I Have Giraffe Envy - Meet Gerald

I really really want to be good at making cotton sewn softies - but it seems to be a skill that eludes me. I'm always a bit upset with the fabrics that I end up choosing - that amazing skill some people have of throwing different fabrics together to make things look utterly beautiful is totally absent in me. Is there a book I can read? A course I can take? I'm always way too practical and perhaps I need to be more daring?

Recently I've been having giraffe envy (check out delightful softie giraffes at Hop Skip Jump) . Don't ask me why it has been giraffe envy ... because I actually have craft envy with most things I see. (That list of 'want to make' only gets longer these days.)

So off I set to make a giraffe. I tried to pick good colors - but then I've never been known for my wild and crazy choices - so safely I opted for orange and brown - at least if it is orange and has a long neck someone might recognize it as a giraffe?
Meet Gerald. Gerald is a lonely giraffe so we decided to take him to the Central Park Zoo to see if we could find him any friends.
We searched the map of the Zoo - but unfortunately there are no giraffes ...
... but don't tell Gerald ... because we told him that the Llama's were a type of giraffe too ... and he seemed happy enough with that.