This dog would like you to eat some soup.

Here's my latest. This dog's name is Wanda.

Wanda wants to know what you are up to. She also wants to know things like: "What is that thing you are holding? Is it edible? Can we go on a walk now? Will you scratch my belly? Hey, is that a squirrel?"
Anyway, on to the soup! The husband and I have been pretty much living off of this and a few other soups this winter. This one in particular is a winner because it is fast. Oh, and it's good, too. I started this current obsession with a recipe from Lauren's blog. Here's my particular take on it.

Tortilla Soup (Absolutely Small style!)

• 2 Tab. olive oil
  
• 3 cloves garlic
  
• 2 jalapeños, seeded and minced
  
• 6 c veg. broth (I've tried a bunch of different ones, and the Swanson Organic Veg. broth seems to turn out the best.)
  
• 2 or so tsp. cumin
  
• A few solid shakes of that chile-lime seasoning stuff that is supposed to go on fruit (my bottle says "Tajin fruit seasoning") {Trust me on this one, it makes the soup}
  
• 1/2 small bag frozen corn
  
• 1 can black beans, drained & rinsed
  
• 1 28 oz can diced tomatoes
  
• Cilantro, chopped
  

In a large soup pot heat the olive oil. Add garlic and jalapeños, cook for 5 min. Add everything but the corn and cilantro, and simmer for 10 minutes. Add corn, cook for an additional 3-5 minutes or so. Add cilantro right before you eat.

That's it. If you can't find the chile-lime seasoning (sometimes the "ethnic" foods aisle isn't as complete as one may wish it), the label says it's just red chile flakes, dehydrated lime, and salt. You could probably make do with just squirting in half a lime, some salt, and a little bit of the chile flakes.

Keep warm and soup filled, everybody!

Illustration Friday- Tales and Legends

Finally got a change to do Illustration Friday again! When I think "tales and legends", naturally the Legend of Zelda comes up. I had to give it a chickeny twist, of course.

Disco cuteness

Sorry, but this simply must be posted:

Major kudos to Objetsmart for finding it and posting it first!

Working, working, working

It seems like I've been working more or less nonstop since I stopped working the day job. Which isn't really shocking. And it isn't really a bad thing, either. For example, I created a bunch of new fellows last week. Here are a few of them:

Chickenpants Grande: Rico!

Sumomo, the extremely bright dog type creature.

Finster the linen owl. Smug is his middle name.
The first two are already in the shop. More will be popping up all the time!
I like the pink one so much, I even made a little button out of him:

That's all for today!

Shows!

Just a quick postlet- you can see Absolutely Small at in two real, live shows soon.
First of all, there's PLUSHED at Purdue Uni, which is already going on.

They currently have all sorts of photos up on their Flickr account- so many awesome plushies there! Oh! And! All the plush in the show will be available for sale on the site Box Wonder. Yay!
Secondly, The Main ARTery Gallery in Benicia, California has a few of my paintings in their upcoming Child's Play show, which runs from January 25th - April 19th. Apparently, they will have all sorts of snacky goodness at the opening reception on Feb. 2nd.

(Do forgive the crummy photo of the post card- getting the scanner to work is sort of an ordeal right now!)
I'll also have a few pieces up at Side Show Studios in Sacramento, CA in February. Alas, no postcard for these guys.

Woot! So, if you happen to be in any of these areas, please stop by!

Almost Edible Gingerbread Men!

Every year, I make gingerbread men (and women, bears, and stars) when my whole family gets together. It's one of our little traditions, right up there with staying up until 3 am and watching movies.
Every year, my gingerbread men get lavishly decorated by all the cousins, bedecked with gallons of frosting and buckets of candy.
And every year, they go largely uneaten.
This may have something to do with their ability to chip teeth. Hmmmm.
So I set out this year to find a new, better recipe than the one I'd been using. I searched high and low (online, for 20 minutes) to find the best of the best.
I came back from my quest with two recipes. Only one proved to be a winner. Let me warn you right now- this is going to be a lengthy post.
Before the results, let's look at the recipes themselves! And some photos!

Recipe A: From Elise.com
# 3 1/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
# 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
# 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter (room temperature, softened)
# 1/2 cup dark-brown sugar, packed
# 2 teaspoons ground ginger
# 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
# 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
# 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
# 1/4 teaspoon finely ground black pepper
# 1/2 teaspoon salt
# 1 large egg
# 1/2 cup unsulfured molasses

Recipie B: From All Recipes.com - Colonial Williamsburg Gingerbread Cookies
· 1 cup white sugar

· 2 teaspoons ground ginger

· 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

· 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

· 1/2 teaspoon salt

· 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

· 1 cup margarine, melted

· 1/2 cup evaporated milk

· 1 cup unsulfured molasses

· 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

· 3/4 teaspoon lemon extract

· 4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour


Can you guess which one works? Oh, the suspense!
(For the actual cooking directions, hop over to the original sites.)
The First Batch, (Elise.com, hereafter referred to as "Batch A") was tough to work with- it required a minimum of one hour chilling time, which always makes things FUN.
After that, the dough was sticky, it tore easily, and was just generally nasty to work with. I think it needed more flour.
The Colonial Williamsburg recipe (batch B), on the other hand, was a dream to work with. It called for no chilling at all, and it was super easy to work with the dough. (I think I added 2 more cups of flour than they originally called for)

ANYWAY:
The exciting conclusion!!!
The clear winner is...the first batch, the recipe from Elise.com! The cookies had good flavor, and they were actually sort of soft! Wow! Amazing!
The clear LOOSER was the Colonial Williamsburg recipe. The cookies were awful, hard as rocks, dry as bones, as unappealing as tired cliches. Inedible, and even worse than my old recipe (Which calls for an astounding 7 cups of flour, by the way) (Also: Questions about the "Colonial Williamsburg" recipe: So, they had margarine back then, did they? And evaporated milk as well? And I bet lemon extract was super easy to get a hold of.)
So there you have it. Next time you think to yourself, "Self, I would really like some nice, chewy gingerbread cookies.", think about buying them from a store. Because making them at home seems to be darn near impossible.

p.s.: If anyone has a better recipe, do tell! I am on the hunt.

Almost Edible Gingerbread Men!

Every year, I make gingerbread men (and women, bears, and stars) when my whole family gets together. It's one of our little traditions, right up there with staying up until 3 am and watching movies.
Every year, my gingerbread men get lavishly decorated by all the cousins, bedecked with gallons of frosting and buckets of candy.
And every year, they go largely uneaten.
This may have something to do with their ability to chip teeth. Hmmmm.
So I set out this year to find a new, better recipe than the one I'd been using. I searched high and low (online, for 20 minutes) to find the best of the best.
I came back from my quest with two recipes. Only one proved to be a winner. Let me warn you right now- this is going to be a lengthy post.
Before the results, let's look at the recipes themselves! And some photos!

Recipe A: From Elise.com
# 3 1/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
# 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
# 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter (room temperature, softened)
# 1/2 cup dark-brown sugar, packed
# 2 teaspoons ground ginger
# 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
# 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
# 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
# 1/4 teaspoon finely ground black pepper
# 1/2 teaspoon salt
# 1 large egg
# 1/2 cup unsulfured molasses

Recipie B: From All Recipes.com - Colonial Williamsburg Gingerbread Cookies
· 1 cup white sugar

· 2 teaspoons ground ginger

· 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

· 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

· 1/2 teaspoon salt

· 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

· 1 cup margarine, melted

· 1/2 cup evaporated milk

· 1 cup unsulfured molasses

· 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

· 3/4 teaspoon lemon extract

· 4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour


Can you guess which one works? Oh, the suspense!
(For the actual cooking directions, hop over to the original sites.)
The First Batch, (Elise.com, hereafter referred to as "Batch A") was tough to work with- it required a minimum of one hour chilling time, which always makes things FUN.
After that, the dough was sticky, it tore easily, and was just generally nasty to work with. I think it needed more flour.
The Colonial Williamsburg recipe (batch B), on the other hand, was a dream to work with. It called for no chilling at all, and it was super easy to work with the dough. (I think I added 2 more cups of flour than they originally called for)

ANYWAY:
The exciting conclusion!!!
The clear winner is...the first batch, the recipe from Elise.com! The cookies had good flavor, and they were actually sort of soft! Wow! Amazing!
The clear LOOSER was the Colonial Williamsburg recipe. The cookies were awful, hard as rocks, dry as bones, as unappealing as tired cliches. Inedible, and even worse than my old recipe (Which calls for an astounding 7 cups of flour, by the way) (Also: Questions about the "Colonial Williamsburg" recipe: So, they had margarine back then, did they? And evaporated milk as well? And I bet lemon extract was super easy to get a hold of.)
So there you have it. Next time you think to yourself, "Self, I would really like some nice, chewy gingerbread cookies.", think about buying them from a store. Because making them at home seems to be darn near impossible.

p.s.: If anyone has a better recipe, do tell! I am on the hunt.

Because no small mention goes...unmentioned

Two nice things today:
Item number one: Today is my last day at my day job! My time has been served! I am now a free woman. Wooo! It still hasn't really sunk in that I'm not coming back to the beige empire.

Daily Photo 1.17.08
Originally uploaded by absolutely small

Avert ye eyes! The beige, it blinds!

Item number two: I was quoted in the Storque, Etsy's news blog thing. And they included my Chickenpants Limited print in their "related items" part. Nice! Thank you Etsy!

We'll take this thing to the moon!
Originally uploaded by absolutely small

Have a lovely weekend, everybody! Me, I'll be baking and cleaning up a storm in preparation for long anticipated and much put off family thing. Maybe this year's gingerbread cookies will be edible! Here's hoping.

I just gotta...Bark!

Rearranging the lyrics of songs and inserting "pug" and other pug related terms is kind of a shared mental illness in my family. Lo and behold- I managed to marry a man who shared the same defect! That's love for you- shared mental illnesses. Aw.
What brought on this embarrasing little blog post? Photos of French Bulldog puppies sprawled on their backs? Or was it this pretty black pug? (Variation= Pug in a tangerine hat!)
Maybe it's some of the great things I've been seeing on Etsy- like this awesome paper sculpture of a terrier. Or perhaps it's the wicked awesome pug stencil painting. Maybe I just have a thing for Boston Terriers with massive underbites. Hmmm...hard to say for sure. It may just be a combination of bad Musak and all of these things. Definitely, bad Musak crept into the mix.

Pug in the snow
Originally uploaded by absolutely small

"The world ain't right without you, pug."

Tutorial: How to make a rock and roll scar

It's easy! Just follow these steps:
1. Get a blackout.
2. Get little brother to bring over two guitars and a ukelele.
3. Strum uselessly for awhile.
4. Decide that you are cold, blackouts are stupid, and you want to watch tv instead.
5. Run to car in the seriously poring rain, carry a maximum of items, almost drop all of them.
6. Discover that guitar does not fit easily on lap. Wrestle with it to get door closed.
7. Manage to hit husband (TIP: To be more rock and roll, use the terms old man, or old lady if it is your wife) over the head with guitar.
8. Do some confused yelling.
9. Shut car door- everything is now quite damp.
10. Bleed profusely.
And there you have it, in just 10 easy steps!

Podcasted!

The Chickenpants have been mentioned in a podcast! The website IndieBizChicks.com was kind enough to give them a little love this week. You can download the podcast here. They also have a blog (naturally!), which can be checked out here.
If you happen to be a crafty sort running a business, or just a regular small business owner, you should check it out. They've got some great resources to help along the way.

Chickenpants Limited

There's nothing I love more than ideas making the jump from my head into tangible reality. It's been a really awesome month for that already. But! I have one more. I am really happy to be able to share with you my latest: Chickenpants Limited!

Chickenpants Limited is a new print series. They'll be released every month in an edition of only 30. Each one is signed, numbered, securely packaged, kissed by a Chickenpants, and awesome.

I've really enjoyed working on this new project! I hope you'll find the prints as amusing as I do.

And you can find them in only two places: my shop and February's Sampler.

Lovely!

Three lovely things to share today:
1. My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell. Have you read this? You should totally read this. It's lovely.
2. Absolutely Small goods are now available at Orange Button. Orange Button is a lovely online shop.
3. I just sent off these guys to the PLUSHED art show. Art shows are lovely, too.

Wait! Bonus fourth thing:
4. The POWER came back on! Electricity is the very loveliest thing of all.
Hope you are all having absolutely lovely days of your own!

I've been remiss!

I've been linked to on a few lovely blogs as of late, but due to all the blackouts and whining, I haven't made a peep about it.
Well, peep.
Softies Central mentioned my Oak Dog softie...back on December 28th! Eep!


The Plush Team was kind enough to mention my Chickenpants Grande softie on their blog.


So, a big, albeit late, thank you to these lovely bloggers!

Whiny haiku & plushies, too

Yeah, the power's still out. And it will likely continue on this way until late Wednesday...unless we're deemed to be difficult to get to (quite possible), in which case the power will remain out until Friday.
Excuse me while I go cry under my desk.
Anyway! When the going gets tough, the tough write whiny haiku:

We are cold and damp.
PG & E: I Hate You
Bring power back now!

Bring the power back.
Hey! Power to the people!
People meaning: me.

Hey! PG & E!
What’s wrong with a little rain?
Apparently, much.

Hey! It is so cold.
My pug dog is shivering.
Power outages suck.

It's fun, see? Ha. Ha. Ha...

As promised, I do have something nice to share: a new plush bird named Gladys!

Gladys is a no-nonsense kind of creature. She does her part to keep the others in check, reminding them to keep on getting up and working. (Of course, "working" in this case means "being cute and cuddly". It is tremendously hard work, after all!)
Sounds like I need her around my house!
Anyway, she's in the shop now.

Greetings from a really long blackout!

Oh, internets. How I've missed you!
The power has been out at our house since Friday afternoon. The power has been out in large chunks of Northern California since then. I'm at my parent's house right now, enjoying heat and light and sweet sweet internet connections. Ahhhhhhh.
It's really not that bad, but it is surreal and rather dull. Especially since a.) I just launched The Needle.org the other day, and had planned on toodling around with it this weekend and b.) We just purchased the Flight of the Conchords dvds and have been quite looking forward to watching them.
We have it pretty good. One of our friends up here lost a decent sized portion of his roof during the last storm, drenching his house. Other friends had a tree crash down in their drive, taking out two of their cars.

Picture from the blackout
Originally uploaded by absolutely small

Here we are, drenched from trying to buy more candles and storm supplies.
I was sent home from work on Friday morning because the whole block lost power. I managed to snap a few shots with my phone before I left, though. (Of course! Life must be documented!) I work in Rancho Cordova, which is nearly 40 miles from home.

From the blackout
Originally uploaded by absolutely small

Of course, no sooner did we arrive home than a big tree took out access to the main road and all the power.

Picture from the blackout
Originally uploaded by absolutely small

Ooops.
When power is restored, I'll be able to share with you photographs of candles in the dark (how exciting!), and tell you all about how I gave my man a rock and roll scar on his head. (Complete with photos!)
Hope you're all safe and dry and fully charged with electricity!

Launch Par-tay

*drumroll, please*
ba-da-ba-ba-da-ba-ba!
Introducing:

The Needle.org! A collaborative blog for plush artists!
Many of you are familiar with Sugar Frosted Goodness, Three Thumbs Up, and Monday Artday. I love these blogs, and I really love the idea behind them. A collaborative place for visual artists to post their recent work and get feedback. The format is awesome. Strength in numbers, and all that.
My recent focus on plush had me thinking, though- there really isn't anywhere for plush artists to post like this. And wouldn't it be great if there was?
And thus, The Needle was born!

Why "The Needle"? Because no matter how you create plush creatures, sooner or later you will employ the use of a needle. It's one of the common threads we all share. (Apparently, even crochet hooks can be referred to as needles, so come on over, awesome amigurumi folks!)
You've got to be a member to post, so if you're interested in joining, please email me at theneedle.org@gmail.com.
Even if you're not interested in being a member, please do hop over and check us out. I think this is going to be a lot of fun!

Yet more reasons to love stop-motion animation and Blythe dolls...

I know I've mentioned my love of stop motion animation before... throw Blythe dolls in there and you have probably the best combination ever. (Move on over, Komaneko!)

There are a bunch on Youtube, but my favorites were all posted by BlytheTheater. Their profile is mostly Japanese, so I'm not sure if these are actual Blythe tv spots, or just fan films.

New item for to-do list: procure stop motion camera.

Also: procure Blythe dolls.

Brave New

Daily Photo 12.31.07
Originally uploaded by absolutely small

I've been putting off writing a post because I have too many ideas. Once I start tackling one, another one crashes into it.
Oh well.
I'm looking forward to this year- I think it's going to be a really good one! I have some good things in the works, and it looks like there are some decently large changes around the bend. I do love big change.
Looking back at this year, I think: Hey, alright! I started a business. I tried a lot of new things. I started to really hone my creative voice.
Of course, I can also point to a lot of things I did wrong and would certainly like to change.
*insert a shrug here*
That's how we grow.
I hope you're all in a satisfied state, and looking forward hopefully. I keep thinking of this expression I hear in Japanese movies: "Ganbaru kudasai". It means "Please do your best!", and it gets applied to a lot of different situations, generally mundane. But the sentiment is so nice- so please, do your best. I will, too.