Happy 2009, Everyone!

I hope everyone has had an excellent start to the new year! The dust has settled after a whirlwind 5 weekends of vending in different cities. Many thanks to Mike Jacobsen for building my gorgeous honeycomb diaplays. They make setup easier, and they are the perfect home for the animals.

We're starting the new year off right for Zooguu - and that means getting organized. I'm preparing for more wholesale orders, and I selected my 20 favorite animals to focus on. So, step one is done!

Step two is to make sure I have a thick cardstock pattern made of every one of those animals in all of my size offerings: ornament, small, medium, large and extra large. Every pattern piece needs to be printed, cut out and placed in a corresponding envelope and labeled. I'm about 1/5 of the way done!

Step three is to make every animal in every size so they can be photographed. Brian is helping a lot by working with me every day to trace and cut these little (and sometimes huge) guys. I wanted to share the latest creation with you all: The first extra large fugu!


Along with getting organized in 2009, comes a long list of other things that I need to keep up with. These include blogging more, making more activities, updating zooguu.com, and an exciting new project I'm going to announce in a post very soon. :) Stay tuned!

Interview with Chic Galleria

Beth Anderson interviewed me this weekend for her site, Chic Galleria. Read the interview here.

Zooguu.com Launched

My new web site has officially launched! You can see the calendar of events, showcasing dates and locations where I'll be vending this holiday season, a free tutorial (more to come), an online shop, a chance to win a free stuffed animal (one drawing every month) by signing up for the newsletter, and a new feature called The Incubator. When a new product is coming out, a date will be posted on an Incubator Egg. Check back on that day to see the egg hatch to reveal the newest Zooguu! Check zooguu.com tomorrow, Nov. 14 to see what the first one will be.

Can you find me in this picture?

Happy Halloween week, everyone!
Gubicza and I were vending at South End Open Market's annual Halloween Market. I love Halloween because I get to make cool costumes! Gubicza was a giant version of his office monster illustration (you can see the monster head on the table, because he's taking the photo).
Here's a photo of one of the foam heads in progress:

Beelzebone - Art Doll - Special Edition

The newest, coolest devil-skeleton to hit the shop!

Beelzebone was designed by Brian and made by me.
Lots of work and love went into making this Halloween friend.

You can also download a free paper toy version here:

SoWA Open Studios This Weekend!

I'll be in Boston, MA this weekend at the South End Open Market. Come check out Open Studios in the South End and be sure to stop by my tent and say hi!

Finalist in Etsy's Handmade Kids Contest

I'm thrilled to be selected as a finalist in Etsy's Handmade Kids Contest.
My products made it in three categories:

Toys - Fat Fugu
Eco Friendly - Fat Lion
Home Decor - Monster Pillow

Please help by casting your vote for sweetestpea!

Good Morning America!

My XL fat penguin made an appearance on Good Morning America yesterday! Tory Johnson was on the show talking about how to make money working from home. The main star of the Etsy portion of the segment was Chanel (aka junkprints) who was also featured in the New York Post related print article this week. My penguin seemed pretty proud of himself sitting on the table, though. :)

Thanks to Etsy user craftsfromtheheart for hunting down the video!

Announcement: Brooklyn, NY

Some of you may have already heard the news, but I need an official announcement with pictures to prove it.

Gubicza and I moved to Brooklyn, NY to build my stuffed animal business. I'll still be working for Big Blue Dot remotely, but I have a studio space to call my own. We share a large warehouse space with many other talented artists: DesiraPesta, Junkprints, RuffeoHeartsLilSnotty, LedThread, Reiter8, Moon Tree Press, CubistLiterature, Misery&CoNYC, Mike Jacobsen, Tough Dumplin Studios and Rob Kalin (Rokali).

Here are some photos of my new space. If I lean my head out the window, I can see the Statue of Liberty. How cool is that?

Fat Crab - It's Summertime!

My newest custom order -- fat crab! Made with red faux suede and shown with embroidered eyes. This little guy is silly when he stands up on his legs. It's great that you can pose him in different ways.