Crafty Carnival

Huge Cloth Doll Pattern Sale

Have you met my past life?  Back in 2000, I started making Raggedies and a whirl wind of a great time selling dolls and patterns all over the world from Little Missy Primitves.com.  Over time, I slowed down because I was moving, having a second child, and just life in general.  It's been a few years since I've realeased any new patterns, and I think it's finally time to close up shop for good (with a happy heart, or course :)

In order to go out with a bang, I'm having a HUGE pattern sale, where all of the PAPER patterns (I don't do e patterns :) I have left are only $3 each!  So please stop by and check it out when you have a chance!

Thanks for the raggedy memories!

Fibertastic was FANTASIC!

I put some pics up in my flickr and Tammie has some in her flickr too.  The show was a lot of fun.  It was mostly Sacramento Craft Mafia girls, and we really had a good time hanging out and sellin' our stuff!   There were some real bunnies there and some Alpacas.  There were spinning demos and looming demos.  It really was a great show!

The first pic is of my little table (obviously...lol) and this last pic is of Daisy's baby quilt.  It was hanging on display for the art show part of the show.  I made the blocks while I was prego with Daisy and got frustrated with the assembly of it all.  So mom to the rescue, of course... she always bails me out when I need her.  So she added the pinwheels and crazy patch blocks and then of course the borders.  At the time, 30's fabrics were my very favorite in the whole wide world, so that is what we used to compliment the little dollies and such!  Don't forget to check out my flickr for more pics from the show!!

Glitter and Grunge Tomorrow!

I put some spool dolls on Glitter and Grunge for tomorrow's update!  You can only buy them there, and no where else!  I really want you all to go check out G and G tomorrow because it is chalk full of fabulous artists, and on each page, you'll find links to the artists websites and blogs, and you're sure to find some blogs you love that you haven't seen yet :)  So what are you waiting for?  Go check it out!!

p.s.  I know they seem like they are a bit pricey... but I promise you, it is a 14 million step process.... remember in a earlier post when I said these lil darlings fall into the "much harder than they look category?"  Well, I wasn't kidding!  LOL!  :)  Thanks, friends!!!

Oh... and pps... thanks Candice and Nicole.  I "borrowed" pics from you because I'm mostly sold out right now and am swamped with my real life oustide of blogland... sucks, huh.  I know it does.  :)

BEST weekend EVER!!!

OMG!  I just had the best weekend ever... I don't even know where to start! So here's the background:  My best friend in the whole wide world, Nicole, lives 8 hours from me, so we don't see eachother that often.  I really wanted to go down to her house without the kids for a girls weekend, so the planning began.  We were both open the entire month of Feb (which NEVER happens) so we thought we would try to find something fun going on and plan our trip around that!  So we went on line and found out that Candice Carpenter was teaching a class near by and so the dates were set!!!

We based our whole weekend around this banner class, and it was SO FUN!  I flew in on Fri night and Nicole and I went shopping, and then out to dinner and drinks with some of her local friends!  OMG!  I have NEVER laughed so hard.  There was some guy there celebrating his birthday and he provided lots of laughs!!  (Mind you... we NEVER talked to him... we just laughed from afar... hilarious I tell you!) And her friends were so sweet and welcoming to me!  One even made me cookies!!!!

Then we got up EARLY on Sat morning and were at Starbucks by 7:30!  We drove down to San Diego and went to a fabric shop called Rosies.  It's pretty famous for it's great prices and huge selection.  I was good and didn't buy tooooo much... but I bought a little :)  I'll update this post and add a pic tomorrow when I unpack).

From there we went to lunch and then it was class time!  We were a little nervous because we really haven't ever taken classes and we didn't know what to expect.  Nicole was so sweet and got everything on our supply list so I didn't have to travel with glue and scissors and all that garb.  She got us a cute little tote to carry our stuff in and we thought we were gonna be all hip and everything... but oh no.. some of these girls had 5 gallon buckets full of tools and stuff!  LOL!  And I am NOT making fun of them... I'm JEALOUS!  LOL!  I told a few of them that I was gonna have to get me a trendy little bucket tote to put my stuff in when I get home!  

Turns out... there was NO need for us to be nervous at all!  Candice was so super sweet and she was so easy going.  We all kind of went at our own pace and Candice totally made us feel right at home to be creative, or follow the directions exactly... which ever we chose!  And she did a raffle drawing every so often and I won this awesome clear stamp set!  WHOOO HOOO!  I'm so lucky!  Candice's mom was there too but we didn't get to meet her because she got stuck in traffic... but we did get to eat her awesome cupcakes!  MMMMMM ... good!  The original banner class was for a banner that said "spring" but I made mine say "girls" because it was just too cute to have to put it away after spring!  I call my two kids "the girls" all the time... so that seemed like a cute thing to put in their room.  I didn't add all of the Eastery embelishments, but I LOVE the way my banner turned out.  THANKS CANDACE FOR BEING SUCH AN AWESOME TEACHER!!!

We also met Camille who is one of the owners at EVER AFTER where the class was held.  She is the nicest person and can I just tell you... this scrap booking store is the biggest and best I have ever been in!  Everyone was so sweet and helpful, and I was totally drooling over EVERYTHING but very limited on what I could buy since I was flying.

After the class Nicole and I went to Barnes and Noble and looked at books and magazines, then off to dinner.  (I had to buy the new CRAFT, and I read it on the plane already... it is sooo good... a definate must have!!!)  We just relaxed the rest of the weekend until it was time for me to go home!  Our theme song for the weekend would have to be LOW by T-Pain.  I made Nicole a mix CD and I put that song on it... didn't think she would love it, but I thought C would, so I added it in.  Well not only did she like it... she piped up and started dancing everytime it came on.  We both would be singing at the top of our lungs and dancing.  I really really really want to post the pic I have of her dancing (in the driver's seat mind you) and so I'm going to... don't hate me, Nicole!  LOL!

My flight home was super bumpy cause it's stormy here, but it was awesome seeing the kids and hubby after being away for a few days.  (I've never left my kids for this long... and never with him.  LOL!)  So they had a dozen red roses for me at the airport and that was super cool.  My b-day was in Jan, and then Valentine's day was a week ago of course... and mind you... no flowers.  I leave for 3 days and wa-la!  I think they missed me!  LOL!  I asked my dh if it was hard or easy... and he said it wasn't that hard... and I said okay... but if you had to pick ONE, was it hard or easy?  And he said, let's just say it wasn't easy.  That made me feel good!  LOL!  Like all I do is not in vein, and that I'm not crazy for constantly feeling behind in my housework and overwhelmed.

I just want to close by saying that I got tagged with the made my day award by some fellow bloggers, and I want to thank them!  But I'm gonna do it next post since this one got extremely long.  Hmmm... wonder why... am I little excited maybe?  LOL!

A Muse Easter Stamps are out!!

If you are local, you can get them at The Paper Garden :)  If not, you can get them on-line at the A Muse blog here :)

This is a sneak peek I took from the A MUSE blog.  I DID NOT take this pic or make this card... don't give me credit for it's cuteness!! (It's from the A muse Blog, made by the talented and fabulous Linda!!)  I'm not a rip off artist I promise!  It's just that I'm leaving out of town tomorrow to go see my bff Nicole, and I had NO time to create anything to show you a preview myself... so I "borrowed" this picture to get you all interested!  *wink!*

Happy Easter!!  (all though I know it's a lot early for that, and I'll see you before then I'm sure!  LOLOL!)

Happy Lunar Year of the Rat :) 2008

Spool People and Cupcake Party

I was lucky enough to be invited to a cupcake party this last weekend at Lauren's house :)

There were 6 of us girls and we all brought 12-18 cupcakes to share with eachother.  Lauren made prizes for the best tasting and the best decorated.  Amy made the most adorable neopolotin ice cream cupcakes (best decorated winner!), Tammi made Lemonade cupcakes, Claire chocolate chai cupcakes (best tasting winner!), Lauren made black bottom peanut butter cupcakes (my favorite!) and Melissa made vanilla with QUILTED buttercream frosting!!  Each of us is posting our recipes on our blogs, so if any of those sound good to you, surf around :) 

My cupcakes were just half choco and half vanilla.  I made two cake batters (from a box, folks) and put vanilla on the bottom and choco on the top and then vanilla frosting.  I had stamped my little A Muse love monster and punched out circles.  Then I used those for cupcake toppers.  I didn't win any prizes... but I'm honestly proud of myself.  I usually don't bake or cook things that are difficult of fabulous.  So this was a fun little stretch for me :)  I really enjoyed it!

And a big FAT thank you to Lauren because this little party was so fun, and I felt like such a grown up for once!  LOL!  She had beautiful white linens out on the table and differnt cake plates for us to set our cupcakes on.  Then she made cute little label cards for us to fill out and ADORABLE ballots for us to vote on after we had tasted them all!  We also had a really fabulous fresh berry punch with champagne optional.  I said yes to that, of course.  LOL!  After the ballots were tallied, we also did a little craft exchange.

The idea was for everyone to bring a little tiny bag of craftiness to the party to exchange with everyone.  So you had to bring 5 little bags, and you got 5 back in return.  I was doing this the night before of course (because I don't do anything until the day before it's due.)  Well I had gotten some knobs at Walmart and wanted to make some little wood people after seeing some beautiful kokeshi dolls on ebay.  These little wood people would definately fall into the category of "MUCH harder than it looks."  LOL!  I bought enough to make 12 people and good thing, because my first 7 were garbage I tell ya!!  I put the heads with some wooden spools and wound them with vintage lace trims... that way they fit with the crafty supply theme.  Here's a pic of my dolls, and for really awesome pics of the schwag we all recieved, visit Amy's blog.  Her pics are WAYYY better than mine!  LOL!

I also made another little bunny pillow for Sacramento Parent Magazine.  They are starting a crafting tutorial column, and thought this might be a good project for March!  LUCKY ME!!!  So I need to make one so I could take some better pics.  I'll put this one in my etsy shop, and if you want to make your own... the free tutorial is here :)

So that's it for now... sorry I haven't been to posty lately but I'm just beside myself with excitement for my trip.  I'm leaving in two weeks to visit my bff Nicole.  It's only a short weekend, but I haven't seen her since just before school started and I need my Nicole fix!  It kills me that we live so far apart!!! (that's a pic of some aprons we made last time she was here.  And our "sorry we aren't teenagers anymore and we really like Mexican food" bellies.  (* and no I'm not preggo... I'll save all of you the embarrasment!  it's leftover from the last one!  HA HA!  almost 4 years ago!!!)

Fibertastic! and Sew Mama Sew for sure!

Thanks everyone for the warm birthday wishes!!!  I so really appreciate them!  And big fat extra thank you to Nicole, Jenny, Tamie, Amy and Heidi for the blog love on my bday :) (hope I didn't miss anyone!) Here's a little history about one fun thing about my bday....

I always look forward to getting up on my bday and going on line because before we even knew blogland existed, my bff, Nicole, and I used to post pictures of eachother on our websites on our birthdays.  And they were mean pictures... so like the first one I ever posted was Nicole bent over pushing Gracie in a plastic car... she HATED that pic... then she posted me with a balloon under my shirt drinking beer, so I looked like I was preggo and drinking... and I had a mean look on my face too!  Then the next year we did some drunk photos... not quite as mean but still funny... at least we were smiling in these, and then last year, they were a little nicer, happier pictures, and this year, they were just all super nice... so I jokingly told her, "what's up for next year?  Do we get dressed up in ball gowns and tiarras?"  Since each year has gotten progressively nicer!  LOL!  But who knows... we'll just have to see next year! (*she does have a pic of me asleep in the car with my mouth open... and she keeps threatening me with it... and if she does...well then I'll just have to photoshop one of her!  LOL!)

And in other crafty news... I will be vending at this event, so if you can mark it on your calendar now to come see me, that'd be good!!  And if you don't like me... don't worry, I'm not the only one!  LOL!  This show is gonna be super over filled with way cool talent that surpasses anything I've mastered for sure!!!  (and thanks Nicole for the graphic...you da bomb baby.  whatever that means :)

And finally, do you frequent the Sew Mama Sew blog?  I hope you said yes, but if you said no, then here's my question to you... WHY NOT!!!????  It's super fabulous and you should run not walk over there because that blog is just OVER FLOWING with brilliant ideas for sewing and they link to all kinds of super cool blogs with tutorials, patterns, etc.  It's a mega-mall of ideas...and the fabric they feature.... well let's just say I drool...  LOVE IT!  So I'm adding them to my blog roll now... can't believe I hadn't done it sooner!!

I fell off the C-A-D wagon! LOL!

So I really thought I could do a craft a day!  WHAT WAS I THINKING!  LOL!  Have you even noticed I was gone the last two days?  LOL!  I should have thought ahead.  First of all, my dh's birthday was yesterday.... there is only one day between mine and his.  So of course I had presents to wrap and cake to make and all that entails, so that's my excuse for missing day one.  Then I missed day 2 because I was ..... drumroll please..... sleeping.  LOL!  I sat down on the couch after picking up the kid from school and snuggled under a blanket because the house was cold... and well... the rest is history.  I never made it up from my really warm spot except for details like dinner and baths.  :)  BUT!  tonight I prevail!!!!  It's not much but I made this little teddy today.  It's not at all what I intended when I started, and actually, I really want to revise it... but that will have to wait until another day :)

Thanks everyone for stopping by and checking out what I have managed to get done, and your sweet comments really warm my heart and make it all worth it :)

And a big WHOOT!  To Jenny at Craft zine and plush you too!   They both blogged about my free bear pattern and that just makes me feel so warm and fuzzy!  So thanks a million guys!!!  I so appreciate that!

Craft-a-day for 4 more days :)

I made this shadow box today :)  It's a little baby bear in a tiny shadow box (6.5" square on the outside of the frame!)  The little mohair bear is in a vintage pink plastic train cart.  The box is lined with vintage wall paper, and then I added an old playing card to the mix too!  I think it turned out super cute, and of course it'll be in my shop :)

So what's my inspiration for this you might wonder!?   Well, the fabulous Shonda, who is one of the gals I am friends with from Sacramento Craft Mafia, is putting together a show called FIBERTASTIC! The details are here, but it got me thinking that I'd like to make some arty pieces that are maybe wall quilts or shadow boxes.  You know stuff to sell in a gallery maybe??... not just at a craft show!  So I made this shadow box!  I also made another one that I ended up not liking too much.  I think it would be fun to make some luvable monsters encaged in shadow boxes.  Who knows... I'll have to think on this some more :)  Can you join us, either as a vendor or a guest?  Pretty please :)

And then I also wanted to share this adorable pin cushion that I got from Lauren at the Speckled Hen.  She's so super talented and FUNNY!  I love her!  I'm really hoping to get to know her better since she lives so close and I love her stuff!  She made the fabric covered buttons too!  I'm gonna have to get her back since she GAVE these to me, but I'm not sure how yet :)

Two more things... then I'm done, I promise!  LOL!  I had a totally sweet comment on my last post, and I followed it to this blog, and was so happy I did!  HOW CUTE IS HER STUFF??!!!  Omg... very cute.  And she took my free bear pattern, and made it out of an old baby blanket... the flannel kind!  How brilliant!!  I commented to her that is a million dollar idea!  You might not want to save those recieving blankets forever, but now you can upcycle them, make a little bear for a toddler and get even more use out of them!  SO thanks, Crystal, for sharing!!!

And FINALLY, are you still with me, or are you sleeping now?  LOL!  I met this super, cool, urban, hip and NICE chick at Bazaar Bizarre and she made a little video.  She put this video together and submitted it to ThreadBanger.com and they aired it!  WHOO HOO!  You go Kate... so my part of the video got cut, but I still think SHE is super fabulous and it's not her fault.  And maybe I'm kind of even a little bit glad that my part got cut because DANG, I DO NOT like how I am in that video!  It's so hard to watch yourself on tv... I'm looking at it thinking... why is the whole one side of my mouth not moving?  Did I have something in my mouth like gum or something?  I know I was eating tic tacs that day... and my hair looks greasy and my make up sucks... so ya... maybe I'm kind of glad my part got cut!  LOL!  But anyway, you can see the whole video here, and the Threadbanger version here.  Have fun... laugh away... I'm fully aware of my flaws... LOLOLOL!  And congrats Kate for getting that video out there!  (I'm hoping to hang with her at the next baz biz because she's going to possible be vending not just shopping :)