the order is out tha door!

watched the michael jackson tribute today and finished up the bibelot order. i'm so happy with how everything turned out!






GARDEN PHOTOS! here's a few quick photos of the veggie garden. tomorrow, the 'secret garden' and the labyrinth!







right outside the door of the studio we have these gorgeous orange/pink daylillies. and there's about 6 million tadpoles swarming around in the little pond in the secret garden. i've been feeding them lettuce from the garden, and i swear they double in size each day.

i love to watch the progress of both of these living things-the bursting of the pods into flowers and the growing of these little living commas into hopping frogs....i'm still not allowed to bring the taddies into the studio but i keep asking. it'd save me a lot of time!

not gone..

just..you know....being my normal busy self.

i am working my little fingers to the nubbins to get this bibelot order out the door. also trying to spend a little time every day sweating, be it in the garden or on a bike. i need to treat my body better than i have in the past few years, even though i'm down like 20 lbs from my absolute heaviest, i NEED to shed some fluff. if only it were as easy as repairing an overstuffed stuffed animal...find a seam, cut the threads, remove some stuffing, and re-sew. the problem is that the stuffed animals don't stuff their faces each chance they get. much like i have been doing lately. boo!

the garden is coming along VERY nicely, and the tadpoles in the small pond are growing very nicely. my parents have two garden tours coming up, so they have been working THEIR fingers to the nubbins getting ready for that. they have a small army of former students who come out to toil in the fields as well, but man can my parents work! they are up super early and go to bed super late. i guess retirement isn't so relaxing after all!

PS that lil' guy up there was a gift to my cousin's son. I realized that though he's my facebook photo, not everyone is on FB and hadn't seen him! If you are on Facebook, become a fan of Duckie Uglings for lots of news and updates, 'kay?

rainy days and news!!!

matthew, michael, julie and chip are visiting us, after we spent a weekend in Missouri celebrating the little guy's first birthday! betsy and david also came last weekend, so I've been living in the studio, literally and figuratively.
it's been either raining cats and dogs or broiling hot while they've been here, but we've had lots of fun on the gator, hanging out at big marine park, playing with turtles we find out in the wetlands, or with inside toys on the days it's too rainy to go outside.

one of the highlights of this trip included a visit to the como zoo, were we got to meet this little guy, who it turns out, is not so little. his eyelashes are almost as long as michaels or matthews.

in other news....i had a very exciting meeting with the buyers for one of my very favorite stores, and they placed an order!!!! Bibelot will now carry a selection of Duckie Uglings in their 4 Twin Cities stores!!!! you can still find the one-of-a-kind duckies at truly and i like you, and the Beeb will carry my small-edition creatures! OMG so exciting!!!

Red Hot, Cold and Wet...

(from this flickr pool)

it rained. it froze. it was still a blast.

i misplaced my camera for a few days so i apologize for the lack of original photos of red hot art, which was super fun and moderately successful, and of the wedding of two of my former students, which i did the flowers for, which was phenomenally fun and exciting.

after driving for about 10 hours and working for two weeks to get ready for the show, i was pretty exhausted and spent most of last week cleaning, doing laundry, sleeping, etc. i apologize for not blogging more frequently, i'm gonna work on it. ;)

we are in MO right now to celebrate michael's first birthday, photos to follow i promise!!!

red hot art in two weeks!

sorry blog!

been working at the G again, running around doing errands, destroying books for set dressing, sorting 'mike and ikes' to look like pills, things of that nature. my body is KILLING me, i'm not used to lugging furniture, climbing ladders, yanking out staples....i awake every morning with fresh aches and new bruises going 'where did that come from?' and realizing how old i really am....

our show opened at the BLB friday, i think it was moderately well received. as with any play, there were some behind-the-scenes snafus but honestly i don't think the audience cared. you have three more chances to catch the show if you are in MN....

while propping our show at my fave thrift store in minneapolis, i came across an awesome toy sewing machine. i think it's missing a few parts but i would LOVE to get it working again...how great to have a little portable like that?

over the weekend, my folks went down to take care of the little guy; julie was going to take matthew to chip's archery teams' national competition in kentucky, but then he got very sick so my folks just went to keep michael away from matthew as much as possible. they came back late saturday nite, but i was already at john haynes' show and then celebrated jyksgiving.

mother's day was spent with my gram, we took her to church, then culver's in forest lake. afterwards my folks and i went to STAR TREK. it was freaking awesome and everyone should see this movie. that is all i will say about that.

one more little photo to leave you with, a group of birdies that i will be selling @ RED HOT ART in stevens square park. after last year, i realized i needed some more things in the 'under $20' category, so here are some little $10-12 birdies on a rhubarb leaf.

Loadin' up the shop...

just listed a buncha new animals on my etsy site, it's been really fun making these little monsters and such. a new chicken is also pictured, she's going to a private collector. dropping her off tomorrow while running prop errands for our show that opens on friday at the bryant lake bowl, which is gonna be so totally awesome.....

tuesday i'm helping with a friends' wedding invites and favors, finishing up the murals in edina, dropping off my art for the preview for Red Hot Art, and then going to tech rehearsal. Wednesday, I will be napping all day.

katzen ploofens

largish cats, the small one has a white angora belly and green eyes, the bigger guy is made from just about an entire sweater's body shrunk down. one of them might get to go live in bermuda! wish he could take me along.....

i like you too!

yay-the store is grandly opened!
what a fun nite, lots of supporters of local art stopped by. two of my parachuting mice had sold earlier in the day, i hope the folks who took them home give those little guys a good home ;)
here are links to a few photos of the store, snapped by some very talented ladies.
and here's one of my own snaps of the wall above the door. sarah put old book covers up and they look absolutely amazing. if you are ever in the NE minneapolis, you need to check it out. if you come on a saturday, chances are good i'll be working! it's just down the street from my first 'office' job, at magnetic poetry, and it's so weird to be back in that neighborhood after all of the change it's been through.

we visited my gram this AM, she was doing SO much better, then we went to her church, my parent's church, and then to red lobster. i think my favorite part was the family that came in just before us, the little 3 year old boy gawping at the tank full of live (but not for much longer) crustaceans and shouting 'wook at that wobster's cwaws! they're huge!!!' . runner up to that would be the women behind us, complaining to the manager that their meals were too salty...she tried to explain that they didn't season the seafood with salt because it was already salty, having come from the ocean and all, but that she would let the cooks know they got some extra salty crabs and they should let people know. even though they complained, they still both took home their leftovers.

collected the key from my next house sitting job in WBL, and came back here to read the internet, play some games, watch some videos (including dr. horrible, now i know what all the fuss was about), etc. nursed a window-struck bird back to health (in reality, just put it on a piece of newspaper so it wouldn't have to lay on the ground as it recovered), watched a mexican standoff between two blue herons, an egret, and a canada goose in the pond out back, and now, am contemplating going to bed with the sound of real rain instead of my noise machine's version of it.

will possibly be going back to work @ the G for a few days this week, but it could also work out that they don't need me. i've got some new projects and ideas brewing in the studio that i'm excited about, and there's the little matter of cleaning the highland park house before the house sitting folks return on tuesday. .....

the good news...

turns out my grandma was being over medicated by the nursing home staff. phew! she's going to be fine. i'm still spending tomorrow and sunday hanging out with her, but it's a relief to all of us to know it's as simple as that.
thanks to all for your support and good thoughts!

don't know what to say....

my grandma is .......she's 90 years old, and things just don't work the way they're supposed to sometimes. i mean, it happens to all of us, this wearing out and breaking down.
i just don't want it to happen to her. anyone, really.

i'm stripping down my weekend plans to spend most of the weekend with her....i don't want to miss out on quality time with my gram....

feelin' groovy

been overhired at the G again. love, love, love that job. one minute i'm arranging silk flowers, then i'm re-weaving a basket that has broken half its rim off, the next i'm digging out a mattress from the warehouse. it fits my crazy non-concentrational mind just perfectly!

i seem to start a lot of posts with 'been super busy lately...' so i'm not going to start this one with that. but it's still true. since getting back from my fantabulous visit to chicago, it's been nonstop ACTION!!! must be the new haircut.....

the new location for I Like You opened on Friday, i stopped in to help run the register a bit and finish up the last-minute bits and bobs of getting it open. saturday i did an earth-day deal at a park in NE minneapolis for artscraps, we made buttons with sticky-back vinyl and recycled grand old days buttons. there weren't a ton of folks but the people who did come made some AWESOME buttons. the folks from the MN raptor center came too and once those owls and hawks came out, the button making fell off the radar of the assembled earth-day-celebrators, how can you compete with raptor action?

so after i was out-awesomed by the flying birds of prey, i swung by the store again and had lunch/dessert/coffee with my friends janie and andrea. saturday nite i went back up to hugo, stayed over sunday and worked on the website for the store and really didn't do much workin' in the studio, as i had hoped to do. i'm trying to figure out a $10 price-range item that folks like and i can make in a short enough amount of time to make it worth my while! the finger puppets i made a while back were fun but i was spending almost an hour on each one there towards the end...stupid perfectionism!

i found out earlier in the day that i'm getting a FREE table at the st. paul art crawl this weekend, which is awesome, but it also means i've gotta get my rear in gear and crank out some ANIMALS.

OH and also awesome, my DALA HORSE pattern has been chosen to be in a book! same folks that are doing the one-yard wonders, Crafty Planet, are working on a "green" crafting book as well! how cool is that! so my instructions will be modified slightly to emphasize the recycling aspect of the project...stay tuned!

Easter in Chicago (well, Indiana)

The Glitter Eggsplosion, Starring my sister Betsy.
Setting: The sandy yard outside my sister's husband's aunt and uncle's place (in the town where they met).
Activity: Puff painting pre-dyed Easter Eggs in the morning sunshine.

Exactly thirty seconds before this photo was taken, my sister exclaims, "These damn glitter ones never work right....." as she's squeezing the heck out of the glitter paint tube of Puffy Paint.
I hear a sound like a shotgun going off and look over to see this. The tube had gotten clogged and the nozzle just shot off the tube of paint, looking like a giant glitter crapping seagull had hit the table and the egg. Before I got paper towels to clean it up, I had to get a picture.....
Miraculously, she only got a smidgen of this stuff on her clothes. We got a lot of laughs out of it!

Betsy and David are off to Mexico with 12 of her students, to build houses in Mexico! That means Berkley, Raja, and I are chillaxing for a few days in Chicago. I can't believe how much this pooch has grown. He's such a cutie and a total cuddler.

keepin' it real

matthew turned 3 (!) so a party in missouri was in order.

my nose is dripping, i think it's just allergies, not the cold i usually get following a weekend with my lovely nephews.

the new i like you location is coming together, spent the day over there helping out where i could.

i've learned to crochet and i totally am hooked (sorry for the terrible pun, but it's true).

i went to the textile arts center after working at the store and was totally inspired by the show that's up right now.

check out this piece made from pheasant and peacock feathers!

a few new animals.

i know that i can't, and shouldn't keep everything that i make. since, you know, i am trying to make a living at this. but here are some animals that are gonna be pretty tough to let go......

the chicken and the grey dog are going to TRULY in white bear lake, the little blue bear will be a keeper for a little longer and the orange guy....i'm not sure. i don't know what kind of animal he is either; a mutated ewok, an otter from mars, i just don't know.

A tisket, a tasket...

....an easy knitted basket!

I got the hankering to whip out the knittin' sticks last week and this is what I came up with...
It's super easy and it's also reversable.

Plus, you get to do some felting!

This will be going to my nephews as their easter basket, it kind of looks like a kid's hat with chinstrap before you felt it.


You'll need:
Some wool yarn, brownish in color. I used two strands of wool/alpaca held together, and it made a very nice and dense basket after just minimal felting.

Some needles in gauge with your yarn ( I used 10's)

A yarn needle to weave your ends in.

CAST ON: 44 stitches, always slip the first stitch and count as a 'knit' stitch for a cleaner edge. work k3 p1 ribbing for 6 inches (or about 4/3rds as high as you want your finished basket to be). To decrease for the bottom, k1, k2tog, p1 across width. On return, k2tog, k1 across width, then finish by k2tog on final pass. Break yarn with a 12 inch tail, and send through remaining stitches to gather bottom. Stitch up sides of basket and weave yarn tail into basket.

HANDLE: With a new piece of yarn, anchor 5 stitches in the side of the basket (i don't know if this is even a legit knitting technique, but it's basically like picking up stitches) and knit an icord for about 12 inches. Attach to the other side of the basket and bury end of yarn.

Now the fun part....FELTING! My favorite method is still to throw it in the washing machine on the HOTTEST cycle, and check on it after the first go-round in the spin cycle. I usually end up doing sweaters for longer than knitted items, they tend to shrink pretty quick. Be sure to use soap and also to include towels or other items to help agitate the fibers.

I tried to felt it in the sink and it just got bigger and bigger so my parents relented and let me use their washing machine (they are concerned about wool fibers floating around the house) so it shrunk down to a nice size. You can also place a small bowl inside as it dries to help it keep its shape.

That's it! Any other kintters out there, if you make one of these little guys let me know! Post your own photos, ok?

I want to play!

I am combining the facebook and other 'net meme in this post.

OK here are the rules, the first 5 people to comment on this post will receive a handmade item from yours truly. It will be smallish, I'm not gonna lie, but it will be handmade and it will be fabulous!

The first 5 folks to comment below will get an e-mail back from me, wherein I confirm your winner status and then ask for your mailing address.
That's it!

Thanks for playing!

Gotten a bit busy...

My folks are back from their vacay, but they have left again to visit my bro's family in missouri. so while i'd gone back to housesitting for a few days in highland, i'm back up in hugo, again. haven't been in the studio to work yet though. hopefully tomorrow i'll get to some animals.

but i'm also working on a mural project with kids down in edina at the middle school, which is 40 minutes away. which means a one hour twenty minute round trip, on a good day. which, because of road construction season ramping (!) up, means there are no good days to drive in minnesota in the spring. boo!

i'm feeling the urge to do some knitting, i have de-comissioned my winter hat (seen in my profile photo) because i've been told it makes me look sloppy. the string holding the top has broken and i haven't fixed it. it will become a neck warmer next winter, i love how soft it is and i don't want to frog it. so i'm thinking of knitting this cute little topper- although the needle size is freaky-small so i may adapt it to larger needles and larger yarn. or mayhaps i'll do what i always do, make up my own pattern......
(EDIT) Ok maybe i'll do this one, not in yellow though.....

more new animalz

half of these little guys have made their way onto etsy, the other half will be posted tomorrow....?

in other news, i got some suuuuuper cute little baby shoez up in lindstrom today, one of those scissors that has 5 blades in one (don't know what i'm going to use it for just yet but i had to have it!) and some other sundry supplies at the thrift and antique stores up there. stimulating the local economy, right?

i think i may have found a good source for sew-on patches, i hope it pans out! i'm LOVING not having to name these little guys myself ;)

New Animalz!

I taught a felt animals class @ Truly.... last night, and one of my students (who happens to be a long-lost family friend!) asked me to make some animals for gifts. I was happy to oblige! Another student came along for dinner after the class and the three of us had a super great time talking about our neighborhood, school, kids, jobs, so much more. Totally fun! I look forward to more fun times with these ladies, they were a hoot and very talented rabbit makers, too!

Anyway. Here are the photos. I will be making several more monsters in this style, and I am looking for more name patches because I love how Phil turned out! I've got three more patches out in the studio, we'll see how productive I am today.

New to me....

Just wanted to share a few amazing things I've found, on the internet, or in the real world, in just the past few days. Just because they're new to me I am obsessed with them.

Dean Lucker is a MN-based artist, who created a very funky coin operated kinetic sculpture at the Como Zoo. His studio partner, Ann Wood, (not to be confused with this Ann Wood) creates amazing works of collage too. Their studio is mere steps away from my old apartment, I wish I would have known about them when I lived there!

New baby emperor tamarins, also at the Como Zoo! My photos were teh suck so here's one from the Zooborns.com website.

Thru-You is a website where an Israeli DJ named Kutiman remixed dozens of clips from You Tube into new songs/videos. I can, and have, listened to this all day.

Juxtapoz magazine. Capturing urban art, the melding of toys and art, and the new faces of the scene. I've thumbed thru it before, but just recently have taken to reading it in full.

In other news....going back up to Hugo for a few days while my folks are off to an east coast wedding. I am looking forward to sleeping in my own (temporary) bed, and having my fully stocked studio space to work in. While it's POSSIBLE to sew and work here, I always find myself thinking "I wish I had ___" and of course, what I want is up in Hugo. I have a class on Felt Animal Making on Tuesday at Truly, but no one has signed up for it yet so I don't know if it's a go or not.

photos. not so great. but it's 10 on a friday. what do you want?

lil grey dog. one foot is lilac like her eye patch.

i have spent a few nights on the couch sewing. my days are spent over at the new I Like You space helping them spruce it up, put up shelves, mosaicing the bathroom floor, things of that nature.
not feeling like taking the time to set up beautiful, artful, well lit shots of my new animals. so here are some crap-dash photos for you to enjoy. *real* photos coming soon. i promise.

stitchy little owls. grey wool felt with strange brownish woven fabric i got from a friend, and brownish tweed that i think was a jacket at some point. they both feature reverse applique. i sewed the heart-shaped patch on to the reverse of the fabric, then cut out the face and reinforced it with decorative stitching. me likey.

When it rains....

TWICE this past week Duckie Uglings were featured on the television! On two different stations!!!
http://www.wcco.com/video/?id=56099@wcco.dayport.com
Look for my stuff at 2:49 and 2:50, then a few more shots around the store
http://www.showcaseminnesota.com/show/client_article.aspx?storyid=540296
No timestamp on this one, and the sound cuts out halfway through, so I've asked for a transcript so I can find out what they are saying!

Thanks to my folks and Jason who spotted these blurbs!

Second Batches....

I made two loaves of bread from the wild yeast starter that I made last week. Typical, I was impatient and didn't knead it enough or let it rise high enough. It tasted delish but was a little...well...thick.

The second loaf was a little higher, because it was a larger portion to begin with. But I learned some valuable lessons off my first attempt.

The second attempt is bubbling away on the countertop as I type, I've fed it a little new flour, some filtered water, and some honey. I'm going to amp up the garlic factor in this one with some real actual garlic instead of just garlic salt, so I hope that helps cut the sourness.

In other exciting food news, I got a stovetop espresso maker at Barnes and Noble for like 75% off. They were practically paying me to take it! I made a pot of it the other day up in Hugo, the instructions said to throw out the first batch but my dad was like let's try it, and....OOOF. Tasted like a factory floor. The second batch was much better!

And the second round of Inappropriate Laughter was last nite, it went...well..unevenly! They laughed at new spots and didn't laugh at old spots. Comedy is hard, man!

I have been laid up with a cold all week, it finally broke yesterday morning but it caused a lot of sleepless nights. Ugh. I still don't understand why we have to get colds! We've put a man on the moon, can't we solve the common cold!?!?!?

I'm felting up some sweaters I got at the GW today, they are going into a dog and an owl for some high school FB friends' kids! Whoo hoo!

Valentines and other indoor activities

Inappropriate Laughter opened Thursday nite. It went relatively well, if you don't count the fact that the CD I burned for the music and sound cues didn't work and I had to run back to the highland house to pick up my laptop. The round trip from the BLB and back took about an hour. So instead of running lines or relaxing I was stuck in traffic.
But earlier in the day, we had gotten the extremely good news that my dad's friend's cancer surgery was a success, no spread of the cancer and they are sure they got it all. So I just kept the attitude that 'you know what, this is not a huge disaster, there are much bigger fish to fry' and it kept me calm and sane as I waited for each light on Lake Street to turn green.....

Later that night, Chip and Julie and the boys arrived at Hugo just as I did. I was awoken Friday AM by my cherubic little nephew Matthew, we proceeded to play with his little brother Michael, make cookies, get ready for Betsy and David to arrive, and prepare for my gram's 90th Birthday Party on Saturday! David wrote her a song, which made all the women present cry! And my Uncle Jim came in from CA to celebrate too. We had a great dinner and about 4 different kinds of deserts. My gram was really honored to have us all there, and I know it was a big effort for all the out of town folks to come. What a great way to spend Valentines, although I am sick of spending it as a single. ha!

More playing with the boys yesterday (when you ask Matthew a question he doesn't know the answer to, he says either "me no know" or "i got it for my birthday" which is adorable), then they left around 12. I took a nice long nap, then hung out with Betsy and David in the afternoon and ate way too many delish cookies.
Took a nice long walk with Betsy and David this AM out in the wetlands behind the house, loafed around by myself after they left, and now have returned to the House Sitting House to find my sourdough starter boiling like a 4th Grade Science Fair volcano! I've mixed up a loaf (I hope!) and it's sitting out to rise for the first time. Tomorrow at this time, I will hopefully be baking my first two sourdough loafs! I will report on their taste if they are edible.

Hopefully going to see CORALINE again this evening....and tomorrow....I swear....I'm gonna make some new animals. Just gotta recover from the weekend, first.

Life on the Rollercoaster...

I had a great weekend. Run, don't walk, to your closest 3-D theater to see CORALINE.
Or just spend hours on the amazing website. Oh how I wish I had been born a stop-motion animator.....
So my car wouldn't start yesterday AM. Turns out the distributor cap and spark plugs and wires went bad. Boo. So Jyk picked me up, we went walking @ HarMar, then I came back to deal with the car mess. Did some prep work with Jason for Inappropriate Laughter (our sketch comedy show which opens Thursday at the BLB, stop by if you like sketch comedy!) with music and sound effects, etc.
Today, Jyk picked me up again and we went to the Como Conservatory to walk, which was more like an amble. I am going to be doing wedding flowers for a friend who is getting married at the Conservatory this fall, so it was also kind of a scouting mission! We walked around in the humid air, visited the monkeys and big cats, the lovely Koi, and learn about bonsai. Jyk of course wanted to get a new bonsai so we went to Linder's where he got some seeds. In about 4 years he'll have a super awesome bonsai grown from scratch. We'll see.
After Jyk dropped me off at the repair shop, I took myself to the bookstore. I perused several garden and craft magazines, and read this amazing book cover-to cover (ok I skimmed the music chapter, I have to admit) and now I have a new blog addiction too ;) . It is well worth checking out from your local library, this girl shares her triumphs and failures as she attempts to take responsibility for her place in the food chain.
My dad is talking about us getting chickens this year on the farm, and although I won't be there while they're tiny tiny tiny chicks, I am SO excited at this prospect. His mom always had chickens and it made trips to my gramma M's so much fun.....she made a lot of food for herself, from canning to baking....
Along that front, here's my sourdough starter sitting on the countertop @ the house sitting house. I've never tried this before but I've read about doing it in several magazines lately and I've decided to give it a go. I may just end up with wallpaper paste though, we'll see. Sorry for the sidewise photo, there's not much to see anyway. Just a jar full of flour and water. Stay tuned for the magic of fermentation!

What a week!

Well sorry I haven't been blogging this past week, I will give you a quick recap of all the awesomeness, and sorry if I leave some things out.

*Got the heater blower motor fixed in the car, left Hugo on Wednesday AM to come back down to the house-sitting-house.

*Got hooked on Lexulous and Twirl on facebook, but realize I freeze when the answers aren't immediately apparent! I need to work on that...

*Had lovely breakfast with Sara, Nick, and Brynn, and also got those COOKIES! I won't show you how many are left, 24 hours after getting them, because they are all in my tummy. even the box is adorable.

*Rehearsed for the upcoming sketch show, twice, and wrote a few more sketches. I hope they make it into the show but I won't be crushed if they don't. More details when we get closer to the date, I promise

*Had coffee with my friend Heather the teacher, she is trying to get me set up as a visiting artist in her school to do a few murals! Yay!

*Went out for an amazingly delicious dinner at Bellanotte in Mpls. Jason had gift certificates so I paid like $20 for a 4 course meal plus drink. so. freaking. good. OOOH!

*Have been to the bookstore down the street so many times they must think I live there. LOVE IT!

*Made a smattering of animals, though I forgot all my thread and needles up in Hugo so I had to buy some *new* stuff at artscraps. listing half on etsy, and taking half to benevolent acorn tomorrow.

*watched the super bowl by myself, and the puppy bowl, and the office, afterwards. i wished there was someone i could make snarky comments to, but alas, i just made them to myself.