Ooer missus……..eh? I hear you say.  Well before you think I’m gonna whip off my pants,  let me explain by showing you these

Making the flowers has quickly overtaken my obsession with making peepers, which as Easter is quickly approaching I guess is a good thing. Not much else going on in critterville……just trying to come up with goodies for the shops. Remember I am doing a needle felting demo on April 5th at Anthology, 218 State Street in Madison at 1.00pm so if you are in the area I’d love for you to stop by and watch the stabby stabby in action.

My camera………..yaaaaaay.  It was in the pocket of the door in the car,  oh of course it was……..how obvious (slaps head in despair).   Anyway I can now share Pudge with you

Anyway his story is that he is the unofficial  helper of the Easter bunny,  and by unofficial I mean no one wants Pudge to “help” in any way, as all he really does is hide the chocolate eggs in places no one will ever, ever look so that he can scoff them all himself.  He’s not a bad bunny just a pudgey bunny with a sweet tooth.
This weekend was great,  we went to Madison and checked out Anthology for ourselves and it is a beautiful shop.   I am so pleased to have my work there.  I also had a much needed haircut  at Baci,  Casey did a wonderful job and I am so happy with my new short cut.  So yip another fab weekend in Madison.

Are waking up a little luckier today than they did yesterday…. How is that possible? I hear you ask, aren’t they lucky enough by living in the beautiful, cool city on an isthmus? Yes they are… but today is the day that Anthology opens it’s doors. Anthology is the name of the gorgeous new paper and crafts store on State Street (the above piccie is of the owners in the store) and it is carrying the works of my favourite artists EKRA, OrangyPorangy, GlitterWorkshop and me as well as tons of other cool and crafty things. If you are ever in the area I highly recommend you stop by and say hi to the critters, and support a new cool store of course. Another reason to love the store is just look at how they displayed my cakes

Mega cute………I always think about how to make my stuff look more appealing in photographs but never follow through with my thoughts….. anyway stay tuned to Anthology as I am going to be doing a needle felting demo there soon…….eeeek I can’t wait!!! The Local Madison newspaper did a write up on the store owners and you can read it here.
Another place you will soon be able to say hi to the critters is the White Rabbit Gallery in Iowa…….some of them will soon be heading on over there and needless to say they are very excited about this fact. I keep hearing them talking about it with little squeels of delight…. particulary Cyranno the pig he wants to go weee, weeee, weeeeeee all the way (to his new) home.

I finally finished a new critter yesterday but unfortunatly I cannot find my camera to share him with you yet (how annoying is that?) It’s always a bad sign when I can’t find my camera…. particulary when my husband likes to take it on his bike rides for “action” shots. When I asked him about the whereabouts of the camera last night he responded that he “mighta had it”…. doh!!!! I’m guessing that we shall shortly be buying a new camera. But if it does show up I’ll post a piccie of Pudge.

Tommorrow is my one year Etsyversary……..is that an excuse to eat cake? Please say yes : D

Wooohooo this weekend I reached 100 sales on Etsy………and I did it in under a year………wooohooooo.   Sorry I don’t mean to toot my own horn,  but I never thought when I opened my Etsy store I would ever get to a hundred sales so needless to say I am very excited about it.

And of course  I am very greatful to all the people who have made a purchase from the critter store….thank you so much for liking my work and supporting an independant artist,  and for being wonderful of course.

So now I’m thinking of new critters for the shop and goodies for Summer to surprise you all with……….hmmmmm

Well I am not sure there is a problem exactly but it feels like I haven’t made a critter for ages, and yet I have been busy everyday with the critter world…………..I had to remedy this asap!!!!

About a month ago I had Jen of hanks in the hood custom dye me some wool in pinks and purples because I had a critter in mind but then I got distracted by the peepers, which isn’t a bad thing really, I already told you how I love making them……but this is who I had in mind….

The Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland. I love the Cheshire cat and have wanted to make him for ages so obviously I am very pleased with how he turned out and I already listed him in the shop. I think I really want to make some of the other characters, particularly the white rabbit and maybe some flamingos……..but we will see.

And in other news I am trying to get another Art-o-Mat project completed…..it has been waaaaay to long since I sent them anything and I love being part of the project so I am trying to get on with it.

Wow time goes by fast when you are having fun huh?  I am genuinely very surprised that it’s March already……probably because March used to mean in my mind that Spring was coming and snowdrops would be erupting through the ground and in DC it meant the start of the gorgeous cherry blossoms at the tidal basin (and all over town).  In the midwest however I woke up to another dusting of snow and the news that more is on the way……….waaaaaaaaaa.

I however have been using this weather to my crafting advantage and made another new kit this weekend……

I am really addicted to making the lil’ peepers so I figuered I should document the process and make a kit,  and I think it’s a great timely Easter craft too (this is so unlike me……normally I would have this great holiday idea 2 weeks after the event so I am feeling rather chuffed with myself).  So it’s up in the store now.

Too long ago to remember………(I am a little embarassed to recall how long exactly)  I got a request to make a new felting kit.   The lovely lady requested  a penguin kit and who was I to say no?  I mean I think the kits are great and I love thinking that I am in some way responsible for spreading the needle felting love.  Anyway thankfully she was very patient with me (thanks Kim)  and I finally completed the project on Friday………..here it is

So I hope Kim has fun making her little penguin……..and I hope to get more kits made and up in the store ASAP.

Ok,  and now the goodies for me……..I am so excited with my latest purchase from Etsy seller MissBeahavin I just had to share it with you.

It’s the little Papier Mache chick pictured with my little peeper to give you an idea of how precious he is.  I just love MissBea’s work and he is the 2nd of her pieces that I am thrilled to own,  and I am sure there will be more to come as she is so talented.

And in completely unrelated news spare a though to my poor little guy Lewis

He’s at the vet today saying goodbye to his “boys”  awwwwww  I always feel guilty about taking the kitties to get this procedure……but I realise it’s the sensible thing to do……..

Poorbaby

Maybe it’s because of my diet or maybe it’s just because I am food obsessed…….probably the latter. But I have really gotten into making  felted  pastries. Don’t worry I haven’t gotten so food deprived that I am risking hairballs, they are going to be heading to a new store opening in Madison (along with some critters of course) and I can’t wait to see them there.

Here are some of the cakey goodies

MMMmmmmm cakes, s’not fair…………I wanna cake………Dammit!!!! Curse my huge bottom and wibbly thighs.

About a week ago I got Jen of Hanks in the Hood to custom dye me some wool in wacky bright pinks and purples. I was thinking of making the Cheshire cat………but when the wool arrived I instantly thought peeps. You know what peeps are right? The bright marshmallowy chicks natorious at Easter time, anyway my Easter chickies turned out like this 

I love holding the little fellers, it makes me feel like Mary Poppins in the scene where she is singing A spoon full of sugar and the birdie whistles along with her………..anyway I wanna make a few more of these little guys, just cos’ I like ‘em.

I also made some candies……….although these might cause a hairball so don’t eat them!!! These are for a little something I’ll let you know about later……..aren’t I a tease?

I do really love the Craftaculars…….mostly because the other vendors and organisers are brilliant. Special thanks to Glitterworkshop and Ekra for again putting on a fantasticaly organised show.

The weather got pretty ropey in the afternoon, when I looked out the window at one point I was sure we were in a giant snow globe and someone had just given us a really good shake, but thankfully it didn’t deter the wonderful folk of Madison from turning up and supporting independant crafters. Anyway I thought I’d share a piccie of my booth

So upon seeing the piccies……..the diet has started (again) waaaaaaa . I got some fantastic cards and pins from Space Oddities and I loved that I was lucky enough to be beside Kitty Girrlz yarns‘ booth again she really is fantastic on her spinning wheel and she had some fantastic valentine yarn with kitty beads through  it which must look fantastic knitted up……..damn my lack of knitting abilities.

After the show and on the recommendations of a lovely customer we headed on over to Brasserie V for a few Belgian beers……yum, I highly reccommend you check it out if you are a fan of decent beer and the food was fantastic too.

So it was a great day, thanks to everyone