Beetlegirl Design

Beetlegirl Design at Luv-able & Hug-able

A few of my wee beasties will be appearing at this year's Luv-able and Hug-able at Gallery Hanahou in New York.  The press release for the show follows:

Luv-able and Hug-able: "medium and mini"   December 3 - January 9

gallery hanahou / 611 Broadway, Suite 730, NYC / galleryhanahou.com

The popular NY holiday plush show is returning to gallery hanahou with oodles of handmade plushes for you and yours! Spread warm holiday cheer with adorable, strange, and funny unique plush toys made by more than 50 top plush artists from around the world.

The plushes will be even cuter and more affordable at this year's 3rd annual "Luv-able and Hug-able," with the special theme of "Medium and Mini!": toys that are either just the right size for hugging or small enough to fit in your pocket, swing from a keychain, or be worn on a pin. 

Many favorite artists from the past two years are returning with cuter-than-ever plushes, and gallery hanahou is thrilled to present plushes from a bunch of hug-able new artists too! As in previous years, the gallery will also exhibit plushes by Japanese artists whose original works are rarely available in the US - this year, that also includes designer toy giants Devil Robots and noriya takeyama!

Plushes will be available for immediate take-home, so come early to the December 3rd opening to nab your favorites! Items in the show will also be available online via galleryhanahou.com starting the week following the opening.

and so it begins...

Martha Stewart's Pinecone Elves.

My Pinecone Elf.

Evidence of holiday crafting is already apparent in our wee cozy apartment.  Pinecones, collected last fall from my parents' yard are glittered with snow, and another small pile of pinecones has sprouted into elves.  My early zest for the season is perhaps an effort to make up for the parts of the holidays that I missed while spending Christmas in Paris with my sweetie last year.  As lovely and unforgettable as last Christmas was, nothing can replace those nostalgic activities that have come to define what Christmas is to me.  The wax and wane of my sporatic energy level is also a great part of my early start, and my hope to handcraft a few presents, knowing that time and energy are soon to be relics of the past in this household. 

While the elves required more long evenings of cutting and teeny tiny stitching than I would want to revisit, I do recommend another Martha Stewart craft from December's holiday issue: the Epsom salt covered candles (Sorry, I was unable to find a link).  The effect is lovely, and looks remarkably like snow.

It doesn't even seem to rain in Santa Cruz, but this December the inside of our apartment will have all the evidence of an ice storm and recent snowfall...

my newest wee beastie

It seems only appropriate to write about this on the eve of Thanksgiving, and although I imagine most everyone who visits this blog already knows…I thought it was time to write about it here as well.  This past September, I received the best possible birthday present I will ever receive…the confirmation that all I was feeling was finally a far bit more than psychosomatic, and, yes, that I was pregnant.  This was followed by a few months of quiet and rest (and eating nothing but toast once again), and the holding of our biggest secret.  And now, at four months, although still easily exhausted by my attempts to keep up with myself, I feel as healthy as ever, and I have had the pleasure of hearing the underwater-oceanic heartbeat of this wee beastie, and have had the first moving images of this tiny creature etched forever into my mind. 

What I never expected is that, for me, my wee one is already here.  Present with me at every moment.  Never again in my life, will I be someone’s entire world in the intimate way that I am now.  So, although I am immersed in the endless to-do’s that come with preparing for such an arrival, I feel far more calm than I ever would have anticipated, because, simply put, my life has already changed.

On a sillier note…in terms of unexpecteds, although I had heard of pregnant women becoming teary-eyed at sad things…I have quite the opposite experience…I find myself all teary-eyed at happy things…thinking nostalgic thoughts while listening to music on my Ipod…watching Oprah give money away to strangers on TV…(not to mention those awful holiday commercials for Folgers and Hallmark).  So, if you happen to catch me on a day when my eyes are filled to the brim, you can know that everything is truly okay.

another wee snail sighting

It seems my wee snails ventured out today...They tend to be quite shy, so you can imagine my surprise when I saw them boldly exploring Etsy's blog. 

Yosemite (a.k.a. the land of the rocks)

My sweetie and I had a lovely time at Yosemite for the past two days.  This was one of the rare occasions where our off-season vacation was not met with rain.  We spent hours out of doors yesterday, taking in the sprawling meadows and the enormity of the rocks at the park.  We returned home with sun-rosy cheeks to a bunny who has been tripping over our feet all evening (it is safe to say we were missed.)  I did capture a few images worthy of sharing, and you can find those here.