I decided this year to give my brother a nice photo frame that held three 5x7 photos. I picked out favorite photos of each of the three kids and placed each child's photo in an opening. I then added second options for some of the kids behind the first. I assembled the 10"x20" photo frame and wrapped it, carefully. Then I took some neckties I had picked up at goodwill and bobby pinned them end to end, using the tag loop to hook the connectors. I proceeded to wrap the photo frame with the ties.
I decided his gift was going into a trash can this year, and decided on the old metal kind. I was hoping to find a decent used one. I wanted the kind with dents and scratches that give it character. I was driving to work as I was thinking about this...and I said, hmmm....old metal trash can, with character...Hmmmm....sounds kinda like oscar the grouch. I went to Jo-Ann's that night and was grateful to find fleece on sale and got the closest match to Oscar I could muster up. I checked the furry stuff, but no ugly greens, I even checked the reduced rack and the remnants. I was stuck buying just fleece, but it would work. It was for a concept, not an art contest. Then I went to the felt, and found the appropriate color of orangy-goldenrod for the eyebrows. Later I went back for black for a mouth and a styrofoam ball for a head. I also purchased stick on velcro.
When I saw the price of the styrofoam ball, I considered buying a ball for the kids. I just bought the styrofoam and went on. I tied the fleece around the ball with a red ribbon that said Merry Christmas, which I tied into a bow to resemble the bow tie I remember Oscar wearing. I then held Oscar's head near the lid and arranged placement of the fleece and velcro. Once I got the velcro in, I inserted the picture frame, arranged Oscar, attached him, and added peanuts.
I sewed the eyebrow onto Oscar and cut it to size, then I sewed on the black felt mouth opening and two cotton ball eyes which would have to be enough detail for his face. I really would have liked more time to plan better details for all of Oscar.
Having remembered many scenes of Oscar tossing various debris out of his garbage can, I didn't take long, to add styrofoam peanuts on top of the Oscar fleece as well as used water bottles and probably an empty can or two that I normally would have placed in recycling. Anything else that suited my fancy in the two days I had to create oscar went into the trashcan. I did include a snake in a can gag gift I had found at Spencer's during my trek through the mall to Target to get the rest of my Christmas gifts.
I also attached Oscar's head to the lid, so that when he was opened, he popped out and tossed debris with him. This proved a bit of a challenge at first. I was lucky in that the lid handle provided metal cylinders to push something though to hold it on, but what would hold well and fit? I tried wire, but mine was too thin. I tried thread, but it broke immediately. I considered yarn, but knew it would wear thin. Finally, in a last ditch effort, after locating a darning needle(larger eye with blunter tip for fixing socks), I threaded a ribbon through it and then through the fleece, and then pushed it through the cylinders that held on the lid handle. Hot damn! It worked. I knotted it off and proceeded to finish packing Oscar. Once he was full, I made sure the lid was on tight and loaded him into my truck.
When I carried in the decoy trash can(I had hoped to borrow a friend's but it proved to be too small), and Oscar right behind it, my brother said to me: "You put my gift in a trash can." I couldn't lie though I thought about it before I saw the shrimp, and I said, "Yes, I did." When it came time to open it, I told him he had to open it fast. I did this for effect. I also told him he had to open everything. He did, was slightly surprised by the snake in a can, and promptly put it back together to hand it to my 11 year old nephew (who was working through his own box in a box in a box) to open.
The best part, was hearing him exclaim, "Awesome." when he opened the photo frame to find candid photos of each his children in the matte.
Now to start planning for next year...
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