i had a fantastic time in portland yesterday. pictured above are my two new favorite women, sister diane gilleland and susan beal, giving away raffle prizes to the people. see how fun and kind they look? that’s cause they are really fun and kind! did i mention that i really really love them?

anyway, we had a lot of fun in portland, which you can see here.

while we were having our portland fun, there were monsters being born all across the nation. seriously, when i saw these photos today, i swooned. here are a few of the monsters made by party people:

more photos in the craft release party flickr pool:
chicago – clicky.
new york – clicky.
los angeles – clicky.

i’ll be headed to the portland festivities, being hosted by the prolific, inspiring and amazingly kind people known as susan beal and sister diane. sunday march 9, 1 – 4pm @ twisted.

btw, make sure to hit crafty wonderland while you’re out and about. it’s a great event and a big part of why the portland craft scene is so happening.

for more info about all the launch party events, get thee to craftzine, stat!

photo credit: mquest

having mentioned before what i refer to as my “perverse, white-knuckled humility,” regarding accomplishments of any kind, i’d like to take a moment also to speak of the seemingly widespread inability to accept compliments.

a friend mentioned to me recently that when someone tells me they like my work, “shut up” might not be a a gracious or appropriate response. i am genuinely enthusiastic about other people, making sure i tell them how i feel, and have come to realize that i’m not the only one who has a hard time accepting that kind of attention. (k…and b…i’m talking to YOU.)

we could get into all kinds of reasons and therapize all day long, but i came across this post on lifehack that deals with some concrete yet nurturing list of compliment-accepting techniques. here’s a snippet from the intro:

Think of the good we might do ourselves by easily accepting every compliment that’s offered us, even if we’re not entirely sure the person complimenting us is totally earnest. Instead of undermining our self-confidence, we would feed it. Instead of denigrating our achievements, we would promote them. And instead of tearing down relationships, we would strengthen them. A compliment is, after all, a kind of gift, and turning down a gift insults the person giving it, suggesting that you don’t value them as highly as they value (soon to be “valued”) you.

it’s a great read and, even better, completely actionable. clicky. <via>

according to the times online, i pioneered the use of the fail for satiric purposes. if nothing else, i’m completely impressed that the reporter actually took the time to count each and every fail arrow i created. THAT’S journalism.

high five! clicky.

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.

one of the cool people i stalk on the internets is alice, from the addicting wonderland blog, which has a focus on gaming, geekery and technology (three great tastes that go great together).

she had the kindness to call my attention to this:

recognize that little man? the green one with the braces? yeah, he’s mine.

the article is about the diy movement, etsy and more. alice is in there too, as well she should be. clicky.

this is my piece for an upcoming plush art exhibition called PLUSHED::art gone soft:: being held at purdue university, january 21 – february 1. i wish i could go!

more photos on flickr. clicky.

this weekend marks the end of my whirlwind of holiday art activities with two cool events!

come out for “friday at the frye” – december 17, 7 – 10pm. i’m really excited to be doing a free workshop with my hero kristen rask (of schmancy, plushyou! fame) at my favorite seattle art museum. there will be other art activities too, and a guided tour of an AMAZING exhibition – hug: recent work by patricia piccinini. go to the frye website for more details. clicky.

and, for my portland people, we’ve got the big crafty wonderland super colossal holiday sale!
december 16th, 11am – 5pm at the historic norse hall. it will feature over 100 vendors, a full bar, recycled gift-wrapping with SCRAP at the DIY table, goodie bags to the first 200 shoppers,
a cool printed event program and so much more! come say hi and buy indie for the holidays! clicky. update: i got really sick on saturday and was unable to rally to make it to the event. i heard it was AWESOME…maybe next year!

this weekend! the first 100 folks get free goodie bags…both days! doors open at 11am.

i’ll be smack dab in the middle with all my felty goodness and i get scared in crowds so come and say sweet things to me. it helps. clicky.

i love portland and i’m finally gonna get a chance to play with the kick ass artists at crafty wonderland this sunday, october 14.

i’ve heard fantastic things about the creative, warm and friendly community that cathy and torie have helped to cultivate.

it must be pretty cool, because some of my favorite seattle people will also be down there; markia and lindsey wil be working their urban craft uprising magics, and you don’t want to miss the hand painted textiles from rekoj design.

all that plus demian parker, one of my all time favorite people and a damn fine artist if i do say my damn self, lives down there…

i’m just thinking, if the portland craft community is as cool as i’ve heard, we might never come back. come say hi, ok? clicky.