Thursday, January 26, 2006
Thread-tastic!
After my friend Jennifer started writing love letters to her newly coifed brows, I decided that I too would put the wax on hold in favor of Threading. In case you haven't heard of it, it's a way of tweezing hair using cotton thread--it's basically a non-mechanical version of using an Epilady, so a bunch of one's wee eyebrow hairs are being pulled out at the root all at once. I must say, my brows do look pretty damn good but sweet Aphrodite, goddess of beauty--man, did it hurt! Seriously, it was almost as bad as getting a tattoo. Seriously.
I forgot to add to my "Busted" list yesterday that the "contact me" form on my website wasn't working properly. All that I was being sent were comments without the sender's name or e-mail address. That said, if you e-mailed me and I didn't respond, that's why. It's all fixed now so please re-send, especially if you were needing something. My web gal friday, blames it on all the crack she's been smoking but I think it was just some weird technological glitch. Note: Jenny is not actually smoking crack or any other drug for that matter. She's a mom and an upstanding citizen. Thank you.
On Saturday I went to the midwinter ALA convention for a signing. It was actually one of the best signings I've done so far. Those librarians really loves them the books. Who knew? ;-) When I got there, there were people already lined up--it made me feel all warm and fuzzy.
Below is the Sterling Publishing team, sporting some of the projects from the book. None of them seemed to mind that the stuff was all sized for the under 7-year-old set.
I've had a crazy productive day that started at 6am, so I'm starting to fade. Night, lovies.
xx,
Trixster
(I keep trying to get this nickname to catch on, but nobody's buying it.)
P.S. I haven't figured out how to respond to comments individually so until I do I'll have to do one mass response. Thanks for your patience with my suckage.
posted by Vickie Howell @ 10:02 PM
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
BUST-ed
Hey all. Due to an illness in the family I had to make a last minute trip to L.A. where I didn't have internet access and couldn't post. Sooooo, that's why you haven't heard from me in a while. How are you? Good, good, glad to hear it. And the kids? Excellent. They're getting so big! What projects are you working on? Yeah, me neither. Beginning of the year slump, I suppose. No worries though, we'll kick it into gear. Ok, the Sybil portion of this post has now come to an end.
The word of the day for me is "Bust".
Exhibit A: My technological best friend (aka my Treo)is slowly ceasing to function. It randomly shuts itself down when I try to check text messages from certain friends and the keyboard has all but quit working which means unless my phone calling/texting/e-mailing/scheduling needs require only the letter "j", then I'm pretty much out of luck. This rediculously expensive piece of machinery appears to be busted after a mere 6 months of life. Apparently, after the demise of my aforementioned I-pod, my Treo is too overwrought with loss to go on.
Exhibit B: The trip we took to Ikea last week was almost a total bust. Some of the stuff has already broken and both of us managed to make it to our respective homes without all of the pieces required to build the beds. Since we clearly won't be making the 3 hour jaunt back to H-town anytime soon, we'll both have to either place our faith in the fact that a customer service representative has promised to call back or else, just make peace with the fact that our mattresses are going to only be surrounded by their frames rather than suppported by them. My love/hate relationship is officially leaning towards the latter right now, so much so that I purchased the domain name "ikeaboo.com". Both as a form of protest and comic relief. But I digress...
The next two exhibits are actually, believe it or not, not complaints.
Exhibit C: Even though Debbie Stoller couldn't review my book for her magazine because it wasn't really her demographic, she was still kind enough to include a picture of me holding the book on the recap page of the Craftacular Fair that was in Brooklyn in December. Thanks, Deb! If you're interested, it's in the Music issue of BUST that's out on stands now.
Exhibit D: As of Sunday, it's "Vegas or Bust" for me! I'll be there from the 29th-1st for the CHA (Craft & Hobbies Assoc.) convention. If any of you will happen to be there too, stop on by the Sterling booth to say "hello". I'll be there to promote my projects along with my friends Kathy Cano Murillo (aka Crafty Chica ), Jennifer Perkins of Naughty Secretary Club , as well as many more crafty ladies and gents!
In totally unrelated news, to further my obsession with kitschy, retro, Asian decor I've comissioned an artist to do a painting for my livingroom of a red-headed Geisha (I've also started collecting red-headed artwork). He sent me the initial sketch the other day and well, it was love at first site. Take a looksie and please, feel free to "ooh and ahh"...
And with that, I bid you goodnight. Sweet dreams, lovies.
xx,
Vickie
posted by Vickie Howell @ 11:30 PM
Saturday, January 21, 2006
What's the big Ikea?
I'm running out of the house to make it to the Librarian Convention in San Antonio for a 3pm book signing. If on the off chance any of you will be there, please stop by the Sterling booth to say "hello". As always, it'd be great to see a friendly face.
I made the 3 hour trek to Houston yesterday for a day of power shopping with Nils, my partner in crime. We spent 4 1/2 HOURS in that giant vortex of time suckage, in a fugue state created by an overabundance of brightly colored trinkets and $2 pillows. Finally, as the store was about to close, we located at least 50% of our desired purchases (listed on a somewhat useless, pencil scrawled form) in what I've deemed as "the aisles of doom and discontent" and loaded up not 1, not 2, but FOUR carts of miscellaneous "must haves". As you can see by the above artfully taken camera-phone shots, we took our Ikea experience very seriously. All of the crap that you see from front to back of frame, went home with us. In total, between us, we bought:
3 beds (well technically 4 since one was a bunk bed), 5 wire drawer systems, a book shelf, a locker, bedding, shower curtain, a kid's table and chairs, frames, boxes, coasters, mirrors, a poseable figure (don't ask) and I'm sure, a bunch of other stuff that I'm completely forgetting. We loaded the truck, high-fived each other and stopped off for a congratulatory meal for a job well done. Tired, dirty and delirious, we made it home by 1am--All this for the promise of press board future of modular tomorrows. Good night, and good luck.
xo, Vickie
posted by Vickie Howell @ 12:49 PM
Thursday, January 19, 2006
I Stitch, I Bitch.
I'm sure that by now, all of you have heard about how Sew Fast Sew Easy, Inc. has come after Yahoo and Cafe Press for using "their" or parts of their trademarked phrase, "Stitch n' Bitch Cafe". What that means is that (at least for now)Yahoo can't allow us to use "Stitch n' Bitch" as the name of our on-line knitting groups. For those like me who started a Stitch n' Bitch group over 4 years ago, this is really friggin' irritating. If you're interested in reading more about the legalities or would like to support the movement to reclaim the phrase, check out this site:
http://www.cafepress.com/saynotosfse/
xo, Vickie
posted by Vickie Howell @ 10:53 AM
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Crochet Submissions Wanted!
Hey there! The time has come to gear up to write my 3rd book, which will focus on high-fashion crochet. Like the other 2 books (the 2nd one's out in June, yo.), this one will be a collaboration of my own projects with a ton contributed by both new and veteran designers. It's really important to me to perpetuate the community aspect of crafting, by working with and supporting as many artists as I possibly can. That said, I would LOVE for you to possibly be a part of Catwalk Crochet! Here's the scoop:
Catwalk Crochet will have 40, runway inspired projects for women, men and children. They'll be broken down into 4 sections: Fall Line, Winter Line, Spring Line and Summer Line (all modeled after Fashion Week). Each line will contain 10 designs (including at least 2 men's and 1 child's), and have its own color pallet (TBA). I'm looking for up to 30 contributed projects (sweaters, skirts, bags, hats, etc.), modeled after shapes and styles of clothing and accessories that one might see in fashion magazines (think Betsey Johnson, Marc Jacobs, Anna Sui, etc.), and all using luxury yarns. Although I may come to some of you with specific projects I'm looking for, I'd like to first start by checking out sketch submissions with your ideas. Please don't feel like you need to know how to draw (I certainly don't)—even a rough pencil sketch will work as long as you include any stitch patterns and yarn types that you'd like to incorporate. These ideas can be sent via email to: submissions@vickiehowell.com or snail mail at: Vickie Howell, Inc PO Box 246, Manchaca TX 78652. The deadline for submissions is February 7th. If we go forward with using your project, then the pay is $75.00-$100.00 per design (depending on the amount of work involved) plus a copy of the finished book. I know it's not much, but craft books have wee budgets. The finished projects will be due in early April.
Ok, I think that's everything for now. Please don't hesitate to post, if you have any questions.
xo, Vickie
posted by Vickie Howell @ 11:20 AM
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
R.I.P, I-P-O-D.
Today is a sad day. My beloved I-Pod has met its demise so alas, our love affair is over. Sweet "Little I" lived a short life, although not short enough to fall under manufacturer warranty. She was stubborn like that. She will be missed.
Yours in mourning,
Vickie
posted by Vickie Howell @ 5:00 PM
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