Happy Holidays!

Hope everyone has a happy and safe holiday!

BUST Craftacular!

So.. ummmm.. I think all I can say is wow, what a whirlwind weekend! 4 Days 3 cities. I'm not sure I could do much more... Let's just start with the BUST Craftacular.
What an amazing show! We were so busy the entire time I hardly got to walk around and talk to anyone! Our table was next to Lollibomb and Lemon Cadet and straight across the way from Brookadelphia. I don't think we could have asked for a better spot ourselves! Fort was been a long time silent fan of Brookadelphia, so she was totally psyched, and ended up getting one of her awesome "Crafty" pendants! She also got a "Bourbon" necklace from t8designs, and a couple of xmas presents from other seller (I'd tell you tell you but that might ruin the surprise for a couple people!).We had a few new toddler zip up sweater shirts with us, that haven't even made it into the shop yet since we don't have a model, that flew off our table! Along with new scarf designs and and a couple of paintings that Fort just recently did.
Seriously guys, if you weren't at this event you better make sure you're there next year! There was a line to get in until 3pm! 3pm! Those are some super dedicated shoppers! Oh and I think I forgot to mention(!), Amy Sedaris was there signing her new book and selling some of her super crafty wears! We went and got her autograph for Danger Cloudy, he's a HUGE fan.Lollibomb, Fort, and I didn't go out and cause too much trouble after the show since we had to be up at the butt crack of dawn to fly down to Florida for the Atomic Holiday Bazaar, but more on that later! Right now I need to grab something to eat!

Recycler Rant

Dear Recycler Men,

Do you really sit outside my window and dump glass bottles into your truck every Wednesday at about 7:30? Does it reeeeally take you about 45 minutes to do so? There aren't that many apartment builds on this street. I'm starting to become convinced that you bring all of the bottles from the surrounding streets to our happy little cul-de-sac just to wake me up. I don't really want to be up this early. Do you really find it necessary to play with all of the knobs, buttons, and levers on your vechile while being parked outside my window? Don't you already know what those do? Would it be possible for you to do this on 4th Ave next week? I hear those people like to be rudely awaken at ungodly hours of the morning. I've tried sleeping in different rooms, but your clanking and clattering seem to resonate throughout all of the apartment. So please guys, please, let me sleep in a little for once. Thanks

Sincerely,
A very tired, slightly hungover, fairly irritated Ninja Fetus

On Facebook?

Now so is Fort Cloudy! Swing by and click the button to become a fan! Its a one stop look at where we'll be and what kind of fun we're brewing up in the FC laboratory. Hope to see you there!

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=6552833659

Where to find us...

Good news folks! This weekend you can find Fort Cloudy on BOTH coasts!

If you live in the Baltimore area, head down to St. John's Church at 2640 St Paul St tomorrow (Dec 1) for Holiday Heap! A kick ass show brought to you by the Charm City Craft Mafia. For more information go to the CCCM's website! Make sure to go say hi to Danger Paul, it'll be his first show by himself.If you happen to find yourself on the other side of the country, come hang out with Fort and I at Urban Craft Uprising at the Seattle Center Exhibition Hall. We'll be there Saturday AND Sunday from 11a to 5p. Go to their website for more!We hope to see you getting your Holiday shopping on at one of these great events!

Always Learning...

Today I learned....
"baby jesus cries when you don't use a turn signal"

Don't upset baby jesus. C'mon people! ;P

Visiting Austin

This past weekend we headed down to Austin, Texas for the Stitch Fashion Show and Craft Bazaar, a show put on by the ass-kicking Austin Craft Mafia down at the Convention Center. They CM girls had a party packed weekend planned, and we were more than happy to participate!
We got into Austin Friday late afternoon and headed almost directly to the pre-show party at First Samples for a Smart Water sponsored event complete with a keg and Q&A with Project Runway's 3rd Season contestant, Bradley Baumkirchner. We got to meet a bunch of awesome vendors (several of whom are from Seattle) and a few of the show organizers, including Jennifer Perkins of Naughty Secretary Club.
Saturday was a bit of a whirlwind. We joined forces with Luca of Lollibomb Beauty and headed to the Convention Center to survey the lands and set up our booths. We ran into a few of our favorite Etsy friends like Aorta, Muttsywonder, RuffeoHeartsLilSnotty, and Matt from Etsy, who were also taking care of set-up.The show was fantastic! Those girls really did the best job ever at organizing the event, we send mad props to them! Along with awesome sales we also we met so many great people! Jessica from FunkyFinds stopped by to say hi, she featured Fort Cloudy fairly recently so it was extra nice to meet her! We also got to chit chat with Dismantled, TheRocketWorkshop, SweetWolf, and StephanieK. Craig from CubistLiterature also came to check out the show! It was really nice to see him again!
The Runway show was fantastic! It was kicked off by Bradley Baumkirchner presenting the Stitch Grant Award (a $1000 prize) to House of Dang. All of the designers that participated in the fashion show were phenomenal! If think my favorite was Rebecca Yaker and her collection of sock monkey clothing. The sock monkey bikini modeled by Jenny Hart was one of the best things I've seen in a while!After the show we headed over to the Mohawk to party it up with everyone and unwind. We danced the night away with all the other vendors and craft show patrons. It was a great end to one of the most fun shows we've participated in!

STITCH!

TODAY, that's right today, Saturday November 10th come find Fort Cloudy and I down at Stitch in Austin, TX. The show has an amazing line up of sellers you do not want to miss. So come out and play with us. $10 with doors at 4pm and a fashion show at 9:30p. Seriously people, if you're in the area you will not want to miss this show! Just think about all the wonderful handmade goodies you can buy to finish off your xmas shopping or just get a little something for yourself. Since we just talked about how you need to sign the Handmade Pledge *cough cough* this is definitely the place you need to be. We'll see you there!

Take the Handmade Pledge!

In case you haven't heard of Buyhandmade.org, I want to strongly encourage you to check it out. So far over 4300 people have pledged to buy handmade goods this holiday season! I signed a couple of weeks ago and it was half that. So join the masses and bring a little extra handmade love into your home this holiday!

Spelling Bee

So, what's a fetus to do on the first Monday of a month? Join his good friend Kate (zoo1023) down at Re-Bar for a Spelling Bee! For just $5 you can go and participate in the (what will likely be) utter humiliation (I know I would have been slaughtered) or just go and watch.
Sign up starts at 7p and the spelling gloves come off at 8 sharp! Though word master, Josh, pulls out some pretty (ok, very) obscure words out for you, he seems genuinely excited for you when you get them right, and extremely nice about it when you don't.And what's the best part about the Spelling Bee being located in a bar? You can drink your embarrassment away! If you place in the top 2 you even receive drink coupons for the bar. How sweet is that?! The contest runs until about 10pm, providing 2+ fantastic hours of "what did he just ask her to spell??", "is that even a word??" , great laughs, and loads of fun!

Etsy Halloween Party

What's a fetus to do the Saturday before Halloween? Why fly to New York for the Etsy Halloween party, of course! So, Fort and I hopped on an airplane and headed to the Big Apple to hang out with all our super cool crafty friends.
In true Etsy fashion there was a ghost pinata handmade by the girls at the Labs! It was pretty awesome, and a lot of fun to take a swing at!
And a ton of gift bags to be handed out. I took a peek and saw that they even contained samples from Lollibomb Beauty! She definitely has some of the best lotion ever.There were a lot of really great costumes too! Anda from stopsandstarts was a pregnant skeleton, Jen from sweetestpea came as a Hug Robot, Sarah the Lawyer donned an awesomely snarky Hello Kitty costume, and Lollibomb and Fort were Etsy cheerleaders! I also spotted a unicorn, a Mexican wrestler, Laura Bush, Tammy Faye, and a couple of bunnies.
Since the Portland Street Team was in town for the trunk show they had the previous night, Urbana decided to set up shop again, offering Jager shots with the purchase of her cute small bowls. I wish Jager treated me a little better, because I would have loved to join in on the fun. Ruffeo Hearts Lil Snotty also had a couple racks out. They have some really awesome stuff! Going on the wish list for sure.
The Majestica Collective has been hanging out at the Etsy Labs for the past week offering workshops and performance art. The piece in the above photo involved a wooden frame, a large plastic bag, a shop vac, and a women. I would describe it past that, but I just don't know what to say. It was amazing, and I'm sure a bit windy :)Overall, it was an awesome party as all Etsy parties are. Definitely worth the hellish airport conditions it took to get there! Tomorrow is our last day in New York so we'll definitely have to squeeze out another awesome adventure before heading back out west for I Heart Rummage in Seattle.

Favorite Quote

"I'm an alcoholic. I drink beer and lick pussy as is."

This was over heard from a passerby while sitting outside of Uptown drinking some coffee. I enjoyed it so much I wrote it down and took a picture to share with everyone.

Coolest candy ever.

Generally I curse countertop items for purchase at coffee stores due to the temptation that arises. BUT! These I'll take any day. They're like legos but candy.. that you can eat... and build with.. Pretty much the coolest thing I've ever seen.. and eatten...
Fort kinda shook her head at me for a while and then gave in and joined the fun. And let me tell you, it was fun!

Crafty Wonderland

Yesterday, Fort, Lisha (our friend from Baltimore), and I, drove down to Portland to attend Crafty Wonderland. Its a nice little show with about 40 vendors, mostly local, held at the Doug Fir Lounge on Burnside.

The show was in the downstairs portion on the Lounge where they have concerts. (The Go! Team is playing there in a couple weeks and I kinda want to go...) I really liked the way they used the space in the room, having vendors on different levels made it very visually appealing.

The variety of the vendors was really neat, and it was nice to see a few paintings there as well. The group of vendors reminded me of a creaft-heavier Big Art Show. Mona, from Tinymeat / Mamadelic, was there! It was really nice to see a familiar face as well as meeting all those cool new vendors.
Our spot was on the stage so we were able to utilize the fun stage lighting! Maybe not the coolest thing in the world, but it sure amused me!

Burlesquin' it Up!

Wednesday night we head down to The Bedroom Club in Pioneer Square to catch the Burning Hearts Burlesque show. Miss Anita Goodmann hosted the evening. She just got through her divorce and was eager to put on a fantastic show (she succeeded).
There's not much better than cocktails and women tastefully taking their clothes off to pep up your Wednesday night! The performers were great! Ms Luna Nocturna did a really awesome Day of the Dead inspired number, as well as one with Absinth and the green fairy.
Sara Rose was there keeping our ears super entertained. She has a spectacular voice! Her microphone didn't work for the first half of her first song so she just belted it out as loud as she could! I was very impressed. Miss Elaine Yes came out for a few sets, as well as Miss Cassie O'Hara, and Miss Goody Goody! The show was all around fantastic!

Oh! And I forgot to mention that they made Fort get up on stage and gave her some birthday spankings. HA! I'm not sure if there's a good picture of it.. I'll ask around... She made me go with her so I couldn't get one.

Happy Birthday, Fort!

It's Fort Cloudy's birthday today! We're going to a burlesque show tonight!! There will be awesome pictures on flickr tomorrow ;) Hopefully it'll be a blog worthy night!

Adding Toast to the Family?

We, here on Fort Cloudy, have been asked to adopt Berny Toast into our family. What do you guys think? We may change his name if we do decide to keep him around.. But what do you guys think? Should we keep him around? You decide!

Stitch Rock!

This past week we headed down to South Florida to participate in Stitch Rock in Delray Beach and hang out with Luca of Lollibomb. Saturday morning we headed up to the show.There were a LOT of great vendors there. Some we had met before, like, Lollibomb, Owl Movement, Ragamufyn, Tuff Betty Bags, Erica Burns Designs, 75 Rabbit, and others
And we met some awesome new vendors, too: Snitches Get Stitches, Ciara Loves You, With Sugar on Top, Humble Bumble B, Backbone Music, and tons of other great crafters!There were also some local shops and boutiques at the show. We got to meet the cool folks from Bear and Bird Gallery and Pink Ghost! If you're ever down in the Delray/Fort Lauderdale area try and check them out!

The folks from ThreadBanger were also about checkin out the craft show for one of their episodes! Have you checked out their site before? I'm really excited to see this episode! They interviewed a lot of really great crafters including Lollibomb and Snitches Get Stitches.Stitchrock put on a really awesome fashion show, organized by Adrianne Ruffin. And one of my favorite things at shows... CUPCAKES! Which I bought a bunch of... so I'm gonna go eat one now.

The Indie Path

Woooooohoooo! Fort Cloudy is the featured artist right now on TheIndiePath.com. Check it out!

Also if you find yourself in South Florida this weekend come on out to Stitch Rock! It's going to be an awesome craft show!

Crafty Bastards!

This past weekend, had you been in Washington, DC you would have found Fort and I at Crafty Bastards, one of the East Coast's most rockin' craft show! We had a fantastic time meeting everyone that came out and stopped by our booth. A big thanks to them!
We were SO busy the whole day that I didn't get a chance to leave the table to take photos to share with you all. Partly Cloudy was going to come out to help, but the poor dear got food poisoning :(
So I don't have any photos for you.. but I can tell you that you should definitely try and check out the show if you ever can. The level of awesomeness will blow your mind.

Oh, and so you guys know: Fort has a bunch of new items that are about to drop in the store so check it out soon, if you get a sec! FortCloudy.com

Back to Seattle for us! Later!

Baltimore to Seattle: The final day!

The majority of Friday was spent on the road and besides our post office stop to mail off some Fort Cloudy goodies, there isn't much to report. So enjoy the photos from our super scenic time of the road!

So, yay! We finally made it! Safe and sound and in Seattle! And who was here to meet us, but: