In the Workroom Recap : Week 299

Well I did it, I made it through 299 weeks and we're on to week 300!!! 300 x 7 is 2100 days of Needlings! Sure I took a few days off here and there but lets just say easily 2000 days of sewing. I'm a lunatic! Just kidding - what a wonderful 300 weeks it has been for me and Needlings. 

I want to thank all of you for reading, purchasing, commenting, glancing, checking in, visiting, etc.! I really honestly could not have imagined I would be doing this 300 weeks after I started it and I definitely couldn't imagine that anyone would CARE! But you do! And it amazes me every single day! sapsapsapsap (Really really really thank you so much, I love every single one of you!)



So in honour of 300 weeks - I'm doing a very rare sale! All regular priced $30 Owl Mamas are half off in the 'ol etsy shop! So if you've been wanting one for awhile - now's as good a time as any! (well, better really what with the whole half off thing happening)  
This will go on for the week (or maaaaayyyybe a little more depending) but will go away and won't be back until at least maybe 600 weeks so now's your chance! 

Now back to the workroom recap!

I started off the week with another new mini doll then finished off with some work on a big batch of robots!







And still going!

I did take a few breaks out of the workroom this week to go for tea at the Vintage Tea Garden Tea Room in Hamilton AND to visit the most amazing field of sunflowers in the country not too far away. 



These hats and boa were on the wall so of course, being the ridiculous people that we are, decided to help ourselves to them for a few minutes!

Also took a little visit to new shop, Prouse Pottery and Soap on Ottawa Street in Hamilton owned by friends Nick and Jen! It looks great and I recommend everyone go check it out!



Then a little Callie time!



Before a little more robot sewing and then a visit to sunflower heaven! So beautiful I didn't want to leave!





Happy 300 weeks to me! I'll see you at the end of it!

In the Workroom Recap : Week 298

Hey guys! Can you believe I'm two weeks away from 300 weeks of Needlings? I can't believe it!

I wish I would have kept track of more things like amount of bags of stuffing used (well, I guess I could go back and look at the receipts) or how many eye sparkles I've sewn. Short answer guess is a whole lot! Way more than 300 probably.

Anyway, this week was about making and working behind the scenes on packaging for my little mini dolls that I plan on having a bunch of for One of a Kind Christmas Show in Toronto in December. I'm excited to try a few different things for packaging so the samples have been ordered and hopefully I'll have a few months to test some things before December pops up on me.

First I finished this little lady!




And this one!



A few more to go and I'll get them all named and up in the shop! I'm having fun using up some little fur bits for these girls before I get back to some big dolls. I also have a big pile of almost-robots that have been waiting to turn in to robots so they might pop up soon too!

I let my workspace get a little messier in the meantime but dolled up a bit for a planned sewing hang out with Lisa of Nerdbiskit but after a day of not feeling too great, we took the night off to drink some raspberry lemonade and chat instead.

                         

Lisa also 'shopped this magical thing to officially "doll" me up:



It cracks me up. Both horribly creepy and funny at the same time!

Since we're on the topic of me and all - I also recently came across this illustration that an artist from Vienna did of me! Such a cool thing to randomly come across!
                              

I love that she used a photo of me in my "work uniform" as inspiration! It also makes me miss my turquoise hair a little bit!

Well, that's it for the week! Here's a picture of Gus on my display trunk begging for cuddles for good measure.



See you next week!

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!