Suspicious Animals

I could probably win the real-life suspicious animal competition, given how infrequently I'm in the same place these days. I think every phone conversation with a friend begins with "where are you today?" But there are other suspicious animal contests to win as well. In a stroke of brilliance, my friend has a birthday tradition of bringing all sorts of craft materials to a local bar and making the evening into a drinking/crafting spectacular. This year's challenge was to make a suspicious animal, and the bartenders were the judges.

My strategy, if you will, was "use as many materials as possible." And as I noted to Rossie, one of the minds behind this genius birthday affair, I approached the composition of my animal much like I often piece and quilt: with no real plan. So when the glitter playdough and toothpicks didn't play together quite as well as I thought they would, I added some glue, some rubbery discs, some more playdough, and some pipe cleaners. At one point I looked up and realized I hadn't yet used a pom-pom, so I added one, stuck on a googly eye, and then needed additional pipe cleaners as support. Finally, in what was I thin the best move of the evening, I added a crepe paper braid. Indeed, I think it was the zebra-striped crepe paper braided tail that won me the evening's top prize. I mean you wouldn't want to encounter this entity in real life, right?