Inspiration Friday!

As I have gone on and on about, I have been out of town. And away from all computers. Which means I've had far less time to find delightful gems of the interwebs to share with you all. But I do have some!

Want to start (or restart) drawing your life? Michael Nobbs is here! He's generously released a free ebook about just that: Start to Draw Your Life and 75 Ways to Draw More.

Michael Nobbs has become my new favorite person on Twitter. He has wonderful tweets about the creative life, particularly managing it when you have less than abundant energy. Follow him! @michaelnobbs
Heck, read his blog, too. It's pretty fantastic.

I could just end Inspiration Friday right now, just pass the baton to Michael Nobbs and call it a day.
But no.
I have one more tidbit. One geeky, geeky tidbit:

Who knew there was so much dancing in the original Trek?

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Craft Show Packing Checklist

For way too long, I had pages and pages of possible things to pack for shows. Pages I downloaded off the internet, pages I hand wrote, pages pages pages. All of which just left me feeling panicky that I had forgotten something.
Well, no longer! I finally bit the bullet and condensed all those pages full of things that only half way applied to me, and made them ONE.
And I'm sharing it with you.
Behold! The one page show packing list!
Click here to download the Craft Show Packing List!
It will open in a new tab. To save it, click on File, then Download As. Pick your favorite format, and you're good to go.

A caveat, of course: Look over this list. Personalize it. Everyone brings slightly different stuff with them to shows. Take the time, and your future self will thank you. (It's really not that much time.)

Best wishes for all your future craft shows!

Hey, we're back!

Let the recap commence!
Sort of!
It turns out I accidentally took 450 pictures at the San Diego Zoo, and roughly none of anything else. It's going to take a little bit of time to sort through all those to find the 5 or 6 interesting shots. So we'll talk about another facet of the trip: Unique Los Angeles!

Look, a photo! Of my table! Taken with my crummy camera, as that is my way.
Unique Los Angeles was wonderful. It was so nice to meet so many of you! And it was great to meet so many new people, too.
We were in between a ceramics artist, and Necessary Baggage, who made fantastic men's lounge shorts. They also had male models wearing those shorts (and generally not much else) hanging out at the table all day. Best advertising ever! You can see some photos they took on their Facebook page.
There is so much more to say, but a persistent headache isn't letting me get to it right now. Just know that I am back, things are good, and my pugs won't let me out of their sight:

More soon!

It's here!

It's finally here! Unique LA is THIS VERY WEEKEND. April 24th & 25th aka Saturday & Sunday.
Come on by and say hi! Parking is easy. Hundreds of vendors, crazy hipster chow, and other goodness. I'll be there with ALL 68 CHICKENPANTS in tow.

Here's the site with all the details: http://uniquela.com. Hope to see you there!

Holy cow, I'm on vacation!

hey...
so, no one’s here right now. they all went to UNIQUE LOS ANGELES and a vacation first. they left me, g.pete chickenpants in charge.
claire wants me to tell you to visit her there. the link to all the UNIQUE stuff is below. it's april 24th & 25th!
http://uniquela.com/

and the etsy shop is closed until april 27th. likewise, she’s not answering any convos or emails ‘till then, either. it’s crazy, I know!

she'll see you all soon, and hopes you still remember her in a week!

Hey, you're not on vacation yet, missy!

Apologies for the lack of blog posts and new items in the shop this week. Procrastination mixes with a never ending to-do list like gin and tonic. Except instead of being refreshed and relaxed, I'm frantic and tense. Wait, what was this paragraph about?

So. My dryer died yesterday. And now I have wet laundry all over the place. (Which makes it sound like it exploded, but it did not.) And I'm here, waiting for the delivery guys to show up with a new one, and trying to knock things off that famous to-do list.

Things like that (unexpected appliance death) have led to this being the very last post of the week for me.
Also, I need to announce that the shop is shutting down TEMPORARILY tomorrow- April 27th. I won't even be checking my email. Well, hardly at all. Insanity!

In lieu of a real Inspiration Friday post, here's a few links:
I've been enjoying the blog Hyperbole and a Half lately, not just because in my head I pronounce it "hyper-bowl". Especially this here post about "alot".

Here's a very cute comic by Miss Natalie Dee:
Which I can't embed 'cause it's all huge and stuff.

And finally:
Han Solo. In Carbonite. The soap.

You're welcome.

We have a winner!

And it is....commenter #9! JenMeister!

Thank you everyone for entering!

New goodies? Yes!

Greetings from thick in the middle of a never ending to-do list! I leave for San Diego in FOUR days. Which means no more putting things off to next week. It also means I'm closing shop for over a week. (On Friday. Ack!!) It's crunch time.

I'm trying hard to keep adding new things to the shop this week...but again, never ending to-do list.
Nevertheless, check out this victory of Claire vs. pre-show chores:

That's right. PROFESSIONALLY printed Chickenpants postcards! They're glossy! They're pretty! They come in a set of four! I couldn't be happier with these little cuties. I've listed a few of them in the ol' shop, if you want to check them out.


(And if you haven't yet, be sure to enter our Craft Leftovers giveaway! A winner will be chosen tomorrow!

Okay, back to the Chickenpants mines.

Inspiration Friday!

Oh my gosh, Brandon Bird.
This painting is called "Nobody Wants To Play Sega With Harrison Ford". And you need to see it on his site to fully appreciate the details.(painting by Brandon Bird, of course!)
You and your Bea Arthur wrestling raptors paintings are welcome at my house any time.

The future is...now! Glasses...with a hidden video camera! Thanks Photojojo!

Check out this wicked awesome painting that Ms. Krissi Sandvik did:

Finally! A photo that isn't vague!
Originally uploaded by Skelekitty (Krissi Sandvik)

It's not currently in her shop, but I'm sure that's just an oversight. ^-~

From Flavorwire, a great question: What if Don Draper was happy? Well, then he might look something like this:



Have a great weekend, everyone!

Who wants a copy of Craft Leftovers Monthly?

***Update 4/9*** Uh, yeah, so I should probably link to where you can BUY a copy, if you are so inclined, right? Here ya go: http://craftleftovers.com/shop/ Check out her blog while you're there- it's really good!
***

I've got copies to share! The ultra-generous Kristen of Craft Leftovers has given me more copies to share with you.
The April issue is chock-full of awesomeness, and I'm not just saying that because she included a photo of Finnegan with the bunny tutorial I drew up.

36 pages of crafty goodness!

Ok! Wanna win? Here's the scoop:
Simply leave a comment below to be entered. We'll pick a winner on Wednesday, April 14th.


For extra points, (that is, extra comments + increased chances to win), you can also do any of the following:

1. Blog about the contest! 2 extra comments!
2. Tweet about the contest! 1 extra comment!

To get those points, do one (or more!) of the things mentioned, then come back here and leave an extra comment(s).

And I did mention I had more than one of these to give away. We're giving a copy away on The Needle, too! Hop on over there and leave a comment! Double your chances.

Leave me comments. Win things. Yay!

Good morning, good morning! - take two

Yeah. It's the afternoon. But look what I wrote yesterday morning:

It's Monday, it's Monday! I'm a little excited today because I get my car back. No more being housebound! No more relying on the kindness of others to get my packages to the post office! Woo! (i.e. faster shipping times for you! Woo!)

In other news, I just realized that in order to go on vacation (REAL vacation, the other thing I am very excited about), I am going to have to close the shop for a bit. The 16th-26th, to be exact. Which is longer than I've ever put it on "vacation mode" before. Ack! Will you still remember me on the 27th?

That is GOOD STUFF. And I fully intended to get that post out yesterday morning. But then I suddenly needed to go and help my brother get his new car so I could have my old car back, and well, there went the day. When you live very far from everything, you really need to make every trip down the hill count.

So, anyway. As is our Monday tradition, allow me to share with you some of the newest Chickenpants.

Claudette!

Sally!

Hercules!

Behold that glorious vintage fabric. You might remember it from Chickenpants 300. Or not. Anyway, I think you will agree that it is chick-tastic.

Linda Linda Linda!

And new pouches, like Business Time:


Keep your eyes peeled on the coop for more! I've got some new fellas up my sleeve before I leave for Unique Los Angeles. (And some surprises once I'm there! *hint hint come and see me at the show!*)

Inspiration Friday!

It's finally Friday!

Turtle's first patio visit
Originally uploaded by craftybeaver

Celebrate like a tortoise on the patio! (Walk in circles and look for green things!)

I am fascinated by Curious Pages. How could you not, with a tagline like "Recommended Inappropriate Books for Kids"? http://curiouspages.blogspot.com/

I recently ate a cake with pink strawberry frosting. And sprinkles! Lots and lots of sprinkles. It looked sort of like this:

Hot Pink Cake Adapted From I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti
Originally uploaded by erincooks

Anyway, it was completely delicious. And now I am obsessed with getting some more. INSPIRATION: Strawberry frosting is still delicious, even if you're not 12.

I don't have an Android phone, but if I did, I would totally download Google Translate for ANIMALS! At last! A way to find out what my pugs are really saying! The picture they have on their site is even better. Using your phone to communicate with chickens...we are living in THE FUTURE!

And now, may I present to you a tiny rooster trying to crow:

Thank you, Cute Overload!

It's Show Season! Get ready!

The recent realization that all my silver cube pieces are currently being used to bunny proof the house led to this post. What am I going to do for my show set-ups this year? What are you going to do?
First, I like to take a look at what other people are doing. Seeing other people's tables and booths is a great way to learn what works and what doesn't. (Of course, you would never want to copy someone else's table!)
Here are some useful Flickr groups:

• Indie Craft Fair Guide


• Show me Your Booths Pool


• Arts & Crafts Fairs & Shows


• Felt Club Event Photos Yes, the last Felt Club was in '08, but that doesn't mean there isn't stuff you can learn.

Another great resource is the Etsy forums, of course. A quick search on craft shows will provide more information than anyone could possibly use.

Now the hard part- digesting all that information and applying it to yourself. Naps help. But more importantly: test run, test run, test run. It's the best thing you can do for your booth.

What are some of your best tips for booth set ups? I'd love to hear them!