In the Workroom Recap : Week 297

Hey guys! It was a busy week around here topped off with a big ol' crazy storm but everything is dried up and power is in so all is well here now! 

I started the week off by heading to Creative Bug in Beamsville to drop off a custom doll before coming back to the studio to clean everything up to get ready for The Spectator photoshoot! I drew up a little illustrated version of the doll first of course.




So cute!
And clean!



Gussy loves it of course!


So on Thursday, Natalie from the Spectator and a photographer came over to take a little awkward sewing photo of me in my workspace and a little video of myself describing who I am and what I do for an article about local Etsy artists. I really need to work on getting better at describing what I do on video. Practice makes perfect I guess! 

Here's Natalie taking a little video of my workspace to overlay with my little voice over:


I'm excited to see the article when it comes out sometime in the future!
And pretty happy to have had an excuse to up my workroom organization game a little bit.



Then I got to work on some mini art dolls! I've been thinking about making more of these little ones for awhile now and since making the little custom one last week I figure now is as good a time as any to start stocking up for One of a Kind in December! Not to mention Locke Street Festival and Supercrawl here in Hamilton in September.



This is one of my favourite fabrics ever that I picked up in Wholly Craft in Columbus many years ago and I plan on using it on a couple more dolls at least!


I've decided not everyone needs glasses...

But some do!



And that's it for the week! I hope to finish up a few more in the coming weeks, including this planned pink one of course.

This week also marked a year since little Callie the pup came in to my life on the side of the road in Caledonia! I'm so happy to have found her. She's a needy little suck and I never thought of myself as a dog person (cats!) but she's really the sweetest and we're lucky to have her!



I can't believe a year has passed - they go by so quickly! 

Well, see you next week, friends!

In the Workroom Recap : Week 296

Hello! It's Monday night which means I'm a solid day and half-ish late on my workroom recap but you'll have to forgive me! I'm sure you will too - because you're the best!

This week started with a fun mail, my fur delivery! Which sounds like a super fancy luxury designer thing to say but of course it's faux and crazy coloured and destined for doll heads. (ie: not that fancy.)



That top one is a pretty light blue, then yellow, turquoise and hot pink. Exciting stuff! I didn't get a chance to use it yet this week but I did use the black from the last shipment and a little bit of green for a special custom order mini doll!

First I took some time to make a few more pom poms! Lots to go if I'm going to have a pom pom covered booth for my outdoor shows but luckily I have a couple months left before they spring up on me.



Then I was asked by a customer to make a mini version of my already mini Thumbelina doll for her daughter to hang from her backpack. I made her as small as I could and I was really happy with how she turned out! I hope her daughter loves her!




So little! I was pretty excited about how small I was able to get her so I might have to add this size to my collection. First I have plans to make more the size of the bigger Thumbelina though. There are always so many things to make!

The rest of my week involved some gift making - a bunch of goodies that were sent off to my oldest best friend Jenny in Iowa City Iowa who is expecting a little baby boy in August and a doll for my other dear friend Lisa of Nerdbiskit who was celebrating her birthday.

After I did a bunch of jungle illustrations for Baxter's nursery - I made him a matching monkey and banana rattle. Then a little owl family and baby blanket for good measure.





Happy to say they loved everything! I can't wait to hopefully visit Iowa soon after baby Baxter is born!

And here's the doll I made for non-baby Lisa! A little doll version of Lisa all decked out in Nerdbiskit colours and the Nerdbiskit logo.




Cutest pair of dolls!

And that was it for the week! I've been in the process of tidying up my work room to get ready for a photo and video shoot for The Hamilton Spectator which is scheduled for this Thursday. Eep. I'll let you know how it goes!!

But for now, here's the before! (Messy messy messy)



See you soon!

In the Workroom Recap : Week 295

Hi guys!

I started off the week with some more boring behind the scenes work and also managed to get everything back up on the doll wall! Important stuff. Super important.



To continue in the "behind the scenes" vein, more time was spent on painting display pieces for future shows. I need more than just my refinished white trunkto fill up my tent for outdoor shows AND my big booth at the One of a Kind show in December! I'm excited to get rid of the black stuff I was using for the past 5 years and to make some changes for shows. If any of you have experience (and I know you do) doing craft shows and the like, you know how both important and somewhat challenging it is to find display stuff that is practical and looks good so hopefully I have found some! I like the idea of changing things up because if I'm bored with it, chances are someone else is too!



Sneak peek anyway! We're basically using up this can of white paint on everything and then I'll figure out exactly how it will all fit together and what I can use for the old Needlings display. Who doesn't like a nice little white table and assorted goodies anyway right? Right. It'll work out! It will!

In addition to the painting work, I packed up some gifts and orders and started work on a new doll!





I plan on finishing her up this week so I will at least have something new to show you for next week's update. And a few more things hopefully!

See you then lovely friends!

In the Workroom Recap : Week 294

Canada Day weekend! If any of you non-Canadians were starting to "tsk" me for being late with my workroom recap, don't worry, I didn't forget! I had a great holiday weekend and while I did manage to get a little work done, I thought the blogging could wait a couple days so I could join the rest of my countrymen in enjoying the long weekend.

So here I am on Monday night to let you know how the last week of June went for Needlings!

I started with finishing up a secret gift project I've been working on for awhile that I may be able to share at a later date...

And then I started work on that custom doll I was waiting on a supply delivery before starting.



I met (another) Heather of Creative Bug at Heirlooms show in Welland earlier in the month and she asked me to create a custom doll for her daughter! I was happy of course to create a custom doll and after seeing a photo of her in her Wonder Woman costume and hearing a few more tidbits (she likes butterflies and liked my pom pom table at the show), I did up a little sketch and got to work as soon as the blue fur arrived!



We agreed on star glasses and a couple other things but I was mostly just asked to go ahead and make what came to me so I did just that. I'm pretty happy with how she turned out and even happier that Heather is too and excited to gift it to her daughter in August for her birthday. I hope she loves it!




I put in another order for some more fur and plan to have a few more done very soon whenever doll thoughts enter my brain.

After some other commitments were out of the way and I had some big brother birthday times, I got to work on a little owl family! It's fun to coordinate colours I wouldn't normally put together and mix and match in groups. After making literally thousands of these guys in the last five years, I love that I still can find new combinations. I have my Owl Mama to thank for a lot of my business so even when I have moments when I think I just can't sew another little beak and eye sparkle, I am thankful I can still have fun with my trusty design.




Plus practice makes perfect! Or at least better. Everyone always asks me how I get the stitching to all look the same or some such thing and I always answer, "well, I've had a lot of practice." And I have!

So that's it for the last week of June! July is starting and I'm sure I will have more to show you in the coming weeks.
This year is my first year in three or so years that I will not be scrambling to get ready for Fan Expo in August (I just can't fit it all in with the One of a Kind Show Spring and Winter shows for the first time this year) but I have lots of work to do before my next two big shows in September on top of the usual store restocks so expect to see the usual batches of goodies and new dolls pop up over the next couple of months!

Happy July! See you next week!

In the Workroom Recap : Week 293

Happy Summer! It feels like it's been here for a little while now but it's official now and today especially felt like a steamy summer day! 

I, of course, spent some time in the workroom this week in addition to some fun out of doors activities but my week started out with scouring the internet for photos from Uglycon which took place a couple of weekends ago at Giant Robot in Los Angeles! Thankfully the gallery posted some photos for the artists that weren't lucky enough to be able to accompany their work - yay!



So there's my little Ugly Doll inspired gal on the gallery wall among some great pieces from other plush artists from all over! I feel quite honoured to have been asked to do it and pretty excited to see the photos pop up from the show. You can see more over on Giant Robot's website here.

I then spent the rest of the week finishing and getting together a big restock batch for Dots & Loops in Lunenburg which is finally ready to be on it's way to them! Finally! 





And off they go!

I am lucky enough to be starting a custom doll for a customer very shortly as soon as my materials arrive but I whipped up a very quicky rough sketch for layout/idea hashing purposes first.



It's been too long since I made a new doll so hopefully there will be more of them sooner than later once my supply shipment comes in and I have lots of furry hair colours to inspire me!

But for now I have some side jobs to take care of this week in addition to preparing some supplies and such to start thinking about restocking my own inventory for this year's busy big shows! Eee - so much to do!

And that's all she wrote - I'll see you next week lovely friends!

In the Workroom Recap : Week 292 AND Show Recap : Heirlooms

Hey guys! 

We're in to week 293 here but after a week of preparing for Heirlooms show in Welland over the weekend and spending some Father's Day time with my dad, it took me the day to get back in to things.

Because my display has changed a bit and I'm still getting used to it, I did a little mock set up at home during the week that I added to as I finished up some last minute goodies for the show and finished tagging and prepping everything for the show.

Here's how it turned out!

I still need to figure out a good way to prop up those Owl Mama faces so they aren't so tucked away when it's all loaded up but it did the job and I'm happy to use my trunk again for the first time after One of a Kind show!

So after a wrong turn and rushed morning, we made it to Vermeer's Garden Centre and set up inside the greenhouse just in time! The setting was beautiful and despite it being quite warm in that greenhouse, it was a lovely show.

Here are all the vendors outside! It was a perfect day, not a cloud in the sky, and it was nice to see some familiar faces and meet some brand new ones too!

My mom was there too of course! We put out some of her cowls and despite how warm it was in there, lots of people did some early Christmas shopping and we left with quite a few less. I shouldn't be surprised seeing as I have about ten myself and love them all (when it's a little cooler out obviously). 

One of the familiar faces was Gillian of Pip Robins, who was outside with her beautiful belt buckles and bags! We had a nice little chat and I look forward to seeing her at the Christmas One of a Kind show in December (and I'm sure our crafty paths will cross before then).

And another familiar face was my dear friend Lisa of Nerdbiskit of course! We had a fun time as always laughing and chatting as well as spying on the resident kitties of the garden centre. One even stopped by for a bit to play with one of Lisa's catnip mustaches - who could blame him?

So precious! Also take a little peak behind the scenes of the mess that's hidden behind the tables...

I usually manage to refrain from spending too much on myself at the shows I do now despite there always being so many amazing things from other vendors that I'd love to own, but this time I couldn't help myself when I saw a few booth of amazingly priced little hair flowers. I couldn't decide on a colour so I had to buy three!

I wore one the very next day for some Father's Day visits and I'm sure I will be getting lots of wear out of them!

So that was it! I'll be spending these upcoming weeks on some store restocks and general building of stock for my own shows coming up later on in the year. So many exciting events I can't wait for, Locke Street Festival, Supercrawl, and of course One of a Kind!

I hope you're all enjoying the great weather! See you next week!