Chili Whaa!

Inky Salutation

Summer Bear

01) Rene Engstrom from Anders Loves Maria is running a sketch-a-thon donation drive to help her work full-time on her webcomic. For donations of $25 or more you will receive custom artwork! Rene drew a super fun piece for me during her first sketch-a-thon, and I can’t wait to receive my new one.

02) Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater as a Lego kit. I will be buying one as soon as it goes on sale. I hope the Architecture line is extended – imagine the Centre Pompidou in Lego! (via Prairie Mod)

03) The Beatles Rock Band trailer is gorgeous. Nothing to do with the game, just a great piece of animation! (The first link I had for this video stopped working, so I apologise if this one is also taken down.)

04) Loving Scott Campbell’s pieces from the Gallery 1988 show Quiet Storm. I hope he releases prints of some of these, particularly Tea Spilling and Building with the Bowies!

05) A round-up of lovely soaps by Design is Mine. Fancy soap is one of my favourite things; it doesn’t cost too much but cheers me up with every hand-washing.

06) Classic albums reinterpreted as 60s-era book covers. Super fun! (via Drawn)

07) Grass-free landscaping ideas collected by Apartment Therapy. I want to keep some lawn at our new house, but ideally it will be small enough that a push mower is a realistic option, and I am very keen on low-maintenance plantings, so we’ll be using some of these techniques.

08) A magnetic Katamari amigurumi from Amy’s Babies! It will pick up your paper clips and cutlery and screws, that is genius! The pattern is provided too, perhaps I should make one. I could roll it over the floor when I drop a needle :)

09) Another fun tutorial, instructions for an 8-foot giant squid pillow from PWStyle. I’m considering making one of these too… they look so great lounging on couches in the squid gallery!

10) The Twilight phenomenon explained in comic form by Lucy Knisley. (Caution: spoilers!) I have not read the books, but I made a friend explain the plots to me which is not really much better :D

Gorilla Puzzlement

Conservatory Cats

Slight snafu with the rubber stamps – I’m out of wooden blocks! I had enough to fill all current orders, so no problems there, but now the box is completely empty.

I did order more a couple of weeks ago, but the local woodworker takes a little time to make them, and I’ve sold rather more stamps than usual in the last few days.

It is rather embarrassing to mess things up like this, but hopefully I’ll have more very soon! Until then any order with rubber stamps in it will be on backorder. Sorry sorry sorry!

Squire Mousekin

Wow, yesterday’s update got such a good reaction! I am feeling really lucky, thank you all so much :)

I’ve been hard at work getting your orders in the mail, but I’m taking a quick break to show you what I bought at Kraftbomb on Sunday.

This one was actually a gift – I asked JSR to pop over to City’s table to purchase some of her delicious cupcakes, and he came back with an adorable cross stitch for me. Aw! He is a sweetie!

City’s website with lots of nummy cakes to ogle, and her line of cross stitch kits, is NZ Cupcake Queen.

I buy a new plush at nearly every craft fair I go to, and this wrestler by Geek Freeks caught my eye. The stitching is so incredibly neat and even, I am in awe of Karla’s skills! He will make a fine addition to my collection.

The Geek Freeks website has lots more fun stuff by Karla and Xander.

New this month:

• Panda amigurumi
• We Are Monsters letterset
• Crustacean Post write-on labels
• 15 button/magnet designs

Thank you to everyone who stopped by here and gave me feedback on potential button/magnet designs. I ended up using most of them, though I made a few changes along the way. It was really good to hear what you liked best, and I’ll probably do more of that in future!

Also, don’t forget I’m now taking on a limited number of commissioned amigurumi pieces if you miss out on this month’s panda, or would like to choose your own colours! Email me for more information if you’re interested :)