Philadelphia...

I had a great time wandering around the City of Brotherly Love, thanks a million to Diane of Cutesy but not Cutesy for showing me around this great city!
I was in awe of all the major historical events that happened there, and the architecture is fantastic. I love looking at those old brick buildings on the East Coast.

Here are some of the photos of the awesomeness that is Philly:

Bust of Ben Franklin- made of keys!

Graveyard where Ben Franklin is buried.

It was really cool to go and visit the house where Betsy Ross created the first flag of the United States- she was a feisty lady who was ahead of her time. She didn't retire from her work until she was 76- and then only because her eyesight was too bad to continue. This is the house that she lived in until she retired to her daughter's farm:

replica of the first flag design

I also got to sneak a peek of the amazing architecture of City Hall, as well as the famed Liberty Bell:

and the Eternal Flame monument:

Independence Hall:

There was also the awesomely amazing food market in Reading (pronounced "redding"- go figure) where I had the BEST cheesesteak sandwich ever- although it was tough to choose from all the different stands offering them....

To walk off the cheesesteak and whoopee pie, we headed on a trek from Reading Terminal to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where we paid homage to the statue of the Italian Stallion himself:

and then climbed the famous steps up and in to the Museum, where we saw some incredible art- this museum has some amazing pieces in its permanent collection.

Speaking of art- we also walked through "Love Park" which was the site of the first Robert Indiana "Love" sculpture:

I was bummed that the famous Barnes Collection was not on view- it opened in its new location a few days after I was gone, darn it! That just gives me an excellent excuse to go back, and I definitely plan on it.

I'll be posting photos of the Plush Team's retreat soon- just gotta weed through them all to find the good ones. Have a great week everyone!

Away from my studio...

and so excited to be attending the second annual Plush Team Retreat! A bunch of our Team's members are off to the land of the Amish in Pennsylvania to spend 4.5 days laughing, creating, and sight-seeing.

 I will be back in my studio and creating new plush soon, but for now, it's off to Pennsylvania! Woot! As soon as I get back and get the chance, I'll post photos and write all about it. :)
If you'd like to see photos from last year's retreat, click here, and to find out what shenanigans we got up to, check out last year's blog post.

Meet the Ventriloquist!

I was SUPER excited a few weeks ago to get a box in the mail from one of my favorite plush artists- can you guess who from the sketch on the top of the box?

Even though I knew who was in there, I eagerly unwrapped the new addition to my plush collection:

A wonderful Ventriloquist plush from the awesome Nichol-B of Pink Cheeks Studio!

He is a special piece of plush art from a special lady; just look at this face- how could you not love him? :D 

To see more of the work of Nichol-B, head on over to her etsy shop where you can find quirky mustachioed men and amazing mobiles, like the one below, among her other fantastic plush creations.

Citrus Bears

I found this great fruit-themed cotton print, and was inspired to make some mini bears in bright and cheerful citrus-y colors. I used the print for the bear's tummies and ear accents, and used a contrasting color thread to applique the fabric to the bodies. Their mouths are hand embroidered, and their eyes and noses are made from felt.

These little guys (6.25 inches X 6.25 inches/ 16cm X 16cm) are great for baby gifts, since they have no buttons or other choking hazards, and are made from soft and cuddly fleece.

Lemon Bear

Lime Bear

Tangerine Bear

You can find the Citrus Bears in my etsy shop.

And the Winner is...

Thanks to everyone who entered my giveaway- all your answers were correct, so you all got entered into the drawing! 

Although I had another specific answer in mind that I was looking for. It concerned her eyes- I had made Catwoman Rabbit's eye color purple, when her eyes are traditionally green. Whoops! ;D

So, without further ado, I am announcing the winner of the random hat drawing:

 Congrats to the winner..... AMY! :D I will be contacting you shortly to let you know that you've won your slightly off-model Catwoman. ;D  Thanks again to you all for entering, this was fun!

I'm at work on new plush, and I've also got some new pieces to add to my plush collection, woohoo!
I will be posting those soon, so stay tuned.

Still Life: Afternoon Tea

I created this piece for the Plush Team's March/April challenge. The theme of the challenge was The Artful Stitch: Plush Art, and we could chose to either make a still life or a self portrait.

I decided to try something new and break out the wool roving and my needle felting kit. Everything you see here is needle felted by hand. It was a ton of fun trying something new, and the colors of roving that I had just called out to be made into a plate of macaroons (Mmmmm macaroons ;D), and the rest followed.

You can see the rest of the Team's creations on the Team's Facebook page, and they will also be available for sale in the Team's etsy shop starting today.

Don't forget to enter my Catwoman Rabbit giveaway- you have until Saturday to enter if you haven't already. :D

Mermaid Ariadne

Something new for my etsy shop- say hello to Ariadne.

Ariadne loves to challenge her fellow mermaids and mermen to races- she's one of the fastest mermaids in her part of the ocean. She is hoping to qualify for the Mermaid World Championship Races this summer.


I have wanted to make a mermaid plush for a long time, and I finally got the time and the inspiration to do it. It took me awhile to get a sketch that I liked, and this is the result. Her scales are made from layers of felt, both wool felt and regular felt- it took quite some time to cut them all out and sew them down, let me tell you. I'm happy with the way that they turned out, so it was worth the time. :)

She's now available in my etsy shop, if you'd like to read more about her and see more photos. :D

Give-away time!

Well, after being pretty much computer-less for over a week, I decided to celebrate my return to cyber-space with a plush give-away! What am I giving away, you may be asking yourself. Well, it turns out that  there was a villain Rabbit that decided not to hop in the basket I sent to Emerald City Comic Con last month...

 

The nefarious, notoriously sly, and hard to catch Catwoman Rabbit! I was hoping that the Joker and Harley Quinn Rabbits would also make an appearance at ECCC, but they never showed. I decided to create Catwoman Rabbit in her old-school look, since that is the look that I remember most from my childhood. Although goggles Catwoman is my favorite Catwoman look now that I'm older.

Catwoman Rabbit is not quite her true self, and here comes the crux of how you can win this giveaway:

 Leave a comment here with your name and email address, and tell me what isn't quite right/true to the comic book image about/of Catwoman Rabbit. (the fact that she's a Rabbit doesn't count.) Right answers will be added into the pile, and the winner will be picked at random out of a hat by midnight PST on Saturday, April 28th, 2012.

On the off-chance that there aren't any right answers: (it's not that hard a question, so I doubt this will be the case ;D) I will post the answer along with the winner on Sunday April 29th. To pick a winner in this scenario: I will add all the names into a hat and randomly select a winner from the pool.

PLEASE remember to leave me your email address, otherwise I won't be able to contact you if you win!

Good luck!