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.

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.

Baltimore to Seattle: Renegade Craft Fair!

On days 3 and 4 of our grand adventure we took all the Fort Cloudy goods to Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago, Illinois. What a fantastic time!
Saturday morning I think I heard Fort get up around 5am.. She had a lot she still wanted to make before we left for the show. Around 10 or so James (MagnoliaStreet) and her boyfriend came to meet up with us and bring us some scones for breakfast. They pretty much rule! Since we had hardly any room in the Cloudy Mobile they grabbed the bus up while we drove with everything we needed for the show.
While I was helping Fort set up Priscilla from MoxieMadness showed up! We gave her a quick hug but, unfortunately, didn't have a whole lot of time to chat since we were still trying to get everything to look presentable. Fort's been kicking herself about it, but has just been excited for a great reason to go back!The show was AWESOME! We got to meet loads of great people! We were able to meet BoyGirlParty, PeachCake, Lavender Zebra Press, Papered Together, CharlieandSarah, and a slew of other awesome crafters!Some of the cool people from Baltimore were there too! Including: Spaghetti Kiss, Imogene, Red Prairie Press, and Squid Fire.A couple of the cool kids from Etsy were there too! Lauren (Stellaloella) and Julie (YourSecretAdmiral) were there to represent! It was too cool to see them again :)
The show was amazing! And we're all really glad we were able to be apart of it. If you get a chance to check it out next year your should definitely jump on the chance!

We headed off to Wisconsin Monday morning. More on that soon!

More Etsy Labs Adventures

Wowie! What a weekend. Sorry its taken me a while to blog again, still recovering from all the adventures. This past weekend Fort Cloudy, Ugly Kitty, Supa Fly Monkey, and I headed up to New Jersey and New York for an exciting encounter with the great folks up at Etsylabs for the CREST (Capital Region Etsy Street Team) Trunk Show.
Our first stop was New Jersey on Thursday night. UglyKitty has family there and they offered to let us stay the night and bake treats in the morning for the show. Little did I know, however, how dangerous these treats would be! I thought I was going to eat them and wound up being attacked by them! Crab cakes.... you gotta watch out for crab cakes...

To be honest, the Kitty and the Cloud did most of the work.. Supa Fly flew me around the house on his back for the majority of the time we were there. He's a really great guy! I hope we have a lot more adventures together! Plus, who doesn't want a friend that can fly?!?

The Trunk Show was really great! I heard there we about 80 people that came out to party with us. The food was incredibly, the items for sale were awesome, and the company couldn't have been better. They even set up the workshop on Etsy so people could join the party online! Cloudy and I really like going to the Labs. I strongly encourage you to visit if you haven't! The people that work there are amazingly nice and they have just about every crafting tool you could ever dream to use. I got to hang out with Sarah the Etsy attorney for a bit, she told me about her article in Bead and Button magazine, and was kind enough to take a picture with me!

I think we all had a great, great time! Saturday we headed up to the Brooklyn Indie Market (which seems really awesome!) and then rode around of the subway all day. I love going to New York and will hopefully have a lot more adventures there over the next couple months! If you have any suggestions on what I should do while I'm up there definitely let me know! I just got an email so if you ever feel inclined, drop me a line! ninja@fortcloudy.com Till next time!

Visiting Etsy and Renegade

This past weekend Fort Cloudy, Charlie (the penguin), and I headed up to New York to shake our butts at the Etsy 2 year party and sell, sell, sell at Renegade Craft Fair. We had a fun filled weekend of making new friends and sharing our current friends with all of Brookyln.
The Etsy party was awesome! They had cake AND a piñata! Charlie and I got to shake it with some awesome Etsy peeps, including: ashleywhitejacobsen, stellaloella, lushboxinc, girlscantell, taina, xiane, sweetestpea, Anda, sweetiepiepress, RelishDress, and Angeatelier, among others. Charlie and I had only heard Fort talk about these a bunch of these people and the Labs before, so it was rad to be able to meet everyone and experience the good times first hand. I definitely want to get back to the EtsyLabs to take one of the neat classes that they offer.

Saturday morning we all high tailed it over to McCarran Park Pool for the Renegade Craft Fair. Fort had a booth vending and Charlie and I wanted to go and help out. She had arranged it before hand so that we were placed right next to Lushbox. Its really great to be at a show and be placed by someone you know. I headed over to her booth for a bit for a slightly steamy photo shoot:

The whole weekend was really great! Rebound Designs was there, as well as, Kate Black, the Black Apple, Squidfire, Precious Pups, 1 Boy 1 Girl, EtsyLabs, Cloedee, Imogene, Red Prairie Press, My Paper Crane, Mogo, I could really go on and on and on... OH! and the Chocolate Lab was there! I had to get a picture with her!

Oh! And I can't forget my new friends!

Man, oh man. Everyone was really great! I can't wait till the next show to meet more great folks! If you're around in Baltimore this Saturday, come out to Pile of Craft (St Paul and 27th) put on by the Charm City Craft Mafia!

New York City Adventures!

This past weekend my super awesome puppet making friend, StaceyRebecca, came up from Phoenix, AZ to teach a class at the ever fantastic Etsy Labs. Unfortunately I was unable to attend since I had a public appearance scheduled with Fort Cloudy for Saturday and Sunday. Luckily though, Sarah really wanted to go meet Stacey too. So we arranged a whirlwind bus trip to New York for the evening.
Our bus ended up being an hour and a half late to the Baltimore station, so we didn't end up getting to the Big Apple until 8pm that night and had to be back on the bus home at 3:45am. It kinda made me feel like a manly-fetus version of Cinderella.
Stacey is really great! But if you've ever talked to her, you already knew that. She suggested that we go to an improv show in Manhattan. She knew one of the groups preforming, Comic Book, pretty rock! So we hung out at the Labs for a bit, waited for Anda, and hopped the F train.
The show was totally rad. I'm not sure I've ever laughed that hard. The guys from Comic Book took all of us to an improv hang out bar called Triple Crown. Some food, drinks, and good conversation later they took Stacey and I up to Times Square since neither of us had seen it before. Even though the trip was really short it was totally worth it. I'm really glad we got to go. Check out the pictures:

This evenings Etsy Front Page

Thanks to my good friend and fellow adventurer UglyKitty. I was featured on Etsy's Front Page today! I feel like such a rock star. So many people sharing the love! Hopefully a few of them will decide to share in my adventures and take me home!

Hi! Nice to meet you!

Well, gee, hi! My name is the Ninja Fetus. Thanks for checking out my blog and wanting to keep up with my adventures. In case you don't know, I live at Fort Cloudy with a bunch of my friends. We're quite the spunky and fun-loving bunch. Thanks so much for stopping by! Plenty of adventures to come! Hopefully we'll run into each other one day and you can join in on the fun!