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.

bizzay!

well, of course, everyone's busy. but right now, i'm especially busy!

not making things, i tend to spend a lot of time in the car, or in bed.

i hope to have some exciting announcements soon, i've got about 3 or 4 balls in the air right now and just trying to keep them all up means i'm making myself looney......

but i hold out hope that i will get to pick up needle and thread again soon. and not, to make someone's costume.

wish me luck.