Take a deep breath and.....

This year was crazy to say the least :) I am going to really try my best to make 2009 another great year. 2008 was so up and down and all over the place. I think for the new year I would like to not be poor :) thats not too unrealistic...right. I am going to work my bunz off to see my goodies go to good homes. I love my art and I love being able to do what I love on a regular basis. I think I would like to showcase my paintings a lot more this year, I just get nervous about whether people will enjoy them...artsy fartsy stuff :) Happy New Year to everyone

Rain Drops keep Falling on my Etsy

So Cyber Monday was a bust and nothing spectacular to report. To be honest I wasn't really holding my breath or anything. I did however get a chance to post some really great stuff over a few days of Va-Ca. I had a blast staying in my PJ's on Black Friday and hanging out with my little family. I made a bunch of new hair things and now I have to replace them cause a friend of mine cleaned me out! I love the holidays...I can't wait till I get to hang out in my Pj's all over again.

New Wool Felt hair clips

I was up all night last night posting a bunch of new hair clips :) They are soooo cute. I love working with wool felt and I look forward to making tons and tons more.

I am going to take the holiday to really go for it and make a bunch of new stuff. I can't wait to eat mini turkey loafs. My mom decided that this year she wasn't going to make a traditional turkey, she decided use ground turkey and veggies, mix it all up and put it in a cupcake pan, then you have mini turkey loafs!! Delicious with cranberry sauce and all the fixins. I hope your holiday will be extra special.

NEW NEW NEW!!!

I have begun to post a million and a half things onto my etsy! yay, I need a small break from it. I have been working my little fingers to the bone trying to re-make a bunch of stuff. I recently figured out how to make my hair clips a lot better! I realized that they needed an extra piece of wool felt so they would attach better than they did before. I decided to stick with the smaller hair clips because they things on the clips would be way to big to wear :) I am very happy with them so far. I have also just listed a bunch of my Russian nesting dolls, they are soooo cute! Check them out :)

Zeke: Revisited

Well, I was looking through my old stuff on my computer and I came across this piece I wrote about my friend Zeke. It is a walk thru for how I do my plush and how I put everything together technically. Enjoy! Although he is already living in hos new home I can always put together another 555 chip for someone that just can't live without it :)

I have been wanting to explain what I mean by double and triple sewing when talking about my plushies. I decided to use one of my newest creations, Zeke, as an example of how I put these guys together.

I started by choosing my fabrics, I chose to back my black cotton with white canvas so there would be more structure for the shape considering it is meant to be a square :)

Once I chose my fabric I began to piece things together starting with the feet then doing the top and bottom.

This is Zeke with all four of his sides put together. I stuffed the legs before I sewed them on and I made sure to leave a little space towards the top so they could hang down and not stick out.

This shows what I mean by double stitching. Every seam of each of my plushies is like this so that even if they take a beating ( which I never suggest) they will be able to come out of it unscathed :) Also, the canvas helps to make it even sturdier.

This is Zeke ready to be stuffed. Before I begin stuffing him I arrange where his eyes will be, then carefully attach them. I only use safety eyes, they look good and they are super duper durable.

This is the finished product!!! he's great and wonderful and I can't wait till he goes off to a great home :) Any questions? comments please feel free to contact me. I hope this was helpful.

We Won!!! Yay!!

I received a convo about how we won a Golden Robot Award for our awesome business cards! yay!! I was surprised at how quickly we ran out. I took 1000 and I still ran out :) It was a great feeling. I think I am going to be talking about the awesomeness of Felt Club for a long time. Oh Yeah! I had an idea the make a plush of Leslie Hall and send it to her just cause I think she would really appreciate it. heres the link to the blog called Hearts and Laserbeams: www.heartsandlaserbeams.com/blog

Oh and here is the newest flier for v is for violet. I looove that pink little squid :) enjoy!

Hair Thingies

Well getting over the high of this weekend and enjoying the lack of sleep. I have been making these silly wool felt hair clips and they seem to be taking off. I made a bunch of them while I was at home watching the Real Housewives of Atlanta. They were all snatched up during the show this weekend so I will be making a bunch of new ones this Thursday while watching Ugly Betty.

FELT CLUUUUB!

Wow, Felt Club was grrrrreat! I had the best time chatting it up with other Etsians and shopping my brain out :) I think by far the best part for me would be getting to meet the wonderful super cool Leslie Hall. Her booth was right across from ours and we loved getting to watch her perform and take super funny pics. Make sure you check her You Tube videos out, they are hilarious :)

Just putting the finishing touches on the super cool stuff for Felt Club! heres a sneak peak at some of my new friends :)

I am sooooo excited about this event! It's going to be HUGE!!!!! I have been working my fingers to the bone trying to make some cool stuff. Today my postcards arrived and they are BEAUTIFUL! I am soooo excited, if I didn't already have one I would buy one :) Please spread the word about this event it is going to be super fun.

Time to VOTE!

VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!

Today is a big day :) V and I will be stepping out in a bit to go vote. We have to make the drive to chino hills so we will probably reward ourselves with a nice iced caramel macchiado...yum.

It is finally getting colder and I love it! Yesterday I posted a small painting of my octopus friend and today I finally scanned my bunny plushy pillow painting. I will be posting them on Etsy by the end of the day. I hope people love them as much as I do :)

Ok, V and I are off! Good Luck with the polls, hope you don't have to wait too long.

EEEK! I get a time out :(

I have to be the worst blogger EVER! Things have been NUTS to say the least! Halloween was amazing and so was my birthday :) It seems like I blinked and it was over, where did October go? Can we have a do over? I have been hard at work on new stuff for my Etsy store and Felt Club. I am soooooo excited about having the chance to get out there and show my silly little friends off.




I have mentioned that my first love is painting and so in the spirit of getting my two loves together I have been working on some paintings of some of my favorite plushy characters. Here is one I called Alfred, he is a super cool Octopus. I want to sell prints of my plushy friends and for the moment I am going to make small affordable postcards of them for the holidays. Lets see how it turns out :)

ya ya ya...the holidays are here!

Things have been NUTTY here. I loooove October, not just because it's my birthday month but because it always reminds me that it is going to get colder :) So far the weather has been...guak. So i have been working hard to try and build up my inventory for the holidays. Recently my little friend 555 chip went off to a new home, I am hoping he is having a great time there.

I am in the process of making some new and exciting plush, I'm not going to say what yet because I want to get far enough on it :)

Here is a pic of my 555 chip:

Paint as if your life depended on it!

So along with my love for all things fabric and plush I looove painting. It was and is my first love and I hate that I don't have much time to spend with it. I usually try to do a little work on as many pieces as I can. I am trying desperately to get them into galleries. I recently took REALLY nice pics of all of them and I will be selling prints of them on my Etsy shop. I am excited to get them out there in the form of prints...sometimes it is hard to part with an original :) Here are a few of my pieces:

back to Normal?

Hmmm, I say that all along thinking that in our little family we really don't know or have "normal" :) I think that is what makes us so much fun. V is all better now and she is her silly self again. J on the other hand is still suffering a bit. He made the mistake of eating a quesadilla for lunch and the dairy is "killing" him ...those are his words.

I got to take pics of the two new plush additions I have to my Etsy shop. They came out so neat, I am very happy with the way they seem to be coming out. Check them out, The bunny is named Holga and she was sent here from Norway to study the U.S and it's strange culture. The octopus guy is Fran...yep a boy named Fran. He loves doing tricks on his bike and blowing away any competition.

I got to sub for a teacher that didn't have a computer today and it turned out to be a great thing I got to get into my new sketch book that C gave me. I love it, it is a wierd size (9 x 6) spiral and hardcover. I doodled and worked out new ideas while the classes worked quietly on their assignments. I am going to be making some new plush that I am excited about and also i will be working on new paintings.

I though I would put up a pic of a new one of my paintings so I could show a little more of where I come from artistically speaking. I am very proud of my new work and I am currently working 4 more new paintings, hopefully I will have them done within the next few months :) Take a look.

Tummy trouble III

Yep, we are still in the middle of a tummy mess. Now V is getting better and J is in the thick of it :( V woke up at 4am screaming, probably hungry. J has spent most of the day complaining about the terrible tummy pain he keeps getting every few minutes. He has only been able to sleep every now and again. I gave V this home remedy for her tummy and it seemed to work for her. I boiled rice and right before it began to cook I drained the water and mixed it into her juice bottle. She drank it up and took a nap. When she woke up from her nap she was as good as new...I'm not sure it was the rice but I was willing to try anything. I couldn't handle seeing her in pain and hungry. She was back to her normal self and helped me with the clean laundry. I mainly gave her a ride in the basket and she collected hangers and got excited about being covered in clothing.
As for J he refused to drink his portion of rice water so therefore he still feels awful, but don't tell him I said that. I managed to make two new plushies, I made a bunny and another octopus. I didn't get to take pics of them yet but here are a few pics of some of my friends.

This is Guiseppe he is one of my little friends. He grew up in Canada but thought it was Italy. No one wanted to tell him the truth.

Stomach trouble II

Last night was an adventure...V woke up in the middle of the night screaming and throwing up :( we were up till 2am and it was not fun at all. This morning was no better and after a visit to the Dr. she was not allowed to eat anything, only drink juice. Poor V. J and i were dead tored but i still managed to make an octopus for a sale and I got a treasury post on Etsy. That was exciting. Here are a few pics. Lets hope tomorrow is better.

I made this guy for the holiday season. I hope he goes to a nice home. it's weird though because I listed him this weekend and he only has a few views. :( Hopefully by Halloween he will get a few more views. Oh yeah! I got a treasury heres the link:

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=11149

Check it out, you can tell how sleep deprived I am by noticing that I named it "THING I think are swell, rather than THINGS. he he he.

This is one of my favorite little critters right now. She is an albino octopus. I am so surprised that she hasn't been snatched up yet. Heres to her new home and many more friends to come. I need some sleep.

Welcome Home

This is the first official post for my new, easy blog! I have big plans for this blog and I will start by saying that while I was up most of the night with a little girl who had the stomach flu I got some great ideas for my blog. I want to do some sort of contest or drawing every few weeks so people will be able to win something cool from my shop. With the holidays comin the best gift to give is something you don't have to pay for...he he he.

This is V this morning with her dad getting over whatever crappy virus some kid gave her.

Let the blogging begin.