Rag Pets

Happy Halloween!

Me and the Rag Pets would like to wish you all a spectacularly spooky Halloween!

Halloween is my one of my most favourite holidays; it helps brighten up an otherwise dreary season, there's costumes involved and of course, there's yummy candy too. I also love to carve pumpkins and was super happy to discover that they sell little pumpkins at our local grocery store. So, I made a Cat-O-Lantern! :)

We don't really have anything planned for Halloween, since J. will be at work all day and evening, but I am trying think up some scary supper for us and I'm planning to watch scary movies while cowering under a blanket. I'm not going to dress up beyond my usual PJs and wooly socks as I'm masquerading as... um, a person who likes to lounge around in her pyjamas all day.
Do any of you have Halloween plans?

The show goes on

(Photos by the wonderful Rancho Cocoa whose cute plushies are on show in Nancy.)

I know it's been two weeks since the Plush You show opened, but I'm still all excited having my plush on show and having the chance to share my Rag Pets with new people.

(Photo by Rancho Cocoa again.)

I'm very interested in the crafts/art divide and on how "art" is defined to begin with, so being able to take part in a plush art show is really cool for me.

I actually dug out my old notebooks in the hopes of finding my art philosophy notes. Sadly, I'd only written down the introduction of the subject into the notebook and I must have taken proper notes elsewhere...
I remember a theory by some philosopher whose name I can't really recall right now stating that art is only art if it's shown in a gallery. And then there's Wittgenstein's Open Concept of Art that I thought that it was one of the better ways of pinning down what is and what isn't art out of all the ones offered, even though it just leads to other problems trying to decide what qualities the definition is based on.
But no matter what philosophy you subscribe to, Plush You makes plush art and that in turn makes me very happy and proud to be a part of it.

On with the show!

The Plush You show opened last Friday, and I celebrated by buying a new dress and going to the opera. :)

Apparently the opening was quite the party, with cupcakes, a live DJ, drinks and everything! And both Schmancy and Fancy were as stuffed full of people as they were of plushies. I'm very lucky to have friends in the Seattle area who were able to go see the show, since I couldn't get there myself (the usual problem of lacking both money and time). I'm even luckier in that my friends went to the show and took their cameras with them and took lots of photos while there.

My Rag Pet trio is on show in Fancy.

(Photo by the fabulous Dawn/Plush-a-holic, whose work is on show next door at Schmancy.)

Doesn't it look like such a super cool place? :)

The trio made it there all safe and sound, even if they do look a little mussed from their trip. Then again, you'd be a little mussed too after a few weeks spent cooped up in a box.

(Photo by Plush-a-holic again.)

The trio share shelf space with cute crochet critters from Gleeful Things (on the right of them), charming chickens wearing pants by Absolutely Small (on their left), absolutely adorable animals by Missy Ballance and kuddly knitted kreatures (I know I'm cheating, but it's hard to come up with alliterative words that begin with the letter K) by Fuzzy Mitten.

(Photo by Kris/RakkaDeer, who makes delicious -literally- art.)

(Photo by the lovely Leah/Schnitzle, who braved the crowds to snap photos at the show.)

I love that all the plushies were set up so that you could touch and hold them. I bet that if I were at the show, I'd have spent the whole evening just petting and cuddling plushies and then I would have spent all my money and then I would have promptly fainted from all the wonderfulness! :)

(Photo by Schnitzle again.)

It's so nice seeing photos of the show, and of course of my Rag Pets. I feel really proud of my little trio and I'm so chuffed to know they're doing well over there in the big world.

You can see lots more photos of the Plush You show (from both Schmancy and Fancy) in Dawn's Flickr, Leah's Flickr and Schmancy Toy's Flickr.

Plush You!

Squee! The Plush You show starts today! :)

This year the show is in both in Schmancy (1932 2nd Avenue) and in Fancy (1914 2nd Avenue), and the Terrific Trio will be hanging out in Fancy.
The opening party starts at 5pm and the jubilation goes on until 9pm. In addition to all the amazing plushies on show, there'll be lots of super talented plushie makers, lovely plushie fans, great crafters and bloggers oh my, at the party too.

I'm so excited about my Rag Pets being in the show! I'm gosh darn anxious too, as this is the first time I'm taking part in something this grand. I really hope that my Rag Pets will be much loved there and that everything will go well. I wish I was able to just click my heels or snap my fingers and go see the show myself; this is really going to be an wonderful show! I'd also kind of like to see the Terrific Trio one more time in person too.

If any of you reading this can go, please do. And please take lots of photos too! :)

Sunday scrumptiousness

Some scrumptious softies for Sunday:

1. Lumme, 2. Red Riding Hood bunny, 3. coffee or tea? 03, 4. It's My Birthday + I'm Giving Out Prizes, 5. DaWAWA#41_5, 6. milosh, 7. Sally at the door, 8. Harold the Superhero, 9. Ari, 10. maimi, 11. hugo and henry, 12. ermelinda e florinda, 13. MOose MOose Laverne, 14. raccoon, 15. Rainbow fat kitties keychains, 16. olaf, 17. Woodrow, 18. Puppy in hand, 19. fox, 20. more rabbits, 21. Pepo, 22. Mavis, 23. Rina, 24. Walter the Sweetie Bird Love=Creature, 25. Kitty no.3

I just discovered that I only made one post last month! I feel terrible for neglecting this blog, since I love to write here and share my crafty life with all of you who read this blog. I was about to say "all one of you", but since I just discovered that a whopping 333 of you visited this little corner of the web last month, I can't really say that. :)

Speaking of visitors, I've been meaning to add (or rather, have J. add for me since I don't really know how to work this thing without breaking something) links to all the crafty & plushie blogs I love to the side bar there on your right. I think I just need to... umh... prune the list a bit, as there's pretty much over 100 blogs on it right now!

Any ways, I promise to post more from now on and I also promise not to let the drab and grey autumn weather get me down.

Crafts, the economy and you

With the mess the US economy is in causing the economy of pretty much every other country to go into chaos too, there's been a lot of talk about how us crafters will fare in these uncertain times.

With everyone having to tighten their purse strings, people have less and less disposable income to spend on handcrafted goods, that are considered luxury items to begin with, and that means decreased sales for crafters. For many, this could very well mean some dark times ahead.
And now that the dollar is so weak compared to other currencies, the already shrinking market shrinks a bit more yet. For example, were I to sell in dollars, I'd have to raise my prices by half to make up what I'd lose in converting from dollars into euros. And higher prices isn't something you'd really want to subject already skittish buyers to.

It's not all doom and gloom though. With tightened purse strings comes a new appreciation for up-cycling, DIY and making do and mending. Being crafty means you can stretch what little you have for a whole lot longer. This new emphasis on making your own things instead of buying them will most likely create crafters out of people who might otherwise not take up crafting. I'm hoping this crafting renaissance will last long after the economic slump has gone, as it will help the crafting community grow and it will hopefully make people appreciate hand made items more and more.

This might not be the time for making sales, but this is the time for making, period.

Any ways, all of this has already been hashed over and over in many a crafty blog, with a lot more eloquence than I can muster too. Go read what Page 63 of your manual has to say on all this. Not only has Sayraphim summed up all of this economic woe and how it effects crafters very nicely, but her whole blog is a jolly good read too.