In the Workroom Recap : Week 291

Hi friends! 

I had a busy week working on a few batches of things to stock up for Heirlooms show in Welland next Saturday and general store restocks - this time for Dots & Loops in Lunenburg. I'm still not quite back to the usual pace after my week away but I'm getting there. I had a few other things to get out of the way but managed to continue work on some display stuff as well.

First, though, I finished up and packaged that batch of keychains I was working on.


They haven't been bagged up yet but will be tucked away soon to come along to the show on Saturday. This is my favourite colour combination and seems to be everyone else's so I decided to stick with it for the time being although I can always make a variety of colours on request. Mint and hot pink for now!

After finishing up the keychains I was working on stringing my pompoms in to some garlands for my display. The show on Saturday is a one table display so luckily I won't need too many to start but my goal is to brighten everything up inside my tent display for the later summer shows. There is something about those little puff balls that makes me want to put them everywhere. I even have plans to put them on some shoes. Too far? Nonsense. 

I've also been doing a little brainstorming for a special project that I hope will be able to come together sometime this summer or fall...



More on that later but for now, back to more Needlings stuffs...

Next was the ever present phone sleeves. These guys keep me busy year round that's for sure! So of course I needed some to bring to the show and also have to send out to stores that are getting low.




Almost finished! I'll be getting back to them tonight after a day off to visit my dad and enjoy the sun. 

Hope you are all having the best week! I'll be back next week for a workroom recap and recap of Heirlooms too. Don't forget to mark your calendars if you're close enough to visit!

In (out of) the Workroom Recap : Week 289 & 290

I'm finally home and back in the workroom after my week away filling in as caregiver for my dad. I managed to get a little work done while away but spent most of my time hanging out with him at his dialysis treatments at the hospital and generally spending time with him.

I am, of course, a little late to get back to things here which is why I'm a little late with this recap but in the coming couple weeks I will be preparing for my first summer show and getting caught up on things from my time away so will hopefully fall back in to the schedule sooner than later.

The first show of the summer is a brand new one for Needlings; Heirlooms in Welland, ON. I'm excited to spend the day with crafty friends at the flower filled Vermeers' Garden Centre. It's a two day one but myself and a few other vendors will be attending just the Saturday date so if you're planning on coming to say hello, I'll be there on the 15th only!



It should be a great show - there are tons of particularly amazing vendors coming so if you are able to make it either day, I definitely recommend it!

So back to the recap:
Before I went away I brought some keychain parts and littles to stock up on for the show as well as some supplies to make more pompoms that I plan on using for my craft show displays in various ways. They were a good sort keep your hands busy job to do while my brain was otherwise occupied so I definitely added a nice amount to the pile by the time I came home.




So I added them to the pile when I got home!



I finished the handsewing on a small batch of keychains that I will be back to work finishing up this week, among other things.



So that's it! I'm still in the process of getting back in to things and remembering my to-do lists and all that so hopefully I will have more of the usual Needlings work to show you next week.

See you then! xo

In the Workroom Recap : Week 288

Hello everyone! Happy Victoria Day or 24 weekend to you Canadians!

When last week ended, I let you know about Uglycon, the Ugly Dolls convention in LA, but before I sent my doll out, I put together a little Ugly Doll-esque tag! Which of course involved a little doodle first.






And a little story for her! Since she was based on the Babo Ugly Doll who is a bit nervous and loves cookies, I thought Babette should have a similar personality. It was fun to write a little story and make a tag for this little one. Some of you may (or may not) know that when I first started making Needlings back in 2007, they all had little stories on tags. Unfortunately it became difficult for me to keep up with it when I started focusing less on my one of a kind items. I miss it! It might be something I bring back in the future but there might be another written element for me to work on as well. We will see, I guess! For now, these little fun changes of pace will have to do.

I spent the next couple of days working on a secrect gift project that I won't share until I'm all finished and the recipient has recieved it but I will say it is for one of my favourite people in the world and her coming new addition to it. Ok ok that's all I'll say!!

I also had a pile of fabric I planned on making some skirts for myself sitting around that I decided to work on. Only one skirt made so far but I'm quite happy with how it turned out - I heart heart pockets!



I might change a few things about the process if I ever make these pockets again but I'm really happy with how they turned out! This fabric was an old one I believe my mom purchased at least 15 or so years ago in Iowa as part of a never realized quilt project. I'm so glad she kept it! I think I'm pretty picky when it comes to floral prints but I always thought this one was quite sweet.

So, in the midst of work, gift making, skirt making, and enjoying the nice weather lately I do have this coming week on my mind where I will be out of the workroom again to spend the week taking care of my dad. Luckily I'm able to bring a few things to work on, handsewing travels well for the days at the hospital and evenings ignoring the hockey games on tv.



Since I will be away starting Wednesday, the shop will be closed for the week and I think I'll probably also put a hold on next weeks' workroom update until the following weekend when I will be at home again and back in to the regular work flow. Hopefully I'll have a few things to show you then after the month, and Spring, is finished! 



See you then lovely friends! 

In the Workroom Recap : Week 287

Happy Mother's Day everyone! I hope you're all as lucky as me to have an amazing mom like mine!

She's why I am who I am and a big part of Needlings too! She's there at almost every single show and I could never thank her enough for everything she does for me and her family. She's the best! 

I finished the week up making a few little handmade goodies for her...



But before that, I had lots of Needlings work to do!




I sent these guys off to Wholly Craft in Columbus then got to work on my next to-do.
About a month ago I was asked to provide a piece for the art show associated with Uglycon, a celebration of Uglydolls, put on by the creator of Uglydolls andGiant Robot gallery in Los Angeles. I was quite honoured to be asked to participate!
The task I, and the other plush artists, was given was to make a sort of collaboration of our own plush styles mixed with the "Babo" Uglydoll! After a little brainstorming, I made a Needlings dolls/Babo hybrid with a little touch of owl of course.  So little Baby Babette B. Babo will be headed off to Giant Robot in LA and available at Uglycon on June 15th! I can't wait to see what everyone else makes!







In addition to the art show featuring the artists' spin on Babo, you can also make your own Babo (although no outfits, prints, or edits) to participate in Uglycon as well! And apparently even watch along on Google+




Fun stuff! I will be in Welland on the 15th at another show but hopefully will catch a little bit of the excitement via the good old internet later on in the day.

Well that's it for the week! Hope you are all having a lovely Mother's Day! See you next week!

In the Workroom Recap : Week 286

Another week for Needlings over. 285! That's 5.5 years if you can believe it. I can hardly.

I still wasn't feeling too well at the beginning of the week (don't worry, I'm back to normal now!) so I took a couple more sick days and decided to do some drawing. My plan is to do illustrations of all my one of a kind art dolls. This week I finished Olivia, one of my first dolls made for the Plush You gallery show at Schmancy in Seattle a couple years ago, and Violet, my first doll sold at the One of a Kind show.









These were two of my favourites to make so I think they were also two of my favourites to draw so far but we'll see how the future ones go. They'll be available as prints soon. I also have some more plans for them once I do a few more but for now, sewing calls.

I had a custom order to work on for the rest of the week based on a customer's own lady skull design he calls Skully-Chan! I don't normally do too many custom orders through the year but I know Pete, through twitter and he even tracked down one of my robots at Kid Icarus in Toronto while he was vacationing there from New York awhile back so I was quite honoured to have been asked to work on something as personal as this. 



He even gave me free reign on the body design and little outfit which was fun for me of course!




And she's on her way to Pete in New York! This was a bit of a rush order because he is going on a two month trip to Europe and plans on taking photos of her in fancy landmarks and such. Exciting! 

So that was it for the week! I did a little bit of work on a stack of cell phone sleeves that will be added to a bunch of things that will hopefully finally be heading out to Wholly Craft in Ohio this week.

Have a good week guys! 

In the Workroom Recap : Week 285

Hey guys! As promised, I don't have too much to show you from the workroom last week and additionally less because I seem to have picked up a bug that has rendered me mostly useless.

Luckily I was still able to finish what was planned for the week - mostly. Most importantly the boring taxes and paperwork! I can't fully express to you how glad I am to have them out of the way.



My worktable was covered in reciepts for most of the week but when I finished, I did a little reorganizing again then dove in to the supply closet to see what was hiding under the clutter and supplies...



Lots of goodies! The few fabrics on the right will become skirts for me when I get around to sewing them and the rest I think I can use for doll dresses and other fun things. I'm glad they are no longer buried and forgotten! And the closet is a little easier to get around now which was the initial goal.

Since summer shows will be coming up sooner than later now, we've also been painting some more potential display items to match the display trunk I finished for One of a Kind Show a while back. The little table in the top left was made by my mom's dad many years ago so I'm excited to use it for my display now. Lots of white things happening!



It'll be fun to get another brand new display together for the big outdoor shows this year! Some of you may know that my mom and I combine our handmadies for the local shows so her knits will be mixed in with Needlings once fall comes!

I was working on the last batch of cell phone sleeves that will go along with a big batch of goodies for Wholly Craft in Ohio before I started to feel a littly flu-y. Not fun!



Hopefully I'll be back to normal soon so I'll have the finished bunch to show you next week. Fingers crossed!
See you then friends!

Toronto Weekend : City of Craft, Photobooths, Street Style!

As I mentioned in my last workroom update, I went in to Toronto on Saturday to check out the amazing City of Craft Spring Show with one of my crafty friends Lisa of Nerdbiskit. I'm so used to being a vendor at all the craft shows I attend so it was nice to be a customer/visitor for the day!

We walked in to Trinity St. Paul's on Bloor Street and it was adorably decorated with handmade paper flower decorations so even though it was quite a chilly day for Spring, it was beautiful and sunny and cheerful!





I could have bought something from every single vendor there but I refrained and only spent a teeny bit and had a great time looking around at some new and some familiar favourites.


Picked up a few cards, a postcard print of a drawing by one of the vendor's kiddies, Bookhou (who's bags I am in love with), and a washi tape covered heart pin from Ghostface Knittah.


One of the cards is from We See Inc. that had a booth up in preperation for a performance piece and their Soul Bank! We happily donated our souls via our fingerprints and strand of hair! Yep, we did that! Anything for art's sake.



The other card was from Have & Hold Design that puts together super cute photobooths and photo props! Lisa and I of course couldn't pass them down.



So much fun! 

As we were walking down the street after our craft show fun times, a girl who turned out to be Karyn of KillerKurves.com, a plus size fashion blog, asked me to participate in a street fashion feature on her blog! Turns out we even have some friends in common! Small world!



Forever squinty glasses girl. Windy but bright day! Someone needs some prescription sunglasses...
All the details from my outfit are over on the blog feature including a little Needlings plug. I'm so happy to make Karyn an Owl Mama of her own now! It's funny how just walking down the street sometimes can end up exciting. 



So that was our day! I can't wait to visit the holiday City of Craft this winter and will be spending some solid time visiting the vendor's via the internet in the meantime. Check the vendor's list here. Every single one of them is worth a look!




See you soon!  ♥

In the Workroom Recap : Week 284

Hi guys! Another week over. I spent the week finishing up a big restock for White Rabbit in Iowa City, one of my favourite shops in one of my favourite towns.

It's a big one! And it's all boxed up and on it's way. Whew.

I took a little break from work this weekend to head in to Toronto to check out City of Craft, a great indie craft show with tons of amazing vendors. It's fun just to be a shopper at a craft show every once in awhile and this one is a great one for that! I'll have to do a seperate post very soon to share my day (which was great). I know I've slacked off on the non-workroom posts this year but now that One of a Kind show is over and my workload is a little less, I hope to share with you a little more than all my loads of sewing and crampy hands. 

But for now, that's it for the week! I will probably have less to show you next week as far as finished things since there is some fun paperwork and TAXES to finish up but I'll be back anyway just in case. See you then!

Have a lovely week, friends!

(From Callie too!)