Goodbye 2009!!

Wow. 2009 was such a great year, I hate to see it go! I made some awesome new friends, participated in a number of gallery shows, was featured in STUFFED magazine, and other fun stuff. Through it all, I managed to keep sane too! I just want to thank everyone for making 2009 such a great year...I couldn't have done it with out you! I can't wait to see what 2010 will bring in Yummy pancake land!!!

Happy Mother's Day!

I just wanted to wish everyone out there who have spawned, a happy Mother's day! I wanted to send a special shout-out to My cousin Steph and her hubby Bill, who are the proud new parents of an uber cute baby boy. I also want to give a shout-out to My bro and his wife who are expecting their first next month!

But mostly, I wanted to thank my own mom, as without her, I wouldn't be here. She is one of the most awesomest people on the planet, and I couldn't have asked for a better mommy than her! She cultivated my creativity, and passed along all of her artsy and creative genes ^_^ She rocks!

Phew....what a week!

Man, this week really wore me out! I finally finished my article for Stuffed magazine, I bought a brand new car(my old one wasn't going to last much longer without me putting some major cash dollars into it...i now drive the batmobile ^_^), there was a woot off going on on woot.com(which I was lucky enough to FINALLY get a bag of crap!), my 8-5 job has been busy, etc etc. But I thankfully was able to get a little me-time in and got my hair colored and got my crochet on. I got a bunch of orders completed and even started on some new pieces that I hope to get into the Mortal Plush show at Art Whino gallery in MD. Check out some of Mr. Toastee's emotions:

And on another note, since I was good in the grocery store, my husband let me get a toy out of the machine. Look at the one I got. It is supposed to be pooh dressed up as a grasshopper but I can't help but think that it looks like he is being eaten by one:

Oh, and FYI - the Mr. Toastee zip-pouches should be hitting my etsy store sometime in April ^_^

I am now off to work on some custom orders for Nannerpuss ^_^

Completely off topic - Parsley

Look what I found living amongst my parsley! I was about to pick them out until I realized what they were - monarch butterfly caterpillars - 8 to be exact. Apparently they really like parsley. I left them in there in hopes that they'll make their little cocoons and I can watch them turn into butterflies. Isn't nature cool? I can be such a nerd sometimes ^_^

Big Juicy Kangaroo Burger?

Yes, you heard me right - Kangaroo burgers. My husband and I grilled up 100% kangaroo burgers for dinner last night, and they were pretty tasty! Not gamey at all. They taste pretty similar to beef burgers, so I would only recommend them for the novelty of eating kangaroo....especially at $9.50 a pound.

Where did we find kangaroo burgers in Lancaster county you ask? Well, on Friday, we took a walk around Lititz checking out all of the cute little stores and stumbled upon The Savory Gourmet. At first glance, the store did not have many items, but them we saw their whiteboard of available meats - alligator, ostrich, black bear bacon, yak, elk, and kangaroo to name a few. How cool is that? Bizzare foods in our own backyard!

Eggy toys

Ever since I was little, and well, still today, I am completely enthralled by those little machines you put your quarters in to get a little toy or a piece of candy. I love little plastic toys that I really don't need but totally must have. Even now, every time I go to the grocery store, i root around in my purse before I leave to make sure I have quarters available in case the machines have some uber cool toys or stickers that I MUST have. Back in the day, those machines were 5, 10 and 25 cents for the really good ones - now it goes from 25 cents to $1. We always called them eggy toys ^_^

One particular machine I remember as a child, was the one at our local Super Duper - a grocery store. It had a big plastic chicken in it that would cluck when you put in your quarter, and your toy was in one of those plastic easter eggs. I was blown away awhile ago when I went to my local Redners Warehouse market and they had the same machine! Ahhh...the memories....

What brought this on? Well, I was watching How it's Made on the Discovery channel this evening, and one of the things they showed was how they make those machines. That got me thinking, how cool would that be to have one of my very own! So I decided to make it one of my life's missions to own an eggy toy machine. That way, when I wake up, when I come home from a hard day at work, and just whenever, I can partake in tiny plastic toy goodness.