Never a dull day.

I know I haven't been keeping up with this whole blog as well as I should. Its been really busy out here with everything we've got going on. I have to share this video with you guys, though. Its from this morning's Bank Robbery in West Seattle. We ended up being less than a block from the end stand off and shoot out. Take a peek at what I captured!

I'll be back on the ball here soon.

Garrett Shirts

Just wanted to give a quick shout out to Garrett Shirts. His step-daughter gave him one of my cousins for Christmas and he made this shirt for her. Do you see?? That's me on the shield! I'm so super honored to be included as part of their family. You should take a sec and check out his for sale shirts on his website: GarrettShirts.com. Thanks a lot dude!

Favorite Things

Ok.. so we're moving in like 3 days now and don't really have time for any real adventures but here's a list of some of our favorite recently discovered, or rediscovered, things.

1- Liquor store boxes
2- Willis Alan Ramsey
3-Shoestring French Fries
4- Proud parents that come to visit
5- Ross Stores
6- Pandora Radio
7- Friends with weddings out of state so we're forced to go on adventures

Help Fort Cloudy Get A New Apartment Sale!

That's kids! We're moving out of our friend's dining room and into our very own Seattle apartment! BUT we need your help to get together enough dollars for a security deposit and first months rent! AAAHHHHH! hehe. Head on over to the Fort Cloudy Etsy shop and check out our biggest sale yet! And its only going on until we move, May 1st!

Matteart

art by Matteart "Weather Vivienne"

Last night we headed over to the South Lake Union Velocity, a really hip home art and design shop. Velocity owner, John Tusher, felt that there weren't enough opportunities in Seattle for artists and designers to meet, chat, and make some connections. In attempts to remedy this he's freshly launched "The Lab" a monthly get together with a special speaker or panel each time. This month, the first month, Matte Stephens (Etsy shop: Matteart) was asked to come and give a perspective on his success and share tips. The number one tip he gave: produce! He encouraged everyone to create something new everyday, and discussed his daily routine and inspirations. If you haven't gotten a chance to check out Matte's work, you better go run to his Etsy shop!
John's vision is exactly what I've been looking for to become more involved in the community out here. So thanks a lot, John! The Lab will usually be held on a Wednesday night from about 6-8, late in the month. Next month they'll be hosting a panel of celebrity bloggers to talk about the importance of blogging, and what its like to run a daily blog. That should be a great event to attend! Hope to see you there.

Winery times

Fort's parents came out from Baltimore to hang out with us for the weekend. Mama Cloudy said it was a requirement that we head out to a winery and do a tour. Well.. what Mama Cloudy wants, Mama Cloudy gets! We headed out to Woodinville for the day to check out Chateau Ste Michelle, Columbia Winery, and Redhook Brewery. And we barely made a dent in all of the wineries that are out there! I highly recommend you check some of them out if you ever are out this way!Lily Cloudy came out with us for her first ever wine experience! Nooo we didn't let her drink, we are a *little* responsible. :P She did get a good lesson in wines, though!
I'm always looking for a good winery to go visit. I'd love to hear suggestions from you guys on where my adventures should take me!

Back in Action!

Come hang out with us at Chop Suey in Capitol Hill for I Heart Rummage THIS Sunday from 12-4. We're headed downtown to Buenos Aires for drinks afterwards! This is our first show of 2008 help us kick it off right.

Valentine's Day

I just found out that MC Chris is playing the Show Box in Seattle on Valentine's Day. I think I'm going to ask Fort to be my date.. or maybe I'll try and find her a real date and third wheel it.. You should come with us if you live around here!

A New Year.

So, wow, its 2008 already. How did that happen? So much occurred in the past year it feels like time just flew right by. I thought that when you're as little as I am that the days were supposed to feel like forever, not feel like they're blowing past.
Since the holiday rush has cooled off, I've been trying to take more time to explore the city. I hadn't previously been able to do so with the crazy travel/craft show schedule we'd been keeping. Its funny the things you don't notice when you don't take the time to look. For example, I was walking up 1st Ave the other day and came across a completely smashed computer monitor and television. I laughed about it with my friend and she told me it had been there for several weeks. I feel silly for missing it as 1)its kinda hard to miss and 2)I walk down first fairly frequently.I spent a decent amount of time walking in the downtown shopping district, people watching. Even though it was post xmas it was a flooded Saturday afternoon. So much hustle and bustle, I can only assume for the After Christmas Sales, which when I took a peek didn't seem all that impressive to me.
When the immense crowd started to get to me I decided I'd pop on down to Pike's Place Market to pick up some veggies for dinner. Out of the pot and into the pan. I had forgotten that it was in fact the weekend and you can barely move at the Market on Saturday and Sunday. The flying fish, the giant piggy everyone wants to take their picture on, and all the great handmade shopping are pretty alluring for tourists and Seattlites alike. I wish I didn't continuously make the mistake of going down there on the busiest days since it is pretty fun to walk around. But I got my veggies (and some purple potatoes - my favorite discovery of 2007) and headed home.
Maybe its just 1st Ave that attracts the weird goings on, or maybe I just pay more attention when walking on that street. A few months ago I saw a man cutting his hair in the middle of the road, and its a main one. This trip I discovered the empty collection of minis the homeless folks in the neighborhood coax out of the patrons of the liquor store.
Oh, no, wait. Its definitely not just 1st. Sunday we saw a man panhandling in a dress and over the top make up. I love this city.

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.