hey, hey, hey, hey Mr. Postman

in my case, it's the post lady. there are two of them, and i'm pretty sure they hate J and i. between me sending packages and asking a gazillion questions (always using the wrong box...but i'm getting better!) and J using our street address instead of the P.O. Box address, they have been ready to pop a metaphoric cap in my butt (cause they are always friendly to J for some odd reason...must be the beard).

that is all water under the bridge now because we've made up. what i really wanted to show you today is what i've been getting in the post!!!

(we got an old school bicycle postcard from good ol' Lacey today. she is currently living in France. have i mentioned that?)

(our new friends Sheriff Samuel & Oscar from Plush You! Sheriff Samuel is from Cinnamon Sugar Hearts & Oscar is from Telephone & Monster Bones)

(oh no Oscar!!!! don't eat the Sheriff!!!)

what next?!?! i love prezzies in the mail! i hope everyone is having a great day!

Seattle, Day 4

i know it seems like an eternity since i've been back, but i still remember our last day in Seattle very vividly.

some of us had a little too much fun the night before and woke up not feeling so good so i suggested we go get breakfast...again, we went to Le Pichet because i just loved that place...i thought J would love the dish that i ordered the day before but it didn't really fit his appetite at the time (he wanted something greasy i think), but i loved it. i ate mine and finished his...that's right, i said it!!

(yum, yum, eat them up!)

while he headed back to the hotel to get some rest, i headed over to Antiques at Pike Place, which is seriously, the best antique store i've ever been to (Lacey would have appreciated it...might have even screamed in delight). they had the biggest antique jewelry collection i've ever seen and it just over all an amazing place. i only got one photo there because you had to leave your bags at the door and you were not really allowed to take pictures in there. the lady at the counter told me it was because they had so much jewelry...i don't know what that meant, but i was scared to take photos.

i spent a little too much time at the antiques place, so J and i had to take a taxi up to Capitol Hill to see Handmade Nation! yes! i finally got to see it!! it was definitely worth the wait and i even got to meet/shake hands with Fayth Levine (Google her if you don't know, and if you don't know, you should be ashamed!!!). i almost died! DIED!! i know she probably doesn't remember me, but it was still awesome! we decided to skip the discussion and walked towards the Space Needle to see a zombie walk we had seen a poster for a day before.

we got a little turned around and followed a trail of fake blood (seriously on the trail, but it could have very well been real blood) and then followed some zombies around. those zombies were pretty dang fast cause we actually lost track of them and ended up at Seattle's Sea Sk8 Park instead. J encouraged me to get up close and take photos, so i befriended the skate park's manager Kristin, who was super nice and actually gave me some pointers on how skate boarders liked to be photographed (always face them!!). she suggested i get a little closer, so took her advice and got REALLY close, i mean, close enough where i could have gotten hit or ran over!

(female skater! chea!)

i've never taken pictures of skate boarders before so this was such a great experience for me. it was AWESOME! ...so if you know any skaters, send them my way!

while i was shooting the skaters, the zombie walk rolled by, so i immediately ran over to take get some shots.

pretty fun too!

we headed back to the hotel via the monorail (suggested by Kristen at Schmancy) and got ready for the Plush You opening at the Bluebottle Art Gallery. i think the reoccurring theme through out my Seattle trip was how things appeared smaller on the interwebs. duh! Bluebottle was so much bigger than i had thought. the show was on the upstairs loft and i was so proud to have been a part of such an amazing show! i reached for my camera to take photographs of the show, but realized that i had forgotten my memory card at the hotel. dunce! i do this on a daily basis you should know...oh! and i had forgotten it the night before too, but luckily, we were only 5 mins away, that night, there was a 25 minute walk from the gallery to the hotel! J suggested i use my iPhone to take pics, so that's why i don't have very many of this show. sigh.

(nerd alart!)


(so funny & cute by Alisa Ross)

while there, we met up with a couple of the other artists we had met the night before and headed out to the opening at the Anne Bonny. we got turned around all over the place and ended up not making it there on time. bummer. hunger set in so we decided to have dinner at a Thai Restaurant which was a very good idea at first cause as we walked in, it smelled like my grandma's house. hmm, i thought it would be good until we got our Pad Thai's. i ordered the country style Pad Thai and J got the regular, which wasn't so regular...it had ketchup in it!! yuck i say! i mean, judging from the fact that i eat Pad Thai on a regular basis (weekly), i am a bit of a snob, but seriously? ketchup? mine tasted close to what i was used to, but my Tom Kha Gai had onions and carrots in it. REALLY? has anyone else encountered this? i was so freaked out i had to call my grandma to clearify! anyway, we packed our left overs up and gave it to some poor, seemingly homeless man on the street and eventually walked back to the hotel where we watched SNL and called it a night...our flight was bright and early the next morning.

more pictures HERE.

------------------------------

we pretty much spent the whole day next day traveling. it was brutal, especially the time change. J and i were both pretty exhausted and our flight got delayed in Newark (not a very well laid out airport). i wasn't very happy to have had such a short trip, but i felt like we did so much during our time there. seriously, i love Seattle. it's beautiful there. i made a few friends that i'm pretty sure i'll keep in touch with and i just love the vibe there. man, i can't wait to go back! Plush You, please accept me again next year!

Seattle, Day 3

this has been a long time coming...

i started our third day in Seattle at Pike Place Market again and got to see how to booth picking process began. the market has a little craft section, and every morning, the crafters come in and pick their spots, seniority first and then by lottery.

i picked up a bouquet of flowers and headed to a little French cafe called Le Pichet and met up with Kristen from Schmancy for some yummy breakfast (it's a tradition for Kristen to get breakfast here on the opening day of Plush You). we both ordered the Oeuf Plates (Kristen's recommendation that i absolutely loved!) and had a nice chat.

i headed back to meet up with J after breakfast and we headed for the Space Needle. it was beautiful out so the view was amazing. on our way up the elevator, the guide asked if anyone had a question...and of course, J had to ask. "Are there any stink bugs in Seattle?" ...i mean, are there? before we left good ol' WV, we had a huge stink bufg infestation, but had not seen any when we got to Seattle...the guide couldn't answer us and acted as if she didn't even know what stink bugs were...are there stink bugs in Seattle?

after spending a good portion of our time up on the Needle. we explored the whole complex surrounding it. we sat down next to a water fountain (thank Becky) and just enjoyed the view, then walked to the Music Museum (a purple building!).

we walked around downtown a bit more looking for Dahlia Bakery (at the Old Crow show there were some cupcakes there that i fell in love with from this bakery...so i needed more!). after lots of Google mapping on our phones, we finally found it and i had one of the best cupcakes i've ever tasted...a caramel popcorn cupcake...YUMM!!! i wished i could have brought some back for Becky & Meaghan!

we went back to the hotel to rest a little and got ready for the Plush You opening. here are some pictures from the show!

(Melissa Sue Stanley and Lou Lou & Oscar)


(Penquin & Fish and Chris Creatures...Maryland represent!)


(we got this guy from Telephone & Monster Bones)

(a view from outside)


(you guys! Olivia made this, she's nine years old!)

we had a great sushi dinner in between the show (Seattle had the best sushi!), checked out the shows at Nancy & Fancy (they were great too!), and accidentally found out about downtown's first Friday art walk. we saw so many great art and artists and felt a little over loaded with amazing talent.

(one of my favorite pictures from our trip)

we got together with the Shcmancy crew and other artists after the show and went for a drink at the Nightlite to cap off the wonderful night. Seattle is the boss! more pictures of the day on FLICKR!

Foto Fun Friday

found this while walking around in Seattle.

if you want some Pretties

hey y'all!!! the pieces i made for Plush You are now up for sale. take a minute to look them over and let me know what you think!! click here!

Day 2:

day 2 was incredible! J and i walked about three blocks to find Schmancy and met Kristen (the brain behind Plush You!). it's so nice to see things/meet people in real life instead of seeing them on your computer screen. Kristen recommended a place called the Crumpet Shop where we could get some yummy brunch so off we went. this place was a little hole in the wall, but adorable! i had never even heard of what a crumpet was, but after some convincing...mainly asking the guy behind the counter what it was (essentially a super scrumptious/buttery English muffin) ...i was sold and had mine with strawberry preserves and cream cheese. DANG! was it good!?!

(all the things you could put on your crumpets)

(i can't stop talking about them!! yum!)

afterward we walked down to Pioneer Square and checked out Occidental Park, which isn't really much of a park, but i'll take it.

(a wide view of the park, also referred to as a square)

the neighborhood was beautiful and the day was perfect for exploring. we checked out a couple of store fronts (like this place called the Mystery Book shop...we thought it was going to be some mystery about it...but it ended up just being a book store filled with mystery books...we were a little disappointed) and stopped at Elliot Bay Books that a couple of people had recommended (Becky!).

boy, i sure was glad we went in there, that place was amazing! we found a lot of quirky books and bought an autographed copy of The Wild Things by Dave Eggers. seriously, i could have lost myself for hours in this place! it was that amazing. we walked down to the waterfront and enjoyed the scenery...even went to Pier 70 to "see" the Real World house...how silly. we sat for a bit at Olympic Sculpture Park and headed to the hotel for a nice rest.

(the space needle gets a thumbs up)

(J and i enjoying the scenery on one of the piers)

i went back to Schmancy later that evening to help Kristen and her crew put the show together (where i mainly took boxes in/out of storage and tagged the plushies.) it was like Christmas! there were so many great plush and i totally was loving on them all! and it was so nice to see what the whole process was like. i met Shelly the super Schmancy Intern and a couple of other great folks. J even came back to help after a little while.

(Kristen Rask)


(Shelly and a piece from Licorice Tree)

we went over to the Moore Theatre, which was right next to Schmancy, to catch the Old Crow Medicine Show...um, show, that we had decided to go see earlier in the day. they are a talented bunch! the theatre was built in 1907 and is the oldest theatre in Seattle, so you could imagine what it kind of looks like...but well kept of course. the show was really fun, except for the up-down part (people, either stand up or sit down!) and J and i had a really good time. watching Old Crow made me a little home sick and reminded me of one of my favorite bands back home the Fox Hunt (sometimes they cover Old Crow songs).

(entertaining for sure!)

we stopped by this dive bar called the Night Lite (said to be one of the oldest bars in Seattle) since J was starving (he didn't want to eat his sandwich since it had shredded apples in it...i thought it was good) and actually met a couple of the guys from the band. NEAT!

we called it a night and headed back to the hotel where we met is 'business man' outside. he was totally into going out or going out with strangers and asked if we wanted to join him. he actually asked if we 'partied' and how hard we 'partied', so we bid him goodnight and walked rather fast towards the hotel entrance. not something you encounter everyday...anywho, i guess you would know the routine by now. more pics on the ol' Flickr.

day 3 adventures tomorrow!

I'm Back!

Seattle was a BLAST!! J and i had the most amazing time and met a lot of great people...we almost didn't want to come back! the time difference was a good thing at first cause we felt like the days were longer (woke up early when it was really mid day on the East Coast), but now i'm having a hard time adjusting back...yesterday i woke up around 3 pm! THAT NEVER HAPPENS UNLESS I'M SICK!

after settling into our hotel room, we walked down to Pike Place Market to grab some lunch. we continued to explore downtown Seattle by walking around the waterfront checking out the Seattle Aquarium and some antique shops. later that night we went to the Capitol Hill district and had a yummy dinner at the Rosebud where J found his new favorite mac & cheese. we checked out a few bars in that area and ended up checking out a hip-hop (since i had never been to one) show at Neumos.

anywho, i managed to get our first day's pictures up already, so check them out!

(lunch at Lowell's)


(i got to touch a star fish at the aquarium! look at this guy!)


(someone loved her Boston!)

more here!!!!

PLUSH YOU, PLUSH YOU, PLUSH YOU, PLUSH YOU!

Plush You 2009- Info

Artist Reception: Friday, October 9th 5 - 10 pm

Schmancy
1932 2nd Ave, Seattle, WA, 98101
Fancy
1914 2nd Ave, Seattle, WA, 98101
Nancy
1932 2nd Ave, Seattle, WA, 98101

Artist Reception: Saturday, October 10th 5 - 10 pm

Bluebottle Art Gallery and Store
415 East Pine Street, Seattle, WA, 98122
The Anne Bonny
534 Summit Ave East, Seattle, WA, 98102

come out if you're in the area!

leaving on a jet plane

going to Seattle in a couple of days. it's going to be REAL sweet. Plush You here i come!

finally finished!!!

i don't know if i've mentioned a peep about what i'm making (just showing pictures)...but i'm making a "P" for an all plush, "Plush You" sign for the Bluebottle Art Gallery. i came up with a couple of ideas, but they all just didn't seem to work out...until i tried going simple. here's the finished letter:

does he look like a certain someone to you? minus the braces.

his hand stitched hat.

his sweet little face! the braces are my fave!!!

ok, so i totally had J in mind while making this (he has glasses, wears a black hat 24/7, and almost always wears a buttonup/plaid shirt). i didn't add any arms though because i didn't want to take away from the shape of the "P."

he's going to be overnighted to Seattle just in time for October!! Plush You, here he comes!

Fings interview for Plush You!

i tried not to sound too corny...but here's a link to my interview for Plush You! and the Bluebottle Art Gallery.

oh, Plush You!

(Queenie: Flapperus batticus)

(Lock Jaw John: Piratey batticus)

(Lord Batson: Vampirae batticus)

i know i might have shown you something different in an earlier post, but i decided to scrap those and these instead. i was really stressing to make something new and different for the show, but J gave me some good advice ("stick to something you know"), i did, and i am SUPER stoked on how they turned out.

these cuties (very hard to catch) will be hanging out at the Bluebottle Art Gallery for the Plush You opening there. i'm SO excited to be a part of such a great show (still screaming on the inside)...there will be four openings in two nights!!! i cannot wait!