You were the one who sent me fruitcake for Christmas. It made me so sick.

The Tired Girl Collective will be representing at a craft show on the LA/O.C. border (Cerritos) this coming weekend. Come by Tall Mouse Arts & Crafts for Handmade Brigade on Saturday, December 6th, head to the back and do some handmade holiday shopping. You'll feel good about yourself. We'll have our usual unique stationary, beautiful new jewelry, tote bags, and the usual assortment of hamster stuff. Come on, you need more hamster stuff, right? (Just humor me, people!)

I know there are other local craft events this weekend. No, I'm not going to tell you what or where they are, but why not hit more than one? Maybe you can even cross everyone off your list!

I Sewed, I Glued, I Crocheted

And sewed and glued and crocheted. Due to my insane procrastination, I was doing most a lot of it in the last few days leading up to Felt Club. Yeah, I just never learn. In spite of the lack of sleep and crossed eyes from non-stop crafting, the show was fun and successful!

This was the first time the Tired Girl Collective was accepted to Felt Club. It started as something much smaller in the parking lot behind Meltdown Comics, but has grown substantially and has opened up to more vendors. We were very happy to take part in their biggest one yet. While we are still somewhat novices and hobbyists on the craft fair circuit, we did pretty well. Not bad at all if you consider we are relatively unknown, have fairly low prices on most of our items, and one-third of our group (ahem...) sells merchandise that caters to a very niche market. I guess everyone does not love hamsters, but I'm definitely not the only one!

Pom-pom hamsters, amigurumi hamsters, poetry books


Handmade tote bags made from fabrics from Japan

A special thanks to those who sent good wishes or stopped by to say hi and even buy things! A couple of my friends had evacuated their homes, or were on call to do so, due to the raging fires in Southern California that weekend and couldn't make it. Others were unable to stand in the line to enter because of the smokey air. In spite of that, we did have several visitors. Having friends as fellow vendors was icing on the cupcake.

What's next for us? We'll be in Cerritos on December 6th for Tall Mouse's Handmade Brigade Holiday event. I am behind schedule, of course, in preparing for it. As you may have learned, that's how I roll. There might also be some increased shameless self-promotion on my part in the very near future as I attempt to sell some of my wares outside of shows. I have trouble pimping my stuff, but I'm finding out that will probably be the only way I'll ever move any products. I apologize in advance.

As the holidays quickly approach, think about how you might want to celebrate. I know a few of you have finished your shopping (I'm still not done with '07!), but for those of you who haven't, consider BUYING HANDMADE.

Where It's At

Tomorrow, this is where I'll be with another Tired Girl, Ren. We'll be selling some crafty kinds of things, so if that interests you, come on by. First 50 people get a bag 'o swag! You can't beat free stuff!