the waiting....is the hardest part!

i am waiting for one yard wonders to hit the shelves, and my mailbox! it's the very first time i will be published in a book, and i couldn't be more excited!

in the mean time, check out the new additions to my etsy store. i will be updating etsy every wednesday through the end of the year for all the out-of-town folks who will miss my upcoming shows and events (listed over there on the right hand side of the blog).

cranky yeti

it has rained 14 out of the last 24 days here in MN. today was a snow/rain mixture. in honor of the approching winter, here is a cranky yeti photo for you. he's going to be featured in an ad for my upcoming trunk show at TRULY in white bear lake. come visit him and plenty of friends, Nov. 5th from 4-9 PM.

WHERE have you BEEN?

*i have been squirreled away in my studio, stuffing and fluffing hundreds of tiny ornaments for a giant order. how many times have i said this on the blog? first person to count wins an awesome prize ;) in addition to stocking up all my stores, every week from november until january i have an art show, a class, or some other event where i will be sellin' my animals. 'tis the season for duckie uglings!

*i did the wedding flower for my friend heather's nuptials at the como zoo conservatory. a magical night, a beautiful couple, and a rockin' party.

*i went to my 15 year high school reunion and homecoming game. caught up with old friends and re-discovered some new ones.

*i've been cleaning and organizing and finally 'moving into' my room where i've lived for the past year, getting my studio and storage space in order, and just generally trying to get myself ready for this marathon crafting season.

*i have spent entirely too much time watching 'reality' shows.


so that's where i've been for the past three weeks...how about you?

it started with a sparkle.....

mid morning. a sparkle in my vision. strange feeling like i wanted to close my right eye. right hand twitching without me moving it.

maybe i need to eat. make a sandwich. choke it down. texture in my mouth bothers me and i want to spit it out. hmm...still not....drink some water....better?

no. grey shimmering clouds up and to the left. my body is listing to the right. my fingers are playing piano in the air. can't remember..did i eat? where is my mom? where is my dad? with grandma. hunting. should i call them? no answer. i feel like i can't walk.

there's her car. mom, i don't feel...so.....i need to lie down but my friend is coming to drop. off...vases...flowers...wedding.........."eat some peanut butter and i'll get you lunch".

can you get me some migraine pills...this is another one. 6 years since the last one. she leaves. heather comes. we walk around the gardens somehow and my head feels like it's tethered to a string and it's flying above my shoulders. my mom gets back. i swallow the pills. dad arrives. mom rubs my head. towel over my eyes. still not enough. i lie down.

i get up. up comes lunch and pills and peanut butter and lots of other things. brush teeth and feel each bristle like a telephone pole in my mouth. i lie back down with a sledge hammer smashing my right eye until i blissfully doze. the neighbor's chickens the saw down the street the washing machine the dogs' bell the ceiling fan everything pounds!!! it starts to lessen. but man.......................then around mid afternoon the curtain lifts. my stomach grumbles, the crackers taste fine and then the soup tastes better then the ice cream tastes amazing....

if you've never had a migraine, count yourself lucky. i was cursed with them for about 10 years during the teens and early 20's. last one was 6 years ago. without health insurance, this is as close as i've come to taking myself to the hospital, before i realized what it was. i had forgotten how quickly it can happen. ugh. i hope it's a long while before it happens again..........now i can't bring myself to fall asleep again. my head is still not right. at least i didn't hallucinate this time.

you're soaking in it......

i will treat myself to a nice long bath, after i have a few hours of crafting under my belt. my etsy store is woefully empty. and i have a medium-sized order due monday to the beeb. i feel like i've been neglecting my other wonderful stores, and i have two shows coming up! plus lots of behbehs to make gifts, and oh so many other things coming up.....

this is the life i've asked for, right? to be an independant woman/business owner who makes her own schedule.....i just have to figure out how to get 30 hours out of a day. or how to sew in the car.....

shows, glorious SHOOOOOWSSSS

so one of the reasons i've been neglecting this blog is that i got hired again at the G, for a nice stretch of about 2 weeks. prop shopping is one of the funnest jobs you could imagine, you're given a list, some money, and the keys to a big ol' shopping truck, and you MUST RETURN with something that will make about 90 people happy. i take a lot of cell-phone photos, do a lot of measuring, and make a lot of snap decisions.

the best part of the job though is that i have to use not only the hunting brain but my problem solving brain as well.

when pink doilies can't be found, i have to paint white ones with red food coloring and iron them until dry. when a cake we ordered turns out to not work for one scene, i have to figure out how to make it look like tea cakes for a different part of the show, that an actor can eat 7 of in less than a minute and not choke. things like that.

almost any tool or material i could want exists in the work space, and we also have an entire warehouse, like indiana-jones-and-the-lost-ark type warehouse, from which to pull furniture. it's a pretty amazing job, and i'm SO lucky that they (for the most part) like my work and my soloutions to problems.

in addition to that, i got roped into doing a show at the BLB. it was originally going to be an hour long scripted show, but through various twists and turns it's now a sketch comedy show. which is SO much fun but a lot. of. work. i have such an amazing time on stage though, and my fellow actors are beyond talented, so that part makes all the headache worthwhile. we have three more shows, and if you're in the twin cities seriously, this one is worth comin' to see. i play a county fair beauty pagent MC, a chicken, a jug band washtub bassist, and so many other fun characters. crazy!

besides trying to get my bibelot orders done, i've also committed to two art shows, one coming up on october third and the other as part of the st. paul art crawl the weekend of the 8th, 9th, and 10th. (yes, my company name is mispelled on the poster. whatchagonnado.)

lil' queezie

A few weeks back I discovered the mini-cuisinart * hiding in the back of a cupboard. No one seems to know where it came from, but it has quickly become one of my favorite things that plugs into the wall, and yet another reason why I will never be Amish. Many a delish meal has been whipped up by it's whirring blades. Tomatoes go straight from the garden into the chopper. Here I share two quick delights that I have made with lil queezie, as I affectionately call it.



PRESTO PESTO:
1 cup or so of Basil leaves washed and picked. Not the stems, or the tops.
1/2 as many Parsley leaves washed and picked
Plop of garlic (about 1/2-1 Tablespoon, depending on who is eating it)
Pecan, pine, or wal-nuts, about 1/4 cup
Olive Oil, about 1/3-1/4 cup
Shredded Parmesean cheese (i like LOTS, like about 1/2 cup)

Start by chopping up the leaves, then add the garlic. I add the nuts, oil, and cheese last so they have a coarser texture. If you can let it sit for a few minutes on the countertop, the flavor develops a bit more. I have also added chili peppers and/or cherry tomatoes to this and had it taste AMAZING.

SORTA SALSA:
Broil the following:
1 large jalepeno pepper, covered with chopped garlic (one clove or 1t of canned), 1/2 a large white onion or a few scallions chopped, and 1 T of olive oil

Remove when the pepper starts to turn color, and the onions and garlic have gotten some color, about 12 minutes on low. I de-seed and de-vein my pepper so it's not so super hot. Leave the broiler going to melt cheese on your tortilla chips.

To the lil' queezie add the pepper, oil, garlic, onion, and two large tomatoes or 8 small, cherry sized ones. I remove the 'stem' end and cut in half so the blades don't have to work so hard. Pulse until everything is pretty well blended, then add 1/4-1/3 cup sour cream to cut the heat of the pepper, blend until you like the consistency. You can also add 'hamburger spice' or something like ground pepper if you want.


*I can't even find a photo of it online, it's that old. I love my new one too, but this one is just so teeny and cute.....

the mornings...

no photos today because what i want to capture is WAY too fast. the past few days, within moments of waking, there is a humming bird outside my window. it darts into the holly hocks, then darts off.
i wake at a different time every day, so this little guy must be visiting several times a morning. either that or he radios ahead to my brain to tell me to wake up.

i have been cleaning and organizing in my studio, into giant cabinets with many shelves that hold smaller boxes that once held computer keyboards, that my mom hoarded from the old school remodel like 15 years ago. they used to be the kids' supply boxes for her class so i'm coming across some wicked graffiti. my first inclination was to cover the entire box with nice paper, but then i realized just the ends need to be pretty. when that gets done, i'll take a photo of that for y'all.


time to make the donuts.......

flowers, 'chuters, and more.

well that meeting with the beeb buyers went splendidly, they placed a MASSIVE holiday order due in the middle of september. their halloween order has already been delivered, and they asked for MORE. my friend Sarah has been helping me with the cutting out of the animals and organizing of the studio, and taking long field trips to visit fun destinations around the cities. i am so thankful to be busy with work that i LOVE it's been an adventure, to be sure.

did wedding flowers for another pair of former students and had a blast, but i am going to probably need 2 more days to recover. the wedding was held at an amazing house on a beautiful lake, but that was eclipsed by the happiness the couple radiated, magnified by their friends and families. each wedding i go to seems to get sweeter, how is that possible?

i also recently finished a group my friend Colleen commissioned of 6 parachuting mice, to be sent to friends all over the place that have had little kiddos. here they are, hanging from the birch tree outside the studio. i am refining the pattern even more, and hope to propose a show at my former college where i'd hang like 300 of them in the gallery, with some owls and other flying creatures interspersed.

tough times...

a friend of mine recently suffered a great loss. i am so fortunate to have been able to spend time with her and her family, i am once again so thankful i don't have a job!

it has been hard to enjoy the beauty of the farm in the summer and sort of to enjoy life in general when i think about how much pain people around me are in, but i realize that life is for loving and if i didn't live it to its fullest, what good would that be?

i find myself listening more to the birds, staring more at the clouds, napping in the hammock, and enjoying the twinkling stars. i do find i'm spending less time on the computer and on the internet in general. back when i did have full-time jobs, they were mostly me plopped in front of a screen for 8 hours a day. it seems to be the reverse of that now!

i have greatly enjoyed sharing the bounty of the garden with my friends and family, and am LOVING finding ways to use beets, basil, parsley, green tomatoes, peas, carrots, and all sorts of delish produce. the 'brown thumb' that i thought i was cursed with, turns out to only regard houseplants. if they're in the ground, i seem to be able to care for them enough so that they flourish! nothing like rolling out of bed and picking some peas for breakfast. i'm already starting to plan for next year....

i was informed by the lovely folks at articulture that my first batch of animals sold out in about 6 days. so i brought in a bunch more stuff for them to show off, here are the non-wee bird animals in their little green suitcase.

tomorrow i have another meeting with the bibelot buyers, regarding holiday ornaments and Uglings. so it's been good to get back to working, but man i wish i had someone to clean up after me....my studio will never look as good as any of the ones in Where Women Create, but at least i can find things 99% of the time! now, to capture the tree frog that has gotten into the studio....

The farm, late July

summer is in full swing here in minnesota.
here are some beauty shots of the farm.
enjoy!



the dala house was built by my parents' former students, they bought it from the shop class and had it installed in the yard and wired for electricity. i joke that i might move out there. it's got toys for the kiddos and an assortment of wild animals living underneath it.

garden basket i made up with my fave pink and green flowers/plants. i love those colors together!


the labyrinth v. 3.0! it certainly has come a long way!

the 'secret' garden. ringed by rosa rugosa which are in different stages of bloom. it smells heavenly in there.

my g'mas white bear from her old townhouse. guarding the roses.



my little pond! the lily is fake (for now) and there are hundreds of tadpoles and like 3-4 resident frogs in there. there are also some pretty wild diving bugs and other small creatures. i feed them lettuce from the garden, i can't wait for them to all start growing legs!


kale in the veggie garden. some bug is eating them. boo!


my basil was off to a rocky start but it looks GREAT now. mint and parsley are in the background.

watermelon is growing like crazy! yesterday it was barely reaching the rocks. today.....it's heading for the fence!




bees fighting for a flower. i wish you could hear them, it's like hundreds of tiny kazoos.

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.