Happy New Year!

Last night we brought 2009 in with slightly less than a bang. Mr. Lemon picked up a bottle of Andre pink champagne (I had this at a wedding in 1995 or so and found it delicious -- it still is for $4.59!). We had planned to go to our favorite Japanese restaurant here in town, Ogawa, but we got some weird snow that turned our neighborhood to ice (the salt trucks don't like to venture into the student ghetto much) so we ended up walking just a few blocks to a newer placed called Solera. It was surprisingly good.

I got these mushroom ravioli things and Mr. Lemon had a tasty risotto that was even more surprisingly all vegan. They have a nice deck that overlooks gorgeous South Park (note hint of sarcasm) and we were seated by the big windows next to it so it was awesome and kinda romantic. Needless to say we were exhausted and home by 9. Mr. Lemon walked babysitter Grandma home over the icy terrain and we watched the ball until 10:30 when we just couldn't take Seacrest anymore and went to bed.

Such is life with an early riser. Zadie was up chatting with Camilla at like 5:30 so we brought her into the bed with us for a morning nip hoping she would crash back out like the old days and we could catch a few more Zs of our own. No such luck but Mr. Lemon took the morning shift and let me sleep a couple more hours.

Today I'm almost halfway into my 5 loads of laundry. Groucho is sleeping on one of the piles (we only have 2 laundry baskets). Sasha is nowhere to be found and Mr. Lemon is making gluten-and-just-about-everything-else free cupcakes for his sister who is doing the total elimination diet because her breastfed baby has eczema pretty bad. They are a bit gritty but with icing will be quite tasty.

I doubt that I'll have time to write more long rambling super parenthetical posts like these much this year as I'm begrudgingly back to work. So if you're still reading for whatever reason, I wish you a much better year than 2008 (even though we had a pretty good one what with Zadie joining us and all).

Handmade Arcade: a review and all the stuff I bought

Handmade Arcade this year was so much better than last year.

1. It was not in a filthy warehouse with absolutely no heat.
2. It was in an armory with a working bathroom and big huge tanks and stuff (and heat and lights and windows and doors).
3. I wasn't pregnant.

Because this is a two day show, I had time at the end of the first day and at the beginning of the second day to do some shopping. Also, because it's so close to home (about 1.5 hours), I had some helpers. I usually don't have much time at all to shop at craft shows so this is a big bonus for me. You don't get into this business if you don't like the whole movement (but that's a post for a different day which may discuss why I don't consider myself a visual artist anymore or maybe for just right now).

Zadie was being an absolute angel: sleeping in the stroller when prompted, eating solid food like a big girl, going home with Grandma at the end of the show so Mr. Lemon and I could actually eat a meal out together (Welcome to Moe's!), and being a gorgeous model of the yeti ringer onesie and bean romper lines SO I bought her tons of stuff.

First of all, this amazing elf hat by Sweet Pepita. She will wear this in the Spring.

This amazing horned yeti creature with a red bird on his head by Cutesy but not Cutesy. You gotta see the kid grab this beast by the horns and chomp on that bird. It's really cute.

The squirrel card to make the "S" for the alphabet in her nursery by esoule. We will probably frame the gnome. The wallet is for me and was made by the people at Get Felt Up who were very nice.

I got these cool legwarmers in a trade with Little Lumpkin who also made a Christmas present for my niece. I was so excited to finally be able to meet all of the family as Sarah and I were pregnant at the same time.

Finally, I bought some more fabulous Tim Gunn magnets from Tiny Rat who makes these really cool plastic canvas creations too.

If you didn't make it out, check out the vendor list on the website. Almost everyone has an Etsy shop so you can still buy their cool stuff.

Good Morning, Baltimore

Hey, if you're in the Baltimore area on Sunday, Dec. 7, head over to the Lyric Opera House for the DIY Holiday Art Mart because we'll be there.

It's from 12 - 6:30 so we're making an excessively long day trip out of it. I will have all the new yeti stuff with me as well as a few little surprises.

Vendors and other info here.

If you don't feel like checking out the site, the address is 140 West Mount Royal Avenue so you can Crackberry some directions.

EtsyKids Trunk Show

I was selected to participate in the EtsyKids Trunk Show in Etsy.com's virtual labs. I've never done anything like this before. In fact, I find chat rooms a little too fast paced for my old bones (I'm 34).

But Trunk Shows are cool. Sellers, like me, get to talk (or type) about their shops, their items, and processes. I don't usually get the chance to do that so I'm pretty excited.

There are 16 of us from the EtsyKids street team. We are also showing a couple of items from a shop of our choice.

There are door prizes and there will also be a coupon code given out at the show. Mine will be for free shipping -- anywhere. The show will start at 8:00 p.m. EST and to find us click here.

12 Days of Christmas

I'm a member of the EtsyKids street team. We're having a pretty cool event that I forgot to write about yesterday.

I'm giving away a yeti tee as part of the extravaganza.

November 28th – December 10th, join EtsyKids for 12 days of fabulous, festive fun and dreamy holiday prizes.

Here’s how to play:

Each day the EtsyKids blog will contain a post showing an image that’s hidden in an item listing on a few different EtsyKids team members’ shops, along with a clue on how to find it. When a contestant finds just one of the hidden images, they send an Etsy conversation to the day’s entry collector with a link to the listing where they found it. Once their conversation is received, they’ll be entered into a drawing for an amazing EtsyKids prize. Those who find images for all 12 days are entered into the grand prize drawing!

Participants may use one of two methods to find the images:

1. Begin by looking at each of the 7,000+ EtsyKids listings, or
2. Decipher the clue to the keyword to narrow down the listings to under 100.

The clues are word association to the keyword. After you think you have the keyword, enter that word and "etsykids team" into Etsy's search, and start looking!

Example: Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus...........nativity
Thus, you would enter "nativity etsykids team" to narrow down the listings to hunt through. The clues start out easy, and they get harder!

Please do not post the answers anywhere - all answers will be revealed at the end of the game.

If you don't jump into the game until after it's started, no problem! You can still enter that day's drawing, as well as the remaining days, then go back and find the previous days to enter the grand prize drawing.

The Etsykids blog will also let contestants know who to contact to enter, as well as the prize(s) that will be awarded that day. The number of prizes will increase each day and the winners will be selected at random.

***Contestants can enter once each day.

Within 24 hours of winning, the lucky winners will be contacted via Etsy Conversation, and MUST contact (via Etsy Conversation) the prize donor with their mailing address within 2 days of being contacted. If they fail to contact the prize donor within the given time, a new winner will be selected.

Small gift

I'm an avid reader of Small magazine and have been since issue #1 was all over the blogosphere some time ago. If you remember, Lemon Cadet had some pieces featured in a spread in a later issue.

I offered one of my rompers for those who participated in their giveaway, Small Gift. Check it out.

1st Annual Midwest Plushform Show

I consider myself very lucky to be a part of the first ever (and soon to be annual) Midwest Plushform show at Cleveland's Shoparooni art gallery and incredibly cute little store (perhaps you saw the owner's recent stint on Wife Swap).

I made this little silver cat character. I love him. I even made those fantastic green pants. I have never made a pair of pants before. I traced the plushform, made a pattern, and went to work. The first time I sewed them I didn't stitch them in the right order so I had to start over. This is the second try. They wouldn't make the cut in Project Runway but I think they rock.

So the deal is that all the proceeds of this auction go to Toys for Tots. There are some big name artists involved and some really amazing plush. I'm looking forward to bidding but I can't decide since there are so many cool ones to choose from.