Look! It was so great it made them hug on camera!

I won tickets to see it via kidslinked.com and decided that free is free and we shouldn’t pass it up, even on a Tuesday. We are so glad we went, not just because the musical was great. The Ohio Theater is known for it’s Spanish Baroque architecture. Lots of red and gold trim and fancy wallpaper with gold flecks and chandeliers and more and more gold. I told my husband it reminded me of a 70′s movie representation of a fancy brothel. He disagreed. It’s fantastic!

Not like a REAL brothel, but a 70's movie brothel

We are Shrek fans.  We have seen all the movies.  We have Shrek stuffed animals and glassware.  I was thinking the kids wouldn’t like the musical because they like their Shrek delivered in its original form.  It’s like seeing a movie after you read the book.  (Remember Garp? Both book and movie were great, but still.)

They surprised us by loving it!  The humor was a little more sophisticated than the movie.  The actors really had a difficult task and rose to the occasion.  I felt bad for the guy being “Donkey.”  I mean, who wants to follow Eddie Murphy?  He was Ellie’s favorite character in the musical though. Wait!  Except for the big-ass dragon!

They had a big-ass dragon puppet that whirled around the stage and danced and sang. When I say “big-ass” I mean it almost filled the stage.  It was so startling and awesome. It made me think about when Kevin Clash, the guy that is Elmo, said kids don’t notice him when Elmo is around.  The puppet was so fantastic and enormous, the kids didn’t mention the puppeteers.

Lord Farquad was the star for me.  Funny, a bit of a queen, and athletic! My favorite qualities. I want to tell you his back story, which is revealed during the musical, but I don’t want to spoil it for you.

The next day after school, I asked them what they remembered the most from the musical.  Ellie (6) said, “There was a lot of action.  They we constantly doing stuff and running and dancing.”  Indie (9) said, “I remember the farting!” So I said, “Well what did you LIKE best?” and she said, “The farting!  There was so much farting!”

If you are a parent who thinks farts are never funny, then you may not like that. I’m a parent who thinks farts are almost always be funny.  I love that Indie has this joyful memory of it.  It was a great way to introduce them to this new avenue to enjoying a story with which they were already familiar. For me, that’s what makes this kind of thing something I want to do.

When you go, pay extra and get good seats.  You’ll be glad.  Let me know if you do, too and tell me what you think.

We really did go to Chicago.  Alas, we were so pooped at the end of each trade show day, this was the only view we got of the train.  Maybe next time we will get out of the loop and do some exploring.

Why were we in Chicago?  Heather and I went to the Merchandise Mart for the Beckman’s trade show.  Beckman’s is a part of the bigger Living and Giving gift trade show that is at the Merchandise Mart.  Beckman’s showcases exclusively handmade goods.

We met some really great people there!  Our neighbor Mandy Adamick put up with our shenanigans very nicely.  We made a unicorn, taped it to a hammer, and during slow times provided her with an exciting puppet show from the top of the booth.  Here is a lovely pic taken by Heather that showcases the Unicorn Hammer and the “Best Bartender” sash we made for the bartender stationed about 10 feet from our booth.  Poor guy.  We made it hoping to bump up his tip jar.  I think it actually worked because I heard people congratulating him.

Here’s a pic of our booth.  We made it fancier by adding the border along the top.  Swanky, right?

We also met the fantastic Laura Tanner of Laura Tanner Jewelry .  Her friend, Natalie, had a skirt with a bead coming off.  She came to our booth and we sewed it back on.  She was so nice and they all stopped by off and on throughout the show to entertain us.  She’s a mom like us.  Meaning, she’s a mom, and she’s like us.  Plus, when we saw Joan Cusack walk by, she was just as excited as we were.  Joan Cusack!  We shat ourselves.

Across the way from us was Village Designs.  Dodie is so sweet and gave me some great advice.  She’s been at this for around 20 years and has seen it all.  I am giving her a virtual hug right now….

Something So Charming was our other neighbor.  They have a thousand balls in the air and juggle them all just fine!  Their booth was pretty populated most of the time and I think they know everyone.

While we were goofing off and making our award-winning sashes, Howard of Whitney Howard stopped in our booth.  He was so friendly and we looked forward to seeing him every day.  Privately, we just called him “California” like that was his actual name, and well, now it’s not private.  (At the show, you wear a tag that says where you are from and that’s what we first remembered.  As in “I was looking for lunch and stopped by California’s booth.  They are so nice.”) Anyway, he is what I would consider successful.  He has a healthy business, loves his family, and didn’t seem stressed out at all.  That’s what I’m aiming for.

We tried to have a beer one night with Lisa of Ellembee for her birthday.  However, we made it about 6 blocks and had to declare, “We think you are awesome and we really want you to have a happy birthday, but we are so damn tired and must go to bed.”  That’s right, we are PARTY ANIMALS.

All in all, the trip to Chicago was a fantastic networking event for us.  We met people who have great ideas and were very generous with their advice.  Plus, Heather and I had tons of fun watching tv and eating in bed.  Which is something we can’t do at home because we have kids.  I mean, we COULD do it at home but my kids are slobs.

See you later, Sweet Potater

Look, Mom! August 2011 Better Homes and Gardens

We were so thrilled to have one of our products be part of this photo shoot with Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams!  When Jeni called, I squealed.  Literally.  Not one of my proudest moments, but there it is.

That’s our Ice Cream Cozy in Better Homes and Gardens August 2011 issue! We are grateful to Jeni and everyone at Jeni’s for being kind enough to include us.

Jeni’s contacted us last year about making a sleeve for their pint ice-cream containers.  They wanted to include our ice cream sleeves with their Father’s Day ice-cream packages as a gift for their customers.  Everyone likes eating right out of the pint, so we thought it was a great idea!  The sleeves pictured use different fabric but all are lined with fleece so it’s a way to keep your ice-cream cold and your hands warm.  Cute, huh?

(Unfortunately, we weren’t listed in “Where to buy.”  Hopefully, within a couple months you’ll find us listed in the most-read section called “Corrections.” Until then,  you know how to reach us! )

Me modelling the winning belts for the Crafty Showcase Showdown created by the superb @flamestitch

Midwest Craft Caucus was a complete blast!  There were a ton of crafty Who’s Whos there.  Loads to learn and folks to meet.  I didn’t take any pics because I was making coffee, learning about taking pictures, learning about Pinterest, and shmoozing with the Creme de la Craft.   Seriously, look at the website and see who was there.  You’ll be jealous.  Oh yeah, I did get to emcee the Crafty Showcase Showdown.

The Crafty Showcase Showdown is an event in which people compete on teams of two with crafty challenges.  This like “Get supplies from this pile of crap and make a vest!”  It’s really fun and while they are crafting, I harass them.  I try to find their weak spot and exploit it.  Kidding!  These are usually professional crafters and they know I’m full of it.  Really, I’ve competed many times and lost almost every time.  It’s just about having fun.  I like the idea of crafting being translated into other languages.  Like, now it’s a full-on sport!  I want my kids to letter in Crafting!  That would be something for their college resumes!

Did you also notice that I said “professional crafters”?  That’s right.  It can be a profession.  I just find that very exciting.

And that pic up there  (it’s a good thing i don’t get embarrassed, right? ) was taken by Esther of Torn Angel.  See?  Another reason to love Columbus.  Check out what Esther had to say about the Craft Caucus here…

Up next...ComFest!

Coming up soon is Agora! This is a really fun indoor/outdoor event here in Columbus.  This year it’s on May 21, from noon to midnight.  We are whipping some some new skirts and dresses.  Don’t get me wrong, I love making aprons and they will be there too, but it’s skirt weather!  So yeah, we are excited to get some of our goods on your bads.

Next up will be the Midwest Craft Caucus.  This is going to be a supercharged and informative event for crafty people wanting to learn more about the business side of things.  You can find out more here…..  We are one of the sponsors, so go send them some love, ok?

The end of June brings Comfest.  A fantastic summer festival centered around community involvement and presenting what, in scientific terms, is an assload of bands and vendors.  I’m crossing my fingers we make it in!

In July, we head to Chicago for the Beckman’s Handmade trade show.  This was really fun in January and exposed us to a new audience.  Hopefully, they will come back for more to see our expanded housewares line.

Speaking of that, did you know we now make a more masculine sort of apron too?  We call it “The Griller.”  If you hang out around the North Market, you’ll see them on the staff at North Market Spices.  We have also added wine bags (available at House Wine), napkin sets (available at Wholly Craft), and coasters.

We have some other things cooking, but for now, that’s all I can share.  Wait, there’s one more thing, Go Red Wings!

I hope you called your mom on Mother’s Day.

Happy bunny centerpiece

My daughter always wants to make decorations for whatever holiday it may be.  I like to decorate for Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, birthdays.  You know, the biggies.  This youngest of mine is like a tiny, tenacious Martha Stewart.  She’s always on me to decorate and rearrange.  Usually,  I relent.  See “tenacious” above.

So this weekend she said she wanted to decorate for Easter.  I suggested a banner.  Banners are my go-to for instant decorating projects. She’s done with banners.  The magic is gone.  She said she wanted a centerpiece.  (That’s another thing she likes.  She likes the table to be set with the food all set down the middle in a row rather than serving from the stove.  I’m a mom to three.  That’s a pain in the ass.)

When we make a decoration, we always use what we have on hand.  If you are crafty in any way, you’ll have some of these things on hand too!  If not, improvise.  Don’t go running to the store or your kid will think that’s normal.  Then your kid will tell my kid and I can’t have that nonsense.

Also, I didn’t consider this would make a good blog post until about halfway, so the pictures at the beginning are sparse.

Supplies:

Scrap of polar fleece, t- shirt or felt  (we had some left from a scarf project)

Thread or a sewing machine

Stuffing (fluff, whatever you may have.  Cut up old socks!  It’s also fun to pick a stuffed animal everyone hates but has kept out of obligation and tear the stuffing out of it!)

leaves

3 plastic cups

glue

You can trace this bunny

We first made the bunnies.  Fold your fleece.  The fold is the bottom of your bunny.  If you want to trace this bunny, just put a piece of paper up to your computer and trace it with a pencil.  Or draw your own.  We aren’t looking for perfection.  It’s about hanging out with your kid.  They don’t care if your bunny’s ears are crooked.

Start sewing on one side, go up around the ears and down the other side.  The nice thing about polar fleece (felt, t-shirt)  is that you don’t have to worry about fraying, so that means you don’t have to worry about turning it inside out.  Leave a hole for your stuffing.

Stuff it!  This is a fun job for the kid.  Use a paintbrush end or pencil to get the stuffing into the ears. My grandma taught me this.  Sew it closed.  This is also a good time to teach basic sewing because it’s a simple stitch around the edge.  Just in and out.  It’s also a great time to show your kid how to hold the thread so it doesn’t slip out of the needle.  An important skill.  My youngest is 6 and finally gets it.

Cut the top off of some plastic cups.  We used three cups leftover from a hotel.  That’s another thing kids love, cups, paper, and pens from hotels.

Gather some leaves.  We picked some up from around our bushes.  Spread glue around the outside of your cups and glue on the leaves.  Overlap your leaves so no cup shows through.  If you don’t have leaves, cut some out of green paper.  If you don’t have green paper, use white paper and color it or go through magazines and cut from the pages with green on them.  DO NOT GO TO THE STORE!

Put your bunny in your cup!

We then put our bunnies in a pie pan and cut some pieces off the bushes and put those in there too.  Then my daughter had some tiny pinch pots she made out of play dough and wanted those in there too.  I’m sure by the end of the week, this pan will be filled with all kinds of stuff.  More is more, right?

It's a bunny party!

We think it’s cute and it was fun and I hope you think it’s fun too!

If you get up at the crack of dawn, 7 am,  watch it and let me know if I have something in my teeth or my nose.  Otherwise, DVR it and laugh later.

Heather and Kara will be here with me to give you a look around the bigger digs.  It’s hard to believe all of our stuff fit in the other sweatshop!

Kristin and Megan of Stinkybomb Soap in my messy kitchen not judging me for the filth!

You may know my friend, Kristin Marks, is in the running to be “Mom of the Year” over on Columbus Parent.  “Mom of the Year?!” you may be thinking.  I know, I know.  So we all know that’s kind of wacky to say, right?  But listen, Kristin deserves to win because she’s a little bit like you and me. Now, don’t get too excited yet.  She doesn’t yell at her kids as much, and she’s not as big of a slob, and she cooks a little bit more.  So that’s how she ended up here, but let me tell you how she is like us a little bit too.

1. Kristin gets tired sometimes.

2. Kristin gets tired of her kids sometimes even!

3. Kristin will listen to you tell a story of how your dog died in 4th grade and she will cry.  Really hard like she knew you then.

4. Kristin will laugh at you on the phone when you are imitating you husband saying things like, “Is this garlic?  Remember I don’t like garlic!”

5. Kristin will come and get your kid when you feel like ass.

6. Kristin will tell your kids what to do like they are hers.  Only really great friends and mothers can do that.

7. Kristin will go grab a quick beer with you.

8. Kristin will organize an outing with you and your kids and not make you get a babysitter.

9. Kristin will organize and outing with you without your kids and help you get a babysitter.

She has an awesome blog that shows you fun things to do with your kids and inspired me to do the Toy Appliance Derby.

Look, we’ve all been tired moms, and sad moms, and joyous moms, and messy moms, and suddenly-this-house-is-so-messy-it-must-be-cleaned-now moms, and loved our friends to death who have busy lives and kids and juggle it all somehow.  This is a vote for them! For all of us!  Those friends and what I call “normal” moms.

What I mean  by “normal” is that I can be comfortable around her and not feel judged when I fall short of “mom of the year.”  When my house is messy and she sees it, she doesn’t even raise her eyebrows.  She pushes the papers to the side and sits right down.  I think it’s because Kristin knows that we are all “Mom of the Year” some days.

Here’s a nice post she wrote about this whole thing.

She had really helped me out these last few years and I’d like to help her out now.  Go and vote. It’s easy.

Renee Parrill of Flamestitch recently wrote a memoir about growing up with her husband, Matt and facing his addiction to alcohol and death.  It’s a frightening and wonderful book.  True Til Death is sometimes shocking, but the story is so familiar to many of us.  We see these kinds of stories all around us every day.  The benefit here is you get to see the outcome of how a screwed up life was turned around.

I wanted to share this short conversation we had yesterday because it’s so interesting to see how a book does or doesn’t get published.  Renee has sent out many query letters.  She has received responses from MANY agents.  They get the book, they like it (I’ve read the emails) but just keep saying it’s not their audience or they can’t figure out a way to sell it.  They give specific praise and suggestions, but no takers.  For me, this story is about many people that are like the people I grew up with in Ohio.  It doesn’t seem like some crazy out-there youth story.  Don’t get me wrong, it WILL get your attention.  Don’t think this book is a walk in the park.  You will cry at times and say out loud, “What the hell?!?”  But I can really imagine these things as the background for the lives I’ve seen go downhill fast.  Only this story doesn’t turn out that way.

As Renee writes, “It’s the story of tattooing as an agent of self destruction, and as the unlikely path to redemption. It’s the story of the change that is possible with someone in your corner, no matter what.”

Here are some quick questions I asked her yesterday.  Remember, this is a verbal conversation, so read this with that in mind.

1. Why did you want to write a memoir?

“I always knew I had a good story.  Even in high school.  I knew he was so fucking crazy that I knew something was going to come of it.  You don’t have that kind of life without it being a good story.  I’ve had this story in my head for 20 years and every year that Matt is well, I can look back and see what a great story it is.”

2. What made you decide to offer it to readers for free on facebook?

“At that point, I’d heard from so many agents and knew that I had a great query letter because I had had so many responses.  When I sent it to Dan Lazar, he responded within 26 minutes that he wanted a copy of the book.

I also knew right then, because I had done some research, that you can’t get a memoir published unless you are famous.  Everyone thinks they have a great story but agents think it’s lame.  And he’s not some shitty agent.  So I knew then that I had something.

He wrote back after a month and said he liked it but didn’t think it had universal appeal.  I took that to mean that it wasn’t about a universal cultural experience like war. But I think this is a universal topic for people.

I queried many agents and none said it was bad.  They all said nice things like “It’s really good, but not our audience”  It made me feel like, if I had been famous, that shit would have gotten published.

I decided to put it on facebook because I couldn’t get past the query stage and thought maybe I was missing something.  Like if I added something or rewrote it again maybe that would change it.  So I thought if I put it out for lots of people to read, they could tell me what it needed.  These are people I don’t see everyday and haven’t known me my whole life.  And that’s why I did it.   I needed real feedback and to hear how it affected people.”

3. The book is so honest, are you worried about how people will respond?  I mean, we all have our interesting pasts, but are you worried about people being unkind from reading the book?

“I don’t really worry about what people will say, for a couple reasons.  First, I told the truth, and when you lay it all out there, I trust people to sense that, and not be assholes just for the sake of being assholes.   I guess I expect the truth to protect me, because it always has.  The second thing is that I don’t really care what people say about it.  I know how good it is.  I expect some people will be jerks, and I’m ready to play hardball, because you have to be when you write something like this.  I’ve handled worse than someone saying they don’t like something I wrote.  But I think most people will get it.?

4. Why have you decided to now go ahead and self-publish?

I couldn’t find an agent.  I maybe could if I continued trying.  The thing is, you don’t have to do that now.  You can have a book online where other memoirs are sold and you don’t have to be famous to get people to look at it.  If you do a good job and have a good cover, you don’t have to answer to anyone.  The more I think about it, the more self-publishing fits the story.

5. When do you think it will be ready for a final shot?

I’m waiting for feedback and thinking of things I can change or edit.  I’m hoping withing two months it will be in the final edit.

6. Can people still read it for free?

If they want to read it, with the eye of giving honest feedback, yes.  I’d rather not just send it out now unless I can get that in exchange.  I’m working, you know?

7.  Do you have a list of people who want a copy?  How does one get on the list?

Follow me on Twitter. @Flamestitch

Wow.  This was weird.  There is a dude on Twitter that tweets things about voting with your dollars.  I’m totally behind this kind of consumerism, as you probably know.  This kind of thing can work.

He posted a list of what he considers “Liberal-supporting businesses.”  This list is something else!  It’s not just the usual suspects, like PETA.  It’s businesses like Hallmark, McDonald’s, AT&T.  These are mainstream businesses.  The middle road.  Oh wait, and “Most of Hollywood” is on it and Google!

I thought it was amusing.  I don’t follow this guy, but someone I follow does, which is how I saw it.  So I responded this…

“when I look at this boycott list, it helps me! Now I have list from which to shop. Thanks!Though McDonalds won’t pass my lips”

I thought it was funny.

Alas, Mr. Dude didn’t. 

So I was boycotted!  He tweeted this today…

It’s kind of exciting, really.  I’m going to be making a special apron to commemorate the event.  Watch for it on my site! Not only am I patriotic, I’m also a Capitalist!