A monstreous pencil sharpener

Thursday I had time to make a monster before my kids came home from school. I got out the monster drawings, the tracing fabric, my tape measure, all of that stuff. I need a pencil to draw the monster pattern, however, so I went looking for a sharpened pencil.

And I looked.

And I looked.

There were none in the kitchen junk drawer.

There were none in the kids craft box.

There were none in the desk drawers.

There were none under beds or on the floor in the kids' bedrooms.

There were un-sharpened pencils aplenty. Brand new pencils just mocking me with their perfectly square, virgin wood.

And none of that would have been a problem if my children hadn't lost the pencil sharpener a month previous. They like to take it around with them as they do their art projects. They carried off to parts unknown and neither threats nor bribery could uncover it's hiding place.

No sharpened pencils.

No pencil sharpener.

I did what any reasonable person would do. I bought a new pencil sharpener. The kind that attaches to the wall and can not be carried around by young children. It's a manual sharpener so it will last for decades. I ordered it from Amazon.com with two day shipping. I came very close to paying for overnight shipping. (I have a Prime account, so it would have only been $4.00.)

It arrived on Saturday and was installed on the pantry shelving within five minutes. I sharpened a full box of Dixon Ticonderogas with a very happy smile on my face the whole time. The musky smell of pencils shavings has never smelled so good.

Which means Monday I could make this guy:


My husband thought I should show you one of the sketches these monsters are coming from. This was done by our eight year old. He loves drawing these monsters and has done dozens of them for me. This one is his favorite.You'll notice I made a few changes here and there to make it easier to sew. I shortened the legs and the antlers (yes, those are antlers and horns. He knows animals don't have both, but he also knows monsters have different rules.) I simplified the mustache curls a bit and smoothed out the arms as well. He still went much more quickly than I expected. I was worried about the mustache, but felt and super stiff interfacing solved that little dilemma for me.

By the way, Monday afternoon the eight year old found the electric pencil sharpener . . . in his closet.