off they go to stuffed!

I don't think I've ever mentioned before on the blog about Stuffed Magazine.  If you're not familiar with Stuffed and you're a fan of soft toys, you really should check it out.  

I found it (well, actually Kinsey found it) at my local Jo-Anns in the late summer of 2011.  I was just getting into making more soft toys and it seemed interesting, although I wasn't sure at first.  It was $14.99 which I usually feel is a little high for a magazine and I wasn't a fan of everything featured, but Kinsey persuaded me to get it anyway.   It wasn't a cheaply, thin made magazine, but had some volume to its size.  Once getting the issue home and looking through it, I immediately was very inspired to try all kinds of soft toys.  The photography in the magazine is wonderful and they list websites for the artists included in the magazine.  I spent a lot of time looking at the work of new plush artists I discovered through Stuffed.  

This past week, I did two major things revolving around this magazine.  The first thing was I purchased the last remaining issue I didn't own through Ebay.  So in just about 6 months since discovering it, I own all 7 issues of Stuffed (they publish twice a year).  

The second thing was I submitted some of my own plush toys for possible publication in the next issue! They take open submissions and the deadline for the summer 2012 was just a few days ago.  I have no idea if my plush toys will get chosen to be in the magazine, but I'm so excited to see what happens!  It will be while until I know anything, but I'm happy I gave it a shot.  This was my box of plush I sent:

As you can see, I sent 2 elephants, 1 rocket ship, and 2 boys.  The boy plush are my newest design and I'm really excited about how they turned out.  The only bad part was that these were my first two I made and I had to ship them out right after I finished making them!  Here's a closer shot of them:

The good news is, I just listed a new plush boy in my shop!  Meet Ethan here!

Finding, Buying, and Assembling...with a surprise

Last week, Kinsey and I headed to Ikea with hopes of finding "the perfect" desk/worktable for each of our craft rooms. We both were currently using a 6 foot folding table that was good, but was a little un level in the center and looked rather temporary. We hoped to find something that would give us room to work, but wasn't quite as long. The longer the table, the more clutter and other things were on it.
Here's my current set up.  Note: I usually have much more stuff on my table, but I was in the middle of a massive craft marathon the day before, so I cleared everything off for more room.



I found this option minutes after we first walked into the showroom section.  (I love the curtains to the left of this desk.  If they were a little thicker they'd be great for our house!)
I liked the drawers a lot and it was around 2 feet shorter than my current table. Also, I thought the white color would look nice against the light aqua walls.

I thought I was set.  Now we just needed to find a suitable desk for Kinsey.  We walked into the desk area at Ikea and were a little overwhelmed with all the options.  If you're at all familiar with Ikea (and really, who isn't?), you know that you can customize your perfect desk - tabletop, legs, shelving, drawers, etc.  We found a basic top - light pine and about 47 inches in length.  Then I found that this little drawer shelving fits perfectly under the desk as a replacement of a side's legs.  
Kinsey loved this and liked the idea of some storage for his inks, pens, and collage materials that were really close at hand.  I fell for this combination as well.  The original desk I found was nice, but was quite long....much longer than what I had wanted.  And the drawer shelving was too good to pass up.  All my sewing notions just a pull drawer away?  Yes, please.

Here's our new desks in their packaging.  I love their flat packaging.  It means even more goodness can fit in our hatchback.

So on to the assembling! I will say that the "Micke" drawer has the most small parts I have ever seen with an Ikea piece. It was a little overwhelming, but we love putting things like this together!



Less pieces= almost ready for crafting!


Yeah! Drawer together! Last step: Time to put the tabletop and legs on.


Wait - what's that big hole in my table top that is discovered of course after I just screwed both legs in and am in mid turn to set it on my finished shelving drawer? Yes, my brand new tabletop has a hole the size of a half dollar.


Really.  I don't really want to return this.  Ikea is 70 minutes away.  What to do?

Luckily,  Kinsey was okay with the idea of putting some wood filler in the spot and using it in his room.  He was planning on putting a plastic cutting mat on his desk top to begin with so a little dab of wood filler wouldn't make a difference.  Crisis avoided.  Here's my new desk set up. 
Now, I just need to get the rest of the room in better order!