I guess it’s not going to come as a surprise to you guys when I say I love pop culture,  and so when I got a request for a Blinky the 3 eyed fish from The Simpson’s I was very excited to get started on him.   So excited I got carried away………

I just loved how he turned out and I hope the requester does too ( thanks for the request Sher).    I am hoping to have at least a few of them for  the upcoming shows but of course I’ll list them in the shop too.

I’m loving the Bazaar Bizarre poster and oooooh look at the craftacular poster

With posters like that I can’t wait for the shows.

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.

For the first time ever I’m going to do a show in October.   The St. Cornelius Parish in Chicago’s Jefferson Park neighborhood is hosting a Fall Fest on Saturday  October 3rd,  and while it sounds like brilliant fun I don’t have much in the way of Octoberie/fall goodies……….until now

I’m loving putting little faces on everything right now (you probably guessed that with my acorn obsession)…….I guess the anthropomorphic magic is really strong  in Critterville right now.

I’m of course busy, busy, busy in preparation for the show………eeeeeeeek exciting!!!! lots of pumpkins and new goodies to come too.

Little Esther the glamor puss of the East.  Do you like her shoes?  Esther loves them,  she was lucky enough to pick them up for a song from a house clearing event she attended…….The only bad thing is that now Esther walks everywhere her broom gets very little use at all,  maybe she’ll swap it for a handbag to match.

I will add Esther to the shop if you want to check her out some more.

Oh how I love schtuff………

yup my new couch arrived from Ikea and I love it!!!!  I had to get the kidrobot/Heidi Kenney donut pillows to go on it,  aren’t they just fantastic?  It breaks my heart when my hubby actually gasp,  shock,  horror………uses them.   I tell ya one of these days straight to the moon………

Other new schtuff is I got the most brilliant request for a piranha plant flower.  Nikki wanted to get a flower for her boyfriend’s VW bug flower holder……..and how perfect is that as an idea?  I swear it makes me want to trade in my beloved mini for a bug……anyway I hope she likes it.  I have the thought of a Mario hanging from the rear view mirror and the plant waiting to gobble him up below.

Occasionally (as you guys well know) I really want the schtuff I’ve made,  and the little piranha flower has just been added to my list of my stabby must haves…….although I really want a whole vase of them……..sweeeeeeeeeeet

I’ve been trying to come up with new critters for the critter boxes,  when it struck me…….

The ultimate low maintanance pet………goldfish.  They’re kinda fun to make with the big eyes and lips.

This weekend is going to be great,  we are going to Madison to stay for the weekend.  Staying at the fancy schmancy  Madison Concourse Hotel and Governor’s Club to boot.  We decided to stay as The Detroit Cobra’s are playing the High Noon late Friday night,  and there is nothing worse than driving the hour drive back to Rockford when all you want to do is sleep.   Plus it will be great to just  get up and walk to the farmer’s market (our first one of this year…..kinda shocking).

So eek I can’t wait roll on Friday………yippppppeeeeee

nah not really.  It’s just I’m in a little bit of a potter frenzy these days,  you see we finally made it to the Harry Potter exhibition at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago  this past weekend…….and eeeeeeeek it was great

The museum really did a top notch job at presenting all the film props,  they even hired a whole bunch of British people to tell the stories of the artifacts which definitely added to the fun.  We managed to illicit a few stolen iphone pics inside the exhibit but my hubby still hasn’t downloaded them…..haruuuuumph,  I think he’s afraid I’ll post the piccie of him and buckbeak.

And more proof I have been good really?  hmmmm,  well then let me share my 2 newest critters.

Tommy the little torro and

Winston the bulldog,  both inspired by my recent vacation.   I guess i want to make a critter for my Scottish trip but I need to order wool………dontcha just hate when that happens?  i just know he’s going to be rattling around in my brain till I finally do make him.

And other than that all has been quiet in critter land……..I have been thinking about boring things like  a new sofa and possibly a bed but it’s very hard to persuade my hubby to spend money on such things especially seeing as how he could buy a bigger tv instead……….honestly how dumb are men?

sometimes comes from peculiar places,  take these lil’ guys…..

I got the idea to make little mice hair clips because (as you know) I adore mice and so I started browsing around etsy for some unique and unusual micey goodies……and then it occured to me what I hoped to find, something for my hair…….but alas it was not to be found.  After first being a little disappointed it hit me……doh!!!! make ’em myself so here we go…..I love ’em they look completely wacky in my hair

I also got a most excellent cheshire cat ceramic on ebay for cheap (yaaaaaaaaaay gotta love ebay) but it got my mind to thinking of all things Alice….. and as you know we can learn a lot of things from the flowers which is how these came about

And no need to paint them red as they already are,  although I will probably make them in lots of other colours too (sorry Queen of hearts).

So in a few days (5 to be exact) it will be Stabbies blogaversary and I’m thinking of doing a little giveway to my loyal readers (i.e you) so stay tuned to find out what’s in store.  And speaking of birthdays today is my mum’s birthday,  so Happy Birthday mum!!!!!!  hope the champers is on ice.

Last Saturday we headed into Madison and I got some fantastic hand painted roving from the knitting tree.  Now I am notorious for falling in love with wacky roving then either not using it for fear of not having enough to finish a project (it’s near impossible to get the same colours ever again) or just not having a clue how to use it to its advantage…… and so it sits unused in my rather large collection of wool a rather expensive testament at my serious lack of imagination.  But can you blame me for having to purchase this time?

How pretty is that?  I think the woman in the store was rather disappointed to hear I wasn’t going to spin it and instead turn it into Easter Peepers

I really love how he turned out…. every time you turn him he’s a different composition of colours just like a real birdie,  although he may not be that Easter(ie)  oh well.

I was hoping to go to Madison today to go crafting at Anthology.  I really want to make the brass stamp charms that they do but Floyd (middle cat)  has been having mold issues (it’s the weirdest thing he’s like a peach) so I had to cancel my plans to tend to his chin instead (does anyone know anything about moldy cats? )

Speaking of Anthology it’s their one year birthday on the 14th,  so if you are in Madison head on over there for some cake and crafting details can be found on their blog.

This weekend we drove to Indianapolis to attend the North American Handmade Bike show (which means I win the wife of the year award).  Mark was in heaven and spent the 3 plus hours walking around with a huge nerd grin on his face,  I mostly walked around remarking that bike guys certainly know how to cultivate the funkiest of bodily odors (pooooooo)

It was kinda fun for me to see the similarities between a bike show and a craft show though… I suppose it just depends on what you are into,  chrome bags and handmade bikes or screen printed tee shirts and handmade 2d toys.

This week was mostly spent on making  Easter Bun Buns…..

I love Easter,  it’s the promise of Spring and warmer weather and budding flowers and more importantly it is the holiday that has the best chocolate………..mmmmmmm cadbury’s creme eggs.  I guess we got a while to wait for Easter but fortunatly the choccies have already started appearing in the shops (and in my refridgerator)  yaaaaaaaaay.