Crafty Boing Boing Birthday Week!

What is the best thing to get for your birthday week? ATTENTION. And boy howdy, have I got it in spades!

It started off like this:
Sunday night, Ryan and I are laying in bed giggling like a couple of girls at a slumber party because we're going to Disneyland in the morning with Bliss and Kate and everything is right with the world. So I'm busting at the seams with giddiness and he falls asleep, so I decide to check my old friend The Internet. Over on my Flickr page, Beefranck had left a comment that my hitchhiking ghost embroidery was featured on Craft Magazine! So I get very excited and wake Ryan up (note the screenshot: 2:54am) and shove the iphone in his face "look! look!" and did a little jig. He was very happy for me and so I was wiggling around and decided to Twitter about it (because I am a braggart at heart).

So I'm scrolling through Twitter (which I had neglected all day) and my friend Mark had tweeted that his friend Mia is a rockstar. He works for Fender, so I'm thinking it's an actual rockstar and decide to click the link, which goes to BoingBoing and hey! I am the Mia that he's talking about!

At this point, Ryan and I both get out of bed (much to the annoyance of the cat, who had just gotten comfortable and you know how he never gets to sleep) and dance around and smile a lot and then look at the clock and say "ok, now we REALLY have to go to sleep" and so we did, with gigantic grins.

So in the morning, we jump right up at the sound the alarm, happy as can be and I check my email and see that I have sold all of my hitchhiking ghost commission orders on etsy! Which is SUPER exciting! (thanks craft & BoingBoing!) and I decide that I can take on 2 more orders in the next week or so, so I post 2 more listings and bam! they sell right away! In between, I've also received numerous more requests for commissions (which have to wait because I am full-up at the moment!) and even just nice notes to say "congrats on being featured" which is SUPER nice. Man, sometimes internet people are the best, aren't they?

And THEN on top of that, I got to spend the day at Disneyland with some of my most favorite people and chit chat and go on the Haunted Mansion ride and eat pancakes! It was fabulous.

I could not have asked for a better start to my birthday week and, really, it's thanks to YOU! The people who have encouraged and enjoyed my art. I wouldn't be here without you. YOU are the ones who make me so giddy. xoxoxo

the one that got away

On Saturday, I saw a tray like this one (below) in an antique shop. I wanted to confirm that the price was fair before I bought it so I left it in the cabinet and decided I'd come back on Sunday.

I found it online and it turns out that it's worth a LOT of money and would have been a great steal. So I ran back to the shop after lunch on Sunday and someone had bought it. Ultimate sadness.

And I know you're thinking "who cares about a stupid TV tray?" but here's why it's special: it's a Disneyland souvenir, featuring the original park map. The park has grown and changed over the years, and I have never seen a "Disneyland" TV tray before. Sure, plenty of Mickey or other Disney characters, but not one from the park. *sigh*

Luckily, I didn't leave the shop empty-handed. I found a vintage tea pot that was a Disneyland souvenier from the late 50's/early 60's. I found a picture of the full set, but so far I only have the tea pot. Isn't it so cute? It's even stained inside from some little girl having a tea party with her friends. Awww!

I also found an old dollhouse/shadow box that was in a bad state of disrepair. At one point, someone lovingly hand made this house and put in dollhouse wallpaper inside. But it looks like it's been living in the back of a garage for a decade. I scooped it up for a couple of bucks and have already re-painted it and bought new paper for the walls. I'm going to use it for a display at craft fairs. The little cardboard one that Ryan made me for last year's craft fair was the envy of every kid in town! This one is going to knock 'em over dead!! ;-)

Before the vintage shop, Kate and I went to a craft fair and I scored a Tiny Tim prayer candle (so that he will bless me in my ukulele lessons!), a brooch of Bob's Big Boy achieving enlightenment, plus a Ouija board candle for Ryan. After that, we went to Tall Mouse craft store which is deadly on your wallet. I bought several ADORABLE fat quarters of fabric and also more peg people and somehow escaped without having to sell my soul. It was an accomplishment, let me tell you!!

That evening, I got to spend the Border's gift card that my mom gave me and was able to get FIVE. NEW. BOOKS. [insert audio of angels singing] and then we met up with Ryan to go see Up in 3D. Up was just as sweet and cute and funny and sad as everyone said. I just wish that people could admit that cartoons don't have to be for kids. The theater was packed (seriously, every seat was taken) full of kids, most of whom seemed pretty bored or were crying and squirming. It's a very touching story of an old man living his life's dream before it's too late. Clearly written for an older audience (I feel the same way about Wall-E and Cars). But it was very sweet and silly and the kid (Russell) adds great comic relief. I laughed, I cried, I ate Whoppers. It was a great night.

Afterward, Ryan was in a hurry to get back to work, so he suggested that we grab a quick cup of tea and debrief about the movie... which, of course, turned into at least 2 more hours of chit-chat (interrupted once by a guy in a bowling pin costume - you can't make this stuff up!) during which I told a bunch of embarrassing stories about myself (sorry Kate!).

Needless to say, it was a fantastic day and I was exhausted when we got home.

Silverlake Craft Fair

Sunday was the Silverlake Craft Fair and Kate and I exhibited for the first time. It was a lot of fun! According to the other vendors, who are regulars there, the traffic was much lighter than usual and sales were pretty slow. I did ok and it was a decent investment for me. The craft fair will have a new location soon and I might be back to check it out.

There were lots of neat things for sale and lots of handmade jewelry -- if you're looking for some great etsy artists to meet in person, this is a great show. I was proud of myself for not spending all of my earnings, although I did buy one thing (just one is allowed!). Roscata had a booth where the designer was selling her polymer clay charms that were all DELICIOUSLY adorable. I ended up taking home a pair of snow cone earrings. Look how cute these are!!

If you're in the market for snow cone (or Hostess cupcakes!) charms, I now have an official recommendation (for a snack attack, flip through her images on Flickr).

It was an overall great day. An excuse to chit chat with Kate for 8 hours PLUS we had a bunch of surprise guests! I felt so popular! Adam and his mom came by and stayed for a while, then Lori and Mickey showed up for a bit, I also randomly ran into my cousin Laila and her husband and baby, plus Kate's friend Joe (who is super awesome) came by. It made the time just fly by!

One of the vendors near us watched me set up and suggested that I raise my prices. I understand that everyone wants a certain price-level for these types of events, but the person who suggested it (and many others) were selling more intricate items, like hand-cast silver and hand-beaded jewelry, that are more time- and cost- and labor-intensive. My overhead for my paintings and embroidery pieces are very low and I charge commisserate to the time I spend on them. Which means that some things will sell for $10 or $15 and others for $25. Which I don't feel undermines anyone else selling in the fair (especially since there isn't anyone else selling dot paintings, so I'm not funking up the market for dots!), but instead allows people with a smaller budget to take home a little something, which makes me feel good and the buyer too. I feel bad for anyone else who had a less than awesome day, because we had a great time. I even took home a free sunburn! Cruise Director Kate* suggested that we put on sunblock and I was all 'pfft, I'm ok' and then HEY! Guess who has a lobster nose?

Afterward, I went and collected Ryan who was home with a sinus infection (he feels okay, but his right eye just tears up randomly, so he occassionally looks 1/2 sad) and we met up with Adam and Kate for a gluttonous dinner at Cheesecake Factory. Kate had to come down thisaway because she was hand-delivering a custom purse order to someone at Disneyland (she met them while they were in line for a ride for cripes sake! THAT is service, my friend!). We ate more fried macaroni and cheese than should be legal and remembered to save room for dessert (more gluttony). Dinner lasted something like 4 hours because MAN can we talk and only ended because I was running on fumes and needed to get to bed before work on Monday. I was the total buzzkill, because we were just getting to the good stuff, like 'which book was written just for you?' It was great to see Adam, who now lives out of state (ahem.) and hasn't been back to town since Christmas (Ahem!!). Luckily, he's already committed to hosting Ryan for a weekend writing retreat and then coming back to LA for the Paley Festival (3 unaired episodes of Pushing Daisies!!!) in a couple of weeks.

In a nutshell: it was an awesome day. I'd do it again, only maybe take the sunblock advice. And also maybe remember to eat lunch so that I don't have to eat the whole dinner menu afterward.


*For the record, she gave herself this nickname, but she lives up to it in every (good) way! Example: we asked about what she did while her mom was visiting and she pulled out an itinerary of all the places they visited. :)