April, 2008

The Needle occasionally hosts a plush swap. It works sort of like Secret Santa; those who participate receive the name of a swap partner for whom to make a plush. This swap's them was your partner's favorite color. Eva of Effunia received my name and sent me this fantastic plush:

His name is Sky, and he came with a cute note explaining that "he's a very friendly creature who likes to save snails and earthworms when he sees them on his path. And he loves nothing more than sticking up his little nose in the air and taking in his surroundings. He makes a loyal friend."

Indeed he does; he's already cozied up to San, the alpha dog in my little pack:

San looks slightly nervous about her new friend, but I adore him. Check out Effunia's blog, Etsy shop, and Flickr. She makes fantastic plushies!

I'll blog about what I sent to David Wolk (aka Mr. Crammed of Cranky Yellow in St. Louis) when I know he's received it. I don't want to ruin the surprise!

When Jessica and I were just getting started, we needed some really nice pictures of our animals. Unfortunately, it was winter, snow was on the ground, and it was so grey and icky outside. So, with the magic of Photoshop and some pretty pictures for backgrounds, we made much nicer pictures then we could have possibly taken:

These were a lot of fun, but looking back on them now, you can tell they were fake pictures (plus they took hours and hours to make). Nowadays, I like our own actual shots. As Jessica said earlier, they're difficult to take, and we look pretty silly running around state parks with elephants and across fields with sheep. The pictures turn out amazing in the end, however, so it's worth it. The alpaca picture down below in the Shepherd's Harvest post is one example. We'll be posting more examples soon!

(The pictures used as backgrounds can be found here, here, here, here, here, and here. All were used under a CC licence and credit was given. We did not sell or make any money on these images, just used them as a background for reference shots.)

As a general rule, I don't get that excited about spring. I'm one of those strange people that actually enjoys the winter, though fall is the best season of all. But what does excite me about spring is being able to photograph outdoors again (yeah, I know I can photograph outdoors in the winter too, but when you work outside the home, you often miss out on daylight).

As you can tell from the vibrant colors above, my color palette tends to change in the spring as well. I gravitate toward bright blues, pinks, oranges, and yellows.

Though I enjoy winter, by April, the drab greys and browns outside start to weigh me down. As a crafter, though, I can always create an instant pick-me-up. Making something brightly colored can lighten my mood, as can creating something in a nontraditional color.

Enjoy the season, everyone. Soon enough, we will all be complaining "it's not the heat, it's the humidity!" and longing for cooler temperatures once again.

This elephant is doing double duty for me. I wanted to make a new elephant for the Softies Central Awards in the elephant tribute category. I also wanted to make a really nice stuffed animal for a silent auction and fund-raising event at my son's school. So this elephant was created. I love him dearly and didn't want to give him up. I know I say that quite a bit, but it's true of all my creations that I invest lots of time and energy into!