oh my good gracious

this site is real.

messin' around

working on new designs for my sale buttons. came up with this one. perhaps a bit too controversial?

shopgirl

i'm subbing in at I Like You so the girls can have a few days off. i will be doing this a lot over the next few weeks until i find permanent employment again. oy.

jason and i induldged in a kathy griffin binge last night, 3 old shows and then last nite's episode of my life on the D list. she is hilarious. i can't wait for her shows in minneapolis, i hope i have enough money to attend them!

sold bitty kitty off etsy earlier in the week. yay! that brings my total etsy sales to 10. i hope i can make it to 100 before the end of the year, i'm gonna have to start posting a lot more!

photos!

check it out! photos of the GIANT DROPS OF DOOOOOOOOM. and some actors in front of them.

keep in mind, those are NOT photographs, the folks at the 'G' painted those drops on canvas. that then had to be sewn.

barren landscape of jobbiness

oy. the job search continues, fruitless as a fig tree at mcmurdo station.
strangely, they have several job listings on craigslist for antarctica. maybe i should check it out. i wonder if they have coffee shops down there yet. maybe i should open one! all drinks iced at no extra charge. badum, CHA!

that reminds me, i heard from an ex-barista about a guy who came in to his store once and ordered a 'tai chi' instead of 'chai tea'. he tried to correct the guy, but the dude didn't listen and the next 50 times he came in, he still asked for a tai chi. later that same night, i saw a vanity plate that read, 'TAI CHI". how weird is that? pretty weird.

anyway. back to today.

i submitted a hat pattern (similar to the one i'm wearing up there) for one-yard-wonders and dropped it off at crafty planet. love that freaking place. walked around the neighborhood, johnson street is hopping! there's a lovely old abandoned theater building. wouldn't it be great to open my very own performance/art space in the thriving northeast community? wouldn't it be great to be hit with a meteor made of million dollar bills?

loafed at b&n for a few hours, and then went to borealis yarn to cash in my birthday gift from my cousin ing-marie. got two skeins of recycled silk sari yarn. don't know what i'm going to do with it, but hey, has that ever stopped me before?

all in all, a pretty freaking awesome day to be retired.

the life of the retire-ee

i enjoy telling folks that i'm retired, not unemployed. it makes the truth a little easier to bear.

i have been cleaning and organizing my apartment for what feels like an eternity. they are showing the place at 3 today so my goal is to 'job search' for a few more minutes, and then head home and go whirling dervish on the place.

wish me luck.

i went to the duffy concert at first ave with jason last night. great show, but we were in the VIP room, which is a walled-off spot just above the stage. the sound comes in through the door, then mixes with all the folks milling about who take the opportunity to talk as loudly as possible, just because they have some glass between them and the rest of first ave.

i bet those are the same folks who talk during movies.

what brings us together, today

the wedding was this past friday. it was unique, from top to tails.

here's one of my favorite shots from the day.

david is returning from rescuing a sailboat that had broken anchor during the storm that occurred during their reception.

my sister waited on the dock as the sun went down.

there are so many stories to tell, i don't know where to start, except to say that les chenaux islands are magical, and i hope to return many, many times.

four!

that is awesome. found through meet me at mikes. check out the linky to the right over there.

just picked up a fourth store for the duckie uglings, this one, in st. paul! whoo hoo!

it's called benevolent acorn,
starting thursday, you st. paulies can pick up duckie uglings right there at lexington and grand ave.

supa!

leaving in 4 days for michigan. last day of work at the flying G tomorrow. wish me luck!

sensational.....

overload.

why does my face still feel like i'm wearing a dust-mask? is it because i was wearing one for 4 out of 10 hours at work today?

why did my legs fall asleep today (both of them!) when i was sitting on the floor making grommets in a drop we're not even going to use in the show, then when i stood up to try to walk, did it feel like i was ice-skating?

why didn't i buy the shirt that said, 'st. paul is mentioned several times in the bible but it doesn't say anything about minneapolis' ? that's hilarious.

why can't i give up turkeyburgers?

these questions and so many more present themselves to me, as i sit in my 1/3rd of the way cleaned apartment......

my mom came over after yesterday's tenner to help me clean, sort, and pack. the day prior, i had lost my keys (they were under the stove, of course), and played in my first team guthrie softball game, also, after a tenner. so i'm pretty exhausted right now.

i know i should clean, but i'm too pooped. tomorrow, i have a half day, with a pic-a-nic thrown in, and a concert to go to in the evening. my sis arrives at some point tomorrow with her fiance. in two weeks, they'll be saying their I DO's. how exciting!

photos!

photo of matthew 'holding' michael. awww!


we are watching dumbo again. it's so cute to watch my nephew enjoy these movies my brother and sister and i used to love!

he acts out a whole portion of the Jungle Book just like his dad and i used to do as kids. it's hilarious.

fourth

enjoying the fourth of july in missouri, we drove down yesterday after i got done with work at noon. i found out i get to work there for a fourth week. yay!

anyway-the trip began with them picking me up at my apartment. my folks stopped at jimmy john's for me, and got me a turkey sandwich with ONLY lettuce and cukes, instead of NO lettuce and cukes but everything else, as i'd asked. it was tasty even with no mayo or anything else but a few shreds of lettuce. my dad ate the cukes (being immune to their hiccup powers) and lettuce and we were on the way.

we stopped at cabella's in monticello, where we marveled at the wildlife and bought me some new shoes as mine stink like crazee. the trip was mostly uneventful except for us hitting a giant hitch that fell off someone else's car, it fortunately didn't do any damage to our car (that we could see). my dad though has had a touch of the flu since getting here and he's laying pretty low.

spent the AM playing with my nephew matthew and holding my nephew michael-who is A-DOR-A-BLE yet gaseous. we asked matthew what animal says, 'meow', 'woof', etc, and my mom tried to make a trumpet noise but it came out more like a fart, 'what animal makes a thhhbbrrrbbbbrrrbbb noise?' 'MICHAEL!'

make it last............

i'm 2/3rds of the way done with my sewing job @ the G, and apart from a trip over the 4th to see my nephews and my sister's wedding at the end of the month, i have no other commitments for the month of july.

it's scary and exciting at the same time. i know that i NEED a job, but not having anything apart from writing and crafting is kind of special!

gotta make a decision on housing very soon. having a job makes physical location choice easier, and the application process smoother. how can you convince a landlord to let you rent when you have no steady income?

anyway.

today should be interesting. my sister and i are going thrifting and shopping for her upcoming wedding (we are sewing little gift bags for all the attendees), then to the RuPaul/Village People concert tonight. before that, i'm seeing a show at the bryant lake bowl and she's going to sell glo-sticks to the pride attendees. she thinks she's gonna make millions. good luck!

big schnozzes

two new animals are listed on my etsy site, using some safety eyes and noses i picked up a while back at artscraps. i love their huge noses!

that's rufus the hot dog over there. hi rufus!

first summer morning

i stayed out in hugo instead of driving home last night. what a gorgeous site to wake up to. the birds chattering, the dragonflies waking up....magical.

my back is killin' from the garden work yesterday. should be fun when i show up to work tomorrow hobbling. they will be tearing down 'a midsummer night's dream', which i didn't get to see this time, but it's the same designers and director as when i worked on the show in 2000 in chicago. i hope to snap up some crazy piece of mirror-covered scenery to use in the labyrinth!

going out to walk it with my coffee, then off to the farmer's market and back to my messy, messy apartment. got to finish up and list some jewelry.

Labyrinth 2.0 is finished!

my mom and dad and i tackled the redesign and it worked out just duckie!


we also took a quick canoe ride that ended with me getting completely soaked due to a malfunctioning motor and a quickly executed turn that sent a cascade of water over the edge of the boat. nothing like a canoe full of pond water at 8 PM in the evening!

solstice

so it's a lovely first-day-of-summer day, i'm enjoying the little birds at my parents' feeders and hoping they don't smack into the glass as i watch! i'm about to gather up some flowers to take back to town with me in my little red car. it's hot rod weekend in st. paul and i feel kind of sad about my dumpy little corolla. maybe i'll art it up with a decal or something fun. who knows.

so i got up at my new 'normal' time, 6 AM, even though I stayed up too late working on a new bracelet last night (photos later, if i finish it!). inspiration struck and i made a mer-dog for my friend sara's baby brynn. we met up at the farmer's market, and brynn started lovin' on the mer-dog right away. success!

came out and toured my parents' amazingly lovely gardens, and chatted with a few of their high school aged workers. they have a small army of landscapers/former students that have been instrumental in turning this place into eden.

we just got back from a picnic at my gram's care center, mom and dad are napping quick before we go out to try to tackle the re-make of the labyrinth. it got too overgrown with weeds, you can't see the lines at all. we're going to 'rock' the lines. hopefully my dad can still mow over them.

they have the most lovely fat bumblebees in the purple sage right outside their back windows. i wish i could have one as a pet.

just a quickie....

have to post a picture from my parent's gorgeous farm. more later

been a busy sewer...

i have been conscious to try and make new uglings out of the scraps i picked up off my floor, instead of cutting into whole sweaters. it is amazing how many finger puppets and whole birds i have gotten out of these scraps!

here is just a handful (er, rather, two handfuls) of birds. i dropped about 20 finger puppets off at i like you, and have given a few others away.

i'm going to try to make a few of these into a mobile. wish me luck!

oooh baby baby!

pic of michael thomas, my newest nephew!

romantica

after work on thursday, romantica is playin' a free live show downtown mpls.

i hope they break this out!

Michael is here!

I have a new baby nephew, no pictures to post yet, but I just got to view him on webcam and hear his older brother, Matthew, sing rock-a-bye baby to him. SOOOOO sweet!
He was born on Friday nite, and weighed 8 lbs 11 oz. Big baby!

Spring is amazing here in Minnesota, especially out at my parent's farm where I am doing my gram's laundry and stuff. Everything is green or blooming. Absolutely amazing.

I start a new job tomorrow at a place I've been trying to get hired for years. I'll be sewing curtains for the Guthrie's production of Little House on the Prairie, THE MUSICAL. I'm so excited, I don't know if I'll be able to sleep.

WHAT A WEEK!!!!!!!

New blog crush

Check out Meet me at Mike's!

What a cool store!

Been happy with my recent sales, and hopefully have some big news on the horizon!

garage sales and kitten tails

strange, my banner seems to be malfunctioning!

anyway-this is the little kitten who has gone to a new home.i had an amazing day of garage saling yesterday. i got pretty much everything i needed. while the umbrella was not free, it is sassy, red, and has tassles on it! and the woman assured me it's machine washable. which is good, because some birds have used it as target practice from the looks of it. contemplating sewing an alternate cover for it, red is one of my favorite decorating colors, but it's not part of my company's color scheme at all.

it needs a base, and as is, stands just about 6.5 feet tall, which is JUST a bit too short if i'm wearing any kind of shoe at all. gonna have to engineer some kind of a stand. i'm thinking a PVC pole in the ground, with a pin that i can use to secure it about 1-1.5 feet off the ground. that should work, right?

i also bought a gianormous basil plant at the farmer's market with sara in the am, and some yardage at my friend angela's garage sale; lovely lime green linen on a bolt and some fun prints and mohair scraps. found a few sweaters, and at the thrift store, some wooden blocks and another stripey GAP sweater. those puppies are getting harder to find!

quick nap at my house in st. paul, then dinner with old friends at a place down in bloomington. one girl is 9 months preggers and was having contractions at dinner, which she assured us was completely normal, but she looked very, very uncomfortable! i hope this babe comes out soon, for her sake!

i am still house sitting at my parent's farm, which is idyllic in the morning. tons of birds and other wildlife. they have eaten all the food from the feeders, and i have some friends coming out this afternoon to see the birds in action, so i better get out there and fill them up.
and feed the real live cats that live here too.

after church with my gram, i hope to get started on another round of paper mache birds, using the wood blocks as bases. if only there were enough hours in the day............

out tha door

i made some new animals, posted them this AM on etsy, and one has sold already! wow! the lighter, smaller kitten up there, is going to live with a new family.

begonia the bunny here is one of my favorite animals ever. it's gonna be hard to give her up, but i hope she finds a happy home too!

i have a backyard-garage sale next weekend, and an outdoor fair the weekend after. i'm looking for a more creative solution than the regular 10x10 pop-up display tent. in my mind, a fabulous fringed umbrella just shows up at my door. for free. wouldn't that be nice?

denouement

webster's online sez;

Main Entry:

de·noue·ment

Variant(s):

also dé·noue·ment \ˌdā-ˌnü-ˈmäⁿ, dā-ˈnü-ˌ\

Function:

noun

Etymology:

French dénouement, literally, untying, from Middle French desnouement, from desnouer to untie, from Old French desnoer, from des- de- + noer to tie, from Latin nodare, from nodus knot

Date:

1705

1 : the final outcome of the main dramatic complication in a literary work
2 : the outcome of a complex sequence of events


i am feeling a strong sense of the ending of a chapter of my life. school is letting out, and after last week's hellish 12-16 hour days getting ready for the department banquet, i'm ready to kiss it good bye.

i'm being told there may not be a need for me to return in the fall, nor any job for me to do over the summer. as you can imagine, i'm a little upset by this. i have to job hunt again. and i really hate job hunting.

there was a faint notion of me buying a house, but without a steady job and insurance, that's not going to happen.

on the craft front, i'm doing reasonably well at sales in real life and online. i do need to devote more time to updating my website and this blog though. i STILL don't have internet access at home, which, for a blogger, is ridiculous.

i have several house sitting gigs over the next few weeks, and sales as well. if i'm going to make a 'go' at being an artist, it's now or never. i guess.

Next Show:1 week away!

Crafters in formal wear. It's what everyone's dying to see, I know. I may even break out one of the tiaras......

Wumplings!

(wumpkitten, $20)
got a nice note on etsy from ashley, and we've been communicating back and forth about a possible swap of animals. check out her awesome work!

spent the earlier part of the AM at barnes and noble with a stack of magazines. i love selvedge. i wish it wasn't $20 per issue. one of the articles was on dolls and other playthings. i'm gonna start making more art dolls, and making more display pieces rather than playable animals. i think that's a good direction to focus, as the really detailed uglings take a lot of time to make and i worry that they will get destroyed as playthings......

bit the bullet

i just went ahead and filed my taxes. i couldn't figure out deductions.
i'm gonna have to hire an accountant from now on. i just don't have a brain for biznass.

the show at the skool opens tomorrow, i will be so glad when it's open and i can focus on making my own art for a while. the play is HILARIOUS but i'm excited for a real audience. i'm sure they're getting sick of me being the only one laughing.

i've got a handmaidens show on may 4th, and another outdoor craft fair on the 31st of may and 1st of june. i'm going to make some concrete mosaic stepping stones and bug picks to go in the garden, along with the duckies to go in the house.

TAXES!?!?!

OY! just got done filling out my turbotax (without business deductions) and it was shocking, sobering, and scar-i-fying.

yikes!

gotta buckle down and get a *real* job so i don't have to keep picking up all the independent contractor jobs that suck the taxes out in april. eeee!

early start

i woke up about 5, 5:30 this AM. after trying to get back to sleep, i gave up around 6 and started making a new robin. i got a lovely box of new sweater bits from a fellow crafter here in MN named julia, aka HAPPIFY
it's so nice to have new materials to work with-new colors and textures of sweaters. i've been thrifting for the latest show at school and i'm noticing that stores are putting away the winter gear. might have to explore using other materials in the duckies!

while sewing, i started watching the director's commentary on the illusionist, and quickly found out that while someone might be an interesting director or writer, it doesn't guarantee they'll be a good commentator on their own work. i had to stop watching it, he was just very dry and more like a narrator. now i own the prestige, and it's a movie i like much better, but i didn't spring for the special edition so i don't have chris nolan's commentary.

i guess you can't always get what you want.

so now i'm at the coffee shop, waiting for my friend to pick me up to go to the OTHER coffee shop, where my mosaic is located, so he can see it before he takes off for his family's farm.

work at 1. should be a fun day.

all in the timing

my younger self
would be shocked to see
the bouncing ball
that's become of me

wrapped in a blanket
dressing the same
introducing myself
with my middle name

friends at my locker
now living with toys
scattered at their feet
by their own girls and boys

dishes in the sink
clothes on the floor
i live on my own
but now have a door

the boys that i loved
are men now who move
away from here
with something to prove

i've befriended the ones
i thought i would marry
and the ones who were friends
hold a torch i'll never carry

alone in the same crowd
reaching out for a hold
coming up short
coming up cold

what would she tell me
this younger self
storing up memories
on a crumbling shelf

keep your eyes on the horizon
keep the shoes on your feet
i'll try to recognize you
if we ever do meet

it's time to get serious
and set down roots in this world
to start all over
grow up, little girl

you're getting too old
to be all alone
don't disappoint me
reflect the love that you're shown

hello CU!

Curious Oddities linked to Renata the Raven-hello to new readers!

Kat is also a fan of Steampunk! Whoo hoo!

In other news, I'm picking up a box of striped sweaters from a fan tomorrow, so look for new lovelies next week.

And mark your calendars for May 4th, the next Handmaidens show at the VFW in Uptown. Sweet!

awesome. that is all

from http://www.wolaver.org/animals/ . directed to it from icanhascheezburger

for keeps

sometimes i make something in the duckie uglings line that's just so darn cute, i can't bear to part with it. this is a problem when i'm trying to a. make money at this and b. downsize my apartment. but i always have a few favorite animals around to inspire and encourage me.


i'm not saying that it's easy to party with everything i make-their personalities start to come out and sometimes it's even hard to sew on them-they start to come alive and i worry that i'm hurting them. HA!


here are two recent animals that are just gonna be too hard to send off in the mail. often times these keepers end up going to family members or friends, so i can still visit them on occasion!

about a month ago, i made the cardinal. there's just something about his face or that magical lace, i just don't know.








kazi is named after my godmother's siamese cat, she had a sister named kama that i never remembered, but kazi lived to be like 23 or something. she was an awesome cat!

for now, these two are stayin' with me.

New Birdies

Just posted a bunch of the new birds I've been working on, over at my Etsy store.

I'm very proud of them! They are taking on a much more regular, recognizable look.

I was watching a lot of Cirque du Soleil DVDs as I worked on them, can you tell?

catching up

chicago was lovely, as always. my sister is blissfully happy, and in lurve with a gentle, amazing man. lucky!

yesterday was an awesome day. stayed home from work and made birds all day. then at night, i got to go to the BON JOVI concert, thanks to jason. man, i couldn't ask for a better best friend!

spring has arrived in MN. the thorn trees outside my building at work are full of chirping birdies. as i walk by them, i do a little trick i taught myself when i used to frequent pet stores, wishing i could own a chickadee of my own.

i 'click' at them with my tongue. back of the mouth, curl up the lip. know what i mean?

anyway. i click at them for maybe 3 or 4 seconds, and they INSTANTLY quiet down. i'm sure i'm swearing at them in their language, who knows. anyway. instantly the cacophony dies down, and they are silent. then in about 8 seconds, it's started up again. it's magical. it never fails to make me smile, that for a few minutes anyway, i'm speaking the language of the birds.

i'll try to get video of it so you can see what i mean.

bye bye birdie

This little Eggling is on his way to a new home! Two more remain, and I hope to add a few more when I get back from Chicago next week.
I'm taking the others (that didn't photograph well, but were super cute) to a store/gallery that might pick up some Duckies too. Exciting! And then on Friday, I leave for the Windy City!

arching my spine

once i had finally made up my mind to be a teacher, the universe started offering me other alternatives.

things that had probably always been floating around, but now, that i had chosen another path, they have landed at my feet and started to peck at my toes.

more people seem to be interested in my animals and art, which is absolutely amazing. and due to the bad economy, more storefronts than ever are vacant. i have to remind myself, they are vacant for a reason-and that starting my own store is probably not the best idea.

but sitting at B&N with my friend andrea, planning her wedding flowers, made me realize how much i truly do love art, design, and construction. how can i give that up?

i'm having second, third, and fourth thoughts about choosing to teach. high school. english.

and i'm stuck between hair lengths right now. this photo was taken like a month and a half ago-my hair is now past my chin. i hate this two-month period or so where i have to decide. should it stay or should it go?

New Egglings!

Just made some mini-birds and put them in plastic Easter eggs...I'm calling them Duckie Egglings of course!

Check my etsy site for more info!

DONE!!!

The mural has been done for like a week and apparently nothing has fallen off of it. whew!

Go check it out!

it is (almost) finished

The mural at the coffee shop is *almost* done. If you want to visit it, it's in the almost-finished Dunn Brothers Coffee shop at Oak and Washington on the U of M campus. If you look in the windows, you get a great view of it! You can see images of the install here

I have to go back later today and grout the seam lines and the new corner pieces I glued on yesterday, after it was up. It's so amazing to see it UP on the wall, and how great the colors look with the paint and other finishes that Nikki chose.

The guys that helped me out, Kelly and T-man, were amazing. They ground down the edges to make them straight, and were very patient with me and the piece. I wouldn't have been able to do it without them! However, I did learn that I probably didn't need to leave open edges-in a lot of cases we just drilled right through a grouted open spot. But how was I to know? They also gave me lots of advice on my *next* mural. Anyone need one? HA!

Today I have about a billion errands to run for my show tomorrow. This is the final week for costumes and props for the latest show at the skool, which is going to require me making about 600 fake pieces of mail. And Friday, I leave for Florida with my family! Yippeeeeeeee!

in a strange place

have spent the bulk of the day at the coffee shop, wrestling with microsoft's latest evil version of WORD. i hate, hate, hate it. give me the old familiar version! PLEASE!?!?!?!

but i finally got the maps for the handmaidens show finished. yayy!

my sleep cycles have been screwed up majorly. staying up way too late or getting up way too early. the dude who lives above me has been watching movies or basketball games until 2-3 in the morning. and being a good minnesotan, i am too shy to go up there and ask him to please keep it down.

yesterday i slept maybe 4 hours? i woke up about 4:30 AM and started to read 'a thousand splendid suns', which i finished last night, around 3 AM. it was really good, very touching, and it convinced me in a strange way, that i want to go back to school to become an english teacher.

so yes, the strong interest inventory i took 2 years ago, and tim's consistent insistence were right, it is my destiny.

i've signed a lease for another 6 months at my apartment, but they don't allow students to live there, so depending on the program i choose, i may or may not be able to stay.

my thinking now is that i should rent the cheapest living space possible, and have a separate studio space.

oy.

attack!

(two of my favorite stuffed animals ever! Cat and Crow, both will be available at my sale on the 10th!)

well my fingers have been healing and returning to their normal color since the great grouting incident of aught-eight. they are still really tender and the middle right finger keeps bleeding, but for the most part, i've stopped wearing a million bandaids.

the installation is now going to take place on saturday the 9th. then, on the 10th, is my show at the VFW in uptown. we've gotten over 50 vendors signed up, and i've been adding info to the blog and am going to be making a map for folks to take home, so no one has to worry about their contact information being lost! brilliant, eh?

i'm also making duckieuglings.com buttons for the show. i am going back and forth about selling them or giving them out. each animal gets one attached to their back with the price tag fastened to that, and if anyone buys jewelry i'll give them one too. but should i sell the other ones for like 50 cents or just give them to folks for free? i just don't know!

lastly, i'm bringing two of my gumball machines to the sale, and loadin' them up with M&M's. YUM!

drawing to a close

i spent last night hangin' out with my folks and watching the biggest loser. i've never seen the show before, but jason really wants us to apply.

but then the whole world is going to know i'm fat! (/sarcasm)

well the mosaic has been quite the learning process. i've been working in a roughtly counter clock-wise spiral progression from the lower right corner and back around, and I can see how early on i wasn't doing such a great job of fitting the pieces together, using too much adhesive, etc. but i got a lot better as the piece went on. and now i'm into one of the final stages, grouting.

grouting has never been my favorite process, and it's funny that it's GOT to be last. i am known for leaving unpleasant tasks until the last minute, say cleaning my house right before a party instead of doing it gradually over time. i don't know of anyone who LIKES to do unpleasant tasks first, but it is ironic that you can't HELP but do this one last.

i've got the coffee cups done, but i do have a pretty major gash on my left index finger. as i was grouting little streaks of orange-red kept showing up, i had cut my finger thru the rubber glove, and it was now seeping out into the grout. ish.

i had underestimated the amount of black grout i am going to need so i have to run up to home depot in forest lake or white bear to pick up some more. bummer! i don't want to over buy, but i don't want to have to make another supply run in the middle of the project.

8:30 PM-I have finished the grouting! It looks AWESOME, in my opinion.

i have sacrificed 4 fingertips to the slicey parts sticking up on the surface however, and my hands are stained black, too. But it's worth it!

Now, I just have to screw it to the wall at the coffee shop, cover up the screws, and re-grout the lines between the panels. Another 4 hours of work, and it'll be DONE!

strange....and progress on the mosaic

Well it's been UNSEASONABLY warm here in MN, like 40 degrees when it's normally supposed to be 10-15. Everything's thawing, but I know this is just temporary. There were tornados in Wisconsin yesterday. How bizarre.

I have to resign my lease for my current apartment on Thursday. My goal is to be in a new house next year in March. I hope it happens, there's a lot of financial crap that has to happen before that, though. I'm going to make it a goal this year to make MORE money off art. I made a new stuffed bear last night, then worked on a cat (which I wasn't liking, so I abandoned). I've been doing that a lot more lately, making one leg, then not making the second, making one arm, and then changing the design for the next. Gonna have to make some frankenstein animals for Halloween!

Along those lines, the mosaic mural is coming along well! Although, I'm not feeling this URGENT need to work on it. Today I'm not going into the college at all, my goal was to work on the mosaic all day, and in reality I've only done about 1.5 hours of work on it. First, I smoothed out/removed some tiles from the first large coffee cup, that were sticking up too far. Then I removed the handle off another one, that looked really out of place.

I've gotten to a point where I need to go get more adhesive, so it's a good stopping place, but I'm wondering if I need to re-think the number and size of the coffee cups I have.

Keep in mind, this is a 10 foot long, 6 foot high piece. Below is my plan, it has deviated slightly from this design. Each coffee cup has a border of color, the one in the upper left is totally blue and white. The paisleys in the background are going to be really fun, and I'm grouting them in black for more contrast. The steam rising from the coffee cups is going to be made from mirrored glass.

To see the progress, check out my Flickr.com account.

Goodwill Bounty

Ok these are some of the treasures from Goodwill on New Year's Day.

A slightly cracked Le Cruset teapot, half-off $3.99. The purse was 1/2 off $4.99, and I think the plate was 1/2 off of $1.00. Brilliant!

And here are some shots of my first wool felt pillow. I really like how it turned out. I am planning on making a second one with blue, white, and bits of red, to go with my couches and rug.

startin' off right

starting off 2008 pretty superbly, if i do say so myself. aside from my laptop being confiscated by the geek sqaud for 2-3 weeks, that is. my cold is almost gone, and it feels so good to be not SICK anymore. i cleaned/arranged/moved stuff/washed everything around my apartment yesterday. i think i might have people over this weekend as a motivator to get it TOTALLY clean and spiffy. we'll see.

a trip to goodwill yesterday yielded a wealth of treasures, all at 50% off! i had to pass up the gravity boots, (which, i've never seen in person. WOW) because i can't hang anything from my ceiling, me included.

photos coming tomorrow. i didn't think quick enough to take snaps before i left the house.

i'm starting work on the mosaic tomorrow too.

tonight, i plan on making a pillow to match the one i made last night. i used several sweaters in its construction, i may be offering them for sale in the future, but A LOT of work goes into one of those babies!

on the mend

well it turns out my headache was the precursor to a NASTY cold, one that laid me flat for over 24 hours. today i'm feeling much better, but it hasn't been without a lot of nastiness, including 2/3rds a jar of vicks vapo-rub, a whole roll of TP used as kleenex, and about 5 cans of chicken noodle soup (organic, of course).

i did use the time to make a bunch of new animals though-i'm at the coffee shop right now uploading the photos to my etsy store. click on the photos at right if you want to see more.

i think the key to getting over the hump were the delicious breakfast nachos i had yesterday AM at Bonfire Grill in st. paul. i met my sister and her boyfriend, and my parents, for breakfast and discovered the most genius invention EVER: chilaquiles, breakfast nachos.

i don't have many resolutions this year-except to make MORE of an effort to exercise, keep my apartment cleaner, and eat less crap. more fruits and veg, less pasta and nachos. but the discovery of chilaquiles may hamper those efforts.

Lull....

I've made two more birds, and started a third, but for some reason my creative juices seem to be dry right now. The two came out OK, but I had to remake the wings on the third one, and decided to leave the house without giving it legs, a beak, or wings. Poor little thing.

Gotta recharge after the holidays. Get a normal schedule again. Prep for my mosaic. Oy. that's gonna be tough! A six foot high, 10 foot long mural using pottery, tiles, etc.

Went to the Frida Kahlo show at the Walker yesterday. It was awesome, of course, what a life she had.

I've got a pretty raging headache today. I wonder if it's lending to my lack of crafting enthusiasm. Or if it's the other way around.

Christmas in Minnie

Oh, what a picture perfect holiday it's been.

My sister and her boyfriend are in from Chicago, and my brother and his wife and 21 month old son are in town from Missouri. We've all enjoyed a gorgeous, snowy day out at my folks' farm out in the country.

The food was fantastic, the gifts were wonderful, and the gathering of family has been so enjoyable! I wish every day were Christmas, but then, would it be as special? I tried to give as many handmade gifts as possible, I did pretty well, well over half of what I gave was either handmade or recylced, everyone got some kind of a bag for shopping for groceries, hopefully our family will use fewer plastic shopping bags this year.

Merry Christmas to any and everyone who's reading the blog!

3 yetis and a 'squatch

For Timo! Enjoy!

New Uglings!

Well I had a fantastically productive couple of days here, and I whipped out a bunch of new Uglings.

Visit my etsy.com store and check them out!

Barnum and Bailey, monkey siblings, available separately are pictured here.

What is art?

From Aardman Animation, the wonderful folks behind Wallace and Grommit, and Flushed Away, comes this hilarious video.

Just getting settled, and.....

I've started my more permanent administrative job @ NWC now, it's just a lot of getting to know how the various departments work, where to get a PO from, etc. It's a steep learning curve, but it's going OK.

Our Handmaidens Craftmas show was un. be. lieveable. I had a fantastic response from everyone, and sold all but two animals. I brought along some sweaters to work on small bits if I had time, and I ended up selling polar bears RIGHT off the tree! I hope to bring some more in to I Like You this upcoming week, for anyone who needs a last-minute gift.

I made a new bag for my laptop, with red, black, and red sparkle vinyl, lined with black-n-white dots and with a child's safety seat strap and foam inserts (thanks ax-man) and a new flamingo.

I made my Christmas list, and boy, do I have a lot of work to do before the big day! Got to get to knittin'!

There's some exciting news in the pipeline regarding a more permanent live/work space, but I'll just leave you with this for now. GO BEARS!

A month? Really?

Wow. I have been really busy with Seussical. A whole month has passed since I last blogged, and there's some exciting new developements in my artistic journey!

But first, I'm having an absolutely lovely day. I finished up Eat, Pray, Love this Am, which I started on Friday night. A very interesting book about food, forgiving yourself, and learning to be one with God and the universe. Then I took a walk around my neighborhood and discovered a community garden and a park I had never known about, both within about a 10 minute walk from my house. The garden still had so many vegetables and fruits growing in it, even though we've had several nights of frost. I watched a fat little bumblebee looking in vain for a flower, though he must have missed the last of the roses that were growing just outside the fence.

It's what we call 'Indian Summer' here in MN, which is the last hurrah of good weather before the cold, rainy, sleety, then snowy weather commences. I'm going to soak up as much of it, as I possibly can. A family of little birds has nested immediately above my door though so I can't just prop open the door and let the good air in, as I'm worried I'll have a feathered roommate in no time.

On the art front, I won a mosaic mural commission, co-planning a massive craft sale in early December, and building a website for a friend of mine in exchange for life coaching. All in all, I think it's a good deal for me! Slowly I've been making more and more stuffed animals, they all have their own fun personalities and expressions, it's hard to part with them sometimes!

And, for my birthday in 3 days, I'm getting my very own laptop. YAYY!! I'm so excited to have my own computer, I think it's going to do wonders for my writing, art, and marketing of said art.