Girlguiding UK!

The Girlguiding UK Brownie Annual for 2012 came out recently. What in the world does this have to do with me? Well, said annual includes not one but two cute little stories featuring my illustrations! I was very pleased to receive a copy today. It is quite nice - nicer than I realized it would be - and the print quality is very good, very true to the original artwork. At other times in the past I have sometimes felt disappointed when I saw the printed versions of my work - distortions, poor color matching, et cetera - but the annual looks great, and I was very happy with the whole experience.

Blog love

I just discovered my piece "Tea Party" featured on this lovely crafting blog, along with several other adorable tea-themed illustrations and crafts. Run over there and check it out!

Summer plants!

Hi!  We are now knee deep in summer, and with it has come some fairly brutal hot days, but also some nice surprises.  Take this for example:

This huge plant-y thing stated growing spontaneously at the foot of my stairs about a month ago.  I thought from the leaves and orange fruit blossoms that I was the fortunate recipient of a free zucchini plant!  BUT, I could tell they weren't regular zucchinis, and only after picking these four helpless "squash" did I realize it's actually a pumpkin patch in full swing.

I was so sad when I realized what I had done, but thank goodness there are still plenty more orange blossoms in waiting,

And even more pumpkin babies on the way:

But just look at this thing, it's huge!

Next up is my poor potted plant that is a skeleton of what it was when I bought it in May.  Poor thing either hates the sun, or heat or all of the above.  I moved it out of the direct sun and am keeping my fingers crossed for the future.

Everyone else seems to be doing ok though, and make me so happy every time I go in or out of the house.

A nice box of orange and red things with tyme planted in the middle (sorry I have no idea what the flowers are...I bought them because they're orange).

Another nice box, crazily growing with oregano, basil, parsley and rosemary!!  Mmmm...

Aahhh, I just love fresh herbs and have already used the basil on pizza and the tyme in a summery white wine/lemon penne primavera lately.  So, so good!

These black eyed susans were an impulse buy because I walked by them and couldn't resist.  So hearty and doing well on their own which is awesome.  I totally dig plant independence.

Last but not least - my tomato plant!  I absolutely love cherry tomatoes, and though I couldn't figure out exactly what variety this was going to be, I went with it because it said it was good for pots on a patio.

They're wee, but definitely bigger than cherry, so who knows.  All I know is how excited I was when I spied the first RED one!

I haven't plucked it off yet, but I can't wait.  Ack!  Summer!  Home grown plants!  Yeah!!

Christmas Crafting

So!  For once, this past weekend was fairly productive on the Christmas gift making front.  First up was a sock monkey from this pattern that I've been wanting to try for a while.  It never occurred to me to make a monkey out of socks other than the traditional brown wool ones!

I'm so in love with her.  She makes me laugh every time I look at her because her arms and legs are like 10 feet long!  Just depends on how tall the socks are, and I used full length knee socks. 

I wish I thought to take a picture of her bum, because really it's the cutest part.  And I have to say I'll be a little sad to see her go, as she's been good company sitting pretty on the sewing table.  But alas, she'll be heading out to Dallas in the next couple of weeks to start a friendship with my niece.

My next project was totally inspired by this woman who I recently saw at Indie Craft Experience in Atlanta, but remembered her originally from Bele Chere in Asheville, earlier this summer.  I LOVE her stuff, and her awesome monster hoodies were a new edition at the Atlanta show.  In fact, some friends and I bought one that looks just like the one listed for a friend who was turning 28 that day...and he loves muppets...and he loved the hoodie.

Some of you may remember the hooded towels I've made in the past with stuffed monster eyes,  but as soon as I saw this girl's horns, I HAD to try it.  I was worried about them standing up, but they turned out all right!  This towel will be for my littlest nephew of dinosaur pillow case fame.

Lastly, I've been wanting to make Tires a scarf forever, and even bought some nice, masculine, blue fabric AGES ago.  Well, I never did, and now I had some left over Christmas material, so what better than to make him a fabulous Christmas outfit!

Amazingly, for such a small dog, Tires has a really big neck, so I wasn't able to tie his outfit on when I finished.  No sweat tho...I just added snaps to the ends and it fits him perfectly.

Now I have to make another set of pillowcases, crush more potpourri for three more hotpads waiting to be filled, and I have to make the mate to my first ever potholder.  Just a plain square, but I attempted quilting and attaching bias tape for the first time.  Not totally awfully, but it's more of a potholder that only a mom (particularly MY mom) will especially love.  More on the potholder experience (maybe) later.

Another new illustration!

I've been working on a new set of illustrations recently for www.artflakes.com.

Prints of this illustration and others will be available for purchase within

the next month or so...I'll keep you posted!

Crafty Bastards Part Deux

Even tho many vendors have credit card capabilities these days, cash is still the way to go, and at this show, tons OF it.  The venue even had a handy traveling ATM bus just for our convenience...a convenience that lasted an eternity in line waiting for it to be convenient.  Waiting...

BUT, right NEXT to the ATM bus was this cupcake truck I mentioned before!  I didn't buy any, but it looked pretty inviting.

And not to hammer this topic to death, but after we got our money, we entered the crafting area, I turned around, and there was her tent...I wasn't expecting to find it right off the bat!

It actually took us around five hours to go through and see all the vendors.  After about three, we were all getting a bit floppy from the sun, lack of water, and need for food.  We saw several people walk by with pitas filled with stuff that looked and smelled reeeeeally good...so we tracked it down and got falafel. 

Which was, of course, delicious.

I don't have any pictures of anything I got other than this beautiful hand embroidered sweater with bird silk screens on it.  I had pretty much already reached my spending limit, but it was too beautiful to pass up.  One of my friends also got a VERY nice sweater dress with more amazing embroidery from this woman.

Turns out the pictures of me with the girl stranger wearing my same shoes and outfit were too dark to see anything, so I didn't bother.  But that's it for now.  Happy crafting!

Crafty Bastard Weekend

Gah!  This past weekend, the craftdactyls travelled from the North and South to convene in Washington, DC for the annual Crafty Bastards (wicked awesome) craft show.  Even tho our (my) sole purpose in going was to meet my crafting hero, it was also a wonderful excuse to meet up for a girl's weekend with childhood friends...and of course, to spend my inheritance craft shopping!!

It is no secret that I have become utterly smitten with the craft works (heh--I just thought of the 80s electronic band, Kraftwerk) of My Paper Crane, WHO by the way, is giving away a copy of her new book over on her website, so check it out.

Here I am totally overwhelmed by all the coolness, and trying to figure out what to buy.  My sister had also just asked me if I had figured out what I was going to say to My Paper Crane yet, and I'm shooing her question away.  I was trying to blend in with the cool.

I finally made up my mind and bought a carrot (which I've been wanting since last February), and a pouch made from her happy vegetables pattern.  As I handed her my things, I started panicking because I still couldn't think of what to say and was afraid of losing the opportunity.  Fortunately, my sister stepped right in and spoke up for me, telling her flat out that she was my crafting hero, which opened the flood gates, and My Paper Crane's husband took a picture of us to commemorate the meeting.

It was incredible!!  She was so nice (as expected), and invited me to pose as a mushroom face in her gnome picture, as many others had already done that day. 

My sister, friends and I had a wonderful day, full of art and craft inspiration.  At some point I'll post pictures of the cupcake truck and the girl who had the same shoes as me.  What were the chances?