before i get into the meat of this post, i need to tell you that i don’t like talking about my flair. i do like to share good ideas and glorify the work of others and i even like sharing photos of the things i make.

what i have a lot of trouble with is talking about cool neat things that happen to me along the way. it’s a perverse, white-knuckled humility that i haven’t figured out entirely, but those that are close to me have done everything short of attacking me physically to shake me out of this weird self-consciousness. so, here i take a deep breath and share a couple neat things:

i’ve mentioned kristen rask, owner of schmancy and curator of plush you here before. she’s one of those people who’s teaching me about the value of reasonable amounts of pride. a smart woman, a funny woman, a taker of no crap, kristen is one my heroes. (she did kick me in the shin once, but i totally deserved it.) anyway, kristen invited me to an interview for her constantly inspiring plushyou! blog and she posted that interview today.

here it is.

the other neat thing is that i have a tutorial coming out in issue 06 of craft magazine. if you subscribe, you have it already but for everyone else, it hits news stands on feb 5. it’s the longest tutorial i’ve written and i think it’s pretty cool. it isn’t needle felting related but teaches you how to make hand-sewn plush monsters. the kind of unbelievably cool part is that the craft folks have seen fit to put my monsters on the cover of that magazine. i don’t have a good shot of the cover but the monsters look like this:

of course, i’m completely amazed.

and now you know what’s up in my neck of the woods. and now i need to have a lie down.

fredflare has these amazing lego-esque speakers. i can’t imagine the sound quality will please the anal audiophiles in your life but they are so fun. anyway, people with “phile” at the end of their interests are spooky.

i’d like to have one. the green one. no! the black one…wait, no the green one. yeah, the green one is the one i want. clicky.

there’s nothing i don’t love about this photo. i found it in the flickr pool of forest_creatures, who has a cute etsy shop too.

clicky.

i don’t normally do holiday-themed ANYTHING, but i couldn’t resist the challenge set forth at dabbled. i mean, “darker/creepier than your average valentine” is a fun constraint to play with.

so, i felted the base from scratch with three shades of red corriedale. i cut the heart from bright pink commercial felt. the straps are felted from scratch and then felted onto the base along with the heart. inside my paper stash i found a great shiny piece of wrapping paper for the love note that i cut to fit inside the syringe. i hammered some grommets on there for hanging. (i am new to grommets…and i LOVE them.)

the syringe came from creation station, my favorite surplus upcycle supply place in this area. they are a hoarders worst nightmare, but they have so much stuff that inspires me to create. they also just opened an etsy shop. (i love those folks so you’ll see some of my creations over there as examples from time to time.)

you should enter the dabbled contest too! clicky.

this is the kind of jewelry that makes me wish i had a corporate job to get fired from, or a traffic court date. genius. clicky

i don’t know…i just had to do it. ever so slightly, i feel better…maybe i just feel more tired. i don’t know.

just because i expected exactly what i got from the state of the union speech last night doesn’t make it any less painful.

my two favorite parts:

One year ago, our enemies were succeeding in their efforts to plunge Iraq into chaos, so we reviewed our strategy and changed course.

We launched a surge of American forces into Iraq.

so, launch of american forces into iraq now = change.

and

“So tonight, with confidence in freedom’s power…”

i like this one because its meaninglessness begs to be continued on in marx brothers format. like this:

“so tonight, with confidence in freedom’s power, and power in freedom’s confidence…”

to keep from a total lapse into nihilism, i bring you this bit of fantastic from “the best little whorehouse in texas.” it’s a great satire on political ca-ca, but it also features charles durning….DANCING. it’s worth watching all the way through because durning makes a ton of great little acting choices.

(if you are one of those “why do 3 minute microwave burritos take so long?” type of people, at least watch from 4:16. that’s when the dancing AND prancing really build up. but believe me, those of us watching all the way through are getting so much more.)

and finally, now that the mood is slightly elevated, try some bona fide analysis. clicky.

if you’re in seattle, come spread your surplus with us:

Did you clean out your house for the new year? Have craft supplies you don’t want anymore? Don’t know what to do with them? We have an answer for you. Come meet Kristen, owner of Schmancy and curator of Plush You and Moxie, needle felting master and local artist for our first, Sunday Swap Smackdown.

We know how it feels to have tons of “potential projects” sitting around your house and taking up room. But is it really worth it? It makes you feel bad to see all those possibilities that are not being put to good use. Don’t feel bad anymore. We will be setting up along with other local crafts people to swap out the old with something new (to you).

It’s a perfect way to clean up your studio and not let things go to waste. You will each set up and then swap with someone you want something from. It’s easy and free and you get to meet some like minded people in the process! If you have a table you can easily bring along, bring it. Or just bring yourself and the things you want
to get rid of. We will also set up a FREE box for those that just want to get rid of things.

We will also be happy to take anything left over at the end of the meet to donate to Girl Scouts Beyond Bars. (GSBB keeps mothers and daughters connected face-to-face while providing girls a safe, supportive space to persevere through their challenges together.)

We will be meeting up at at Uptown Espresso (500 Westlake Ave N) on
Feb 3rd from 11 to 2.

this invitational plush art exhibition at purdue university is up through feb 1, so if you are in or near west lafayette, indiana, get over there and see it in person.

if, like me, you are stuck in your own neck of the woods, you can see photos of all the art in liz erlewine’s flickr pool. (photos of my needle felted pickaxe can be seen here in a recent post.)

odds are that you’ll see something you absolutely must have as your very own, so to acquire your favorite plushed pieces, you’ll just click on over to box wonder.

he’s a good monkey. and thorough.

i can’t help it. i could watch this for hours. i think part of the appeal is the music.