Here are a few snapshots that were taken during Maxwell Street Days here in Madison a few weekends ago.  I sort of "hitched a ride" with WSUM's booth and, although sales again were slowish, there was lots of positive feedback to be had and a few little custom radios that I'll be posting up in the shop (for sale, of course), very soon.  In fact, that brings us to a shop update that will be happening sometime in the next week with a few custom plush, more dolls and some papery things like recipe cards, sewing kits and the lovely like.

here's a silly polaroid taken last night when i handed over a giant plush yellow vinyl panther i stitched up as a "hi, nice to finally meet you" gift to lou's lovely lady liz.  here the cutest couple ever sits in my apartment, teaching their new love child bad habits.

the most difficult part of the process (since i'd picked up an antique pattern from Dig + Save to actually use vs. making one up) -- WAS the eyes.  since the safety eyes i had were too small and awkward, i put together some of my own -- 4 layers of wool felt with scalloped black edges.  they were pretty funny... as you can see.

he's just so huggable and piggy-backable it's ridiculous.  i'm not sure what his name ended up being... as of last night the only thing that liz + lou had come up with was a middle name -- grocery cart or shopping bag or something like that....

ALSO in plush news, i sent off a bunch of stuff to a few stores today.  first, the flip head coins are going to be part of the August sampler so buy that up, please!

Second, I sent some bunnies and stinkers off to the Renegade Handmade shop in Chicago which is really exciting

AND I dropped of a big load of goods at the shop here in Madison on State Street called Anthology.  Which is expecting to get slammed this weekend during Art Fair off the Square.  Also this weekend is Fete de Marquette -- a Frenchy music festival.  And naturally, I'm thrilled.

I'm all set for tomorrow's Craftacular!  

Now?  Off to Walgreens to buy more Polaroid film.

Here's some photos of the booth from yesterday's Craft Saturday in Des Moines.  Although traffic was slow, and purchases low (oh poetry), I still had a wonderful time and met some really nice people.

Highlights included 3 cups of iced coffee, the display-related epiphany that I could physically stitch my embroidered houses to the table cloth, and a lady asking me what my "theme" was.  Or is.  Which still leaves me fumbling for an answer...

Thanks for coming with me mom!

After the fair we headed home, but going the wrong direction.  We went about 150 miles North before we realized we were seeing signs for St. Paul, Minnesota...

With a slight detour we made it home pretty late, around 10 (5 hours in the car vs. 2ish), but we still were able to go to Michael's so I wasn't phased.

Here are a few photos of the new funny bunnies (also called "t-rex" bunnies at the show yesterday, which I thought was adorably appropriate but maybe a bit too ferocious so we'll just keep it a nickname for now).

I think they look like group mug shots.  How sweet.

One of each up in the shop now...

Lots of last minute details getting taken care of, tonight I'm going to be working on putting the set-up together and memorized since we're leaving so early tomorrow to get there by 9 for set-up!

Here are a few other items I've been working on...
Little Stinker Sachets and these ABC prints of class clown popsicle sticks with clown faces and each comes with a different joke from this joke book copyrighted in the 60's.  So cute.

The Q is my favorite!  I'll be putting these up in the shop after the craft fairs with the remaining letters of the alphabet but contact me if you're interested in a particular letter now and I can pull it out and save it for you.

ALSO I snapped some photos of my final design for dolls.  There are the big sisters (with button-closed capes and tutus) :

And little brother Theodore chimney sweeps (with vintage button-closed felt scarves) :

Many more dolls (each an original) will be put in the shop within the next two weeks after these crazy craft fairs have come to a close.

Have a good day!  It's lovely outside....

I apologize if anyone was waiting for a fantastic shop opening and I failed... excuses include :

- a nasty cold for a 1 week duration
- a bicycle accident resulting in (1) broken bike (2) bloody elbow (3) multiple bruises to the hips, knees and even ankle
- two craft fairs very quickly approaching -- one on each of  the next two weekends

Well, there you have it.  But the shop is now open and there are some croissants and one teensy Chimney Sweep that are just dreaming for new homes.

Other things will be posted throughout the next few weeks, like baguettes, more dolls, and some of these handy spool-bell ornaments as well as a few prints that I've been dreaming of but haven't had the time to work on yet.

Well, with that.  I am feeling much better after a few days of nearly nothing but sleep, and my elbow, although still in pain, is increasing in it's movement allowance which is wonderful news!

I've been stuck in my burrow the past few days with a nasty sore throat, a bad case of the grumps, and a lot of 1/2 finished dolls... pretty scary!  Anyway here is my personal favorite that I actually finished...

Anyway I decided to put that pattern to the side and start anew this morning -- and after trading in my grumps for a calm, collected attitude I created two little Chimney Sweep dolls, which were finished in the dark so I couldn't get good photos of them today.  I've also been painting away at spools all night and modge-podging paper faces -- you'll see!

The shop opens in a few days and BOTH craft fairs are in the next two weeks so I'm getting pretty antsy about my production and now that I'm finally kicking this cold I'll hopefully be able to hop to it.  Hopefully.

Hope everyone is feeling better than I have been... and that your houses don't have leaky roofs... boo.

This is the pile of parts currently competing with my computer for desk-top space.

Today is another birthday -- 21 years old.  Plans include eating at Gotham Bagels, going to the Dig + Save, AND the summer premier of my French 60s/70s pop radio show called Zut Alors on WSUM here in Madison which can be LIVE STREAMED tonight at 7 - 8 pm CST or locally listened to at 91.7 fm.

As you can see the dolls are pretty much complete they just need to be pieced together so they'll be around soon, sorry I've been busier than I thought I would be...  but a lot of ideas have been popping up, like window boxes and pouches and the like.

Happy birthday.

+ with 30% woolfelt
+ new, nosey, face
+ new Creep Mouse labels
and up in the shop soon, well, June 15th.

Here's the first doll I made with the first pattern I've drawn up in the past few days... there are a few things I'm going to change (mostly arm + leg related) but otherwise I'm content!

My brother's high school graduation went smoothly yesterday -- the student speaker in their class of 2008's speech made an analogy between life and Harry Potter ("grab that snitch!"), the principal played keyboard and sang! (which he did not do at my graduation...), and nobody fell.

Tomorrow is the graduation party and then after that it's just getting prepared for the move to Madison and a lot o other things that I've been procrastinating...

Well, I hope the weather is less horrible and muggy tomorrow, for the sake of the root beer floats I'll be sipping on all afternoon at the party, yum.