Tomorrow is Thanksgiving.  As a Scottish person living in the US it is a bizarrely unique and completely odd day,  but still it’s a day off work and a reason for a parade.  So it’s a little unfair that I  renamed  Thanksgiving a long time ago  ” The Christmas Spoiler holiday”.  Still I have lots of things to be thankful for and I am very grateful for everything we have.

I told you last post that the rather wonderful Rosy organizer of the Crafty fair had managed to score a full page promotion of the show in the onion and here it is

my mischief monkeys were featured and they also give me props for my super Mario ornaments……..way too cool.  And the show was packed all day with shoppers it was really a lot of fun.  I also got a brilliant commission from a shopper,  after purchasing a large santa table topper she requested I made an old world rabbi.  After googling old world rabbi and google helpfully suggesting I meant old world rabbit I came up with this guy

I really like how he turned out,  and hopefully Linda does too.

Have you seen Potter yet?   oooooooh it’s so good,  nothing says the holidays are coming like a Potter movie.  I,  of course,  saw it at midnight when it opened.   Last weekend we went to Chicago to see it on the Imax which was highly fortuitous timing for a trip to Chicago as it was the DIY Trunk show at Pulaski field house,  which gave me the excuse to go and pester  my crafty buddy Ekra…….wooooohoooo.   It was a really good show and I kept thinking if just one vendor had  a cold I’d be here with the critters right now……….sigh hopefully I’ll make it next year and not be on the waiting list again.  I did make a few awesome purchases so some Christmas pressies are at least taken care of.

Saturday is the Bucktown Bazaar

So I am busy, busy, busy……….what else is new?

He is ………can you believe it?   I can,  as he has been hanging out with me for the last few days…….

It’s been kind of off putting having Santa stay at my house as I have so much work still to do for this weekend’s craft fair extravaganza, and he keeps tutting and saying he only gets one night to prepare not weeks and weeks like I had …….personally I’m envious of his elves as I can’t imagine Santa is very handy at making schtuff  at all, at least not that I’ve witnessed…….

So yes this weekend  don’t forget if you are in the Madison area to stop by and say hello to the critters and myself at the

at the Madison Masonic Center, 301 Wisconsin Ave,  the first 50 shoppers get a free goody bag………how sweet is that?

And for the Chicagoans out there stop by the Bucktown Bazaar and say hello to the critters and Markie (I’ll be there on Sunday)

Gaaaaaaaaa so much to do……..I feel like the white rabbit  “I’m late,  I’m late”   best got on with it…………

That’s the sound of the Christmas countdown……Every day the ticking gets a little louder,  and makes me just a little more manic.   Last week I did (finally) manage to get some goodies to Anthology,  The cat and crow and Unique Yarns so a little pressure is of me. But the Craftacular and the Bucktown Bazaar is next week so I need to be VERY productive this week as it’s the 2 shows on the same  weekend……………waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa what was I thinking?

I did make something else new for the shows although I will also list them in the shop………

What do you think?  little snowman hair clips……….I’m going to make a few more as I really like how they turned out…

One of my favourite thing about doing the shows is meeting so many wonderful people and getting the critters a wonderful new home where they will be loved everyday……Last show was Mr Orange’s turn,  Rachel saw him and they fell in love and now he is causing mayhem at her house…

Makes me feel so happy to see him ready to fight for his patch of the tower,  thanks for taking him in Rachel.

Ladies and gentlemen……..drumroll please………

On Saturday November 28th,  Lulu of Lulu’s Stabby Critters will be attempting the impossible.    That’s right she will be doing the impossible feat of being two places at the same time!!!!   Gasp, what? who? where? It’s not possible, it can’t be done……I hear from the crowd.   Well yes it can (thanks to the brilliance of her hubby)  On Saturday November 28th Lulu’s Stabby Critters can be found not only at the Craftacular in Madison, Wi but also at the Bucktown Bazzar in Chicago, Il.

I’m not sure why I agreed to do 2 shows at the same time………it seemed like a good idea at the time.  I mean logistically it seems possible.  Mark can go to Chicago and take care of the critters there while I drive of to Madison….. easy.   But what i forgot about was the fact that dividing and conquering also means dividing up the critter stock……….waaaaaaaaaaah.   So needless to say I’m going to be VERY busy in the next couple of weeks……..yowzers I’m a mad woman,  or at least I will be by November 28th.

The St Cornelius Fall Fest was brilliant fun……it was my first experience of an outdoor street fair and the organizers were totally on it….

I really loved having my own little tent,   and it meant I could finally display mobiles………yaaaaaaaay,  I’m still working on how to do that for indoor booths,  but hopefully I’ll work it out this year.  Alright back to work .. ……which will be tough as I’ve just discovered the brilliantly hilarious regretsy.com now I really am addicted to looking at crap.

Yaaaaaaay I got my hotel room booked for the weekend,  I had been a little worried about getting a hotel room in Chicago for the Bucktown Bazaar…….It had been a little difficult to get a reasonably priced room in Chicago for Thanksgiving weekend,  and yes I am sure the hotel is beautiful! …but $325.00 on my crafter’s budget just wasn’t going to happen.  But yaaaaaaay Hotwire came through for me once again (love that website!!!)  so we are staying in a fantastic hotel in the loop,  and I am as excited for that as the Bucktown Bazzar………..well, maybe not!!!!     But I am so excited for this weekend in everyway and it’s lovely icing on the crafting cake to have a nice hotel to schlep back to from the show……yaaaaaaaay!!!

I had a fantastic past weekend too…….we went to Madison for the first time in ages and dropped of some Christmas goodies at the wonderful Anthology.   Then headed to whole foods to place my Christmas dinner order,  they do a fantastic turkey and the works dinner and it’s all basically good to go with very little input from me (thank god for whole foods).  Then we enjoyed a few pints of some fantastic Belgium beer from the Monroe Street Bistro yummm.  So it was a fantastic weekend and I definately felt much less like a crafting shut in for it……

So remember this weekend is the Bucktown Bazaar………hope you can stop by and say hi

I have had some of the most brilliant requests for critter recently and just thought I’d share a few of them with you before I send them to their new homes.

It’s Shaun the sheep from Wallace and Gromit……..you guys already know how much I love Wallace and Gromit so he was brilliant fun to make,  but of course he wouldn’t be complete with his buddy

Gromit who is participating in the diy craft movement and knitting a scarf (it is getting rather chilly here in Illinois)  although I doubt he’s going to need it in his new home in Arizona (lucky dog) thanks Cheryl for the requests I hope they behave themselves!!!! Shaun is a bit of a sofa nibbler so watch out!!

A few people have asked me for gnomes so I decided it was only right and fair to add him to the shop as well.

And look a new critter box……….a lil piggy, he will be added to the shop too.  I love having different critter boxes so thank you so much for the requests Carol.

And in stabby land news I’m still stabbying away in preperation for the Bucktown Bazaar

I’ll be honest this show is freaking me out a little as it is a 2 day event…………eeeeeeeeek must make critters!!!!

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!!!!!!