Fuzzy Butterfly Garden

One of my friends at work was recently let go, and we were all very sad about it. This lady loves anything crafty, and loves all things Victorian. Think roses, tea parties, paper dolls... So on her last day, I gave her something that I thought would make her smile: a Fuzzy Butterfly Garden.

In the garden are three butterflies, a caterpillar, and a moth. The three butterflies can be hung like ornaments, and the caterpillar and moth are refrigerator magnets.

I didn't get to see her open it, but she did send me this thank you note:

"Let me just say that your gift was sublime. From the very get go of the creative gift wrapping, to the lovely note and to crescendo with the opening of the tissue to find my very own butterfly garden, hand made by you! It made me laugh and grin and cheer you on mightily! Well done Sharon! I love their size, colors and bright cheer they exude."

I'm so glad I was able to make her smile!!

Alchemy Request - Hannah the Doxie

Here is my latest Alchemy creation, Hannah the Doxie!! Hannah is an adorable little Doxie that loves to chase her little blue ball, and belongs to the lovely LaughingFridge (LaughingFridge.etsy.com). Here is a picture of Hannah in real life:

And here she is after she was Fuzzingtized:

Hannah is made completely out of brown pipe cleaners and glass beads, primarily using traditional wire-wrapping techniques. The only glue used was for her little pink felt tongue. Hannah loves her little blue ball, which is made of polymer clay. I hope the owner loves pipe cleaner Hannah almost as much as the real one!! =)

YAY!! 100 Fans on Facebook! Now What??

I DID IT!

I finally got 100 Facebook Fans on my Fuzzington Fan Page!! I now have the power to add a username to my facebook url and make it easy to type in! My link is now http://facebook.com/fuzzingtonfuzz. It was a bit of a bummer because "Fuzzington" had already been taken as a user name (booooooooo...) but this name is fine.

I do have to admit, however, that setting up your user name is not an intuitive process. I had to look it up in the Etsy forums, and I found this SUPER helpful thread by StarGlowStudio: http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6238241

From her thread:

Congrats on getting your 100 fans!
I've had a few people emailing asking if I know where to go to get a custom URL. Here's the link...
http://www.facebook.com/username/
Below the blue box, click on "Set a username for your Pages."
Remember, choose your name carefully - you can't change it later. Make sure it's spelled correctly!

Super helpful, right?? By the way, StarGlowStudio makes some amazing pet portraits, so make sure you check out thier shop (StarglowStudio.etsy.com). This one reminds me of my little Maggie when she has hair:

Thanks to everyone who helped me get to 100 Fans! I'd especially like to mention my 100th Fan, chrissymaciel, a talented young artist that just started her shop not too long ago. She's got some really trendy knitted hats and scarves that are just wonderful!

Give Chrissy's shop some love ( crissymaciel.etsy.com)! Chrissy, we can't wait to see more of those stylish items!!

I Have the Best Husband in the World

A few weeks ago, I was tasked with creating favors for my best friend's bridal shower, and since the theme of the shower was Hello Kitty, I decided to make some cute beaded Hello Kitty bracelets. They're made of glass beads and Swarovski crystals, with a little Hello Kitty charm. I bought the charms on Etsy. Here's mine.. isn't it cute?
However, I only had two evenings to put together TWENTY of these babies and I had no idea how I was going to crimp, tread, and bead all twenty in time for the shower. Luckily for me, I have the best husband in the world!! Now let me preempt this by saying that my husband is definitely NOT INTO CRAFTS. He thinks it's cool that I like them, but his idea of fun is sitting on the couch watching sports all day with a few beers. This same guy offered to help me bead the bracelets, so all I had to do was start them off, and he beaded more than half of the bracelets!! So sweet!!

Here's my cute husband in action.

I think it's so cute how he laid out all the beads before stringing them. I should have gotten him a beading board. =)

He was a real trooper and we finished all of them in one night (even if it took us until 1am)!! He even admitted that he had fun doing it!! What a great guy!!

HOBBY LOBBY

We are very blessed here in Southern California to have a lot of things that many people in the rest of the country wish they had: palm trees, beaches, beautiful weather all year round... but there is one thing that we do not have: Hobby Lobby.

As I mentioned in my last post, I was in Schaumburg this week for meetings, but in a perceived
act of divine intervention, my meetings for Thursday were canceled, and since I had a late flight and a rental car, I had the perfect opportunity to pursue what I consider to be a crafter's paradise. Oh, how happy I was to be in this store!!! I memorialized the visit with pics on my cell phone.

Why do I love Hobby Lobby so much? Well right off the bat, the sheer size of the place is astounding to me. Just look at it! It's huge! If you took a Michaels, JoAnns, and Aaron Brothers, and mashed them all together into the same store, you'd get Hobby Lobby!


And the selection-- Oh, the selection!! And the great prices!! Imagine a Wal-Mart that only sold crafts!

There is a whole half of an aisle dedicated to PIPE CLEANERS! Folks, I present to you the birthplace of Fuzzington:

There are thin pipe cleaners, thick ones, feathery, striped... even JUMBO sized pipe cleaners (in the left portion of the picture above). I didn't get those jumbo ones because I wasn't sure what I could make with them. Needless to say, I stocked up...


On top of that, I got some great deals on postage stamp collecting supplies, as well as animal eyes for my sock monkeys, and some great jewelry findings. Somehow I was able to stash it all in my suitcase, and airport security did not give me any trouble for bringing a bunch of craft supplies home.

When I got back to San Diego in the evening, my husband and I went to Trader Joes to stock up on groceries. As we were checking out, I joked about how the many items we were ringing up at Trader's reminded me of my purchase that morning at Hobby Lobby. The cashier overheard me and asked excitedly, "They opened a Hobby Lobby here in San Diego??" Unfortunately I had to break the news to her that this wasn't the case, and she looked disappointed. She had moved out here from Tennessee and said she really missed the store.

So for those of you who are fortunate enough to have this great store in your community, and are amused by how I revere this store-- I think you're really taking Hobby Lobby for granted!! Please, let this be a reminder to not take Hobby Lobby for granted! Perhaps one day, I can "lobby" to bring Hobby Lobby to the west coast. Until then, I'll just have to wait for my business trips to Schaumburg and hope for canceled meetings...