This year, as I was getting out my Christmas decorations, we came upon my late sons sock snowman. It was found that the rice inside it had gone bad, and it was crawling with rice mites. They had ruined all the rice, and stained the sock with their poo. I was so upset I wanted to cry, and I didn't know what to do?! So I took the sad little sock snowman and placed in him a plastic bag and froze him in the freezer to kill all the mites. A few days went by, then I got to thinking about the other snowman tree topper I had just done. I thought I might be able to save Matthew's sock snowman after all. So this morning bright and early I gathered up the supplies from out of my stash, that I thought I would need, and set to work. Here is my solution to a very sad situation.
This is what Matthew's little sock snowman looked like, when he brought it home from the Hood River Harvest Festival way back in 2002. 18 years we had kept him safe, but the rice mites of Hawaii ruined him. I had forgotten when we lived in Hawaii, that any rice not kept in the freezer would be overrun with the nasty things. I had also forgotten this little fellow was filled with rice, to help make him stand. I had one nasty time of it cutting open the bottom of the sock and removing the separate string bands to get rid of all the rice and mites. It was awful. (So nasty in fact, I didn't take any pictures of it.) I then scrubbed it inside and out with hot soapy water, by hand, because I couldn't put it in the washing machine.
I was determined to not lose my late sons favorite Christmas decoration, so I found a paper yarn cone in my stash, that was just the right size. I also found after I had washed and dried the sock, that everything but the hat was glued on. That extra hunk of sock was inside his hat, and was the reason the poor fellow had always been top-heavy. I cut off the extra length thinking I could use it elsewhere later.
Here he is without his hat, with the cardboard tube inserted, and the pillow stuffing added around the outside of the tube, and glued into place. I used white hemp string to tie around his neck, and at his waistline, to give him his proper snowball snowman look. His nose was made of femo, and had come partly off, so I glued that back into place too.
When I dumped out his rice and laid his body flat, I found not only were his buttons glued in place, but they didn't line up properly, so I removed them all. This left unsightly discolored glue marks which I couldn't get off.
The solution was to put these cute metal stars on him instead. I had salvaged them from a fairy tree that had been made of heavy fishing line, and was wrapped with florist's tape, up a wooden stem to make a pretty little draping fairy tree. It had these nifty little metal stars all over it. Hawaii made the whole tree go limp as a dishrag and fall apart. So I salvaged the stars from it. I thought it made the perfect solution here. I covered up the tiny holes in the metal stars, with tiny rhinestones I had saved, from when they fell off a blouse decorated with them. The scarf around his neck, was a soft drawstring cord I had taken off of a blouse, that I didn't like it on. It made the perfect scarf for his neck. Then taking that extra piece of sock, I had cut from underneath the hat, I had just enough to cut out and stuff two little arms for him.
This is my solution to hiding the ugly glue marks left by the misaligned buttons, I spoke of previously. I had in my craft stash, acorns from our house in Hood River, from our big oak tree that Matthew loved to watch the birds in the winter, eating from the bird feeders beneath it. I glued them on along with a little hemlock fir cone and tiny red ribbon. I think it adds a bit of interest, and you would never know those nasty old glue marks were there. I had just one tiny little acorn left so I added it to his hat.
His back is very plain, and I suppose I could have glued on more little diamond gems, but I like to keep things simple and not overdo it.
I would like to add a little twig broom for him to hold, but shall have to wait until such time as I can get out and find the right kind of twigs to make him one. Somewhere in my stash I do have a miniature whisk broom, but I couldn't find it, and it may not be what I want anyway?! We shall have to see.
Here he is all done, and looking so much better. He is not the same looking sweet little rice snowman he used to be, but I think Matthew would approve, if he could see it. He did so like to decorate, and Christmas was his favorite holiday of the year. He used to always tell me what holiday was coming up next, and always got so excited when it was going to be Christmas.
Oh that's right, I thought he was completely done, but remembered just in time, that all of the washing had taken away his blushing pink cheeks. A few soft strokes of the blush brush and he was good as new! Now he can stand alone or become a tree topper on top of a Christmas tree. I'm just so happy I could do something to save him, for he brings such good memories of Christmases past, and Matthew deciding where he would be.
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