Meet Antonio

This is Antonio. He is the brother of Ramone and Luigi. He has come over from the old country to visit his brothers.

Really though, my daughter Maia has two favorite stuffed animals. I know. She’s 11. But we live in a magical world here at my house, and Charles and Ramone are important members of our family.

Maia never gave two hoots about stuffed animals. Ever. She would get them as gifts for her birthday or for Christmas and she would carry them upstairs, throw them in some corner and never look at them again. We finally stopped giving any to her, and told friends and family not to either. She just didn’t care for them.

Two summers ago we were in Wyoming when the movie Despicable Me came out, and in it was this stuffed unicorn. At the Teton County Fair that summer, Maia saw this unicorn from the movie at one of the games there, and she had to have him. She named him Charles, and for whatever reason, he was different than all the other stuffed animals before him. He was special.

Earlier this summer Ramone came into our life. We found him up in Kent, Connecticut at this wonderful store up there.

When we went back to that store at the end of the summer, we purchased the remaining stuffed animal like Ramone, and this became Luigi. Charles isn’t willing to share Maia full-time with anyone other than Ramone, so Luigi lives on my bedside table.

I decided I wanted to try and make something like Ramone and Luigi. He’s a simple shape, and I have lots of old felted sweaters, wool felt and wool scraps.

I think he came out pretty close to the way Ramone and Luigi look. He’s a little long in the waist and he’s got more a body-builder’s type body than the others, so we call him the younger, more fit, brother.