I love crafting gadgets. That is one of the reasons I like crafting so much more than I liked painting. Check out my newest one. 
Until now I have been struggling with marking felt and fabric. I hadn’t found anything that I was really happy with. But this pen is awesome. The chalk is just soft enough to write on the felt without coming off. I found mine at Joann’s but it looks like you can buy one here if you want. When I have the pieces cut out I use a tooth brush to remove the chalk marks. It works great 
Some positive progress
This little doll is a special order for a goth girl. It would never have occurred to me to do a goth girl but I really having a blast molding my style to fit into the look. I feel especially clever about the wig, if I don’t say so myself. I took the pattern that I have been using for the bob hair dos and “bumped it up” by stuffing the back. I think she need a headband, though.
Thanks so much everyone. The whole shop has been emptied! Justice has been done
Checkout out this etsy listing. This person is having the absolute GALL to sell pdf versions of my book. I am hopping mad. I have reported the listing to etsy. But I would really appreciate it if you all could send her nasty notes.
Yesterday I was a good girl and avoided my studio. I spent all day in the kitchen baking recipes from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking Book.
Growing up my mom baked all of our bread from scratch. But it was almost always white bread, which to be honest I still prefer. But I have been trying to develop a taste for whole grains. I already like oats, a pretty obvious one, I guess. So I made some cookies called “Nutty for Oats” they have peanut butter, ground oats, whole oats and chocolate chips. The batter was really loose and I was worried that the cookies wouldn’t turn out, but they are fantastic. And I have discovered that I really love barley. It is light ad nutty tasting, great for cookies and other sweet things. So I also made lemon barley scones and mixed up the dough for barley sugar cookies which needed to chill so I will make those today. I also went through my pantry and found a few things that had been around for while and used them up as well. So I made rice krispie treats from some suspect marshmallow (turned out they were just fine) and a nice Waldorf salad from a bunch of apples I was afraid would go bad soon.
About a week or so ago I came across another amigurumi blog by another Beth It is called By Hook, By Hand.
She is doing some really neat stuff with her dolls, very unique with plenty of detail, which you know I love. She crochets all sorts of period costumes for them, which I think is just a super fun idea. Go check her out.
I’m a bit less brain dead this morning so I though I’d post pics of the toys I sent to NY. You’ve seen Sophie (above) already. I made her a few months ago and she has been keeping me company in my studio, sitting on a self watching me work 
And below is Effie who you saw already as well.
The girl below is Maybelline. My husband is good at 3D geometry. He drew the pattern for her sun hat. I was really struggling to get the taper right and he whipped it up in no time. You can’t tell so much in this photo, but her pants are actually a cadet-blue corduroy. They are made from scraps I had left over from a pair of pants that I made for myself. Her tunic is made from some 1960’s fabric that I was lucky enough to find in the basement of my local junk shop. I am always tweaking things a bit. This time it was the hands. If you look closely you can see that I stuffed and sculpted them to be flatter. I like them better this way. They are less club-like.
And on the very bottom is Hilbert. I’m not quite sure what he is. The horns are made of felt that I embroidered, stuffed and gathered the tips of to give them that curve. I just love the fabric I used for him. It is called Park Slope, designed by Erin McMorris. I cut out dots from this one, mounted them on felt and sew them to his back for the spots. I wrapped him up good, but I am a bit worried about how the horns will survive being shipped. I really hope they don’t get bent out of shape.
And now I have to tell on myself. I HAVE not been good about taking time off. I do have a special order to make, but I should be force myself to not be totally absorbed by it. I should take some time to bake some cookies and make Christmas presents.
I give up. I have been working on luv-able hug-able amigurumi number 5 for hours and hours today. My head is killing me and I am just making myself sicker. 4 plushes will have to be enough.
Normally I at least make an attempt to keep my desk clean…but getting ready for luv-able hug-able has made that less of a priority. I have really enjoyed all of the hours I have been spending doing my absolute best work. I have been getting a little stir crazy, though, and I am looking forward to a few days off next week after I get my toys in the mail.
Sometimes things just don’t go quite right. 
This doll was one her way to being totally HIDEOUS. Her nose was way too big and I somehow managed to get blush all over it so she looked like she had the flu. Plus her eyes were on crooked 
So she got ruthlessly ripped apart. I was able to save the patches behind here eyes, though. Which saved me from repeating a lot of work. She was initially supposed to wear that curly wig to the left, but that only made things worse. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it made her look like a dumpy clown. Maybe I’ll save the wig in case I ever want to make a clown. It would have to been a creepy clown, though. Not a slasher type clown, just creepy.
But despite her sad beginnings “Maybelline” is looking much better now, even though she is still body-less. 
