I’ve been having a lot of fun this week…..it’s hard not to when you see who I’ve been hanging out with

cute aren’t they?  even if they are monsters and can only say nyum, nyum nyum………I’m not sure what it means but they all get very excited at the chant.  So why have the monsters come into my life?  well they are part of a bunch of critters heading for a store in Australia,  how exciting is that?  I tried to explain the land down under  to the lil’ guys but you guessed it just more nyum, nyum nyums and bouncing up and down.

I thought I’d let you see my booth at the rally for sanity and/or fear in St Louis last week

How cool is that?  It was so awesome to be right at the arch (maybe I’m easily amused) I could barely contain my excitement at the venue and kept wandering off to check out the arch and the crowds (sorry and thank you Markie) the weather was absolutely fabulous and  the crowd really was brilliant I wish I’d taken more piccies

Lots of costumes and silly banners my favourite was a couple dressed as Alice and the mad hatter from Alice in Wonderland who had a sign that read “because a tea party in congress would be madness”  utterly brilliant and I kick myself for not snagging a picture of the pair………….grrrrrrrr.

So this weekend is the official start of my slew of Holiday shows with the Red Sled In La grange, Illinois

I love this show,  it really does make me start to feel excited for the holidays and I just love the folks that come to say hi to the critters.  I also added another Christmas show to my schedule (I’m quite mad ya’know) it’s the Logan Square holiday art show in Chicago

I couldn’t resist applying for this show as it just looked so cool,  I’m completely thrilled we’re going to be a part of it.

So back to critter creatin’  have a great week.

What?  You don’t believe me?……..sure,  sure they are not going to comic con anytime soon (it’s not  really their thing) but hey a hamster has to be fancy dress party ready (oh my how hamsters love fancy dress parties……..just ask one and they will squeak excitedly for days)

Julie sent me a piccie of one of her party ready furry friends…….do you like his cupcake outfit?

Pretty cute huh?  I mean you really can imagine picking him up and eating him he’s so sweet……..or is that just me?

So of course being this cute means that he needs a stabby homage……

No offense to the original hammy but I felt that his costume would have been a little more fun if he had a blob of cream as a hat so I made him a detachable one that he can tie on, should he choose to,  his cupcake I hand sewed from felt.

I hope Julie likes her little furry cupcake as she is one of the vendors from strangefolk (which is how she found me to request this critter).

Speaking of Strangefolk I can’t believe the date is getting closer and closer

I am really excited for this show,  almost as excited as I am to be leaving for Las Vegas on Saturday………wooohoooo I love Vegas!!!!!

Poor ole’  Walter,  all his buddies are leaving for their winter vacations and checking themselves into the fanciest river retreats and Walter will not be joining them……..you see Walter is scared of heights.  It’s pretty tragic,  even standing on the jetty brings Walter out in hives……ever seen a duck belly flop in a panic?  most likely it was Walter.  So Walter is looking for a nice warm home to avoid the winter…..do you know of anything?

Walter will be in the shop soon.

No it’s the super mischief monkeys bringing chaos and mayhem wherever they go.

I made these little caped monkeys at the request of Sher.  Her mother in law had given her children long armed catapulting plush monkeys that the kids loved playing with on their vacation in Florida this year,  so naturally Sher wanted a stabby homage to the vacation and fun everyone had and requested I make goofy monkeys for the family  Christmas tree this year…

And so that’s the story of the super mischief monkeys,  I hope Sher likes what I came up with.  I’m rather smitten with the lil’ fellas I love thinking of the mischief that ensues upon their arrival.

Yeah I’m looking at the bees buzzing around and all I can think is……….slackers!!!!  So apologies for the lack of blog updates but something had to give and the poor ole blog has suffered.

Yup but lookeee at my new captured critters

A little bee, ladybird and hedgie…….I’m loving the way these guys have turned out  and it had me thinking of a bigger captured critter so I grabbed my trusty fairy net and managed to snag

Norm the gnome……….He doesn’t seem that keen on being captured but luckily the glass is pretty thick so his protestations can barely be heard.  I’ve also been busy working on the goody insert for the craftacular bags (yup the first 50 lucky people to walk through the doors at the East Side Club in Madison Wisconsin  on August 15th will be getting a goody bag),  and trying to get stores restocked (something I’ve been a little slow at sorry guys),  all while trying to enjoy the beautiful sunny Illinois summer…….god how I adore summer,  never will you hear me complain about the heat, humidity and thunderstorms I love it all.

Okay so I’m off, back to work so much still to be done before the Crafter’s round up

Can’t believe it’s less than 2 weeks away……….gaaaaaaaaah!!!!! don’t panic!!!!!

Alrighty I told you I was working on a sweet commission and here it is…

A lil’ cutie cupcake…….I couldn’t work out how to do the cupcake paper for the longest time,  I even bought real cupcake papers but didn’t like how it looked………. then at about 2 o’clock in the morning it struck me how to do it,  it was all I could not not to leap out of bed with scissors and felt right then and there but somehow I managed to restrain myself to wait till morning.  I am really pleased with how it turned out especially as I had some pressure on who it was going to,  you see the person who requested it is the incredibly talented doll artist Jen of Nanassisters…….I have been in absolute awe of her chibi juice dolls for a very long time,  they are sooooooo good there isn’t a word for how good they really are.  Take a look at the doll she made for me

and of course I couldn’t have Alice without the Cheshire cat

They are so perfect and wonderful it’s as if they came straight from Wonderland to hang out with us.

Anyway I highly recommend that when you check out Jen’s shop you look through her sold items I promise you’ll be blown away by her talent.

I’m not sure I’ve said that enough,  but you guys come up with the coolest suggestions for critters……..and I sincerely thank you for being so cool and brilliant.  Sher (Blinky’s soon to be new owner) requested a chicken ornament sort of a cross between the lil’ roasters and the chunky chickens……….and so here we have the lil’ cluckers

I really am so grateful for the requests,  as sometimes I think my craft mind has a tendancy to get stuck just a little bit in a rut…..especially when I am preparing for shows.    I made a few of these guys as I love how he turned out and seeing as how my quest for egg cups with chicken feet has turned into real holy grail territory maybe this is the way to go afterall.

booooooo….

Did my lil’ Halloween ghosties scare you?   They hope so,  trouble is they are just too cute to be terrifying……poor guys.  I made the ghosties for my batch of Octoberie goodies I’m working on in preparation for my fall show,  I still have a few more ideas I want to work on but I am starting to feel good about my quantities of  Autumnal offerings and I will of course add them to the shop today.

This past weekend we went to Chicago for the Renegade craft fair.  I was incredibly excited about this years show as one of the new vendors was someone who’s work I fell in love with about a year ago when  I purchased some of his comic books at Quimby’s (a fantastic comic book store in Chicago).  Anyway his name is Matthew Reidsma and he is awesome,  so of course within 5 seconds of finding his booth I had pretty much blown my Renegade shopping money,  but the original artwork I got is so super cool I’m sure I will be gushing about him for a long time to come.

Anyway here are my Renegade goodies. I bought some  beautiful hand painted roving from kitchen sink dyeworks and Hands and Notions.  And I’m thinking the colorways are perfect for my rotten eggs for Easter……..argh good grief can you believe it?  I’m thinking of spring 2010 and it’s not even through September 2009…….how mental is that?  Oh well i guess it’s good (and totally unlike me) to be prepared.