Introducing my Book Fairy

So much has happened since I last blogged. I've been in 8 countries in 3 continents for a start! Once life gets back to normal I will post more photos and blog a bit more about what we did and saw, but for now here's a picture of my lovely book fairy which I bought at the opening of the Plush You! show at Schmancy Toys in Seattle. This amazing doll caught my eye when Kristen posted a picture of her on instagram when it arrived at the shop for the show, and then when I saw it in real life I knew she had to be mine! She is made by Pheleon Creations. I have lots of photos from the opening of the show and will blog about it in a few days time.

Nerdy Nora

This is Nerdy Nora. If you want to meet her in real life then make sure you're at the Plush You! opening night at Schmancy Toys, 1932 2nd Avenue, Seattle on 12th October at 17:00. Click here to go to the facebook event page for more info.

Posting Parcels

I seem to have got out of the habit of blogging - I guess life has been busy and I haven't had much time for making and baking. But in the time I have had, I have been getting things ready to post. This is my first parcel I sent off to PlushYou containing 2 lovely amigurumi dolls. Yesterday I sent a parcel to my Plush Team swap partner and hopefully today I'll send another parcel to PlushYou - just need to make time to put the finishing touches to that doll... And talking of PlushYou, there's an interview with me which went up on their blog last week. You can see it here.

Busy, busy...

I haven't blogged for ages :/ sorry about that! Time just seems to fly past at the moment! Just so that you know I haven't been lazy, here's some of what I've been doing lately. This is the beginnings of Monsieur Le Starfish who I am making as part of the latest Plush Team challenge.

And this is the beginnings of a dog which will be an accessory to one of the dolls I am making for Plush You 2012.

PlushYou 2011

The PlushYou 2011 opening night was on Friday. As I don't live anywhere near Seattle I didn't go, but some of my dolls made it there without me! I haven't seen many photos yet, I'm sure they'll start to appear on Flickr soon, but I did see this one on twitter and if you look carefully you can spot my dolls :) Thanks to Kristen and Schmancy Toys for putting on this exhibition again.

photos from the Stuffed Bunny Show

Here are some photos from the Stuffed Bunny Show at eve-n-odd gallery. It opened on Saturday evening and runs til 6th May.

you can see more photos on the eve-n-odd gallery facebook page.

Nora the knitting bunny :)

The Stuffed Bunny Show is coming up...

The Stuffed Bunny Show opens at the eve-n-odd gallery on 9th April - that's this Saturday. If you live anywhere near St Petersburg Florida then make sure you go and take a look. There are some really amazing bunnies on show there and they will also be for sale. Nora the Knitting Bunny by me is one of them!

Nora in Florida

Nora the knitting bunny has arrived in Florida at the eve-n-odd gallery ready for the Stuffed Bunny show in April.

Kali the Fashionista

I made Kali for the eve-n-odd gallery in St Petersburg Florida. If you like her make sure you like the eve-n-odd facebook page too :)

The Plush Team in CandyLand and in Starbucks!

Milwaukee photographer Doug Downing loved the CandyLand show so much it inspired him to make a photo exhibition. His photos of the show are up at the East Pointe Starbucks (544 E. Ogden Ave.) Milwaukee and they will be up for the duration of the show. The photos look fab - and one of them is of my Flossie - can you see it? 2nd from the left :)

(photo taken from the Hot*Pop Blog)

Don't forget Candyland...

The Plush Team in Candyland exhibition is open for another 21 days! So if you're in the Milwaukee area don't forget to check it out. It is at the Hot*Pop gallery N. Broadway. Yesterday the exhibition was featured as part of an article about art and creative endeavours in Milwaukee on the JSOnline blog - and the picture they showed has my dolls in it! (they're hanging on the wall on the far right of the photo)

The lost have returned! - (well some of them anyway)

You may remember back in November I posted a blog about a gallery show I was going to be in called Soft Served. Well I posted my stuff off to them on 16th November and by the time the show opened on 11th December my stuff had still not arrived. By 7th January when the show closed my stuff had still not arrived. I went to our local post office 5 or 6 times between the end of November and the middle of January and asked them to track what had happened to these parcels. Each time they gave me some excuse about why it was still too early to track and I should come back another day. Eventually after much persuasion I got them to fill out the search form. Every time I've been to the post office since then I've asked for news of my parcels and been told- nothing yet, you must wait. Today - 28th February I went to the post office to send something. I had totally given up hope and wasn't even going to ask about my parcels today - but amazingly, as soon as I walked in, the man told me that one of the parcels I had lost had been returned! Looking at it I can't see any evidence that it even made it to USA other than the fact that the return to sender label is printed in English - but I don't even know if that means it was returned from USA. Any American readers recognise that RTS sticker? It hasn't been opened by customs or anyone else - when I opened it everything was inside just as I had sent it!

Who knows what kind of journey these little people have been on and although I was sad that they didn't make it to the show, I'm very happy to have them back again! They will be available in my Etsy Shop soon.

And here's to hoping that the other lost parcel will return very soon :)

what are you doing this Saturday?

This Saturday there is a new gallery opening in St Petersburg Florida called eve-N-odd gallery. I would go to the opening if i lived closer - but as it is I live very very far away and across the sea! The lovely gallery owner Jennifer contacted me last week to ask if I would like to be part of a Stuffed Bunny Show that they will be having in April - and of course I said yes! I've made the bunny already, but now I'm working on a couple of other dolls to send to her as well as she said she would like to carry more of my work! Exciting :) You can find out more about the gallery by liking their facebook page.

photos from CandyLand

Thanks to FuzFrenzy for taking these photos :)

Sugar Plum, Flossie and Bronwyn hanging out in CandyLand

and here's my Cherry Lolly Tree in the distiguished company of plush made by Zfla, Plushroom Soup, and PterodactylPants.

Business cards on the table...

Spot my 'Lifesavers' Letter O in the Bonbon banner.

My little Cherry Lolly Tree again and look at that massive Pez elephant made by zfla!

Sugar Plum, Flossie and Bronwyn and a huge ice cream made by Diane Koss of Cutesy but not Cutesy

CandyLand

The Plush Team Show 'CANDYLAND' opens on Friday at the Hot*Pop Gallery in Milwaukee. There will be some amazing plush art on show. If you live in the area make sure you visit and for those of you who don't (like me) let's hope someone takes lots of good photos!

Check out this article in OnMilwaukee.com about the show and see if you can spot the reference to outoftheframe :)

Plush-Spotting in Zagreb

This weekend we have been in Zagreb and amongst other things we visited artOmat which is an alternative Christmas fair - selling arty handmade items - including some Plush art!

This artist - Rec has her plush art for sale in a concept store in Zagreb called Prostor which we didn't have time to visit but it's on the list for next time! Their stand at the Craft fair was very cool.

and... as part of the artOmat fair the artists were offering workshops - we were a day too late to go to this one but look - it's called Plush Adventure! (and yes those are naked plush people in the picture maybe I should have put a warning on this blog post!)

As a plush geek kind of person this was all very exciting for me to see that the whole plush art culture thing is starting to take off in this part of the world - although Zagreb is like a whole other world compared to BiH and to the other parts of Croatia I have visited - but anyway it's getting nearer! Now I need to see if I can make contact with any of these people and take part in any shows or craft fairs a bit nearer to home.

The CandyLand Stories

I'll be off to the post office in the morning to send these 4 pieces off for the CandyLand show which will be at the Hot*Pop Gallery in Milwaukee.

Cherry Lolly Tree

A sneak preview of one of the pieces I'm thinking of sending for the Plush Team CandyLand show at Hot*Pop - a Cherry Lolly Tree.

another show!

I am excited to say that outoftheframe will soon be in another show! This time it's in Chicago at the OhNo!Doom gallery. As far as I understand the pieces from the exhibition will also be available to buy online and you can sign up here to 'see art first' to receive the preview list by email.

working down my to-do list

I've got a string hanging from my curtain rail with notes clipped to it listing all the amigurumi things I need to make and the deadlines. This helps me keep organised and gives me a sense of satisfaction when I finish something and I can take it off the string! At the moment I'm working on some more Christmas stuff for my Etsy shop and on pieces for the Plush Team CandyLand Exhibition which will be at Hot*Pop Gallery in January .