Child's Play

As a little girl, I was very close to my stuffed animal toys.  Each one felt completely alive.  As an adult, I still feel comforted by the companionship of certain fluffy friends.  Perhaps this is why I decided to immortalize a few of these unique characters in colored pencil drawings. 

 I found this little cat while visiting the coastal town of Puerto Escondido in the southern state of Oaxaca, Mexico.  Walking through the city streets, I was immediately drawn to the brightly colored, hand-sewn animals that were strewn atop the Mexican blanket along the side of the road.  The women who sold them had warm smiles.  I was low on pesos that night, but they happily accepted US dollars.

I liked the lime green color of this guy in particular.  Maybe that is a magic scarf he's wearing?
  

This trio of bunnies I came across while at a vendor fair in Bangkok, Thailand.  I loved that they came tucked snugly in a zip-up cloth carrot.  It reminded me of a miniature rabbit hutch my great grandmother Hazel gave to me as a child.  It even came with a tiny food dish, and a little latch door to hold two hand-painted wooden rabbits, each no bigger than a grape.
 

This fella also originated in Thailand, and was given to me as a gift.  At first I thought he was a llama, but the chin scruff could also indicate a billy goat.  I like his shape.

These are the sorts of things that keep my inner 3-year-old happy.