticking out of his head". It made me giggle. Yes. Sure. Why not.


So yay! Two of the three of my pictures in the first half showed up in the vid, AND my french llamas and llama cake made it. I'm VERY happy about it. I participated. :D


Finally, toothbrushlets. You may be asking, what are toothbrushlets? They're toothbrush bracelets. One of the folks I watch on Youtube made them. And I immediately wanted to make them too!!




I went to the dollar store and picked up some toothbrushes. I started with the purple one, because of all of them, I wanted a pink one the most and purple the least.


Boiling water = steam. Steam is a pain to cameras. lol.


There we go, toothbrush boiling.


The way it's done in the video makes it sound like it comes out all wiggly and you can bend it for forever until you drop it in ice water... but my toothbrushes must have been different. They cooled almost immediately after being removed from the pot - even after boiling it for half an hour. So I had to bend the toothbrush while it was still in the boiling water. Which, was tricky, because I had to use tongs. I finished the purple toothbrush and pulled the bristles out and was like YAY! But then I realized I made the bracelet too small.

So while I stuck the toothbrush back in, I went about removing the bristles from the other toothbrushes. I wanted to see if it was easier removing the bristles before or after I boiled them. I removed the blue bristles real easy like. So, excited, I started removing the pink ones... and broke it. :( It was a sad moment for me. The one I wanted most was broken in seconds. Dammit. So I threw the blue one in the pot with the yellow and green one. I then started bending the purple one to try and fix it... and broke it. Dammit. Another one bites the dust. I must not have waited long enough to bend it or something.

The other three survived.


And there they are. They're cute. They don't close all the way, they have a gap so that I don't have to try getting them over my hand. I think I'd like to try again, maybe with a different brand or something. And hopefully get a pink one this time. Grrr.


So yep. There ya have it. Hee. Jean Luc and Colette now sit on top of my monster monitor, along with one of my Murdock action figures - which I finally removed from the package. :)