Dress Hunt

I've been on a hunt for a cute dress to wear to a friend's upcoming wedding in September. I recently found what I thought would be THE dress. The pictures online looked adorable and the price was right up my alley. Super cheap at $45!

I've noticed at many of the weddings I attend, most people are wearing dark colors, lots of black. To me, it looks like a funeral! Aren't weddings supposed to be about celebration? I understand not wanting to upstage the bride, but really, can anyone upstage the bride when she's the one in the giant bright white GOWN?

So anyways, my dress arrived and I put it on and WOW...is it ever poofy. And froufy. And...I'm wondering if it verges on FLASHY. I'm a little self-conscious now. I've had two votes saying it's not too flashy, but I don't know. Maybe I need three votes? Four? Not sure how many I need yet until I'm fine with wearing it to the wedding.



The dress is Hell Bunny brand, which I've come to learn, makes the CUTEST dresses I've ever seen. And unfortunately, it's hard to tell from the picture, but there's a bright pink tulle petticoat underneath the dress. (which is where the super-poof is coming from). I feel like a ballerina when I twirl!



Shoes shall be my next adventure.

P.S. How cute are my white-rimmed glasses? $9.95 from Zenni Optical!

wedding season

Wedding season is approaching! So I've been busily filling custom wedding topper orders and also making some basic sets for the shop. My craft area is a complete mess since I'm working on everything at once. Kind of assembly line style. I think I waste the least amount of paint that way. I'm trying to decide what the best accent color for my basic wedding sets would be to use, that would appeal to the most amount of people. Is there a most popular color? I'm thinking blue, red, and then just a black and white set. At least to start. Or maybe green? Coral? Burgundy? Sunflower?? Ok...enough of that.



I listed a WHOLE bunch of things a few days ago as well. Lots of kitty things. Pocket kitties galore and a handful of "lucky" golden kittehs. I'm hoping to get more of a color assortment with the pocket kitties soon. Just have to find the time!



Recently I finished up an "Easter" custom order and three of the Plinis in the group I made with little decorated eggs on top of their heads. I can't get over how cute they turned out! I'm excited to make more of these lil ones. Along with more "Peeps" and bunny Plinis too.



And finally, the other day I found the cutest wooden "house" at Michael's that I thought would be the perfect tiny display for my Plinis! I later saw on the label that it's actually a CD holder. But it's going to be even cuter when I paint it up like a dollhouse and use it for my figurines!
This photo really shows just how crazy cluttered my craft table is at the moment too! I can assure you that the whole table looks like this...

etsy updates!

First and foremost...

magicbeanbuyer.etsy.com

I have a variety of cupcake Plini sizes available this time!

I just finished up a custom wedding cake topper set [in record time if I do say so myself!] which included a bride, groom and two kitties. This was the first time I painted pinstripes on a groom's suit. Let me tell you...very time consuming! Plus, I'm such a perfectionist, so if just one millimeter of one of the lines was a little too thin or too thick, I had to try try try again until it was as uniform in width as I could possibly get it. I was driving myself CRAZY!

A Converse Wedding

Two weeks ago [yes, I'm slow at posting events] friends of Lou and mine got married. He was in the wedding party and I was left to fend for myself in a sea of people I didn't know...at least until the reception started. The point of my story is...I made the happy couple a wedding set as a gift. The unique part of it was the fact that all of the groomsmen wore black Converse shoes and I made sure to include that tidbit in the groom figure. I think it came out really well. And our friends were amazed that I was able to get such detail into something so incredibly small! I'm really happy that they were able to appreciate the work I put into it. You just don't know if someone is going to treasure something handmade the same way as the person who made it.







Also, at some point during the night when we were all up dancing, someone bumped into me and spilled RED WINE all down the front of my dress. It was dripping off my legs that's how much there was. As I stood there stunned, the jerk slinked away and I never saw who it was. But the funny part was literally seconds after it happened everyone around turned to me and saw me covered in red wine and then saw Lou standing there holding a reddish colored drink. The real culprit nowhere to be found, Lou was framed! And everyone yelled at him.



Almost immediately after it happened, someone ran over to me with a Tide-To-Go pen insisting it would help. I had already accepted the fact that I never again would be able to wear my favorite dress of all time. But miraculously it came out! And this was after it had been set in the dress for a good day or so [since we hadn't headed home until the following day].

cake topper madness!

Next on my neverending list of things to do is whip up some cake toppers. With everything else going on, I haven't had a chance to make any wedding cake toppers to list, aside from the custom ones I've been making for people. Originally I had five sets sculpted out, but in one brilliant and swift move I accidentally decapitated one of the grooms. So now I have 4 sets and 1 lonely bride. I'll make her a new husband soon enough and all will be well and good.



The other day one of my shipping supplies I ordered online arrived.. I was super excited. Finally..I had more shipping boxes to mail my figurines in. Unfortunately, they're a bit smaller than I had anticipated. Perhaps next time I'll actually read the dimension description thoroughly. Here I was expecting something along the lines of 4x4x4 inches and received something more like a third the size of that. I have no idea how I managed that mix up. But I DO know, that these teeny boxes are so freaking adorable that I'll find something to do with them. They're definitely way too small to use as shipping boxes.

a word about hamsters.

..well kind of. There's one in my shop! I don't know why it took me so long to get some photos going of these lil hamsters. I have two more not listed yet. Actually, I do know why it's taken me so long. My camera is insisting on throwing a temper tantrum after five or so pictures. I don't think it's a fan of the macro setting. Speaking of the macro setting...am I in the minority when it comes to knowing what the macro setting is? You know, the little tulip setting as opposed to the mountain setting on your camera? I was casually taking about it to Lou the other day and he had no idea that was what it was called.
Anyways, I think my camera needs a new rechargeable battery. I've been avoiding it because I'm lazy and don't feel like looking up the one I need. But now that it's come to the point where I actually have time to list more items, but can't because my camera won't stay alive for longer than five minutes I believe it's time to "bite the bullet" as my mom would say and get a new one.

I started making more wedding figures today as well. They're all sculpted out and ready to be painted. I'll be working on that tomorrow, along with hunting down a camera battery.

*sigh* In a perfect world...my creations would take their own pictures and list themselves.

aaack...weddings.

In response to all of my friends running off willy nilly and getting married I decided to make a figurine couple! Ok, well not exactly..but I DID get the idea to make it for a wedding gift for my friends who recently got married. Their version had green accents to match their wedding color. But the one listed in my shop has baby pink accents. I plan on making more of these one day soon. Just like everything else on my gigantic list of "things to do/make".

The Wedding Couple in Pink

avoidance is my middle name.

I'll admit it...I've been avoiding my blog for quite some time now. It's like a nagging parent reminding you that you have to clean your room. Or that book report that you have to write on that book you haven't read that's due on Monday. Basically I've been in turmoil over coming up with a new name for my Lil Dumplins. That, and I'm also moving at the end of the month. Ah yes, and the end of the month is in ONE WEEK. Lots of swirly craziness has ensued these past few weeks since my last post. Who has the time to document it all as it happens? Am I right?
My apartment is in disarray and I think it's clouding my crafting gene. I have a problem with clutter. If I see clutter, I can't think. And if I can't think, I surely can't paint cutesy tiny miniature faces on cutesy tiny figurines. So for that, I'm glad I only have a week left before the move. Then I can get back to the good stuff.
Most of my craft supplies are packed and ready to go. I didn't realize I had so much! Yarn, papers, clay, paints, boxes, ribbons, markers, pens, pencils, beads, scissors, stickers. Shall I go on? Dear lord, just thinking about moving all of this is tiring me out.

On to good things! I'm excited to report that I've chosen a name for my new figurines. Plini's. It's a spin-off of the word dumplins. They're slightly larger than the originals (for better detail!) and each one will be part of a series. Some of the series that I have brewing are the cupcake series, breakfast series, bird series and mushroom series. Each figurine will have an engraved symbol on the bottom along with my initials signifying which series they are a part of. Totally cute and totally fun! And I'll still be accepting custom orders because those are the best kind of orders!

I've also been working on a bit of a wedding present for my friends Yesenia and Neil(former roommates who moved out..which is why Lou and I are moving) who are getting married June 13th (Friday the 13th!)

I also made a second set to sell in my shop. The green accents match their wedding theme color. And I also tried to loosely base them on their actual appearance while still keeping the general style. It's been hard hiding it from them as I've been painting these little figures in the living room. But they're officially done and I can wrap them up until the wedding!

And there you have it. An update on the wonderful world of Plinis, moving and a wedding.

I expect to list my first wave of Plinis the first week of June after I've moved into my new apartment. So keep your eyeballs peeled!