Well I have been known to be a procrastinator…….but sometimes it’s not entirely my fault. Sometimes I’m afraid to start something I can’t finish, sometimes I’m intimidated by the fact I’ve had gorgeous wool roving custom blended for the project (thanks Jen from Hanks in the Hood……again) and so therefore just stare at it afraid of making a start and depleting it with no gain. Well anyway I guess I should just start at the start of this story…..a few months ago the lovely Roberta asked me to make a custom stabby for her, she wanted her golden retriever immortalised in wool. And here he is…

I include the pics I used to create the doggie, I wanted to try and capture his pose and eyes as much as possible and I’m very pleased with how he turned out…..I hope Roberta is too.

It snuck up on me quite unexpectedly……..there I was making little snowmen and santas, when an overwhelming urge to make Snoopy overcame me. Why does that make me mad? Well it doesn’t, except that instead of the little Snoopy I had in mind he grew and grew into this guy. He is huge. I think I may have been rebelling against making the little guys for so long. But anyway I guess it means I have to order more wool as he really decimated my white wool supply.

OOOOooooh order more wool….I think I may have had ulterior motives the whole time. Yummy, yummy new wool.

In other news the lovely Ekra recently had a blog contest to win a goodie for posting on her blog…..and I won!!!!! yaaaaaaay.

              
I love my goodies, and the card is well cool she is so creative, I would never think of using a map as a card I guess that’s why she is a crafting superstar. Anyway thanks again Emily. It got me thinking blog contests are cool……..so stay tuned while I consider this possibility……..ooooh aren’t I a tease?

So I am back from the fantastic Las Vegas………..Viva indeed. I love that place, there is always something going on there and the atmosphere the place exudes is fantastic, the gamblin’ and the drinkin’ are of course added bonuses. Don’t let the piccie fool you though, I really wanted a cool piccie of the chips so I think I had that amount for about 20 mins in total before it went right back to the casino.
We went to the Grand Canyon for a night too, after spending just 5 minutes there it’s not hard to understand why the Indians believed in spirits of the air and earth etc……the place just takes your breath away

They have been reintroducing condors to the canyon for the last 10 years or so and to see these beautiful birds soaring high over the canyon is truly awesome…….in every sense of the word. The pic however shows a raven basking on a precipice the condors were to quick for me and my incredibly slow camera.

We went pony trekking through the forest and were lucky enough to see coyote…..cowboy saddles are rough on the knees though and I was glad to get off my horse Shotgun after the 2 hour trek.

So I am very sad to be back, although one more night of buffet could have finished me off for good so it’s probably for the best.

In crafting news I’m craftacular……….yaaaaaay. I was incredibly lucky to be selected for the Craftacular fair in Madison. I am thrilled about this but incredibly nervous, I always feel unworthy when placed with crafty types, I can’t explain it properly but I start to question everything I do……like I have no packaging and proper sales stuff, oh and my business cards suck so I feel inferior…………sigh I guess I have to get over it. Anyway I’m going to be busy, busy, busy as I want to make loads of stuff for the 2 day event.

I finished a new critter…….

It’s Odie………Garfield was just looking to content here without his annoying buddy.

A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by a lovely woman to make her a pink panther……..yaaaaaay I thought….. but it was not that simple. You see the pink panther she wanted me to make had to be compatible with this bed spread

Hmmmmmm…………..now this was slightly tricksy as my pink wool roving is very pink and my original pink panther (the one she saw and fell in love with) would clash horribly with this duvet………what to do, what to do……..hmmmmmm

Well at first I thought it can’t be done……….then I though hang on, how dumb am I? (don’t answer that) That’s what etsy is for and after a couple of days of trawling through listings for pink roving I found the perfect hand dyed pink roving from Hanks in the hood.

So it has a lot more fuschia and magenta tones than my bubblegum pink roving and anyway long story short here he is the pink panther Alison’s pink panther……

So what do you think? good match for the bedding or what? It brought back my old working days of Skynear and Co where I had to help customers pick the colour schemes of sofas and wall paints (and everything else in their home). Anyway it was fun to have the additional challenge and I’m glad he worked out so well.

So I’ve read on numerous sites from EKRA to Softies central that the whole forest friends, owls and gnomes etc. is out. Yup over (personally I was never in with them in the first place) While I find this hard to believe it really is so,  I decided to think of what could possibly take their place in crafty folks hearts and decided to put forth the Koala bear.

This is Madison.  Named because I bought the wool roving from the Madison farmers market from a quirky woman who I forgot to ask what kind of wool it was…………dammit.   While I personally would love to see Kangaroo, Koalas and wallabees being the next big thing I doubt it will happen.

In other news I got tagged……..I’ve never been tagged before but Connie of clothmatters got me (I really should run faster next time ; )   So I have to come up with a word that reflects me from the letters of my name……..Hmmmmm I’m really not good at this sort of thing but here goes.

L     -  Lazy  (oh I’m so lazy I will put stuff of forever in order to sit around on my arse all day)

I      -  incoherent  (I’m Scottish I think very few people ever really understand a word I am saying)

S     -  silly   (speaks for itself really)

A    -  apathetic  ( about most things)

There so now you know a little bit more about me……..but maybe not my best qaulities,  maybe I will share those some other time.  Thanks Connie for tagging me.

There has been so much rain here in the good ole midwest,  it’s starting to get deppressing.  I think there has been a thunderstorm every night, and seeing as how it’s not that much longer till the nights start getting darker earlier, I demand that the rain stops immediatly. Oooh I hope that works,  if not for me then for my big,  stupid,  old pussycat……….thunder terrifies him,   but when it’s everynight he’s scurrying off to hide it’s starts to get a little sad.

Anyway what have I been up to besides bitching about the weather? Well I made this little guy….

He’s still not finished yet…I want to go and get a stick for a fishing rod for him to have behind his back……maybe even give him a little fish on the end of it, we will see,  and I still haven’t though of his name either.  He is completely different to any of my other critters,  and to be honest I am not a huge fan of gnomes……but I think making the toadstool pins had the idea of him niggling away at me, so who am I to disagree.

and I am a knitters little helper addict. Has any one else ever used this stuff? I admit I bought it because I was suckered in by the cute little tin….

But the wool roving does really dry out my hands, and this stuff does not affect the wool at all……how great is that? and it smells fantastic too. I have been rubbing it on every 10 mins or so…….it’s fantastic.

Saturday in Chicago was fantastic, the Renegade Handmade store was absolutely gorgeous. Beautiful inside and out, their displays were fantastic and they had tons of my paper crane…….it was very hard to resist buying everything, although my hubby makes this easier by saying you should make it yourself everytime I ooooed and aaahhhhed at something……….I am sure this makes us popular in most stores.

I am still in the process of making critters for the art - o - mat. 15 done 35 + to go. I’ll share them as soon as I am done I promise.  I’m loving the lions maybe I’ll make a larger one when I am done…….

Another new creation……..meet Tippy the hedgehog.  I love her spikes.  I will put her in my etsy sore as soon as I can take a decent piccie of her.   She looks cool in person but  I’m a dork with the camera…….patoooey!!!

I’m so excited as Carol at the art-o-mat let me know the last of my stabby critters were sent to the Whitney museum of art in NYC……waaaaaah that’s thrilling,  I’m in the Whitney!!!! ok,ok…….not “in” the Whitney but  in the art-o-mat machine that is inside the Whitney……..that still counts to me.  Actually the fact that they are in New York is just as exciting to me…..I am starting my new art-o-mat project asap……….I’ve already done a few  a monkey and a snake and a lion is in the works…..

I’ll share them with you soon.

I made these cute little pins for my etsy store

I am really happy with how they turned out very cute particularly the cherries

It’s nice to have little things in the shop, and I’m thinking these little pins are going to be appearing on everything I own……

Going to Chicago on Saturday to check out this place Renegade Handmade.  I never knew this place existed and can’t wait to skeck it out……probably won’t be as cool as The Glitter Workshop  in Madison though but as you know I am all about the artsy fartsy craft stores so will have to go.

Yeah, yeah I know……I have been very lazy on the stabby front. But I was contacted by BossaNovaBaby through Etsy last week to make a Yoda for her son’s birthday. I just thought I’d share with you guys first…..

He was really fun to make…..probably because I love Star wars, but I really love how he turned out (even if I do say so myself….ahem)

Anyway today I’m going to go into a needle frenzy…..I’ve got tons of ideas for critters and I really want to see if I can make them.