Three More Days...

Three more days and my business plan will be submitted to the selection committee, and hopefully  they'll accept my plan as well thought out, and what not, and I'll be able to continue on their financial assistance program, as well as still getting free business courses <fingers crossed>. It's been a tough few months, but I'm hoping that all my hard work will pay off. If by some chance I don't get accepted to continue in the program, I'll have to find a job in order to pay my bills. I know that won't happen.

I also wanted to share some really yummy felt desserts I found on Etsy last night. They're so exquisitely made, and look just like the real thing! They're all made by Huong Huynh, and her shop is called Milkfly.

Waffle Cone Ice Cream Scoop by Milkfly

Lemon Meringue Pie by Milkfly

I've never had one of these (these aren't sold in Canada as far as I'm concerned), but I've seen them in a movie that was filmed in the U.S.

Sno Ball Snack Cake by Milkfly

Just looking at these felt treats makes me hungry. They're so amazing! :)

My first embroidery felt art, and a new monster face.

It's Tuesday, the day after Boxing day here in Canada. I made my coffee, fed the cats, and the first thing I see in my inbox from the news is that 3 people got pepper sprayed in a Winnipeg mall while shopping for Boxing day. They didn't say why they were pepper sprayed, but my assumption would be that there was say 1 television left on sale, and 3 people wanted it. Wow. I don't buy into the sales after xmas. I thought about it, so I checked out the online flyer, and to be honest, most of the TVs on sale were perhaps $10-30 cheaper than they would be if it weren't Boxing day. Why the pepper spray then?

Anyway, moving on to more exciting things....

So as promised, I finished my embroidery felt hoop art and photographed it for you. I modeled it after a sketch I did a few years ago while I was planning my trip to Japan. In the sketch I originally embroidered my name in Japanese like this メラニー but I thought it might be nice without it. 

You can see the glue stains around the edges. This is my first, but I'm keeping it, so it's all right then. :)

When I sketched the cat, I was thinking of the cat in Alice In Wonderland.

On top of that, I also took a photo of a new monster I made with a new facial expression. I really like it and I think I can work with it.

http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=3151715300859743412

I think I'll name it Olive. Should it b a girl or a boy monster?

Do you love his/her happy expression?? :)

I've been thinking about my business, what's selling really well and what's not. After months of craft fairs and sales on Etsy, I've noticed my furry monsters are selling the best, and the rest sell here and there, but not very often. I wonder... Should I just focus on making the furry monsters, or should I continue to make my other guys too (bears, foxes, bunnies)? I know the bunnies get a lot of positive feedback, as well as my foxes made out of recycled shirts. I don't want to limit myself to just monsters though, but I am calling myself the 'Monster Creator' on my business card which everyone seems to love. :-)  Any thoughts on this?  What would you like to see more of, and less of??

Have a great Tuesday and I look forward to your comments!

Happy Saturday! The ball is rolling!

My goodness! I had such a great weekend so far, and it only just started! Last night I was at an Etsy Craft party, and I learned how to make fabric covered buttons and needle felting. Here is my needle felting projects that I finished!

The octopus I did 2nd, and the flower (or tree) I did first. I love it so much because it's like drawing but with a whole new medium! What's best about this, is how you just have to stab the felt into the felt and voilà! It's awesome. For more information, or to grab a kit, at her shop FiberAlley you can go to Etsy http://www.etsy.com/people/fiberalley The kit comprises of a sponge, 3 needles, 7 colours of felt, and some wool batting to do your designs on.

FiberAlley

So if you're interested, her name is Allison, and I'm sure she'd LOVE to hook you up with a great, little kit. She's out of Montreal, Canada just so you know. :) Here's her Etsy shop again. http://www.etsy.com/people/fiberalley

So what else is great is that this morning I got an influx of LIKES on my Curious Little Bird Facebook Page http://www.facebook.com/curiouslittlebird and about 10 people from all over Australia! One of the shops discovered me, tagged me in their post, and thus brought over all these Aussies to like my page in turn! How amazing is that?? I also seem to be loved by the UK people too!!

I can't believe how all my hard work marketing my shop online has really paid off! It seems to be suddenly snowballing, which is really awesome!!

Oh yeah! I almost forgot!! I got an email today and I've been featured in another blog!! This time Gregg got the attention:

Featured on the blog Bittersweet :)

Here's the link to the blog! http://bittersweet-enmi.blogspot.com/2011/06/weekend-wishes_11.html

So it seems that my little experimental monster idea I was doing isn't even necessary to get people to love my work! It seems that they are loved just the way they are! I will continue doing what I've been doing because my work seems to appeal to a wider audience, and that's what's great! I know having a brand/look is nice, but I am a square peg that doesn't fit into that round hole. :0) haha  What I love is making monsters/softies/plushies of all kinds of looks, and it shows! I take great pride in creating a nice end result.

So hooray for me! If you would like to follow my progress more closely, I suggest you check out my Facebook page, Curious Little Bird, at http://www.facebook.com/curiouslittlebird or you can follow me on Twitter if you haven't already clicked the button on the page and my username is:
Twitter: @ardwinna_m

Have a happy Saturday everyone, and please tell your friends about my shop! I love that the whole world loves my monsters :) It makes me so warm and mushy inside!! :D

That's me on the left and my BFF Nellie Yee on the right!! Look how happy we are at the success of Curious Little Bird! hahaha Thank you !!!!!

My Softie/Monster Collection

This is a small collection of my monsters/softies that I've made and I'm currently selling on my Etsy shop, Curious Little Bird. For more information, to purchase one already made, or have a custom order, please contact me through the Etsy site at http://www.curiouslittlebird.etsy.com! Enjoy my monsters/softies  :)

Rainy Saturday

Good morning fellow readers ;)

So today I'm going to the farmer's market. I'm going to buy myself some fruits and herbs for my balcony container garden. You're thinking fruits?? Yeah, fruits. :) You know, like tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers... the "veggies" that have seeds that are actually classified as fruits. Hehe don't believe me? That's okay. It's just a shame that it's raining today, and the weather network says it will be for the rest of the week. I don't remember ever seeing so much rain in the spring.

I think it'll be great that I can finally start growing tomatoes since I have a lot of sunshine on my back balcony. It's a very sheltered area, so hopefully they'll like the heat too? I'll make sure to put them against the edge where hopefully they'll get a breeze. The pesky squirrels in my neighbourhood can easily jump from the power lines to my back staircase, and I've heard that they really love tomatoes so I'll have to buy some chicken wire to protect them. It's a pain to have to do that, honestly. I'm really looking forward to having my 'veggies' and herbs this year. I think my garden will be more successful than last year's. I tried to grow kale, broccoli,  sweet peas and yellow onions, and the only things I got were yellow onions and sweet peas. I think last year's weather was too iffy. The temperature kept dropping down below 5ºC and when that happens the plants decide it's time to stop growing, and most of them stayed dwarfs or they went to seed. My front balcony gets sun for 1 hour in the morning, but I think the only thing I could grow out front would be catnip for my kitties since this balcony is unreachable by the stray cats in my area. :)


I've been working on a new 'monster' for my Etsy shop!! It's a little bear... here's a photo the embroidered mouth..

I'm using some nice, bright pink rayon thread to embroider the little bear's mouth. You can see I traced the mouth with a pen so at least it'll look straight! hahaha I've often embroidered things on felt and then when I sew it on the face, I realize it's all crooked! haha That usually adds to the charm of the plush doll as you know it's been handmade (and always made with love in my case... I love making monsters). Below is the cut out pattern from the weaved polyester fabric I found at Fabricville (Fabricland in non-French areas).

As you can see I pinned the eyes down so that way they'll be straight when I sew them on. I just know the final result will be super cute! Stay posted for the finished product!

Cheers and enjoy your Saturday!