Happy Birthday to Me!

I'm 32 today. It's not as good as 33 with the double numbers going on, but it's better than 31, what with that lonley little one standing there at attention. Two is a nice number, curvy, like it's sitting back, comfortable, ready to enjoy the 30s.

To celebrate - I'm offering free shipping this week at kokoleo.com. It's for any order, big or small, local or international. Go on over there and get some Christmas shopping finished early! Tell your friends, neighbors, strangers, etc. Pssst - previous kokoleo customers - this offer can be combined with your discount vouchers to save you even more!

Speaking of good deals, Check this out:


Buy a couple raffle tickets to support Felt Club and you could win a lifetime subscription to the Sampler! How cool would that be? Handmade and indie-produced stuff delivered to your door every month! Hurry, this raffle ends November 30. As much as I want my raffle tickets to be the one chosen, I'd be just as thrilled to know that someone won who I encouraged to enter.

So now that Thanksgiving is out of the way and Christmas is upon us, I have to buckle down and make a bunch of stuff for the Felt Club XL Holiday Event and Bazaar Bizarre. (Yeah, I won't shut up about these until they're over, and probably not even then.) I'll still be accepting commission orders, however, they won't be able to be fulfilled until after the holidays. Don't hesitate to add your name to the list if you have a commission in mind, though. Come January 1st I'll be back in action, I promise.

Here are a few commissions I recently completed:

For Stephanie in NYC. Who wouldn't want to be her friend? Look at the gifts she gives! (Unless you ARE one of her friends, then avert your eyes for a moment.) :





For a raffle at my school:

And for Jenny, the kickass chick who makes Felt Club happen. Shhh. Don't tell her. It's gonna be a surprise.


I'm a letter-cutting, appliqueing, pillow and banner-making machine!

Out and about in L.A.

What a hectic weekend! On Saturday morning I attended the Original Trends trunk show at The Seeley in Glendale. It was packed, probably because it was early and everyone wanted a swag bag (I got one!). The event was chock full of the trediest L.A. has to offer. Many (not all, but many) of the vendors there didn't actually make the stuff they were selling. Some were wholesalers and some were designers who outsourced their labor, so it was a different vibe than the shows I'm used to like Felt Club and Bazarre Bizarre where the person behind the booth is the person who made all the wares you see before you. Still, there was some nice stuff. I got this purse:


Yeah, I know, I make purses, why should I but someone else's? I'm a sucker for tooled leather.

That afternoon I set up my own booth at a Harvest Festival that was being held at the school where I teach. Saleswise, it was a very successful night but my favorite part was that my students got to see the other side of me. A bunch of my 6th grade girls hung out at my booth asking questions like, "Who is your boss at kokoleo?" and "Who are your employees?" and "How do you have time to make all this stuff and be a teacher and a mom too?" and "How can I become a famous designer like you?" Ha! So cute. I love those kids. It was nice to see my monsters head off to new loving homes and I can't wait to see kids at the school running around in kokoleo.

(This is where I'd post pictures of my booth, my students with their monsters, a cute little girl who bought my crown, a girl from my math class and her mom who bought matching skully tees, etc. but my camera's batteries were exhausted so you'll just have to imagine all the cuteness.)

Today we just hung out at home, watched movies, and played with the dog. Then we went to Griffith Park and caught the shuttle up to the Observatory. Man, it's beautiful up there. It's also mindblowing to see how vast the city is and then also how vast the universe is. We are but specks in it all. I think that's why I love making stuff and then sending it off into the world. I'm spreading my speckage.

Here I am with my favorite little speck, Sage:


That's the Hollywood sign behind us. Here's the sunset over Santa Monica:


Hollywood, beyond, and the Pacific Ocean:


Los Feliz, Hollywood and the Santa Monica Mountains:


Downtown L.A. at night:

Sage attempting to high-five Albert Einstein inside the Observatory, or as Sage kept calling it, the "Lavatory":


Yeah, someone needs a haircut (and for once, it's not Einstein.)

Heavens to Etsy!

Okay, I'm a little late to the Etsy party, but better late than never, right? I signed up way back when it started and they held the Crafters United benefit for Hurricane Katrina Relief, but then put off opening my own Etsy shop. Last week I finally got around to it - www.kokoleo.etsy.com. I figured if anything, it would be a way to advertise kokoleo. Within one week I've sold two bags! Sweet! And I've gotten some nice feedback from a few friendly strangers. Cool! I sold the Bumblebee Bag I posted on this blog a few weeks ago, plus this one that I made last week:


I just knew there was a Fred Flintstone fan out there who would go for it. And there was! It sold within 15 minutes of being posted. Etsy Rocks!

I'm really on a needlepoint/embroidery themed purse kick lately. Here's one I completed last night:


I got it way back in July and have been waiting for the perfect material with which to turn it into a bag. I finally found the shimmery blue vinyl on ebay and then paired it with two fabrics I scored at an estate sale in Burbank a few weekends ago:



So now there are two less kokoleo bags hanging on my studio walls, but then, one more. Sometimes I wonder why I'm always sewing like a madwoman, filling up my studio with things that relatively few people will ever see. Venues like Etsy help. I think I'm always going to make stuff whwether people want it or not, but it sure is nice when they do.