tiny world class 2

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I taught another tiny world class yesterday. It was a great day for it- overcast and cool. Perfect to gather with friends and do a project! There were 9 students all together, but, as usual, I forgot to take photos and only have a few of the projects to show.

In the morning, we all worked on little houses-

After lunch we made our “hills” and put them all together. Here are some that got finished- sorry for the not-so-great photos.

Betsy’s–

Greta’s- glue drying in progress-

She added a side garden- isn’t it adorable!

Crystal‘s- she wrote more about the class here–

And my son, Julian, took the class too. Here is his-

Everybody did really well. Each person was able to do something unique which made it their own. It is so much fun to see what people come up with.

I will be teaching again on Saturday, October 17. Space is limited to 8, so let me know if you are interested.

this week

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the studio is coming along-

doesn’t really look much better then a week ago, but things seem much more in control. These photos were from this morning-

My desk- see- I’ve got some dolls going!

And this is the fun part- I’ve been organizing my threads.

All those colors make me so happy.

I have my next tiny world pincushion class this Thursday. I have had a request to hold another Tiny World pincushion class in October. If I scheduled a class for October 17, would anyone be interested? Email me if you are- mimik@pobox.com. I will need 3 more people to make it a go (min. of 5).

and the winner is…

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Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

3

Timestamp: 2009-08-06 16:09:45 UTC

*** Drumroll please***

Sister Diane!

If people are interested, I can check into how much printing would cost and then get some more of these into my Etsy shop. Would people rather have an academic year calendar or a 2010 year calendar?

studio report

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this morning-

Looks pretty bad. Getting the shelf and some bulletin boards up have helped a lot and this evening things are looking a bit better. I actually spent the afternoon working on a doll.  I need to get some creative work done and I think that working in the space will help with the set up.

more on the CHA trip

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The Orlando CHA show was probably 80% scrapbooking related, at least. Scrapbooking is not really my thing, but I still managed to find some booths that caused me some serious crafty supply lust.

When I saw this booth, I literally gasped. Why do I love this stuff? I have no idea! It has no application for the work I do, but… I just love it!

The Clover booth was the only sewing related company I saw at the show. There were lots of fun gadgets to think about. One thing I was intrigued by- a light to attach to your rotary cutter. Sounds like a very good idea. I watched a demo of their new rose making devise. Can’t have too many fabric flowers!

And then there was the May Arts booth. Please, can I have one of each?!

You see these spools? 100% silk. Sigh. I have got to find a place that sells it in the Boston area.

Other fun happenings- I got to say hi to the famous Crafty Chica.

It is strange how you feel like you know someone after you’ve listened to a few podcast interviews. Hope I didn’t come off as too stalker-ish. She had a photo box (not sure what they are called?) in the iLovetoCreate booth-

Mimi as Chica- not quite sure it works.

And speaking of podcasts, I also met and talked with Margot Potter, The Impatient Crafter, who was recently on Craftypod. Carol Duvall was somewhere in the building, but I missed her.

That will be all for now on the Florida trip. I was hoping to have a finished doll to post today, but instead I have one shelf and 2 bulletin boards hung up in the new studio. That took me all day!

birthday give-away!

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It is a Mimi calendar!

It goes from September 2009-

to August 2010-

with lots of goodies in-between!

All you need to do is leave me a Happy Birthday greeting comment on this post before Wednesday night becomes Thursday, Eastern Standard Time. I will pick the winner on Thursday at some point by random number generator. I am happy to mail it anywhere.

This was one of the projects I did in my Photoshop class. Don’t worry, I’m keeping the one with all the mistakes.

I’m home!

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I got home yesterday, but no rest for me here! There is lots to be done here with studio organization and filling up my Etsy shop, but first things first.

Tomorrow is my birthday and that means a give-away. I will post details tomorrow instead of doing the drawing on my birthday like other years. See you back here then!

Also, there will be a few days of CHA reporting. It was all new to me, I met lots of interesting people, and wow, was it exhausting. I am simply not used to being out and about with loads of people interactions for 5 days in a row. I need more practice at getting out of my studio!

That is the hotel restaurant on the first night, before any of the work began. I went to Orlando with my sister-in-law who was showing Twisteez, an art wire that her family has been making and selling to schools for 50 years. This was her first venture into finding retail outlets for the product.

This is what things looked like when we first walked in-

soon, we were getting the booth put together-

and here is how it looked on Tuesday morning, opening day-

We kept ourselves very busy. In between talking to people, we played with the wire. Here are some of our creations-

Sandy made a dragon-

I made a dragon slayer-

together-

I made an articulated little girl-

We both made flowers-

Sandy made a horse-

And I cut out a bunch of elephant shapes and we tried different approaches to them-

Mimi-

and-

and Sandy-

As I said at the beginning, there are no retail outlets for Twisteez yet, but I am going to help my son set up an Etsy shop to sell them- soon! I will let you know when they are available, in case you are interested.

oh, so exciting!

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I am at CHA right now. Here is the most exciting thing that happened-

The keynote speaker at the convention was Maria Thomas, the CEO of Etsy- speaking at 7:30 am (!) so we had to haul ourselves out of bed and over to the conference center very early yesterday morning. She spoke about social media, what it is and how to use for business and marketing.

I met her last March and so knew it would be an interesting speech. I sat in the front row. When she came on stage, she glanced over, saw me and said hi- I was so pleased. With all the people she must meet every week, I was surprised she remembered me. So, she is talking away, all very interesting, and this slide came up-

And she says, And these dolls are by Mimi Kirchner who is sitting right over there! I almost fell out of my chair! What a thrill! Really, after that, no matter what happens, this has been a great event.

When I get back home I will report on some of what I saw on the convention floor- in case you need a preview though, it is mostly a ton of scrapbooking related stuff. See you soon!