my imaginary boyfriend rejected!

Seems there's no love for the boyfriend over at Bazaar Bizarre. . .

Dear BB SF 2007 Applicant,

Sadly, we're writing to tell you we weren't able to accept your application for the 2007 San Francisco Bazaar Bizarre. We wish we could find a way to let in everyone who applies; as it is there were over two-and-a-half times the number of applications than spots available. It was a very tough decision. There were a lot of really fabulous and inspirational applications that we're really sad we won't have room for.

Thanks very much for your interest and creativity and for taking the time to apply. We very much appreciate it, and wish you the best in your creative efforts.

All the best,
The Bazaar Bizarre Organizers

It feels like a punch in the gut, like it's not really happening.

I have to go cry now, talk to you all later. . .
erika

Christmas in March!

Because July is so cliche. . .

Hi all! Had to take a break from the sewing and the prototyping to do a custom order for the lovely Charlotte. I'm not sure how she found me (a show? Etsy? crystal ball?) but she did and I'm the happier for it. It's great to be able to do custom work for someone who really lets you be you in your work. I've been lucky that way, all my custom orders have allowed me to keep it quirky, makes sense, since that's probably what brought the customers to me in the first place, but one does hear horror stories of crazy compromises! So far all of the things that people have asked me to do outside of my regular template have been awesome and have added to my repertoire. I am now currently knocking on wood that it stays that way!

Anyway. . . Charlotte is what we like to call an early bird here in my imaginary boyfriend HQ. She doesn't mess around with placing orders for Christmas decorations when the artist might have too much to do, heck no! She places those orders in March! I must admit, it was a bit hard to get back into Christmas mode but I was soon fa-la-la-la-la-ing along. Charlotte not only wanted stockings for her immediate family but for her cat family as well! Very fun, the cats on the stockings are my take on the picture she sent me.

Well, now it's back to the work on the non-Christmas line. I started stitching some pillow covers last night using this amazing purple vintage fabric I found on eBay and I can't wait to see if they turn out like the pillows in my mind (not to be confused with the "Windmills of My Mind").

Christmas hearts and puppies,

erika

Spring Sneek Peak! Fabric!

Hi all!
Yesterday was a happy day over at my imaginary boyfriend HQ. . . fabric came! Happy day! Happy day! I went a little crazy with the tax return this year and bought a lot of new (and vintage) fabrics. I still need to take pictures of my vintage stash but check out all the awesome I got yesterday from Repro Depot:

Look at it all folded and stacked pretty like by the lovely Repro Depot folks! And here it is all spread out:

So much pretty! It makes a girl wanna dance!

hearts and puppies,

erika

Sssshhhhh. . . Don't tell. . .

I'm currently crafting at work! I mean shhhhh, i'm currently crafting at work.

Okay. . . technically not currently since I'm typing this right now, but I do have a felt robot sitting on my lap with a needle sticking out of it's eye. Scary needle-eyed robot!

I wish I could full on get my craft on at work. If I'm doing my job, what should the corporate overlords care what I do with the down time in between phone rings and copies? How is stitching or drawing or knitting (a craft that I've had to give up thanks to an affliction I call "shaky hand.") any worse than my normal killing time online? Apparently looking busy is far more important that actually being busy. And so I waste the most creative hours of my day reading television without pity , stereogum and gawker.

I'm trying my best to work around this, though, and so today is my latest attempt at 9 to 5 stealth crafting. It's all about keeping the work low and small. Using shorter floss lengths. . . lowering the office chair. . . So far, so good.

My most outlandish (and least stealth-like) stint of 9 to 5 crafting came a few years back in the form of a prop for my friend Dyna's show Neo Tokyo Girl Crush 2040! I made a cannon arm for one of the characters while sitting under my desk during a particularly dead time at work. Let's hear it for the 9 to 5!!! Sigh.

Check out that cannon arm!!!

The promised bag. . .

Tomorrow is today over here at my imaginary boyfriend HQ! Here are the bags I promised you! First the new diaper bag. . . As you can see, it's a messenger style bag.

I like the idea of a diaper bag that doesn't scream "I'm a diaper bag!! Baby things are kept in me!!!" You know? Just because you have a kid doesn't mean that you suddenly want to carry around totes with child like drawings of zoo animals or bears (which I guess could qualify as a zoo animal, such a stickler!) and so far I've yet to find someone who's developed a sudden love for quilted pastels once they added a life to the world. But then again I don't know that family from TLC's "16 Children and Counting" or whatever it's called, they seem like the pasteled zoo animal type(but honestly, those people scare the living hell out of me!!!).




Anyway. . . more on the bag. I added lots of pockets, one under the flap and one on the back. On the inside there's 2 small pockets for Mom things like phones and lip gloss, a pocket for the namesake diapers, 2 sets of elastic loops for bottles or sippy cups, and a big pocket for the matching changing pad. The strap is adjustable so that it can be shortened and hung on a stroller.

Sarah was happy with it. Which made me happy. The fabric has a story all it's own. I picked it up a couple of years back at a discount fabric store in my hometown of Bakersfield, California. The color and pattern were so wonderfully off. . . I was automatically drawn to it. Bright pink! Clipper ships! Aw yeah! I'm convinced that it was some sort of dye lot mistake (a great explanation for how it ended up in discount-town). I finally used some of it for a few bags over the holidays and I asked my Mom to check to see if they still had it. I wanted more!!! Apparently they did because my over zealous Mom got so excited by the price (a mere $2 a yard!) that she bought me 40 yards! Yes you read right. . . 40 yards. I could make bags, cover my sofa, outfit a bridal party, and still have enough fabric to make 15 pillows! At least! My Mom's the type of lady who when you say "Get all of that fabric you can get." takes you seriously! And I love her for it!

Here's the other bag I made using my beautiful clipper ship fabric. . . my pleated clutch:

and view two:

Any thoughts?

hearts and puppies,
erika

the waiting is the hardest part

Hey Tom! I quoted your man, Tom Petty! Oh, man. . . I can't believe I quoted Tom Petty. . .

Anyway. . .

Spring show season is fast approaching and my applications are out in the ether, out of my hands. . . applications in the hands of a (hopefully not) angry juried alt-craft fair.

I hate this time.

I have (knock on wood/throw salt over my shoulder/go outside, knock to be let back in, be refused, repeat 2 more times before I'm once more granted admission into the building) never not gotten into a show but it doesn't make my anxiety any less anxious. After all, isn't there always a first time?

Flashback to this past November. I had just finished a successful showing at Stitch Austin. Got a lot of positive feedback. . . sold a lot of stuff. . . I should have been happy, right? Wrong. Because I had yet to hear from the Bust Holiday Craftacular and it was the day the acceptance e-mails were going out. All over the craft community message boards were posts about getting in (and not getting in) but I had not heard peep one. On top of that I was stranded at the Austin airport because my flight was delayed due to bad weather in New York.

What was going on!?!? Being the shiny, happy girl I am, I, of course jump to the conclusion that I've not been accepted to this show and that I'm a failure! I start crying. . . in the airport. . . calling my Mom. . . calling my friends. . . going off in equal parts of "What did I do wrong?/Why don't they like me this year?/Forget them! They wouldn't know talent if it shook it's tail feathers in front of them!!!"

Um. . . yeah. . . I know. . . drama much? Sigh. . . kinda makes sense that my mom used to call me her little Sarah Brnhardt. . . Let's just say, I'm not particularly proud of that facet of my personality. . .

What was actually going on? A glitch in the Bust email system where a number of the acceptance letters got lost in the great big world of zeros and ones. . . Oops. . . They do love me!!! I take back that talent thing. . .

So, yeah, that's why I hate the waiting.

I'm doing my best to try and fill the time. Made a baby bag for my friend, and fellow Craft Mafia member, Sarah who just had a super cute baby girl. And I've been working on some new style directions for line. I just finished a new pleated clutch (but is it too close to the pleated clutch that has been vexing Joi over at Stereoette?). Only time and you all will tell. As Cindy says, there are only so many shapes. . .

Tomorrow I'll post pics of the new bags and you can tell me if I'm a big steal-ly thief who steals things.

hearts and puppies!
erika

Fashion Beadz

As opposed as I am to the substitution of the letter z for the letter s in order to make something

"cooler" (I am equally opposed to the substitution of "k" for "c," as anything that claims to be "klassy" is truly the opposite) I can't help but love this product. It's as fun as it's name is cheesy!

My friend, Nikki, over at Cutting Edge, sent this stuff along to me with some other materials for summer issue projects. I was skeptical at first, turned off by that dreaded "z" but then I started to play with it. This stuff is great! It adds sparkly, shiny beads super fast without all that pesky sewing.

I doubt that the Beadz will ever appear on any of my imaginary boyfriends products (not quite our aesthetic) but boy oh boy is it sweet!

hearts and puppies,

erika

my imaginary wish list!

Hi All!
I put this little tidbit in my latest newsletter but just in case you missed it I wanted to add it here too. My imaginary boyfriend and I want to know what you want from us!
Want more faux bois items?
Bigger bags?
More goofy gift items?
Stuff for guys? If so what? Ties? Bags? Tie bags?

Whatever it is, let me know at myimaginarywishlist@gmail.com. I will take all requests seriously and might even blog about them in the future! Too exciting!!!

Thanks for your time. As a gift I give you a picture of my girl, Viola!

hearts and puppies,
erika

Martha my Love. . .

Hi all!
Sorry I've been so lapsed in updating, life gets in the way and I'm sure this won't be the last time that the blog will suffer neglect (thank God there's no Blog Protective Services for neglected blogs!). Anyway. . . let's get to the reason why we're here. . . the latest project. . . introducing Ms. Martha Stewart!

Oh Martha. . . so. . . perfect. . . so controlled. . .

She's fascinated me for ages! Many find her patronizing and pretentious but I see her as a great egalitarian. She just automatically assumes that everyone can do what she does, live like she lives. On her show, Martha, she recommends that families take the kids to Greece for Spring break and that you use imported vintage glass glitter on your gilded Christmas tree topper because she thinks that her glamorous life is attainable by all. It's dumb-foundingly beautiful!

I was once watching Martha and she was answering this letter from a college student in Wisconsin in her "Ask Martha" segment. The girl had written in to find out what kinds of pots and pans and such she and her fellow students would need to outfit their dorm's kitchen. Martha answered her questions and then gifted the dorm a full set of Martha-sanctioned pots and pans. So nice! Then came the Martha moment that epitomizes all Martha moments for me. . . Martha pointed out the stockpot in the collection and told the girl that it's perfect for lobster! Lobster! The girl was like "um. . . okay. . ." And Martha just kept going on about how wonderful it would be to make lobsters. . . for the dorm. . . in Wisconsin. . . Because in Martha's world that's what we eat. . . Lobsters!

Here is the Martha of my mind, birds fly above her, spelling out her favorite line "It's a good thing," below her, flowers and spools of thread in her signature green. To finish the piece I framed her in "faux bois" (French for fake wood, Martha loves faux bois!) hand painted felt. The whole piece measures 16" by 18" and is cotton floss embroidery and wool felt appliqué on wool felt. Stitches used: Chain stitch, satin stitch, stem stitch, split stitch, and French knots.


Here are some close up shots:
Close up on one of the birds and Martha's hair.

Close up on birds and text rendered in stem stitch.



hearts and puppies,
erika