I had the funniest week this week. I listed my Super Mario stabby on ebay last Sunday and looked what happened…..

I made Kotaku, I figured something was up as I got around 689 looks at my listing, sadly geeky gaming nerds are not into needle felting……who would have thought? so all those visits didn’t incite a bidding war……..dammit

Still the publicity was nice, and my husband was very impressed (apparently Kotaku gets used on gizmodo all the time) so in his eyes I think it’s like turning water into wine or something……….

Anywho I just thought I’d share my wacky week with y’all

With my etsy store. I am serious, I find myself constantly thinking of things to put in there just to make it look cool……I am not even thinking about wether or not it sells (really, I swear).

I think it’s because earlier this week a lovely etsian named Onama http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=54355 very sweetly made me a banner. I think she felt sorry for me and my pathetic effort for a banner…..but anyway I love it, have you seen it yet? shame on you if you haven’t quick take a peek I’ll wait here…..

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5096861. So what do you think?

Well as I said I love it and it has become a goal to get as many people to see it as possible, which of course means lots of cool stuff for the store. So on that note what do you think of my mobiles?

The chickens are made from felt and are all hand stitched………gawd I need a sewing machine, they took ages to make. The little eggs are of course needle felted from Corridale wool roving. They look pretty sweet.

I also put my mice to good use..

So I am loving my mobiles. And can’t wait to put them in the store.

On another happy note, I heard from Took Gallagher via email. Took owns a gallery in the Detroit area called the Dancing Eye Gallery, and was letting me know she had received some of my stabby critters for her art-o-mat machine. Now this is unbelievably cool for 2 reasons……..number one being Took is the only art-o-mat artist that I have ever bought 2 boxes of from the Madison machine…….I love her Juniors they are so cool. And number 2 ……Detroit area yaaaaay My critters are travelling further than I thought they would. Yaaaaay it’s gonna be a critter invassion.

Anyway Took has a myspace page that shows her work and the work of other artomat artists check it out it’s pretty cool…

http://myspace.com/misstookgallagher

If you have a myspace page I’d add her as friend. I of course don’t have a myspace page as I find myspace scary and creepy. And I also don’t like it’s connection to Rupert Murdoch and Fox, but then that’s just me.

So I finally downloaded my camera worth of piccies and can show you my little table at the lovli fair.

I got really lucky with my placement, I snagged the corner so could commander all the window space for my pillows and kits. I had made a felt banner saying stabbies that I swagged above my table…..and I was really happy with how it looked.

me and my critters.
So I had a great time at the fair and loved the two women I was placed beside. The rather raunchy gothfox http://lov.li/users/gothfoxdesigns who makes pasties……they were awesome and fun. And noxenlux http://lov.li/users/Noxenlux her hats were gorgeous and she even made some while at the show. I love to see people making stuff at craft shows, it makes it so much more personal when you can see how much work goes into the craft.

So I am readjusting to being back in Rockford after Portland. So unfair…….I wish I had a million dollars, I am pretty sure Portland would be my top pic of where I’d want to live……Portlanders (if that’s what you call yourself) please know I am so utterly jealous of you I could spit…….and I hate spitting.

But boy do I wish I wasn’t.  Portland was utterlly fantastic,  what a place……tons going on,  fantastic friendly people, great neighbourhoods.  The overall atmosphere there was so great it made me want to move instantly.

The Lovli fair was a lot of fun too.  I met tons of very cool people,  and people genuinely seemed to like my critters.  I realised that I do enjoy being in craft fairs,  and talking about what I do.

The wonderful Diane Gilleland of the church of craft and DIY workshop was one of the organisers of the lovli fair.  She has a really cool blog all about crafting at http://craftypod.com and my critters get a mention,  which is thrilling.  I also am the featured artist at http://qbranchltd.blogspot.com.  So all in all it’s been a fantastic week.  I’m exhausted now though,  and feel like I could sleep for a week.

I’ll post piccies of the trip soon.

We are leaving on a jet plane…………as the song goes.  I can’t believe all my critters need a suitcase to themselves,  but I guess it makes sure they will make the trip to Portland in good shape.

I’m getting excited to see Portland….for someone who loves making stuff and arty farty crafty things it feels like I am off to Mecca……..so many things to see, do and buy and not a lot of time.

I’ll let you know how my week goes and I’ll take lots of piccies to show you.  I want to take lots of my booth pics…..well it is my first craft fair, I’m allowed to be a bit silly……..right?

And yes I am.  I  have stopped stressing out a little about it…..probably because I have been very busy.  I have made a banner for my booth,  a kit for making your own stabby and 5 brand new critters.  I have also managed to give myself a sore hand from so much stabby stabby….but I will take a break when it’s over.  The new critters are great….even if I do say so myself.  I just hope I can sell some in Portland.

I’ll post pics soon I promise,  I just can’t face the thought of doing it now……….The horror…….

So my Artomat project took much longer than I expected 2 whole weeks in fact. Probably because I did it the old fashioned way, yes that’s right I handdrew every box as well as made every critter……I had a feeling I was never going to finish….ever. But phew it’s done.

The pile of boxes.

The 3 different critter boxes – I made a mouse box, a cat box and a frog box

The reverse of each box…..are you seeing why this took me so long now?

I did 50 of these  – 18 frogs 12 cats and 20 mice

fronts and backs

The critters.

So I love how the boxes and critters turned out, but thinking on it I would have made more than 50 if I hadn’t handrawn everything. Ah well next time i’m going to photocopy everything.

In other news I am going to do my first ever craft show. I’m part of the Lovli craft fair in Portland Oregon. Yes you read right I am going to Portland …..yaaaaay. It’s going to be so cool and we are staying with my friend Matt (thanks Matt) and I can’t wait. Of course I hardly have any critters so I am going to have to go into stabby frenzy between now and the 31st………waaaaaaaaaaa. I love these challenges…..well I must do I keep giving them to myself!!!

Well aren’t I the stupid one.  And no it’s really not a question.  After nearly 7 months of cold gray abismal weather,  the weather is decidedly summery here.  This past weekend the temperature reached 83………yaaaaay finally.  However I managed to not respect the sun and have given myself the most astounding sunburn……..jeeeeesh my shoulders are so red I could hide in a berry field and you would not find me.  Anyway I’m currently working on a little critter that I’m really loving,  I can’t wait to get him finished and show him off.  On other news I’ve finished my pile of mice for the artomat and have started on the cats,  they are looking pretty cool but take me longer than the mice which is a bit of a bummer.  I can’t wait to get the boxes and send them on their way.

the Pink Panther, the rinky dink panther (what on earth is rinky dink anyway? you don’t hear so much of that anymore)

I like him and my husband (a.k.a my harshest critic) says he is my best critter yet.  High praise indeed.

On another note I had my hair cut finally.  So I am back to having it short and it is a million time better.  I look less crazy cat woman now.  So here is my donation for locks of love….

It’s nice to think it will do some good for someone.

I’ ve been really busy this week, which is a really bad thing as I only made half a critter this week. There is nothing sadder than a critter needing legs looking out at you longingly from the workspace.

But it’s also a really good thing as I submitted my project idea for the artomat – wanna see?

So I am really thrilled as they loved it……..yaaaaaaay for me I am going to be in the artomat. If you don’t know what the artomat is boy are you missing out. I am completely addicted to it and always buy 2 tokens for it from Pop delux in Madison when we go, but anyway check it out – http://www.artomat.org/ . I am so excited and can’t wait to make a few different critters for the boxes I feel like I should start now….but I guess I should wait till I get the boxes huh?

So it’s been a great, busy, productive week.