did you see a sign in front of my blog that said “celebrity endorsed product reviews?”

no, you didn’t. do you know why?

because reviewing products endorsed by celebrities ain’t my effin’ business!

but, paul brought this home last night:

and i just can’t help telling you that you can really really taste the extra islands.

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.

heads up seattle people: i’m giving a needle felting basics class on saturday, with a focus on bead making! we’ll do lots of styles, shapes & sizes, embellishment techniques and more. there are a couple of spaces left and i hope you’ll snap ’em up so we can play together.

the class is being hosted by the wonderful folks at beadworld. they don’t have a website (!) so to register or get more info, give them a call!

what can i possibly say about this? it simply makes me laugh even when i’m not watching it. like a sleepy-weiner acid flashback. <thanks dangerpeach!>

mleak, an art student at carnegie mellon, has taken to laser etching food stuffs in the most interesting way.

the bread is an “all carb sandwich” with a nod to atkins, and the balogna is meant to remind us just how far our food has come from its origins. according to her flickr pool, these photos are the beginning stages of larger projects. can’t wait to see what she does next. clicky.

this is the kind of thing that brings me true hope and joy. it also gives me renewed enthusiasm for all the ideas i write down, but never pursue.

thank you, improv everywhere, for keeping the dream alive. via wooster collective, an inspirational art blog that is also worth your time.

Kroger said it has rolled out Disney’s Old Yeller dog food nationwide and is planning “an aggressive advertising and marketing campaign.” The dog food currently comes in a 50-pound bag, but other sizes will be available in June.

great! this will help boost the sales of my old yeller shot gun!

(thanks paul!) <via> clicky.

so much of what i love about the muppets is the anarchy beneath the plush. here is a perfect example.

sure, ernie irritating bert is nothing new. dancing sheep? yes, totally awesome but also not out of the ordinary. it’s when the song really picks up and the manic joy is then turned on bert who really hasn’t done anything to deserve it that makes me laugh really hard.

my favorite lyric happens at 1:43….but the best thing ever is the final shot.

i don’t know what this is, but i really want it to be delivered to my house STAT.

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.