I’ve had over a month in Southern California, and while it was nice to get some sunshine, it sure is good to be back in Oregon!  I had plenty of holiday show mess still left to clean up when I got home, but I took the opportunity to completely re-do both my office and my studio and get a head start on designing some Spring goodies.  Aaand I have finally posted two of my most popular craft show items.  You can now choose from a rainbow of Mini Folding Scissors and Thread Snippers!

Heavens knows that when I spent the last few weeks working till 1 am every night and prepping for back-to-back holiday shows I had no idea that I wouldn’t even be there for the second one.  Just a few days before the Crafty Wonderland show I got the very awful news that my grandmother was about to pass away.  I got on the first flight home and I was able to be there for her very last moments.  I didn’t give the show a second thought, but I feel so incredibly grateful to Eric for staying behind to run the booth, even though I know his own heart was breaking.  Thank you so much to Eric and Sherry and Liam and Jenn and Jenny for helping take care of things so that I could be here with my family.

My grandma had an incredible sense of style that I think has been passed on to me, and was a master of recycling before it was ever cool to recycle.  Grandma set me on my very first craft adventure when she taught me to crochet as a little girl.  She showed me how to make crepe paper flowers, how to propagate plants, how to cook enchiladas, and she let me have a creative space in her house for as long as I needed it.  Polly Danger exists because of the support she offered while I was getting off the ground.    I hope that all of my work honors her efforts.

Thanks so much to everyone who has sent kind words and condolences.   They are very much appreciated.

It is 4 am and I am still so pumped up from this weekend that I couldn’t sleep!  What an amazing weekend!  Not only was the show fantastic and the customers just dreamy, but it was really great to see my vendor friends again after months of being holed up in my studio, prepping for holiday shows.  I swear I tried to take pictures of all of the amazing booths, but it was such a hectic weekend that in the end I only got a few photos of the show, and a few photos of my own crazy booth.

Eric and I decided to stay at the super swanky Maxwell Hotel, which is only a block away from the UCU venue, and I am so glad that we did!  Not only was it incredibly convenient, but I felt so fancy staying there!  Plus we were walking distance from the Metropolitan Market ( I wish we had one of these in Portland!), Bartell Drugs (again, why don’t we have one in Portland?!), and all of the adorable and scrumptious eateries that I miss when I’m at home.  Which eateries?  Well how about Dick’s Drive-In (the fries are a dead tie with In N Out), Pho Viet Anh, where I not only got fed a giant, and fresh meal, but got introduced to some awesome Vietnamese dance music, or how about Citizen, which has given me a gift beyond all gifts:  their bread pudding style french toast.  I honestly believe that my french toast and bacon there was the best food experience of my life and I am counting down the days until I can return for more.  Anyway, on to the photos!

When I was preparing my product and booth setup I didn’t really understand that of the 10,000 people who attended the show, half of them would end up in, and purchase something, from my booth.   I also had the very happy challenge of creating a booth with traffic on 3 sides!  This was a first for me and although I did not take this task lightly, I feel like I could have done way better.  Still, I had a few space-crafting tricks up my sleeve.

The plus side of a U shaped booth is that you get tons of traffic- yay!  The down side is that you have to decide  how to let all of that traffic into the booth, and if you opt for more that one entrance, then you loose some floor space for product.  To solve this dilemma I used one corner for some brand new shelves, and left two entrances, while leaving the third wall with no entrance, but a clear view into the booth.

On the outer side of the shelves were a variety of brand new kits.  And on the other side I made room for buttons- it’s so thrilling when I can get multiple uses out of one display!

I also found room for a table display, including my crafty Christmas tree, decorated in Polly Danger stocking stuffers. There are many things that I plan on changing for my next booth, which you can see in person this weekend!  Crafty Wonderland is coming up in mere days and I’m so looking forward to seeing my vendor friends once more, and shopping like crazy! If you’re going to be in Portland December 10 & 11, you MUST stop by and say hello!  I have so many amazing things during the holidays that just don’t make it to the online shops, plus I will be right next to some of the very cutest vendors in Portland!  My partners in cuteness, Jenn and Jenny from Chet and Dot/ Robot Candy will be a few booths down, and for the first time ever the amazing Four Eyed Girl Designs will be boothing it right next to me!  I first saw Trisha’s work in person and let me tell you, her booth was mind blowing!  So much cuteness might make your head explode, so take a deep breath and brace yourself ^===^.

Right about now my living room looks like the Harry-Potter-fied warehouse behind ye olde sewing shop.  There are boxes piled on top of boxes piled on top f boxes, lamps in places where they don’t belong, scraps and snips of fabric under every chair and table leg, and peeking out between the fabric chaos are my bird dioramas and lace doilies and my gothiest indoor plants.  Lucky for me, my sister is flying in today to help me wrangle the mess and hopefully create some semblance of Thanksgiving cheer in the midst of it.  But despite the craziness, I just had to share my most recent re-imagining of the wonderful Wrist Pin Cushion Kit and sewing pattern.  Behold how super adorably cute it is!

The sewing pattern itself got a facelift, along with all of the other sewing patterns in my shop!  They are now tidier, and more efficient and the tutorials come with new photos!  Because of the assorted nature of these kits, they’ll only be available in select shops, as well as at my 2 holiday shows.  Yay sewing kits!

Mostly I’m too engrossed in working to stop and take pictures nowadays, but yesterday I did this, and I just had to share its adorableness with the world. I’m working up a giant batch of Mini Fix Kits and in doing so I had to organize all of the little thread spools.  What better place than a vintage muffin tin?

Here’s what all of those cuties are going to grow up to be:

Also, a couple of mornings ago this somehow happened:

No, we didn’t put her in the dryer along with the blankies.  I think we just had a blanket fiesta going on on the couch and she remembered Where’s Waldo and voila!  Petina Lasagna.  That Petina is just so clever!

I hope everyone had a superbly enjoyable Halloween!  What did everyone do to celebrate?  I decided not to give out candy this year.  Instead, we decorated the inside of the house, made spooky foods, and had friends over to watch a perfect Halloween movie- The Others- OooOoooOoooh!

Eric’s decorating was predictably fantastic.  Can you believe I had to force him to do this when he’s so obviously good at it?

Too bad about the funky light and blurriness, but you get the idea.  Our crow here is still picking at the leftovers of his most recent meal.  Num Num Num.

Likewise, our spider is taking care of a little infestation for us.  Muahahahahaha!  I really am bummed that the lights were too dim to fully capture all of the stuff we had going on, like the obligatory death bouquet in the entry way and the dramatic goth curtains that replaced our normal ones.  Well, some things are better left to the imagination.

But not this spooky Halloween CAT!  Carson, the newest member of our family, is incredibly difficult to photograph.  This is why we’ve had her for over a month and only have this blurry photo.  She makes it into the Halloween post because she’s so dark and mysterious- oooOooOoooooh!  Actually she’s not black.  She’s chocolate brown with bunny-soft gray underfur, and chartreuse eyes.  MWAH!

Sherry made the most adorable squash monsters (complete with guts!), and I made witch finger cookies (thumbprint cookies with almond nails) and goopy troll eyeballs (brownie balls dipped in sugar cookie icing and decorated with food coloring).  Oh and we also had dragon scale nachos and goblin blood cocktails made with Sherry’s foraged-grapes grapejuice! I’m sad I didn’t get photos of everything.  I was too busy stuffing my face.

Yep, a pretty great Halloween.  I kind enjoyed not giving out candy.  Since the lights were off and we had no outdoor decorations we were able to get through the entire movie without the dogs barking at trick-or-treaters.  Sadly however, I just discovered that one of the local schools banned any Halloween dress or activities!   I mean, what country do we live in where a principal can just cancel a holiday?!!!  I have to say, I had been considering sending my kids to that school one day, but this is a deal breaker.  There’s something wrong with the world when a construction paper jack-o-lantern can get you in trouble.  I hereby vow that my children will have Halloween every year, complete with costumes and candy, until they’re too old for trick-or-treating. Private school is looking pretty good at the moment.

What about you all?  Did you dress up?  Raise your hand if you had an awesome Halloween- (!- that’s me raising my hand).  Tell me all about your Halloweens!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Autumny weekend.  I did a bit of gardening,  and a lot of sewing, and I got to watch Petina do this:

And now the weekend is over and the work week begins.  Even for a crafty lady like myself, Monday means the beginning of a new week of work.  A whole new era of Polly Danger cuteness is in the works and I’m working as fast as I can to fill wholesale orders while simultaneously finishing up my new products so that I can photograph and post them!  Sometimes I think I need more people on this team!  Or just four more hands ^=^.  I’ll just give you a wee hint:  The new Polly Danger goodies will be ultra eco- focused.  Eric calls it “Cute-stainability”.  I call it “Eco-cute”.  But we’ll let you decide as soon as I can get these suckers stitched up and posted!  Stay tuned!