I know, I know. I've been a very bad blogger. But I'm here now!

Summer has been flying by, as summers tend to do. We headed out of town for a little Wisconsin road trip last month. We went to Madison and were tourists in our old city, which is super fun to do. We ate at our favorite restaurants, saw friends, and I cleaned up at the Salvation Army - I bought a trunkful of linens, and I didn't even seem to make a dent in their stock. A few days after we came home, my father in law came to visit. We finally made a trip up to the top of the arch in St. Louis while he was here and ate out and tried to show him a good time in Carbondale.

I have exciting news! I'm going to be at the Chicago Renegade Craft Fairagain this year - this time sharing a booth with Natalie of orangyporangy. I'm super excited to be headed up again this year and to have such an awesome person to share my space with!

And, the other thing keeping me busy is custom orders. Here is the latest one, I just finished it yesterday. It is an oval that measures 3'x5' and is made with all white sheets that had citrus colored patterns on them. My stock of that kind of fabric now is seriously depleted. My mom is coming the week after next and I plan to take her to the Goodwill outlet in St. Louis, so hopefully we can find some replacements.

Big things are happening around here. Mostly, my etsy store has been getting busier and busier which is super awesome. I've been getting lots of custom requests and requests to make bigger and bigger rugs. Here's the latest example of that:

This was actually just one of a set of 4 rugs that I was commissioned to make, this one measures 4'x5.5'. Next up on the to-do list is two 4'x5' rugs, and a 5' rug.

And as if that wasn't great enough, I was accepted into the Chicago Renegade Craft Show for this September! I have been at that show for the last several years, but this was the first year I applied with just my rugs and I wasn't sure how that would go over.

So, I hope that all of you that are on Facebook are following me there (search "Emily Kircher Recycling Artist") because I have been A LOT better about checking in and updating that page than my blog.

Back to work!

Tomorrow is my 34th birthday and EKRA will be 7! Hard to believe, but true! To celebrate, I'm holding a HUGE sale! All of the rugs in my etsy store that are ready to ship will be marked down 34% - that's right, 1% for each year! The sale will run May 5 from 12am-11:59pm CST, so get there early! No codes or coupons necessary, the prices will be marked down already.

Well, when it rains it pours! I have interviews up on TWO blogs today!!! The first is by Artsnark and you can read it here. The second is by Maiden Jane and you can check that one out here. Read them both because there will be a test!

I started on another custom order that has been in the queue. Here it is at about 2 feet in diameter.

I'm waiting to hear back if my customer likes how the rug is turning out, so I made another t-shirt scrap rug while I was waiting.
White to Black Crochet Rug

I'm feeling a little valentine-y today, so I think I'm going to gather up the pink and red t-shirt scraps and keep this trend of rugs going.

I haven't done much crocheting in the last couple of days, but I have been spending a lot of time adding new bottle cap necklaces to my etsy store. Here's one of my favorites, a majestic buck cut from a vintage book.

Majestic Buck Bottle Cap Necklace

Vintage Folk Heart Bottle Cap Necklace

The whirlwind of holiday craft shows is finally over for me this year. Now that the DIY Trunk Show, Art vs. Craft, and the SIU Holiday Craft show are finished, I can finally be at home and relax, right? No! I've been working hard to ship off leftover inventory to consignment shops and adding items to my etsy store. Also, the end of the year brings the dreaded realization that I have once again failed to keep decent records and it is time to go through my receipts and paperwork in preparation of tax time. But all in all, this is the best job ever and I am truly loving it.

I have a couple of interesting custom orders that I need to work on, now that I'm home I can actually work on them and I'll keep you posted on my progress.

Remember I told you I was interviewed for the Footprints radio show on the Loyola radio station in Chicago? No? Well, I was. And if you didn't happen to catch the show, you can listen to it online!

My voice is a little muffled because I did the interview over the phone, but I like that, because it takes away the shock of "Is that what I really sound like?!?!?"

Woohoo! I'm so pleased with the way these photos turned out! All the hours of shopping, I mean studying the photos, on etsy are finally paying off!

I crocheted up about 15 of my cupcake trivets in the last couple of days and had a few to play with to show the variations that exist in them due to the fact that all of the fabric is salvaged and there is no set pattern, so they end up a different shape each time.

And, good thing we have some evergreen bushes in front of our house. I harvested some to use as a prop in my bottlecap ornament pictures - which might be featured in a regional publication - but more on that later if it pans out!

Whoops! My report is a little late, but better late than never, right?

Strange Folk Festival in O'Fallon, IL was a lot of fun. Aaron took some pictures and I finally got around to downloading them! Here's me at my booth with all my wares. Colorful!

The first day the weather was perfect! Not too hot, not too cold. The sun was shining and the park looked so pretty with EZ-ups littering the lawn. The second day, well, the second day was not perfect. It rained pretty much the whole day, but that's what tents and tent walls are for. Some die hard shoppers braved the weather to come and shop.

There were alpacas there! I tried to pet them, but they just walked to the other side of their pen whenever I approached. I even tried offering them some hay. That interested them, but not enough to come close enough to me to come and get it from me.

I came home with some supplies! One of my Facebook fans brought me a super heavy huge bag of sheets that I can't wait to dive into. And my neighbor at the show, my buddy Lisa, brought me a big bag of bottlecaps.

Now I'm working on getting stores restocked and ready for three shows in and around Carbondale. The first is this weekend, the Downtown Art and Wine Fair on Saturday from 3-9pm. I have to dig out my lights since it is getting dark at around 7:30 now. The fair is in Jackson Square and you can find more information about it here. In two weeks, there is the Family Weekend Craft Fair at SIU and also Vulture Fest in Makanda. Lots to do!

September is flying by me in a blur! Between Renegade, Strange Folk this coming weekend, and an out of town wedding last weekend, there has been little time for blog updating. Sorry!

I listed a couple of new rugs in my etsy store today:

A new Jellyfish Rug

And a new Color Fleck Rug - this one is Blue and Green. I know people want orange and brown this time of year, but I can't help it, I'm stuck on blues and greens.

As I mentioned, Strange Folk Festival is this weekend in O'Fallon IL (just outside of St. Louis). This is always a really fun show with bands, and alpacas, and the Upcycle Exchange. I'm excited to be heading to it again this year. And even more excited that I'll be next to my buddy from Madison (well, Rockford, really) Lisa of Lulu's Stabby Critters. And on the other side will be Jennifer of Isette who I know from several Renegade shows. It is going to be a fun weekend! Come on out and say Hi!

Also, I know several people who read my blog are interested in finding craft shows to participate in. I just heard about this new one in Madison that is being put together by Rosy of ReCreative Crafts called The Crafty Fair. There is a facebook page with info for it here. Rosy is super cool and I bet she'll do an awesome job of show organizing!

I've been collecting more vintage playing cards to make bottlecap necklaces with. Here's one of my new favorites, a mod and happy dalmatian!

Newly added to my etsy store! Dalmatian Bottle Cap Necklace

I'm back from Chicago where the 8th Annual Renegade Craft Fair was this past weekend. I spent more than enough time before the show stressing out, but by the Thursday before the show, I was completely calm and ready to go. Good thing too, because the show started off rough. It was raining all early Saturday morning, so the ground was all wet, and it continued to rain off and on until about 2pm that first day. Chicago still came out to shop, but the rain kept away some of the crowds, and made it gloomy and hard to function in general since every time something fell on the wet ground, it was, well, all wet. This meant I ruined several paper bags, had to set some inventory aside to dry, and had to try and be extra aware of where I was putting things so they wouldn't end up on the ground. Sunday the sun was out and dried up all the rain and was beautiful weather and sales.

I didn't remember to take any pictures of my booth this time. Let's blame that on the rain too. Sorry you can't see my booth, I switched some stuff up and I think it helped the traffic flow through my booth.

Now I'm trying to make some stuff quick to restock in time for Strange Folk Festival in two weeks!

This jellyfish rug was a custom order for a woman in Canada. She and her dog are really enjoying their new EKRA rug! Such a cutie!

Aaron made me a catalog of my one-of-a-kind rugs. It looks so AWESOME! I am hoping it will get me more custom orders at shows. Also, it will allow me show off rugs that have already found homes! You can check out the PDF version here. We are also going to get it printed as a physical book to have on hand at shows. Hooray for low-cost digital printing!

I realize I haven't updated the blog in a LONG time, but I have excuses! First, Aaron and I were in Denver for a week for Aaron to attend a conference. We were home for a couple of days and then Aaron's mom came to visit. I got a little bit behind with filling wholesale orders and restocking consignment stores and custom orders. Here's a what my days have been filled with lately...

Sitting at my resin-pouring table pouring resin to make bottlecap magnets and necklaces.

Trying to keep the magnets organized on metal trays. Yes, I realize there doesn't look like there is any organization here, but it makes sense to me.

I finished up the first part of this custom order. It is a 4 foot rug that I need to applique palm trees on.

I ordered 60 pounds of blu mill ends so I'll have plenty of blue to make ocean-themed rugs. It was a chore to get them sorted and put away!

And here is another custom order that I started to work on. It is going to be a 5 1/2 foot rug that is white, ivory, cream, beige, and gray.

I've been getting a little cranky with all this 'assigned' work and I want to get to a rug that uses this cool tea towel that has been sitting in my craft room.

I think I would be going totally insane with all this work if I didn't have my super awesome assistant, Elycia! Together, we cut all the fabric for both of those rugs I showed you here, as well as a couple other ones. I don't know what I would do without her. She is in the process of setting up her own ceramics studio, I'm just hoping that once she gets rolling she'll still have time to help me.

How exciting! My jellyfish rug is one of the rugs featured into today's Toronto Metro paper! Check it out!

The ladies at Anthology asked me to do an interview for their blog. They want to do little featurettes on all of the artists who sell their work there. They sent me the questions on May 7 and I kept putting it off and keeping it on my to-do list until just now! Yikes! But, in my defense, they told me to take my time. And for 2 weeks of that I was on the other side of the planet, so, there's that.

Anyways, check it out!

I'm happy to announce that I'm currently featured on this month's exhibition of Paper n Stitch! As a bonus, I'm offering a discount to Paper n Stitch readers. Want a discount and not a Paper n Stitch reader? Head on over there and check it out!

In between a trip to Madison, WI to see some friends get married and a trip to Tokyo and Singapore for fun and a conference for Aaron, what do I do? Finish another big custom rug!

How long does this custom order process take? Not that long usually. This one took a little longer because of all my traveling. This customer contacted me while I was in Austin for the Renegade show. I e-mailed her back thanking her for her interest and that I would e-mail her with more details when I got home. She said she wanted a rug that looked like a gray one that I had in my etsy store (that sold in Austin) that was gray, but she wanted light pink and black accents added. She wanted it 4 ft in diameter! Here's the fabric I proposed:

She said it looked good so I got to work. Turns out, I wasn't really happy with some of the gray in the basket. The rug was taking on a dark tone and a lot of the gray in the basket was from heather gray t-shirts which were just too light. I wanted the pink to really stand out against the gray and black and didn't want any light gray taking away from it.

Lucky for me, I was headed to Madison for the wedding - and tons of thrift store shopping! I stopped here at about 24" into it. I was crossing my fingers that I would find gray fabric to finish it in Madison.

Oh my goodness! Such thrift riches in Madison! The first day we hit the east side Savers and I was overwhelmed with the incredible selection. No gray fabric except for a XL men's t-shirt, but I still had many more stores to go to. By the end of the trip I had plenty of gray fabric to finish the rug. I also had almost completely filled the car with thrift store fabric. It was so great to be back in Madison to visit friends and my favorite thrift stores.

I finished the rug last night and waited until this morning to take pictures and list it for the customer. She said she likes it and can't wait to see it in person. I hope she shares pictures of it in her nursery!

Next up on my to-do list is a 5 foot custom rug! It is going to be brown with accents of green and blue. I decided to work on other things for the rest of the day, like packing up boxes to restock consignment stores and pouring resin. I'm going to start it before I leave for the Eastern Hemisphere and finish it when I get back. It is for a nursery and the customer says she wants to finish the room by the end of July. Good thing I have some time because the house and the cats also need some attention before we leave again!

Another Renegade post! On the first day of the show, a woman came up and asked me if I might be interested in t-shirt scraps to use for my rugs. She was from the Over the Top Quilting Studio and in addition to more traditional quilts, they also create custom made quilts out of your old t-shirts! They only use the graphic though and are left with sleeves, backs, and bottom half of shirts. I said that yes, I was interested, but that I wasn't from Austin, so if they wanted to give me some while I was here, I'd be happy to take them with me. The next day she came back with a big bag packed full of scraps!

When I got home, I pulled out all the black scraps and made this rug. I love the different shades of black and the textures.

All Black Crochet Rug

Added some bottlecap necklaces to my etsy store!

Yellow Bird Bottle Cap Necklace

Siamese Cat Bottle Cap Necklace

Why am I smiling? Because an etsy customer sent me this picture of her new rug in it's new home:

And listen to what she has to say about it, "I love love love love LOVE this rug! It is beautifully made! I thought it was going to be cute but it is even more awesome than I expected."

I know that this is showing off and toot toot tooting my own horn, but I just love it when customers are happy with their EKRA rugs and I knew you'd appreciate it too.

Yesterday was the Downtown Art and Wine Fest here in Carbondale. It was a super warm day, but the sun was out, there were lots of people drinking wine and dancing to the bands that were playing all afternoon.

Here's a shot of my booth.

I wasn't even going to bother taking a picture because I felt like it was kind of sparse since I didn't have time to restock after Renegade. I did my best to make it look full and pretty and it paid off because I won 3rd place in the "Judge's Choice."

How exciting! First of all, I've never won any prizes for my display, so that was super fun. The first and second place winners were super quiet and I didn't even see them go up for their prizes. Then they called 3rd place and it was me and I let out a wild "WOO-HOO!" and a friend from another booth came over to watch mine while I went up to accept my prize! I ran up there like I just won 10 million dollars and the announcer said, "Let's hear it for Emily Kircher" and I did a little curtsy. Man, I love winning! I don't know why the other winners weren't as excited as I was. Turns out, my neighbor won first place and I didn't even notice until she hung up her award on her booth. Maybe she wins stuff all the time. I don't know. All I know is I won and I was my usual obnoxious self about it. In addition to getting to act like a crazy person for winning, I also received a free booth space next year (which I'll definitely use because the sales were great!), and two $10 gift certificates, one to the campus bookstore and one to a hair salon (both sponsors of the event).

I know at the end of the last Renegade post I said I was going to show off the stuff I bought. Well, I lied. I haven't gotten around to taking pictures of my new stuff yet, but I wanted to share some of the pictures Aaron took during the actual show.

He snapped a picture of me in action. Multi-tasking selling my wares and crocheting cat toys. Crocheting cat toys while I sell actually keeps me calm and I don't have to look at it while I do it - you know, muscle memory and all. Most people find it interesting, one lady one time was completely freaked out by it.

So, as a person who crafts in a really traditional way, I get a lot of comments like this: "My grandma used to make rugs like these!" "My grandma used to make these rugs out of bread bags." "I tried making one of these rugs but: it didn't turn out/I got tried of it and quit/my dog ate it" "I want to make one of these rugs - can you teach me?" I hear all of those at least once during every show I do. One I have never heard before was this, "How did you get all this crocheting done?" I was sort of wondering what that meant, like, did I have a team of crocheters? I answered by setting down my cat toy, waggling my fingers and hands at her and saying, "Right here." She replied, "You did all of these?! No way, my grandma made one and I know how long it took her and how much work it took and there is no way you did all of these." I could tell there was no changing her mind, so I just let her walk away. And so I put this out there, I challenge any of your grandmas to a crochet-off. I'll crochet circles around any one of them!

Back to the Renegade fun....

There was a marching band that took a few laps around the show. It was fun to watch, but I'm glad it didn't last that long because it was REALLY LOUD!

Here's that RV with people crafting inside and out. Doesn't that look super fun? When I retire, I'm totally going to go to Renegade shows just for shopping and crafting.

The woman who bought this rug from me at Renegade Austin sent me a picture of her cat approving of the new EKRA rug in the house. Sweet!

Well, not to worry! Despite the tent canopy debacle, I finished my set-up and took some quick photos just as the first customers were coming into the show (just with my iphone, so they are just so-so, and I was rushed so that makes them even less so-so - or would that be more so-so?) In any case, you get the idea of how I set up.

Here's the whole booth

And one side with my Jellyfish rug. My Jelly got lots of compliments, but came home with me.

And a cupcake wall with three cupcake rugs and a zillion cupcake trivets. I only have the yellow cupcake rug left! I sold a lot of trivets, but still have a bunch left (since I started with a zillion!)

In the next posts, I'm going to share all the great stuff I bought!

Hey! I'm back from Renegade Craft Fair in Austin, TX. I have lots and lots to share, so I'm going to try and write a bunch of short posts so I don't leave anything out and don't get overwhelmed trying to fit it all in at once. I've been getting lots of questions about how it was, so I figured I better start blogging. Here's a short starter to whet your appetite.

So, we drove 13 hours to get there. 10 hours the first day to Dallas, and 3 the next so we had almost a whole day to wander around Austin and check out the city. Of course, we barely made a dent, but were able to get a sense of the city. My sense of the city is that it is really really awesome!

Renegade was held at the Palmer Events Center, which had this HUGE auditorium for the show. Aaron took some pictures while I was setting up and you can kind of get a sense of how big it is. Yes, that is a real old-school RV in there! I would have loved to gone in to check it out, but alas, I was there mainly for selling my own wares and not taking part in the various craft activities that were available (like in the RV).

I was among 200 of some of the greatest indie crafters in the country and you can still see who they are on the Renegade Austin Artists page.

Here's me trying to figure out where to put stuff. Even though I have set up a million times, I was a bit flustered since my display is different now - no mosaic frames and lots and lots and lots of rugs.

And here's me looking happy to be at Renegade.

Just after that photo was taken, I realized I would have to remove the canopy from my tent because it was too dark under there with it on. Aaron had just taken off so I borrowed a box from my neighbors and wrestled it off without completely collapsing my tent structure. It was really annoying and somewhat difficult because the canopy is bolted on, but I was able to manage. But, then when I had about half my stuff out, I looked at the time and saw that I only had 20 minutes until the show opened. Yikes! I was throwing rugs all over the place trying to get it looking presentable before the customers arrived!

Will EKRA finish her set-up? Will she have good sales? Will she buy anything from fellow vendors? Stay tuned for the answers to those questions and more!

P.S. If you can't stand to wait anymore for more Renegade info, join me on Facebook where there is slightly more documentation up already.

I got up early on Sunday morning, checked the weather and saw that the forecast was for rain again all day. The car was packed and I decided to drive down to Makanda to see what the situation was like. When I saw this, I almost turned around and drove home to go back to bed.

But I waited for Mary Lynn to show up to see what she thought. She is such a positive thinker! She said that it was great, just a few of the other vendors were showing up, so more sales for us! Isn't she cute!?!? Yes! But I have to tell you, she didn't look that happy until AFTER she got that big cup of coffee in her hand.

I decided to set up as part of the Dayshift booth instead of being on my own and it worked out so great! The Dayshift booth was two spaces, Mary Lynn brought some stuff from the store, but it was mostly the work of the artists there that day. The two of us as well as Robin (another crocheter) and Elycia (a potter). They were both really nice and we all worked together to sell each other's work and give each other breaks. And with all our work together, the booth looked great and inviting.

One of my first sales of the day was my Jellyfish Rug. I was so happy that these ladies were so excited about it and excited to think about where they were going to put it in their house. I was a little sad to see it go, so I asked if I could take their picture to share with you and they obliged. Even though I'm a little sad it is gone, it really makes me so happy that someone bought it since that is one of my original designs that I worked so hard on. It is such a good feeling to have your work be so appreciated!

And so, even though I skipped out on the first day, Spring Fest day 2 was a huge success. There is another festival there in the fall called Vulture Fest (because lots of vultures rest there on their way south for the winter) and since Spring Fest was so fun, I'll probably hook up with Dayshift to head down there for that fest too. But before that, two weeks until Austin Renegade!

Welp, I've made a decision. I'm going to skip Spring Fest in Makanda tomorrow. The forecast is calling for 80% chance of rain, along with thunderstorms and the possibility of flash floods. Seems obvious to skip it when I see it all typed out like that, but I still feel bad. Luckily, it is a two day fest, so I might be able to go on Sunday if the weather improves (doesn't look too likely though).

I decided to spend the day working on my etsy store instead. I took down all the old pictures of bottlecap necklaces a few weeks ago and I'm slowly adding new ones. There are a bunch of new necklaces in the store including

Birdhouse

Owl

And map necklaces - including a Choose your own place!

Whoops. Looks like I've been neglecting my blog. I've been posting to Facebook on a regular basis, but ignoring my blog. Sorry 'bout that.

I made some mosaic frames! I got some pottery scraps from Jen Wolfe who was my neighbor at the Madison Farmer's Market last year and made this frame with some of them. I love her glazes, such pretty blues and greens. There are a lot more scraps so there will be more frames coming soon!

And here is another project I just finished up. It is a 3.5 ft diameter rug for a nursery in Georgia. I'm not a huge fan of purple, but I really like the way this turned out. I hope it looks good in it's new home!

Coming up this weekend is Spring Fest in Makanda, IL. I thought I was finished worrying about weekend weather when I moved down here, but this Spring Fest is outside and there are thunderstorms in the forecast - boo! I'm hoping they miss us, but glad I have walls for my tent. Then, not too much after that, Aaron and I are headed to TEXAS for Renegade Austin. I'm so excited to see all my crafty friends that I only see at shows! And to meet some crafters I only know online in person.

Yesterday's Etsy article about the seller staroftheeast inspired me to get moving on improving the pictures in my etsy store. In the article, the daughter of the mother/daughter team said that one day she replaced the photos on 100 items. Man! That is dedication and hard work! As much as I wish my photos would just magically get better, the truth is they won't without practice and patience. Not two of my strongest qualities. I gave my store a good hard look and decided to focus on the rugs today. I took a bunch of new pictures and now, going back and uploading them, I can see that there is a huge improvement. The above photo is one I took this morning. I wanted to show the old picture, but I can't find it. My computer must have eaten it (or more likely, I forgot where I saved it and under what name.) This jolt of inspiration came at just the right time. I really pushed myself on Sunday night crocheting bowls to send away to stores and worked too hard. My hands hurt so bad yesterday! I tried not to crochet anything, but that just made me grumpy. Also, it was cloudy all day so the light was no good for taking photos. It led to a lot of pouting and stomping around. But today, the sun is shining, the sky is blue, and my hands don't hurt!

After a really quiet month in my etsy store, things have picked up in the last few days. I sold three rugs including my Chicago Flag rug and got a custom order for a bathroom rug that will live in Hawaii.

So, watch for better pictures in my etsy store. But since the sun is shining, I'm going to take a break and go work in the yard for a little while. I want to plant a patch of wildflowers and I need to clear the area first. So, watch out weeds, I'm coming to chop you down!

The Indie Craft Revolution this past weekend was great! It was held in the St. Louis Artist's Guild which is a really cool building with lots of rooms, textured ceilings, and a fireplace. In fact, my booth was right in front of the fireplace, which was neat backdrop for my booth. Here's a picture of the whole thing (I forgot the real camera, so this was just taken with my iPhone).

After I took the picture, I decided to switch the table with the rugs with the lower piles of rugs (laid out on tubs).

Here was my nemesis for the weekend.

What is that? It is the pilot light for the gas fireplace! Oh my gosh, that was so annoying. I'm the first to admit I'm a pretty clumsy and messy person. That little fire right behind me was driving me crazy! But, I'm proud to report that I was able to keep all my paper bags, credit card slips, fabric rugs and bowls, and myself out of the fire. Nothing at all was burned! When I saw that the first day, I thought for sure I was going to end up burning the whole place down.

Being at this show reminded me that I'm still a newbie down here. People kept asking me if I knew this place or that place, and most of them I didn't. It was a great weekend for finding out about stuff in St. Louis and meeting more artists and art supporters here. Despite the rainy weather, the show was really well attended. And despite that fact that there was no holiday shopping to do, I made a good amount of sales.

This show had a couple of firsts for me. It was the first time I didn't take any mosaic frames and it was awesome! I could be calm about kids bumping into the table because there was nothing breakable on it. Not having them there really brought my stress level down, I didn't have to worry about them breaking and it was great. The other first was "displaying" so many rugs. I put displaying in quotes because I didn't think they were displayed that well piled up on the tables and bins. But as I was telling people about them, I invited them to dig through to check them out and they did! In fact, I sold SIX rugs! I'm really happy about that since making rugs is how I started and really my true crafting love.

Now I'm busy filling the orders for stores that I was kind of ignoring until after this show. Besides that, I'm working on restocking and getting pumped for Renegade in Austin, TX!

Come see me and 75 other crafters and artists at the Indie Craft Revolution show this weekend in St. Louis at the St. Louis Artist's Guild. Hours: Saturday 10-6, Sunday 10-4

Bring supplies for the upcycle exchange and receive coupons you can use at the show including a 20% off one item at my booth!

Get all the info you need and more here.

Not sure what it is about the jellyfish, but they are so fun to make! From ages 10-21 I wanted to be a marine biologist because I loved the ocean and ocean life. I guess maybe that love is resurfacing in the form of some crocheted rugs.

Here's the beginning. Just a mill end, a crochet hook, and some time.

Many hours later, the base was crocheted, the yarn for the jellyfish was hand-cut from a white t-shirt, the jellyfish was crocheted, and finally the jellyfish was hand-sewn to the base - the most tedious part is this hand-sewing. And my hands seriously hurt when I was finally finished. But, I'm really happy with the result and feel confident that even this more artsy rug can stand up to regular rug useage and machine washing.

Also, check out the Craft: blog! Last week's jellyfish rug is featured on it today!

It has been kind of stressful here lately. We went to St. Louis over night for a concert and some thrift store shopping. I had been so down about about my fabric stash, and my lack of sources to get more. Finally! I found a Salvation Army in STL that was selling sheets for $2 and had lots of pretty colorful ones. I pretty much cleaned them out. We had a great time at the concert and it was a great weekend. We walked into the house to find the toilet tank leaking, water all over the floor, and water dripping down to the basement bathroom. So, I spent most of Monday calling the plumber and watching the plumber - when we have service people come over, I'm trying to watch them so I can learn more about how everything in the house works. I know a lot more about my toilet now! Tuesday I had to take my cat to the vet. She had a check-up the week before and the vet showed me that her teeth were really bad and gums were infected and that it could lead to more problems if we didn't take care of it (ie. pull out her teeth!) She went in, stayed overnight, had 5 teeth pulled, and I sat home and worried the whole time. She's home now, hopped up on pain meds and antibiotics, and feeling fine and eating well. I can finally relax!

So, in between all of that, I managed to get some of the new sheets I bought washed and crocheted into rugs. Here's a couple of them that I will be adding to my etsy store in the near future.

I'm not a huge fan of Valentine's Day, but I do love all the pink and red candy displays. One thing I hate about Valentine's Day is the "stuff" you can buy for your Valentine - for example, I saw a Valentine-themed plastic toy snow globe for 99cents at a store. I said to Aaron, "I wish people would stop buying this stuff so that they'll stop making this stuff." That little plastic toy costs so much more than 99cents when you think about how much the person who made it got paid (very little) and how much it cost in energy to get it here from China.

Anyways, why am I telling you this? Well, one of my rugs was featured on a blog of a company that has figured out how to make biodegradable garbage bags. They complied a list of functional, pretty, and eco-friendly gifts you might like to give your Valentine. Check it out! Also, they believe in their garbages bags so much they are willing to send you a free sample, which I'm going to do for sure.

Don't worry, I didn't. But I have lots of excuses for why I haven't updated the blog for awhile.....

The first one is that I was busy at the SIU Craft show for 3 full days. Here's a picture of my booth - a bit chaotic.

I was really really happy with this show. I got to meet lots of crafters and shoppers and just introduce myself as EKRA to the community in general. People were digging my stuff and I sent a lot of wares home with people. It was a long three day show, but so worth it!

After that, I was completely exhausted. I hadn't really had a chance to recover from the 11 day trip and now after this 3 day show, I had to just stop and rest. I spent a few days doing a lot of nothing and napping and finally getting rested up. We had a few SIU Faculty functions to go to and I got to meet the people in Aaron's department. I have been hanging out at Dayshift hanging out with Mary Lynn and meeting other artists that stop in. I'm finally starting to meet people! One of the best things about the SIU show was that I recognized so many people which made me feel like I really did know some people here.

What else has been keeping me away from my blog? I had two custom orders for bottlecap magnets and necklaces. They wanted magnets of their children, so I had them send me their photos on photo paper and I made them into magnets. This makes a great gift for people, either magnets of their children or pets or fun times or whatever. You could even make it a yearly thing - all customized and everything. If this is something you are interested in (but not for this x-mas), feel free to contact me about it in the Contact EKRA section. (Still no comments getting through)

And now I'm back! I've been mentioned on a couple of blogs: The Dayshift Blog and Shrimp Salad Circus, so check those out.

Now that all my shows are over, it is time for the worst part of my job - paperwork and organizing my receipts for tax time. Every year I resolve to do a better job so that this isn't as painful as it is, and my system has been getting better every year, but it is still painful. Thankfully I know I have to start early so I can do a little at a time and have it all ready by the time Aaron is ready to do the taxes. I really don't mind doing my civic duty and paying taxes, I just wish it were easier. Blah.

Let's end this on a happier note. I bought another shelf for my craft room so I can pick up some of the stuff and it can be less of a disaster zone. Yay!

Our 11 day conference, craft show, family visits trip was a success! And we are home now. Ahhh...

The people who planned the craft shows I was in, the DIY Trunk Show by the Chicago Craft Mafia and Art vs. Craft by Faythe Levine, were both incredible. Both were busy all day with shoppers and I sent lots of EKRA stuff home to new homes. I'm pretty sure these shows will both sandwich the Thanksgiving week again next year, so I'm hoping to be back at both of them then. It was so nice to see Chicago and Milwaukee people - shoppers and crafters alike.

I have another 3 day craft show starting tomorrow that is being held at the Southern Illinois Student Center and sponsored by the SIU Craft Shop. I have a lot of work to do to get ready for it - stamp bags, label the bowls I crocheted in the last few days (they were a super hit at the last two shows and I'm almost sold out!), get reorganized in general.

But here's how I know EKRA has officially moved to Carbondale. I got a request for a Saluki (the SIU mascot) rug. The school colors are maroon and white, so I found a queen-sized maroon bedsheet, two white with maroon pin stripe pillowcases, and a Saluki t-shirt that I cut the saluki out of and appliqued to the rug. I had to use the flash on this picture and it looks a lot better in real life, but you get the general idea. Also, fun fact - no one in Madison ever asked me to make a Bucky Badger rug - but now I totally want one for myself.

Played with my light tent again today. I've been studying the pictures on etsy that get put on the front page and in the gift guides to try and improve mine. I'm working on improving them little by little. These bowls are really cute in real life and I think the pictures turned out pretty well too.

Pair of Red Nesting Bowls

I feel pretty ready inventory-wise to head off to my shows. I have 25 cupcake trivets and about a million bottlecap necklaces and magnets. Now I just have to get ready for the rest of my trip - visiting with Aaron's mom in Sacramento and my family in Rochester (WI). I've got a lot of climates to pack for. I don't know who I'm kidding when I say I don't know what to pack, I wear the same uniform everyday: black t-shirt and jeans. I'll just have to bring layers of them. And my winter coat.

I bought a new toy to help me take better pictures of my wares for my etsy shop. A light tent! I didn't know this existed until I saw one that Mary Lynn was using at Dayshift to photograph her stuff. I'm not very confident in my photography skills, so I figured this contraption might help.

I got it last night, but I waited until this morning to play with it. I put it on the couch next to our giant picture window where we also have a three bulb lamp. I'll have to play with the light and props around my wares, but I think they turned out pretty nice. What do you think? (Don't forget comments are still broken, so if you really want to let me know, you'll have to use the Contact EKRA button.)

Brown and White Crochet Fabric Bowl

Red Dots Fabric Button Bracelet.

"What's that?" you ask? That is something new I'm making. I first saw these at Anthology where Laura is making them. I thought they were so cute that I asked if she'd mind if I totally just copied her idea. She said she was selling them so fast she couldn't keep up with demand, so go ahead. So here is my interpretation of Laura's idea. These are fabric covered buttons that you make yourself. Since I have so many fabric scraps from crocheting rugs and bowls, I thought this would be a good way to use them up and also showcase the fabrics I'm using in a different way. It is different way of thinking about my fabric and so it is a bit challenging and fun. The buttons are fun to make too, except that my hands hurt from using the tiny plastic tool that you use to make them with.

Today I plan to finish up a bunch of little things I want to take to the shows with me. I also want to try and figure out how I'm going to display things. I'm doing the DIY Trunk Show alone this year (ie. no Aaron to help me carry stuff in) so I want to streamline my packing so I can make as few trips back and forth as possible. I'll have my trusty handcart, but this show only has a one hour window to get loaded in and set up. That's not that much time.

I finally crocheted that rug that I wanted to. I'm pleased with the way it turned out, all black and elegant-like. I just listed it in my etsy store.

Aaron and I have wanted to do some exploring. Yesterday we took a walk around the lake that is on the SIU campus. There is a really nice 2.2 mile path that goes all the way around and it is just for pedestrians, no bikes or skateboards or anything else. There are a bunch of "fitness challenge stations" on the path too, so next time we go, we are going to try those out too. I'm not sure I'll pass many of them, they are mostly tests of upper body strength like rope climbing and walking across parallel bars on your arms. At least the scenery will be pretty while I try.

So the comments are not fixed. One comment did sneak through, but other people have informed me that they have left comments and they aren't showing up on my end to approve and publish them. Sorry! Please still use the Contact EKRA feature if you'd like to get in touch!

First off, I got a comment here on my blog from a non-spam source! Beth of Green Cricket Salvage left a comment. She does wonderful work transforming roadside furniture and flea market finds into beautiful works of art. Her work is so pretty and yet very functional - right up my alley. Anyways, I think that means that the comments are fixed. For those of you who have been dying to comment on the goings on here in EKRAland, comment away, please! Or continue to contact me via the Contact EKRA feature - both are very very welcome!

I received my barcode stickers from Craftland on Friday. I had been holding off on labeling anything until they showed up because I wasn't sure how big they would be or if they would fit on my tags. They fit nicely on the back side of the tags I use to label my bowls and cupcake trivets, so I got to work making tags and labeling things. Now I have the hard task of deciding what to send and what to keep for my own holiday shows.

And I made another pink cupcake rug. I have been saving all my brown cotton fabric for my cupcake trivets because I'm not sure of the melting point of polyester. This one is all double-knit polyester except for the cherry and sprinkles, which is a red knit bed sheet. It is available to purchase in my etsy store.

I've been pretty busy already today. I grouted a pile of frames with black grout and I'm letting them dry a little more before I clean them up. I have this weird urge to list a lot of my cat toys in my etsy store, so I might take pictures and do that for awhile. There are two black fabrics in the craft room that are calling me to crochet them into a rug. And I'd like to grout at least one more pile of frames before the shows so maybe I'll break some plates. No shortage of things to do here, I wonder which project will win?!

I'm not really sure if that is true, but is what the song says. It was either that or, "I love LA!" which I'm not sure is true either. Anyways, remember back in June when I wrote about a woman from LA who bought bottlecap necklaces for her vintage store? No? Well, go reread it.

I meant to add her store to my Brick and Mortar list, but forgot to. We reconnected today for her to order more necklaces for her store and she suggested I add her to my list. Whoops! I told her I meant to do that in June when we first met! Anyways, without further ado, please check out my newly restocked store, Flounce in LA.

I've been meaning to go for weeks, but something always distracts me. I finally made it over to Dayshift yesterday and took some of my bottlecap necklaces and crocheted bowls to sell there.

We visited the Dayshift booth at Vulture Fest and Aaron took a bunch of pictures.

There are all sorts of wonderful handmade things to buy there including pottery, bags, jewelry, clothes, cards, and more. See that white cup on the left side of the table? It has a skull drawn on it and I bought it! It is pretty rad.

The owner, Mary Lynn, sews bags and pouches under the name inblue and you can find her work in the store as well as her etsy store.

Finally added my holiday shows to my Upcoming Events down there in the corner! This holiday season you can find me at the DIY Trunk Show in Chicago, Art vs. Craft in MIlwaukee, and for the first time ever, the SIUC Holiday Craft show in Carbondale (this will be my first show in my new home town, exciting!)

Just a few weeks from now, I'll be heading to Chicago to participate in the DIY Trunk Show. If you are in the area, be sure to add this to your calendar now. Head to the site to check out all the great vendors that will be there.

Aaron had a conference to attend in Milwaukee, so Wednesday night we left town and headed up to Wisconsin. I had been looking forward to this trip since we moved, and more and more since getting supplies has proven harder than expected. I don't think I ever really did this before, but I shopped with wild abandon, literally. I'm not sure how much I spent, but my bill at Goodwill was just under $100. Let me tell you, that is a lot of $2 sheets, 69 cent plates, and $2 frames. I went to many many stores and got lots and lots and lots of supplies to work with. I had no idea how good I had it in Madison. I'm a happy recycling artist now.

I found out after wearing my new bottlecap bracelet in the shower that it is not shower-proof. That was before our trip. I ordered new clasps and reglued it all together and am testing it again today. I just caught it on the dresser and it broke again, at a jump ring. I'm beginning to think that maybe this hardware I'm using isn't strong enough for bracelets and that bracelet blanks might be the way to go. I fixed it and put it back on. I think I'll recruit some testers, I just can't stand the thought of selling a product that won't hold up.

I have been having fun with some other new ideas, and as soon as I get some good light, I'll take pictures and show you!

I hear that a lot. "You should make bigger rugs." "You should make bigger baskets." "You should make these into bracelets." Welp, here's an answer to the last one: a Bottlecap Bracelet

I finally figured out a way to make them into bracelets without buying bracelet blanks - bracelet forms you can glue stuff onto. They are kind of expensive - about $2 each, which when you are selling something for about $20 and get 50%, that cuts down on profit margins pretty quickly. Also, the bracelet blanks are hard to make different sizes. I'm going to make these in three sizes, 4 caps for kids, 5 caps for small to medium wrists and 6 caps for medium to large wrists. This one is just a prototype, I'm wearing it today to see if it can hold up to wear and tear. I already determined that the clasp on here is no good, and I ordered a different style. Just in time to test out at holiday shows!

I'm afraid there has been no small amount of complaining here on my blog about the trouble I've been having finding supplies. I'm used to having such an abundant selection of items that I can pick what I like, but here, I feel like I have to work with anything I can find. After the Strange Folk Upcycle Exchange and another trip to Belleville this weekend, I'm finally starting to feel like I have a decent amount of supplies that I like and places that I know I can go to try and restock. I have had a heck of a time locating plates to break and it was making me hate my mosaic frames. It was just causing so much stress trying to find plates and being behind stocking my stores with them. Last night I starting breaking my new collection of plates and I remembered why I love making mosaics. I love breaking those plates! I bought three boxes of plates at a thrift store in Belleville called Community Kindness. I totally freaked out and flustered the woman working there. One of the sets of plates had 45 pieces and the bowls and some small plates were plain so I told her I'd pay full price for the set, but wanted to leave the plain ones there. She couldn't understand why I wouldn't want the whole set, even after I told her I was using them to make mosaics and those were no good for me. She was super flustered trying to wrap everything up and pack it into boxes. Her husband was working with her and was trying to calm her down (sounds like me and Aaron) but she was having none of it. Oh well, she's probably over it and I have a lot of new plates to play with.

Another new challenge I'm facing is preparing for the Craftfland craft show in Providence, RI. I'm not going to go there, just my wares, but I need to estimate how much I'll be sending and tell them asap so they can print tags for me to affix to my wares. They said to overestimate so there are extra tags rather than too few tags, but oh my gosh, I have no idea! Times like these I wonder if I kept better sales data and records and books and stuff if I'd be in a better position to estimate these things. I have to hurry up and decide because they want the info by Oct. 15.

Tomorrow we are heading back to WI for a few days. Aaron has a conference in Milwaukee and we'll get to see my family and a bunch of our Madison friends. We are going to go to Madison for a day and I've got a big box of stuff to take to Anthology to get them stocked up for the holiday season. We have been traveling so much, after this weekend we don't have any plans until Thanksgiving and it will be nice to stay home and finally get those last boxes unpacked and settled in more here in Carbondale.

I'm back from Strange Folk. What an eventful weekend!

First, here are some pictures of my booth. Pretty much the same set-up as Renegade, but this time I forgot the basket that I use to display my crocheted bowls. I emptied out one of my suitcases and used that instead and actually like it better. I was able to pile them up higher and use the hinge of the suitcase as a little shelf. Next time I do a show, I'll make a sign to tape inside the suitcase so you can read what they are from far away.

I had a corner spot and I find it very frustrating when people just cut through my booth as a short cut instead of going around. I used my grids to make a wall so people couldn't do that. Also, the brightly colored rugs seemed to attract a lot of attention from people far away, so it was doubly functional.

There was rain in the forecast for the afternoon, so I put up my tent walls in the morning and rolled them up so I could put them down if the rain came. It thunderstormed for about an hour, but my tent walls worked great and everything stayed pretty much completely dry. It is just very unsettling to have to stand outside with all your inventory in the pouring rain and thunder. Luckily, Aaron was there for that part of the day and his presence always helps me feel calmer. Amazingly enough, I even made some sales during the rain. If I was a shopper, I would have hightailed it out of there at the first sign of rain!

I met some great people and made some craft connections. I also met this handsome fellow and was able to take his picture. I just love that he is wearing a vintage vest, the fur around the hood makes him look like a little lion.

Aaron and I had a great time while not at the show too. We ate great meals in St. Louis restaurants and found a new town called Belleville that was chock full of thrift stores. I can't wait to go back there with an empty car!

Now, I have some down time. No shows planned until DIY Trunk Show and Art vs. Craft in late November. I have lots of stuff to make to stock up my stores and also for the Craftland craft show in RI. But at least I can kick back and just make stuff and not obsessively check the weather for the next show.

I have everything tagged, priced, and packed - ready to go to O'Fallon, IL to participate in the Strange Folk Festival this Saturday and Sunday from 10am-6pm. The weather is supposed to be sunny and warm. There will be tons of crafts, food vendors, workshops, and music! If you live in the St. Louis area, come on over. The website has a band line up and list of all the crafters that will be there.

I couldn't have asked for a more perfect weekend for the Chicago Renegade Craft Fair. It was sunny and 80 degrees and not a single drop of rain or gust of wind. There were tons of shoppers and I was in a great location. A complete success of a weekend - good thing too, because after the last few Renegade shows being rained on, I was ready to retire my tent if this one went badly.

I took a bunch of pictures with my iPhone of my booth. I really liked the way my rugs and trivets looked hanging on the grids suspended from the tent. It really filled up the space and I was able to display just about all the rugs I had with me.

The second day I moved the suitcase with rugs up to the front of the tent where more people could see and touch them. I'm not sure if it resulted in more sales, but they got more attention up in the front.

My new(ish) fabric bowls were a hit too. These two kids had little sock kitties that I wanted for myself. I was doing something, then I looked up and saw that they had each put their kitties in a little bowl. It was so cute I just freaked out and exclaimed, "Your kitties have homes, that's SO CUTE!!!' Then I felt bad because I don't want to be one of those people who talks kids into talking their parents into buying them things, so I quickly said, "But, you know, your kitties don't need homes." Their mom laughed and said that it was okay, it was already a done deal, the kitties were going to have homes. I asked if I could take their picture and they said yes, so here are the kids with their adorable sock kitties in EKRA bowls. So cute!

So, perfect weekend. Got to sell lots of stuff, got to meet new customers, see some old ones, and see people I only get to see at shows. I also got to see my parents, brother and his girlfriend on Saturday for the first time since I moved which was great. It has only been a month, but now that I'm farther away, any chance to see them when I'm closer is great. I have to give a shout out to all of them for helping me pack up and cart out my wares on Saturday night. Thanks guys!

Also, one more funny story. Towards the end of the day on Sunday, this guy and girl came up and were very interested in my rugs. The guy was telling me that the girl was interested in learning how to make them, and I looked over to her and heard Aaron explaining my process to her, all the ins and outs and what the best fabric is and why. It was weird and funny to hear him explaining it, and I mentioned that to the guy. He then asked me how Aaron helps me. I didn't really understand the question so I told him how Aaron helps me at shows with driving and carting stuff and general emotional support and all that stuff. The guy holds up his palms for a "Gimme 10!" and tells me he meant he wanted to know if Aaron helped in actually making the crafts. Oh. Whoops. He said that my answer was way better than what he was expecting. Anyways, this is a long round-about way of telling you all that Aaron is awesome. He drove almost the entire drive, navigated through ridiculous construction, found me 4 gallons of water to weigh down my tent in downtown Chicago and walked them a mile back to me, and was just his usual wonderful self and I couldn't have done it without him. Thanks Aaron!

You know when you know you have to do something that you don't really want to do, but you know you have to and you keep putting it off and off and off and you get really cranky about it and the longer you put it off the harder the task seems? Well, I finally did that thing! I needed to set up my tent before Renegade to see if the new way I want to use my grids would work.

I finally did it! And my idea (at least without the rugs) works. I want to use my grids because they give me a lot more space to display stuff, but the feet on them take up a lot of room. So, I thought I'd try hanging them from the tent. It is hard to see in this picture, but there are two in the back, and one on the front side of each side. I'm planning on hanging rugs and cupcake trivets and even bottlecap necklaces on them. I'm excited to see how it will turn out.

Also, another task I was dreading was going through and making sure everything was tagged and packed. I'm pretty much set there too. Now I'm in that weird lull in between stage of being just about ready to go, but there is still 2 days until we leave. The only things left to worry about is how I'm going to fit it all in the car - is it possible I have too much stuff!?!!? Is it tiring being this crazy? Yes.

I checked out that new store I told you about yesterday, Dayshift. It is pretty cool and the owner is too. Serendipitously, her boyfriend is one of the major booking agents for bands down here. Going to concerts was one of the things Aaron and I thought we would miss most by moving to a small town. Turns out this guy is working on bringing indie bands to Carbondale. After Renegade, I'm going to take some of my wares over to Dayshift and Mary Lynn, the owner, will look over and see what fits in with the other stuff in her store. She also told me about some other local stores I should check out to see if they are interested in carrying my stuff. I was so excited after meeting her and seeing her store I could hardly work on anything, so better get to it now.

I just found out about a handmade boutique in Carbondale!!! It is called Dayshift and I'm going to go check it out today. Now if they would just open an airport in Carbondale....

As my desk proves, I'm working hard cutting and gluing glass. I have another 15 frames ready to grout this afternoon! Hopefully I will feel caught up on my frame inventory soon so I don't have to be so frame focused.

I mentioned before that the thrift stores are not as well stocked as they are in Madison. Several people suggested I check out the local auctions, because that's where the real deals are. I've never been to an off-line auction, it has been all eBay for me up until now. Last Thursday, Aaron and I headed over to Vergennes, a little (ie. population 300) town about 15 miles away where there is a weekly consignment auction. It took me a little bit to figure out how it worked and what the heck was going on, but in the end I learned it is frustrating and slow-going. We got there and walked past the outside auctions where things like lawn furniture, tractors, and chickens (!) were up for sale. Inside there were three rows of tables will all different sorts of stuff piled up on them with people rummaging around examining things. At first, to me it looked very unorganized, but then we understood that it was grouped by people's lots that they were having auctioned off, so that made sense. We got a number card to bid with, figured out where the auction was starting, and stood in front of a box of rag balls that I was going to bid on. It took so long to get through the first table. There were probably 100 boxes of bullets for sale, all different, all being auctioned off a few at a time. "One box long bullets. Two dollar bill, two dollar bill for long box bullets" (silence) "One dollar bill, one dollar bill" (man nods) "Got one dollar, now two, now two" (either nod from other person, or silence) and it keeps going on like that until the bidding stops and the person has won the item. Things that surprised me: 1. I expected there to be a podium and a gavel and things to be brought up to the auctioneer up there. Instead the auctioneer just moved down the table as things sold off. There was a lady on a computer keeping track of everything that sold at what price and to what number. 2. They just handed you the item as you won it. They finally got down to the box of rag balls, started at $2, I waited until they came down to $1 and bid and won them for $1. Got home and was disappointed that the beautiful fabric on the outside of the balls was just that, only on the outside. Also, they were strips not tied together. I played with them for a little while and then abandoned them. I'm not sure what I'll do with them. But, they were only $1 and now I know how the auctions work. I think I'll give it another chance, but it would be nice to have a friend to go with that was also interested in bidding on things (and not the things I want). I dragged Aaron there because I was scared to go alone, but now I see that it is safe to go by myself.

So, that's my auction story. I decided on Saturday to check out some yard sales. I checked the local paper and craigslist and found two that said nothing about baby items and mentioned dishes. I picked up this pile of sheets from one for pretty cheap.

I'm excited to see how this tie dye sheets turn out as a rug. I have a lot of the fabric; two pillowcases and both the flat and fitted queen size sheet. I think I'll just cut it all up and crochet it all together. I think it will make a big nice mess of colors.

At another sale I found 5 of these red cups (3 are broken already) for a quarter each. Good deal. I also found some brown cups that I'm not happy with the way they are breaking, so they are not pictured.

So far, yard sales win because they are quicker. There was a lot of stuff at the auction that I would have probably bought if it had a price tag on it and I could just buy it, rather than wait all night. There is one thrift store in Carbondale that is pretty good and it is called "The Thrift Shop." And there is a Salvation Army in Marion that was okay. So, I think I'll be okay for supplies. But I'm going to be in Madison in early October and I can't wait to visit my thrift stores there. I'm going to load up!

With all the searching and mosaicking, I was getting cranky and needed to crochet a rug. I grabbed two balls of burgandy double-knit that was already cut and crocheted this, my first Carbondale rug.

Aaron modified my business card to reflect my new location and wares. Here's the front where it states that my items are "made in Carbondale, IL."

And the back where he took off a picture of a WI map card and replaced it with one of my new bowls.

Just 10 short days until things need to be packed up for Renegade. I'm at the stage where I'm not really sure what to make. I tried to take inventory and see where things were sparse, but it was kind of boring. I'm pretty sure I'll be fine with what I have now, so I'm just working on making as many mosaic frames as I can before then. Sachi and Laura from Anthology are coming to Renegade and said they would take stuff back to the store with them so I don't have to ship it. I want to take full advantage of that because those frames get heavy, and therefore expensive to ship, fast. I'm home alone so I'm tumbling glass. It is really annoying to listen to and there is no door on my new craft room so I like to do it when Aaron is gone. I also have a batch of frames to seal and price that I grouted on Saturday. Things are rolling along. I'm trying to have a relaxed attitude about Renegade. I'll make as much as I can and just try to have fun and not worry about it. How long do you think that will last!?!?!?

I don't know what it is about the floor, but it always seems to be the best place for me to craft. Probably because table surfaces get cluttered with projects that I don't feel like moving. That and there is always room to spread out. Come to think of it, I've always worked on the floor, my homework in high school, my studying in college, my crafting now. The only places I have actually worked on a surface for real all the time was in labs when I used to be a scientist. That means that either a) I should have know I wasn't cut out to be a scientist as soon as I realized I couldn't conduct experiments on the floor or b) I need to install lab benches in my craft room. Either way, here is my first round of frames that I grouted here in Carbondale that I brought glued from Madison. I wasn't especially pleased with the way the grouting turned out, maybe the difference in humidity, maybe I'm off my game (as Aaron suggested), but I got them cleaned up and labeled and most of them packed away to take to Renegade.

Here is the beautiful, yet monstrously heavy, hutch that we bought from our favorite new store, Atomic Home. In case you didn't know, Aaron and I are writing a blog about our new house and the stuff that goes into in and around it. This was one piece of a three piece dining room set we bought. We don't even have a dining room, but wanted a table for the kitchen. This hutch and a buffet came with it. So the hutch is now craft storage. I like that I can keep my wool toys behind glass so the cats can't get them. I also like that I can fill it up with plates to break. I think it is really pretty but there is no way I'm moving it again.

And here are some of my most important tools of the trade. My brand new high efficiency washer and dryer. They are a housewarming present from my mom and dad. Thank you! I love them.

Thrifting is less than spectacular down here so far. People I've talked to have said I have to hit the auctions, so that's on the agenda. There is a weekly one on Thursday nights and I'm hoping to go this week. A new adventure in finding used supplies! I'll let you know how it goes.

I finally snapped a few pictures in my craft room with my iPhone to share with you. Here is the top of the shelf I bought and all my fabric folded up all pretty and neat. I want to dig into that pile of fabric and start cutting it up.

However, things have been crazy here. I spent yesterday dealing with the backed up sewer and plumber and this morning cleaning the towels we used to sop up the sewer water at the laundromat. I needed a small project that I could finish in order to feel like I could move forward with crafting. Before we left Madison, I went through all the half-chopped atlases we had that were ready for the recycle bin to see if they had Chicago still intact. I found a bunch of different ones and brought the cut out circles here with my pin supplies. Now they are all made into pins and packed and ready to go to Renegade in Chicago - less than a month away! I have so much work to do and so much is happening around the house, it is overwhelming.

You know all those beautiful craft rooms posted on blogs? No? Well, fellow craft blog readers know what I'm talking about. Those rooms that are so put together and organized you wonder how any work gets done in there at all? Yeah, well, since I'm starting from scratch, I thought I'd get it like that and take a picture and post it here and everyone could see what a beautiful, inspiring, organized craft room I have. Then I could get to work and mess it up. Well, it was all just so overwhelming with all the boxes and no storage (all the bookcases I was going to use were casualties of the moving trailer). Not a big deal that they died since they were all second-hand to begin with, but not having anywhere to go with my stuff was a problem. So, I went and got a shelving unit today. I put it together and piled up all my fabric on it. Hooray! It is finally starting to look like a place where I can get some work done! It is not, however, going to look like one of those super beautiful rooms. I just don't have the decorating eye. I'm finding out as we buy furniture and curtains and paint the walls of the house that Aaron is way better at putting a room together than I am. I'll post pictures tomorrow, today I'm so sore it hurts to lift anything. We moved a bunch of vintage furniture into the house and it was so heavy! I'm trying to rest while still working on organizing, but it is hard when that means moving this to clean up this, and then move it back to clean up that. Maybe while I'm resting the craft room elves will come and fix up the rest for me.

The moving truck came and now everything is loaded off of it and piled up in our new house, which means, everything for sale in my etsy store is in my new craft room. My etsy store is open again! I hope to be adding new things after I get my craft room set up. I wish I was Jeanie from "I Dream of Jeanie" so I could just nod my head and everything would be in place!

Lisa asked after my last post how it feels to be a homeowner. On one hand, it is super awesome! I get to say who can come in and who can't (this is after years of being a renter and having management companies barging in all the time). Aaron and I get to decide how we want to set it up. We bought a new bed and living room furniture and we have a lot more space than we ever did before. On the other hand, everything is our problem now. For example, the water that runs into one of our bathroom sinks drains onto the floor. That's not right! But, we'll have to fix it - or more likely, pay a plumber to fix it. There are several surprises like that that keep popping up, but so far it has been pretty fun.

We spent a lot of time thinking about what color we want to paint the walls. Right now, a lot of the house is a horrible brown. Don't get me wrong, I like brown, but this brown is just not pretty at all. And I prefer light, airy spaces more than oppressive, closed in spaces. The living room had two cream walls and one gray wall, so today we made them all green. Laura Ashley Hedge 3 green to be exact.

What a lot of work! We are going to paint the brown walls a nice light turquoisy blue. Right now I'm thinking about curtains. And while I do that, I'm going to finish up these cupcake trivets.

I can't wait until Monday when our moving truck gets here. I feel so lost without my craft supplies. These cupcakes are the last thing I have to work on until the truck gets here. I have some fabric that I can cut and I think I might have to do it old school with a scissors because my cutting mat is on the truck. Renegade is approaching quickly and my July sales at stores were great, so I have a lot of work to do to get ready and restock. I'm trying to remember that this is the best possible problem I could have. It still causes stress though.

Hi! Aaron and I turned in our keys to our rented house in Madison, drove down with the cats, and now live for real in Carbondale, IL. Just got word that I'll be participating in the Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago this September 13-14 so I gotta get unpacked and get to work! Two weeks after that I'll be in O'Fallon, IL (outside St. Louis) for the Strange Folk Festival. That's all for now, it has been an exhausting couple of days.

I'm going to be at one last Farmer's Market this Saturday, Aug 1 from 8am-1pm. Come say "hi" and "bye" and pick up those items you've been wanting!

Since all I'm doing is making piles of stuff to pack and give away, I thought I'd share some cool artwork people made with trash that I saw on the unconsumption blog.

Tim Noble and Sue Webster make art from "piles rubbish, with light projected against them to create a shadow image entirely different to that seen when looking directly at the deliberately disguised pile."

Interesting way to demonstrate that not everything is as it seems.

The other day I was at Anthology dropping off some wares and Sachi was showing me all the new Japanese papers and folders they just got in. It was hard for me to walk away without buying one of everything she had (except the smiling globs of poo, that one I didn't like), but I had just packed up all the Japanese stationary I bought when we were in Vancouver, so I know I have a lot, and not all that many etsy sales to use it up on. She suggested I buy a bunch of folders to organize my paperwork and I informed her that I have a very practical system of envelopes in a shoebox that works quite well for me (I'm actually on my third year of the shoebox system - this might be one of the factors that limits how large EKRA grows, the terrible methodology and lack of interest in taking care of paperwork). Anyways, I was packing up and noticed that I could use a folder! All my "submit this form with your work you send to our store" forms were just piled up on the printer and I photocopy one as I need it. Hello! Those need to go in a folder. And just look at how ridiculously cute it is!

You can get your very own cuteness at Anthology at 218 State St, Madison, Wi.

I skipped the market today to pack and did get some packing done, but somehow also went shopping at St. Vinnie's and a yard sale down the street. I picked up a total of 6 frames and a bunch of sheets and fabric and a new blanket for our new king size bed and three cones of cotton yarn. Only one of those things is for the house, all the rest is crafting supplies. I told myself I was only going to buy pink and yellow fabric for cupcake rugs and trivets, but St. Vinnie's had just filled up the $1/piece bin and the sheets at the yard sale were just too cheap to pass up. Oh well, I'm sure it will all fit on the trailer we rented.

Aaron and I finally have a house in Carbondale! And EKRA has a nice big craft room picked out with the laundry room right next to it for easy access for washing newly thrifted fabric. It is all very exciting. I know this picture doesn't show the house very well at all, but what it does show is the tiredness of us. This was a long drawn-out mess of a situation. This is the first house we've purchased and I sure hope the next time goes more smoothly. Here are some of the more interesting obstacles that got in our way:
*After we submitted an offer and it was accepted, we found out the person who listed it didn't actually own it. This resulted in a series of refiling paperwork, more appraisals of the house, and lots of confusion on how a relator would list a house for someone before making sure they actually own it.
*One of the biggest storms ever hit Carbondale after our offer was accepted. They called it an inland hurricane and there was tons of damage. Our realtor was without internet access for 9 days and the university shut down during finals week! That meant that the seller had to make repairs on the house before it could get appraised, but everyone in Carbondale needed to make repairs on their houses, so things were slow going. Not really anyones fault and lucky for us it happened before we owned the house.
*The big day finally arrived, we had an appointment to close at 3pm. We arrived in Carbondale the night before and were anxiously awaiting the appointment. At 1pm, we got a call from our realtor saying it wasn't going to happen, that the seller couldn't be located to sign paperwork. At that point, everything seemed completely hopeless. There we were, with a car so full of stuff we couldn't use the rearview mirror, no place to go, no work that could be done without having a real address, and 8 hours from Madison. I cried. After Aaron calmed me down, we both just sat in the car wondering what the hell was going on and what was going to happen. We got a hotel room at a hotel with a pool and decided to go to the mall to buy swimsuits so we could go swimming. I had just pulled about 10 suits off the rack to go try on when Aaron's phone rang. It was our realtor saying the closing was on for 3pm again, but we needed to do a walk through and it was already 2:30. We drove to the house, ran through the rooms of the house, and raced to the next town over to sign the paperwork. Turned out the seller wasn't going to sign anything until the money from our bank showed up which wasn't going to be until tomorrow. We headed back to the hotel, decompressed a bit, ate a nice dinner, and went furniture browsing. We got up early the next morning confident that we could use that address for setting up bank accounts and stuff. We thought that any minute that morning we would get a call saying we could have the keys to the house. Got a bank account, got Aaron's payroll and tax paperwork signed at the university, got the car registered in Illinois, still no call. More anxiey and much wondering and wandering around with no house, no where to go, and no more errands to run. Finally at 2pm we got a call from our realtor and got the keys. I joked earlier that trip that Aaron should carry me across the threshold. We got there, he opened the door, picked me up, and carried me inside. For about 5 minutes, there was an incredible sense of relief. Ahhh, we finally had a house! But no resting yet, we walked around, figured out which rooms were for which purpose, unloaded the car, called and ran around getting the utilities in our names and turned on, and started the drive back to Madison.

So, now it is now. The real moving begins now. Can you see why I look so horribly tired in that picture?

Okay kids. I think it is really going to happen now. Almost everything is in place for Aaron and I to close on our new house. Seriously, any second now the bank is going to call and tell us we can sign the papers here in Madison and then we are going to load up the car and make our first trip down to Carbondale to try and get some of our stuff set up. Get the car registered in IL, set up new bank accounts, set up internet, and on and on and on. So, how does this affect you, my wonderful EKRA supporters? Not much except that I closed my Etsy store today until things have settled down. I have a tough time keeping track of my inventory when it is all at one address. If it is split between here, Carbondale, and a moving trailer and I had to know where everything was, I'd go even crazier than I am!

Look for new store updates in early August!

These past few weeks I've been on the hunt for a piece of artwork that is very "Madison" to me to hang in our house. There are a lot of great artists in town that use Madison imagery in their work including the Union Terrace chairs, Bucky Badger, and the Capitol building. I'm not really a fan of those things in particular, but rather the city in general. At Art Fair on the Square this weekend, I wanted to go see if this artist Keith Grace was there again this year. He uses maps and typography in his paintings and I thought his work was just awesome. I was hoping he would have a print of a piece I saw last year. He didn't, he had this new painting of a kitty where he incorporatesd a Wisconsin map and typography. You can't see it here, but Madison is right on this beautiful kitty's back. I absolutely fell in love with it and now it is mine, all mine (and Aaron's)! My "Madison" art hunger has been satiated.

Time in Madison for EKRA is winding down. We don't officially have a new house to move into in Carbondale, but any day now we should be closing (keep your fingers crossed)! I'm really really sad to be leaving Madison. But here are some things that I'm happy about.

Even though almost all of our wall art is packed and ready to adorn the walls of our new house, I still have my latch hook rug owls hanging in my craft room. I have purged almost all of my thrift finds that decorated my house except the ones I really really love. This is one of them. I can't imagine all the hours that went into this project. I remember getting about 25% through a latch hook kit when I was a kid before I called it quits. I bought this for $1.50 at the Salvation Army that closed a few years ago.

I picked up a little bouquet of yellow daisies at the grocery store yesterday. They are by the kitchen sink and make dish washing much more bearable. Our new house has a dishwasher, so I'll be able to put flowers other places!

I've had a real run on magnets lately. They've been selling like hotcakes as usual and I just sold over 300 to Absolutely Art earlier this week. Even though I've been pouring resin almost every day, it never feels like I have enough, especially with Renegade Chicago coming up quickly (although my acceptance is still pending - I think notifications come out this week. Again with the finger crossing please.)

And mosaic frames. There are never enough of those either. I made another big mess in the kitchen this morning and I have to finish these up right after I finish this post. I've been working hard to use up the dishes I have and also the frames that I have. Sometimes I'll cut the glass for a frame and it will sit and sit and sit. Why? I don't know, I just don't feel like working on it anymore. Well, it is do or die time now. I don't want to pack and move half-finished projects. So, a lot of these were frames that have been waiting for a long time.

I've got some great fabric that I can't wait to get to. I've been packing things with fabric as packing material, so it feels like I don't have much fabric and then I buy more. Probably not the best idea, but I can't shake the feeling that there won't be any good thrift stores in Carbondale. It is totally irrational, right? It's just that my whole business relies on me being able to buy supplies at thrift stores. If nothing else, St. Louis is just 2 hours away and I'm sure that city has at least one good thrift store. I should look on the bright side, I get to go visit tons of new stores and find my new favorites.

Tick tock. We are scheduled to have all our stuff in a truck leaving town on August 5. Although, we don't have a house yet, so that might change....

All EKRA purses MUST GO! I'll be selling all remaining stock for just $5 at the Farmer's Market this Saturday. Come early for the best selection!

I spent the afternoon yesterday grouting a new pile of frames. Today I cleaned them all up and labelled them. This is what it looks like when I'm doing this. I get out my paper cutter, stamps, ink pad, Windex and other tools and spread them out. Then as each frame is labeled, I stand it up so I can admire them all before they get packed away. Most of these will be heading to Anthology.

These two little ones are my favorites of this batch.

These new cards came in the mail today from ebay. Soon there will be new bottlecap necklaces and rings!

Even though rain was predicted, yesterday was another beautiful day for the Farmer's Market. When this guy showed up in front of my booth to eat fire and do other stunts like get out of a straight-jacket, I was really excited and snapped this picture with my iPhone. I was very entertained by his act.

However, the second time through his act was not as impressive and the third time seeing him get out of his straight-jacket was just plain boring. It was then that I realized that my bottlecap magnets couldn't compete with this kind of street performer - there is usually just musicians. Big crowds of people stopped to watch and clogged up the area so even if people wanted to shop, they couldn't. Oh well, I still had good sales in between acts and something really exciting happened before the performer started. A woman from LA who was in town for a conference bought a bunch of my necklaces and magnets wholesale for her vintage store called Flounce. AND, her friend recognized me! She exclaimed how she couldn't believe she was meeting me just randomly on the street here while she was in town and how her friend was going to be so jealous. I felt like a real celebrity! It was pretty weird, but cool.

At the market on Saturday, I got to see my friend Lisa who has been MIA for awhile. Not only was it wonderful to see her, she brought me my long awaited prize from her blog contest, a beautiful purple rose and cute bon bon hairclips. The prize also included an adorable purple bird, but I think one of the cats grabbed it because I can't find it! I hope Lisa isn't horribly angry with me, I'm sure she won't be, she has three cats of her own and knows they can be big trouble sometimes. If you are interested in checking out more of Lisa's Stabby Critters check out her blog.

One of my favorite things in Madison is the birds designed by Dr. Evermor. They hang out on Paterson St and are several stories tall made entirely from scrap metal welded together. A few summers ago I was at a tiny craft show with a woman (I can't remember her name, sorry!) who had taken a photo of them and made a screen to screen print them on things. I had her print it on a blue polyester dress I had just purchased from a thrift store, but turns out the dress wasn't very flattering and I only wore it a few times. Finally, now that we are moving I was faced with the decision of what to do with the dress. I didn't want to get rid of it because of the birds, but I knew I'd never wear it again. Then, I also found a frame that we were trying to decide if we should keep or not. Viola! Two just okay things together equals one awesome thing! I cut the birds out of the dress and framed them. Now we can hang it on the wall in our new house and admire the print and be reminded of Madison. Even Pimper is enjoying it!

And finally, today my very first original painting purchase showed up! I bought this ORIGINAL Susie Ghahremani painting. I've wanted one for a long time and was able to snatch this one up before it went on exhibit in LA. I love all of her work! You can see more on her site boygirlparty.

This past Saturday was perfect for the Farmer's Market - sunny, warm, and not windy. I had good sales, had some friends stop by, and got to catch up with some of the other vendors there. One surprise was that I got my Facebook make-things-for-people thing from Rosy of ReCreative Crafts. She made me this awesome mix-tape pouch out of felt and embroidered all those details on by hand. So cool! I love it!

Since then, it has been hot. Humid and hot. In this weather, I don't want to do anything but sleep. We don't have air conditioning and this house in general doesn't have great air flow, so sleeping is the only way to be comfortable in this heat. Instead of sleeping the day away yesterday, I glued magnets to all the bottlecaps that were waiting for them. Here's one tiny tray:

Yikes, I haven't posted anything in a while. That is partly because I have been spending a lot of time collecting boxes...

and packing boxes.

I've also been working hard to try and use up all my best dishes for frames so I have less to move. Also, frames have been in pretty high demand at my stores, so I'm trying to keep up. I have some fears that there won't be good deals on plates to break in Carbondale. An irrational fear, right?

Everything is topsy turvy here. We were supposed to close on our house yesterday, but there are some problems with the paperwork on the seller's end that we are waiting to get worked out. We are here drumming our fingers waiting anxiously. There is so much work to do! Buy a bed and furniture, move the pets, set up new bank accounts and utilities, scope out thrift stores. I just want to get started already!

Even though all this has been unusual, I felt really good about applying for Renegade Chicago, Strange Folk Festival, and DIY Trunk Show. That reminded me that my life as a crafter will continue even in a new town. Also, all the work I've put in to traveling to further away shows the last two years will have paid off.

If we don't take off to close this weekend, I'll most likely be at the Farmer's Market on Saturday. It is supposed to be sunny and nice! We haven't had many nice Saturdays here in Madison this spring. I sold a bunch of bowls last weekend, so I'm working on restocking those inbetween breaking plates and packing. I'll try to post more pictures of them as I make them, because some are turning out really awesome.

Another piece of fabric I found at the Dig and Save on my last trip was a blue and green and tan fabric shower curtain. I brought it home and found that it went perfectly with this tan polyester double-knit fabric that I have so much of! Finally used some of it to make this rug!

Sea and Sand Rug

Finally something worth blogging about!

What do you do when your brick and mortar consignment stores are asking for mosaic picture frames and you are planning a big move and attending a big craft fair right after you move? You sit your butt down and get to work!

I've been working through the sets of plates I've accumulated and the wholesale frames I bought last year. I've been gluing and gluing and gluing and the frames were piling up so I did two rounds of grouting today.

Round one:
I decided to do all the frames that I had multiples of so I could divide them up among the stores I want to send them to.

Round two:
I wasn't sure if I would have the stamina to do another round, but I realized these were the last paper bags I had to work on and I was almost out of white grout, so I decided to go again.

In total, I grouted 25 frames! Hooray! But there are still more waiting for their turn...

The packing has officially begun! I'm find lots of old rugs (or should I call them vintage EKRA rugs?) that I want to clear out, so I'll have them on sale for the low low price of just $10 at the Madison Farmer's Market tomorrow! Come early for the best selection!

Two things to report. First, EKRA products can now be found at Magpie in Somerville, MA. They have bottlecap necklaces, catnip rattlers, and cupcake trivets. Soon they will also have mosaic frames. Boston-area EKRA fans, go check it out. They have "shiny things for your nest."

Second, I Like You in Minneapolis, MN has been closed since Dec 23. They have moved to a new location and are now open again! Go check out their new awesome big store!

I read about this on Craft: blog today. An etsy seller is sponsoring a contest. Everyone who signs up will get a packet of junk stuff (everyone gets the same) and then you make something with those things and post it to a Flickr group. There is even a prize for the winner! Doesn't that sound like fun? I love a good challenge - particularly when it involves playing with garbage! Sign up now, it only costs 20 cents!

Yeah, I signed up for the contest, like I have nothing else to do. I've been cutting and cutting and cutting my fabric supply into yarn, trying to work through as many supplies as possible before we skip town. I busted out 4 rugs over the last couple of days and took three of them to Anthology which is exciting because they didn't have rugs before. New location in Madison to buy EKRA rugs, hooray!

Big pieces of fabric are mocking me, I must go slice them up!

Yup, senioritis. I've got it, or at least a version of it. With a new house and a big move on the horizon, I've been thinking a lot more about that than crafts. I was diagnosed by Sachi at Anthology but I didn't believe her until this past Saturday when I left the market early. I was just so cold and had a party to get ready for and had already sold a few things. In past years, I would have stayed until the end but this year, my senioritis won and I took off.

I have been working hard at home though. I've been cutting fabric like crazy and I have the balls to prove it!

Yikes! I packed up for the market this weekend and realized my inventory is running really low. Between last week's Craftstravaganza and restocking brick and mortar stores, I've really gotten rid of a lot of stuff! I feel a little stressed about getting my stock back up, but like they say, that's a problem you want to have!

There is rain in the forecast for tomorrow, so I'm not sure if I'll be at the Farmer's market tomorrow, but the car is all packed up and ready to go.

Time to get back to work! Yesterday I cut tons and tons of glass for new mosaic frames and I'm tumbling it all today. I've decided I want to try and use up all my plates for frames before we move so I don't have to decide if I want to move them or give them back to St. Vinnie's.

I'm back from St. Paul! The Craftstravaganza was a huge success! I don't know how the organizers do it, but no matter what the conditions are: blistering heat wave, freak spring blizzard, or global recession, they get shoppers to their shows. People in the Twin Cities really appreciate and support the indie arts.

I love this venue because the spots are huge and I can hang rugs on the wall. Here's a quick picture I took of my booth with my iPhone.

It was only the second showing of my new little products - trivets and bowls and coasters. I got a lot of great feedback on them.

I had just a few minutes to shop before the show started. You know how much I love pissed things. I snatched up this Sour Apple by Fantastic Toys right away.

I'm heading up to St. Paul tomorrow to be part of the Craftstravaganza. This is always a fun show (although the weather doesn't always cooperate). I'm excited to see the artists who live around the MLPS area. But I'm a little sad too, because I've done this show every year for the last 4 years and this will be my last one because it is just too far from Carbondale. But if you live near the Twin Cities area, come check it out. It is on the Minnesota State Fair Grounds, in the Fine Arts Building, from 9am-5pm.

In Carbondale news, the house we put an offer in on is getting its inspection today. If all goes well, that house will be ours soon!

And to make this post a little prettier, here's a new bottlecap necklace I added to the store this morning.

Slow and Steady Turtle Bottlecap Necklace

Pretty blah week here in Madison. It rained a lot of the week including yesterday, so I didn't go to the Farmer's Market. I heard from two other craft vendors that they didn't go either, so I didn't feel bad that I skipped out.

In non-craft news, we made an offer on a house in Carbondale and it was accepted so this week was full of signing papers, faxing contracts, and lots of phone calls. Thankfully, Aaron is taking the lead on this project. I'm getting excited to close and get the keys to my very first house!

In craft news, since it has been so glum here, I haven't felt like taking pictures of anything to list on etsy. But I do have a new brick and mortar store that is carrying EKRA products. Dainty Daisies in Oshkosh, WI now has bottlecap necklaces and pins, and I'm getting a box of rugs and magnets ready to send this week.

The first Farmer's Market of the season was a success! The weather was perfect, warm and not windy at all. Aaron stopped by to take some pictures for me. It was pretty busy!

Here's how I displayed my cupcake trivets. I was pretty impressed with myself!

The new tent is great, really stable and strong. However, it has less spaces to hang rugs from, so I'm going to have to figure something to get around that. But all in all, the day was a complete success! Thanks to everyone who came to say hello and to those of you who didn't make it, come next week!

I told you my brain has been working overtime to figure out ways to display my new products. The market starts tomorrow and I think I have some cute ways to display my stuff. If I can remember to bring the camera, I'll take some pictures.

The start of the market means organizing everything and tagging and pricing and packing everything up. I try to keep up with the tagging during the winter months, but sometimes I just pile made stuff up and forget about it until it is time for the market. Then there is a lot of boring tagging to do.

My new tent came on Wednesday and it is great! I unpacked it and got it all ready for the market. It is a lot heavier than my old tent and a little taller when it is in the bag too, so I'm going to have to get used to dealing with it.

And, for some reason, my etsy store is on fire today. I've had 3 orders this morning which is the most I've ever gotten on one day - including the days I was on TV. I'm not sure where all the activity is coming from, but it sure is exciting! I Googled myself to see if I could figure out where the activity was coming from. I didn't figure it out, but I did find this article about one of the stores I sell at called Wholly Craft. One of my pins is pictured!

Last weekend, when Aaron's mom (Mom2) was here, we went to Dr. Evermor's Sculpture Garden near Baraboo, WI. He is an incredible artist who welds fascinating creatures out of scrap metal. Interesting fact - the sculpture garden is located across the highway from the old Badger Ammunition Plant (now closed, but it used to be on my radar because I knew scientists that were studying the toxic effects an ammunition plant might have on soil and therefore farming - see how my old and new life collide?) Anyways, Dr. Evermor (I'm pretty sure that is a self-awarded title of Dr.) bought a ton (and by ton, I probably mean several actual tons) of scrap metal from the old plant and created the Forevertron and a garden full of whimical creatures. There is a story behind the Forevertron that I've only heard second-hand, that someday it will activate and take him away to somewhere. I'm not a huge fan of it, it is too big for me to take in. But I'm in love with his birds made from scrap metal and musical instruments. Aaron took lots of pictures, so I'll share a few with you.

It was a beautiful sunny day when we went with just a little breeze. Here I am listening to what this wind chime bird has to say to me.

These birds are so tall, 10 feet? 12 feet? It is hard for me to tell. The way texture is made with welding several of the same object together is so simple but it makes an awe-inspiring creature.

And each one is different and has such character. Truly inspiring how he takes absolute garbage, and ugly old rusted garbage at that, and transforms it into such beauty. If you live anywhere near Baraboo, you should really go and take a look.

In other news, Aaron and I are back from our trip to Carbondale and we found a house we really really like. We are waiting for some questions to be answered and then depending on the answers, we'll be making an offer! It is really exciting! I thought a new house blog would be a good idea since I'm sure there will be a lot of projects to be done, but they don't really fit here on the EKRA blog. Aaron is already designing it and once it is up and running I'll announce it here so you can follow along if you like.

I don't know what's up, but I'm really enjoying crocheting these little bowls. When I first started doing them, they really hurt my hands. I don't know if my hands got stronger or I'm doing it differently, but they are fun to make! At first they seemed stupid to me, and I kept wondering for what purpose someone would need a fabric bowl. But then I thought of myself and how I always have to tell myself not to buy little glass bowls at thrift stores. Little bowls are fun! You can put your keys in them, change, jewelry, or what I wish these were filled with, CANDY! More specifically, jelly beans!

Aaron and I are headed down to Carbondale tomorrow to check out houses. Unfortunately, it is going to be raining on Thursday, I was really hoping to see the houses on a sunny day. If it does rain, both times I have visited will have had miserable weather. Carbondale isn't really trying very hard to woo me.

It is a surprise sunny spring day here today! I decided to walk to Anthology to drop off some bottlecap necklaces and hang out for a little bit. It was so nice and warm.

There is this note going around on Facebook, "I'll make things for 5 people if they promise to make things for 5 other people in return." I first found out about it from Andrea and I was really tempted to sign up to have her make me something, but I wasn't very excited about making things for 5 people. Also, I recently won this adorable card from her blog giveaway. I have it sitting in my craft room on my shelf, it is waiting for a frame. No way am I going to send that away as a card. I love the way she is watching the hearts rain down.

So then I saw that Laura signed up to make stuff for people, and I don't have anything of hers but I really like the stuff that she makes, so I gave in. She also signed up for me to make something for her and this is what I made. I have been playing around with jewelry since it is fun and I have a lot of the materials sitting around for making bottlecap necklaces. I had just gone to the Dig and Save with my mom and one of the pieces of clothing had this pretty multi-colored rayon fabric on it. I cut it into thin strips and threaded it onto head pins to make the big, puffy beads. I separated them with some pink beads I took from some old earrings I don't wear anymore. What do you think? I think it might look better on a beaded chain instead of just a plain silver colored chain. Anyways, it is an experimental EKRA piece.

I have three more people to make things for (yeah, only 4 signed up, and I'm not taking it personally). I have one finished and the other two in progress. It has been a fun break from my normal crafting.

It's here. The March blahs. The weather is rainy and cold and there hasn't been a craft show for ages. This year the blahs held off of a lot longer than past years, but here it is again. Just over a month until the Farmer's Market starts up again, but it seems like for-ev-er.

I have still been working though. Here is a rug I just made called Dusty Blue and Brown.

Also, I have been working on my samples for the April Sampler. I wasn't sure how to package my necklaces to make them look nice, but I think I did a pretty good job. I cut 2"x3" cards and cut slits in the top to run the chain through to the back. Then I stapled my business card to the baggie.

I've been working on stockpiling my supply of bottlecap stuff. Who knows what this summer's crafting time will be like? We are working on buying a house in Carbondale and are tentatively going to go house hunting later this month. I've still signed up for the Madison Farmer's Market and plan to attend Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago (upon acceptance, of course), so I'm just working hard now so if this summer is as topsy turvy as I think it might be, I'll at least have some stuff to sell.

I needed a picture of me working in my craft room for the CraftCorps book. I had Aaron photograph me while I poured resin into my bottlecaps. As you can see, it is very serious work and requires intense concentration. Here is one of the extras.

I've decided to contribute to the April Sampler, something I haven't done in a long time. For April, they are sending Samplers out to lots of new media outlets, so I'm going to try and get my bottlecap necklaces in the hands of some media types. Usually when I make bottlecaps, they are all random and I have fun picking out what images I'm going to put in them.

However, now I don't have much time to get these necklaces finished and packaged up pretty. So, I set up this time all organized. Not as much fun at all.

Another task I completed today was sorting through my bottlecaps. Some are too bent or yucky to use, so I separated them into three piles: jewelry, magnets, and garbage. I have a couple of ebay orders of bottlecaps coming, so now things won't be all cluttered up with garbage bottlecaps.

I've been doing bits of work this week, working on my taxes (yuck), making WI cards, cutting up a new dictionary for dictionary pins, making magnets, and getting things ready to send off to places.

I did make this new rug. The brown was a bedsheet from the Dig and Save. The patterned stripe was a beautiful sheet I found at Savers, I loved it so much I paid full price for it! I love how it is very earthy tones but still bright and pretty. I'm calling it Woodland Garden and I listed it in my etsy shop this afternoon.

The managing editor from a new magazine called GreenCraft e-mailed me and asked if I'd send in some of my bottlecap necklaces to maybe be featured in the first issue. Yippee!

I know a lot of you who read my blog also make things that might be a good fit for the magazine, so here's the information you need to get your stuff in the hands of the editors. This is the call for artwork flyer, but also check out this information sheet that tells you exactly how to label your wares and how to get them back after the editors have considered them for the magazine. Also, hurry up! The artwork has to be there by March 14.

Another small victory for EKRA! EKRA rugs will soon be available to purchase at Oak at 245 Newbury St in Boston. I just sent the rugs a few days ago, so I'm not sure how long it will take for them to get there, but check out the store, it is chock full of indie awesomeness!

Hi there. What's new? Let's see......Yesterday Aaron and I went to Chicago to document the recording of an EP by a Madison musician. It is Aaron's project, but I got to be an assistant cinematographer. It was weird being behind the camera because viewing it through the camera made it feel like I wasn't really there. I haven't videoed much of anything ever, but I tried to do my best. Hopefully I got some footage Aaron likes.

Today I stopped by Nutzy Mutz and Crazy Catz to drop off some cat toys. I went to Hobby Lobby on the way and got some new yarn to make cat toys with and also some yarn to make a baby blanket for my friend that is having a little girl in June. I found a pattern online that is really simple and I'm enjoying the back and forth mindlessness of it. The woman who wrote the pattern said she can make the blanket in 3 hours. It is going to take me a lot longer than 3 hours! She must be a whiz at crocheting with yarn.

Seems like all the listings in my etsy store are expiring, so I'm slowly relisting them. I have a few new projects in the works, so I'll be unveiling those in the near future.

I've added a new store to my Brick and Mortar list! The Point in Chadds Ford, PA just opened this past week and is carrying EKRA products. If you live near there, the super duper party grand opening is going to be on March 12 from 7-10pm.

Meghan, the owner of Absolutely Art, is awesome. I showed up today to restock and she met me with two sandwich bags full of bottlecaps, many of them from root beer and Izze soda, which are the hardest for me to procure. I think she might have become as addicted to collecting them as me, she made a special collecting case for a party she had, picked them up off the ground at a party she was at, and pestered her friends for them. Thanks!

And hey, for all you peeps needing a present for your Valentine, you should go check out Absolutely Art (2322 Atwood, Madison). They have cards, candles, soaps, pretty boxes, and tons and tons of jewelry all handmade by local artists. Stuff any valentine would love to have!

As for awesome people, I have a lot of them who save stuff for me, far too many to list. Thanks to all of you, I really appreciate it!

I sold my only pink and brown cupcake rug in my etsy store yesterday. Hooray for a sale, but I have only one piece of solid brown fabric. It is (was) about 3 yards long and corduroy and I have been avoiding cutting it because it just looks like such a monster to deal with. Today I tackled the monster! I cut up the entire thing, even though I didn't want to, reminding myself that this is why they call it "work." Now I can crochet up a few cupcake bottoms, that's a lot more fun than cutting the fabric.

I got a big piece of brown and white checked polyester from my ebay score that I cut up and crocheted into this rug. I call it Tri-tone, but really there are only two tones: brown and white. But the way the fabric flips, it looks like there are three, brown, white, and light brown. I like the texture that the pattern of the fabric resulted in. This little beauty has just been listed in my etsy store here.

I finished my blanket for Project Night Night. It isn't the cutest blanket for a kid, but it is really warm and soft. I really enjoyed making it and since I only used yarn that I had on hand, it really made a dent in my yarn stash, which is ridiculously large for someone who doesn't use that much yarn in her crafting. I kind of want to make another one now. I know I'm going to be invited to a baby shower this spring, so that might be a good excuse to make another one.

I go to the post office a lot. Between etsy orders, wholesale orders, and restocking my consignment stores, I mail a lot of boxes and pretty much know how much it is going to cost before I get there. I know that they are going to ask, "Is there anything perishable, liquid, fragile, or potentially hazardous in any of these packages?" I also know there are three basic rates: Express, Priority, and Parcel Post. Believe me? I know my USPS!

So, today I walked in with two packages. The woman takes the first, a box going to PA, and says, "For this package, I'd suggest Express Service, which will get your package there by Saturday at noon, include delivery confirmation and insurance up to $100. It will cost $27.50" I just stood there with my mouth hanging open. What??! Are you serious? After I stood there staring at her for a second, I asked to hear the Parcel and Priority rates. After we finished up deciding what rate I would purchase, which was Parcel Post for $5.95, I asked her if that REALLY what she would suggest. She said, "That's what my boss says I have to suggest." We joked about how stupid that was because people who need to get stuff someplace right away usually say something like, "I have to get this there right away!" Further, most people don't want to pay so much to mail something and know Priority Mail will get there package there in 2-3 days. The post office woman also told me she had to suggest Express mail to people who are only mailing things across town - ie. upsell them to Express even though Priority and probably Parcel post would get it there at the same time.

So, watch out. I guess this is the new strategy of USPS to make some money. This makes me want to get one of those mail-stuff-from-home scales even more.

I sealed, cleaned, and priced the frames I grouted before we left for Florida today. Yuck. I think that is my least favorite job! I'm glad it is done. Here are a few of them.

See that tray of bottlecaps behind them? Those are pins and pendants I'm getting ready to send to a new store in PA called The Point.

Today I got some good news. My profile is going to be included in the upcoming book called CraftCorps by Vickie Howell. Now I have to get Aaron to take pictures of me, a headshot and a picture of me working in my craft room. Poor Aaron, I hate having my picture taken and am a terrible subject, so our photo shoot probably won't be much fun. But I have faith that he'll get great photos - he took all the pictures of my stuff for the Handmade Nation book and they look great!

My brother's girlfriend was in town today and called me up to go get lunch. That was a nice surprise and break in the day. Tonight Aaron and I are going to see a concert. So I guess I'm working hard in between the fun.

Aaron and I had a great time in Florida. We went to the beach, saw manatees and alligators in their natural habitats (ie. not at the zoo), went mini-golfing and bowling, took a day road trip to Miami, and took in lots and lots of sunshine. I didn't craft a single thing for 4 days and my hands are thanking me for it. I started this rug before we left, and finished it up when we got home. I call it Celery Salad Crochet Rug.

I'm easing into home life again. I'm working on adding a few stores to my Brick and Mortar list and I'm going to be adding rugs to my etsy store as I make them, so stay tuned.

Aaron and I are heading to Florida tomorrow for a few days to get away from this horrible arctic air that keeps showing up here. Hooray!

I haven't been doing much except gluing glass. But I am happy to report that all but one of my frames from my first grouting batch of the year are out of the house and into stores. It was a little hard to let them go because there were a lot of cute little frames in this bunch that I really wanted to keep around for awhile. But, I did it so I can work on my goal of getting my frames in more stores. Good job, EKRA!

Also, this past Saturday I went to Milwaukee to meet with Aj who runs The National, a super delicious breakfast and sandwich shop. The owners are interested in having artists and crafters sell their work there, so I took a bunch of bottlecap magnets and some mosaic frames and left them there.

See you when I get back!

What's new here? The biggest news is that Aaron and I got iphones! That means internet access all the time! That's fun for looking up trivia for away-from-computer arguments and uploading pictures to facebook right away from your vacation, but the biggest thing for EKRA is that I can have access to my etsy store while I'm away at shows. I'm super paranoid about double-selling something (ie. I sell something at a show and before I can delete it from my etsy store, someone buys it). What I usually do is take my things down from my store and then put back what hasn't sold. But now I can keep my inventory straight in real time! Hooray iphone!

Other than that, I've been trying to take it easy on the crafting because my hands have been hurting. We are leaving for a short trip to Florida next week and I'm not bringing any crafts so that will be a nice rest for my hands. A nice break from the cold snowy winter here in WI too. I can't wait!

Another thing I've been working on is restocking my consignment stores. Based on my sales, seems like they all had a good holiday season, so hopefully that continues. I know some store owners are worried about whether they can keep their doors open. Remember to shop local when you need a gift or gift for yourself! One thing I'm planning to do for 2009 is get my mosaic frames into more of my consignment stores. I'm not sure what the selling situation will be like once I get to Carbondale, so I'm hoping to pick up some of the slack with my consignment sales. But, I almost completely sold out of frames this holiday season so it will take some time to restock and send them out. I'm going to try and send them out as soon as they are made to keep me motivated to keep making more. Seems like the less inventory I have at home, the harder I work.

Speaking of work, I've got a pile of frames to grout this afternoon, so bye!

Vicki Howell put out a call for submissions for her new book called Craft Corps this past summer. The submission was just a blurb about yourself and your crafting, so I wrote in about scientist turned crafty biz woman and I got an e-mail that my submission is one of the 75 finalists that will be used either in her book or another project. Ta da!

January 15. Today is my dad's birthday - Happy Birthday Dad!

I've been looking online to see if I can replace my incredible thrift store resources here in Madison with an online store. I'm not sure that the thrift stores in Carbondale will be as good or as cheap as my beloved Dig and Save or 99 cent Mondays at Savers. I found this seller on e-bay that bought a huge estate that had yards and yards of vintage fabric. So much that she told me it takes up and entire bedroom in her house, with boxes floor to ceiling. She's selling it off in lots on ebay and my first bunch came yesterday. Oh it is so beautiful!

As soon as I got the first load of it in the wash, the UPS man came with my second box, which was about 30 pounds more of vintage polyester. Each piece was more gorgeous than the last. I did 4 loads of laundry and it still isn't all laundered yet. My rational brain is thinking, How long is it going to take to even make a dent in this much fabric? (Remember that 30 pounds from the Dig and Save is far less fabric because I have to cut away seams and zippers and buttons and that weighs more than you would think.) Where am I going to store all this fabric until it is made into rugs? My irrational brain is thinking, GO BUY SOME MORE! GET IT, GET IT ALL and HURRY UP ABOUT IT! So far I have been able to shush it, but I don't know how long it will last.

Yesterday I found a project online that I was actually inspired to make! I saw this cardboard scratch pad on DesignSponge and thought the cats would love it! Normally I wouldn't give my boxes up for anything, I need them for shipping etsy sales. But with these big fabric purchases from ebay, I have some super big boxes that I'll never use. So I spent last night working on it. It is only about 12 inches in diameter, but they love it already! Aaron caught Pimper mid-scratch here.

I want to make it big enough for him to sit on, but we'll see. He's kind of a tubby cat.

My kitty rugs got a mention over at Embrace Pet Community! I was browsing around and it seems like a great resource for those of us with dogs and cats.

There were so many fabric balls in the living room, I couldn't think straight. So, last night I started putting them into their appropriate tubs (sorted by color) and discovered I had enough gray to make this pretty little rug. I really like all the texture this rug has.

Shades of Gray Crochet Rug

The other reason for the cleaning is that Aaron's mom (Mom2) is coming this weekend. I have to make it so there is room for more than just one person to sit on the couch! But, today there was a note on the door saying that they will be showing our house tomorrow to potential new renters. I really hate it when strangers are in my house. But, the note really kicked my butt into high gear cleaning. I can't imagine what the new renters will think when they see my craft room. It is so messy! However, when Aaron and I came to look at this place 4 years ago, the living room was set up as a gym with a big weight machine in the middle, that was pretty weird and we still rented the place. Hopefully they will find new renters soon so there aren't many showings.

Want to win this EKRA mosaic frame? I'm hosting a giveaway on LoveEtsyFeedback. Go check it out, all you have to do is leave a comment about your favorite item from my etsy store and you'll be entered to win! Contest ends Jan 12, so hurry up.

In addition to the frame giveaway, I have a coupon code listed there - Buy One Get One Free Bottlecap Necklaces! Sale ends Jan 12, so get cracking on that too!

Last day of 2008! What a better way to celebrate the last day of the year than to head to the Dig and Save for half price clothes! One last purchase before the tedious task of working on the taxes for EKRA for 2008.

Hope you all have safe New Year's Eve and a Happy New Year!

Between Aaron going off to interviews, a month of craft shows, and holiday visiting, it seems like I haven't been home much at all. We were in Grand Rapids, MI earlier this week to visit Aaron's family and today we had a x-mas celebration with my family. Now, finally, we are home.

I haven't really made much at all, but I have crocheted two rugs. Once we get all our x-mas loot put away, I can take pictures and show them off to you.

That's right. Aaron and I have made a decision. Aaron has accepted the job offered to him by Southern Illinois University and his job starts August 16. So, we'll be here through most of the summer and be in Carbondale this fall. We spent a day there visiting and it seems like there are a lot of good crafty opportunities for me, but don't worry, I'm planning to be at the Madison Farmer's Market until we move and my parents live in between Milwaukee and Chicago, so I'll have double reason to come up to vend at shows in those cities.

Finally! Pictures from my last holiday show, Bazaar Bizarre Cleveland.

To be honest, this show was run very differently than I'm used to. At most shows, you get a booth assignment ahead of time and on the day of the show there is an hour or two to get your stuff loaded in and set up before the customers arrive to shop. Sometimes there is a couple of hours the night before where the venue is open to drop stuff off and set up, but that's usually only if the show starts early in the morning. Everyone knows where to go and what to do and it usually runs pretty smoothly. At this show, there were no assigned spots. The venue was going to be open from 12-6pm for vendors to claim a spot. Aaron and I left at 8am hoping to be there by 5pm so I could have a chance to claim a spot. The last hour and a half of the drive was really horrible with snow and we ended up not getting there until 7pm. Luckily, the venue was still open and I grabbed a nice spot towards the back of the room right under a light and at the end of the row. If there had been assigned spots, there would have been less worry on my part to get there the night before to grab a spot before they were all gone. Most were taken by the time we got there already as it was. Okay, enough ranting about the lack of space assignments. As usual, everything worked out fine and I worried for nothing.

So, we went to the hotel, then walked to dinner at a local pizza and sandwich place. Rested and energized, here's me at the beginning of the set-up.

And here's me looking very somber behind my table with everything all set up.

And here's me all jazzed up about the show. I don't think I'm very photogenic and I never know how to pose for pictures, so I guess it is one extreme or another for this lady.

And here are a couple of pictures of the show in general.

All in all, it turned out to be a great show. The place was busy with shoppers all day both days. I sold lots of stuff and handed out lots of cards. The vendors were really nice and the shoppers were all really nice too. Seems like the show was a million years ago though since we had the second part of the trip going to visit potential new places to live. That part of the trip was exhausting, both mentally and physically, and we are thinking about our options, so I'll be able to tell you the new home of EKRA soon.

And a new home south of here is looking pretty sweet today. We have 8 inches of snow and counting here in Madison. Everything including the malls are closed or opening late.

Just a quick hello to let you know we are home from our long road trip to three C cities. I haven't downloaded any pictures from the camera yet and I also haven't convinced the cats that we didn't abandon them. So, as soon as everything settles down around here, I'll have a better post with pictures to share with you.

Tomorrow we are hitting the road. First stop, Cleveland for the Bazaar Bizarre Craft show. Aaron got two job offers so after the show, we are going to check out the places they are located, Cincinnati and Carbondale (Illinois). See you when we get back!

One more holiday show to go to!

It snowed about a million inches of snow here since Monday (okay 7), but I battled with the snow plow to try and keep the driveway and sidewalk clear all day, and lost. But that also meant that I didn't get my Renegade treasures inside from the car to take pictures of to show you. The snow seriously slows me down and I spend a lot of time thinking about how I could get away with hibernating until it melts. However, I did manage to grout some frames today, finish sewing some cat rugs, and crochet a skull rug. Gotta restock for my last show!

Two weeks ago at the DIY Trunk Show, a couple bought a skull rug from me to give to their puppy. I asked them to take a picture and send it to me so I could post it on my blog. They send me a link to their blog about their cute puppy Bailey and said I could use any pics I wanted to show you here. Sweet!

Look Bailey! A new skull rug for you to lay on, so much warmer and softer than those hardwood floors.

He likes it! And isn't he so handsome?!?!

The Renegade Holiday Craft Fair was this weekend and it was great. Unfortunately, I forgot the camera, AGAIN. It stinks because you would be amazed to see the droves of people that were shopping. It was packed all day long, both days. I was a little (okay, competely stressed out) that shoppers wouldn't come to the upstairs rooms. But, as usual, that worry was wasted energy, people shopped all five rooms. There were a few other vendors selling bottlecap items, which also worried me in the beginning, but I had some people come and tell me that they liked mine the best. A couple from the DIY Trunk Show came to Renegade to find me to buy more necklaces! Also, I saw a girl wearing one of my necklaces and she was pleased to meet me because she said her friend got it in Madison and gave it to her as a present! I sold more rugs at this show than I've sold in a long time - 8 at one show! People were really digging them and I talked to quite a few people about custom work. I didn't think they would get much attention because I scaled back my display since it was upstairs and I didn't have Aaron to help me carry my stuff. Wrong again! I'm beginning to think that everytime I think something is going to happen, I should just chill and know that the opposite is going to be true.

Yes, Aaron wasn't there with me because he is at another interview, this time in Carbondale, IL at Southern Illinois University. My mom was awesome enough to give up her entire weekend and come with me. She's a great helper. I'm lucky to have such a great family that is so supportive. One of the perks of having my mom as a helper is that she doesn't mind if I wander off to go shop the show (Aaron is less excited about being alone behind my booth). I bought a ton of stuff. Earrings, hats, a crocheted kitty, and some gifts. I will show off my goodies later because even though the weekend was fun, it was a lot of work and I have had a migraine all day today. I did fall in love with these two lovely ladies who were across from me Love, Lulu Mae, go check out their site, they are awesome.

Cross your fingers that this winter storm coming through the Midwest doesn't strand Aaron far far away from home.

Two down, two to go! This Saturday and Sunday I will be in Chicago at the Renegade Holiday Fair. Five rooms with 150 vendors!

I'm not sure if this is news to anyone who reads my blog, but Aaron and I are moving. Aaron is going on job interviews and we'll be leaving Madison at the end of summer (our lease ends on August 14). So, come fall, I'll be crafting in a new city. Right now Aaron is in Cincinnati and next week he'll be in Carbondale, IL. I'm sad to leave Madison, Aaron and I met here, I started my craft business here, and I've lived in Wisconsin my whole life. But it will be exciting to start someplace fresh in a new city. Anyways, I'm home alone for a few days and I'm just kind of moping around looking at all the things I could be working on - gluing glass, crocheting rugs, washing dishes, tidying up in general - but not doing any of them.

I did take some pictures of some bottlecap necklaces to list on etsy today. I just listed this one. I love this image, it is the sweetest giraffe ever. I got her from a vintage kid's card game.

Yesterday was Round 8 of Art vs. Craft in Milwaukee. All I can say is that Milwaukee peeps really love and support their crafters. The show was amazing, busy busy busy all day long. I'd love to show you some pictures, but I forgot the camera. Whoops!

I'm glad to report that I'm not nearly as tired or sore as I was after the DIY Trunk Show last weekend, which is good, because I've got some work to do to restock bottlecap magnets and necklaces before the Renegade Holiday Show in Chicago next weekend.

I hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving. We had a nice quiet day here at home, just the two of us. Aaron made a turkey for us and it was delicious. I'm really glad that he doesn't mind cooking because if it were up to me, we'd never have turkey because I hate to deal with raw meat. But I sure like to eat it!

**EDIT** I meant to say that I like to eat meat once it is cooked. No I'm not some sort of zombie, even if I was all I would want to eat is bbbbrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnsssssssssss.

It's November 25! Only one month until xmas. As a small present to all my EKRA fans, I'm offering $1 shipping on all my bottlecap products for as many as you want! That means if you buy one necklace, magnet set, ornament, or ring, all the rest ship for free. Enjoy!

Set of Three Little Trees Bottlecap Ornaments

My ornaments got quite a bit of attention at the Trunk Show on Saturday, but only two people bought them. Both of those people bought three of them, and I sold the set of three that was listed in my etsy store. I'm no fool (most of the time? some of the time? about this right now anyways). Here are two new sets of three bottlecap ornaments I made from vintage greeting cards that are now available in my etsy store.

Set of Three Red White and Green Holly Ornaments

Set of Three Red Green and Gold Holly Ornaments

Lots of things have been neglected around the house here. This morning I took out the trash, made a small dent in the pile of dirty dishes, and since I woke up to snow, shoveled the sidewalk. Yuck. I was really enjoying the pretty snowflake motifs I've been working with and now I'm back to my normal self of hating snow.

The DIY Trunk Show yesterday was GREAT! There was a steady stream of traffic all day long and people were there to shop! I saw lots of people carrying lots of packages.

I was so proud of myself for remembering to bring the camera and remembering to actually take pictures, but I'm a little disappointed that I didn't get a shot of the whole booth. Whoops! Well, 3 more shows to rectify that.

Here's Aaron behind the booth. Doesn't he look so happy to be there? We got up and left the house by 6am when on normal days we don't get up until 9 or 10. We were both super tired.

Here's my latest product in action, my bottlecap ornaments on my tree. Aaron decorated it for me and he declared the task a "pain in the ass." Duh! That's why I asked him to do it! My mom is coming with me to Renegade in two weeks, so I'll ask her to do this job too!

I got a little 18"x24" table to extend my space and new cookie sheets to display my magnets. At first they looked really weird to me in rows like that. I'm used to seeing them in circles on my round trays. But the new trays worked great. They maximized the usable space and I think it made it easier for people to browse.

And here are the frames that started out on the table. Most of them are gone now!

I checked my list and I sold a few of everything, so I don't feel depleted in any one area of my stock and that is very good. Nineteen frames found new homes, so I do have some gluing and grouting to do this week, but I already have a lot of glass cut and tumbled and ready to go. I also sold my very last skull rug. I haven't made any new ones in a long time, but I'll have to make one this week to bring to Art vs Craft. Now that there is a big picture of one in the Handmade Nation book, I'll have to have at least one in stock!

One more thing. I'm so sore and tired today. I slept almost the entire day and my shoulders are killing me. I'm hoping the soreness is because I lugged the big 6 ft rental table back to the rack where it belonged at the end of the show while Aaron was getting the car and not just from carrying my normal stuff in.

Next show is Art vs Craft in Milwaukee on Saturday!

I have clean clothes to wear, plenty of small bills for change, and the car packed up with all my stuff. I'm ready to go to the DIY Trunk Show tomorrow! If you live near Chicago, come check it out - there are going to be a lot of amazing crafters there!

I made a new batch of bottlecap ornaments and listed a few in my etsy store.

This adorable little messenger birdie

and for those who like things in threes, this set of snowflake ornaments.

I'm pretty much all packed up and ready for the DIY Trunk Show this weekend. I thought I had myself all centered and together, but I think I was wrong because I got a migraine today. Thankfully, after just 2 hours of wishing someone would chop my head off to stop the trobbing pain, it lessened to a mild pulsing pain, and now it is gone. I've been thinking a lot about how I'm going to set up my booth, I'm worried about the small spaces that are available at these upcoming indoor shows. I have a big 10'x10' space to work with at the Farmer's Market all summer and it is hard to condense that to a single 6' x 2.5' table. When I actually type it out and reread it, it sounds pretty trivial. Ah, the stressful life of EKRA. Whatever will she do? Come see the thrilling conclusion at one of my four upcoming shows!

I've been putting it off for days, but I finally grouted my frames and vase that needed black grout. It is really dry in the house so I thought it would go really fast, but I must have added too much water to the grout because it took forever to dry! Weird. Anyways, I am finally finished with all the things I promised to make and I'm free to work on whatever I feel like until the shows start up. I have a meeting with Meghan of Absolutely Art tomorrow so she can stock up the store for holiday shopping. And I've been doing a good job at adding things to my etsy store. Here's a necklace I added today.

If I don't procrastinate on the next step of mosaicking frames, there will be pictures of the ones I grouted today tomorrow.

I said that once to Aaron as a joke. That's what our birds were saying to us: "Please listen to our tweets!"

I never thought that there would actually be tweets from people, but there are on twitter.com.

So, if you want to listen to my tweets (short updates) go to twitter.com and click on the follow button.

In case any of you citizens hadn't heard, it is election day today. I know this is a craft blog, but this is so important that I'm writing an entry here about it anyways.

VOTE TODAY! If you did already, great! If you didn't, you better, or you are going to be on my sh*t list.

Heck yeah, let's celebrate! What? How about the fact that I'm three sales away from having a total of 300 sales in my etsy store. So, to celebrate, I'm offering 30% off anything in my store for the next three sales. That's sales 298, 299, and 300. Just wait for me to send you a revised Paypal invoice to pay the discounted price!

UPDATE: Well, you snooze, you lose! The sale is over!

I got an e-mail from a customer today saying she wanted to buy a bottlecap ring but there were none in my etsy store. I spent this afternoon remedying that situation! Here's a pretty one I listed in my store:

This is all made possible by my new best friend, my tripod! I can't believe how much easier it is to take nice clear photos without my shaky hands behind the camera.

While I was sitting at my computer editing and uploading photos, I got an e-mail informing me that I was accepted in to the Bazaar Bizarre Cleveland Holiday Craft Show. Hooray! I've always wanted to be in that show, but it has conflicted with a closer show the last few years.

I need to glue down some of the glass I've cut to make mosaic frames. I have lots and lots of frames with their tiles on them waiting to be tumbled and then glued down so I can grout them. Teetering on top of each other, just a big mess waiting to happen (although some might see the whole frames piled on top of each other as a mess, that's my method of organizing!) I have to grout that vase I promised to make for my mom, so last night I sat down and glued some glass. Today I ran my tumbler for about 5 hours straight and got almost all the rest of the glass that is cut ready to go. Tonight will be all about gluing. Last night, I was sitting on the floor gluing glass, and Pimper (our little boy cat) got all riled up about something, went tearing through the living room, and knocked a bunch of tiles sitting on wet glue out of place. Sometimes it is crafter vs cat here!

Today I added more ornaments to my etsy store and here is one pretty little red one with a silver tree. It kind of reminds me of the silver aluminum xmas tree that my grandparents had.

Noah Scalin is the brains behind Skull-a-Day that I've talked about before here. He had an opportunity to pick some of his favorite skull work on etsy and included my skull rug! Check out all the article and works here. I think my favorite is the Skulls ring, it looks like paper doll skulls.

By the way, there is a new book featuring a sampling of some of Noah's 365 skulls titled simply: Skulls. I got my copy and it is a beautiful little book. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes skulls. As someone who checked the Skull-a-Day website more than once daily waiting for the newest skull, it is great to have the book in my hands to browse through many skulls.

I know fall officially starts on September 20, but my brain follows a different kind of calendar. I can tell it is fall because I retired my tent for the season. I lugged out of the car and down to the basement to hibernate there until spring. I did the same with my tables because all of the holiday shows I applied for supply tables. The leaves are probably at peak color and when I take a walk the leaves go "crunch, crunch, crunch" under my feet. Also, I'm drawn to the fall colors and I made this very harvest season-looking rug.

And so, NOW, it is fall. I'll let you know when winter starts according to EKRA when it does. Probably the first day I"m cold, which might be tomorrow!

When I went to the NBC 15 studio to be on the live morning news show, they also filmed some extra footage to run later as part of a series called "Hot Trends." They told me they were going to tell me when it would air, but they must have forgot because tonight, by chance, Aaron and I were watching the 5 o'clock newscast on NBC 15 and they said something like, "Up next, one person's trash is another one's treasure. Just look what this local artist makes with your garbage!" I thought, oh, I wonder who they are going to have on the show tonight. Then I saw my frames as part of the tease! My heart started to race a little bit because I wasn't prepared to see myself on TV. If I had known, I could have worried about it all day! Aaron calmly got up and worked his computer magic to capture the footage easily and it is already up on YouTube. You can see if for yourself here.

Every time fall comes around, I try to come up with some sort of holiday ornament to make for my holiday shows. I've made the skull ornaments, but now that skulls are EVERYWHERE, they seem to have lost their edginess and I'm a bit tired of them. This year I think I might be on to something. Everyone loves my bottlecap magnets and necklaces, so I decided to try them as ornaments.

I found a lot of vintage x-mas cards on e-bay and snatched them up.

Here are the first ones I've completed. Do you like them?

And for all of you who are jealous of my great vintage find, I'm planning on listing the cards that didn't have images I could use in my etsy store. **Update: You can check out the extra cards for sale here.**

Check it! My new bottlecap production method freed up so much time I was actually able to crochet a rug! It feels like I haven't made a new rug in a long time, and my shop is getting empty. I pushed enough stuff out of the way to take a quick picture of this, but I'll have to clean up more to take pictures nice enough to list it in my etsy store. This is crocheted with 4 velour shirts and some scraps of a bedsheet and sweatshirt I had left over from other projects. It looks like a little patch of moss to me.

This is a funny time of year for me. The summer rush is over and things have settled down for the beginning of fall. I know that the holidays are coming and things will be super busy, but right now there is a lull. I know I should be working hard, but, blah, kind of hard to get motivated. My mom reminded me that I promised to mosaic a vase for her to give as a x-mas present, so I lied when I said I was finished with all my custom orders. I got all the glass cut and tumbled and ready to go for that and I can start gluing.

It is supposed to be a nice day for the market tomorrow, so if you are in Madison, come say hello!

Just got word that the Handmade Nation Book written by Faythe Levine and Cortney Heimerl will be going for a THIRD printing next week. I'm not really sure what that means except that they must be selling lots of copies!

The book was also reviewed by Rebecca from the Madison Public Library on the MADreads blog and she gave me a little shout out for being included as one of the featured artists. Read the review here.

Have you seen this yet? The stop-action opening sequence for Handmade Nation is up on YouTube. Pretty amazing work, it took something like 24 hours to film and they did it over a weekend.

Wowee. I'm pleased as punch today! First of all, last night, after thinking about all the feedback I got about my "something's got to give" post, I figured out a way to produce my bottlecap products that cuts production time down so much I can't believe I didn't think of it earlier! Hooray! What is that saying? Necessity is the mother of invention? Well, it was certainly necessary that I find time somewhere, and I did. Yippee! I feel like a weight is lifted off of me.

I'm also pleased that I have my last custom order in the que finished up. A woman brought me her grandmother's broken plate. Her grandma was really upset because it was the last of her wedding china. It wasn't very colorful, but the granddaughter thought that it would really please her grandma to have the plate made into a frame. I think it turned out really nice.

Also pleasing to me is that I have a new bunch of mosaic frames finished. Here's one that made me smile. It is white with red and green, which on first glance looks x-massy, but if you look closely, you'll see that it is fruit and leaves. It reminds me of the wallpaper in my grandma's kitchen that also has fruit on it. And then that reminds me of the time we visited after I saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and I licked the wallpaper to see if it had flavor like the wallpaper in the movie did. It did not.

I was deleting some spam comments from posts here and I accidentally deleted some of your real comments! Sorry!

I met with Meghan, the owner of Absolutely Art, and she picked out tons of new magnets, pins, cards, and necklaces to stock up the store with. She also now has purses there, so if you are looking for EKRA products, head on over there!

Something has been floating around in my head for awhile and today I finally put it into words: Something has to give. I've added many new products over the past year or so, but I haven't really taken many away and I haven't grown any new hands and days haven't gotten longer. So, something has to give. What will it be? I'm pretty sure it is going to be purses. Sad for EKRA purse fans, but kind of good for me because I'll have one less product to stress about keeping in stock. Also, kind of good for me because I never allow myself to buy purses since I make them and carry my own around as advertising. Now I can let myself buy bags!

I just don't know what to say. Actually, it is more than sometimes, it's a lot of times, but I've got some examples today that I just need to share with you via the interweb.

As you probably know, I was on the local morning news here on Friday morning. I knew a lot of people at the market probably saw the show, but I was unprepared for their response. That response was mostly, "Hey, I saw you on TV." No follow up, just a declarative sentence. I don't know what to say to that. If it was "Hey, I saw you on TV and a) you were great or b) I like your work or c) you really stunk or d) I think your stuff is ugly or e) stop breaking all my plates I'm trying to sell on e-bay" I could reply with a) thanks or b) thanks or c) sorry you think that or d) didn't your mom tell you if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all or e) finder's keepers loser's weepers!. But when you leave it at just "I saw you" saying "thanks" doesn't really seem to fit, so all I could come up with was, "Yup! That was me!" which I think is pretty dumb too, but well, sometimes I just don't know what to say.

That was in response to being on TV. However, I get a lot of questions just because I'm a captive audience. "Where's the nearest restroom?" "Where's an ATM?" "Did you know I just got back from Ireland and sang karoke there?" But yesterday's question took the cake, even over the karoke question (which really happened). This woman comes up and tells me that she's never been to the market and she asks me how to walk around it. What? Are you asking me how to walk? I can see that you can walk, because you just walked up to my booth. Are you asking me how to shop? I can see that you can do that too because it is basically the same thing as walking up to a booth, except that you follow that with looking at the wares for sale. I didn't really understand what she was asking me, so I just told her to walk up to the Capitol Square and look around and she'll see what's going on.

I try to be nice and answer questions. You can go to the bathroom in the Vetern's Museum, but be warned, it is kind of creepy because there are war scenes set up with life-sized solider figures. I'm not sure where the closest ATM is. The market ends around 1pm. I don't know where the lady who sells piggybanks/tie-dye t-shirts/devil sticks/dresses for little girls is today. But sometimes the questions are just so ridiculous that I have to share them. Am I a terrible person for making fun? Probably. But I guess the lesson of the story is, be careful what you say to people who write blogs.

I was on the NBC15 Morning Show this morning. It was pretty fun to see the behind the scenes action. You can check out my interview here on You Tube.

Yay! I'm gonna be on TV!!!

Here's the story. Yesterday, while vending at the Willy St Fair, Christine Bellport, the local morning show anchor, came into my booth and loved my bottlecap jewelry. She thought all my various recycled stuff was great and she invited me to come on the show. She purchased a necklace and wore it on the air this morning. You can see for yourself in the online clip where she is doing the "Pet of the Week" segment. Just look in the right hand corner of the screen for the video player and find the 9-22-08 Pet of the Week file. She e-mailed me after the show to tell me lots of viewers e-mailed her about how much they liked it and invited me to come on the show this Friday! Hooray! So, set your alarms, I'm going to be on the NBC 15 Morning Show at 6:40am this Friday. For those of you not in the viewing area, I'll try to get it posted on YouTube so you can see it too.

Busy busy weekend here. There was the first ever Madison Forward Fest, which was a 2-day, several venue music event. Friday night we saw an acoustic set by the Box Social, a great Madison band, and then a semi-solo show by Bob Mould. Luckily they were in the early evening, so I was able to go to bed early and get up early for the Farmer's Market on Saturday morning. The weather for the market was beautiful and I think everyone was out enjoying the last Saturday of Summer. A woman from Milwaukee that owns a shoe store called Sweetkicks fell in love with my bottlecap jewelry and bought a bunch of necklaces and rings from me to sell at her store. After the market, I came home, took a quick nap and went out to see a regular, plugged-in, rock set by the Box Social followed by the Dials, a really rocking Chicago band. Those were also evening shows, so again, home and early to bed to get up early for the Willy St Fair today. Wow! I've never been there for the whole day before. It is kind of crazy at the beginning, there is a parade where everyone dresses up in costumes and there are stilt-walkers and jugglers and a car with a giant bubble machine that blows millions of bubbles all over the street. It was kind of a magical end-of-summer Mardi Gras. I spent the day there with my wares and had a good time with my mom (she came to help out for most of the day) and with customers. I even met a local celebrity who was really excited about my wares and I might get to make a media appearance in the near future. More on that later if it pans out. Now I'm exhausted and resting and getting ready to get back to work restocking tomorrow.

This time the thing that came in threes was disappointment. First, even though I'm confident I made the right decision not to set up at the rainy Renegade, I was still really disappointed that I didn't get to go. I was really looking forward to being there and seeing people I only see at shows and all that other stuff that goes along with being at big shows. I've been down in the dumps about it all week. Second, I didn't win the Indie Fixx Craft-Off. Although I didn't really expect to win, I wanted to! Third, I was up to 599 hearts (people who mark my store as something they want to come back to later) in my etsy store and I was waiting and waiting for 1 more to come and then I was going to post, Hooray! 600 hearts! I was going to continue that post by saying it doesn't mean anything. So, I shouldn't be that disappointed when I lost one of my hearts and I'm down to 598, but I kinda am.

Yeah, so those second 2 disappointments are really really minor. Sometimes I just like to find things to fit the set of 3 rule so I can move on. Today I'm packing up for the market tomorrow and Willy St Fair on Sunday so I'm feeling better. The weather is supposed to be really nice here this weekend so I am hoping things go well!

The Willy Street Fair (Williamson Street for those of you non-Madisonians) is this coming weekend. I'm going to be vending at it for the first time this year! The last couple of years it was on the same weekend as Renegade in Chicago. Luckily, this year they are a week apart. So, come find me near 1018 Willy St on Sunday, September 21 from 11am-7pm. There will be lots of food, music, crafts, and even a parade!

I didn't make it down to downtown Chicago to set up at Renegade this weekend. It rained the entire day, the news reported 6-7 inches at different points in the city suburbs. Also, there were flash flood warnings and advisories to stay off the roads. I thought most everyone would stay home, but reports from friends who were there said about 90% of the vendors did show up and that there were shoppers there. We were pretty much trapped in our hotel room all day long. We tried to go to a thrift store about 6 miles away from the hotel, but were only able to drive about 1/2 a mile before we had to turn around due to flooded roads.
We decided to stay the day and see how the weather would be the second day. News of Ike making it's way through Chicago with all day rain again along with 20-30 mile an hour winds made the decision to come home pretty easy. We got up and home early to try and get as far away from Ike as possible. It rained like crazy the whole way home.
Props to the die hards who went and set up. I'm not upset that I didn't set up, I would have gone crazy trying to deal with that rain all day long, my tent canopy collects water and leaks. I just hope that the organizers aren't disappointed in me.

Alright alright alright! It's on. I just got an e-mail from the Renegade organizer saying that the show is on, rain or shine. I have to admit, I spent most of yesterday moping around and complaining that it wasn't fair. And then I would feel guilty for feeling sorry for myself when the people on the gulf coast are in serious danger from Ike, where as I will be just inconvenienced a bit.

My brain has been on overdrive, trying to remember all the lessons I learned from Renegade in Brooklyn. Also, trying to think of ways that I can make my tent as rain proof as possible. It took quite a beating in Brooklyn! One thing I learned is that I'm not very good at communicating what I want Aaron to help me with while I'm super stressed. Sometimes that is because I freeze in stressful situations and just can't think of a single thing to do. Also, I stress out when I can't know what is going to happen. It is just a whole big cycle of control issues/OCD/anxiety that tumbles out of control.

I'm expecting it to be raining when we go to set up on Saturday morning. So, today I tried something new with my tent. I dug all four tent walls out of the basement and hooked them up and zipped them together. I've always been very anti-wall because I like to hang my rugs up and they attract a lot of attention. Then when rain comes we try to slap up a wall really quickly and it doesn't really help much. The walls are actually very nice and zip together, making a nice little shelter. I put the walls on and then folded up the tent and shoved it in the car. I practiced opening and closing it with the walls on in the front yard. It wasn't easy, but I think it will be easier on concrete and with another person. Easier than standing in the rain trying to figure out how to get all the walls on and zipped up. I'm so glad I thought of doing this.

The car is all packed up and ready to go. Well, the craft stuff is packed, I still need to pack up my clothes and stuff. Hopefully Aaron and I can find a space to shove in our personal items. We are supposed to set up at 8:30 Saturday morning, so we are heading down tonight so we can be well rested for the long days ahead.

Hope to see you there!

I'll be at the Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago, so come on down and check it out.

Cross your fingers that the weather cooperates. Right now the forecast is calling for rain and thunderstorms all day on Saturday. Yikes, what is it with rain and Renegade?

Hey, check it out! My rugs have been featured on Great Green Goods, a shopping blog that features recycled products. While you are there, take a look at all the other great stuff they have to show off. I think these purses are particularly amazing.

and I approve this message!

My rug won the primaries, so vote for my Cupcake Rug (#6) in the Indie Fixx Craft-Off!

By voting for my Cupcake Rug, you will help decrease our dependency on foreign oil, promote a greener world, and keep jobs in America! Stand up! Yes we can!

(Can you tell I've been hearing just a bit too much campaigning?)

It's the first rainy day here in a really long time. The weatherman says it is the remnants of Gustav making it's way north. The storm hardly has anything left in it, thankfully. Just a lot of slow and steady rain, all day long. The perfect day to call in sick and lay in bed with the cats all day and listen to the rain. But I can't, my boss would totally know I wasn't sick!

Not much new here. Seems like the last few days have just been a cycle of get up, work on magnets, work on frames, work on rugs, post on etsy, and go to bed, with breaks in there for eating. Yesterday I took a trip to the Dig and Save because I needed yellow and pink fabric for cupcake rug frosting. I was able to find what I needed (and left what I didn't need there - hooray for me!). I headed to the back to check out the glassware and that section was closed off. Someone said they were going to open it in a minute so I hung around. When they did open it, it was a mad rush to get to the new table of "miscellaneous" (ie. random crap). The glass table was behind that and I got trapped in a sea of rude people literally throwing the "micellaneous" stuff around, not looking where it was landing, and I almost got hit by a game board. I pulled out my sternest voice and asked people to excuse me please. One old lady actually gave me a dirty look and said that even if she moved, I still wouldn't be able to get out. I just looked at her, jaw-dropped, and she finally got the heck out of my way and once I was past her, I was able to get out just fine. I didn't find anything in the glass section, so I headed over to the less busy miscellaneous tables to dig for cards. Ever since I started making the bottlecap necklaces, I'm addicted to vintage playing cards. Sometimes, if you dig down to the very bottom of the bin, you can find some really good ones. Also, old cards from games make good magnets. I found some monopoly cards, a few playing cards, some cool cards from a game about the stock market, and some advertising cards with really colorful frogs and fish and lizards on them. So, despite the rudeness, it was a good trip. And I got out of there with only spending $10. Usually I spend at least $20. With the money I saved, I bought two vintage decks of cards on ebay. Physical digging can be fun, but online digging is so much easier!

Back to my schedule of frames, magnets, and rugs.....

Well, let me rephrase that. I love to WIN! And you can't win unless you enter.

Indie Fixx, an indie craft blog, is celebrating it's 2 year anniversary with a Craft-off contest. The rules are simple, craft something and incorporate the number two in some way. Instantly, this idea popped into my head, a birthday cupcake with two candles!

To enter the contest yourself, check out the rules here. Hurry up, the entries are due by September 6! Entries are uploaded to a Flickr group, you can see the projects entered so far here.

I should be crocheting, but it is hot and I don't feel like it. So, I'm adding stuff to my etsy store. Here is a set of magnets I just added that I made from those Harlequin romance novels I told you about. Sweet, huh? Check them out here for close-ups of each couple. But don't stare, it's rude!

I know what you are probably thinking. "Emily, you make stuff everyday!" Yeah, I know, but I don't usually make things to display stuff on. Today I made this display for my bottlecap necklaces.

I have another display that I can lay about 10 necklaces on, but people are always asking me if I have more and then I have to show them to them in my carrying case which isn't very easy. Now I have this thing too and more can be displayed.

I was browsing around the internet to see what I could buy to display them on and I ran across some tutorials on how to make your own. I kind of took a bunch of ideas and put them together to make this. I had a wooden frame that I covered with some black velour from a skirt that was waiting to be cut up into a rug. Then I pushed some thumbtacks in to be little hangers for the necklaces. It is lightweight and flat and I didn't have to buy anything to make it. Aaron and I are t-minus about one year until we move to someplace new (it depends on what university Aaron gets a job at). I'm trying to think about what I bring into the house and trying to use up what I have - something I should do all the time, but don't. With the move on the horizon, I can try and work on that mentality. Anyways, I'll be taking this new display to the market on Saturday to test it out.

Monday morning I poured some resin to make magnets and necklaces and left to run errands before they were ready to be on their own. I came back to find lots of bubbles and therefore, lots of time and resources wasted. Grrrrr..... Today I poured resin again and sat and sat and sat with them, so hopefully they all turn out perfect.

I added some bottlecap necklaces to my etsy store tonight. Here's a nice tiger one.

Wowee. Can you believe it? I finally updated the "New Products Now Available" section over there on the right. Some of those items previously pictured hadn't been available for some time! I'll be adding more in the next few days, I've been crocheting up a storm since we got back from the UP. I have 4 kitty rugs that I need to sew ears and tails down on. Good thing too since I sold 2 kitty rugs and my only squid rug at the market yesterday!

I didn't do a whole lot of crafting this week because Aaron and I drove up to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to visit Aaron's dad. We had a great time and got to go sailing on Aaron's dad's boat Presto. Of course, I had to hit all the local thrift stores up there. I found a few things, but the best find of the trip was from a used book store. They were clearing out their romance section and selling these cheesy paperbacks 24 for $1. I bought 24 to make magnets out of the lovey-dovey couples. Now that I have them home, I wish I had bought more.

Now it is time to really ramp up production to get ready for Renegade.

Aaron designed this beautiful card for me. I'm so excited to have a two-sided card with images of my work on it. I think it will really help people remember what they saw at my booth.

In other news, I'm super excited that I was able to buy a spot in the Etsy cooperative ad that will be in the November issue of CRAFT: magazine!

This year for Renegade Chicago, I bought access to an electrical hook-up to light up my stuff after dark (the show goes until 10pm). I'm starting to think about how I'm going to do that. X-mas lights? Table lamps? I'm not sure. Naomi used a hanging lamp in the center of her tent last year and I think I'd like to do that too. Any ideas out there?

In other news, I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the stuff that needs to get made. I sold my last cupcake rug at the market last weekend and I want to have a bunch at Renegade. I'm really low on bottlecap magnets, so I set up a second pouring station in the basement. And next week we are heading up to the UP to visit Aaron's dad for a few days. So much to do and very little interest in any of it. All I really want to do it break glass.

This past Saturday, a woman came up to my booth at the Farmer's Market and asked if she could buy some of my bottlecap necklaces at a wholesale rate to sell in her store, Bangles and Bags. Of course I said yes! If you are in Waukesha, go check out her store on S. Hampton Dr.

Madison is getting a little messy with couches and dressers and piles of stuff on the curb. You can tell it is almost Moving Day. For those of you who don't know, almost every single apartment lease in town runs out on August 14. The new leases start August 15. This is affectionately (and aptly) called Moving Day, but I think it is a major pain in the butt. For one thing, almost everyone and all their wordly possessions are homeless for a night. Another pain is that on Aug 14-15 the streets are clogged up with trailers and moving trucks double parked and pretty much make it impossible to get around town that day. But, ridiculous or not, it happens every year.

For a recycling artist, it can be pretty overwhelming. I can't drive past a pile of garbage without scanning it for treasures. Today I took a walk and claimed my first moving day treasures (for me, Moving Day stretches from about Aug 1 - Aug 20, with the biggest days for garbage picking being Aug 14-15). I found all this in one little neat pile of unwanteds on the curb. These great vintage kid's books, two Babar books and one in German:

I also found this nice big red tray which is magnetic, and some more books that were in pristine condition so I grabbed those to take on one of our trips to Half Price Books to sell to them. And 4 spoons. I never seem to have enough spoons, so those came with me too.

Yesterday my mom came to visit and we took a trip to the Dig and Save. I got a lot of brown because I want to have cupcake rugs for Renegade, and right now I only have one. I spent last night washing it all and cutting it apart. I was able to find some big pieces, but mostly it is pants and some t-shirts. Tonight I'm going to cut it up into yarn.

Looks like the weather for the Farmer's Market is going to be really nice, so if you are in Madison, come out and say 'hi!'

The weather here in Madison is HOT! And as Wisconsinites like to say, It's not the heat, it's the humidity. So true! Yesterday when I was cutting up plates in my craft room, sweat was dripping off my forehead. It isn't that strenuous of work to cut up plates, it is just so humid and hot here. Before Mexico, I cut up three x-mas themed cups to cover this frame thinking that it might help me to cool off to think about the cool winter weather. It didn't. I glued the tiles to the frame today hoping that it might work this time. It didn't. Maybe tomorrow when I grout it I can think myself cooler, or hopefully this heat wave will break.

Today Aaron and I had some errands to run on the west side of town and that meant a stop at Savers! I haven't been to Savers on a Monday (when there are 99 cent tags) in a long time. However, since I don't get over there that often, I didn't limit myself to only 99 cent items. They had a ton of plates and I pretty much cleaned them out. Fun! I came home and started cutting them up. As I was doing it, I kept thinking, I should stop and take a picture of these so I can blog about it. But I couldn't stop, I was too manic with all my new plates to break. So, instead, here is a look at my craft room table with a bunch of frames in progress. They have the tiles cut and are ready to be glued. Nothing is as fun as breaking plates, so I tend to get carried away with that step of mosiacking.

Here are two patterns that didn't get all broken up.

And here are some bottlecaps curing. Since I started making bottlecap necklaces and rings, I never seem to have enough. I spend a lot of time gluing little pictures into bottlecaps. But they sure are cute!

I don't browse the treasuries on etsy, so I never even know if someone has chosen something of mine to include in theirs. Except if they tell me, like this curator did! I think this is the best treasury I've seen in a long time, but I love kitties! Maybe it will make it to the front page! Check out the whole thing for yourself here.

I'm back from Mexico! The week was filled with lots of eating and drinking and hanging out at the beach and pool. And I didn't bring a single craft project! It was a great trip and I'm rested and ready to get back to work.

Today I spent most of the day catching up on correspondence and blog reading. Something really cool came in the mail - Faythe Levine, the director of Handmade Nation, sent me a copy of an article that was in the LA Times about an art auction held there to raise funds for post production of the movie. The article featured a nice big picture of my bottlecap magnets!

Not me, just a bunch of stuff needs to go! Leaky ceilings has ruined some of my supplies, so I'm going through and seeing what's good and what needs to go. Some of it needs to be thrown in the garbage, which breaks my heart because I brought it to my house to use so it wouldn't end up in the landfill. Other stuff is just stuff that has accumulated that I don't use anymore and I need to get rid of to reduce the clutter in the craft room. Most of this is going to a thrift store, but these cards are so cute I put them up in my etsy store for someone else to craft.

Time to get back to purging!

At least that's the way I feel. Various fun outings and other daily dramas have been keeping me away, but I'm here just to tell you that I'm still here.

Saturday I met up with Lisa and her husband Mark for lunch and got talked into going to Art Fair on (and off) the Square. I didn't want to go for a few reasons. First, I get a little ticked off that this art fair happens and then the Farmer's market (and therefore craft selling) cannot happen. Maybe I should be grateful for a day off, but well, I can never be pleased, so there you go. Second, I get anxious and annoyed in big crowds when people are bumping me and there are big strollers in my way. Somehow, Lisa was able to convince me that I should really go anyways. I'm glad I did. I saw a lot of really cool artwork. My favorite thing to check out were the mosaic artists. I love how one type of a craft can be done is so many different artistic styles. One artist took tiny tiny shards of stained glass to create huge murals with tons of detail. One artist made her own tiles that were very mod. I even saw one mosaic with watches and pocket watches worked in. It was super cool.

And now back to the daily drama, which is some boring stuff about leaky ceilings, so I won't bore you with the details. Hopefully I'll be back with some pictures of some new stuff soon.

Alright! Just got word that I'll be at this year's 6th Annual Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago! Mark your calendars for Sept 13-14 for one of the best craft shows in the country!

Today I got a lot of work done. I grouted 10 frames and the 4 pots for the wedding party. I poured bottlecap magnets. I set up an appointment to meet with the owner of Absolutely Art so she can buy more magnets and pins for her store. I cut glass for new frames. Woowee. I had to go to the bank, and even though it was no where on my way, I stopped at the Willy St St. Vinnie's. It was a good trip, I found 5 frames, a dictionary, and a few books to make magnets with. A good day all around. I did have some minor issues with the camera though. I was going to list a new-to-you rug in my etsy store, but all the photos turned out really blurry. I'm going to blame it on the fact that the batteries were almost dead. However, I did get some decent pictures of this vintage owl necklace that recently came into my possession and I listed it in my etsy store, so all you owl lovers, check it out.

Tomorrow I'll show you the pots I made!

A certain loyal reader has informed me that I have not updated my blog since Friday. There is good reason for that, I've been busy, the kind of busy where you are away from the computer. Saturday was the Craftacular at the High Noon Saloon. It was a great show, Naomi did a great job planning it. Hopefully she didn't curse me the whole time she was doing it (I used to be a co-organizer and now she's a solo organizer). I came home, took a nap, and then Aaron and I went to see a Milwaukee band playing at the High Noon, Testa Rosa. It was a good show, but a lot of time at the High Noon for one day.

I got up early and made a birthday cake for Aaron. Cleaned up the house for his birthday party. Then I sat in the yard with my wares for Art Walk. It was a pretty good turnout for Art Walk, but not as good as last year. I think it was because the weather was gloomy and it looked like rain and also one of the main streets in our neighborhood is completely shut down for construction. It makes getting around a bit difficult. Anyways, got my stuff packed up and started Aaron's birthday party - a cookout and Rock Band playing. That was all very fun.

Then, Monday morning I got up early to drive to Racine to go to my great-uncle's funeral. I was super tired from the long weekend and funerals in general are just exhausting. So, I got home, and went to bed and got up just in time to go to the bar to play Trivia.

And I don't have any pictures of any of it!

I have a long list of things to do including making pins and cards and working on picture frames. But all I really want to do is crochet rugs and read my book. I wonder if my boss will give me the rest of the day off...

This Saturday I'll be at the High Noon Craftacular at the High Noon Saloon (701 E. Washington Ave, Madison, WI) which runs from 10am-4pm. Set your alarms and get there early because the first 50 people get a sweet goody bag filled with all sorts of great stuff from indie designers. In the past, I have been a co-organizer of this event. This is the first time in a long time that I'll be able to just show up and sell my stuff without having to worry about coordinating everyone else. It is such a relief! Also, I'm looking forward to an indoor show, I can take a week off from the elements.

Hope to see you there!

I was surprised at how sad I was that I had to throw away one of my suitcases that I carry rugs around in. I knew I'd have to get rid of it, since when Aaron lifted it up off the pool floor at Renegade, dirty, green-stained water came rushing out the sides of it - and that was before he even opened it. This morning it had some kind of fuzzy stuff growing on it, so it was time to put it in the dumpster. Even though I only paid $1 for it, it was a good suitcase. I've lugged it around with me and beat the crap out of it for the last 3 years. Also, it had lots of great stickers from shows that Aaron and I have gone to and crafty folks I've met. I tried to pull them off, but they were water-logged and weren't sticky anymore. I try hard not to get attached to things, since I'm selling the things I make all the time I can't get attached to them. The last time I was so sad to get rid of something was when we got our new car and I had to trade in my Jetta. My parents gave me that car at a really difficult time in my life and it represented freedom to me. I guess this suitcase was a little representation of my success and good (and bad) times I've had during my crafting career. But, Aaron reminds me that the memories don't live in the object. So, RIP green suitcase, you were a good carrier of stuff. (Do you think there is anyone else in the world that could get so dramatic about a suitcase, I mean, come on EKRA, pull it together!)

So, anyways, I had to go looking for a replacement so I can lug my rugs to the market this weekend. Rule number 1 of thrifting: If you go looking for a particular thing, chances are you aren't going to find it. I started out a the Willy St. St. Vinnie's since it is closest, but they only had crappy soft suitcases that started at $5. But while I was there I found this huge bag of yarn for $6.50. I don't even need yarn right now, but I know that if I wait until I do, I won't be able to find any (see Rule Number 1 of thrifting).

So, I headed over to the Dig and Save and got a nice blue suitcase. It is sitting outside right now in the sun to air out.

Also, I already showed you this rug, but today I listed it in my etsy store. I'm trying to add more stuff because I sold a few rugs that were in there at Renegade and it is getting a bit sparse.

Aaron and I are back from Brooklyn. It is so good to be home! Our trip to Renegade was "character building."

The drive out was pretty long, but uneventful which was good. We drove to State College, PA the first day and to Brooklyn the second day. We were up bright and early Saturday morning and here is Aaron waiting outside McCarren Pool Park with the stuff.

The fair was held in McCarren Pool Park, which is actually an old pool that has been out of commission for awhile. I've heard from Brooklyn-folk that the city is trying to revitalize the park and are encouraging events to take place there. There was a big stage set up and I guess they have pretty good concerts there. The good thing about the old pool is that it is big and open with lots of space for craft vendors. The bad part about it is that it still holds water pretty well - more on that later.

While we were waiting I got to chat with some craft people I only get to see at shows, so that was really fun. I got in and here I am almost finished setting up my booth.

The show opened and shoppers shopped despite the incredible heat and humidity.

Here's where there is a gap in my photo-story. The show was scheduled for 11am-7pm. Around 3pm, it started to look a little dark on the horizon and like maybe it might rain. Around 3:30 I started to hear thunder and see lighting, but no one was going anywhere, so we stayed put. There was a little rain, but people were still shopping so we and all the other vendors stayed. Then at about 4pm, it started to pour. Hard, torrential rains. I was on the "deep" end of the pool (it was only 3 feet deep when it was a real pool), but there was enough of a slope that the rain was running down and pooling on the end I was on. Everything was soaked, I was packing up wet rugs into wet suitcases. Aaron and I splashed through 5 inches of standing water to get all my stuff out of the pool and back to the car. We were completely drenched from head to toe. We left all the display stuff, the tables and tent and chairs. At that point we were thinking that we would come back in the morning, get the tent, and go home. We went back to the hotel, I wiped off each individual magnet, pin, and necklace so they wouldn't rust and we drowned our sorrows in a lot of vodka. The next morning, the news promised a "perfect" day. We headed back to the pool to see how the tent had fared. This isn't my tent, but it is what mine looked like. Pools of water collected in the canopy and dripping through.

Other tents did not stand up to the weather as well as mine did.

Aaron asked what I wanted to do: pack it up and go home or give it another go. I put on my game face and set up again.

Everyone was pretty somber setting up the second morning. The weather was dreary and everything was soaked. I talked to some print makers that had lost hundreds of dollars in merchandise in the rain. I talked to some silk-screeners who spent the evening at a laundromat drying all their t-shirts.

I left the wettest of the wet rugs in the car and set up best I could. The weather people were wrong, it did rain a little bit, but nothing like the day before. But shoppers came anyways and it turned out to be a pretty good day.

That's how Renegade in Brooklyn went. We called it a biz-cation because it was a kind of fun road trip, but with nothing but business instead of relaxing while actually at our destination.

Thanks to everyone who posted well wishes here and e-mailed me good luck! But the most thanks goes to Aaron. Without getting too gushy, he's the bestest ever, he drove almost the whole way, lugged my stuff around, kept me calm and is in general just the best BFF and husband a girl could ever hope for.

We leave for Brooklyn on Thursday morning, so just a few days left! I'm finally over my anxiety and now I'm excited!

We had a crazy weekend here. Friday afternoon we drove with some friends down to Chicago to see R.E.M. at the United Center. It was a long drive and we got stuck in traffic, but I was so surprised that the show was so awesome. I was a huge nerdy R.E.M. fan in high school and saw them on the Monster tour in 1995 (13 years ago!!!) I haven't really liked their stuff from the past 10 years, but Aaron had never seen them, so we went. I was expecting them to play mostly just the new album. They opened with one but then dove right into two songs from Life's Rich Pageant (released in 1987). It was really wonderful. We got in the car to come home, almost ran out of gas in downtown Chicago, and finally made it home at about 2:30. I climbed into bed and set the alarm for 6 to get up for the market. The market was super hot and I was sweating and gross, but I sold lots of stuff including two kitty rugs. Came home, took a nap and then went to a Geekfest Birthday party. It was a party with board games, computer games, and lots of junk food. I ate chips and smores and all sorts of other crap I shouldn't have, but I was too tired to listen to my conscience. Oh well. I'm back on track now.

Anyways, it's almost time to leave. I'm working on replacing the kitty rugs I sold this weekend and I did one final resin pour to make bottlecap necklaces. Other than that, there isn't much I can do except pack and be excited!

I've been having fun making bottlecap necklaces and I've noticed that ones that I've made with vintage playing cards are selling really well. I wanted to get some more to add some variety so I went in search of some on ebay. I started out by checking out my options and marking the ones that I wanted to keep an eye on. It was Saturday night and Aaron and I were having a few drinks. I should have known mixing alcohol and ebay was a bad idea, but bidding was so much easier after a few drinks. I started getting mad because I kept losing auctions at the last second. But I finally ended up with a lot of 20 decks of cards. I knew most of them were no good for magnets or jewelry, but some were really great. These are two decks of kids games that I had high hopes for, but ended up not liking when I saw them in person. They are really cool so I put them up for sale in my etsy store where someone who makes collages or cards might like to buy them. I'll show off some of the good cards I found and the stuff I made from them soon.

I had a crazy week last week. I had myself worked up into such a tizzy about Renegade that I had pretty much a week long panic attack. From Monday to Wednesday my heart was racing and my teeth were grinding. By Thursday, my body had had enough. The pain in my jaw from grinding and clenching my teeth extended all the way up into my ear and was unbearable. I had to knock myself out with some pain pills and sleep the whole day. It was all a ridiculous situation.

Yesterday had beautiful sunshine for the market, however, the wind was treacherous. Several vendors had their displays knocked over and almost everyone was hanging on to their tents. Makes for an extra tiring market. But, Lisa and Mark came to the market and it was wonderful to see them for a little bit. And Aaron bought me some flowers. And I came home and relaxed with a couple of drinks, tacos for dinner, and went out to a rock show. Also, I crocheted a rug which I haven't done in what seems like forever! I've been making magnets and frames like crazy thinking that they are smaller and I can fit more in the car to truck out to Brooklyn.

So here's to a saner week this week!

The weather on Saturday was absolutely beautiful for the market. I have an application for a show that requires a booth photo, so I finally remembered to bring the camera to snap a few pictures of my set-up.

Looking at these photos is kind of weird, I usually see my booth from behind my table, not from the front like the customers do. Looks a lot different from this vantage point!

I'm feeling sort of nostalgic today. People sometimes ask how long I've been selling my stuff. Actually, this month marks the 4th birthday of EKRA. I'm so happy I decided to change my career path. For those of you who don't know, I was on the training track to go work for a big pharmaceutical company like Pfizer. I couldn't have done it without the support of my friends and family, I'm so grateful for them! Sending out big blog Thanks to all of you EKRA fans!

You might remember that before I went to New Orleans, I was complaining about there being a lack of plates for sale for me to break up for my mosaics. Well, I hit the jackpot in New Orleans! Aaron and I had planned to spend an afternoon driving around the 'burbs going to thrift stores. I had done some research to find the locations of some, but it was outdated and many of the stores had closed or moved. We managed to find one that just happened to be newly opened, called Red White and Blue Thrift Store. I was excited because it looked really big from the outside. Inside it was packed with people. Probably because everything was 50% except for one color of tags. I decided to not take a cart because it was so crowded and I didn't know where anything was yet. I browsed the linens and found a few pretty sheets. Then I found the housewares section and couldn't believe my eyes. A whole wall of plates! Stacks and stacks and stacks. All priced for the entire set that was there and almost all of them 50% off! I ran back to the front to get a cart and started piling the plates into my cart. Total jackpot! It made me happy that we drove there and didn't fly, because then I would have had to leave those precious plates there for someone else. I wanted to take a picture of all of my loot to show you, but I wasn't able to practice enough will power to not start breaking them right away. So I'll just show you the patterns instead.

Pretty purple flowers.

Orangy brick-like pattern.

My favorite! It's called Golden Meadow and I've only ever seen one little bowl of it here. I got 8 dinner plates and 5 little bowls of it. I think it is so pretty and it is making really pretty tiles for frames.

We are home from New Orleans! It was a very nice trip, but very tiring - mostly due to the driving there and back. I didn't even drive all that much, but the trip home wiped me out. While we were there we ate po-boys and beignets, shopped in the French Quarter, drank in the French Quarter and even hit a few thrift stores.

I came home to a few consignment checks, a box of 2000 bottlecaps I bought on ebay, a wholesale order for bottlecap magnets, and a reminder that Renegade Brooklyn is just 3 weeks away. So I'm back to work!

I was catching up on my blog reading and came across this interview of the Paper Boat Boutique owners, Faythe and Kim. I was happy to see them getting some blog love and surprised to see that I got a mention as one of their top three sellers at the store! Wowee! Read the whole interview for yourself here.

Wowee. Bottlecap magnets have been selling like hotcakes! Since I've added bottlecap necklaces and now, bottlecap rings to my line, I need more books than ever! I feel like my stock is dwindling and since Renegade will be here before I know it, I went on a hunt for books and more books yesterday. I made a pretty good haul.

Here's one of my new bottlecap rings. They are glued onto adjustable silver-plated rings, so hopefully they'll fit most people and won't turn fingers green.

And with that, I'm signing off for a few days. Aaron and I are heading to New Orleans for the rest of the week. He has a conference there and I'm tagging along for some NOLA fun. We are driving, so I packed up tons of yarn and rattles to make cat toys in the car. I probably packed more craft supplies than clothes!

Anthology, the new craft and paper store on State St where I sell my wares, has been selling lots of stuff for me. It's great, but now that Renegade is on the horizon, I get stressed about how much I should ship off to stores and how much to keep to sell myself at the market and shows. Sometimes I feel like the less I have at home, the harder I work, so today I sealed and labeled some frames I grouted last week and picked out a few to take down to Anthology. Here are a few that stayed home with me.

Right next door to Anthology is Epoch, a vintage and vintage revamp clothing store. I wanted to check it out and I found the most adorable sweater ever. It is a pink wool cardigan with two kitties from vintage tea towels appliqued on. It was a total splurge and totally unnecessary thing to buy now in May when wool isn't the best fabric to wear. Oh well, one last happy birthday to me!

Today is my 31st birthday. It feels a lot like 30 which felt like 29 and so on. I had birthday drinks with friends on Saturday night and birthday lunch with my family on Sunday so by today, on my birthday, I was pretty much all birthday-ed out. But Aaron and I went to a birthday dinner at an Indian restaurant just to wrap it all up.

I got tons of presents! I got two kitties from wholelottalisa's etsy store, a needle-felted daisy from poorlulu, a handtruck, some soap with a kitty on it, a gift certificate for orangyporangy skirts, a fancy bottle of vodka that's made in Milwaukee, and about 30 balls of fabric all cut up and rolled up and ready to crochet. Thanks everyone for the presents, I love everything!

Now I'm all about crafting for Renegade in Brooklyn. Gotta get tons of stuff made to make it worth the long long drive out there.

I had an errand to run that was sort of close to the Dig and Save today, so I stopped in to see if they had finally gotten anymore glassware. You know what was there? A whole lot of nothing. I'm so frustrated, that was my third trip where I've been disappointed with the glass! I went to check out and I asked the checkout girl if they hadn't been getting much glassware donations. You know what she said? She said they had tons and tons and tons glassware, but they just didn't have time or space to get it out on the floor. She said they have been getting tons and tons of donations lately, maybe due to spring cleaning, and that I didn't even want to see their warehouse. I do! I do want to see their warehouse. I want at that glassware! I need plates and they are keeping them from me!

I spend a lot of time packing and unpacking my wares into totes and suitcases. Pack them up to take them to shows, unpack them to sell, pack up what didn't sell, then repack to replace inventory that has sold. One of the things I needed to pack was cat toys. I got out my tub-o-cat toys to pack some for the market and some for a wholesale order and Ezra checked them out to make sure they were top quality.

This week I made two more purses for my "big bag" line. The first one is crocheted from a red and white vintage fabric remnant.

This one was crocheted from blue velour pants.

Now I'm all packed up for the market on Saturday, hope to see you there!

I don't know if it is spring fever or what, but I'm feeling slightly unmotivated. I was in need of some books for magnets, fresh air and exercise, so I walked over to the St. Vinnie's on Willy St.

I had my ipod with me and started with Franz Ferdinand, but it just wasn't cutting it. Only Frank Black would do, rocking - sometimes angry, sometimes lovely, and sometimes just weird.

When I got there, they were having a skirt sale. Buy one get one free. Great! Just last night I was saying to Aaron that I needed some new clothes. I tried on about 20, and ended up with 2 that are okay. I'm spoiled by orangyporangy, no one makes skirts that fit as nicely as hers do.

I also got a frame to mosaic and a couple of books to cut up for magnets. I was a little disappointed because I wanted to look at the paperback kids books, but the whole time I was there, some dude was camped out in front of them and going through them. I couldn't get to them Just one of the many obstacles of shopping in a thrift store.

Hi everyone! I'm back from St. Paul where the Craftstravaganza was this weekend. Let me tell you, it was a rough weekend.

First of all, I got pulled over for the first time and got a speeding ticket. Yikes! I had no idea they charged so much for speeding! (Well, getting caught for speeding.) Second, the hotel we stayed at was horrible. I think I have a pretty high tolerance crappy hotels since I've stayed in many over my life - and this is not meant to be offensive to my parents who took me to many of them, but hello mom and dad, the Sunny Side Inn in NJ? the Key Wester in FL? The Super 8 we stayed at was a real dump and I didn't mind since I didn't pay much and it wasn't a vacation, just a place to sleep on a business trip. But the walls were so thin that every time the person in the room above us moved, I could hear a creak and it kept me up a lot of the night before the show. Third, when I got to the show, my table that I had set up the night before was by the door and full of snow! I was totally unprepared to be in an unheated building with the temperature being 35-40 degrees all day and I froze. Everyone froze. The customers, the vendors, the crafts. It was the kind of cold where you start to hurt because your muscles are contracting to try and stay warm and then just cramp up. So, yikes. It was a really rough weekend.

But, a lot of good things happened too. First good thing that happened was while I was just letting the first tears run down my cheeks at seeing my table full of snow and realizing I'd have to stand there with just a sweater and fleece jacket all day, the organizers of the show came and moved me to a more sheltered spot! Also, I found it in myself to stay positive all day long and be nice and sell lots of stuff even though I was miserable. In fact, I sold just as much as I did last year when the weather was 75 degrees and it was beautiful. I was really thankful that the customers put up with the cold to shop at the show - I can't say I would have been able to do it. Also, the organizers did an incredible job promoting the show since there were people there all day long despite the horrible weather conditions. And, I made contact with another consignment store at the show and sent them back to their store with some EKRA products to sell for me.

So, all in all, a pretty character building weekend for EKRA.

Want to win some super awesome stuff made by Kim of Persimmons? Check out her blog post about her latest giveway!

In non-contest news, I spent the day waiting for the carpenter to come and put a new door on our basement entry (only because when the storm window man came, he busted it). The door was put in and then I waited for the painters to come and paint the door (why they couldn't paint the door before they put it on, I don't know). Anyways, they didn't show up, so that means I'll spend tomorrow waiting for them too. I know I work from home, but it is really annoying to have to wait for someone to come over because I didn't want to get to involved in something that I couldn't walk away from. Grrrr, the joys of renting.

The first Farmer's Market was this past Saturday and it was GREAT! The weatherman said it was going to rain, but he was wrong! It was nice all day and the sun even came out for awhile. It was really nice to be back on State Street with the other vendors and see all the hustle and bustle that is the Farmer's Market.

Meanwhile, back in the craft room, mosaic frame production had pretty much come to a stand still. There were tons that were grouted, but needed to be sealed and labeled and priced. It was really getting me down because I was dreading doing it. Finally, this afternoon I sat down and finished all those frames and got them packed up to take to the Craftstravaganza this Saturday. Here's a picture of the big mess I made cleaning up all those frames.

A couple of weeks ago, we got a PS3 and Rock Band. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, it is a video game where you can sing, play guitar, and play the drums to rock songs. It is really super awesome. Even more fun when friends come over to play it. Aaron and I are definitely the most popular kids in school now because of this new game.

Here are the drums:

Anywho, the drumming is really loud. We saw these drum cozies on sale at etsy by FunkieFresh. They look really well made and are crocheted and match the color scheme of the drums perfectly. We wanted to have something similar for our drums. I really just wanted to buy hers, but it was hard to justify $40 for them considering my crafty skills.

We headed out to Jo-ann's and bought a quarter yard of red, yellow, blue, and green fleece and some black ribbon. That was the easy part. I made several blunders along the way. My plan was to make a template, cut out two circles of fleece and sew them together with the ribbon in between them. First mistake I made was that I did the math wrong and I ran out of ribbon before they were all finished. Luckily there was lots extra on the ones I made, so at the end when we tied them to the drums, I cut off the extra and used that.

So, the first one was on and I realized it hardly dampened the sound at all. I was so disappointed! I had worked so hard, even pulled out the sewing machine and fought with it to make them! There was more fleece, so I cut out 3 more circles (I wanted 4 more, but they wouldn't fit under the sewing machine's foot) and added them to the pile. Success!

Here they are tied on to the drums

Look! They work!!!

Check out my Singing the Blues Crochet Rug that is featured today on Haute Innovations - Fresh and Innovative Independent Artisans Showcase blog here!

One of my friends has a small dog, I forget what kind he is, but he is small and cute and his name is Barkley (as in Charles, not Sesame Street). Anyways, I asked her if Barkley would like to play with my Catnip Rattlers, and he loves them! Look how cute he is!

Hey! Check out this week's Isthmus! There's a Green Design issue of Abode in it and my rugs are featured in it!

Martha Stewart is holding a "Cutest Cupcake" contest on her website. I read through the requirements and they said that it had to be your own creation and picture of a cupcake you decorated. So, even though all the pictures I browsed through were the more traditional, edible cupcakes, I entered my Cupcake Rug.

I figure one of two things could happen. The first scenario is that the people at Martha are completely wowed by my creative thinking and take on the contest and decide that this is an amazing creation that absolutely must be featured on the Martha show and I'll be super amazingly famous. The second, and far more likely, scenario is that nothing happens.

You can enter your own cupcake or browse through all the photos here. If you want to enter, hurry up because today is the last day!

Are you crafty? Apply for the High Noon Craftacular! It will be Saturday June 28 from 10am-4pm at the High Noon Saloon in Madison, WI. You can see how to apply here.

Remember a while ago I was talking about making a new banner for my tent? Well, I haven't made a tent banner yet, but I did spend a lot of time fixing up the table banner I made 3 years ago (wow, I was thinking it was 2 years old, but now I realize it is actually 3). I made with iron-on fabric glue and a lot of the letters were starting to peel off. So, instead of making a new banner, I hand-sewed around all the letters. It took FOR-EV-ER! Finally I have it finished, here's a close up of my handy work. Hopefully it will last another 3 years - or more!

Rainy and dreary here today, but I'm thinking of it as an early April shower, so it isn't that bad. But the house is super dark today, so no new pictures for you. I did finish two new kitty rugs that I hope to get into my etsy store soon.

We had a very nice visit with Aaron's mom this weekend with lots of shopping and eating out. The best part of the weekend was just hanging out, watching TV and talking. The most flattering part of the weekend was when I got carded when I ordered a Bailey's and coffee at a restaurant bar. I just started laughing because I thought the young woman bartender was kidding me. But, she was serious! I handed over my ID and told her it was funny because I am so old!

I was a very responsible business woman today. I went through all my 2008 receipts and plugged them into my EKRA Excel file. Now, when my wallet gets full of receipts, I can take them out, record the data and then put them into my high tech shoebox filing system.

Also, it isn't too early for you Madisonian's to start planning your weekend! This Friday night, my brother's band, Jail, will make a rare appearance in Madison at the Corral Room, so check it out!

Ugh. Paperwork. It is the side of my business that I hate. And since I hate it, I avoid it as much as possible. Which makes tax time stressful for me. We just got our taxes done this afternoon and I learned a few things that I need to keep better track of, and discussed with Aaron ways to do it. The whole thing makes me feel anxious and jittery and nervous. But, with you blog readers as my witnesses, I vow do to better in 2008! But first I think I need to nap away my anxiety.

In case you are wondering why there were no new pictures yesterday or today, stuff I'm making is heading right into boxes to be sent to stores that are running low on EKRA products! I can't wait until tomorrow, my mom has been cutting fabric for me and I'll get it all tomorrow.

Happy first day of Spring!!! Winter is all over right? Wrong, we have a winter storm warning for tonight into tomorrow with a prediction of 4-8inches of snow! Oh well, it builds character.

Another new rug. It's called Pink is Pretty. I crocheted it with a pair of velour pants, a fleece shirt (the shirt I painted the walls of the Glitter Workshop pink in), and some pink scraps I had leftover from other projects.

I got a request from one of my consignment stores today for more rugs, but no red! Yikes! Seems like all I have is red! I'm sure if I look harder I can find some other colors. If not, I guess I'll just have to go shopping!

Thanks to the writers over at the Droolicious blog for posting about my cupcake rug. They showcase modern designs for modern parents, so if any of you EKRA readers have children, or just want to know what is cool for kids these days, go check it out!

Hooray! Noah over at Skull-A-Day received my buttons and made a skull out of them and posted it today. Look how beautiful they look in skull form!

Madison, starting tomorrow, you have a brand new place to shop! Anthology (218 State Street) will be opening it's doors tomorrow. It is a paper and craft shop carrying beautiful cards and crafts by The Glitter Workshop, Lulu's Stabby Critters, Orangyporangy, and me to name a few. They'll be open 11am-7pm Friday and Saturday, so head on over and check it out!

In other news, my check is in the mail for my new vending license for the farmer's market. So that makes me think about displays and signage. If you've seen me at a show, you know I have a banner that I made that I hang in front of my table that says, "Emily Kircher Recycling Artist." I want to make something that hangs across the front top panel of my tent. I was thinking I would have someone on etsy make it for me, but most charge by the letter and my name is just too long. Now I'm thinking cardboard, crayons, and contact paper. I made up a single letter and I'm going to show it to Aaron to see what he thinks. I want it to look professional, but I want to use recycled materials, so there is always a trade off there I think. I'll show you the final product when there is one.

Here's a new kitty rug I made. It's for sale in my etsy shop!

Oh buttons! I have a weakness for them. I love to have them and look at them and think of all the wonderful things I could make with them. The thing is though, that I don't really make stuff with buttons. I only use really big ones on my purses as closures. Since I have trouble throwing anything away, I save every button I ever cut off a piece of clothing that I use in my rugs. So, you can imagine, with those, and the ones I impulsively buy on etsy and ebay and at thrift stores, that I have A LOT of buttons. I've been trying little by little to weed out some of the stuff in my craft room that isn't going to be used and I went through my button stash and found a lot that weren't big enough or pretty enough to be used on purses. I thought about what I should do with them. Should I give them to Naomi? She makes really cute barrettes out of buttons. But these really aren't that pretty and I know she is also trying to spring clean now too. Should I sell them on etsy? No, I need to move them out of here faster than that. Should I donate them to the thirft store? No, because if I see them there for sale, I know I'll just buy them back! Crazy? Yes. I finally found the perfect answer. I had buttons on the brain when I read a post by Noah at Skull a Day looking for suggestions for skull making. I asked if he had used buttons to make a skull yet and he said no, so I packed up all my extra buttons and I'm sending them to him. Hopefully we'll see a button skull soon! And don't worry about me, I still have plenty of buttons here to work with to make purses and catnip rattlers.

If you aren't, and you live in Madison, why not come out to the First Friday Opening Reception of Kat Beyer at Absolutely Art tonight from 5-10pm? There will be food, drinks, and live music! To read more about the work of Kat Beyer, go here.

In other news, no pictures today. I am seriously trying to rest my hands because they have been aching from all the work they do. It is hard though because I have plates yelling at me to break them and fabric pleading with me to crochet it. I'm trying to ignore it and work on less hand-straining things, like filling out the paperwork to be able to vend at the Farmer's Market this spring (Yeah!) and cleaning (yeah right!).

I feel like I haven't seen Naomi in forever. Now that Glitter is closed, we have to work harder to get together. Today I called her up and gave her two options: invite me over to her house or come and pick me up to go shopping. She chose the latter and we went all the way over to the west side of Madison to check out the new St. Vinnie's over there. It just opened up on Feb 25 and it was packed with people, which I thought was weird because there is a Saver's right down the street and it was a Thursday morning. They had the usual junk, but great prices on their fabric, which was a $1 a piece no matter what the size -- kind of silly when you think about it. I also happened upon a beautiful vintage faux fur winter coat that has all the buttons and everything. After St. Vinnie's, we grabbed some lunch and then hit Savers since we had already traveled that far. I got these really pretty dishes:

And even though I told myself I wasn't going to cut any glass today because I cut so much yesterday I made my hands hurt, I did anyways. Here's a shot of my incredibly messy desk:

I've been reading a lot of blogs where people show off their work areas and they are so beautiful and tidy. I don't know how they work like that. Naomi said they probably only show it off when they have it all cleaned up. Well, this is about as clean as mine ever is and will probably stay that way until we move or someone wants to come photograph it for real.

I finished another rug last night and here it is:

I asked Aaron what he thought it should be called and he said "Pastel Skittles Rug." I didn't really like that because I thought it should be called "Super Happy Fun Time Rug." I ended up naming it Confetti Square Rug on etsy.

Yo yo yo, check it out! EKRA products can now be found at Absolutely Art, 2322 Atwood Ave, Madison Wi. It is a really cool gallery that focuses on showcasing and selling the work of local artists, many living right here in Madison.

First, a migraine update. I wrote here that I was ready for the next migraine so I could try out the new meds to see if they work. I didn't have to wait long, I felt one coming on yesterday afternoon. Everyone said to take the pill as soon as you feel it. Well, my indecisive nature took over and I sat thinking, "Is this really a migraine? Should I wait for more pain?" I finally took it and it took away the headache, but left me with a sore throat and jittery. Oh well, the side affects could have been worse, and they weren't as bad as a migraine. So, hopefully that is that.

While I was waiting for pain yesterday, this rug popped into my head, and I crocheted it at what seemed like warp speed while I was all jittery from the medicine. I love the way it turned out, but again, as with that purple rug from a few days ago, I couldn't get the camera to see what I see. The rug is really a lot prettier than it looks in this picture. The pinks match a lot better and the differences aren't so stark. I usually take the pictures without a flash, and here is what I got:

So I decided to try the flash. It still doesn't work right.

I feel confident in my ability to photography dull, pastel colored rugs, like this new one that is also just listed in my etsy shop.

Any photographers out there know what I'm doing wrong? Why can't I get the colors of my bright rugs right? I tried to photograph a bright orange and red rug the other day and the same thing happened. The color was all wrong and you couldn't see the texture of the stitches.

I have an appointment next week with a store owner who buys wholesale, so these bright rugs will go with me since I can't get them into my etsy store. I'll update you on how the meeting goes.

Faythe is holding a raffle to raise funds for continuing work on the movie Handmade Nation. This month's prize includes: I Heart Felt book (Publisher: Taunton February 19, 2008), Handmade Nation T-Shirt (you pick size), Handmade Nation Pocket Mirror, 3 Sublime Stitching iron-on transfers, Handspun Yarn from yarnpunk!!

Tickets are $2 each and the winner will be selected at random. A chance to help out a great indie project and win a cool prize pack? Definitely worth a couple of bucks!

I have been having really bad headaches for awhile and have been thinking I should go to the doctor to get it checked out. Procrasinater that I am, I kept putting it off until last night I had a headache so bad it made me cry. I went to the doctor today and I have migraines. It sucks because I went to the Dig and Save yesterday and got 30 lbs of clothes to play with, but I can't even get myself to wash them. All I want to do is lie down and not move because then my head doesn't hurt, but that gets boring after a little while. Oh well, I got some real drugs to take care of the problem and a bunch of supplements to help ward them off, so hopefully my head won't be pulsing for long.

I'll be posting new stuff once my head settles down.

Another artist I met at the HealthyLife Expo in the Twin Cities earlier this month was Michael of Michael's Custom Metal Artworks. I traded him one of my kitty rugs for one of his amazing brass flower sculptures. I gave the flower to my mom as a 'thanks' for coming along with me to the show, so I don't have a picture of it, but you should check out his website to see his great work!

He sent me pictures of his kitties, Stickers and Midnight enjoying their new kitty rug and catnip rattlers. I love happy cats!

Check it out! My latest Cupcake Rug was blogged about on the Craft: blog! This makes me smile ear to ear! Thanks Craft!

It has officially been the snowiest winter ever here in Madison. This morning on the news they said it has snowed 54 out of the last 80 days. I said earlier in the season that I would love winter, but this is getting really really trying. I'm so tired of the snow, I go to shovel and there is no place to put it. I see big dump trucks on the road full of snow hauling it off somewhere. There is just so much snow everywhere!

Alas, there is nothing I can do about it, so I will continue to love winter.

Here is something to bring a smile to your face though:

On my shelf of owls in my craft room, I have added a tiny needle felted lion. I love his little smirk and the way he looks all king-like among the owls. He was made by the very talented Lisa of Stabbies. You can check out her etsy store to buy some of your own critters!

I did something last night I've wanted to do for the last two years: I applied for the Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn NY. I think it would be so much fun and great exposure for EKRA to get all the way out to New York with my stuff. I won't hear until April, so keep your fingers crossed for me!

Thanks to everyone who came out to the Craftacular yesterday to shop handmade! It turned out to be a really great show. I was worried that the weather might keep people away, but Madisonians are just too awesome to let a little cold weather and snow keep them away from the Craftacular! Thanks again!

Come to the Valentine Craftacular tomorrow at the High Noon Saloon (701 E. Washington Ave, Madison, Wi) from 10am-4pm!!!!

EKRA Long-tailed Catnip Rattlers are now available at Doggy Style Pet Shop on Division St in Chicago!

I'm sure you are all dying to know how the Healthy Life Expo went this past weekend. Let's just say that there was a lot of rolling with the punches. I was trying not to have any expectations, but it turned out I did and they were not met. First thing, I get there and there is no table in my space. I go to find someone to talk to about it and they say, yeah, you don't get one. I pulled out my info sheet that specifically stated that there would be one 8ft table in my space. The organizer told me that it was a mistake that I received that letter and no, I didn't get a table. Well, there was just no way I could take 'no' for an answer, I had driven 4 hours to get there. I just kept saying that even if it was a mistake, I needed a table because I didn't bring one because I was told I would have one. After about 5 minutes of this going back and forth, either my logic made sense to him, or he got sick of me, and he found me a table. Phew!

Overall, the expo wasn't great for sales, but I did hand out a ton of biz cards and made my expenses back selling bottlecap magnets and cat toys.

It was fun hanging out with my mom for a few days and we met a lot of really nice people at the expo including Kristin who owns Hemp Queen. I got two really nice skirts from her, so now I'll have something nice to wear to the Craftacular next weekend. Which don't forget.....

Craftacular is this Saturday, Feb 9 10am-4pm at the High Noon Saloon, 701 E. Washington Ave, Madison!!!

It's mighty cold here again in Madison, something like -20 degrees with the wind chill factor. What does that mean for me? It means I'm being a big slacker and refusing to leave the house. It's just too cold outside!

Here's a new rug I made that looks warm. I usually call these orange and red rugs Fireball. But this one looks more like a fiery sun to me, so it is called Red Sky at Night.

I'm heading up to Minneapolis Thursday to vend in the Crafty Planet Area at the Healthy Life Expo that will be on Friday and Saturday. The hours are long noon-9pm Friday and 10am-7pm Saturday. Nothing like diving right back into a big long show! All my stuff was out of order. After the holiday rush, I just kind of left everything as it was. I went through it all today and reorganized it. I also finished up some new frames and packed them up before I thought about taking a picture of them. Whoops. Here is a picture of some bottlecap magnets I have made recently.

I will be selling my bottlecap and vintage revamp necklaces for the first time at this show. I'll let you know how they go over.

EKRA Long-tailed Catnip Rattlers will now be available for sale at Four Muddy Paws - Your All-in-One Healthy Pet Mart in St. Louis, MO! Hooray!

Aaron uploaded the NBC15 new coverage segments to YouTube so you can watch them over and over and over and over again! Once was more than enough for me, but here it is if you missed it.

The Glitter Workshop will be closing the doors to the retail store on February 16. I'm so sad about this. I met Naomi, the owner, just before she opened the store at a craft show in December 2004. She told me about opening the Glitter Workshop just two blocks from my house and asked if I'd be interested in helping out getting the store set up. I did, and ever since then I have spent countless hours there crafting and hanging out. Over the three years I learned more and more about the business side of the store and have been working there in the afternoons. I've pretty much had the best of both worlds, getting to hang out in a cool shop and sometimes playing storekeeper without all the stress of the rent and paying the consignors and dealing with all the other paperwork and business stuff.

As sad as I am about the store closing, I'm happy for Naomi. She has run this store for 3 years pretty much all by herself. She has put in a tremendous amount of time and worked tirelessly to run Glitter and support indie crafters and artists. She has been wanting to be able to spend more time with her family and with all the things she is doing, something had to give.

So, goodbye dear friend. Glitter Workshop, I will miss you!

On a happier note....

EVERYTHING MUST GO! 15% OFF EVERYTHING IN THE ENTIRE STORE UNTIL FEB 1. GO AND GET IT!

Anything that gets purchased is one less thing that will need to be packed up and shipped back to one of the 100 artists that consign with Glitter by Naomi (and me, because just as I was there before the doors opened, I'll be there to help after the doors close).

Aaron and I took a mini vacation to Chicago this weekend. We headed down to Chicago late Friday morning and visited Renegade Handmade, a handmade boutique on Division St that was opened by the organizers of Renegade Craft Fair. However, one of the organizers, Kathleen, is "no longer with the business" according to the store manager. Interesting. Anyways, I wanted to check out the store and it was super cute, filled with handmade goodness from lots of artists I know and/or recognize. I got a body butter bar by Biggs and Featherbelle to combat my ever-itchy winter skin. I never heard of solid body butter, but I thought I'd give it a try and it is awesome! It melts on your skin as you rub it on you and mine smells like a peppermint patty - yum! Also, I haven't been itchy since I started using it on Friday. I love that it is all natural and handmade. Aaron got this t-shirt from Campfire at the store.

After that, we bummed around downtown Chicago near our hotel and then went to Schuba's Tavern to see The Bird and the Bee. It was an incredible show, it's a two piece band with a woman singer who has an absolutely beautiful voice and stage presence that is endearing and cute. The other member is a man who is a jazz pianist. The two of them together are an amazing duo. I hope they come to Madison soon.

The next morning we went and ate pancakes and saw an exhibit on maps at the library. The pancakes were delicious and the maps were not as boring as it sounds! It was a series of maps documenting how the American West was explored and settled. I had no idea that cartographers were so political! Anyways, we got home just in time to watch the Packers play and win. It was really great. I didn't craft at all from Friday morning to Saturday afternoon and my hands are thanking me for it. I really needed a break.

I'm back to crafting now and I'll show you some new stuff soon.

The first weekend in February I'm going to be taking part in the Crafty Planet Handmade Area of the Healthy Expo at the Minneapolis Convention Center. It is the first time there will be a section for handmade items at this expo, so it is pretty exciting. However, the bad news is that it costs $6 to get into the expo. The good news is that I have about a million free tickets to give away! Each one says "Admit Two" so you can bring a friend. Want some free tickets? Drop me a line via the "Contact EKRA" feature with your address and I'll mail them to you! You can read more about what will be at the expo on their website.

Hey all you crafty folks out there! It's time to apply for the Valentine Craftacular at the High Noon Saloon. This year's Valentine Craftacular will be Saturday Feb 9 from 10am-4pm. Applications are due Jan 15, so hop to it!

Application info here!

Whoops, all my blog entries vanished. I've been on a bit of a holiday -- doing whatever I feel like, mostly making cat toys and cutting glass to make frames. Tonight I finally did a little real work and cut the fabric for that baby's nursery rug I told you about last time.

Aaron and I are running around to various family functions, yesterday we were at my parents house, on Wednesday we'll be heading to Grand Rapids, MI to see his family.

More on the business front, I was contacted by a new store that will be opening in Boston next month to see if I'd be interested in selling my wares there. The name of the store is called OAK (which stands for one of a kind). You can check out the blog here.

I'm taking a break from wasting time playing Chain Factor to update you on what I've been doing lately. I had one more custom frame order to fill before Christmas, and I didn't want to grout just one frame, so I whipped up these snow motif frames too. I was thinking it was kind of ironic that I was glorifying snow in this way, when there has been so much piling up here that has made things like driving and walking outside a bit cumbersome (well, I'd say more than that, but I'm still saying my mantra of "I will love winter"). But, just one snowflake is really really pretty, and that there are no two every exactly alike is another beautiful idea. So, here is a quick shot of the Snow Frames before I took them over to the Glitter Workshop. I'd tell you to run over and get them, but they are all gone already! I guess people dig snowflakes. So, I'm trying to make a few more before next weekend.

I'm also working on a custom 4ft diameter circle rug for a little boy's nursery. It is supposed to match the greens and yellows in this pillow - which I learned is actually called a boppy.

Here's the fabric I have so far.

I think I'll take one more trip to the Dig and Save to get more before I actually start crocheting, I like to have more than enough so that I don't run out before I finish and the colors can all be distributed throughout the rug.

After I get a few more frames glued, I have to start wrapping the presents I got for the Kircher Kristmas Celebration this Saturday.

Hooray! A box of EKRA catnip rattlers and bottlecap pins are off to Iowa City to a store called White Rabbit. I'm sure it is just what Iowa-ians (Iownites?) were hoping for. As soon as I catch up, I'll be sending some rugs.

Wowee Yozee! This was the 4th Holiday Art vs. Craft and it was by far the best ever. I have to admit, I was a little nervous about the new location, it was lots of different rooms, and each vendor got a smallish 3x8 foot space. However, it turned out great. The Masonic Center provided a beautiful setting for the show, similar to the old Turner Hall location and much better than the sterile MSOE building. The organizers, Faythe and Kim really out did themselves this very and it was a spectacular show! Thanks to them and the more than 2300 people who came out to shop handmade for the holidays at Art vs. Craft.

Art vs Craft is tomorrow!!! Get your butts to Milwaukee for the 7th round of the awesome indie show! Please note that Art vs Craft is in a new location: 790 N. Van Buren in the Masonic Center. Also, hurry up and shop - it is only 1 day this time, 10am-7pm on Saturday, Dec 8. If you make it there, come say hello to me!

Ever try that? Try to talk yourself into doing something you know you really don't want to? My new thing is that I'm going to talk myself into loving winter. I mean, it is so great right? You get to look really plump wearing lots of layers, including long johns! You get a great workout shoveling snow over and over again. You get to navigate poorly plowed streets and drive around huge heaps of snow. Fun? No. But, I WILL LOVE WINTER!

My first instinct is to climb into bed and set my alarm for April. But alas, sleeping through the the next 4 months is not an option. I will love winter!

So, what's good about today? I just crocheted a really cute purse, it needs some buttons for closures and I'm at Glitter so no pictures yet. Also, my contribution to the Sampler is up on the front page today. Finally, only 3 days until Art vs Craft, Milwaukee's best indie craft fair. It is only one day this year and in a new location so check out the website for all the important information.

I will love winter!

I'm back from Minneapolis and the No Coast Craft-o-Rama. It was a great show despite the huge first snowstorm of the year. Next weekend is Art vs Craft. That's the last show of the year. Thank goodness, I'm worn out!

I've been trying to update my etsy store, so check out the new kitty rugs I've added.

This weekend (tomorrow actually) I'll be driving up to Minneapolis with my mom for the No Coast Craft-o-Rama. I think it is going to be a good show and a fun weekend. There is an article about the show on Etsy's Storque. If you live in the Twin Cities area, be sure to stop by and say "Hello!"

If you live in Madison, there is going be a totally fun Open House at the Glitter Workshop (920 E. Johnson St, Madison, WI). There will be snacks and cider, a contest, lots of handmade goodies for everyone on your x-mas gift list, and a live needle felting demonstration at 2pm by Lisa of PoorLulu.

Have a great weekend!

Thanks to Andrea of Space Oddities for posting a link to the footage of us on the Weekend Live show on Sunday morning. Want to see it? Click here and look in the right hand corner.

All the stress and planning and sleepless nights were worth it! The 3rd Annual Christmas Craftacular was the best one yet! All the media coverage we got really brought a lot of people to the show and I think all the vendors had a good time and lots of sales. Thanks to all the vendors for making such awesome stuff and thanks to all the shoppers for buying handmade and supporting the Craftacular!

Did you see me on the NBC15 Weekend Live show on Sunday morning? If not, Aaron got someone to Tivo it so hopefully I'll be able to post it here online soon. He also took some footage at the Craftacular so you'll be able to see that too.

It's a short week for me, just 4 days in between the Craftacular and No Coast Craft-o-Rama in MLPS. With that amount of time, I only have time for one grouting session. The frames with black grout seem to be very popular, so I'm cutting away at old cups and plates to make mosaic frames with black grout. Also I'm trying to restock my kitty rug inventory and cat toy inventory. Gotta run out for more catnip and good strong thread for sewing my kitty's tails and ears down. Then it is back to work!

Check out an article on the Daily Page of the Isthmus about the Craftacular and two fair trade shows.

The Capital Times ran an article about buying handmade for the holidays and it features me, Naomi, and the Craftacular. Go check it out!

The DIY Trunk Show yesterday day was wonderful. Thanks to the Chicago Craft Mafia for putting on such a great show. I came home with lighter trunks, heard some funny stories and sad stories from customers, and even made some purchases myself. I'd show them off, but they are x-mas presents and I don't want to spoil any surprises. It was a great but exhausting day, getting up at 5am, being at the show 9-6:30 and then not getting home again until 9:30. Thanks to Naomi and Jerome for driving me down there with them. Super duper thanks to Jerome for driving the mean streets to get us there and hauling tubs and generally just being a shiny happy person the whole day.

So, one down, three to go. The next show is the Craftacular, the show I plan with Naomi. I'm super excited, I think it will be the best Craftacular ever, we are getting tons of press and even will be on the NBC15 Weekend Live show on the Sunday morning of the show. Also, we have 20 great vendors ready with awesome goodies to fill up the entire bar, including the stage and the balcony.

Time to get back to work make make making!

Here is a new project that Aaron and I have been working on together - Holiday Map Cards! The first one is Wisconsin cut out of a map wearing a Santa hat.

This one is for proud Madisonians who love their isthmus city! Merry Isthmus everyone!

What's better than making an awesome find at a thrift store? Having a friend that keeps an eye out for stuff you like when you aren't there! Naomi found these awesome plates for me. I've only had this pattern once before and I fell in love with it. I got them in Canada and I've never seen them around here. Thanks Naomi, I can't wait to break them!

Now that I've been making and selling things for a few years, I understand that everyday November 1 - December 25 is Christmas. December 26- February 14 is Valentine's day and February 15- sometime in spring is Easter. I had a little bit of a late start, but today, November 8 was my first day of x-mas. At least it was my first day making x-mas type stuff.

I dug out my box of x-mas plates that I bought after the holiday last year and cut some up for mosaic frames. Here they are cut and tumbled and sitting on the frames they will soon be glued to.

Later in the day I had some errands to run, so I stopped by St. Vinnie's to look for more x-mas stuff to break since I was all in the holiday mood and stuff. I found 4 of these candy striped mugs. Two of them are already cut up and will be on two frames soon.

As I was browsing the x-mas section at St. Vinnie's I was amazed at all the different Santa's and snowmen neatly displayed on the shelves. Then an old box on the bottom shelf caught my eye. Always nosy, I picked it up and found these adorable gems, a trio of choral singers made in Japan and in perfect condition. Weird how all the figurines from the not too distant past were displayed, but these vintage beauties were just shoved on the bottom.

Sunday I was in Palatine, IL for the Crafted show. Naomi took a picture of my booth and I stole it from her website to share it with you here. The spaces were small, but the person next to me didn't show up, so I stretched out my grids to fill up the space.

I went to the last 99cent Monday at the east side Saver's today. Boy, how depressing. There was hardly anything in there. I checked out with the head cashier, Wendy, who told me that Saver's was committed to finding a new location for the store on the east side, but hasn't found one yet. The store lost it's lease and that's why it is closing. She has a job at the west side store, but it is going to be 1 hour and 20 minutes there and back on the bus for her. Before today, I was just feeling sorry for myself that one of my thrift stores was closing, but today I realized how much this affects the east side community. Saver's is probably the most reasonably priced thrift store in town because they are always marking down their inventory. A lot of people depend on that store and there is a sense of community among the shoppers and employees. Also, I'm always trying to remind people to drop off their unwanted stuff at thrift stores instead of throwing it away. Now there is one less drop-off site on the east side.

But, alas, this blog is supposed to be about crafts and crafting and stuff. Here is a first, a white kitty rug. The kitty is crocheted from a white and silver brocade fabric remnant and the rest of the rug is lots of different black velours. The kitty sparkles, hence the name: White Sparkle Kitty Rug.

Finally, some sanity! Naomi, in her infinite wisdom, said, "Let's get a hotel room Saturday night somewhere close to the show." So, we are going to stay at my favorite Super 8 in Glen Ellyn, IL tomorrow night before the show in Palatine on Sunday. I'm sure we'll be a whole lot nicer than we would have been if we had driven down in the morning.

Maybe some wisdom from my owls will rub off on me...

I've only told a few people about this because I wanted to wait until it was for real. It's real - at least in cyberspace. My rug and frame are in an issue of Midwest Living as part of a blurb on the No Coast Craft-o-Rama coming up later this month in Minneapolis. I don't have a real copy of the magazine yet, but here is a sneak peak as posted on the No Coast blog.

EKRA's first craft show of the holiday season is this Sunday! Here's the scoop:

Crafted - Handmade Market of Exquisite and Curious Things
November 4 9am-4pm
at Durty Nellies 180 N. Smith St, Palatine, IL

For more info and a list of vendors, check out the Crafted website.

Naomi (owner of the Glitter Workshop) and I will be heading down there together, but I don't know what we were thinking when we signed up for a show where the set-up starts at 8am in almost Chicago. It is a 2 1/2 hour drive, which means we'll be leaving Madison at about 5:30am on Sunday morning. Yikes.

I'm sad. The east side Saver's Thrift Department Store is closing on November 10. I hate to see it go, I got such good deals there. Now I'll have to drive all the way over to the west side Saver's for 99 cent Mondays.

Tonight has been all about pin making. I'm trying to get my consignment stores stocked up with map and dictionary pins in time for the holiday shopping rush. After two months of 100 samples of dictionary pins donated to the Sampler, my dictionary pins are pretty depleted. That plus one rainy day at the market that resulted in a box full of rusted pins that I had to throw away...

Here's a shot of the dictionary pins I made tonight. I'm not sure if you can see, but my favorite is on the left, a little boy with a black eye. I actually kept one for myself! It is a picture of someone crocheting.

I also made about 150 map pins, but those are bagged up and ready to be shipped off to stores.

The next three days, for the whole day, I'll be working at the Glitter Workshop. I'm not used to working full time at a place, but it is good because I can't just pick up and leave to go thrifting. However, it is bad because I can't just get up and go thrifting.

Hi! We are back from Canada!

I'll bet you could have never guessed that one of my favorite things to do on vacation is to visit new thrift stores! What's better than a good thrift store in your town? An unexplored thrift store in a new city!!! Overall, I found the thrift stores in Vancouver to be a bit pricey - particularly since the value of the US dollar is lower than the value of the Canadian dollar. I did find some super stuff though and I'm copying Naomi and showing off my vintage finds in one nice neat picture. I was surprised how much I missed my owls while I was gone. When I found this one, I held it in my hands for hours while watching TV in the hotel room, kind of like a little girl with a teddy bear.

I also picked up some nice pieces of double knit fabric and Aaron got a bunch of atlases.

I came home to orders and the custom orders that I haven't finished yet, so after a trip to my home town thrift stores, it is back to work!

P.S. Super duper huge thank you to Naomi who took excellent care of our cats and birds while we were away! Also, for coming to pick us up at the airport and saving us from the terrors of Badger cab! You're the bestest!

We are having a great time in Vancouver! The weather is a bit dreary, cold and rainy everyday, but it exactly what I imagined the Pacific Northwest weather to be like. No wonder such angst-y music comes out of this region. The colors of the leaves on the trees are gorgeous reds and oranges, they seem even brighter against the dark drab sky. A kind of Mardi Gras celebration before the long rest of winter.

Time to get back to vacation -- see you on Monday when it is back to work for EKRA.

I love to win! And as much as I love to win, I HATE to lose. So, the winner of the EKRA blog contest giveaway is.... drumroll please!

Everyone who entered! Congratulations to all four of you, my loyal readers. And to those of you who didn't enter because you thought you'd never win, well, it just goes to show that you just never know what will happen. I'll be contacting all of my winners to get their addresses to send them their EKRA prizes!

Today I have been working on finishing up a bunch of pouches that have built up. They needed buttons and decorations. These 4 will be heading up to I Like You in Minneapolis, MN.

What else am I doing? Working on getting the photos together for the Handmade Nation book. It is really painful. I hate to have my picture taken and there is a required head shot. Poor Aaron had to take about 50 pictures until we got one where my eyes were open and I looked okay. The other thing I'm doing is procrastinating. We are going to Vancouver this week and I haven't packed or even cleaned the clothes I need to take. That's what tomorrow is for.

Sometimes the only way for me to get inspired to use some fabric is to just sit down and cut it up. I had a bunch of smallish peach fabrics - a skirt, a dress, and leftover knit remnant - none of which I was too excited about. After they were cut up, I found a nice big super soft bathrobe velour remnant hiding in my fabric closet that was just perfect. I love the way this rug turned out. I call it Everything is Peachy.

And just look how peachy everything is:

My husband, Aaron, and my two cats (gray is Ezra, black is Pimper) cuddling in the recliner.

Now it is time for me to head to 1/2 price clothes day at the Dig and Save. I have to remind myself not to go crazy and buy too much!

The comments are working. They don't show up right away because I was getting a ton of spam and so Aaron set it up that I have to go in and either Publish or Delete all the comments that I get on this blog. So, hang on, your comment is there, it is just waiting for me to publish it. And don't worry, I always publish comments from real people!

One more note, to win the giveaway, you do not need to leave your e-mail in the body of the message. As long as you fill it in the appropriate e-mail box, I'll be able to see it and get your address if you are the winner of the Blog Contest!

Ever have those days where you are cyber-lonely? You know, you check your e-mail a thousand times during the day, only to have no new messages. Not like I'm a loser or anything...

Anyways, besides checking my e-mail a million times and being a bit cyber-lonely, today I got a lot of work done. I poured resin for bottlecap magnets, I crocheted two cupcake rug bottoms and one cupcake rug top, and I cut a ton of fabric. I'm trying to see what is really in my fabric stash because I want to go to the Dig and Save on Wednesday to buy tons of clothes because it is half price day - only 50 cents a pound. Last time I went on a Thursday and bought 33 pounds of clothes and kicked myself for not going one day earlier to save $16.50.

Back to work. And watching the end of Heroes.

Have you been dying to comment on a post only to see that they weren't working? Sorry about that. But they are back now. And in celebration, I'm going to have a little contest!

Leave a comment under this post and on next Saturday I'll draw a name at random and send that person a little EKRA prize! Be sure to leave your e-mail so I can get your address if you are the winner.

Is this just a trick to see who reads my blog? Yup.

Faythe Levine is making a documentary called Handmade Nation about the rise of DIY art, craft and design. I've posted about it here before, you may have seen the trailer. The big news now is that she got a book deal to go along with the movie! It is going to feature 25 indie artists, one of them being me!!! Can you believe it? I hardly can. Read all about it on her Handmade Nation blog.

Got plans for tomorrow night? If not, come on out to the Glitter Workshop (920 E. Johnson St, Madison, WI) for an Open House Gallery Night. From 5-9pm, Natalie from Orangyporangy and I will be showing off some of our new wares. There will be wine and soda and snacks, so come on out and say 'hello!'

Also, I lied last week when I said it was going to be my last market last Saturday. I haven't put the tent away yet - it is still in the car - and since it is going to be 85 degrees and sunny this coming Saturday, I'm going to take advantage of this Indian Summer and head on out to the market for at least one more Saturday.

And since posts with pictures are always more interesting, here's a photo of a little clutch I crocheted from a black and white houndstooth print velour shirt. Cute, huh?

Go and get it! It is a 28 page online zine that is full of projects and reviews and interviews. This one features an interview with me! Ever wonder what the first thing I ever remember making is? Read the interview and you'll find out!

I think I'm almost 100% recovered from being sick. Hooray! I got really confused and mixed up sleeping so much, I'm glad to be among the living again.

Since Renegade and Strange Folk are over, I'm taking a little break. I'm giving myself time to get fully recovered before the big rush of holiday shows start up. But no worries, there will be more EKRA products soon. I went to the Dig and Save yesterday and bought 33 pounds of clothes. I was digging for brown since there has been such a high demand for cupcake rugs. I found a lot of other great fabric too that I spent last night cutting apart.

I haven't had a chance to add them all yet, but there are three new locations where you can find EKRA products! The Makery in Louisville, KY will have rugs, catnip rattling mice, and bottlecap pins, Muddy Paws Pet Supply in Lynnwood, WA will have catnip rattling mice, and GreenSky in Chicago, IL will have bottlecap magnets.

In other news, tomorrow will be my last day at the Farmer's Market. After tomorrow's market, I get to retire my tent for another year. It's kind of a big deal for me, I lug that big tent around with me everywhere for shows. When I finally lug it down to the basement for the winter, I know that summer is for realsies over and it is holiday crunch time.

I have lots more to report, but it will have to wait, because it is time to go to work at the Glitter Workshop.

I was at the Strange Folk Festival in O'Fallon, Il this past weekend. It was really great. Autumn, the "Strange Girl in Charge", is really awesome. I met her at Craft Congress in March. She put on a 100 vendor craft show in a park with a DJ, a live band, food, raffles, and demonstrations all by herself. As a show organizer myself, I was super impressed. I met lots of new people and handed out tons of business cards. I have to give a huge thanks to my mom who accompanied me on this trip. She ran my booth while I needed to be away from it and helped me make it through the rest of the weekend -- I'm still pretty sick from the suspected food poisoning.

I got a really awesome write-up on the DesignTalk blog today. The editor, Kara Lee, came up and introduced herself to me at Renegade and said that she knew me and had been to my blog. That is the only excuse I can come up with for that silly look I have on my face in my picture on their blog. Even though I work hard to get the word out about EKRA, you never know how many people are reading the blog and I'm still a little surprised every time someone recognizes me from it.

Anywho, Welcome to all of you who came here via DesignTalk! I hope you like what you see and come back often.

I've been really sick the last few days. I'll spare you the goriest of details, but I haven't been able to leave my bed or bathroom for the last three days. At first I thought it was the flu, but then Aaron didn't get sick and it didn't seem to be clearing up. Aaron suggested it was probably the club sandwich that I ate at a Chicago diner after Renegade. "How can you mess up a club sandwich?" I asked. Well, I'll tell you. You eat half at the diner, bring the other half home on the three hour drive back to Madison and eat the second-half for breakfast.

So now I'm feeling foolish and miserable and I'm hoping this all clears up before I head down to O'Fallon, IL with my Mom for Strange Folk Festival on Friday. I've managed to eek out two cupcake rugs since I sold all 4 I took to Renegade, but other than that, I haven't been able to make much at all.

I'm home from Renegade! What a weekend! There was lots of good stuff and some bad stuff that happened and now I'll tell you all about it.

First, the bad. My booth was located right across from a line of about 6 port-o-potties, which I didn't really mind at all until I noticed it kind of stunk. But then I realized that the stink wasn't coming from the potties, it was coming from the sewer hole that was in the back right corner of my tent, right where I was standing. Yuck! I was a bit stuffed up, so I bet it smelled even worse than I could sense. To try and remedy that, the first day I put my suitcases over the hole and that blocked some smell. The second day my back door neighbor put a tarp over the sewer hole and then my suitcases over that. That worked pretty well. So problem one, my booth was stinky.

The next unfortunate thing about my booth location was that it was right across the street from a restaurant that thought it would be a great idea to play loud techno music from DJs and a band the entire time we were there. It was so loud that I really had a hard time hearing customers.

The third bad thing about my booth location was that some carnival-type-folk, we'll just call them carnies from here on out, decided to set up their whatever they were doing right by me. It wouldn't have bothered me at all except that it seemed to be run by three grade school age children and a dad who was seldom around. Still not a problem. The problem was that they had a basketball hoop set up and basketballs kept coming into my tent and I was really scared they were going to break my mosaic frames. We kept yelling at the carny kids to keep the balls away from the booth. By the end of Sunday there was lots of shouting and drama and I was certain it was going to come to fisticuffs with the carny dad, but fortunately it was only a lot of name calling and shouting that ensued.

So, even with all that bad stuff, the weekend was completely AWESOME! All those bad things just make for a great story. I sold tons of stuff, made contacts with lots of stores that are interested in wholesaling or consigning my work, and I got to chat with lots of people that I only get to see at shows. It was my best show ever! Aaron made and sold lots of map pins and was super awesome all around as a booth partner, just as he is a super awesome all around partner in crime for life.

Next up, Strange Folk Festival in O'Fallon, IL with my mom!

Even though I've started my fourth year of my crafting business, I still get a little crazy before big shows. I think I know the cycle now, though. First I get nervous that I don't have enough inventory and work like mad making stuff. Then I settle down and start packing it all up and realize I'm in pretty good shape. I have to call it quits at least two days before the show, so that leaves the day before the show. The waiting day. Today I'm waiting. There are some errands to run and the car to pack and lots of resting to do because I'm feeling a bit under the weather. But mostly what I'm doing today is waiting. It isn't a very fun game.

So, please come say hello to me at Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago this weekend!

This hummingbird mosaic mirror will be making its debut at the Renegade Craft Fair this weekend. It and all my other wares are all packed up and ready to go!

Head to Chicago this weekend for Renegade Craft Fair, it will be super awesome. I'm finally starting to settle down about it, I feel like I've worked hard and I have a lot of good stuff to take with me to the show. Now I'm just working on packing it all up.

Here are just a few of the new frames I made to take with me. What else do you spy in that picture, my cutting mat, some of Aaron's maps, a suitcase, and some other crap that lives in our living room.

Blogging at work? You're self-employed, Emily. Aren't you ALWAYS at "work?" Well that's true, but now I'm moonlighting at the Glitter Workshop. It's the easiest job ever, I sit at Glitter and work on my stuff and keep the store open. The hardest part about working here is not spending my hourly wage on all the awesome goodies here. There is this one necklace that someone better come in and buy before I break down. Naomi is super-mom and picks her kids up at school everyday at about 2:30. However, people like to shop in the afternoon, so that's where I come in. Naomi needed someone to keep the store open and I jumped at the chance to earn a little extra cash since Aaron and I are now the proud owners of a brand-new car. Read all about how we are SUV-tards on Aaron's blog.

This weekend Aaron and I cleaned up the living room. What did I find? Lots of stuff including some of my older purses that have been hiding. We need the space, so that means lucky day for you! I'm going to have a SALE!!! This weekend at the Farmer's Market I'll have a basket of purses that are just $10! What a steal! Come early for the best selection.

Also, Renegade is quickly approaching. Too quickly. I'm scrambling to make make make before we head down to Chicago for the show. I've been finding myself doing a lot of floor crafting. What is floor crafting, you ask? That's when I pick up supplies off the floor and use them. For this I'm talking mainly about old dishes that have been lying around waiting to get used for mosaics. They were interesting for awhile and then lost out to a newer and therefore more interesting project. And if they were on the floor, that is where they have remained until now, the crazy days of floor crafting where they get scooped up and rescued from the floor and put to good use. The really good thing about floor crafting is that there is a lot more floor in my craft room that I can see and walk on! Knowing me, it won't last long.

So, don't forget to come on out to see me at the Farmer's Market at the top of State St to see my sale purses and other wares before I head out of town for the next two weekends.

I really love the Skull-a-Day blog. When I told you about it before, I told you I submit a picture of one of my skull rugs. It's up on the blog! Check out this post and while you are there, look at some of the super awesome skulls!

Check it out, I'm featured on the Recycled Crafts section of the Craft Gossip Blog Network today. Read it here.

It's been awhile since I've contributed to the Sampler, but I finally got my act together to send in 100 Dictionary Pins for the September Sampler. If you look here and scroll down, you can see a picture of a few of them on my signature recycled tags. That's my mom's handwriting on the card. She did a lot of work to get these samples together. I'm sad she has to go back to teaching school, she helped me so much during her summer vacation.

Time to apply for the 3rd Annual High Noon Christmas Craftacular, taking place Nov 24 and 25 at the High Noon Saloon. More info on how to apply here.

I love that my Long Tailed Catnip Rattlers are so popular in the feline community. Yesterday at the market, a woman came to tell me that her cats love them so much, she had to come buy some more. She jokingly suggested that her cats could endorse them, but joke or not, I thought it was a great idea! Here's a picture of her very handsome Lewis, a Himalayan seal point, with his new favorite toy.

EDIT: I just realized that the woman who bought these toys is none other than Poor Lulu, who makes the most amazing needle felted critters. She has work at Glitter and an Etsy store, check them out! I wonder how she keeps Lewis away from her critters and wool roving?

Lots of things are in the works over here in EKRA-land....

First of all, Naomi and I have set the date for the 3rd Annual Christmas Craftacular at the High Noon Saloon. As usual, it will be the weekend of Thanksgiving, Saturday November 25 and Sunday November 26. So, all you awesome indie shoppers, mark your calendars! All you awesome indie crafters, stay tuned for more info about when we are going to post the application.

Also, I don't like to talk about things before they are really set in stone, but there have been more interviews and even a photoshoot of my work, so stay tuned to hear about those things as they become public.

And, as usual, I'm working away, trying to have tons of stuff made for Renegade. The humidity isn't helping my mosaicking, my grout and my glue takes forever to dty. But as you can see from the previous posts, I've been crocheting up a bunch of rugs.

One more thing. There is a new social networking site up called Indiepublic. It is for indie crafters, designers, supporters, bloggers, shoppers, anything indie. Check it out, and if you want to be my friend on it add me here.

Welp. The rain wasn't supposed to come until noon, but it showed up at 9:30, so I'm home early from the Farmer's market, with a pile of wet tablecloths, rugs, and magnets. Hopefully next week will be better.

Check it out, a new store has been added to my list of Brick and Mortars! Alchemy, which will open this fall, is a new eco-boutique in Richmond, VA and will carry EKRA rugs, pins, and cat toys. Awesome!

I'm back from the Detroit Urban Craft Fair. It was a great show. The fine ladies of Handmade Detroit put together one hell of a craft show. Huge shout out of Thanks to them for all the hard work they did to make DUCF such a great show.

And Columbus? What's up with that, you ask? I've had the pleasure of meeting the owner of Wholly Craft, Olivera, at Craft Congress in March and then again at Art vs. Craft in July. We had talked about Wholly Craft carrying EKRA products, but with this crazy summer of traveling, I hadn't had a chance to mail stuff to her. She was also at DUCF, and just by chance happened to be my neighbor, so I was able to send some EKRA stuff with her to take back to Columbus. Awesome.

I'm tired tired tired, but am going to use the next 6 weeks to get lots of stuff made for Renegade and Strange Folk. I'll be at the Dane County Farmer's market for the next 5 Saturdays, so all you Madisonians who having been missing me while I've been on the road, come out and say Hi!

I'm getting ready for another road trip this weekend. I'll be heading to Detroit for the Detroit Urban Craft Fair which will be Saturday Aug 4 from 10am-8pm at the Majestic Theater. I've been working hard getting lots of new stuff to bring with me. Here are two rugs I finished this week:

Another cupcake rug!

An orange rectangle rug!

Thanks to my new associate, my mom, who cut all the fabric for me to crochet these rugs!

Well, my mom and dad just got a new puppy and my mom brought him to meet me today. His name is Griff and he is a real cutie! He's blurry in this picture because he is wriggly and wouldn't hold still. This is the best one I got.

I just got a wholesale order from a new store in Richmond, VA that is going to focus on selling eco-chic goods. So you may notice that my etsy store is kind of empty right now. I've been crocheting up a storm and will be adding more rugs soon. Here's one that I just added. I wanted to call it Holly Hobby's Favorite Rug, but etsy doesn't allow apostrophes in the title of the item, so I had to change it to Holly Hobby Loves this Rug. It reminds me of the colors she wears. The blue was a corduroy remnant and the whitish part was a calico print curtain that actually has flecks of blue, red, white, and green.

I spent this weekend in Boston, well Cambridge to be more exact, visiting Aaron during his Oxford Internet Institute class. It was tons of fun.

First, I got to visit my friend Jill, who used to live in Madison, but now lives in Boston. She is the artistic genius behind boldsimple and she surprised me with one of my favorite pairs of earrings from her store! They are even more lovely in person than they are online.

Also, I just happened to be in town for Art Beat in Somerville and got to say 'hi' to Alison of Wonderland Q, who of course was super surprised to see me there. I also got to meet Leah of Craftster.org and Magpie. I was a super craft nerd and super excited to meet such a leader in the craft community. I'm pretty sure I acted like a huge dork. Whoops.

Other than that, I had lots of fun eating lobster rolls and fancy desserts, wandering around, and watching tons of wizards line up for the new Harry Potter book in Harvard Square with Aaron. Only 5 days until he comes home!

Madisonians, pick up the lastest issue of Wisconsin Woman Magazine to see a great write up about Madison recycling artists including yours truly!

I'm back from Ypsi! The Shadow Art Fair was really awesome. I was a little worried about a 12 hour show, but it was busy all day long! I had a great time, met lots of new people, met lots of people whose work I know from etsy, and had great sales. My mom was super awesome too, she entertained me during the drive, navigated well, helped me set up, and was a great saleswoman too! Thanks for all your help, Mom!

I got some really cool stuff at the show, I want to take pictures and show it off here, but who knows how long that will take? Aaron is off in Boston for his doctoral research program class, so I'll have lots of time to fill so I don't miss him too much. Moping around doesn't make the time go very fast at all. Also, I'm hoping to use this time to get my etsy store updated with some new items.

Thanks to all the Ypsl folks who made the Shadow Art Fair possible, it really rocked! I'm totally going to go back for another round!

My first ever show in Michigan is going to be this weekend in Ypsilanti. I'm pretty excited to be a part of this year's Shadow Art Fair. Sounds like it will be a great time in the Corner Brewery - crafts, beer, and live music. What more could you ask for? All you mitten dwellers come on out!

Just got home from round 6 of Art vs Craft in Milwaukee. What a great weekend! Long and tiring and hot, but great! I sold lots of stuff and met lots of people whose work I've admired online. Time to rest up and get ready for my trip to Ypsilanti next weekend for the Shadow Art Fair.

Got some great news this weekend too! I was accepted into the Chicago Renegade Craft Fair!

Clear all your weekend plans to make time to come on over to Art vs Craft in Milwaukee this weekend, July 7-8. This is going to be the biggest and best one yet! Not only are there going to be 100 awesome vendors, there's going to be a crafty area for shoppers to decorate a t-shirt with the girls of Fasten as guides! Also, the first 200 shoppers get free tote bags silk-screened by the Little Friends of Printmaking filled with goodies and samples provided by the vendors. And as if that wasn't enough, there is going to be a concert on July 7 after the craft fair featuring The Goodnight Loving and Calvin Johnson. I almost wish I was just a shopper and not a vendor! Hopefully I can sneak away from my booth for a few minutes to check out all the great stuff going on.

Big weekend for the putt-putt machine (my car - called that because it doesn't have a lot of 'get-up-and-go', especially when it is weighed down with all my craft stuff). Saturday morning I jumped in the car to head over to the market, only to realize that my front right tire was completely flat. So I got Aaron up, moved all the stuff to his car and got there in time to set up, but not where I usually am, so thanks to everyone who ventured a little ways down Mifflin St to find me. If you missed me, I'll be back at the market the last weekend of July.

Okay, so Aaron and I put the spare tire on last night and turns out that was flat too. So, this morning my car got a ride to the tire place and now is very happy with 4 brand new tires. Just in time for our big trips to Milwaukee, Ypsilanti, and Detroit. Huge silver lining in this story is that this happened while I was at home and not on the road!

After that I headed out to thrift stores and bought a lot of glassware to make frames with. I'm going to have awesome new stuff for you to see and buy at Art vs Craft this weekend. One even has a hedgehog on it, I'll post a picture after it is grouted.

Those pesky plastic bottlecaps are everywhere! Here's a way to reuse them to make a rattle.

1.Materials: Plastic bottlecaps from water or soda bottles, buttons or beads or anything that makes noise when it hits plastic, tape.

2. I have tons of buttons that I collect from the clothes that I cut up to make rugs. Place buttons (or other noise maker) inside one bottlecap.

3. Place another bottlecap on top of it.

4. Holding them with the buttons inside, tape together.

5. Viola! A Rattle!

I crochet around these to make them into fun cat toys, but you could add them to plush toys, dog toys, anything that needs a little noise to make it more fun!

Yikes, it has been hot and humid here. But the crafting must continue! Today I poured bottlecap magnets, grouted a bunch of new frames, and finally added a new rug to my etsy store.

Super busy weekend this past weekend. Saturday I was at the Farmer's Market and Sunday I participated in the neighborhood Art Walk. Thanks to everyone who stopped by!

I just found out today that due to a cancellation of another crafter, I was accepted into the Detroit Urban Craft Fair. Hooray! I'm excited to go to it, I met two of the organizers at Craft Congress and they were super awesome and sound like they put a great show on.

Yesterday I had a great day of crafting. My friend Melissa doesn't have much work to do this summer, so she said she'd like to come over and craft with me. She came over yesterday and made tons and tons of dictionary pins while I made cat toys. We had fun crafting and drinking lemonade and shooting the breeze.

I've been having a lot of non-craft fun lately. Last Wednesday, Aaron and I had a cookout with friends to celebrate our third wedding anniversary. This week Aaron's dad came to visit. We had a few meals out and went to the Brewer's game yeseterday. It was a lot of fun! Also, I spent Tuesday getting new glasses. They are red!

So, what does that mean for you, my loyal craft blog readers? It means I have no pictures of new stuff to show you. But I did crochet 4 cats for rugs last night, so there will be new cat rugs soon. Also, I have some new pouches featuring forest friends that I'll show you soon.

Coming up this weekend is the Tenny-Lapham Art Walk, so if you live in Madison, come on over! Questions about it? Use the "Contact EKRA" to e-mail me.

One of the editors of Craftzine.com blog purchased a kitty rug from me a little while ago and then decided to do an interview with me for the blog. It's up! Go read it and check out the rest of the blog, I read it everyday, it is full of awesome projects and tidbits!

Click here to read the interview.

The Craftacular was on Saturday and I think everyone involved had a good time. Naomi and I worked hard to make it a good show and I think it was a success.

The next month is full of shows for me. The next two Saturdays I'll be at the Madison Farmer's Market at the top of State Street, so check me out there. Also, next Sunday is the Tenny/Lapham Neighboorhood Art Walk, so if you live in Madison, come see me in front of my house will all my wares. Coming up are two big indie shows, Art vs Craft is on July 7 and 8. This is going to be the biggest and best one yet I think. There is going to be an area where you can get a free t-shirt and decorate it with craft products (also free to use) and there will be a rock concert after the craft sale on July 7. Lots of fun for everyone. Then the next weekend after that, my mom will be accompanying me on my first craft trip to Michigan for the Shadow Art Fair in Ypsilanti (close to Ann Arbor). I'm excited to move EKRA into another state!

After that whole whirlwind of excitement is over, I'm planning on taking a weekend off to go to Boston to visit Aaron, who will be there for 2 weeks taking a class.

This Saturday is the Craftacular! The first 50 shoppers will get goody bags filled with samples and coupons dontated by the artists that will be there. Naomi and I made them up yesterday and they are really awesome!

The Craftacular got a little write-up on the a blog written by Shayna Miller of Madison Magazine. Check it out!

At the end of my last post, I said I was off to the Dig and Save for more fabric. There was so much great fabric there on Wednesday! I filled up my cart and ended up with 50 pounds of linens! Do you think I went a little overboard?
Here's one of the rugs I made with the new fabric that is available in my etsy store. Two more new rugs from this fabric haul will be with me at the Farmer's Market tomorrow.

Mark your calendars! The 3rd Annual High Noon Craftacular will be Saturday June 16!

Hey all you Twin City folks! A new place to buy EKRA bottlecap magnets - Arise Bookstore! Need the address? Check it out over there on the left side of the screen. Just click that little + sign.

My bottlecap magnets are defintely my biggest seller. Even though I have everyone I know saving their caps for me, I never seem to have enough and I'm always worried I'll run out. Well, I just dropped $80 on e-bay for 1900 bottlecaps. Now, I know what you are thinking. $80?!?!?!?! for bottlecaps?!?!?!?! And to that I say, its well worth it. Now I won't have to worry for awhile, well, worry about bottlecaps at least.

Won? Well, not exactly. I won the e-bay auction, so I won the right to buy them. But they are so awesome! Last week I sold two purses with flower enamel pins on them, so I bought some from e-bay this week. Here's a picture of some of my favorites.

One already found a home on a pretty green clutch!

And some I wasn't too fond of. So I broke them up into their components and glued beads in the center to give them a new look. I'm not sure if I'll sell these as pins or pin them on purses.

Also, check out the Brick and Mortar list there on the left side of the screen. There is a new location in Verona, WI where you can buy EKRA rugs and magnets. The store is called Lou Rags and it is chock full of AMAZING vintage clothes, buttons, and jewelry. I could have spent all day there trying on dresses! If you are in Madison, it is worth the short drive to Verona to check it out!

Whew! I just spent almost the entire morning cleaning and pricing the frames I grouted on Friday as well as a pile of purses that have accumulated over the week. Definitely not my favorite part of the job! But it feels great to have everything all tagged and ready to go to the market, and even better when someone loves it enough to take it home with them!!

Here are a couple of my favorites from today's tagging and pricing.

I love this bright frame! I got the frame from Goodwill, the yellow tiles from a bowl from Dig and Save, and the flower tiles from a cup from a garage sale. It took garbage from all over town to make this frame!

In contrast, the fabric and pin for this fun clutch both came from the House of Thrift, but on different visits. I got the pin a few months ago, I guess it was waiting for the fabric to show up so they could get together,

I'll have both of these with me at the Farmer's Market on the Capital Square this Saturday from 8-1:30. Come check them out!

The Modish Summer Gift Guide is up! Can you find my listing?

Cinco de Mayo was my 30th birthday. Aaron got me 30 roses that smell beautiful.

Vinnie and Erika brought me a pinata filled with delicious candy that we beat up right on State Street.

No pictures of this stuff yet, but my mom and dad came to take me out to lunch and bought me some awesome new display grids for my booths at indoor shows for my rugs. I feel completely satisfied that I have celebrated fully another birthday!

Now it's time to work again. I sold a lot of stuff at the market on Saturday and I need to get producing. Also, I got word that I was accepted to the 6th Round of Art vs. Craft which will be July 7 and 8 in Milwaukee. Lots to do and I'm having tons of fun!

Hooray, another blog to add to my list of daily reading! Check out Pack Rat - Turning What You Have Into What You Want. The way I found out about this blog was that they posted about me! Check out the post about me here.

The Craftstravaganza Rogue Craft Show in St. Paul, MN this weekend was nothing short of amazing! The show opened at 9am and when I arrived at 8:15am, there was already a line of about 30 people waiting to get in! It was packed full of shoppers all day long, right up until the end at 4pm. Lots of rugs, purses, cat toys, magnets, and frames found their way to new homes. I only wish I had had more time to shop myself. A huge thanks to Andy and Jenna who organized this incredible show!!! I can't wait until next year!

Also, I need to send out a thanks to Naomi and Jerome who let me ride there with them in their new van. Jerome was super awesome driving man, getting lunch man, watching my booth while I ran to the bathroom man, running to the bank to get more small bills man. Basically just 'the Man!' So, thanks Jerome!

Before we left to come home, we headed over to a newly opened art/craft boutique called "I Like You." Naomi and I both left some of our wares there for the cool owners, Sarah and Angela to sell for us. It is such a cute store with tons of great handmade items. If you live in the Twin Cities, go check it out. I just added it to my list of brick and mortar stores over there on the left. Click on the + sign for the address.

I'm working on a super secret project to enter into a contest. Hopefully it will it be finished tonight so I can show it off tomorrow!

Hey, I've been featured on Indie Quarter Blog! Check it out here!

Yesterday I hit 50cent/pound clothes day at the Dig and Save. I came home with 28 pounds of clothes! But included in that is this INCREDIBLE green coat. It's a little snug, so it'll have to be a fall wear-it-over-a-tshirt coat. But I love it!

Among the 28 pounds of clothes was a shirt with frilly cuffs that I cut off and immediately put on the cats. They've been wearing them for hours and seemed pretty resigned to the torture.

Tomorrow I'm heading up to St. Paul with Naomi and Jerome to take part in the Craftstravaganza on Saturday. Any Twin city folks out there reading this? Come say 'hi!'

I've been reading quite a few indie craft blogs that highlight indie designers and products. One of my favorites is Modish. Jena, who writes it, also offers a monthly giveaway full of great prizes donated by crafters. I donated a crocheted purse for this months giveaway and although the point is to get your product in the hands of new potential customers, I really want to win because so much awesome stuff has been donated by other crafters. You can check out the goodies here and be sure to sign-up for her mailing list for an opportunity to WIN!!!

Whew! Busy weekend here for me. Saturday was the first farmer's market of the season. We had such a beautiful day, 75 degrees and sunny! It was great to be back up by the capital, I had lots of customers from last year come back to say hi and met some new people too. It was nice to catch up with all the other vendors too. I haven't done an outdoor show with my tent in a long time and I forgot how much room I have out there! Seemed like it took me forever to set up, but I'm sure I'll get my groove back soon. It was so nice to be able to display my rugs by hanging them on my tent.

Sunday was the Earth Day Crafternoon at the Local Tavern that was organized by Jessica of Wanderlost Clothing. Bar shows are always fun, pretty low key and plenty of access to tasty drinks! I got a present for myself, a green cardigan screen-printed with orange birdies by Wanderlost. It is cotton and I'm pretty sure it will be my 'all summer long' sweater. I love it!

Next week, a road trip to St. Paul for the Craftstravaganza!

Hey hey hey! Naomi and I have set the date for the High Noon Summer Craftacular! If you are crafty and interested in applying, check out this post on the Glitter Workshop website.

Well, what's going on here. I'm getting ready for the Farmer's market season to start, the first one is this coming Saturday, April 21. Then, on Sunday April 22, there is the Earth Day Crafternoon at the Local Tavern. Then the next week I'll be heading up to St. Paul for the Craftstravaganza. So, every week from now until x-mas you'll be able to find me out and about peddling my crafts. I've got some fun stuff in the works, a trunk show at an awesome boutique and gallery and the High Noon Summer Craftacular, more on those as things develop. So, goodbye lazy days of winter!

Alison, a fellow indie crafter who I met at Craft Congress, recently had emergency surgery. I hear she is recovering, but her wallet will really take a hit from this since as a self-employed artist, she has no health insurance. Alison does great work, she is the woman behind Wonderland Q, works with Marie at the Sampler, and also works selling ad space for Readymade magazine. My part to help is to donate 50% of my sales from my etsy store this week (4/11-4/18) to the paypal fund that Alison's friends have set up to help her recover from this hit. So, if you've had your eye on something in my store, please go buy it to help me help a crafter in need!

Here's a picture of our backyard today, April 11, 2007. These late season snow storms seem to happen every year, but they never cease to amaze me. It was a good day to stay inside.

I've been talking on and off about the Indie Craft Documentary that Faythe Levine is making about the Indie Craft Community for the last year. This weekend at Craft Congress she passed out DVDs of a sneak preview to all the attendees so we could see the beginning of her masterpiece. Go take a look at what's she's done so far on You Tube. I'm in it! (Note: There are a few typos, so don't be alarmed if you see the wrong name or website by anyone, this is a work in progress.)

So, one of the good things about being an unorganized pack rat is that I find things I stashed away because I thought they were great but I didn't have an idea of what to do with them when I aquired them. Here's a great example of that. I found a vintage owl greeting card in a pack of cards from Saver's that I bought for making bottlecap magnets over a year ago. I just found it again in my craft room a few weeks ago and had the perfect frame to use it on. I cut out the owl and glued it to plain glass to make a tile out of it. I love how it turned out!

Here's a close up of the "greeting card tile" I made.

I got a request for help on a school project via my "Contact EKRA" feature here and I wrote a nice long response, but it got bounced back to me. Joe, if you check back, I think you typed your e-mail in wrong, so you need to try again.

I knew I'd be meeting with a lot of like-minded people at the Craft Congress. All of us are indie craft show organizers and indie crafters ourselves. But when I saw all the tables covered with craft paper, plates of candy and boxes of crayons for enjoying during the discussions, I felt like I was among a new family.

I doodled to my heart's content! Here's my two day's worth of work.

Wow. This weekend in Pittsburgh at the Craft Congress was utterly amazing. I got to meet so many great crafty people!

As a group of indie craft leaders, we discussed and shared ideas we have about what the DIY/indie craft community is, how to get sponsorship for our craft shows, how to help our vendors sell well, how to use guerilla marketing for low budget advertising, and lots of other stuff. I took lots of notes and have tons of new ideas on how to make the Craftacular that Naomi and I plan bigger and better.

I did not, however, take lots of pictures. But, there is a Craft Congress Flickr group where people are uploading their photos so you can check out what went down. I'm so happy that I got to be a part of the first ever Craft Congress!

Record high temperatures here today, 80 in March!

I was able to snap some pictures outside in the sun today. Here is my newest skull rug.

Kablamo! Spring hit me really hard this year. I've been sleeping for the last three days straight, trying to get over a serious flu or cold or something. Something viral for sure. The little buggers are finally finished trying to kick my eyeballs out and playing dodgeball in my head. Today the pain is down to a dull roar. Thank goodness!

So, nothing new to show off. But, soon, I promise!

Here's a new kitty rug!

The Salvation Army Family Store in Madison is closing tomorrow. I'm sad to see it go, I bought a lot of great fabric there. And dresses. And other crap I didn't really need but just thought was cool and ended up taking back to a different thrift store months later. Naomi and I took a trip over there today to see what was left, shop, and say good bye. I picked up these two tableclothes. I think I say this just about every time I get new fabric, but this is the most beautiful fabric I've ever seen! I can't wait to make it into a beautiful springy rug!

In other news, I recently (ie. earlier this afternoon) rediscovered my Flickr account. I uploaded a bunch of pictures of frames to it, so if you want to take a look, click here.

I've got March madness and it has nothing to do with basketball. I've decided that March is my least favorite month. I know a few weeks ago I said January is my least favorite, but March is the new winner, and here's why: There's nothing happening! No shows to go to. Just preparation for the busy spring and summer season, which is so close I can practically see it, but I just have to get through March. Oh March, you are not much fun and you are driving me mad! Nothing but basketball on TV doesn't help much either.

Here's something new I'm trying. I'm going to sell mosaic tiles. Here is the first set I have listed in my etsy store. Pretty, huh?

Day two of my mosaic class with Julie and Lori. Time to grout!

I showed up and was pleased to see they had continued to glue glass even after I left. Here are all the tiles they did.

I showed them the fun of grouting. Here they are hard at work!

And the finished tiles. I think they did a magnificent job!

It was a ton of fun to share my mosaic knowledge with them. Hopefully they'll keep at it!

I met Julie and Lori on Library Mall last summer while I was vending one day. Ever since then, they been great supporters and customers of EKRA. They wanted to learn how to mosaic, so I packed up some tiles and dishes and tools and went over to their house to share what I know about mosaics. It was fun and they were great students!
Here's Lori thinking about her design.

Here's Julie gluing some glass.

Tomorrow I'm going to go back to show them how to grout.

Yesterday I went to the Dig and Save because it was half price clothes! 50 cents a pound. As I was checking out, I saw a sign that said starting March 1 (today) linens will go up from 50 cents a pound to $1 a pound. Also, glassware and other miscellanous items will go up from 25 cents a pound to 35 cents a pound. Needless to say, it made me sad. My cheapest source of supplies is now less cheap. Oh well. I had fun yesterday digging and found lots of great clothes that are already washed and dried and ready to be cut into strips and crocheted into wonderful rugs for you.

Here's a rug I made a few days ago. It reminds me of cotton candy.

Goodness gracious. It has been a rough couple of days here in EKRAland. Friday night a monster headache snuck up on me and kept in in bed pretty much all day Saturday. I didn't do a single crafty thing, that's how much my head hurt. Thankfully, Aaron went to the store and bought me a chicken pot pie (which I've been craving) and a single serving of Cadbury Mini Eggs (my favorite candy, that only comes out at Easter time). After eating those comfort foods, I was feeling better. Today my head still hurts, but just a 'dull roar' of a pain. One thing that might be making my head hurt is that our dryer is dead. It has been noisy and annoying for awhile, but still drying the clothes. Now it doesn't dry at all. Now, I'm a pretty messy person, but the one thing that I'm really OCD about cleaning is that fabric thrift store purchases get washed right away. We are going to head out to the Dig and Save to replace it tomorrow. In the meantime, I'm focusing on using fabrics I already have in my closet. Here's a rug I made with all 'closet fabric.'

Well, I don't have a flight suit or a banner or an air craft carrier to announce this, but I think that everyone would actually agree that the mission of the High Noon Valentine Craftacular was accomplished. We advertised that there would be free goody bags for the first 50 customers and there were people lined up outside the door waiting to get in at 10am, even in the bitter cold! I had a chance to talk to all the vendors and they told me that they had a good time. Their were lots of customers, lots of shopping, some afternoon drinks, and a good time had by all. Naomi and I are getting good at planning these little shindigs. The only bad thing about the day was that Naomi was too sick to come. She worked so hard with me to set this whole thing up, accepting applications, communicating with vendors, soliciting donations for the goody bags, and so much more that goes on behind the scenes of a successful craft fair. Instead of coming to the show and seeing the fruits of her labor, she had to go to the doctor and have them tell her she has bronchitis. Poor Naomi, she was missed at the show, but the show couldn't have happened without her! Feel better soon, Naomi! Other people helped out a ton too, the Glitter Family and Aaron, and all their help was much appreciated, so thanks guys!

The Glitter Workshop got a great write-up in the Wisconsin State Journal today. You can read the article here. They even mentioned me in it, those Glitter Girls sure are sweet!

When I was little, my mom would threaten to change my name to "Mud." It was usually when she thought I was going to spill something, "If you spill that grape juice on the carpet, your name is gonna be Mud!" It turned out to be an empty threat because I know I spilled tons of stuff, and my name is still Emily.

Why am I telling you this? Well, I was looking in my fabric closet at all the brown I had and thought it would be funny to crochet it up into a rug and call it "Your name is Mud!" However, when I crocheted it up, it didn't look like mud at all. It looks like chocolate and caramel, which is now its name. Guess I'll have to try again for the Mud rug.

The Glitter Workshop got these amazing hoodies from Nice Face that I drooled over for about a week. After much coaxing by Aaron to treat myself and much assurance from Naomi that it looked okay on me, I bought one! I love it so much! I look pretty silly in this picture, but I wanted to show off my new threads.

Another thing making me happy is that I FINALLY got some new blades for my rotary cutter. I was really missing cutting fabric and crocheting, but I didn't realize how down it was getting me. I feel like myself again! Hooray!

Only 5 days and counting until the Craftacular!

Thank goodness January is over. It can be such a cruel month. November and December are filled with shows and fun and sales and then bam! It is all over, its January, and cold, and you sit in your craft room making stuff with no feedback, and blah, it is no fun. But now it is February and on the very first day I sold two of my mosaic frames to a woman in Las Vegas and she wrote the nicest note to me. And here I go bragging and showing off, but I don't care, it really made my day!

"The mod plate frame is one of the most fabulous decorative items I have EVER seen at ANY price--I am bouncing up and down in my chair with glee to have found it! Rock on!"

This is the frame she is talking about. I fell in love with these plates when I saw them when Aaron and I were in Canada. I just had to buy and break them!

I've been contributing to the Sampler for about 6 months now and I always get a kick out of it when I see my product posted up on the site. My bottlecap magnets are up now, so go check it out! Also, sending a huge thanks to Marie, the woman behind the Sampler, who collects samples from indie desginers from all over the country (and world?) and sends them out to media outlets and Sampler subscribers to help them get more exposure. She rocks.

The Valentine Craftacular is coming up! Here is the sexy flyer Naomi designed for the show. All the vendors have been selected and the vendor list will be up soon on the Glitter Workshop site.

This week I shipped 5 of my crocheted rugs off to the Made Boutique in Vermont. Check out their website! I'm excited to have my wares in a new store.

What else is going on? Saturday and Sunday I helped Naomi paint the Glitter Workshop cotton candy pink and glitter the wall. It was a lot of hard work, but the store looks brand new and totally awesome. Also, I've been working on restocking bottlecap magnets. I sold a ton over the holiday season, sent 100 in for the February Sampler, and sent 100 as restock to Young Blood Gallery in Atlanta.

As always, I have lots to do, mosaic frames need gluing and grouting before the Craftacular!

There's an upcycling contest on Etsy. The word Upcycling was coined by William McDonaugh and Michael Braugart in their book on ecologically intelligent design, Cradle to Cradle. In the simplest terms, upcycling is the practice of taking something that is disposable and transforming it into something of greater use and value. The people at Etsy challenged people to make something from materials that would have ended up in a trash heap. Right up my alley!

I entered a mosaic frame. I started with a thrift store frame, an empty blue bottle (emptied at the Veenstra family x-mas celebration, thanks Scott!), and some washers I picked up at a rummage sale. I'm not sure if this stuff actually qualifies as 'trash heap bound,' but I entered anyways.

I turned it into this:

First place is a trip to San Francisco to take part in the Bazaar Bizarre at the Maker Faire in May. How awesome would that be? Really really awesome.

Look at that cute bird flying across the purse! I finished this purse yesterday and posted it in my etsy store today.

It's just like this cat is looking in a mirror! This is a picture of a custom rug I made that was sent away as a holiday present. I love it when I get to see my stuff in their new environments!

What's up with you? I've actually been taking it kind of easy craft-wise, taking time to organize and clean some of the house (not fun, but neccesary) and reading a few books (FUN!).

But there is some cool stuff in the works here. One, I'm working on some entries for the Upcycling Contest sponsored by Etsy and Bizarre Bazaar. Second, Aaron and Naomi and I are in the very first steps of making a TV show/Podcast. We are going to be famous!

In between all that, I have been crafting. I made this little clutch and attached some fabric-covered 1-inch pins that I got from Future Cougar at the Renegade Craft Fair in December.

Well, are you? Want to be a part of the 2007 High Noon Valentine Craftacular? Submit your application ASAP! You can get it from the Glitter Workshop website here.

This year's High Noon Valentine Craftacular will be held at the High Noon Saloon, 701 E. Washington Ave, Madison, WI from 10-4 on Saturday, February 10. Come to buy your sweetie your yourself a little valentine treat!

New type of rug, just in time for Valentine's Day!

Happy New Year! Aaron and I rang in the new year last night with Cake at the Riverside Theater in Milwaukee. It was very fun and a great show. They handed out hats like the one pictured above with cool silver stars on them. Being the little recycler that I am, I picked a bunch of them up off the floor on our way out to make bottlecap magnets with. Watch for those in the future...

What's new for 2007 in EKRA land? Well, I've got tons of the traditional resolutions: exercise more, eat healthier, keep more organized, etc. But, I've got a couple of buisness resolutions/goals for 2007. In 2006, I accomplished several big goals. I got set-up to accept credit cards at shows, I got a spot in the Madison Farmer's Market (which is no small task), and I traveled to farther away indie craft fairs. For 2007, I want to increase my online sales, make the Craftacular a bigger and better indie craft fair, and turn lots more garbage into new and useful things!

Thanks to everyone who helped make 2006 a successful year for me, and thanks in advance for your support in 2007!

Hey Madisonites, check it out! A great new pet supply store just opened up on W. Lakeside St (think Lakeside Fibers and Bohemian Bauble). The owner, Liz Perry, saw my catnip mice at the Craftacular and contacted me about carrying them in her store, and of course I said yes! So, if you need some fancy food or a fun toy for your dog or cat, or specifically an EKRA catnip mouse, go to:

Nutzy Mutz & Crazy Catz
330 W Lakeside St
Madison WI, 53715

At the Holiday Renegade Craft show, my booth was next to Donovan Beeson, the lovely young woman behind 16 Sparrows, where sarcasm is folded in half. More than once I heard people say to her, "Does this say what I think it says?" in response to her "Happy Fucking Holidays" card. In fact, she has a whole line of "Effing" cards ranging from congratulations to thank yous. HILARIOUS! Tons of people picked up and laughed at her stork holding a baby card that read "I'm knocked up!" I thought that would be a great one to send to my mom on April Fool's Day, but decided against it in the end, figuring she might fail to see the humor in it.

In addition to her cards, she makes lots of great stuff from old maps. I snatched up a couple of little notebooks with map covers for Aaron, the king of list making in little notebooks, and a set of envelopes made from old maps. I have a new-found appreciation for map crafts ever since Aaron started making the map pins. She refused cash payment and instead chose to be paid in catnip mice. She even shared photos of her cat enjoying the hell out of one cat toy and gave me permission to post the picture here. Check out her darling with a catnip mouse.

Just showing off some new skull pouches I made to take to the Handmade Market in Chicago last weekend. These are the ones that are left and they are available in my etsy store. Perfect to house all the gift cards you collect as presents this holiday season!

I've told you before about Monday's being 99cent tag day at Saver's. I've been waiting for purple tags to be 99 cents for what seems like forever. Today I went just to check and see and FINALLY it was purple tags. I got these awesome plates with pink and orange flowers. I can't wait to break them!

Here's a new kitty rug to keep you company. It's available in my etsy store.

I hate it when I check on my site and all of the News Log has been archived! So, here's a post to fill up the space and update you on what has been going on.

Last weekend, I went down to Chicago with Naomi to take part in the Renegade Holiday Craft Fair. We each had our own tables and were in two separate rooms, so I was all by myself all day both days. I made friends with the people next to me, but it is really hard work to work your booth all alone for two days. But, I survived and was feeling pretty good about the holiday craft season being OVER! But then I realized it's not. Tomorrow, I'm heading down to Chicago again with Naomi to be a part of the Handmade Market at the Empty Bottle on Western Ave. No pressure though, I'm just taking a small space on Naomi's table and basically just keeping her company. I'm all packed up in one suitcase and am looking forward to a few beers and some shopping time. Oh how I would have loved to have shopped at Renegade last weekend, but alas, if you leave your table, you might miss a sale. It is a JOB after all....

Also. since September, I've been telling people who want custom rugs made that they have to wait until the holiday shows are over. Today I finished two rugs, one red and yellow oval and one grapefruit. Now I have two more to go, one monster one that is 9 feet long that I'm about 5 feet into and one kitty rug.

I really want to do some holiday stuff. Well, really I just want to sit and eat some holiday cookies and drink some holiday 'cheer.' Also, wrap the presents I've been collecting for everyone. And New Year's Eve, I can't wait for New Year's Eve because Aaron and I are going to see Cake at the Riverside in Miwaukee. That will be AWESOME. I love Cake.

Welp, I'm all packed up for my last big show of 2006, the Renegade Holiday Craft Fair in Chicago. I hardly know what to do with myself, now that I actually have a minute to sit and breathe and think. Maybe I should start working on all the custom orders that have been piling up. Or maybe I should wash the dishes and do the laundry that I've neglected in this time of mad crafting. Or clean up the craft room and living room where all my supplies are making it hard to walk around. What I'd really like to do is take the cats upstairs and have a nice winter's nap to rest up before this weekend's show.

Hey hey hey. Last night and Tuesday night I spent elbow deep in grout on the kitchen floor, grouting some frames (26) to take to the Renegade Holiday Craft Fair this weekend. It's going to be a girl's only weekend for me and Naomi (of the Glitter Workshop). We're heading down there together since both of our husbands have prior engagments. Can you believe they'd rather be doing something other than being at a craft fair for the whole weekend??? I can't.

Tuesday I headed over to Glitter to hang out and a customer came in and was talking about this thrift place that Naomi, Heather, and I had never heard of. We couldn't believe it, a thrift store than NONE of us had heard of? Impossible. It sparked such a fire under us that we had to go check it out, righ then! It was like playing hooky since we were all supposed to be working hard to make stuff for the Renegade show this weekend. It turned out to be a pretty crazy trip, so much so that Heather took pictures to document the craziness.

Aaron and I are back from Minneapolis. We had a great time at the No Coast Craft-O-Rama which was held at the Midtown Global Market. As always, Aaron's map pins were a hit and I sold 19 of my mosaic frames. Can you guess what I'm doing now? That's right, breaking and gluing glass to replenish my frame stock. We stopped at a thrift store on the way out of St. Paul and I found a bunch of great frames to mosaic.

I was featured in an article about indie crafters and the No Coast show in the Star Tribune. You can read the article here.

Time to get back to work, Renegade Holiday Craft Fair is coming up this weekend!

Last weekend's High Noon X-mas Craftacular was more successful that I could have hoped for! All the vendors and shoppers had a good time. I'd like to send huge shout out to Naomi of the Glitter Workshop who was my partner in crime planning the Craftacular. She is an amazing organizer, keeping paperwork in order, e-mails answered, goody bag donations recruited and bagged up in cute little packages. She totally rocks and I love planning shows with her! Also, special thanks to her man, Jerome, who was instrumental in getting lots of people to the show with his awesome street decoration with sandwich boards and balloons. Finally, super huge thanks to my partner in crime FOR LIFE, Aaron, who was awesome for the entire weekend, marking off vendor spaces, keeping my display looking nice, driving me to and fro, getting pizza and drinks, making tons of money selling his super popular map pins, and generally just keeping me calm.

However, I didn't have much time to ride the high of planning a successful show since tomorrow Aaron and I are heading up to Minneapolis for the No Coast Craft-O-Rama. All you MLPS peeps come out to the Midtown Global Market to say hi!

Talk about doorbusters, the Craftacular today was AWE-SOME! The place was packed for the first couple of hours. Heather, of the Glitter Workshop, counted more than 400 shoppers! Hooray! All those nightmares I had about no one coming were for nothing, being a co-organizer is stressful for me.

Don't forget you can come to the High Noon Saloon at 701 E. Washington Ave, Madison, Wi for the second day of the High Noon Christmas Craftacular from 11am-4pm. There's still lots of fun stuff to look at and buy and many drinks to drink!

I'm back from DIY Trunk Show that was in Chicago on Saturday. Here are a few pictures of my booth that I snapped before the sale was open to the public.

Aaron had a conference to go to, so he dropped me off and came back at the end to pick me up. I really missed his company and booth-watching abilities. It was a long day there by myself, but I made lots of sales and had a good day. When I went to check in, one of the coordinators gave me a copy of the Chicago Journal, which is a local free newspaper. It had a picture of one of my skull rugs on the front page as a teaser for an article inside about the show. Pretty exciting! However, they didn't give me any credit for making it.

Gearing up now for the High Noon X-mas Craftacular, my and Glitter Workshop's show. It is this weekend at the High Noon Saloon, 701 E. Washington Ave, Madison, WI. Saturday Nov 25 11-6 and Sunday Nov 26 11-4. Check out the vendor list here.

Super busy here in EKRA-land. Sunday I called in my mommy to help me complete my contribution to the Sampler this month. She snuggled into my usual spot on the sofa and worked her fingers to the bone, cutting and bagging and sorting until all the work was done! I really appreciate her help. Thanks Mom!

What else is keeping my busy? DIY Trunk Show in Chicago this weekend. Last year my frames were really popluar so I've been working hard to have lots of cool ones ready. I just grouted a batch with black grout tonight and it really messy, so hopefully my fingernails are clean by Saturday!

Then, Thanksgiving weekend is the High Noon X-mas Craftacular, a show planned by the Glitter Workshop and yours truly! Check out all the great people who will be selling their wares there on the vendor list!

As if that wasn't enough, I'm heading to Minneapolis the next weekend for the No Coast Craft-o-rama and the NEXT weekend back to Chicago again for the first ever Renegade Holiday Craft Fair.

Just typing all this is starting to make me a little anxious, so I'm going to relax and go to bed, dreaming of breaking plates and cutting fabric no doubt.

Two skull rugs ran off at Art vs Craft to be presents for friends and 3 headed off to the Paper Boat Boutique for the holiday shopping season. Here are three new ones I've made to replace them/

I'm back from my weekend in Milwaukee for Art vs Craft! Aaron went with me and it was a lot of fun. Lots of rugs, frames, magnets, and kitty toys found new homes and I reached my sales goal! Hooray! I was a different experience this time. The last two fall shows have been Friday night and then Saturday during the day. Now that it is at the new location, the show was all day Saturday and Sunday. It was good because I wasn't as tired the second day. I saw lots of stuff I wanted for myself, but limited myself to shopping for presents. I got an awesome present for my brother, and that's all I'll say for now since I want to keep it a secret. Also, I got a tiny thank you present for Sharon who was nice enough to let us sleep over at her house, a ninja sticker from Shawnimals!

Alright alright alright!!! Time for Art vs Craft, the 5th round!

Saturday November 4 10am-7pm
Sunday November 5 10am-5pm

Michael J. Cudahy Student Center
1025 N. Broadway, Milwaukee WI

There's a $2 admission for people ages 13 and up, but it'll be worth it to see all the great handmade items made by artists and crafters from all across the country!

I'm super excited to be a part of it, but since I've been off for a month from shows, I have to admit that I'm having some pre-show jitters.

Whenever people see my skull magnets, they ask if they come in other colors. I finally made some other than the traditional white and black.

They are available in sets as well as singly in my etsy store.

Yesterday I was out and about thrift store shopping with my mom. (Happy Birthday MOM!) We hit the Dig and Save as usual, then went over to the east side to go to the Salvation Army. I picked out a bunch of fabric and some frames and then halfway through checking out, we overheard them say that all the lunch plates, cups, and saucers were 4 for 79cents! That is a great bargain for the Sal Army, since that stuff ranges from 39cents to $1.49 each usually. We finished checking out and then took the cart right back in to the store. I started piling in the dishes. There were 2 old ladies back there shopping and they kept saying things like, "You sure are finding a lot of stuff." I know that tone. That's the "Shit, she's taking all the stuff and there is going to be nothing left for me" tone. I've felt it many times myself. You see someone buying up a bunch of stuff and you start to panic thinking, "What am I missing? Do I need to start grabbing this stuff too?" I was able to fend them off while I picked out all the best plates and cups for mosaicking with. I ended up with about 65 pieces of glass ware. Now I'm in mosaic heaven and hell. Heaven because I'm up to my ears in broken glass. Hell because I'm up to my ears in little tiny cuts from all the glass I've been breaking.

My third squid rug:

The squid is crocheted from a blue bathrobe velour remnant and the rest is a doubleknit remnant that I got when Aaron and I went to Portage right after Renegade. He had 4 legs stitched down for a long time, I finally got back to him to stitch down the last two this week. Those legs are squirmy!

First the happy news. Remember I made those frames with this woman's mother's china? She took them home with her to give one to each of her siblings and they were a big hit! She said they all loved them. Hooray!

Now the sad news. Yesterday at the Dig and Save I discovered that they are no longer going to sell books there. That was my best resource for pictures for my bottlecap magnets. I'm sad. I don't understand why they made that decision either. Seems like people were always buying tons of books there. I know I bought my fair share.

Oh well, here are some frames from the latest batch that I grouted earlier this week.

This one I cheated on a little bit. The green circles are beads I bought at Michaels. I know they are new, but I just fell in love with them when I saw them and I thought they would make great mosaic tiles. The rest are tiles I cut from an old plate and a thrift store frame.

I really like the little blue pinwheel flowers on this frame.

This one is kind of weird. I was standing at the Dig and Save with these plates in my hand wondering if I liked them enough to buy them. I wasn't sure, so I just threw them in the cart anyways (I'm not good at discriminating while I'm shopping there sometimes). These plates I almost didn't buy turned out to make my favorite frame of this bunch.

I decided to take a break from making things to sell and make something for myself last night. I crocheted these little mary jane style slippers with my trusty N hook and three strands of yarn held together. They don't quite match, the second one turned out a lot better than the first. However, they are pretty toasty on my tootsies. Pimper is eyeing them up in the picture, he thinks that everything made of yarn is a toy!

Just wanted to show you this review of the Sampler by WhipUp. She says that one of her three favorite things in her package was my bottlecap magnet! Yeah!

A brand new design! A squirrel!

It's all rainy and wet outside, so I couldn't get good pictures of it in the natural light. But I was so excited I wanted to give you a sneak peak. It'll be listed in my etsy store soon!

Here's my newest skull rug:

This month's special: Buy any skull rug from my etsy store in October and get a set of skull magnets for FREE!

Today one of my skull rugs is on the front page in the featured section on etsy.com!!!

In other news, I'm sick! :( I haven't been doing much of anything except sleeping and complaining. Today I'm getting 100 crocheted skull magnets ready to send off for the November Sampler.

Carol sells awesome Madison Farmer's Market t-shirt and tote bags at the farmer's market on Saturdays. My kitty rugs caught her eye and she custom ordered one from me to give to her daughter. Here is her daughter, Marijka, holding her new kitty rug, loving it!

I think that after shopping for materials at thrift stores, my favorite thing craft thing is breaking glass. I've been breaking glass like a maniac this last week, making me wish I had a bionic wrist so I would never have to stop. I've got a lot of glass cut so I have to spend today gluing it down to the frames I cut it for. Also, for all you proper English speakers and writers out there, I realize I have dangling participles in just about every post that I write. Recognizing the problem is the first step, right? I'm sure I'll never go back to fix them though. Oh well, here's a new kitty rug with which to distract you (pretty slick undangling participle there, huh?)

X-mas!
I've had this x-mas type tiles sitting around my craft room since January and now that there are x-mas decorations for sale in stores, I thought it was time to use them. I grouted them on Monday when it was 75 degrees here. It was weird because I couldn't get "Let it snow" out of my head while I was grouting outside in the warm sunshine.

Remember I told you that last Saturday at the market a woman brought me her mom's china to mosaic some frames with? I got really excited and broke all the glass for them on Sunday, grouted them on Monday (along with a ton of other frames), and finallly took a picture to show them off to you! They aren't completely finished, I still have to put the signature green paper with my stamp in them with the backs, but I just couldn't wait. Here are two of the four that I did for her. The china she gave me had a white dogwood flower pattern on it that is just beautiful and I really love the way these turned out.

What a crazy day at the market yesterday. The weather was predicted to be cloudy and a small chance of showers. It was cloudy in the morning, then a little sprinkle, then sun, then a light rain, then sun, then a heavier rain. GRRRR! By the third rain, I called it quits. Everything was wet and there weren't many people walking around. As soon as I got everything all packed up, out came the sun and I felt like a major slacker because it was only noon and I was going out to lunch with Aaron. Oh well.

It was a good thing that I was there though. A woman that has been interested in me mosiacking some frames with her mother's old china came to drop off the platter she wanted me to use. I love it so much when I can do this for people. She brought me a broken serving platter that is mostly white with a flower dogwood flower pattern on it. I cut the glass for two of the four frames she wants made and I think she's going to be really pleased with how they turn out. Another woman got some holiday shopping done at my booth yesterday. She bought 3 bottlecap magnets for each of her 7 staff members and 3 for herself. That was my biggest one-person magnet sale ever! And one woman took a kitty rug home with her. That always makes me happy.

So, all in all, it was a pretty good day, despite the weather. I'm working on making lots of bottlecap magnets for the holiday shows and mosaicking lots of frames because I still feel depleted because of Renegade.

Remember these? They are kind of a blast from the past. Mirror mosaic star magnets. I just made a batch this past week. Now I remember why I haven't made any in a while, they are so tedious to make! But they are really nice to look at when they are finished.

Here's something kind of new I've been playing around with: crocheted star magnets. They are really simple to make and so I wonder if they are cool enough or not. Not as unique as the mosaic star magnets and not as original as my crocheted skulls. What do you think? Would you want them on your fridge? Or do you think they would be better as ornaments? I'm not sure yet....

One of the owners of the Young Blood Gallery and Boutique in Atlanta, GA stopped by my booth at Renegade and asked if I'd be interested in selling them some of my bottlecap magnets wholesale to them. Heck yeah! I sent a tray down yesterday. I hope Georgia peaches like my bottlecap magnets as much as Wisconsin cheeseheads do!

The leaves on the trees are starting to turn colors and fall, there is a crispness in the morning air, time for fall! I scored some nice orange and black yarn at Goodwill last week and have been making my skull magnets in orange and black for halloween.

Hello, I'm back from Renegade! It was so much fun! I'd like to say a special thanks to Aaron who came along with me. He helped me navigate down there, carried my heavy stuff all around the park, and kept me company! He's the bestest ever! And his map pin creations were the surprise hit of the weekend. He decided to bring his button machine and atlases along to make custom pins for people. He sold 160 map pins!!! And about half of those were custom made right there. It was so fun to see people come up and ask for their hometown or place they had lived for awhile. Almost everyone had the same happy-sentimental frown when they saw it in map pin form. Everyone that bought one seemed to love them! Get one of your very own right here.

I finished my last batch of mosaic frames for Renegade yesterday and now I'm pretty much all packed up and ready to go! Now I'm not nervous, I'm just plain excited and it is keeping me awake.

Its been gloomy and rainy and chilly for about 5 days and I have to grout inside. Aaron went back to school, I see Halloween stuff at Savers, and I'm disappointed by primary election results. All signs point to summer being over. Jeez Lousie! Where did the summer go? Seems like just yesterday I was doing my first Farmer's Market in April. Wow. Oh, well. No time for reminiscing. Renegade Craft Fair this weekend, then a slew of holiday shows, one of which the Glitter Workshop and I are planning together at the High Noon Saloon.

New eye candy! Here's a few sets I pulled out of the latest batch of bottlecap magnets.

These bright beauties came from an old Avon box that I had my eye on for a long time, but couldn't justify paying for the Avon thing inside just for the box. My bud, Naomi, snatched it up and was showing off the contents, which turned out to be a cute cup and not a perfume bottle. I told her I had wanted the box and she generously handed it over. Thanks Naomi!

These elephants were cut out of an old Babar book. It brought back memories of my mom reading them to me and my brother when we were little. They made great magnets!

The Craftypod podcast for which I was interviewed is up now! Go listen to me and three other crafty women talk about our businesses.

So, almost a week into September and no new posts from me, what's going on? Well, its 9 days until Renegade, that's whats going on. I've been working so hard trying to have a lot of cool stuff made to take down to Chicago with me. Kitty and skull rugs are what I have been focusing on, along with the ever popular mosaic frames. So, talk to you later, I've got crocheting to do!

A new day and new rugs to show off! First, my second attempt at a turtle rug. I think it's a lot cuter than the first one with the the streaky blue background.

And a Squid Rug! A brand new design. I'm not sure if this will be a regular design though because it took FOR-EV-ER to sew all 6 of his legs down. Sure turned out cute though! He's squiderific!

New skull rugs! Check them out in my Etsy store!

I like them all, but I think this one is my favorite because it is cute and sweet but bad ass all at the same time.

Pink Skull Rug

The vendor list for two indie craft shows I'll be at this fall are up and the amount of talented artists that will be there is amazing! Check out the vendor lists for the Renegade Craft Fair (Sept 16-17, Wicker Park, Chicago) and DIY Trunk Show (Nov 18, Pulaski Auditorium, Chicago).

I've been crocheting my fingers to the bone! Four new kitty rugs, including this one are listed in my etsy store.

Today I was interviewed for a very cool podcast called Craftypod. It is a podcast all about making stuff put together by Sister Diane. She just started a new type called Craftyprenuer Roundup where she interviews 4 independent craft buisness owners. I'll let you know when it airs, but I was pretty nervous and got all tongue-tied and stupid for the interview. Whoops.

It's a Turtle Rug!!!

Ouch, my hand hurts from breaking glass all morning. I'm taking a break and putting some new pictures up online. Here is one of my new rugs. It was crocheted from a few remants, a double knit dress, and a velour dress. It's called "I love green."

So, in Madison, there is this terrificly horrible situation where just about every single lease ends on Aug 14 and starts on Aug 15. This is a real bummer if you have to move since you are displaced and homeless for a night with all your possessions. But, if you aren't moving (like me!) it can be great because people put tons and tons of stuff on the curb free for the taking! Part of me can't sit still while this is happening, all the free garbage for me to take and craft with. The other part of me cringes at all the waste and how lazy people are about getting it to a place where it could go to good use. But, it is a Madison tradition, the news warns people to avoid downtown, people go curb shopping, and everyone just deals with the situation.

What did I get this year? Lots of goodies. First, I got a coffee table and a little bookshelf to use in my craft room. It forced me to clean up and purge some craft supplies that have been accumulating. My mom was here today and she helped me deal with the chaos that is my craft room. Speaking of my mom, she picked up a cute little nightstand with drawers curbside. Walking around with Aaron, we picked up a kite, a frisbee, several fleece blankets and sheets, a pair of earrings (Liz Claiborne, still on the original card) that I gave to my mom, two frames to mosaic, a cowboy hat, and some blinds that were still sealed up in the original box. Quite a haul!

Well, hopefully not. But I've got the blue fabric and here's some new stuff I made with it...

Turquoise with Red Flower Clutch


Tide Pool Crochet Rug

Both of these are available in my etsy shop!

I've been getting rave reviews from cat owners about my Long-tailed Catnip Mice Rattlers and wanted to share them with you!

Yesterday at the farmer's market I had a woman come up and tell me that her cat loved the toys and she was disappointed that I wasn't there last week because she wanted to buy more. She picked up two more yesterday. Then I had a couple stop by to tell me that their cats loved the toys and they couldn't believe it but their old lazy cat even played with them! They told me it was the only toy the cat would play with and the only way it got any exercise.

One etsy shopper told me she bought one for her cats. She said that she really bought it for her younger, more playful cat, but that her older not-very-interested-in-toys cat took off with it leaving her playful cat sad. So, she came back to buy another one and sadly for the playful cat, the lazier cat claimed that one too!

I could go on and on about the people who come and tell me their cats love them, but I'll stop now. I'm so excited that I was able to design a toy that even old, tubby, lazy cats will get up and play with. The combination of the rattly noise, the super-long tail, and the furry texture make it every cat's dream toy! Go get one for your cat today!

I found another vintage collector's vacation plate at Saver's and I cut this monster out of it. The green tiles were cut from green sparkling water bottles. Cool, huh? I think it would be cool if someone put a picture of their little monster in it. Can you say 1st grade school photo??

I braved my backyard yesterday (the trees are dropping nuts like crazy) to grout these new frames!

I've got my mom combing the thrift stores in her town for materials for me and she found this frame for me. She also found the skull, although it is new. I paired it with white tiles I cut from old plates. It was fun to use the plain, boring, white center of the plate because I usually end up throwing that away.

This little heart frame has been sitting in the craft room since May and finally it told me to glue some red mirror tiles I have for making heart magnets onto it. It turned out so cute.

Both of these are available in my etsy store.

Did you miss me?

San Fransicso was super fun, but now it is time to GET BACK TO WORK!!! I'll be posting pics of new products soon. Just wanted to tell you I'm home because my blog looked so sad with no posts on it.

Time for vacation! Aaron and I are heading to San Fransicso for a week for a journalism conference and lots and lots of fun. We already have tickets to go see Bloc Party in Berkely and a Madison band Charlemange while we are there. We hope to see the flocks of wild parrots that live there and run around and see all there is to see in the city. I'm excited because I've never been there and have always wanted to go. So, I'll see you in a week.

But before I sign off, I have a bit of cool news. I just got word that I was accepted into this year's DIY Trunk Show. I was in it last year and had a great time. I"m looking forward to it!

I made one squid because I was bored vending on State St one day. All of the sudden, everyone wants one, so I made one little guy last night. He's pissed!

Aaron and I are headed to San Fransicso on Monday so I'm planning to make a bunch on the plane!

More good news from the feline community. One of my etsy customers sent me a link to her flicker site showing her cats playing with what she calls "the best cat toy ever!" Her cats love my long-tailed catnip rattlers! Check out her two cuties here.

I'm almost out of nuts (as in nuts and bolts). I've been using them to mosaic and the pieces have been popular so I went back to the Habitat Humanity Restore to get more and there were NONE! Last time I was there, there was a HUGE box of them. I should know better, you can't count on thrift or restores to have stuff, but I was so disappointed. I dug around the hardware section and got about 15 really nice and shiny washers to use, so the trip wasn't a total waste. Now I have to add the Restore to my list of places I visit on a regular basis. Ah, the life of a recycling artist....

Tonight Aaron and I are going to Milwaukee to see Jail, a band my brother fronts. They just got back from a tour out to the big apple and back, so they'll be ready to rock their hometown tonight! Check them out on their myspace page here. Do it now!!!

And for your viewing pleasure, new kitty rugs, hot off my crochet hook...

its the humidity.

Finally, the humidity is a little lower and I can breath again. Sunday I was at the Bayshore Frolics Art Festival and it was SO HOT!!! Despite the heat, a lot of art and craft lovers came to visit. Four of my rugs found new homes! One rug I sold was a pink skull rug, so here is the one I made yesterday to replace it:

Welp, there went my 15 minutes! Thanks to everyone who watched me on HGTV's "That's Clever!" today. Amazing how it took 8 hours to get 6 minutes of footage. For those of you who missed it, don't worry, there will be reruns for sure. For those of you who live in Madison, there might be a viewing party at The Glitter Workshop!

Now it is time to get back to work! Here is a custom rug I just finished yesterday. Llamas!

Well, it's a 30 minute show with 4 segments and commericals, so here come my 5 1/2-6 minutes of fame! Watch it, tape it, tell me I didn't look like a big dork! Check your local listings for HGTV's "That's Clever!" and see me make my Night Sky Mosaic Frame tomorrow!

I say it all the time, but people rarely do. One fellow garbage lover, Becky Tesch of My Mish Mosh, gave me these awesome shards of pottery she found while hiking through an old mining town.

I used them to mosaic this pot. Now she has her shards in a form that she will be able to enjoy everyday.

Also, check Becky out on HGTV's "That's Clever!" making a duct tape purse on July 26.

One of my goals for this year was to travel farther to get to indie craft shows. This weekend, I drove all the way to St. Paul, participated in the Craftstravaganza, and drove all the way home again. I took my mom with me and we went up on Friday, worked the show on Saturday, and drove home Sunday. THANKS MOM!!!! I really couldn't have done it without you!

One of my other goals for 2006 was to get into the Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago. I didn't get in last year, so this year I really beefed up my application and I GOT IN!!! Hooray!

Also, I'll probably be talking about this everyday this week, but don't forget to set your TiVo, DVR, or VHS to record me on HGTV's "That's Clever!" which will be airing this Friday, July 14, at 11am CST, 12pm ET/PT.

After procrastinating most of the day, the car is finally packed up with my wares to leave for St. Paul tomorrow for the Craftstravaganza on Saturday. I snapped one quick picture of my favorite frame of the 8 I grouted yesterday to show off before I packed it away.
It is a star-shaped frame that I got at St. Vinnie's and I mosaicked it with mirror pieces.

Faythe Levine, co-owner of Paper Boat Boutique and founder and co-organizer of Art vs. Craft, is now on to a new project: the Indie Craft Documentary. She and her collaborator, Micaela O'Herlihy, are traveling to indie craft fairs, studios, and galleries all over the country talking to the people who are part of this amazing craft movement. At Art vs. Craft, I was interviewed and am super excited to be a part of this documentary. You can read all about how things are rolling on the Indie Craft Documentary blog.

A couple weeks ago at show, someone asked me if I ever felt bad about breaking the things I use for mosaics. Without even thinking, I said, "No." The person seemed very surprised, and I'm not sure why. But while I was making these two frames, I thought about it again, wondering if I made the right decision.

I bought two wall hangings at Salvation Army like this:

I bought them with the intention of breaking them, but once I got them home I thought maybe I should keep them whole and hang them on my wall. However, I went ahead and took my wheel snips to one. I made these two frames:

This is one of the little flowers from the plaque paired with tiles cut from a blue bowl.

This is the owl paired with tiles cut from brown beer bottles.

I'll have these with me at the St. Paul Craftstravaganza, so come see them in person!!!

A new kiwi slice rug I made!

I'm working on frames and getting ready to head up to St. Paul for the Craftstravaganza. I'm a little nervous because it will be the farthest I've ever traveled to go to a show.

Pictures of new stuff, just like I promised!

I bought this frame at the Dig and Save and mosaicked it with brown glass tiles I cut from beer bottles that were in our recycling bin after a dinner party we had. I had to clean up for the dinner party and was reminded that I had these owls. They are ceramic and had a metal hook in their heads so they could be pendants or earrings, but I ever so gently pried them out and glued the owls down. It turned out even more rad than I thought it would!

Close up of the owl:

And since I sold out of Skull Rugs at Art vs. Craft, I made a new one. This one is called Pirate Skull Rug. I crocheted it from knit remnants I bought from Savers and House of Thrift. It is really bright and cheery.

Other cool news is that my crochet skull magnet is featured today on this Etsy Features Blog for Theme Thursday which is Skulls!
Also, my ad is up on the Her Voice Her View sponsor page, check it out here.

All week I've had a pile of frames ready to grout and now it is Wednesday and they are still groutless. What's been going on? First of all, it was raining on Monday morning so I couldn't grout. I decided to go run my errands and when I turned the key in my car, nothing. Argh!!! I hate car troubles. After Aaron and I tried to jump it and it still refused to do anything, I had it towed in to a car service place. It needed a new starter and now it is all fixed and starts up like a little firecracker. Monday I was freaking out and praying that it would just start later. Tuesday I actaully dealt with the problem.
Another thing that has been keeping me from my crafts is the planning and preparing for Aaron's birthday party. We went to buy groceries yesterday and then since it is an outdoor party and we have no lawn chairs, we went searching for those. We found a few at Saver's and then the rest at St. Vinnie's on Willy St. Monday we went to the Dig and Save but they only had one and it was almost broken, so we left it there.
I guess this entry is just me justifying why I haven't been crafting as much as I should be, and now I'm just procrastinating even more, aren't I? I want to go to Glitter to hear about how they did at Art vs. Craft and also pick up a bunch of free fabric that some random person left on their doorstep in the middle of the night. But my frames are screaming at me "GROUT US!!!"
I did make a couple of new rugs this week. I'll post pictures later.

Now you can click to read the story in the Wisconsin State Journal I was talking about before. Here it is. Make sure to read the whole thing, my bit is towards the end.

Today was the Tenny/Lapham Neighboorhood Art Walk. I thought it was going to be a bust because thunderstorms were predicted, but tons of people showed up! One draw to my house in particular was an article in today's Wisconsin State Journal that was about a few local artists who use recycled materials that stated I'd be participating in the Art Walk today. Even though it rained and a lot of my stuff got wet, it was a good day. I sold a couple frames and a couple rugs and got to show off my work to a bunch of my neighbors.

Now it is time to finish up my samples that I'm sending off to be part of the goody bags at Her Voice Her View film festival in Brooklyn. Tomorrow I'll be working working working to replace all the stuff that went to new homes this weekend.

Here's where I'll be the next few weeks:
Saturday, July 1 - Dane County Farmer's Market
Saturday, July 8 - St. Paul Craftstravaganza
Sunday, July 16 - South Shore Frolic Festival of Arts in Bay View (Milwaukee)

And the winner of Art vs Craft Round 4 is....... indie crafters everywhere!!!!

Yesterday's Art vs. Craft was a smashing success! Many many thanks to the wonderful women who organized this awesome 100+ vendor show, Faythe and Kim. Faythe (aka Flying Fish) and Kim are the owners of the Paper Boat Boutique in Milwaukee and really did a knock out job on this round of Art vs. Craft. Faythe told me at the end of the day that there had been 1900 people through the door! Hooray for Milwaukee for supporting its local craft scene.

I had a few minutes to walk around before the doors opened. Wide-eyed and jaw-dropped I wandered from table to table utterly amazed at the awesome creativity of all these people gathered in one place. It was truly a sight to see.

Highlights of my day included getting interviewed by a guy making a movie for the Make Magazine blog, getting interviewed for the Indie Craft Documentary (another project of Faythe's), and of course talking about all the garbage I transformed into new functional and hip items. I was happy that all my most favorite pieces went home with new owners! My two skull rugs and my owl frame are now living away from EKRA land and that makes me very happy.

Weirdest thing of the day was that two separate senior citizens couples came up to me very bewildered and asked me, "What is this?" They weren't talking about anything I made, but the show in general. I told them it was a craft fair, but they still needed clarification. They wondered if we all traveled around together all around the country. I tried to explain to them that most of the artists were from the Midwest but that a few had come as far as the west and east coast. That we were all independent business owners that had come together for this show just like any other craft fair that they had been to. I couldn't help but think that they thought we were some kind of traveling circus full of weirdo looking carnies. It would have been weird if one couple asked me that, but that two separate sets of people asked me that made it the weirdest thing of the day by far.

One last note. This was the first round of Art vs. Craft that was not held at Turner Hall. Turner Hall has high ceilings and beautiful old windows and moldings on the wall and makes a great indie craft fair atmosphere. A few people said they really missed Turner Hall. But Turner Hall is being renovated now. And the people that run Turner Hall were never very nice to us. Last summer they made us all unload out the fire escape so we wouldn't disrupt their resturant downstairs, even though I can't help but think that 100 vendors and 1000 shoppers probably bought a ton of beer and food from them during the day. I think Faythe and Kim found a great new space for us at the Student Center on MSOE campus. The lighting is better, it is handicap accessable, there is free and more abundant parking, and there was a lot more room for the vendors to spread out. Even though it was more modern and 'officey,' we still looked like carnies to the old folks!

I kind of feel like a gushing fool here, but I'm just so excited about how the indie craft community is growing. I met Faythe in the summer of 2004 at the East Side Open Market and she was planning the very first Art vs Craft. I'm so proud to have been at all the rounds of Art vs Craft and see how it has grown and gained popularity. Also, Faythe is a local hero of mine. She inspired me to plan a few indie craft shows of my own and now that Glitter and I teamed up to work together, our shows are gaining popularity around town too. Also, Faythe is the one that told me about HGTV looking for crafters for "That's Clever!" and helped me understand how to pitch an idea to them to try and get on the show. I mentioned before that she is making a documentary about the indie craft community. She is a champion for indie crafters everywhere, working hard to help this scene grow and bloom! Thanks so much Faythe! You and your work are amazing! EKRA hearts Faythe!

Tomorrow I'll be at the most awesome craft fair in Milwaukee: Art vs. Craft!

Come and see me along with a 100 other hip indie crafters and artists, it will be worth the trip!

What: Art vs. Craft
When: Saturday, June 24, 10am-7pm
Where: NEW LOCATION!!! 1025 N. Broadway, Milwaukee Wi. In the Michael J. Cudahy Student Center on the MSOE campus.
Why: See great handmade items, support indie artists, fight big box corporations, treat yourself to a one-of-a-kind item, because I said so!!!

Hope to see you there!

If you can't make it to Milwaukee, I'll be participating in the Tenny/Lapham Art Walk on Sunday June 25 1-5pm. I'll be in my yard (1129 E. Johnson) if you want to come say hello and see what's new in the land of EKRA.

Mister Pister! Here he is all pissed off on some crochet pouches.

He doesn't like it, but he'll probably show up on a rug and maybe even a purse. He has made a debut at the Glitter Workshop on some tampon cozies.

Mister Pister doesn't say much. He won't tell me why he's pissed, all I know is that it is funny as hell. Just look at those beady eyes under those slanted eyebrows. Pissed off! And he doesn't think it is funny when you tell him that it is better to be pissed off than pissed on!

That didn't take long at all! Everything is all switched over and the site is back!

Aaron is going to be switching our hosting provider this week, so the site will be down for a few days. Don't worry, we hope to be up and running again by next week!!!
Bye for now! I'll miss you!

Gotta be quick here, it is really hot and my computer keeps crashing...
Two new frames!
Good Morning!

Strawberry Twins

Here's the second custom order that I got at the Craftacular last Saturday. My job was to make a kitty rug that matched the fabric sample she gave me. Check it out, I did a great job! I knew all my obsessive fabric buying would pay off. I had all that in my craft room!

I went and set up my tent to vend on Library Mall today. It was a slow day, but I made this little guy to keep me company. He's pissed.

Also, I would like to report that my goal for this week was not to buy any new supplies and I have been successful so far. I can't wait until Monday!!!

I got two custom orders at the Craftacular. The first one was a black big tote with 2 sets of cherries on it. Three pairs of velour pants gave their life to make this:

I like how it turned out.

The second order I got was to make a kitty rug to match the fabric of the shower curtain that the customer brought me. I'm suprised how well I was able to match the colors in the fabric. I have all the fabric cut, I just have to crochet it. I have been getting side-tracked by gluing glass. I swear, my frames are selling like hotcakes and I'm working hard to keep a good stock of them.

Saturday we had another spectacular Craftacular at the High Noon Saloon. We had over 175 people come and visit and a lot of them were people I had talked to at the Farmer's Market. Aaron posted some pics below and a new friend, Mary Ann, posted a great post about it here. Go check it out. I love spending all day so close to my crafty friends, the High Noon really rocks as a craft fair venue.

[Aaron here, with a handful of pictures from the Craftacular, which is still going on for another four hours at the High Noon Saloon!]

Come one, come all! Come tomorrow to the High Noon Saloon (701 E. Washington Ave) from 11am-6pm for the 4th Craftacular sponsored by The Glitter Workshop and EKRA (yours truly!). Thirteen local artists and crafters will be showing off their wares. Come shop and have a drink with us!!! Free and open to the public, kids welcome with parents.

These skull magnets will be there!

My frames have been pretty popular at the Farmer's Market and the Glitter Workshop this past month, so I've been working hard to make more! Here are a couple that I just finished that I really like.

Green Dots in Pink Mosaic Frame

Brown and Green Mosaic Frame

First of all, I'm excited about the High Noon Craftacular this Saturday, 11am-6pm at the High Noon Saloon (701 E. Washington Ave, Madison Wi). 13 local artists and crafters will be there displaying and selling their wares in the super hip High Noon. Come and see what's up and have a beer with us!

Second, I'm excited about this new skull rug I finished yesterday. It is super sparkly. I used a fleece remnant that had gold sparkles on it and a knit remnant that was a red and gold houndstooth print and was also sparkly. The houndstooth fabric was a real pain to work with. I had to fight with it to get the red/gold side up rather than the back side. I only won the battle about half the time, but I think it turned out pretty cool. I LOVE the sparkles. Too bad you can't really see them in the picture. You'll just have to come and see it in person!

Here's the last thing for today. A rooster tile. I don't usually post about my materials until the project is finished, but I'm always excited about them, so I thought I'd share. I found a little dish at Goodwill yesterday with this rooster on it. I cut it out successfully this morning! Hooray! I got it out in one piece! He is going to live on a frame mosaicked with yellow tiles and it will be called "Good Morning to you!"

Owls! I love them!

Miss Heather at the Glitter Workshop saw a family of 4 owl wall hangings at Salvation Army and bought them for me!! There were two adults and two babies, but one baby flew right over to a frame I had in my craft room!

I thought I'd chronicle the making of a frame. Here is a view of my craft room table. Organized, huh? Anyways, the materials for this project include: vintage owl hanging (I'm guessing made from plaster), brown glass bottles (they used to hold Kaluah, until I emptied them, yum!), and a thrift store frame.

I cut up the bottles, glued all the pieces on, and taped it up so I could grout it. I had to protect the owl so grout wouldn't get in all the little grooves of his feathers.

Viola! Finished frame! Doesn't that little owl look so happy there? I think so!

Here's a close up of the owl.

Thanks again for the owl family, Miss Heather!

So, I got these little hardware pieces at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore. I thought they were washers, but I was told this weekend that they were actually nuts. I've been glueing them on frames like crazy. Check it out:

This one is my favorite...

Thinking about nuts reminds me of this cheer we would chant in high school when something didn't go our way, "Nuts and bolts, nuts and bolts, we got screwed!" Another hardware related cheer was this "Gimme a hammer, gimme a wrench, we want Emily, off the bench!" I was on the basketball team and at 5'2", I was definitely not a star player. The crowd would chant this when we were up by 20 points and there was 2 minutes left in the game. Oh how I don't miss high school sports.

If you knew them, you'd heart them too! Naomi and Heather, the owners of the Glitter Workshop, are a couple of hard-working women who bring awesome craftiness not only to Madison, but the entire world!!! I've been proud to be a consignor at Glitter since its opening day and now I'm excited to annouce that I'm part of their online store which has had orders from all over the country and overseas! Check out some of my stuff on their site as well as their own crafty creations!!!

Cut, cut, cut. Crochet, crochet, crochet. I got two orders for custom rugs this week!
This first one was made for a bathroom whose colors are slate blue and smoke gray. I used velour (a shirt, pants, bathrobe, and dress) and double-knit (two remants) fabric to make this one so it can stand up to lots and lots of washing. I was surprised by this rug because I thought for sure I'd have to go out hunting for fabric to make it. Silly me, I must have every color under the sun in my fabric stash, I totally had enough fabric to make this without shopping for more.

This next one is my debut Bike Rug. I would have never thought to put a bike on a rug, probably because I'm scared of riding my bike around cars. But lots of people do it and Madison is a huge bike town, and that's what this customer wanted. She said she was going to put it on her porch and wanted brown, beige, white, and green. I didn't fit the green in there, but I did use all knit fabrics so it should hold up well even though exposed to the elements. I used Google images and Aaron for help designing the bike and I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. It looks like a bike!!!

This last rug wasn't custom made, but I had a special request to post it when I was finished with it. I made this from two sheets that I got at Saver's on the day I had my "Saver's has nice big sheets for 99cents!!" epiphany.

Want your own custom rug? Drop a line and let's see what we can do!

100 Crochet Skull Magnets crocheted from 100% thrift store yarn!

These on their way to Marie in Cali who will distribute them as part of the Summer Sampler. I'm sad to see them go; they look so cute all packaged up in their little bags and tags. Hopefully their recipients will love them too!

I'm not really a purple girl these days, although my parents can probably remember a time when it was my FAVORITE color. These days I really like bright colors: orange, yellow, red, lime green, kelly green. However, I know my tastes aren't everyone's tastes and so I took a little venture into purple haze land this past week. It all started with this rug, Peri-twinkle (I was going to call it Periwinkle Twinkle, but Aaron suggested Peri-twinkle and I think that is much more clever):

I probably would have never bought either of these sheets if it hadn't been for the fact that they were lying together in a box at the Dig and Save. I mean, they were all tangled up together, and they were both fitted sheets so it wasn't like someone was thinking about using the two of them as a set for their bed. They were screaming to me, "Emily, we'd like to be a rug together!" I told them to quiet down and put them in my cart. The solid periwinkle part is a jersey knit sheet and the patterned sheet is cotton. I like the way the two textures feel together.

So, I considered that a success. Then I was at Saver's with Aaron and Mom2, browsing around the sheets area while Mom2 had a blast finding green tagged items which were only 99cents that day. I never really paid much attention to the sheets at Saver's because they are kind of pricey. Well, duh! Not on 99cent day! At that price, they are just about the same at Dig and Save and no digging! Anyways, I found another jersey sheet/print cotton combo and made this rug called Purple Confetti:

And so, since I was all purple anyways, I made this rug, which has been in the queue for quite a while. Its name is Lilac Stripes.

Yowza! I got my May Sampler from Home of the Sampler yesterday and now I'm totally hooked. I donated 200 bottlecap magnets to be sent out all over the world with other samples from hip indie designors to magazine editors and art/craft lovers. In addition to great exposure for EKRA, I got a sampler pack of my very own!!!! It was so awesome to see my work on the site with all the other cool samples and have the opportunity to be a part of it, but the clincher was the sampler pack I got. If the awesome organizer, Marie, lets me, I'm going to donate to the Sampler EVERY MONTH!!!

I just got word that the episode of That's Clever that I'm going to be on is going to air on July 14. Hooray! After they postponed it, I was worried it might never air. Also, very cool, I'm on their website. Check it out!

Hooray! The 4th Round of Art vs. Craft will be held on June 24 at the Michael J. Cudahy Student Center on the MSOE campus (1025 N. Broadway) and I'll be there!!! Check out the Art vs. Craft website for more info including what other cool and hip crafters will be there!

Yup, its true. Today starts the last year of me being in my 20's. That makes me feel kind of sad, but I take solice in the fact I know tons of cool crafters that are over 30. No worries, girls, I won't name any names here, since I know a true lady never reveals her age.

Anyways, today is going to be a busy day. First, Natalie of Orangyporangy and I will be setting up our wares in Library Mall today around 10:30, so if you are downtown Madison, come say hello! Then later tonight is Gallery Night (5-9pm). I'll be hanging out at the Glitter Workshop (920 E. Johnson St) which is having a grand re-opening with Studio Bloom which has just moved in with them. I'm really excited about Studio Bloom being there because the owner, Ruth, is super cool, and she always has exotic beautiful and fragrant plants and flowers around. I think it will be perfect for the public too. Truly, one-stop shopping. So come take a look that all the new stuff that is happening there!

Don't worry, it won't be all work and no play for my birthday weekend. After the Farmer's Market, I'm having a birthday party at Karoke Kid. Aaron and I have been thinking of songs to sing and we have been singing so much, I think we are going to lose our voices by tomorrow night. Doesn't matter though, I'll still sing, I love karoke!

Anyone that knows me knows that I like owls. No, I heart owls. No, I really just love them! I don't know much about REAL owls, but I love their shape and how people have interpreted that shape differently from realistic looking to fantastical. But, no matter how far from realistic owl you get, there is no mistaking an owl design when you see one.

So, I collect owls. Owls to sit on my shelf, owls to hang on my walls, and owls to hide in my plants. They are everywhere in my house. But, this owl had crafting purpose from the get-go. There was a napkin holder at Saver's that had two plastic owls that I was able to remove. I bought it with the intention of using the owls in mosaics. That was a while ago, and since then, these owls have been flying around the craft room just waiting to land. Finally, one was able to. And here is the result. An owl vase (or candle holder, or whatever-you-want-it-to-hold holder). I used the blueish-green owl and cut scraps of green stained glass to go with it and I grouted it with gray grout.

And here it is sitting in the window with the light shining through it.

The weather has been so dreary the last few days, I decided to make myself some sunshine. I've had two really beat up chenille bedspreads hanging around just waiting to be made into rugs that finally got their chance yesterday. First I made this Sunstroke Rug:

It is crocheted from an orange and yellow chenille bedspreads. Super thick and comfy.

Next, I used a vintage sheet and what was left of the orange chenille to make this Sunny Sunny Sunshine Rug (try saying that 5 times fast!).

They did their job yesterday, making me feel happier depsite the clouds and dreariness. And today, I can send them off to a new home because the real sun decided to come out!

Also, a special welcome to all the people coming over from Home of the Sampler. Thanks for visiting, I'd love to have feedback on my work so feel free to comment here or drop a line via the conversation option on etsy.com. I'm super excited to be a contributor to the Sampler!

Blah, the weather has been dreary and wet and windy for days now. It was so cold at the Farmer's Market on Saturday, I thought I was going to cry. All my muscles were tensed to try and stay warm and keep my tent from blowing away out from under the cinder blocks that were holding it down. Despite all that, some cool stuff happened... I got to set up next to Natalie of Orangyporangy. She's super cool and makes awesome skirts, t-shirts, and pins with vintage fabric and images. As soon as the weather gets nice, I'm going to buy and wear some of her skirts for sure! We had fun helping each other hold our tents down. Another cool thing is that my Fireball rug made its debut and sold. Also, a very cool thing was that this woman last week said she wanted to buy a picture frame from me but wanted to get the picture and bring it to match it to a frame. She showed up this week with a picture from Dr. Evermor's Sculpture Garden in Baraboo, WI which is awesome metal sculptures all made from scrap metal. When I went there, I just walked around jaw-dropped at the beauty and ingenuity of birds and other creatures made 6-25 ft and taller all from garbage metal. Anyways, she picked out a frame I had mosaicked with old washers, so the picture and the frame went together perfectly and made me very happy to know that they were together. Seems kind of cheesy and kind of makes me want to write one of those credit card commericals:

cost of street vending license: $520
cost of frame: $12 (to her)
knowing that my frame was purchased by someone who appreciates art: priceless.

Hey, check it out! I'm up on the Contributor page for sending in my samples to Home of the Sampler. I'm so excited to get feedback about my stuff and also, to get my sampler pack full of goodies!

Lots of fun this weekend. I already told you about how fun and exciting the Farmer's Market was on Saturday, but here is proof!

My friend Ronda came down to visit and took some photos of me at my booth.

Then on Sunday was my friend Naomi's wedding shower. She loves cupcakes so I made her a Cupcake Rug! It was a hit!

Yesterday was the first Farmer's Market here in Madison. Seems like the whole town came out to celebrate and walk around downtown! It was really great. I was pretty nervous; the news was predicting rain and hardly slept at all the night before and when I did sleep, I had nightmares about the market. However, there was no rain and none of my nightmares came true. It was really cold standing in the shade and the wind, but since I'm vending in my home town now, Aaron came down and brought me some more clothes! All in all, it turned out to be a great day, lots of sales and lots of compliments on my work. It was very tiring though, I came home and slept for 12 hours. Time to get back to work so I have more stuff to sell next week!

Finally got a chance to take a couple of pictures of the frames I grouted with the gray grout. This frame is sort of "shabby chic" and turned out really nice with the gray grout. It is hard to tell in this picture, but the tiles have little blue and pink flowers on them.

I really like this one, mainly because I get super excited everytime I'm able to cut an image out of a plate. I like to think that takes real skill! This little birdy came from and Idaho state plate. Betcha didn't remember that the state bird of Idaho was the Bluebird.

I'm not listing these on etsy.com because I get nervous about shipping the frames through the mail, but these will be available from me directly at the Farmer's Market which starts this Saturday, April 22!

Today is the first day that my Madison street vending license was valid so I decided to go ahead and test the waters. I set up in Library Mall and was very nervous because I've never vending all by myself on the street without a 'market' of sorts around me. But it was great! I was out for about 3 hours, got some fresh air and made quite a few sales. Now I'm totally pumped for the Farmer's Market to start next weekend!

or maybe I'm in the eye of the storm, I don't really know. I just finished up a bunch of big projects and now have that "i just finished a bunch of big projects i don't really feel like working on anything" feeling. But what is it really called? Oh yes, procrastination. What did I do? I finished up my big 6 rug order for the woman who gave me her the clothes of her in-laws. That was a big challenge. I'm used to picking out my own materials and have learned over the years what works well and what doesn't. The clothes she gave me were mostly men's suit pants and jackets, definitely not something I would choose to work with. However, I think they turned out pretty good and I'm pleased. Hopefully she'll like them too. What else? Oh yeah, I just sent off 200 bottlecap magnets to be part of the May Sampler. I didn't think it would be so much work to package them all up so nicely in a little bag and tag with my info on it! But they are all done and off in the mail right now. Also in the mail are my tax returns, so that is a huge relief.

What's waiting for me? I'm in the middle of making a new banner for my table for the farmer's market. Last year's was pink and green and it got really dirty. This year's is going to be black with green letters so hopefully it will show less dirt. Also, just getting organized in general would be a good thing for me to work on. But of course, always get shoved to the way bottom of the 'to-do' list.

Just when the weather gets warm and you want to run around outside and blow off all your responsibilities, its tax time. (Cue sad music...) Blah, I hate dealing with money issues, but I'm learning and hopefully I'll hate it less as I understand it more.

On a much more fun note, the vendor page for the St. Paul Craftstravaganza is up! Lots of old friends will be there and many new cool people for me to meet. Check out all the cool peeps that will be there.

Got going early this morning and bought myself some WHITE grout (for real this time) and stopped at Goodwill and found 3 good mosaicking frames. I was at the Glitter Workshop by about 10:30 and since Heather and Naomi were both there, Naomi decided she needed to go shopping and I can't say no to that! At St. Vinnie's on Willy St I found 5 more good frames AND they had all their fabric pieces on sale for $1 each. Score! And just when I thought things couldn't get any better, my e-bay buttons arrived in the mail! And they are awesome! Now I have to wash and put all this new stuff away. Yuck, storing is not as fun as collecting.

On another note, the Glitter Workshop is now open for business online. Those girls are really rocking and rolling! Also, their Glitter Gnome pin packs have been selected to be a part of the MTV Style Lounge promo packs by Home of the Sampler. Awesome job, Glitter Girls!

When I was a kid, I heard that you get to make a wish on the first robin you see in the spring. Even now, I wish on robins in the spring, but this year I might have to add wishing on Garage Sales! Spring means spring cleaning for most, but for me, Spring Collecting! Driving home from the gym, I spotted my first one of the season, a driveway full of crap for me to browse. Hooray! It turned out not to be a very good sale, but this is just the first of many to come!

No robins yet though....

Don't the Chinese only have one word for crisis and opportunity? Well, I had a tiny little crisis this morning, but it turned into a good opportunity! The story? Well, I had 8 frames with glass glued on waiting for me to grout with white grout. I just bought new white grout a couple of weeks ago, or so I thought. I opened the bag, grabbed a handful, and it was gray! Crap! But I haven't used gray grout in a really really long time and I thought, what the heck, try it. I think these frames are going to turn out great! I put 3 aside for white grout, but 5 are grouted and drying as we speak. I'll be sure to post pictures when they are finished.

What else is new? Well, I've been sick. Grrrr... cold and sore throat and achey. I'm feeling better now, but I'm annoyed because I don't feel 100% and my nose is running a lot, but only on one side, and of course it is the side that is pierced, so my nose ring keeps getting in the way. That's not very fun....

What else? Something really cool. At my brother's house, his dog Fozzie showed me that he LOVES my cat rattlers. I was worried that they were too small for dogs, but Fozzie is a medium sized dog with big chompers and he was throwing it up in the air by the tail so he could catch the body of it, and then he'd play tug of war with you. I couldn't believe my toy was so durable. With that inspiration, I came home and worked on a design that is bigger for dogs. The body is about 3 inches long and 3 inches in diameter and the tail is about 18 inches long when stretched out. Perfect for tug-of-war! Here they are, what do you dog lovers think?

Today we took a trip to Milwaukee to have lunch with my family to celebrate my brother's birthday and come to find out, the one I suspected to be the least internet savvy is the only one of them that is reading my blog! Thanks, Dad!

After lunch, I headed on down to the Paper Boat Boutique to drop off some rugs, purses, and hot pads. I was excited to see the exhibit of clothespin peeps by Sarah Neuburger of The Small Object. They were all super super cute and I had several favorites! Get them for yourself quickly, they sell like hotcakes!

This whole paypal coming right out of your checking account is so bad for my impulse shopping! If I have to go and get my purse and pull out my credit card, I can usually talk myself out of buying whatever it is that I have decided that I HAVE TO HAVE! But with click click click, no substantial action of paying, and a drink next to the mouse, reason flies out the window. Last night I found something great on e-bay, at least I hope it is great. I won't know for sure until my present arrives in the mail. Anyways, I found two lots of 50 buttons each of coat buttons from a coat factory that closed down years ago. I won both auctions and now I get 100 coat buttons! Best part is, they've never been used, so they'll be in mint condition, and depending on how many years ago the factory closed down, vintage too!

Let's see... what's new in the land of EKRA? Not really anything *new* to report, but I've been working hard to stock up for the Farmer's Market which starts April 22 and I have 3 (almost 4) of the custom rugs from old clothes finished. Yesterday I posted a bunch of new rugs on my etsy site, so move that mouse over to the left of the screen and click on my etsy link to check them out.

Look at my brand new website!!! Isn't it so great??!?!? Thanks to Aaron for redesigning it! Now I can list new things I make and link them up to my etsy store for you to buy. There is a great list of stores that carry my line, and you can even contact me.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU, Aaron!!!

I'm loving red and orange lately, alone and in combintation. So, I had a lot of red and orange fabric yarn lying around leftover from other projects and I decided to make a rug out of them. Here's the result, the Fireball Rug. I thought about naming this rug Ring of Fire, due not only to the increase of Johnny Cash's popularity with Walk the Line, but also because it is on one of the CDs that is played over and over again at the Glitter Workshop.

And here's one of the purses that left me with some leftover red for Fireball rug. It's called Bowled Over. Aaron found this horribly wonderful shirt that had these bowling pin buttons and pictures of a bowling ball and pins at the Dig and Save. It was probably the find of the day and I love how the purse turned out.

One of my favorite projects is to make custom rugs for people from the old clothes of their relatives. Instead of having piles of clothes in their basement collecting dust and mustiness, they entrust those clothes to me to transform them into a functional piece of art that is a memorial to that person. Although I try not to be a 'material girl,' I always seem to remember the clothes I wore during important events and remember the pieces that I loved to wear during a certain time in my life. So, not only does this help reduce the amount of clutter, but it brings that person's possessions out of the basement and into the living part of the house so the memories can stay alive with you in a quiet, but functional way.

Why am I being all sentimental and mushy about all this right now? Well, a woman saw a few of my rugs that are owned by Tami of the Bohemian Bauble and contacted me to make rugs for her. She wants to give these rugs as presents to her family as x-mas presents. I thank her for trusting me with these clothes.

Today Naomi of the Glitter Workshop and I are heading down to Chicago for the Handmade Market at the Empty Bottle (1035 N. Western Ave). One of my goals for this year was to become a more confident driver so that I can venture off to the hip craft fairs that are farther away. Today is a great day to practice! Last time (and the only time so far) I drove to Chicago was for the DIY Trunk Show and I took a wrong branch of the Tollway that cost me about 50 miles. Today my goal is to get there without any detours. Also, it will be good practice for me because I just learned this morning that I was one of 70 vendors accepted into the St. Paul Craftstravaganza this July 8! Hooray!

The first Farmer's Market is April 22 and I've been working hard to get a lot of inventory made. I finally took a break to take some pictures to show you! First off, a shot of my ever popular bottlecap magnets. What's in the mix this time? I spy some flowers, some stars, a skull, a monkey, and so much more!

Also, I've been talking a lot about all the frames I've been mosaicking. This one and this one are a couple of my favorites. I'll have them for sale at the Glitter Workshop as well as the Handmade Market this Saturday in Chicago.

Saturday morning Aaron and I hit the Dig and Save. What fun!! I was there looking for glass to break and books to cut and they kept bringing out box after box of glass stuff from the back -- I had first pick! I found a lot of good books to use for magnets while I was there too. This morning I grouted a bunch of frames and poured lots of resin for magnets. Now I'm ready to purge. I already took out 3 bags of garbage and I'm trying to organize and throw out as much as possible. The cycle continues.... binge on garbage, purge the garbage, binge and purge, binge and purge......

One more cool tid-bit of information. I just sold some sexy bottlecap magnets to the Tool Shed, a sex toy store in Milwaukee. I'm pretty excited about having my magnets in another store. Plus, they bought them wholesale, which is awesome because I got paid for all of them right away instead of waiting for consignment checks!

Next Saturday (3/18) I'm heading to Chicago to participate in the Handmade Market at the Empty Bottle (1035 Western Ave) from 12-4:30. Crafts, music, and drinks -- my kind of show! Check out their site here.

Also, I just sent in my application for the 4th Round of Art vs. Craft. The event has it's own website now and will be held in a new location. I'm pretty excited about it.

So, everytime I work out, I get to put a sticker on our weekly calendar that hangs on our fridge. This morning, my iPod ran out of juice, so I turned on my Pilates video instead of heading to the gym. Later in the day, I realized I was going to have to move my car since it was on the street and in the way of the garbage trucks for tomorrow. My iPod was all juiced up and since I was going to have to drive my car anyways, I went over to the gym. This is a rare, two-sticker day.
Yesterday I had to go to the west side and so I stopped at the Jo-ann SuperCenter. Last time I was there they had these cute little frames that are perfect for gluing glass on for $1 as part of their 'clean sweep' sale. That was right after x-mas. Yesterday they had the same frames, only this time they were only 80 cents! Hooray! I grabbed a basket and bought every single one they had, about 25 I think. I had a lot of fun breaking and gluing glass this morning, I have a pile to grout already!

Yesterday I was at the 2nd Annual Riverwest Community Festival at the Lakefront Brewery. What a blast! I set up my wares on a table towards the front of the hall and had a great view of the bands. First an accordian band played, then a spanish music band, and to wrap it all up, a rock-a-billy band. If only all my shows were so entertaining! Lots of people remembered me from last year, and told me how much they were loving what I made, and many of them became repeat customers! Music for the soul and compliments for my ego! Hooray! I sold three purses, seven mosaic frames, and a ton of cat toys and bottlecap magnets. One family bought an entire tray of magnets to use as an interactive art centerpiece. Wowie zowie! I feel great today, all pumped up about making more stuff and feeling good that people are using and enjoying what I've made.

I'm feeling a little blue today. I got an e-mail last night that another indie boutique, Knack Gallery in Minn, MN, is closing. Last month is was Re+New, and the month before that France and Amber. I know they say that for every closed door, another is opened, but all I can see right now are the closed doors.
So, what am I going to do to make myself feel better? Rant. And here it comes! Now I'm probably preaching to the choir on this but BUY LOCAL and BUY HANDMADE! No more malls, no more Target or Wal-mart! Get your butt down to your local stores when you need something! Sure you might pay a little more, but think of what that money goes towards, supporting small businesses that in the long run can offer so much more than the 'big box' stores. Like what? Specialization of goods, more unique goods, better customer service, and a general pride in the goods that they offer, particularly if those goods are handmade. If you don't, you know whats gonna happen? Small buisnesses will have to close their doors and you'll be stuck with nothing but mass produced crap made by slave labor. There, I've said my piece and I'll step down off my soapbox.

The assignment for Aaron's students today was to interview an expert and then come up with ideas for stories that could use the interview information. Guess who the 'expert' was? Me! Tee hee. They asked me questions about running a small business, making art from recycled materials, and the indie art scene. It was pretty cool, I love to talk about garbage and the wares I make from it!

Whew! Finally, I am officially licensed to be a vendor in Madison in the Mall Concourse (State St and Farmer's Market in lay terms)! Got my insurance, met with the street vending coordinator, got my insurance approved in the city's comptroller's office, paid the city clerk, and finally, GOT MY LICENSE!!!! Hooray! It was a lot of leg work, but it is all legit now and I'm super pumped! First Farmer's Market is April 22!

Welp, the HGTV That's Clever airdate has been changed again. Now the season isn't even going to start until late July, so hang in there kids.

Saturday my mom came to visit and we hit the Dig and Save. Woo Hoo! Got a new table for vending, a bunch of clothes to cut and a bunch of clothes to wear. I guess its been awhile since my mom has been there because she kept exclaiming that "There's so much stuff here! Is there more stuff than usual?" It was the same amount of stuff there always is, but there is always a TON.

It has been mighty cold here. Good weather for crawling into bed and sleeping Sunday away. So now it is Monday and I'm getting back into crafting. I sent some more stuff to Crafters for Critters, so you should go check it out.

Yesterday was the High Noon Valentine Craftacular organized by The Glitter Workshop and me. It was the third craft show held at the High Noon by us Madison craftsters and it was SPECTACULAR! There were lots of great things for sale; I came home with a revamped vintage skirt, a salvaged fabric tote bag by Re+New, bathbomb truffles, and 3 fused glass pendants by Kate Gadd. Aaron accused me of organizing these shows just so I can shop, that may be partly true... However, I did sell quite a few bottlecap magnets, pins, and cat toys along with a purse and a rug. The shock of the day were Aaron's map pins that he made from old maps with his new button machine. I sold 17 of those little buggers! And almost everyone had a story for why they were buying the place they were buying. One girl bought the Duluth pin because she was from there, one girl bought Brooklyn because it only had the Brook of Brooklyn on the pin and her name is Brook with no 'e,' and one couple bought 6 to add to the collection of pins that holds up the interior fabric of their car ceiling. Go figure.

So, what's next? I'm getting all my paperwork squared away so I can vend at the Dane County Farmers Market on the Capital Square this summer (starting earlier rather than later, first market is April 22). Also, I'll be at the Lakefront Brewery for the 2nd Annual Riverwest Community Festival fundraiser on March 5. And who can forget, HGTV on March 31. It has been the busiest slow season for EKRA yet! Hooray!

Everyone, correct your calendars!!! My HGTV appearance has been moved from March 3 to March 31. Remember to check the website for episode number 206 to see if it changes again. But I'm on the website already, check this out!

Come fall in love with handmade gifts for you and your sweetie at the High Noon Valentine Craftacular!

Where: High Noon Saloon, 701 E. Washington Ave, Madison Wi
When: Saturday, February 11, 11am-6pm
What: Handmade cards, soap, purses, rugs, jewelry and toys for all ages by local hip designors.
Who: Vendors include EKRA (me!), Glitter Workshop, Re+New, InSaciable Creations, Funky Bracelets, Henhouse Productions, and many more!

Hope to see you there!!!

Today is the anniversary of a very important event in my life. Three years ago today I met Aaron, my husband. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't be the recycling artist I am today, so I made him a present to try and show him how special he is. (awwwwww, pretty mushy stuff here, huh?) Anyways, I tried my hand at embroidery for the first time and bust out my sewing machine to make this pillow for him. It says, "Believing is Art" which is the title of our song and it is made from a green sparkly sweater I found at the Dig and Save.

On a completely different note, check out the new mosiac frames up for sale on my etsy site.

It's my first time in a real life gallery show!

The Paper Boat Boutique & Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of Queen of Hearts. An invitational group show featuring over 30 emerging and established female visual artists will be on display from February 3-March 17, 2006.

To see all the amazing artwork, head over to the Paper Boat at 2367 S. Howell Ave, Milwaukee, Wi or if you can't make it there, view it online via Paper Boat's website.

Time to brag! I just got an e-mail from a girl who bought some of my Long-Tailed Catnip mice from Crafters for Critters. She said her cat LOVES it! Hooray! Happy cats (and happy people) make my day!

Alrighty folks, here's the downlow on my appearance on HGTV's That's Clever! My episode number is HCLVR-206 which right now is scheduled to air on Friday, March 3, 2006. However, they said to be sure to check out www.hgtv.com about a week before that to make sure that the network didn't switch the episodes around in the schedule. Woo hoo! What a way to start off the weekend!

So, when I did the filming for the HGTV show That's Clever! in November, they left me with the instructions to e-mail them in the beginning of February to see which episode I've been assigned to. Literal ol' me, I of course e-mailed them today, February 1. I'll keep you posted!!!!!

Happy Birthday to the Glitter Workshop! Glitter will be celebrating with a THREE day birthday bash!!!

Friday, Feb 3 - Birthday Reception 6-9pm. Cupcakes and glitter galore, come and meet the owners Naomi and Heather and have a tasty treat!

Saturday, Feb 4 - Birthday Sales! Come see the store and check out some items that are on sale for this weekend only!!!

Sunday, Feb 5 - Valentine Card Party!!! Superbowl, Schmuperbowl. Come play at Glitter making Valentines instead! Free and open to the public (donations to cover the cost of supplies graciously accepted)

All events will be held at The Glitter Workshop, 920 E. Johnson St, Madison, WI

More crochet classes coming up!

Thursday, Jan 26 6-8pm at Re+New, 2611 E. Johnson St.

Saturday, Jan 28 3-5pm at Glitter Workshop, 920 E. Johnson St

Cost: $25 (includes all supplies!!!)

Post a message if you're interested in attending!

I sent in some of my long-tailed catnip mice and bottlecap pins featuring black cats to Crafters for Critters. They are up on the website, go check it out!

Call us crazy, but this weekend Naomi (of the Glitter Workshop) and I decided that since there was no room for us in a Valentine's Show in Chicago, that we'd throw our own Mad Town show. Thus, the High Noon Valentine Craftacular was born. Cathy, the owner of the High Noon, is so awesome. I just dropped her an e-mail and she said sure. So Naomi crafted up some great flyers and handbills and I started distributing them around town.

Here's the low-down:

What: High Noon Valentine Craftacular, a Hip Craft Sale
Where: High Noon Saloon, 701 E. Washington Ave, Madison, WI
When: Saturday, Feb 11, 11am-6pm
Why: You and your sweetie deserve handcrafted gifts for this Valentine's Day!

Now I'm all in the valentine spirit, telling Aaron I love him many times a day and working exclusively with pink and red materials...... Love is in the air.....

I've been building up my bottlecap magnet and pin stock. Man, that is STINKY work! Between pouring the resin and gluing on magnets and pin backs, I get such a headache. But it is all worth it to see those little gems all shiny and smooth. And they may be showing up in new pieces.... some people have suggested trying to mosaic with them! I'm gonna have to try that out!

Busy weekend here. On Saturday I taught my first crochet class. I had two students and warned them that they were my crochet class guinea pigs. They were great, they picked up on everything really quickly and I think they enjoyed the class. In about an hour, I had them doing the chain stitch, single crochet, double crochet, and half double crochet. After they had that down we talked about all the things they could make with these basic skills and I think it was more than they thought it would be. It was a lot of fun!

Sunday was my dad's birthday, so we went to Milwaukee to meet up with everyone to go out to lunch for celebration. After that, we went to the Paper Boat Boutique to drop off some heart pins and a couple of purses, and check out the store. I haven't been there since September and it looks completely different now! Even more awesome than before! I treated myself to some cool new cards and drooled over some elephant shaped purses and bird earrings.

What's up with today? I'm not sure, I keep telling myself to organize and clean, but I keep getting sidetracked by a project or two. We'll see....

January 12 and I walked down to the Glitter Workshop with just a t-shirt and a sweater on. Seems more like March 12; this faux spring is really getting me down. I'm not sure if it is that I know more winter is coming or what, but the random 50 degree day among weeks of sunlessness isn't cutting it for this girl's seasonal affective disorder.

On a brighter note, we got a 'new to us' bird today. His name is Reggie, he's a gray cockatiel, and he is about 16 years old (cockatiels live about 20 years, so no spring chicken). However, he has really taken a shining to our female cockatiel, Zoe. Maybe there will be a little May/December romance in our bird room leading to spring-time cockatiel chicks.

I'm pumped for my first crochet class tomorrow. Hopefully I can explain things well to my students!!!

Hey!
I'm going to be teaching crochet classes! Want to learn the basics? Come to one of these 2 hour classes:

Saturday, Jan 14 2-4pm Glitter Workshop, 920 E. Johnson St, Madison Wi

Thursday, Jan 19 6-8pm Re+New, 2611 E. Johnson St, Madison, Wi

Saturday, Jan 28 2-4 pm Glitter Workshop, 920 E. Johnson St, Madison Wi

The classes will be small (5-7 people) so you'll get lots of individual attention. Also, you don't have to bring anything! I'll bring enough yarn and hooks for everyone to take home. All this for a measly $25!!! To sign up, post here and I'll send you a confirmation e-mail!

Hey, check out the latest issue of Vital. The cover story this month is a great article on the DIY community in Milwaukee. I was interviewed for the article and am super excited to be included with awesome local designers. Hooray!

But (here comes the big BUT), they described my work as "knitted." Should I be irritated by this? I am a crocheter and I don't even know how to knit. This is the third time I have seen my work called knit. Am I just crazy OCD and require everything to have the proper description or is it a legit concern? What's the big deal? Both techniques use a fiber of some sort and twist it up to create a fabric, but they create different types of fabric and use different tools.

Aaron would tell me that "It doesn't matter" and I'll have to quiet the fight of knitting needles and crochet hooks in my head with that line, because deep down I know it is true.

Check out the article, it's great that the DIY community is getting such great press.

I've never really had a reason to go to the north side of Madison before I joined my new gym. Aaron and I would head over there once and awhile and I would always say "Hey! There's a thrift store I've never been in!" I'm not sure why, but we never stopped. But now that it is on the way to the gym, I had a chance to stop. It is called House of Thrift and it is my new favorite thrift store. It will never beat the love of my thrift life, the Dig and Save, but as far as all the other stores go, this one is top notch. Why? It is so organized! All the fabric remnants are folded with little tags that have the price and the amount of yardage. Also, they are taped up so they don't get all unfolded and messy when looking. And so much less expensive than Savers or Salvation Army. Also, they sort out all the buttons and sell them in little packs. They have tubs and tubs of yarn scraps, all little balls that range from 15-50 cents! A full skein is only 50 cents. I always fill up my arms full of stuff when I go there. I heart the House of Thrift!

Indeed it will be a happy new year for many cats! Seems my new Long Tailed Catnip Mice are a big hit! I sold a dozen at Re+New and another dozen at The Glitter Workshop and 2 off my etsy site this month! I'm excited about it, not only because they are fun to crochet and make cats and cat owners happy, but because I finally have a good product to donate to Crafters for Critters. Melissa of Lekkner, the founder and organizer of this site, does an amazing job getting donations from indie designers, selling their stuff, and donating the proceeds to places that help animals. Check out her site and what good work and great items she has for sale. I'll keep you posted about when I'm ready to send my cat toys, I just gave my entire stock of them to Re+New today. But, I couldn't sleep tonight, so I made 9 new ones already.

Also, you crazy cats, did you click on the Glitter Workshop link? If not, do it now! See that? Yup! I'm going to be teaching a couple of crochet classes at the Glitter Workshop in January. If you are interested in learning the basics of crochet, sign up! All the supplies are included, including a hook for you to take home with you! A big thanks to Miss Heather of the Glitter Workshop for making that awesome flyer for me!

Aaron and I headed up to the UP for the x-mas holiday. We spent 3 days drinking and eating and present opening. Exhausted from merri-ness, but still ready to roll, we had house guests last night. We took them for a night on the town which ended in Aaron and me both singing Cake songs at karoke. Now, we are really really exhausted and resting up for the next gathering at my mom's house on Friday. Talk about fat and happy.

What have I been doing craft-wise? I got a wish list from the girls at the Paper Boat. They wanted more bottlecap pins and magnets. I haven't made any new ones since the weather has been cold (making my basement inhospitable for resin curing). I picked out the best of what I had, but head right over to the Dig and Save to buy some books to get my stock replenished. While I was there, I found a lot of good cups and plates to break for mosaics. I've been gluing a lot of pots and frames to do a major grout job one of these days. Other than that, I've pretty much been hibernating. Aaron is planning on making a new inventory system for me to log all my creations in (although I'm not very good about making myself do the logging) and he has also spoke of updating my site. I hope we get that done, there are a lot of features here I don't use and I think we could make it better. Can you believe I've been blogging for almost a year now? Seems like I've always had this voice....

I've had my owl rug for awhile now (I think he was born in June) and always wondered why no one wanted to take him home. I sold him yesterday off my etsy site and he's flying out to Los Angeles as we speak. I'm surprised that I feel a little sad that he is gone. Guess it's time to make a new one!

First of all, the bad news. I'm trapped in my house today waiting for UPS to deliver a package. Grrrrr. I hate UPS. They won't leave packages if no one is home. Also, according to their website, our package was supposed to be delivered on Friday. We saw the UPS truck across the street and the man deliver 6 packages to our neighbors, but then drove away without giving us ours!!! So, even though I want to go workout at my new gym, I'm hanging out here until the package gets here. Aaron is writing his last paper of the semester which is due at 11:59pm tonight and it is his x-mas present, so I should stop complaining about it. Wanna know what it is??? A 1 inch button machine!!! Hooray! What fun!

Okay, so the good thing about hanging here is that I get to show off my new product. They are a variation of the long-tailed catnip mice I've been making, which by the way kicked butt at the Glitter Workshop this weekend. I brought in 12 on Saturday and by Sunday afternoon there were only 4 left! So I took another dozen in right away. There are going to be a lot of happy cats this x-mas. While hanging out at Glitter, Naomi and I discovered that we and Miss Heather are really in need of some pin cushions. So, I went home and designed these little sea urchin-looking pin cushions. They are one strand of rug yarn and one strand of eyelash yarn crocheted into a dome and stuffed with fabric scraps. I wanted to give them a nice base so they wouldn't be all roly poly so I used a jar lid (one jelly lid and one pasta sauce lid) to keep all the fabric in and then crocheted a base and hooked them together. Best of all, they work! Can't wait to give one to the Glitter Girls!

Ah, yes. Self-employed, crafting all day, wonderful husband and pets, it all makes me very happy, but unfortunately, a bit on the out-of-shape side. Never fear, I'll be in shape in no time. I beat the New Year's rush and joined a gym yesterday! The Madison Area Recreation Center has a exercise room that is perfect for me! Not crowded, no TVs (I hate reading subtitles while I exercise, it makes it seem sooooo slooooooowwwww), and I think I'm probably one of the only members under 30 that goes during the day! Also, it is so cheap compared to regular private gyms, only $165 for the ENTIRE year!!! Now I have no excuses!

I've been taking it easy on the crafting side of things lately, just moseying around doing whatever I feel like. The last couple of days I have felt like making cat toys. I really like these (and so does Pimper). They are one strand of acrylic yarn and one strand of fun fur crocheted around catnip and fabric scraps. I'm calling them furry long-tailed mice. The bodies are about 2inches long and the tails are about 1 foot long, great for dangling, spinning around, or just plain throwing. If you think your cat can't live without them, check out my etsy site, there are two for sale there. Only $5 for 2 of them and no charge for shipping! What a steal!

Too much crafting and not enough rest has lead to a terrible case of EKRA arm. What is EKRA arm? A sore arm due to EKRA doing way too much crafting. I'm used to having a sore wrist from crocheting and cutting glass, but this arm bit is new. It is kind of bumming me out.

So, I'm trying to lay off the crafts for awhile, which is really hard. I took a walk over to the Glitter Workshop to drop off some scarves I finished and to give Miss Heather a new product to test on her cats: Valentines for your Kitties! They are sewn fabric hearts stuffed with catnip and fabric scraps. I know at least one cat likes them, check out Pimper chomping on the prototype!

Whew! Another weekend jammed packed full of crafty goodness! Friday night Open House at the Glitter Workshop was fun. Miss Heather made some praline treats and some feta cheese dip, both of which were delicious! X-mas music played, we drank wine, and I think everyone had a great time. I spent Saturday and Sunday vending at the 5th Annual Artist's Open House which was oragnized by Henhouse Productions. I was excited to be a part of it because I got to meet all four of the Hens and they are great ladies and great crafters. Hopefully the Hens and EKRA will hook up for some events in the future.

Also, this weekend I made new friend! Yeah! Her name is Rhonda and she has posted a few times here. She and her husband came to the Glitter Party on Friday night and it was fun to chat with them. She is very crafty and into using recycled materials too. In fact, I ran into her at Savers this morning! She showed me a new purse she made from a felted sweater that had a cute crocheted flower on the front. Awesome! I told her she should head down to Re+New to see if Mary Jo would like to carry her stuff there. Unfortunately, she has a day job so won't be able to hang out and craft with me all day.

Hi Everybody!

This weekend there are going to be some great opporunities to meet some local artists and crafters and get some holiday shopping done at the same time!

Friday, December 9, 4pm-9pm: Glitter Workshop Open House, 920 E. Johnson St, Madison, WI. Check out the festive decorations, have some cookies and cider, meet the awesome Glitter girls (Heather and Naomi), and buy handmade for the holidays! I'll be there!!!

Saturday, December 10. 10am-9pm and Sunday 10am-4pm: 5th Annual Artist's Open House presented by Henhouse Productions. Atwood Community Center, 2425 Atwood Ave, Madison, Wi. I'll be there along with a bunch of other hip local artists selling my wares. Come say hello! Added bonus: There is going to be a wine and cheese hour at this show on Saturday starting at 6pm!

Hope to see you out this weekend!

I declare that the High Noon Mad Craft-mas was a complete success! We got a lot of traffic and lots of people found wonderful things to buy for themselves or as gifts. It was a little slower on Sunday than Saturday, but we used that time for trading wares and biz tips and networking. Lots of cool people were there and I got some good pics of the action.

EKRA table (me!)

Erika of Butterfly Jester

Faythe of Flying Fish Design

Glitter Workshop

Meredith of M Jewelry

Alright everybody, I know you probably all have turkey on the brain the day before Thankgiving, but get ready for....

High Noon Mad Craft-mas
at the High Noon Saloon
701 E. Washington Ave
Madison, Wi

November 26 and 27 11-6
Free and open to the public!

Something for handmade for everyone on your holiday list: jewelry, cards, toys for young and old, housewares, handbags all from hip indie designors including: Flying Fish Design, Look at Lisa, Vain Glory, M Jewelry, Fiery Lion Designs, ReCreate, Re+New, The Glitter Workshop, Young Ones Creations, InSaciable Designs, and more includine me, EKRA.

Can you believe it? An article (with a picture!) including me and my crafts in the Capital Times! I'm blushing! You can see for yourself here.

Also, welcome to all of you who came to my blog via the link in the article. Look around, read what I have to say, and post comments if you like. I LOVE IT when people comment. This whole blogging thing is kind of weird, you type away in your living room thinking that no one is reading, but then you head out to a show and people tell you left and right that they recognize you from your blog and how hilarious it was when you wrote this or that.

Anyways, commenting or not, welcome and thanks for taking the time to take a look at what's happening in my world of crafting and recycling.

Whew! Art vs Craft really tired me out. It was Friday night and Saturday all day. I came home and slept most of Sunday and now I'm finally starting to feel rested. Good thing too because Mad Craft-mas is just a few days away.

Art vs Craft Round 3 was as awesome as the first two rounds. Big thanks to Faythe and Kim for all their work planning it. I sold lots of stuff, 2 kitty rugs, an owl purse, a handful of other purses, but the hit of my booth was for sure my bottlecap magnets. You'll never guess how many I sold. Go ahead, try and guess. 50? no more. 100? nope, more. 150? MORE! 181! YES! 181 bottlecap magnets! So, pretty much the only thing I did yesterday was start more to replenish my stock before Mad Craft-mas. I love the way people look and smile when they see them. There's always an image or two that make people laugh.

I handed out tons of cards and got to talk to people I only see at shows, so the show was a great success and lots and lots of fun!

Trying to take (and post) it one event at a time here, but this is big news! Aaron helped me write a press release for the High Noon Mad Craft-mas that I'm planning. I faxed it to three local papers on Monday and last night a woman from the Capital Times called to tell me they want to cover it! Yeah! We talked for about 20 minutes about crafting and hip shows and recycling and HGTV appearances and set up a time to take some photos of me and my stuff. She asked if I'd like to have some other people involved with this scene of crafting with a recycling focus in on the deal, so I immediatly thought of Mary Jo of Re+New and Carol Lynn of ReCreate Designs (who will also be appearing on HGTV). The three of us are going to head down to Re+New tomorrow around 4 to pose for some pictures with our wares. Thanks to Aaron for helping me with the press release! Thanks to Faythe Levine of Flying Fish Design for sending me a sample press release to read and get me started. Thanks to Mary Bergin of the Capital Times for taking an interest in this story and giving it some press. Thanks to Mary Jo and Carol Lynn.....I think I hear the music playing, my speech has gone on toooooooo loooooonnnnnnggggg.
I'll let you know when the story is going to run!

Alright ya'll. If you don't have it on your calendars already, get ready to clear your schedule so you can head to the hippest art/craft show in Milwaukee.

Art Vs. Craft
Turner Hall
1034 N. 4th St (across from the Bradley Center)
Milwaukee, Wi
November 18 5:00-10:30pm -- Come have a delicious fish fry at the resturant downstairs, grab a beer, and come up to the ballroom to shop shop shop!
November 19 10:00-4:00 -- Resturant will be open, as will the bar.

There is a $2 entry fee for people 14 and older, but if you come on Friday night, you get on Saturday for FREE!!!

Come say hello to me and the 89 other awesome indie artists, designors, and crafters from Milwaukee, Madison, and beyond!

All the weather people on the TV are saying that November is finally here. Yuck. It has been so nice, 50 degrees and sunny most of the month and all of the sudden today it is cold and raining with snow predicted for tonight. What am I doing to fight off the gloom? Making festive ornaments and hanging them on the little tree I bought at the Salvation Army to display them on my table at Art vs Craft this weekend. I'm making skulls and poofs. What do you think? I'm not in love with the 'poof' name, any suggestions? They are a pretty ingenious design if I do say so myself. There are always tons of CDs lying around that Aaron doesn't need anymore, so I cut out the center ring and crocheted fun fur yarn that Jill gave me when she moved (ie. still 'recycled'!) around it.

Welp, I'm trying to restock my inventory...Tons of rugs and frames and purses went to new homes at the DIY Trunk Show last week, but the next few weeks include Art vs Craft in Milwaukee, High Noon Mad Craft-mas, St Peter's Holiday Show in Waterford (where my parents live), the Bohemian Bazaar, and Holiday Open House in Madison. Yikes!!!

I'm working round the clock and here are some of the new rugs hot off my hook:
Red Kitty Rug

Not-so-sour Lime Kitty Rug

Flowers in the Sky Rug

Sage Garden Rug

Pink Paradise

And that's not all! Today I taped up the rest of the flyers I have for High Noon Mad Craft-mas on E. Johnson St. Also, Aaron prepared an awesome press release for me to fax the local papers about the Craft-mas, so I'm working on locating the people I need to get it to. Yesterday I hit the Dig and Save and bought 20 lbs of linens to make into rugs. Most of it is washed and ready to be used. All I need now is a new wrist. Mine is so sore from crocheting and breaking glass. Any donors out there?

I cut all my fabric on a cutting mat with a rotary cutter. One of my most favorite things is when I put a brand new sharp blade on my cutter. It slices so easily when the blade is brand new, it's dreamy. Also, one of my new favorite things is my brand new huge cutting mat. I got the $40 size at Jo-ann Fabrics when they were having their 50% off sale for $20. I can cut my fabric so much faster with my big mat.

I also like raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, but not as much as my fabric cutting tools.

Ruth Rohlich is the owner of a very cool flower shop on E. Johnson St called Studio Bloom. She owns one of my kiwi rugs (the very first one as a matter of fact) and the other day, bought one of my mosaic pots from Re+New. She happened buy it when I was there (there was a little party/function there that night). As soon as I saw it in her hand, a light went off in my head and as soon as she saw me coming towards her, she had the same idea. EKRA mosaic pots in Studio Bloom! I think it will work out great. A few days after Ruth bought her pot from me, a woman asked her where she got it, and drove straight down to Re+New to buy 3 of my pots! I'm taking 5 mosaic pots (all that I have right now) over there in a few minutes. Ruth is great at making window displays and in store displays so I'm sure she'll show them off beautifully.

Now that DIY Trunk show and HGTV filming are finished with, it is time for me to start promoting my own show: the High Noon Mad Craft-mas. It will be held Nov 26-27 at the High Noon Saloon at 701 E. Washington Ave, Madison, WI. Yesterday I walked up and down State St taping up flyers on kiosks and in any businesses that would let me. A lot of coffee shops have bulletin boards for just this sort of thing. Today I walked down to Willy St to do the same thing, but I wasn't as successful because I got distracted by the St Vinnie's on that street. I did score 5 nice frames for mosaicking and hung up quite a few flyers as well. Also, I splurged on big pieces of red and black fabric. I'm all out and can't think of what colors look good around skulls besides red and black. Does anyone have any suggestions? Pink and green? Purple and lime? Orange and pink? Time to get back to making stuff....

The DIY Trunk show yesterday was AWESOME!!! My mom was cool enough to come with me to help navigate and guard my stuff while I parked the car and went to the bathroom. It was a super long day that started out a little rough, we missed an exit on the toll-way and ended up going about 40 miles out of our way, but I was all unloaded, parked, and set-up by 10am when the doors opened. Phew. We caught our breath and sat down to relax for a bit, but we didn't have much time because people started pouring in. Almost all my mosaic frames left my table in the first 2 hours. I sold all 4 kitty rugs and both skull rugs that I brought. A kiwi rug and punk rock zebra rug also found new homes. My purses were a big hit too! My table was seriously depleted by 2pm, but that was okay because that meant that the cash box was overflowing. It was so much fun talking to people, explaining my process, telling people what things were made from, and bragging about my upcoming HGTV appearance. Funniest thing of the day was when I told this couple that the purses were crocheted from old clothes, and the boy told me he was going to need the info on everyone who had ever worn that article of clothing. I made one purchase, they are a pair of silver snake earrings. They are super rad, shiny, and bad ass.

All that driving and talking and fun-having totally wore me out and I slept all night, got up for some coffee this morning and then headed back to bed. But now I'm rested and ready to make a lot more stuff for Art vs. Craft coming up in 2 weeks. Hope to see you there!

I've been so worked up about filming for HGTV That's Clever, that I've almost ignored this totally awesome hipster show I'm doing this weekend. I knew this fall was going to be a whirlwind...

So, here's the low down:

DIY Trunk Show
10am-4pm
Pulaski Park Auditorium
1419 W. Blackhawk
Chicago IL
Free and open to the public.

"The DIY Trunk show is a gressroots effeort providing all the creative and talented and underfunded people with an opportunity to present their wares. All works presented at the show are handmade, many of them are one-of-a-kind, and they're all an expression of some aspect of the artisan's soul."

Find out more at: www.diytrunkshow.com

This is actually the third year of this show. I was accepted last year but had to cancel because we had tickets to see the Pixies the same day. I'm super excited to be a part of it this year. One of the organizers, Cinnamon Cooper, was my neighbor at last November's Art vs. Craft.

Hey kids, shoot day has come and gone. I was waiting anxiously all day for them to arrive at 2pm. To kill time, I drove Aaron to school, went to the Dig and Save, took a nice long shower, and was all ready to go at 1:30. At 1:48, Kate called to tell me they were running late and wouldn't be to my house until 3:30! Time to keep waiting.... Three day-time court shows later, they were here!

They came in and started unloading tons of lights and cameras and other "TV gear." We shot my outside 'hello' sequence quickly before the sun went down and then went in to make the frame. I can't believe how much work and attention to detail goes into making TV. No brand names showing, how's the lighting - can we make her glow softer?, rearrange the stuff on that shelf, look here, look there, push up your glasses! Except for the glasses pushing, I just sat there feeling pretty useless. Making the frame with the 'pies from the oven' was harder than I thought too, every step having to appear as those it really did follow in real time. We had a lot of fun, I did a lot of silly things for the camera like blow up my grouting gloves, make funny faces, dance a little bit. I've read a lot of other people's comments about how the crafters look really dumb on the show, but I don't know, I tried to do what they told me to do. Only a few things were over the top to me and I tried to offer other suggestions at those points to make it seem more "Emily." Overall, I think it went well and that it will look good. The director, Arlington, called it a day at about 8:15pm. I let all the crew members pick out some bottlecap magnets as "Emily souveniers" (I know that must be spelled wrong but I'm too tired to go and look it up now, you know what I mean, right?), they packed up the gear, told me to remember them when I was famous and rich, and went to rest before they do it all again with two more crafters tomorrow.

And now for the the question on everyone's mind, "When will it be on TV?" No one knows until they finish production, but I'm supposed to check in with them in the beginning of February to find out. I'll be sure to keep you all posted, so check back for that info.

Yesterday Kate and Arlington came from Weller Grossman to prep me for today's shoot. Arlington is the director and he decided to use my big backyard for the introduction, my face digitally inserted into various mosaic frames I've made for the sign-off, and my collection of owls for the 'fun part.' Kate is one of the producers and she rearranged my shelves to put my vases and frames in strategic places so they'll show up in the shots while I'm working. It was all pretty painless....

Today the shoot will start at 2pm, tick tock tick tock....

Prep day! 8:40 am right now, so that means 2 hours and 20 minutes until they get here. I'm all showered and dressed and Aaron cut my hair and I practiced putting makeup on (I usually don't wear any) and I'm all ready to go! I couldn't sleep last night, I'm very excited. After they leave, I'm off to the mall for a manicure.... later.

Welp, tomorrow is the prep day. The producers of the show come over and make sure all the steps of the project are done and look okay, cover any copyrighted name brands, okay my outfit, and whatever else so we can shoot on Wednesday. I'm pretty excited and pretty much all the nervousness is gone. Just excited now. Yeah! I get to be a TV craft star!!!

On a completely different note, Aaron found the cats an awesome toy today! It's one of those cat 'trees' with different layers of carpeted levels that they can jump and sit on. Quite a find! They are pretty expensive so curbside was the only way Pimper and Ezra were going to get one! They are kind of leary of it right now, but I'm sure they'll grow to love it!

Today one of the producers from That's Clever called to tell me that they had scheduled too many segments in Wisconsin and so my second segment was cut. She was apologetic, but I'm so RELIEVED! It was supposed to be a demonstration of orange slice coasters with beads and I just wasn't feeling them. I made them up for the show as an alternative to a rug (which I really wanted to do, but they said it would take too long) and never really made them, so when they nicked them, a big weight was lifted off my shoulders.

What else is new with TV? I have to make one more "step out" for my mosaic frame and grout the "hero." I also have to do the "Emily" stuff, you know, buy makeup, pick outfits, get manicure -- I showed my hands to my mom and asked if they were really that bad, she just laughed, so I'm going to splurge on my hands for once, they deserve it, they are my greatest tools. Anyways, I was freaking out because there was so much to do, but now I think I've got my head believing it's going to be fine.

Got the dates HGTV will be here to work on the show.

Prep day: Nov 1 at 11am
Shoot day: Nov 2 at 2pm (to 7:30!!!)

They want me to have some kind of 'fun' intro, play off one of my hobbies. Yikes! My hobbies aren't very TV friendly I don't think.....watching TV with Aaron, listening to music, going to concerts, playing with the cats, catching stray parakeets, and shopping at thrift stores. They said maybe play off the scientist in me..... you guys have any ideas for me out there???

Welp, I pinched and pinched, but I didn't wake up, so it must actually be true. HGTV is coming to film me for the show That's Clever. In fact, they are coming SOON! The plan is for them to come Nov 1 and 2, to prep and film. My mom came today to help me get the craft room in order, I hardly recognize it now! It looks awesome. Now all I have to do is, finish the projects and the projects-in-progress (they film it like a cooking show "...and here is the pie that has been in the oven..."), gather three outfit choices for them to pick from, buy some makeup (I don't usually wear any, so they suggested powder and blush), get my hair trimmed (I think I'll put Aaron in charge of that task), and by their suggestion, get a manicure since the camera will be on my hands a lot. YIKES! But, before that, I'm going to be doing a hipster craft show. Come and see me at:

East Side All-Star Crafters Fall Craft Fair
Oct 29, 2005
9am-4pm
Atwood Community Center
2425 Atwood Ave,
Madison, Wi

Should be a good time for all!

Also, one more bit of bragging before I sign off for today. Check out the lastest ad for the Paper Boat Boutique at : http://www.myspace.com/paperboatboutique (cut and paste it!) Those are my skull pins and skull pouches featured!!!

is the hardest part. At least that's what Tom Petty says. I think it is true. I experienced this anxiousness last fall too. The lull between the hyper market-packed summer and the crazy holiday craft season. It's nice to rest, but you just know that craziness is lurking around the corner, and I can't wait for it to start! This fall is even worse though because of the HGTV thing. I heard through the grapevine that they are supposed to be calling today to schedule a time to come and tape the show here. No calls yet though. I'm working hard on getting the craft room all nice and organized for them to come and tape in there. I'm also trying to get as much stuff as possible up on my etsy store before October ends and it starts to cost money to list things.

Here's something cool though. The Paper Boat Boutique used my skull pouches and skull pins in their ad this month. Check it out at: www.myspace.com/paperboatboutique

later!

Do it! Look up! No, not at the ceiling, just a few inches. Yeah, right there! See it? It is a new permanent link to my online store that Aaron just added for me. So, what are you waiting for? Go ahead and browse, or even better, shop!

I've been working on posting things on my online store. I just put up two new rugs and two new purses, go check them out: www. ekra.etsy.com

What's exciting and new in the land of EKRA?

-I made my first sales on my new online store! Check it out at: www.ekra.etsy.com

-I made quite a few sales at the Open Art Studios this past weekend: my Pretty in Pink Skull Rug, my brand new Giraffe Tote, and two frames to name a few.

-I'm getting ready for the High Noon Mad Craft-mas. Today's mission is to get color copies of the AWESOME flyer that the hip women at The Glitter Workshop designed for me and figure out where I can tell vendors to park for the day of the sale.

-And some sad-ish news....I think today may be my last day of grouting for awhile. Fall came with a crash this year, 85 degrees one day and 55 degrees the next. And now it is all cold and rainy....

That's all for now. I'm working hard to have tons of cool stuff for the holiday shows that are coming up in November and December.

Hi Everyone!

I'll be participating in the Madison Area Open Art Studios this weekend (actually, I'm not opening up my studio because it is a complete mess, but I'll be under my tent in my yard). Come on over for some candy (if I don't eat it all by then) and see what I've been working on. There is a reception at Hue Gallery 1924 Monroe St from 5-9pm tonight (10/7) where you can pick up a map of all the open studios as well as an 'artist manual' which is a bio and sample pic from all of artists participating (about 100!). If your not up for that, just come over to my house:

1129 E. Johnson St
Madison, Wi
October 8-9 11am-5pm