Hello all!  This is so exciting!  I did my first interview a little while ago, and it’s now up and for your viewing pleasure at The Curious Pug.  Now, you can get to know me, the ‘artist’ behind Janie XY,  a little better.  :)  And if you don’t want to get to know me (it’s okay, I won’t take it too personally), then go to the blog anyway.  Lots of great articles and cute stuff!!

I guess that would come out to be real time, but that’s how I’m feeling right now.  Things on the store front are a little slow, but I’ve got all sorts of things in February coming up, including sending my toys out to a few stores and selling at my first farmer’s market.

It’s now the last week of January, which means that I really gotta step on making some inventory, but I don’t know why I’ve been moving so slow.  Well, whatever glue is holding me back, I have to start getting a move on things because February is only a few days away!!  And I’d like to have some sleep (unlike the time before Unique LA–I was running on about 4-5 hours of sleep a day, yet somehow still had lots of enery!).

Well, here’s a little milestone for me…I now have 100+ fans on my Facebook Fan Page.  Let’s shoot for another 100 by the end of February!  So if you haven’t already become  a fan, please do so now.  :)  Click here to join!

There’s nothing quite like getting a scoop of ice cream or soft serve from your local ice cream shop.  My personal favorite for taste and economical reasons is Rite Aid’s ice cream.  (If you haven’t had it yet, you’re missing out.  I think all their flavors are awesome!  But I usually go for black cherry, coconut pineapple, cookies n cream, rainbow sherbert… ok, I go for all of them! lol At about $1 a scoop, how can you not?)

When I’m hungry, I think of ice cream.  When I’m bored, I sketch ice cream. When I’m happy/sad, I get ice cream.  So, when I was itching to make a new plushie toy, it only seemed natural that I whipped up some soft serve.  So, here it is, in Vanilla, Strawberry, and Chocolate.  It’ll be available in the store as soon as I get a decent picture out of it.

Today is Day 1 of my Paper N Stitch exhibit.  It’s the first time I’ve been a part of something like this and it’s really exciting!  It’s kind of crazy seeing my toys up with other great artists–the kind that I admired about 6 months ago and never thought I’d get to be a part of.  It’s amazing to see the progress I’ve been lucky to receive in the past few months.  What a great start off to the new year!

Check out my exhibit here. And don’t forget to leave comments.

Ah, the wonders of social networking.  Over the past few months, Sandy from DigUnderRocks.com and I have been following each other’s tweets.  I don’t remember the origins of who started it, but at this point, who cares?  She’s a fellow Angeleno crafter and a super sweet person I might add!  We’ve just teamed up to host a giveaway on her awesome blog.  It’s sooo easy to join, there really is no reason for you not to.  All you have to do is leave a comment on this post saying what your favorite Janie XY toy is (I know, it’ll be so tough because they’re all so darn cute lol) as well as your favorite picture of a cat.  You have until Thursday, January 14 at 7:00 pm PST (just in case you’re in Hawaii and get disappointed that you’re a little too late for the competition) and we’ll be choosing a winner at random.  If you’re chosen, you tell me which color cat you want (that’s a choice of gray, orange, or pink) and I ship it over to you.

Now, if you’re worried about telling your friends because you want to minimize the competition, you never know, I may be feeling extra generous come 7:00 pm PST on Thursday and depending on the number of comments end up giving away more than one cat.  But really, that’s up to you.

Also, while you’re at Sandy’s blog, check out her store!  Awesome jewlery… perfect for Valentine’s Day.  Eh? Eh?  *I’m nudging you with my elbow right now*

By the way, if you aren’t already, follow me on Twitter and become a fan of my Facebook page.

Living in SoCal, you don’t see much weather variation.  Sunny, cloudy, sunny with one cloud in the sky, drizzle, sunny… You get the idea.  I’m not complaining here.  It’s postcard weather everyday.  But, once in a while, I crave a white winter, so for the past 3 or 4 years, I’ve been heading up to Big Bear for a weekend to get some fresh air, freeze my behind, and slip on some ice.  2010 will be no exception.  So you won’t see me here for a few days, but I’ll be back Sunday night ready for more sewing and blogging.  Until next time!

Oh, and whether you’d like to see them or not, I will be posting pictures!  lol.  (If I remember to…)

Valentine’s day is fast approaching and I thought that plushies would make a great gift for your loved ones.  You’re probably going to get  a stuffed teddy for your Valentine anyway, so why not make it special with a Janie XY creation?  I still have a little tweaking to do on this little guy, but he should be up and ready for sale by next week.  

That little pink thing on the right is a heart and the white thing behind him on the left is this little tail with a heart at the end.  Lots of love going around here.

Now this isn’t something I normally obsess over. I guess I’m more about the feedback and sales, but if you’re not familiar with Etsy, they have a feature where you can “heart” a store. Before Unique LA, I reached about 70 hearts, then on Christmas Eve, Etsy blogged about me and I skyrocketed to 160 hearts. Just about 2 weeks later, I’ve finally reached 200 hearts!! Boy, it feels good.

I especially have an appreciation for them when they’re handmade… by someone other than me. My awesome friend, Sarah, made this Yeti for me after I told her that I’ve found a new appreciation for them after I watched an episode of Monster Quest. They’re pretty cool.. And because my friend is so cool, I’m naming this Yeti, Sarah.

Sarah (the person) is a hobby crafter so she doesn’t sell her creations, but I’m pretty sure that if I saw this little guy, I would buy it… *hint hint* Sarah…

So, meet Sarah (The Yeti)!

It’s hard for me to drive around town and not see festive Piñatas hanging outside a party supply shop, or lining the perimeter of our local grocery store. So, it seemed only natural that my next toy be a plushie Piñata.

It’s not ready to go on sale yet, I still got a few kinks to work out (including production time–I clocked in about 2 hours making this. It’s all that fringe!) but you can count on this little going up for sale very soon. What do you think?