Happy Corduroy Day!

Yes, folks, today is national Corduroy Appreciation Day, since 11|11|11 is the day that most resembles that glorius fabric, corduroy.

To commemorate this momentous date, the Plush Team has teamed up with the Corduroy Appreciation Club. Eleven members of the Plush Team created a collection of 11 corduroy-inspired plush. These pieces will be displayed at the grand meeting celebrating all things corduroy at the Desmond Tutu Center in Manhattan on this most auspicious date. These pieces are available to the public to celebrate this every man's fabric in their own private collections. They may be purchased in the PlushTeam's Etsy shop.

I had the pleasure of being one of the 11 artists, and I created a "waling" banshee for this event.

According to Irish folklore, banshees are fairy women (or ghosts of women who died, commonly in childbirth) who wail when death is nigh. Their wails are most often heard at night near woods.

My banshee is dressed in baby corduroy, or pinwale, for a play on the word "wailing." Her tattered dress is accented with ribbon and lace, and her split dagged sleeves feature a silk blend lining (because I still can't get Game of Thrones costuming out of my head). Her body is made of 100% wool felt, and her hair is mohair locks needle-felted into place. Her arms and fingers are wired and jointed for full range of motion. She comes with a doll stand.

I love my banshee. Seriously LOVE. I did not want to ship her to New York, I loved her so much. I haven't been this in love with one of my plush pieces since, well, probably ever. Which means I will definitely have to make more banshees in the future.

All the pieces my fellow Plush Teamers created for this event are amazing. There's a Woody Allen plushcature:

A nasty ass honey badger (if you don't understand this reference, click the link to watch the video NOW. Seriously, now. I'll wait.):
And a plethora of amazing whales:

And if that weren't enough awesomesauce for you, last night, Rachel Maddow of MSNBC purchased that nasty-ass honey badger, and then FEATURED THREE PLUSH TEAM PLUSH ON HER SHOW, including my banshee. How amazing is that?!

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Big, big props to Abby of Abbydid for organizing all this plush corduroy awesomeness.

About the Club:
The Corduroy Appreciation Club is a social club which wishes to cultivate good fellowship by the advancement of Corduroy awareness, understanding, celebration and commemoration of the fabric and all related items. Club events are held on dates which resemble Corduroy.

All Hail the Wale!!!

My First Magazine!

My first magazine article came out this month! The magazine I was interviewed for was (drum roll, please). . . . Get Creative, a wonderful Australian magazine devoted to "encouraging and inspiring all of us to have a go at new
things, expressing ourselves creatively and spending time with our
family and friends."

Sadly, this magazine isn't currently available in the United States, but the editor, Jacquie, was kind enough to send me a PDF of my article. Read the article by either clicking each image below to enlarge, or download the whole PDF.   

I'm so excited that Get Creative offered me this
opportunity, and it's so thrilling to see my work in print! And among
such good company too. How adorable is that skeleton by Nelly Pailloux? And Samantha Bryan's whimsical, Victorian-inspired creations? Swoon.   

I Heart All of You

Thanks to all of you lovelies, my yeti won the HandmadeMN January team challenge! You guys rock! I have now earned a month  of free advertising on the HandmadeMN blog. Yay!

Thanks also to everyone who has voted for me so far in the Poppies. I can't say enough kind words about all of you! Please know that I truly appreciate everything you do to support me and my work.

Speaking of work, I've added four new plushies to the Etsy shop. Two froglets and two giraffes. More frogs, froglets, owls, and owlets to come later this week or early next!

The Poppies

I've been nominated for Poppytalk's first ever handmade awards, The Poppies! My nomination is in the Crafters category. I have some outstanding competition in this category, but I sure would appreciate your vote! Click the Crafters link above for details and to vote.

In other news, I've been sewing like a madwoman so that I can bring you a sizable shop update; frogs, froglets, owls, owlets, and giraffes. Stay tuned; I hope to have them all in the shop within a week.

Buy Zombie!

Ah, the power of Twitter. This afternoon, someone I follow reposted a Tweet (retweeted) from a user named BuyZombie. Since I craft zombie critters and generally like most things zombie, I was intrigued and clicked over to their profile. BuyZombie.com is an awesome Website that is "an ever-growing database of everything Zombie related you can buy or do
on the Internet" and has "grown to be a hub for zombie news, media,
reviews, and announcements!" Naturally, I had to follow someone who runs such a cool site and I swear, not even an hour later, I saw this Tweet from them:

How cool is that?! Thanks to Stuart for such a nice write-up of my zombie critters!

Vote for Me!

Head on over to the HandmadeMN blog to vote for my Purple Rain Unicorn in the August monthly challenge. Pretty please?

Cuteable

My Elyria unicorn was featured on Cuteable today!

Watch <em>That's Clever</em>? Looking for Alpaca?

Then look no further! If you want to try your hand at making the alpaca demonstrated in the show, you can buy the pattern in my Etsy shop, on sale for a special price for the rest of the month.

I know my segment of That's Clever aired this morning; unfortunately I didn't know
this beforehand, so I couldn't set my DVR to record the show. If you happened
to tape this particular episode, please let me know; I'm dying to see how it turned
out!

I actually taped this segment way back in April 2007—back before I went solo and was still creating with Amy under the name Crabtree Studio. Amy taped a segment too (as did a bunch of other talented Minnesotans!), but HGTV has no info on her episode yet. Though finding our air dates has been an exercise in frustration, taping the show was a blast! The film crew were super fun to work with and if any of you are reading, thanks again for the great experience!

Etsy Treasury

Whoo hoo! I'm in an Etsy treasury today!

On a lark, I decided to search for myself at Craftopolis (a really cool site that lets you search to find out if you're in any current treasuries or gift guides). I've searched several times before, but today was the first time a match actually came back. Thanks so much to Meghan of Mepottery for including my work!

Octozombie

Introducing
octozombie! He is made with 100% wool and has needle-felted mouth, eye
sockets, eyeballs, teeth, and blood. Detached tentacle reattaches with
use of a magnet hidden inside. Tentacles are wired for posability. His
fish prey is also 100% wool, with a needle-felted head wound.

I just sent this fearsome creature to terrorize the Big Apple. He's my entry in the APW Gallery's
Custom Toy Exhibit, running April 3 to April 27. The exhibit is
actually contest, with the grand prize being a solo exhibition. So if
you live in or near New York, please go see the exhibit and vote for
octozombie!



Also, don't forget that you can now become a fan of Plushroom Soup on Facebook, and you can also follow me on Twitter! So become a fan and a follower, and make me feel popular! :)

Uh-oh.

First, it was MySpace. Then it was Facebook, deviantART, Indiepublic, and Ravelry. And now? Now I've just joined Twitter (you can now follow me there if you're so inclined). Is this what it takes to own your own business these days?

Don't get me wrong, all this social media is tons of fun. But it feels like a second job to my second job, and I fear I won't be able to keep up. If you have tips about how to stay on top of it all, I'd love to hear them!

Stalked!

Today I received a nice note from Violet of "the online crafter's museum" Etsy Stalker, letting me know my alpaca pattern has been featured on the site. Woot! Etsy can be an intimidating place to explore, so I like that a site like this exists to highlight all the lovelies hidden within. Go check it out if you're not familiar; Beatrice and Violet feature real gems from every category imaginable and post interesting interviews. They host giveaways too!

I've Been Featured!

Whoo hoo! Venus Zine "the leading source for coverage of women in music, art, film, fashion, and DIY culture," just named Plushroom Soup a Top 10 Vendor in their No Coast article! I'm honored to be included, especially among such superbly talented crafters as Rebecca of Hazel and Melvin's Room and Nate of Nate's Custom Sewing. Read the full article here.

Thank you, Venus!