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Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Post-Party Pics

We had the BEST book party EVER this past Saturday! "Fairies and Fashion"...

I hadn't realized how badly I needed a party - and sometimes it is nice to be a celebrity for... about 3 hours. This party was to celebrate my new book (coloring book) "Tangled Fashionista" and Jen Carson's new fantasy novel, "Hapenny Magick". I did my usual, pre-party-panic... "What if no one comes? What if a TON of people come?" We had about 100 visitors over the 3 hours! (Thanks to everyone who came! I hope you had as much fun as we did!?)

Deb Moore of The Foothills restaurant constructed the most AMAZING castle cake. Not only was it gorgeous and awe-inspiring, but it was delicious too. Each section was a different kind of cake (vanilla below, chocolate and pound cake above). I sampled every section after the party was over - they were all good. I was a "little" hyper for the rest of the evening!

Anyone else feel REALLY nervous...?
Touch-ups and details
The details were amazing... do you see the tiny, sleeping flower-fairy baby next to the trunk?
Karin (left) was our greeter and chief tattoo-er. Sue, a local groupie... Bette and Jodi (right) are CZT groupies. Jodi is my "biggest fan".
Looks like there's a turret up my nose!
Oh, the photo opps!
(Click pic to see larger) - We started off with a fairly quick Zentangle demo. The kids sitting on the floor, and a handful of adults were willing to give it a try. All those serious looking folks in the back were too timid... or maybe they just came for the cake?



Jen read from her new book "Hapenny Magick"
Little fairies playing in the forest "Play-r Om"
Coloring pages from the coloring book
Making buttons and shields
"Why, yes, I bet I could deconstruct that pattern!" I wish I had made a photocopy. It was a great pattern. If you see this, please send me a copy. Please, please...
Jenna Greene played haunting fairy music. She'll be back for "Spring Into Warner" on May 19th! (Click the photo to visit her website)
Oh yes! And we also signed BOOKS! ;-D
Postscript... Postmortem.. alas, the castle hath toppled-eth. We tried to keep the front of the castle pristine for as long as possible. So cake was cut and served from the base, until we discovered that the castle part was CHOCOLATE! AHHH! So we cut and served the back of the castle. Near the end of the party I spied chunks of chocolate cake on the floor... and my eye moved up and up until... EEEK! The castle had fallen off!!! It was lying on top of the tiny fairy cakes. It was still delicious. In fact, it IS still delicious. We had some after dinner tonight as part of our Ostara celebration (yes, I know it is a day late!)

Postscript, Postscript - As for the books... you may remember that I wrote about Jen back in October of 2011 when she was doing a Kickstarter project to raise money for this book. If you want to know more about her and see all her links, take a look at that post. If you would like to buy her books, or mine, please consider buying them from one of our sites (Etsy is good!)... http://www.etsy.com/shop/jennifercarson for Jen's and www.bumblebat.com for mine. If you prefer to shop at your local bookstore, that is very cool! Or use Amazon... we don't mind as long as you read our books!! :-)

Cleaning Out

I was snitching photos from my mother's camera to show you the great book party this past weekend, and I found a few of her "pre-event" photos too. They are actually a little sad... a deserted store... but interesting too. Yes, it took us three months to clean out most of the store. And truthfully, it's nowhere near actually being clean. My kids, Alex and Lilah, helped me push all the remaining product and extra displays into the storage room and stamp room. Anything we couldn't move, we covered with pretty cloths. Lilah was in heaven! It was a huge, colorful, empty space to dance and twirl around.

Take a look at the pics in the next post to see how pretty it looked (cleaned up!)

The TOY section... gone.
Games, puzzles, Klutz... gone
Books... sorta gone. It's amazing what was still left even after we offered to GIVE stuff away!?
27 boxes donated to World Vision. Seriously. And this was the SECOND batch. The room felt HUGE when they were gone!
I think I need to do a yard sale at the shop to get rid of the extra displays - big and small. Then... maybe some new paint... then a killer idea of what to DO in this space now! I have a few ideas, but I am open to hearing more. Put your opinion in the comments below - what would you like to see in this space?

BEFORE and AFTER  (I kept the kids, but I'm storing them elsewhere)

Monday, March 12, 2012

"Fairies and Fashion"

Don't forget! This Saturday, St. Patrick's Day, March 17th - from 1-4pm - is the Fairies and Fashion Book Party. It is going to be such a blast - books, music, projects, a castle cake and other cool yummies, books, and a Zentangle demo/workshop at 1pm. Yes, kids are VERY welcome!!


Monday, March 5, 2012

UNTangle Retreat Complete

When it ended, I binged on chocolate, then slept for 14 hours. Yes, the retreat was THAT good!
If you would like to see even more pictures, there are lots posted on Facebook.

I still can't get over how many people came up here for this retreat! Even with the snowstorm. What an amazing group of people - an interesting mix of skills and characters - and even a few men. Whoo-hoo! Linda Pearl did an impressive job getting it all pulled together and she is already planning another retreat for the last weekend in September (write that in your calendar!) UN-Tangle 2 will be a day longer and will have some business stuff added in. I'll tell you more about it when I can.

I am also really grateful to Jody Ehler for helping out as my assistant. Seriously. I could not have done this. Nuh-uh. No way. She was also really good at sticking my head back on my shoulders and did everything except remind me to eat my vegetables. (yuck, veggies). Although the food WAS really good!

So, we tangled and played and tried out stuff and triumphed and burned some things and messed up a few others... mostly triumphed I think. :-) On Sunday, when many in the group took turns showing off their creations, there were some amazing, heartfelt stories shared... And we also discovered a bunch of comedians hiding amongst these, mostly, normal seeming folks!

I am staying the rest of this week here at The Beachmere to work on a new project for Fox Chapel. (I think I am the only person here today! A tiny bit creepy, but also very calming.) I crave the quiet time to recharge and recuperate, but also miss everyone already!! I don't think I have talked that much, or laughed that hard!! in a VERY long time! I hope to cross paths - and play - with you all again soon! Thank you so much for taking the time to hang out with me - I hope you all had a wonderful time. :-)


Linda Pearl coordinated all the left-brain aspects of the weekend. I handled the right.








My paparazzi!?


Tracy and Merry introduce themselves and show off their creations.

Marcia tangling part of the window.
The windows viewed from below, in the pub.
Through the tangled window... to the beach. Can you believe we had this view from our workroom?! (Snow, sea and surfers. Seriously.)

My room with a view.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

A Closer Look

If you watched the YouTube video of me demoing at CHA and kept wishing you could get a closer look at what I was actually doing...

I can't go back in time, or change the video, but I did scan the art that I was working on:


I hope that helps a bit!
This is Page 25 from the new Tangled Fashionista book.

I am going to Maine for my UN-Tangle Retreat - tomorrow!?- but when I get back next week, I will have these books available on my Bumblebat Etsy store. (I will have them available for CZTs too). I'll upload some more sample pics from the book. And, if you can wait to order it from me... (bribery follows)... you can get the books signed. Not enough? OK, my copies also come with a bookmark of 4 body stickers (removable tattoos). More?! OK, I have some "secret" extra pages you'll be able to download, print out, and color!

And, speaking of retreats, my workshop at The Midwest Art and Lettering Retreat has only a few spots left! I know it is not until August, but it's almost full! Wowza. I have heard that everyone who has signed up is a CZT (Certified Zentangle® Teacher) - so that takes the class to a new level. If you are a newbie, this isn't the class for you. But don't worry, Linda and I are working on some other ideas for retreats later this year. That is assuming this weekend goes well! ;-)

My daughter has an ear infection and this morning, she said "Hi mommy! My tummy feels funny...." then ran into the bathroom and starting puking. Ugh. And it snowed last night and I can't get my car out of the carport to go to The Belfry and fill orders and finish packing stuff. I still need to wash clothes, et al... and have I mentioned how excited and nervous I am!? Eeeek. But it's going to be fine. Fine. Just fine. I just feel really bad for my retreater from Arizona whose flight was canceled and she can't get another one in time. :-( We'll have to put together some goodies to send her from the weekend so she can do a mini-retreat at home.

Well... it IS really beautiful outside right now.

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