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

Remember tommorrow is the Valentine Craftacular at the High Noon in Madison WI where me and the critters (and 20 other brilliant crafters) will be from 10 am until 4.00pm so if you are in the area please pop on over and say hi.

So today is the crazy hectic job of packing all the critters up (something they are not that keen on) and not forgetting any show essentials like extension cords and tape, and trying to keep everything in a reasonably easy to find order……..not my strongest point.

I am really excited though……I loved the Christmas craftacular it was a ton of fun. I am really hoping to try and get organised enough to take part in more shows this year, guess I should start researching that now……..and being more productive in the critter makin’

So I was trying to think of things for the store with Easter in mind and I came up with these little bock bocks.   I’ve mostly gone into hibernation mode here at the stabby base camp,  I really hate being cold.  I had an idea to go out and take lots of pics of the frozen rock river to post on the blog……..mostly to show my parents who now reside in Spain just how cold it is.  I don’t think people fully grasp just how cold cold really is………especially when they are sitting on their terrace in the sun saying really minus 20 gee………grrrrrrr.  Anyway I just can’t face going out in the cold,  so no frozen river pics here……..for now at least.

I told you I was thinking about Valentiney critters…….well meet the love imp

He’s a cutie…….he’s closely related to the cupid’s but it’s a different branch of the family tree (if you know what I mean…..ahem)

He’s one of the little guys responsible for inappropriate crushes and bizarre hot flushes when he uses his little poker tail to give you a jab.  He’s not a bad little imp as imp’s go he just likes to shake things up a bit.

And did you hear the news?   I had to pick myself up of the floor when I heard……..brace yourself……….The New Kids On the Block are reforming…………scrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaammmmmmmmmm.

oh oh oh oh oh the right stuff……oh sorry I ‘m off again.  I’m so excited and I just can’t hide it I lurved them when I was a kid picture me up front and center if they do tour again….it will be odd to be in a sea of 30 – 40 year old women screaming at 40 year old men  though……hmmmmm maybe I will buy the dvd instead.

So I am needlefelting like crazy right now. I really want a decent display of critters for the Craftacular and it’s less than 2 weeks away………waaaaaa. I hope that if you are near Madison you come out to the High Noon on February 9th and say hi to me and the critters.

Anyway in critter news here is another new guy for you to say hello to

His name is Cyrano and I of course will be adding him to the shop

In other news it’s frickin’ freezin’ here in Illinois………..can’t it be Spring yet? Please? I hate being cold and I am so bored with snow I can’t even tell you.

Another new critter to add to the menagerie……..meet Poppy

I love how she turned out she’s so tactile.  She has one of those faces that when you pick her up you just want to hold her for a while…….or at least I do……..I know, I know I am a loon.

I think I had the idea for a pacman mobile when I first made a Mario………and that’s a long time ago. I just never was really sure how to construct it. Anyway I figuered I’d quit procrastinating over it and get on with it and here is my first prototype   

So the idea is that pacman is gobbling up the white balls trying to get to the power cherries but Pinky and Blinky are fast on his trail. I’m going to add it to the shop and see what the response is. I like mobiles so I’ll probably come up with some other new ones before the Craftacular.

In other news I’m an Etsy find for today……….yaaaaay they like Claude the stinky lil’ skunk………….how exciting. Thanks to Karencrafts for letting me know and forwarding me the email with Claude featured.

Yup, tons going on over here in stabby land. First of let me introduce you to Chester

Yup a brand new critter to add to the shop, which is brilliant because the good news is I have been selected to take part in the Valentine Craftacular at the High noon saloon in Madison on the 9th of February…………yaaaaaaaaaaaay I’m going to be very busy for the next couple of weeks waaaaaaaaaaaaaaa….

My other news is the very sad news that the Glitter Workshop in Madison is closing…. Sad day, but the good news is that Naomi is expecting an ickle baby so it makes sense that she can no longer expend all the energy it must take to run such a fabulous store, congrats on the bubba Naomi and Jerome I just wish I had discovered you sooner.

I’ve gone on a bit of a sewing kick…….I’m thinking of lovely Valentine’s day goodies for the shop.     

Individual hearts or heart mobiles.  I’m thinking of making love bugs and other needle felted luvvies to go with the theme,  so we will see what else I come up with.

I got my EKRA cat rug this weekend and I absolutely love it.  This is how it should look

But this is pretty much how I get to see it

So I guess it gets Lewis’s the Himalayans stamp of approval.   It’s ironic that originally I wanted EKRA to make the rug with a Himalayan cat on it good job I didn’t cos’ now I have both.