Hello World! Sorry I haven't posted in awhile.

This year, I've got some major goals, one of which is to try to complete an orignal design every month.  For this month, I worked on a penguin catching a fish entitled "My Only Wish to Catch a Fish." 

I decided to enter my design in the 4th Annual Vanna's Choice contest.  I started working on this plush on the first of January.  It took me about 25 days to complete. I worked on it for about an hour a day.  It took a long time, because I was experimenting with some techniques that are new to me and I ended up frogging the feet alone at least 10 times.  Thankfully Vanna's choice holds up pretty well.  I'm 95% happy with how he turned out.  There are always a couple of things in a finished toy that I would tweak, for instance I had a really hard time cutting out the felt for the eyes. Next time I'm going to make a template and use an Xacto knife. I have no idea why it didn't occur to me to do that in the first place.

The hardest part about this project was taking a good photograph.  I'm a rank amatuer at photography, so today I cobbled together a light box that cost less than 20 dollars.  I still need to make a couple of tweaks to it, but I'll probably post about how I created it. It made it a lot easier to show off the stitch definition in the photograph.

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My Tori Amos Plush took the Rock Star Award.  I'm doubly excited, because I didn't think it would win because of how crappy the picture turned out.  Photography is so not my strong suit.  Check out the rest of the winners: http://bit.ly/8YZlib.  I'm in love with the Willie Nelson.

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Took Jack to the u-pick pumpkin patch to get our pumpkins last night.  We waited too long last year and ended up getting crappy pumpkins, because of the pumpkin shortage in our area.  This year, I decided we would just get them early and store them outside on the steps.  Haven't got much plush work done lately.  I'm working on some Halloween themed animals.  Hopefully, I will have pictures to put up in October.

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A picture of my Tori Amos is up at PlushYou's blog along with pictures from the other contestants.  I really, really like the Tom Waits, the Ben Folds Five and the Willie Nelson entry.  Be sure to check this link out: http://plushyou.blogspot.com/2010/09/battle-of-bands-challenge.html

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It took forever to finish this plush, mostly because I've been swamped with other projects.  I've been working on it on and off since July.  I didn't get to spend nearly as much time working on it as I wanted to and I'm slightly frustrated with my inability to get the camera to focus on the individual stitches.  Because I had so little time to finish, I had to simplify a lot of my design.  I'm the most unhappy with her hair and would have liked to have more time to fabricate it.  My original concept was to do the Tori Amos song "Sleeps with Butterflies."  I was going to put Tori in a bed made out of butterfly wings, etc, but I ended up deciding that it just wouldn't do Tori Amos justice if I didn't include her piano, so I settled on the song "Caught a lite sneeze." And I hope I have managed to capture what it looks like to sneeze somewhat elegantly while on stage.  I will post more pictures later.  I'm trying to get some pictures of the piano that show more detail.

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In plush news, I haven't been working too hard lately, mostly because I've been swamped with yard work, but I recently received my grandmother's sewing machine, so I can spend more time creating toys, without having to borrow my mother's to sew.  I hate to do certain things on her machine, because she would kill me if I broke it and a lot of my processes are sort of experimental.  I'm sort of addicted to recycled plastic and plarn right now.  I am excepting custom orders again, but right now I'm working on a submission for Schmancy's Battle of the Band's challenge.  I took 3rd in the Olympic Challenge, so I'm sort of challenging myself to place higher.  It probably won't happen though.  I generally think my work is too cartoony for a lot of people's tastes, but that's what happens when you grow up during the 80s.  I spent a lot of time in front of the television watching Inspector Gadget, Hello Kitty, Rainbow Bright, Thunder Cats, Transformers and He-Man, so not surprisingly those shows have somehow warped my creative aesthetic.  I recently found some old Inspector Gadget on Netflix and honestly I still enjoy the show, even though it's fairly predictable.  I have a bunch of ideas kicking around in my head.  At first I was totally psyched to do Weezer, because I thought we were going to be limited to artists who were appearing at Bumbershoot, but when she opened up the rules to allow for any band, I have too many ideas and have to edit a little before I start work.  Sketches or pictures coming soon.

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Today I'm working on a custom order for a bunny and chick, trying to get them finished in time for Easter. It's a local job, so I can work up until Saturday to deliver.  No pics yet, because I'm still in sketch mode.  I should probably be checking clients log files, but I feel my creative juices flowing, so I'm not going to waste this spring day in front of a computer screen? I'll catch up on work this evening. I like to listen to music when I'm making toys. Right now, my playlist is heavy on the Heavy, because I <3 those Kia Sorento Toy commercials. 

Here We Go by Mat Kearney Listen on Posterous

Believer by Viva Voce Listen on Posterous

Percussion Gun by White Rabbits Listen on Posterous

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