Phew,  did you see that?  It was a red sled and it just went flying by………and as you might expect of a speeding red sled it was tons of fun.   Wanna see how my booth looked at the start of the day?

I hope you don’t mock me for my lack of mobiles, remember a few posts ago I was kinda smug about finally figuring out how to attach them to my booth?   well it turns out I didn’t figure it out after all………..sigh.

I met so many brilliant crafters and I even have a new Etsy sore to covet,  it’s called den10studio and Karyn’s artwork is simply beautiful, I love her Christmas cards and Markie loves her prints.

I may have to break down and buy them although I still really like the idea of sending out my own……I can tell that everyone on my Christmas card list is keeping their fingers crossed that I go with Karyn’s.

I also met so many wonderful holiday shoppers……meet my cutest customer of the day….everyone 1,2,3…….aawwwwwwwwwwwww

She was a big fan of my hairballs and critterclips……..look she has a hairball in her hair right now!!! How cute is that?  It was so nice of her mum to bring her by my booth to show me the hairball in place.  So yes I had a fantastic time at a highly organised show,  I even had helpers to carry my stuff into the hall in the morning it was bliss.  I hope they will have me again next year as I shall just show up anyway if they don’t,  and that could be  a little akward huh?

On Etys rocks!!!!!  I told you how I hated my booth table covering,  well I looked around for a solution and eventually came to the conclusion that I would have to buy the fabric that I wanted and…..shock horror!!! sew it myself……..gasp!!!! the horror!!!.  Now I now that I can’t sew well enough to even attempt this and yes I bought a sewing machine but it really has become comfortable in it’s little nook on the dining room floor and I just hate to disturb it.  So I made an Alchemy request for someone to make one for me…….

What I got was even better than I could possibly have hoped for (look she even included my little mousey) and I am so excited to use it at my upcoming shows.  It was made for me by the wonderful Kellyn and I am so glad she accepted my Alchemy request.

So talking about upcoming shows I guess it’s first outing will be this Saturday at the red sled holiday bazaar

501 W. Ogden, LaGrange, Illinois 60525

I hope if you are in the area you will come on by and see just how busy I’ve been over the last few weeks.

Wow this past week when flying by……..good grief!!!!  Seriously on Monday I blinked and it was Friday already.  I did manage to get done with another critter though

It’s Bob the reindeer and I can’t wait to hang him up at my craft show booth……I’m sure he will be an attention getter.   And yes you read right I said hang up at my booth…..you see we found a brilliant shelving unit abandoned at the trash by one of my non recycling neighbours so Markie spent Sunday afternoon hacking it up…….which did make me feel a little guilty but hey it was going to be trashed anyway right?

And thanks to the etsy forums (crafters are so helpful)  I have a plan to attach the posts to the table and have a hanging back display for my mobiles and critters………yaaaaaaay so much better than keeping my fingers crossed that the venue has a low ceiling or hooks in the wall.

I have fears…….and I’m not talking about the closet beasties (love those guys) and flesh eating zombies that seem to be prevalent at this time of year,  I’m talking about the fears of the “I’ve bitten off more than I can chew” variety.  I know, I know I want to do shows……..lots and lots of shows and it’s a good job as I’ve managed to get into a fair few the first one being in just over 2 weeks………..eeeeeeeeek

501 W. Ogden, LaGrange, Illinois 60525

then onto the Bucktown Bazaar a  2 day event in Chicago

then it’s my favourite show…….the Christmas Craftacular in Madison, WI

then it’s back to Chicago for the Holiday Show

So while I am of course very excited about my oncoming slew of shows,   I am also terrified at having to make enough schtuff to have people excited about the critters…………eeeeeeeeek!!!!

So I guess I’m going to be a very, very busy crafter……………but then again what crafter isn’t at this time of year?

a short post today showing you some goodies I’ve been making this week for Anthology….(I’ve been an incredibly bad vendor this month as I’ve been focused on hoarding critters for craft shows)  but I just checked my email and discovered I got accepted for a big craft show in Chicago…………eeeeeeeek!!!!!!

So I am currently very excited with the inkling of fear starting to creep in of not having nearly enough schtuff for a 2 day show in Chicago…………waaaaaaaaaaaa I’m going to be very, very busy (times a million).

Anyway I still intend to show you the new goodies for Anthology of course.

What can be more festive at this time of year than creepy jack o’lanterns?  and needle felt ones are a lot more hygenic than the real thing (insert a disgusting personal story where I had mini pumpkins for display in my apartment a few years ago and totally forgot about them and couldn’t figure out where the smell of rotting fish was coming from nearly a month later – eeeeeeeeeewwwwwwww!!!!!)

And also these lil’ guys

Living in Rockford I guess it’s a little odd I haven’t done an homage to the humble little sock monkey before huh?   but hey that’s me I like to reinvent the wheel at all times apparently.

So that’s it for now I’m off to run around excitedly for 30 minutes then panic for 10……….then go and make schtuff from now till Nov 29th……………eeeeeeeek!!!!!!

OOOOoooooh haven’t you got a filthy mind?    please raise it from the gutter please,  then I can show you what I was referring too………

It’s a hanging Chinese lucky cat I made by special request.    I won’t lie to you…….I LOVE how he turned out,  the whole time I was making him I was mentally thinking …….ooh I am going to keep him,  I want him for me  (has anyone else noticed that I am getting much worse for this?…….hmmm).   Well anyway he will have a very happy home and I feel that he will indeed bring good luck to his new owner Katie.

Last weekend I did the handmade market in Chicago and it was brilliant…….and I think I have finally fixed my booth errors of the previous weekend,  well what do you think?

I was much happier with how it looked,  but I realise I need a new tablecloth…….(the one I have is horible, and it wrinkles if you so much as look at it never mind fold it)  Anyway it was a fantastic show,  and the other vendors were all super nice  and it made me mega certain that I want to do many, many more.   I also got an excellent commision that I can’t wait to make and show you………needless to say it’s something I should have made a very long time ago……..doh!!!!

Thank god for requests it means my brain switch can return from the off position.

number one – If you have a little bit of a journey to your craft show, make sure you leave with plenty of time to give yourself as much time for your set up as possible………I thought we had done this but see number two

number two –  Make sure to get really good directions to the venue where your craft show is taking place,  or else you will drive around like a crazy person randomly shouting out the names of the passing cross streets hoping that something sounds familiar,  even though you have never been in the neighborhood ever……whooops

number 3 – I LOVE doing craft shows,   I had such a great experience at Indie in the windy city.  The other vendors were wonderful and the shoppers were fantastic and  it has really left me excited for this weekend at the empty bottle.   Above is a picture of Markie (who was the perfect helper all day thanks Markie) with my booth set up,  I had it set up showing the chaos effect in action,  actually I guess I learned 4 things this weekend….. how not to set up my booth but again see number 2.

So this weekend I am extremely excited to be back in Chicago for

So if you are in the area please stop on by and say hi to me and the critters.

I’ll be with the critters in Chicago for Indie in the Windy City…..

Fall Handcrafted Market!!

Saturday, October 4^th 10-4p.m.

The New Friendly Towers

920 West Wilson Ave., Chicago

The Indie Market will be featuring over 30 vendors from Chicago and surrounding area.  The goods offered will be clothing, jewelry, accessories, plush and amigurumi, paper goods, baby stuff  and more!  Some of our sellers:  bugsnbones, spinalfusion, jeniFer,  blue thimble, orangeyporangy, cranky pickle, greeniebean recycles… the list goes on…  There is none other like it in the Uptown area!

EEEeeek I can’t wait,  any excuse to spend the day in Chicago makes me very happy.   So if you are in the Chicago area please stop on by and say hi…….I of course will be stabbying like a crazy person (nothing much new there)  to have a ton of schtuff to share with you.

That’s my funday……..and it really was last Sunday.  We attended the completely brilliant Willy Street fair in Madison.  Lots of fun was to be had from watching crazy people dance

to listening to every type of live music on every street corner…..from rock, pop, folk but these blues/jazz guys were my favourites

I really wish I’d gotten their cd……..how typical of me not to think about it at the time.

My favourite aspect of the fair (of course) was the arts and craft booths (huge surprise huh?) There was a guy outside Fat Pinky Glass actually making glass ornaments….he was fascinating to watch and I so wanted to have a go,   I’m not so sure he would have been that keen to let me take charge of molten glass and fire though

How cool is that?   and of course my favourite Madison Crafters had booths

Ekra and glitterworkshop both had brilliant booths proving that they both have been very busy over the summer with lots of new fun schtuff on show.

So that was my weekend how was yours?

Holy cow batman……..to the Batmobile!!!!

Ok, ok I know it’s a mobile and it was a terrible joke but I just couldn’t help myself.   I felt the urge to make the little vampire bats…..too much Christmas crafting I think,  although I am happy to think I’ve got a good selection of new Christmas goodies and I can take a little break from Christmas……..yaaaaaaay she shouts rather smugly.  Anyway I can’t wait to add these guys to the shop it feels a little neglected right now.

Remember I told you something wonderful might be happening with my acorns?   Well it is indeed,  they are going to be in Mary Engelbreit’s home companion magazine for fall…….although it’s fall ’09 so we will all have a bit of a wait to see ’em………I’m still really excited about it now though,  imagine how hyperactive I’m going to be this time next year………YIKES!!!!