FINALLY! TAGS I LOVE

I have struggled with this for all the years I've been making Coffee Pot People and Tea Kettle Characters: How do I tag them?

That struggle has a lot to do with some of the tagging I've seen in the Trillium store. A lot of them were practically works of art themselves, and after seeing them I developed a severe case of raging envy. But, try as I might, I couldn't seem to come up with something both eye-catching and artful AND easy to produce.

Until Tuesday, when I had a brainstorm: Use bottle caps. Use card stock tags. Add magnets to the back!

Here are some of the new tags:

I had a number of these finished yesterday, and promptly tied them to several Tea Kettle Characters, and drove them to Mag-Big, a new store opening on Hawthorne, a very popular shopping street in Portland. The owner was thrilled with the Tea Kettle Characters, and their tags, and even consigned the rest of the tags I had to sell on their own, as refrigerator magnets!

Imagine that. A product tag that is itself a product. I AM happy!

LITTLE TIMES 8--NEW TEA KETTLE CHARACTERS

The are new peeps on the block, eight new little Tea Kettle Characters, to be precise. Here they are, in order of size, smallest to largest.

Gidget fits in my hand quite comfortably--


Lily is perhaps a little shorter, but definitely plumper--


Royce and Kilroy are about seven inches tall. (Royce has removable arms; they're sugar cube tongs, so you can put sugar cubes in the top of his hollow crown, and use his arms to serve them!)


James, our Rockin' Rodeo fellow, and his friend Bartleby--


And this handsome couple, Hattie and Eugene--


They all wish you a happy weekend!

A PICTURE A DAY, A NEW WAY TO DISPLAY

I'm going to give this "Picture a Day" thing another shot, and thought yesterday, my birthday would be a good day to restart it. Wish me luck!

Today's shot is of what I hope will be a solution to a bit of a problem: People laugh at, smile at, and rave about the Coffee Pot People, and little Tea Kettle Characters, but way too often, they walk away without buying. Now, I love the idea of Art for Art's Sake, but aside from the fact that I don't know who Art is or why I should create art for his sake, if I don't sell what I make I'll run out of places to put it. Worse than that, I might actually have to get a "real" job!

It occurred to me that the China and Mega Blossoms do sell well, and they're in the same price range as the Tea Kettle Characters. What's different? Well, for one thing, they have stems, and you ca "plant" them anywhere in the yard or garden you want. What if I gave the Tea Kettle Characters stems, too?

Today, I gave the first bunch fixtures into which stems could be inserted. If a person would rather they sat on a table, or on the ground, they can still do that, but now they can be placed on a stem instead. Here's a inside look:


Hope that's the key to my little puzzle!

MORE COFFEE POT PEOPLE CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS

I've finished more of the "Coffee Pot People Celebrate Christmas" series. They're fun and satisfying to do, but time consuming, with each one taking an average of an hour to an hour and a half, starting with the process of finding the scenes in which to insert them.

Here are the latest, with Miss Violet first, because I'm told by the woman she lives with that she went into a serious pout when she realized she hadn't been included in the first batch. Miss Violet in a pout can make life difficult for her home mates, so here she is, in Latvia (That girl does get around!):

Miss Violet in Latvia

Ready to Go!

Gift Box Bobby

My daughter hasn't told me how many of these she needs for the Organizer, but I'm thinking I'll put them on Etsy as Christmas cards...

Oh! To answer the several inquiries as to what, exactly, a Christmas Organizer is, it's a place to keep your Christmas Card List, Shopping and Wish Lists for your peeps, Recipes for holiday goodies, craft and decorating ideas you'd like to try, a calendar for activities like going to see all the lights, taking in a holiday show, putting on your cookie exchange, etc. Melody made me one several years ago, and I've used it a LOT. I'm looking forward to seeing the new one!

COFFEE POT PEOPLE CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS

Good grief, I've been busy! I have three, count 'em THREE, new projects to show off, but I've been working on them so nonstop, I haven't had time to post them. I'm going to do the last one first, of course, and show off the new Coffee Pot People Christmas scenes.

My daughter Melody started it. It's her fault that I haven't been doing a bracelet a day. Well, and those other two projects, too, but that's different.

Anyway, Melody's idea is to create a Christmas Organizer, which is a great idea. I've been using the first one she created for years, so I already know she's good at it.

This time, though, she wants the frontispiece for each section to feature a Coffee Pot Person or Tea Kettle Character, and she wants a little line-drawing mascot, too. For that, she wants me. To do the artwork, anyway. These are my first five efforts, and my thought is to turn them into Christmas cards, with more to come.

Lumin in the Snow

Santa, The Children, and Wren

Bubble Light Coco

Belva Goes to Church

PEOPLE OF THE TEA POT PERSUASION

I did it! My goal as to have ten little Tea Kettle Characters made by this weekend's show. There are twelve, if you count the tiny fairy that won't have a face until tomorrow. Yes!

I got pictures of all the finished ones this afternoon, and will just put up one of each for now. Their names are tentative, with a few exceptions. (Ramona, Winston, and Beazel I'm pretty sure of.)

Birdie

Kooshi

Boo

Beazel

Bailey

Splash

Sheriffe

Shep

Ramona

Witchy Woman

Winston

And there they are, all done except for the protective coating on their faces. Whew!

Now all I need to do is label and price them, make gift bags, and finish some more of the greeting cards. Oh, and bring in all the bins of China and Mega Blossoms, choose the ones I'm taking to this show, and make sure everything is priced and has my vendor number on it.

No worries. I've got all day tomorrow. eeek.

And I got the most loveliest blog award a couple of days ago, and haven't even had time to put it here! Tomorrow? I hope!

PICTURE A DAY--Circle of Small Friends

Another really busy, busy day.

Had it all planned out, which is almost always a mistake, and was on schedule until about 10:30. That's when a friend called to say she'd been in an accident. She was okay, but shaken. The DH and I spent a few hours helping her settle down, retrieved her car, and then took her to the hospital, which she hadn't initially thought she needed to do. They gave her something for pain, and the fire department took her home, since she has MS, had surgery not long ago, had just been in a fender bender, and now was loopy with meds.

Still, I did manage to get the shopping done, and then came home and worked on the little Tea Kettle Characters. Here they are, most of them, a couple still in the upside-down stage, the rest mostly finished.

Click on the image if you'd like a better view.

Good grief. It's midnight. Good night, World!

PICTURE A DAY--busy, busy

I'm going to have to start calling this little photography project "Almost a Picture a Day". I'm just too absent-minded. But I did take one shot, of what's keeping me busy today, and tomorrow. I have a show coming up this weekend, and I'd like to have ten new Tea Kettle Characters done for it. Need to get some more of the gift bags sewn, too, since I had them for this show last year, and they were fairly popular.

But here's today's main workspace:

I managed to get seven of the little guys' faces painted, and start the glue-up process on those. Tomorrow, maybe I can paint the other three, and add finishing touches--buttons, fairy wings, hair, etc.

Right now, though, it's 10:20, the kitchen is a mess, thanks in no small part to the fact that tea pots, bowls, saucers, mugs, paints, and other assorted oddments are scattered on every surface but the range. I'm going to do some clean-up, and go to bed.

Good night, and God rest on your pillow.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE! (EULA & ROSIE)

More photos of the new Tea Kettle Characters:




That's all! Not much of an entry, so here's just a smidge more: My kitchen is CLEAN! Oh, bliss. And the dining room is looking a whole lot better, and both cars are actually parked IN the carport. Tomorrow I will finish the dining room, and plant all those pots of lovely plants that are patiently waiting for earthly homes.

G'night, all!

NEW: FRAN, REMY, OOLONG

It feels so good to be back! Not that I went very far, since North Plains is just about half an hour away, and I came home every evening, but being home for the day, with nowhere to rush off to is a complete bliss. I plan on doing some housework!

The Elephant Garlic Festival was good--nice people all around me, pleasant weather, and decent sales. (Is it crass to mention sales in my blog? It is the reason I do shows, and I have to say that Friday had me thinking I'd made a huge mistake. Others who'd done the show before, though, said Friday was always like that, and the weekend would make up for it, and they were right.) I even got to hear some of the bands in the Battle of the Bands, though only from a distance. I brought home plenty of garlic, too, to roast. Yay!

At some point, I realized I was quite likely to sell some of the Tea Kettle Characters I hadn't had time to photograph, and that the back wall of the tent was a pretty decent backdrop, so out came the camera. Here are the first three:

Franny

Remy

Oolong

All righty, then! It's practically the middle of the day, and all I've done is fix breakfast and this entry. It's time for an audio book (Twilight sounds good...) and a clean house!

3 LITTLE GUYS OF THE TEA POT PERSUASION

There are three little Tea Kettle Characters waiting to be introduced, all finished up just today, and one already gone to her new home! My friend Carol stopped by and fell in love with her, and with Izzy, the teeny alien teapot person. Carol left with both of them tucked into a handy cardboard box, and it's safe to say we were all smiling.

I hadn't yet named two of the characters when Carol was here, but did so when I edited their photos just now. Until Carol decides on a name for hers, I'm calling her Wren:

Wren


This is Callie:


Callie


And this is Sushi:


Sushi


I can hear you wondering what sort of name Sushi is. Her actual name is Suzanne. Sushi shortens that, while taking sideways note of a rather insouciant nature.

MORE TEA KETTLE CHARACTERS

Whoo-hoo! My mojo has rejoined me! So I did a (very) little housework, and went to an estate sale, where my dear husband surprised the heck out of me by buying a 15-foot, two-person, kayak and paddles. He's says he's always wanted to try it, and I love water. I told him if we end up not putting it to use, we can resell it. We got an extremely good deal on it.

I also painted several more Tea Kettle Characters:

Jemma

Dan

Ardith

Buddies

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HELLO TO JOAN, RALPH, & IZZY

Well, I did manage to get three of the little Tea Kettle Characters painted, though I found myself wondering at time where I'd mislaid my stamina. It'll be back tomorrow, right?

Here's Joan, who's thrilled to see spring arrive, even if she still has her chin tucked securely in her black turtleneck. Sandals is one thing. A cold neck is something else altogether.



This is Ralph, just barely old enough to grow that soul patch he's so proud of:
And a view of the top of his hat, because I like it:


Fast friends, enjoying the day, just after it poured rain in buckets, sending all the birds and squirrels to cover, and the humans goggle-eyed to the windows:


And last and least, in size at any rate, my personal favorite, the little Izzy. He's about five inches tall, and clearly not from around here:


Don't know why these photos are a bit fuzzy. My apologies there.
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