The Impossible Green Woman

I've been failing miserably at keeping up on blogging lately, but I really wanted to stop in and show you this picture:

Yes, that is the lovely Kim Boekbinder wearing one of my leaf masks. I've blogged about her before, about her tour and amazing ideas and personality. I sent her a care package with a few lovely items and she graciously modeled one for me and tweeted a picture. She also sent me a thankful email which warmed my heart. I love artists that have such a great connection with their fans.

Halloween was a busy time for me. In my last blog, I told you about some custom orders I did. My favorite one was an order of eight autumn leaf masks for a LARP. They were a joy to make, and I've been promised pictures, which I will share with you as soon as I receive them. I wore a leaf mask as I handed out candy to the trick or treaters. Hopefully I didn't scare them too much. Lol.

For Halloween events, I decided to go as a sugar skull girl. I had helped make accessories for so many other people's costumes, I didn't have much time for my own. So I found a thrift store skirt, paired it with a matching top, had a friend do my hair in victory rolls, and painted my face all pretty. (The second picture was taken on a different day, thus no victory rolls. Sadness.)

I have my last craft fairs of the year coming up this weekend. I'll be spending this week preparing. They are just some small local ones, but still pretty fun. Because of the upcoming holidays, I'll be taking a little break from crafting so that I can concentrate on the handmade gifts I love to give. I will still be taking custom orders, just not making very many new items. In the meantime, my Etsy shop is all decked out for Christmas/Solstice. The front page is loaded with holiday items and warm knitted goods, and as always, the rest of my shop is loaded with goodies for all year round. Check it out!

I promise to blog sooner rather than later this time, and I'll be including some treasury love. I was in a LOT of Halloween treasuries so it will take me some time to compile the list. I'll be including the LARP photos and more fun news and info. Happy November!

Listening to: Amanda Palmer's Ukulele Anthem

Autumn Products and Craft Fairs

I have two imminent craft fairs:

Autumn Art on the Marsh on September 25th in Horicon,

and

Watertown Fall Festival on October 1st in Watertown.

Those are the Facebook event links. If you aren't a fan of Facebook, you can look at my Webs page for more information on the events. (My Webs page doesn't have much else going for it right now; I am frustrated with its lack of photo storage. Anyone have suggestions for free web page hosting sites, or should I suck it up and pay for a website?)

I am really excited for autumn. It took me a little while to let go of summer; sometimes I feel like we rush to the next holiday way too soon around here. Halloween stuff was up at the beginning of August, and Christmas stuff is already being put out. We see holiday items for so long, that by the time we get to the actual holiday, we're already sick of it!

But Halloween is something I don't ever think I could be sick of, even if it lasted all year. I love the creepy decorations and horror movies and haunted houses and most of all, the costumes. I wish we had excuses to wear costumes all the time. If I could throw a theme party to get people dressed up in costumes at least once a month, I'd be a happy happy girl.

So as you can guess, I'm really focusing on costume pieces right now. Of course there are the faerie wings; I'm even working on a pair with a matching mask and headband all made specifically for each other. I have many other ideas for matching costume pieces as well, which I'll hopefully be able to finish before Halloween. In addition to those, I'm working on several more masks. Leaf masks seem to be more popular at this time of year, but I'm also working on a super-secret project relating to masks that I'm not ready to talk about until I successfully finish a few.

In addition to all these projects, I'm also working on a few personal projects (as always). I am experimenting with terrariums, and when I complete my first one, I'll post a picture. I'm knitting like crazy as well. I decided that to be smart, I should start planning my Christmas gifts NOW since I like to make my gifts and I often don't finish all the gifts in time. If I start four months early, maybe I'll have a chance this year! As you can guess, with all the projects I'm working on, my sketch-of-the-day series has taken what seems to be a permanent vacation. I really do hope to get back into it, but with the projects plus work plus networking online plus an actual personal/social life, time is lacking. I will probably do some on-and-off sketching, and maybe I'll pick the habit up again during the slow winter months. (Ugh, I can't believe I just said the w-word... I'm so not ready for that one yet!)

As another personal side note, Kim Boekbinder of my earlier blog sent me a thank-you package! True to her unique style, I opened an envelope made from folded paper to find a handmade fabric envelope with a bright yellow flower, and I opened the fabric envelope to find a thank-you card with a cut-out picture of Kim that appears to be drawn by the talented Molly Crabapple. Inside is my name on sparkly paper and Kim's signature. Also inside the fabric envelope: a handdrawn notecard with a tree bearing golden leaves, small blue and white silk flowers, random buttons, and fabric scraps with extra-sparkly sequins. Let me just say that Kim is amazing. She is so personable with her fans, and her style, once again, is so unique and fun. In fact, here's a pic:

Ok, I'm done geeking out, I swear!

Here, to make up for my geeklove, have some photos of some of my new products! :)

Kim Boekbinder's Impossible Tour

Kim Boekbinder is one of my favorite artists. I know I've mentioned her at least once in the "Listening to" section I like to put at the bottom of my blogs. Kim is unique, both fashionably and in her style of music.

Every song on her album, The Impossible Girl, is unique and different from each other. Every song expresses a different emotion. There are some that make you laugh, some make you cry. Some are a bit creepy, some are sparkly bits of fun, and some are simply beautiful. Most of the links in this paragraph are to her videos, because her videos, no matter the content of the song, are visually stunning and magical. Kim Boekbinder is, in a word, amazing.

 
I could gush about simply this album for the entire blog, but I'll move on.

Kim has started a tour, named of course the Impossible Tour, and like her, it is unique and original. Let me borrow a bit from her press release to explain why this tour is so different:

"Iconoclastic New York musician, Kim Boekbinder, has set the internet abuzz with her passionate rant about the state of the music industry and how she’s decided to circumvent the broken system by using her vibrant social media presence to pre-sell her shows BEFORE they are even booked. Kim’s first test run of the idea was launched on Kickstarter and she got her funding for a show in New York City in under 24 hours.Now she's doing a 10 date US tour.

Here's a fun video of Kim explaining her tour:







What's best about Kim? Her connection to her fans. I've been waiting to do this, even though it's so silly, but.... *SQUEE!!* I got an email from Kim Boekbinder! To help promote bloggers to blog about her tour, she promised to answer three questions. I could only think of one. Here it is:

1) You have such a unique sense of fashion. What inspires you?

"I am inspired by shiny things, old rusty things, nature, decay, and the blueness of the sky. I love handmade things and things that are falling apart. Things with a story."

Thank you, Kim. You and I have that in common. I am actually working on a package for Kim, of hair clips and masks personalized to her sparkly tastes. I hope she likes them, and I hope you like this blog. Thank you for listening, and please, look into this tour. If you are anywhere close to her shows, please buy a ticket. I promise you won't be disappointed. If, like me, the shows are too far away, at least give her music a listen and watch some of her videos. Again, you won't be disappointed. Thank you!