new goodies in the shop for the holidays!

and just for fun - visit!!

Most of what you see on etsy will be available at Acknowledge Fest on the 6th and at my open house party on the 13th if you want to pick it up in person!

plushies in progress

holiday cards made using prints of a cross stitch I did last year

Amigurumi and Me

I love all that is adorable so naturally I adore lovely amigurumi. I have not yet moved from making plushies to actually crocheting creatures, though. I don't know if I have the patience for crochet. I gave up knitting for embroidery because I needed more instant gratification, and a more varied process, less repetetive.

It makes me admire those who knit, crochet, and amigurumi all the more. Here are three favorites:

1. In a previous post, I mentioned this adorable free pattern from the blog and put a shout out asking someone to make my dream come true and make an adorable sleepy elf for me. I was so surprised, and touched when a crafty lady out there in crafty land just offered to make it. Thank you so much, Tammy! She has a really neat blog you should check out. She did a beautiful job!

Here is a photo from her blog of Elfy in-progress:

Elfy arrived in the mail today and I'm going to embroider her little face on and will show you the result!

2. My lovely friend Misty, crocheting little critters. Cutest moose ever!

3. Yummypancake aka Denise Ferguson makes wonderful amigurumi, creates her own patterns, and cranks them out. She did a custom blue singer sewing machine with a little spool of thread. I also love her little plush toasts, pie, and bacon!

come see my crafty! 2 times in December

Acknowledge Me Fest : Saturday, December 6
Holiday Open House Art & Craft Bazaar : Saturday, December 13

Acknowledge Me Fest is both a very cool DIY craft, art, zine, music fest with vegan food, performances, nonprofit orgs and is a benefit and winter drive for homeless advocacy orgs in Austin. I participated last year, and it was so much fun and also one of the best crafty fairs I've tabled at! lots of really cool cafters, artists, and zinesters.

here's my table from last year:

details
Sat. December 6 : 8pm - 2am : the Mohawk (912 Red River St, downtown Austin)
$5 plus a beanie, gloves, or toiletry item - or $6

Benefitting these two organizations: House the Homeless and ARCH (Austin Resource Center for the Homeless)

bands: The Golden Boys, When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth, Pataphysics, The Persimmons, and Literature
plus: Capoeira demonstrations by Free Angola Capoeira Society and acrobatic balancing performances by Popsy Purvy

Holiday Open House art and craft show at my house!
I want to share some new art you may not have seen and also have handmade crafts, gifts, and craft supplies available for sale. Plus refreshments and good company!
Please drop me a line if you're interesting in coming and I'll send you full details.

Belle & Burger and Blue Mama Crafts

These are two crafty gals I've had the pleasure of connecting with recently, and I wanted to make sure to share their crafty goodness with you! They are Chasity of Belle & Burger and Jen of Blue Mama. The things they make are so lovely and delightful, it's obvious how much sheer joy they get from making things and sharing them. But my very favorite thing about them is that they are both so, so wonderfully sweet and genuinely kind, open ladies.

They both have great crafty blogs - Belle & Burger and Mama Sings The Blues. I got to see them at Maker Faire and also last week at the farmer's market (the Sunset Valley one off 290 in Austin), where they have a very fun booth together. Blue Mama is also on etsy.

appreciation

One of the nicest things I can think of is someone really loving something I created for them. I met this woman, Chantel (I love the picture of her on her page!), through the zine community (We Make Zines) and she bought an anatomical heart necklace. She wrote a review of it that was posted on the Feminist Review. This just made my day, oh my!

pictures of my bat costume are forthcoming! have a fun halloween, everyone!

hello mail!

Two amazing packages arrived this week that have cheered me so much!

1. Celia's first subscription, halloween themed - yay! and really, really fantastic.

2. super surprise from Krissy - she picks one LJ friend a month to send some fun stuff to. It arrived at a moment when I definitely needed the postal cheer, so it was pretty great. In addition to all the wonderful stuff in the box, there was also a little regifting package where you add something to what's already in it and pass it along...

my favorites are the "you are sew great" scissor print and this beautiful book with the flying man that is made of recycled graph paper

honored with a shiny seal!

Taylor over at Parcell Press awarded a special honor to myself and the prolific and lovely comic artist JP Coovert for having the most popular items in his shop for awhile. Mine is for Last Known Address and JP's is for Adrift. It totally warms my heart to hear it, and here's the best part!

We are both awarded this shiny, fancy seal:



awesome. I want it made into a belt buckle! Thanks Taylor!!

fabric coasters tutorial

I made some fabric coasters - they were so easy, I thought I'd share the process with you all.

I decided to use my favorite IKEA fabric and plain old felt as a backing (to be gentle on my newly built IKEA coffeetable).




You can cut a template out of cardboard or just cut your square freehand. I cut the felt first because it's the size the coaster will be in the end. Then I placed the felt square over the patterned fabric, positioning it as centrally as possible. I left about 3/4" border while cutting around the felt. The top/patterned fabric will be hemmed, but the felt, of course, doesn't need hemming.

Then I pressed the 3/4" hem around the patterned fabric with the iron.

fold over the corners of the patterned fabric after pressing



line up the felt with the pressed patterned piece and pin, keeping the corners folded as you go



pinned frontside



sew it on the frontside, as close to the edge as possible



once you're done with the outside border hem, clip your threads and sew a square in the middle (to keep your coaster flat and reinforce the shape). I just did it freehand, but you could mark the outline or corners with chalk.



remove pins and press with iron to smooth out pin marks



done!



time for a tea party!

From Creative Kismet's blog, her piece for Illustration Friday - I love it! That is me right now :)
check out her blog here

lovely letterbox september

was late, due to life suddenly getting in the way, and went out in earlyish October.



print gocco of an illustration from a vintage children's book, printed on cardboard cut from cereal boxes and the like


print gocco of vintage scissors



cupcake toppers using adorable stamps from The Small Object



fall recipe cards made by Kirsten



not pictured: Liz's adorable bookmarks, pieces of IKEA fabric, and little supply kits for making more cupcake toppers. I forgot to take pictures before sending them off!

here's a picture from Krissy's journal (also shows the scissor gocco printed on fabric)