Update: They have decided not to give me a space at August’s market and I was told, all this by email, that  if I was interested, they’d place me on a list to be considered for future markets. I’m not happy, but what can I do? I was there for the first and second market, took a chance on an unknown venture, and now that the crowd has grown and the press has noticed, they don’t want me anymore. Sour grapes, I know. I’m just feeling sorry for myself.

If you have visited my shop on Etsy, you already know that I call it Critter Central. But did you know that Critter Central can be found off line, in person, at White Rock Local Market once a month in Dallas, TX?

Here’s some booth photos from last Saturday. If you are a Facebook member, you can click here and see a bunch of photos from the market on the White Rock Local Market group page.

We all had fun in spite of the 102° heat. The next market is Saturday, August 8. If you live in Dallas or will be here that weekend, try to come by. You’ll be glad you did.

I have been carrying around this idea in my head for months, I wanted to make crocheted critters that look like they had been scribbled upon. Random, meandering swirls and twists and spirals. Doodle type designs.

After thinking about it for way too long, I finally embarked on creating a dark blue textured yarn cat. I crocheted, stuffed and sewed her up to point where I usually add the facial features. Instead, I crocheted a couple of very long chains with a contrasting color, burnt orange, cotton yarn. I then straight pinned the chains in a scribbled design. When I was satisfied with my scribbling, I hand sewed the chain to the kitty.

I continued using the yarn to craft the facial features and decided since the spirals on the face were so large, I would skip the usual big mouth I’m so fond of and leave her mouthless. I liked her when I was done so much that I created a maroon and multi jewel tone scribbled cat and a grey dog with apricot scribbles.

I may continue along this path and make more scribbled critters. It is a very tedious process to pin the design and then hand sew it, but I think the end result is worth the effort. I’m interested in hearing your opinions. If you get a chance, leave me a comment. If you really, really like these and want to have one for your very own, they are available in my Etsy shop. Thanks for reading this far. I appreciate it.

I’ve been playing around on Facebook for several months now, finding old friends, keeping up with what everyone is doing and admit that I find it kind of fun. So I set up a fan page there. For my critter creations. If you’re a member of Facebook, come on by and become a fan if you’d like another way to keep up with my comings and goings. See you there.

Stuffed is a very cool magazine available at most booksellers. Imagine an entire high quality magazine with page after page of fabulous plush creations and you have imagined Stuffed. Volume 2, available now, has not only an article about the Etsy Plush Street Team, but there are also many photos and stories featuring Plush Team members. On page 59 of the article about the Plush Team, my photo of Pablo, my crocheted creation, is included. For that alone you should run out and pick up a copy. Pablo is famous in Italy, you know. Enjoy.

image by kreimermusic

Back in March, Mike and I went to the Dallas Guitar Show. I’ve been to the show many times before, even worked a booth there a few years ago. Mike not only plays guitar, he sells them. He’s a manufacturer’s representative for Godin Guitars. So we basically live in guitar world. Therefore, a trip to a guitar show is not usual for us. Discovering fabulous Huichol art at a guitar show, well, that is very unusual.

There was a booth set up for the Hermes Music Foundation. They had on display several guitars that were beaded by Huichols, some beaded guitar straps and some fabulous beaded necklaces. A television was playing the story of the Huichol people and explaining how the foundation was helping with aid of food, supplies and musical instruments.

There was a photo of a wonderful beaded guitar that was given to Carlos Santana. It was spectacular. The guitars on display were available for purchase/a donation. But, unfortunately, it was well beyond our financial comfort zone. Although we both agreed a Huichol beaded guitar was just what our Huichol collection needed, we also acknowleged the money thing. We didn’t have enough to splurge on a beaded guitar.

But we did have enough to purchase this wonderful necklace and it not only hangs on display in my bedroom, I get to wear my Huichol art out into the world. The skill and talent of the Huichol people always amazes me.

WE HAVE A WINNER!

Thanks to everyone who entered, I loved reading where you would use this fabulous rug. Very inspirational. I should have thought about hanging it up so the cats couldn’t get to it.

The winner was picked using the list randomizer from random.org. And the lucky future owner of this very cool rug is:

jenny s-g

Congratulations jenny s-g, I hope your new rug looks marvelous in your craft room and chases all the beige blah-ness away.

———————————————————————————————————————–

Yes, you read that correctly. A free rug. For some lucky reader. The good people at CSN Rugs have made available to me, for giving away, this fabulous 30″ x 30″ fuchsia & lime cool milkweed pattern cotton rug. CSN Rugs has quite the selection of modern, contemporary area rugs. I had fun perusing their selection and wishing my cats didn’t think rugs were litter boxes. No rugs on my floors. But one of you, dear people, will get to be the owner of this very hip and fashionable rug.

So here’s how to enter: leave a comment on this post telling where in your house you will use the rug. Then tell a friend to come do the same and have them mention in the comment that you sent them. I will then go through the entries and those with mentions get extra an entry. That’s an entry for their original comment and an entry for being mentioned on their friend’s comment. The contest is open now and will end June 22, 2009 at 11:59pm CST. I will utilize random.org to pick a winner. Contest is only open to USA and Canada residents. The winner will be notified on June 23 and I will post their name then as well. Good luck!

I love Art Cars. Someday I plan on going to the Art Car Museum in Houston. So I could just scream when I realized that there were Art Cars in downtown Dallas over the past weekend and I missed seeing them. I was busy with the White Rock Local Market, cooking and various household tasks and the weekend just got away from me and here it is Monday and I was reading the Dallas Observer blog and I saw photos of Art Cars downtown. The one that really caught my eye was the Yarn Car. Of course. The photos look like a big Huichol yarn painting, don’t you think?  I read on his website that he lives in the Dallas area. I’m keeping my eyes open. Enjoy the photos, I sure do. And do visit his website.

If you live in Dallas, or are lucky enough to be here this Saturday, come by the White Rock Local Market. I’ll be selling my critter creations along with other vendors of handmade. The main attraction will be the local produce, meats, cheese, bread and chocolate sellers. I can’t wait. Yummm.

The market is from 8am to 1pm. Obviously, it is located by White Rock Lake, check the link to get the specifics. Hope to see you there. Come by and say hi!

Here’s a little 8″ x 8″ book I made and forgot all about until fellow Plush Team member Zazu blogged about her little book. If you click on the book, you should be whisked away to the Shutterfly site where you can flip through the pages and even order a copy if your heart so desires. Or go to Shutterfly and make your own book. They look really great and its fun to see your photos all bound and printed on nice paper. Enjoy.

I love being a member of the Etsy Plush Street Team. We have the coolest projects and challenges. Here’s my contribution to the latest. I’ve copied the text from my Etsy listing, it pretty much says it all.

“The Etsy Plush Street Team is one creative bunch of artists and our May/June challenge is in honor of Food Network’s Iron Chef program, hence the name Iron Plush. We were arranged into teams. Each team was assigned an “ingredient” and we were challenged to create a food item using that ingredient and present our creation plated. I am on team mirrors.

I decided to crochet a fish of multi strands and crust his topside with mirrors and sequins and glass beads. He is very shiny. I also sewed a little ring on the back so he could hang on the wall.

The fish was crocheted using three different acrylic chenille yarns. The mirrors are plastic and are held on by crocheted rings. The sequins are vintage and the glass beads are new-ish. The tail fins are embroidered with vintage thread my Polish grandmother gave me many years ago.”

Hungry?