Handmade Movie: Coraline

Mike and I watched the movie Coraline over the weekend. It was actually his choice since he's had some kids recommend it to him at school. He kept telling me he knew I would love it and he was so right. It is as close to a handmade movie as you can possibly come. They used all DIY special effects and made everything you see in the movie by hand. If you are interested in making your own Coraline doll like the one above you can buy a PDF pattern on Etsy from SewLolita.

I found this great article and slide show in Wired Magazine that details how they made each element in the movie. Here's a quote, "In all, the crew hand-built 150 sets and 250 jointed puppets, as well as plants and toys with countless moving parts. "What makes this film different," says Tom Proost, one of the art directors, "is that everything is real and everything moves."

Not only is it visually stunning but the story is so compelling as well. It is appropriate for mature kids but I probably wouldn't let a child younger than 6 watch it. There isn't any gore but just several amazingly shocking moments that could possibly haunt an immature kid for awhile. Hell, there is at least one scene that I will probably have nightmares about. It involved taffy and a very large bossomed woman, if you are curious.

Coraline is the perfect heroine for young girls. She's strong willed and speaks her mind. Dakota Fanning did a great job of making her real. And the writer Neil Gaiman was able to capture that moment of adolescence when you are still dependant on your parents in many ways but trying to find your own place in the world.

Synthetic Seduction recreated that quizzical look of Coraline in clay for her necklace above. It would be perfect for a Coraline fan in your life.

I think it would be a great movie to watch on Halloween. I'll be buying a copy for myself as well as Jess and Kate. I really think that Kate will identify with Coraline.

Happy Birthday Dear Little Sis

Today is my beautiful, smart, and independent baby sister's birthday. The above picture is from the early 80's and is our all time favorite picture together. I love how smug we both look about the absolutely comical outfits we are wearing. Purple kitty sweater and matching leg warmers and the elementary school teacher bow tie blouse and long shorts, what more can I say...
I took this picture this summer of her feet. She has always hated her feet and I am always telling her that there is nothing wrong with them so it is a bit of a running joke between us.

She's just coming out of a 5 year relationship and has a lot of upheaval going on in her life right now. She and I have always been extremely close but I have felt as though there has been a huge bridge between us the past few years. I guess I said some things I shouldn't have after the last breakup and made her uncomfortable after they got back together. Yes, I should have known better and I'm trying to keep my mouth shut this time. (I know no one in my family reads my blog so I feel safe talking here in case you were concerned.) I really hope that we can get our old relationship back somehow. I know it will never be exactly the same but I hope that the tension will ease after awhile.

My brother is giving her a very special birthday weekend. He used his miles to fly her to Miami and his latest and greatest new girlfriend works for a beach side resort. She has comped them a room complete with full spa services and dinner at a 5 star restaurant.

I am really hoping that she decides to move back to good old MO. It feels really lonely with my other sister gone and it would be nice to have some support as my parents get older and we have to make decisions about the farm. I'm trying my best to stay out of her decisions this time though and can only hope she knows how much I love and respect her.

What's Coming Up

So before I knew it we are right in the middle of Fall. I'm not complaining, early Fall really is one of my favorite times of the year. There is the cooling weather, the start of scarf season, a nice lull at work, the pretty color changes (like the ones in my Fall Envy Felted Wrap above), my birthday coming up, and the holidays right behind that. But it also seems like I have something scheduled for pretty much every weekend from now to the end of the year. I'm more of a spur of the moment kind of gal and having my life planned out so far in advance actually makes me nervous.



I went ahead and canceled my booth at the Lindbergh Craft Show that is on the weekend before the Rock n Roll Craft Show. It was my least successful show last year, was a ton of work, and my friend's parents who were next to me last year are not doing it again this year so it was something that I could easily cut. The R n R show requires that you submit your inventory list a week in advance so it would have been really difficult to work out anyways.

So the two shows that I have left are both boutique style shows which means I don't have to be there or work my own booth. Besides the RnR show I also got into the Big A$$ Indie Show at the Mad Art Gallery again this year, which was a relief. I am really looking forward to both of these events. They are my target audience of youthful, indie people. What can I say, the hipsters like my stuff.

I'm debating about adding a small local show in my area in December. There is one on December 12 at the local High School that costs $55. It's just a one day event and it would be nice to build up some local support and bring out some friends and colleagues that have never been to one of my shows. We'll see if I can work it into my busy social life:)

Fall Newsletter Giveaway!

Join the Mailing List

Enter your name and email address below:

Name:

Email:

Subscribe
Unsubscribe

Get your Free Mailing List
by Bravenet.com

I am having a Fall Newsletter Giveaway! Anyone who joins my newsletter is entered to win a $40 gift certificate to my Etsy shop. If you already belong to my newsletter list than you are already entered to win. If you haven't joined the list than just enter your information above by October 31, 2009 and follow the prompts to join the newsletter. I will use the random number generator to choose the winner from how ever many people are on the list as of that day. You don't need to leave a message here but if you want to I would love to hear from you.

I promise not to spam you and I will be sending out newsletters just 4 or 5 times a year to keep you up to date on my shop with coupon codes and events I'll be attending. The above scarf rightly named Dramatic Entrance is just an example of what you could win. You can choose from whatever is in my shop with a value up to $40 or request a custom scarf in whatever colors you choose. I will pay the shipping cost up to $5, so if you are overseas and it costs me more than that to ship I will send you an invoice to cover the remaining.

You can use it to get something special for yourself or get some Christmas presents for friends!

Yoshimi Battles The Pink Scarf

I've never participated in Music Monday and I don't know if this post counts to be honest. For those of you who have never listened to the Flaming Lips song Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robot Part I I highly recommend you follow this link. You wouldn't know it by the title or even some of the quirky lyrics but I think it is a very deep and moving love song. A love song about a fighter named Yoshimi who is taking lots of vitamins but a love song none the less. I think different people take different things away from the song and as many times as I've listened to it I can always find something new to discover. I just read in Wikapedia that someone is writing a Broadway musical based on Yoshimi and the album which I think is fascinating.

I love the song so much that I named the scarf at the top after it, Yoshimi Battles The Pink Scarf . For one reason it's the right color of pink and I thought it had a bit of a Japanese look to it. I just wanted to share this little gem for those who had written the Flaming Lips off or never heard of them. Let me know what you think.

Nerds Can Dance

So I survived another year of Archon. Mike and his brother have gone every year since they were 12, meaning for the past 23 years. It is really more of a reunion at this point for them. We hang out with friends, he plays games while I shop, and we all drink from the complimentary beer at night. None of us costume but I always appreciate the time and energy people put into their designs. It's interesting to see what is popular each year. One year it was mostly sci fi, one year Pirates, and this year Steampunk had a big contingency. I was really impressed with their creative looks so carefully assembled. I didn't get a great shot but I did like the dancing scene above which shows that nerds can dance.Since I had my Strange Folk money Mike didn't give me any trouble for shopping this year. I was really impressed with the art room for a change. It wasn't just dragons and fairies and there were some really interesting new artists on display. My favorite was Sarah Wyman whom you can find on etsy here. I bought three of her wood block prints with moons in them for our bedroom which has a celestial theme. I also really love this one and I have a feeling that I will be coming back for more in the future. I also got a few of Kim Fritt's illustrations for my niece Kate for Christmas. They are the kitties and the castle in the sky pictures. Kate has a very creative spirit and I like to buy her art to support her active fantasy world.

I bought the adorable Faerie Panda by Silly Kitty, which you can barely see in the picture above. Mike even liked her Amigurumi creations and told me that I should try making them. It is a Japanese method of making little stuffed dolls like this cupid bunny stuffed with wool. I told him I would look into it but it mostly involves crochet and I just don't think it's something I would enjoy but they are so damn cute.

The only thing Mike gave me trouble about buying were some self published books from Sam"s Dot Publishing. I fell in love with the artwork on the covers and bought 4 of them. He said they will probably have thousands of typos but I really don't care. They are all short fiction compilations which I can read in short bursts which is about all I read any more since I started blogging and knitting in earnest. I think that buying self published books is just another way of supporting the indie community.

The black material is a handmade dress that I got for only $15. It was marked as a resale so I think that it has been worn before but who cares for that price. It is a see through fabric with embroidery that she said her parents brought her back from India.
















So that is my haul. Mike was excited about Talisman, the game he bought for like $80 with the extensions, another reason he couldn't give me any trouble for what all I bought. He and his friends used to play it years ago and he was just like a kid again playing, which was cute to watch. I like this shot of Mike, Chris, and Tif. Tiffany looks so confused but she was a trooper. Sandy and I quit after the 3rd round to focus on our drinking and people watching but Tif stuck with the boys to the end.

Mike said that he heard the zombie faction was getting out of control and were getting kicked out of their hotel rooms. So I got to say, "those damn zombies." Only at Archon...

Birthday Ham?

You all made me feel better about my first bad experience with a craft show customer. I definitely learned from it and will be prepared next time. I don't think it would have bothered me so much if she hadn't chosen 3 really nice scarves including the one above which I had actually contemplated keeping. I may have enough yarn to recreate in if I make it more narrow. It's all a learning experience that's for sure. I had so many good interactions with customers that I really can't let one bad apple spoil anything for me. I particularly loved the women who bought one scarf on Saturday and loved it so much she came back on Sunday to get 3 more for herself and gifts.

So, moving on. I have obviously been a bit focused on Strange Folk the past few weeks. I'm sure you're ready to hear about something else. Unfortunately I've got nothing. So I decided to look at my webmaster tools to see what people were actually reading on my blog and saw some interesting things. First off did you know that you can use it to find out which searches you are ranked in? Here are some of the top google searches that I come up in and the ranking:

strange folk festival

5

craft show ideas 9

fall scarves

7

good advice for life 7
birthday ham 1

sales dance

1

color quizes 9

booth display

3

lenox anniversary gifts 9

someone who knits

10

I'm happy that I'm the first blog to come up in search under just about any combination of the words Strange Folk Festival. I have also had a lot of people find me by searching for craft show ideas and other combinations including the words craft show recently and I hope they found some things that were helpful to them. But who knew that I was a source for "good advice for life." I think the Birthday Ham is hilarious. I did a happy birthday post for my brother, whose name is Hamilton or Ham for short. I don't think whoever was searching for birthday ham ideas got what they were looking for here.

That's all I've got today. We're going to Archon this weekend in Illinois. It's my husband's favorite weekend of the year when he can be as nerdy as he wants to be and nobody judges. I should have some interesting pictures to share on Monday of the festivities.