NYC or BUST! Or both.

On December 5, Travis and I loaded up the Fuzzy Bunny Mobile and headed to NYC for the BUST Craftacular.  I was excited...it was my first time doing a show in NYC, and I was looking forward to showing the manwife the city, especially the holiday window displays and the giant Christmas tree.  I thought it would be a nice little vacation for us, especially considering his grandma had just passed away and we needed to get away from everything.  So, I booked a couple nights at a bed and breakfast and hoped for the best.  Anticipation, though, was about as far as we got.  The trip went sort of like this:
1.  we slid over snowy roads and icy bridges most of the way down
2.  40 minutes in the city and someone smashed in the window and stole the manwife's gear (around 4AM)
3.  I spent hours in the police station looking up garages to fix the window while Travis sat in the breezy car (NYC police officers are awesome, by the way, they really went out of their way to help us out)
4.  I manned the craftacular table in a zombie-like state while Travis again sat for hours in the breezy car
5.  we drove home because no one would fix the car window on a Sunday and we had no safe place to leave a windowless car and all of the stuff crammed in it

I don't think I've ever been so tired.  Or hungry.  All of that was rather horrendous, but the show itself was pretty great (and I clearly have the greatest manwife ever for willing to sit in a freezing cold car for many, many hours while entirely sleep-deprived and robbed of his reading material).  I just wish we had been able to sit at our nifty table together and enjoy it.  This was the view from The Fuzzy Bunny table, note the tiny dog on the table opposite us, he was incredibly well-behaved!

I sold/said goodbye to the pom pom tree.  Travis reported from the outside that he could see it going down the street, which must have been an interesting sight in NYC, seeing as how it resembled a Dr. Seuss tree.  I could see Pistachio Press in the distance, behind all the hats (Rachael, of PP, is part of Second Storie Indie Market in Rochester, NY)

Finally, a glimpse of a work in progress.  I just started spinning this green faux cashmere in a super-fine single.  Soon it will be plied and added to the vegan yarn section of my shop.  Hopefully the weather will cooperate and provide me with a day of nice light so I can take glamour shots of all the new yarn.

Pictures!

The bunnies and I are finally all moved to New York! Previously, all moves had taken place during the middle of sweltering summer, usually with rainshowers thrown in for fun. I've decided moving in subzero temperatures is much, much better.

As promised, here are photos from the Second Storie Indie Market in Rochester, NY, which proved to be an amazing show, as usual: fantastic people, lots of fun, and ideas for new projects. The screening of Handmade Nation the night before the show started was a great addition to the festivities. It was inspiring to see people succeeding in the DIY movement.

Happy shoppers underneath festive handmade banners hung inside the Visual Studies Workshop.

Chey helped me set up and proved to be an excellent salesperson.

I was lucky enough to sit next to Tara Hogan of INK+WIT, who creates beautiful letterpress designs.

There were amazing hand-bound books by concepcioun that I covet.

I ran into the ever-awesome Mackenzie and Tyler of Secret Pocket again. They were our neighbors last year and it was great to see them again.

Abby Try Again trekked all the way across the country for Second Storie. Her photographs are beautiful! Someday soon I plan to buy this print as a present to myself. I just love the colors.

Drew of The Maple Ridge was another neighbor of ours last year who returned with his awesome little couples, creature blocks, and drawings. I traded for some of his awesomeness and cannot wait to see the manwife's reaction when he receives said awesomeness for his birthday.

Shanna Murray, one of the members/organizers of Second Storie, had the cutest rabbit (along with a really neat collaborative effort and unique tea towels). I looove her font (this may just be my obsession with fonts...I've been meaning to watch Helvetica for some time now).

BUST photos coming soon!

A Spark of Optimism

The past few weeks have been...challenging. A death, a break-in, continued unemployment, and an impending move to another state have made life a little more uncertain than usual. However, today has been a spectacular day, regardless of the -14 degree weather. I set up at the Montpelier Farmers Market, met a bunch of fun Vermonters, bartered soap for cheese, had tea with a friend, then called my Dad, who gave me a long I'll-support-you-in-whatever-you-decide-to-do kind of talk (thanks Dad).

So, I've decided that my first months back in NY will be spent trying to get The Fuzzy Bunny up and running as a full-time gig, and not spent trying to find mediocre jobs that I'm not particularly interested in. With access to high speed internet once again (not so readily available where I've been living in the mountains of VT), 80+ pounds of spinning fiber to work with, a fancy new advertising campaign in the works, and loads of new ideas to try out...well, what the heck, I'm going to go for it.

I'll post pictures (finally!) of the Second Storie Indie Market and the BUST Craftacular as soon as I'm back in the realm of high speed internet. Until then...enjoy the holidays!

Second Storie

It's time once again for my favorite craft show of all time! Every Thanksgiving weekend is made better by the fact that Second Storie Indie Market exists. This show is phenomenal, Second Storie knows how to put on a good show and invites absolutely amazing people with great work. They entertain us with live music, feed us, and even give us time to mingle and shop amongst ourselves (yay for getting holiday shopping done without ever stepping foot in a big-box store!).

This year I will be joined by Chey (sister of the manwife) and my Mom (who will be celebrating her birthday on Sunday while she's at the show!). Stop in and say hi!

Saturday, November 28th, 11 am - 6 pm

Sunday, November 29th, 11 am - 4 pm

The Visual Studies Workshop Auditorium

31 Prince Street, Rochester, NY 14607

And, have a fantastic Thanksgiving!

The Mail Buggy and White River Junction

This morning involved a trip to the post office, where many shiny yellow slips awaited me. The post office man had to wheel my packages out in what looked like a giant baby carriage. My stellar cart pushing skills (remnants of pushing hospital beds around back in college) kept me from crashing into any pedestrians or giant glass doors between the post office counter and my car. There were many small packages, filled with fiber-related items that will be sent out with my yarn clubs, but there were big boxes, too. And inside the big boxes were amazing things: many, many pounds of wool, soysilk, and cashmere. This is the first time I have worked with cashmere, and it is amazingly soft and cloud-like. I can't wait to spin it! A Smittens cd arrived as well, so now I have happy, sugar-coated pop to spin to. Woo!

slowly expanding wool in the box, soysilk in the lower left, cashmere in the lower right

This past weekend was the Holiday Fiber Festival, hosted by White River Yarns. Lois (of White River Yarns) did a fantastic job of planning and promoting the event. I, as a vendor, was spoiled with an abundance of customers who knew their stuff when it came to fiber, friendly fellow vendors (Country Woolens, DyakCraft, Ellen's Half Pint Farm, Grandview Farm, Snowshow Farm Alpacas, and the Wee Piper), and a whole lot of homemade baked goods and tea. I sat next to Merit Scotford, who taught me (and a ton of other people) how to make Dorset buttons. Back in the day people used to use cross sections of Dorset sheep horns and scrap thread/yarn to make buttons, hence the name. It turns out that these are mildly addictive to make-and a great portable project. Perhaps they would also be a good way to use up small scraps of fancy handspun, too.

a few of Merit's buttons
I hope this event happens again next year. It was like a mini fiber festival that focused on local fiber producers and artists. Putting everyone in the same room with a project table in the center allowed us to all feel like we were part of whatever was going on. We knitted/spun/rug hooked together, and took part in the yarn tastings and button-making, and I felt like I was both an attendee and a vendor, which was great. Business was good, too. I made some new contacts, found some new customers, and had a great time with people who love fiber in all its forms.

a hotbed of fiber activity

Sick Bunny

Oxtoby decided to get sick late last week. I'd like to think I'm fairly knowledgeable when it comes to rabbit ailments, considering what I went through with George, but I'd never experienced rabbit intestinal issues firsthand. I called my vet's office, where they offered no help at all (my regular rabbit vet was unavailable), so I got out my syringes (the kind without needles) and started orally hydrating him. That seemed to work out just fine, but I still made an appointment with the vet to double check for other problems, and they sent me home with some antibiotics. The next morning I woke up to find an almost-dead Oxtoby...unresponsive, labored breathing, and I couldn't get him to take water or even lift his head. Extreme badness.

So...we took a lovely rambulance ride to the animal hospital where Oxtoby was admitted. Sub-q fluids, x-rays, and fecal cultures ensued. His intestinal bacteria had spiked. Luckily, my vet is awesome and knows her stuff when it comes to rabbits. When I came back the next day Oxtoby was back to being himself, trying to escape and eat the potted plants. We're sticking with penicillin injections for a week, but by the amount of trouble he's been getting into, I think he'll be just fine.

More things to binky about.

The Fuzzy Bunny will be at the BUST Craftacular in NYC on December 6! I'm so excited...NYC around the holidays, the Metropolitan Pavilion full of awesome handmade things and music. I hope to do a little holiday shopping of my own, as well as introduce Fuzzy Bunny vegan yarn to NYC.

Also, there's a great giveaway on Ravelry for one of the Spindies paintboxes (pictured above). 5 ounces of fiber from an assortment of indie fiber artists! If you aren't the lucky winner, you can purchase a paintbox in the Spindies Store-they are a great deal for the variety and amount of fiber that you receive, and a different color theme is offered each month.