A few weeks ago I headed south to Columbus, Ohio, for the Craftin’ Outlaws Spring Fling show.  I had been to Columbus a few years ago, for a food safety conference* and thought it would be fun to go back.  And it was!  The week(s) leading up were a lot of work – we are making all the frames now and it offers a ton of flexibility, but when you’re tired and just want to go buy a frame, that’s not an option.  If you decide on Thursday night that you need more 7×7 frames, you talk your fella into whipping up a few extras!  And when you run out of black paint at 11pm, you invent a new version of the frame, the “Natural” frame.  Which actually turned out really nicely and now I’m going to continue making them.  A little sanding, a little varnish…  perfecto!  The show was great – I saw some familiar faces like Jodi Lynn’s Emporium of Doodles (she did an amazing job on the DUCF Poster this last year) and met a lot of great new artists and crafters, including my awesome neighbors, The Lab Partners.  We came home with goodies from Joe Ryckebosch from Portland, OR and AJW Creations from Beaver, PA.  Also dug some scienc-y goodies from Pittsburgh artists New Alchemy Press and picked up some amazing stuff from Kate Funk of Milwaukee.    

Everyone was really nice and I met Miriam Chon, who is opening a new studio – Shift Studios in Westerville, OH.  I’m excited to announce that she’ll be carrying pillbug designs stuff in her new shop!  WOOHOO!  Tomorrow I will entrust UPS with some bluebird pants, frog pants, cardinal pants, robin pants and ruby-throated hummingbird pants!  

They have another show in November, so I may just be going to Columbus again!  

The Lab Partners

  AJW Creations

Joe Ryckebosch

*The food safety conference really was amazing – I swear!  It was like a convention of health inspectors.  For several years I had a weird dream of becoming a Health Inspector but they changed some rules (that year, actually! at the conference!) about requiring a college degree in a “hard” science.  “Soft” sciences need not apply, so I didn’t.  One other cool thing about the conference was that there were caterers doing demos and the chefs were wearing “incredible edible egg” aprons.  You know that ad, the one with the slender hand holding the egg?  I sweet-talked a chef and got an apron for my fella.  He wears it frequently!