Butterfly

I still get butterflies in my stomach when I think about how this one time, not too long ago, I owned my own brick and mortar handmade gift shop called Daft Crafts. 

It was the most amazing experience of my life and I can't wait to revisit it. Daft was only open one year before we had to close due to a death in my family, my aunt's kidneys failing, and my own breast cancer scare. We were going to move back home to SC to be with my family during that trying time, but then our car fell apart and we had to use all of our savings repairing it, and two years later here we are, still in Missouri. 

That was a rough patch, the roughest of patches I've ever went through, but I chose to bloom where I was planted & boy, I guess all that crap was just amending the soil because I am blooming like crazy now. ♥ Life is oh so good here now, in our cozy little home with my little family! I'm blessed with so many wonderful friends and I am so thankful that my little monster biz is thriving!

One day, in the next few years, I would truly love to revisit Daft Crafts as a gift shop but for now, I've converted that dream into a blog full of businessy goodness and tips, tricks and tools of the trade and marvelous meet the maker interviews, hoping it can bring as much joy to other makers through it's cheerful, enlightening content as it always has to me. ♥

Paint pARTy!

If you follow me on Twitter you have already seen these photos (if you don't follow me on Twitter, you should!) but I just had to show off my latest non-sewing art project! I spent Saturday morning playing de Blob and got super inspired to paint something crazy-colorful, so I went straight to the garage and grabbed my favorite display piece from Daft Crafts, cleaned it off and set to work!
 

Let's get this pARTy started!

Just getting started, one coat and some primer

3/4 finished! Needs 2-3 more coats of color and to finish be trimmed in black

Finished!

Here is my logo, where I drew color inspiration from!

Sorry about the whack picture quality, I used instagram and the lighting was weird. Isn't this going to make SUCH a fun display piece with my Mon-stors on it at craft shows? I have other pieces from Daft Crafts I am going to tackle and convert to team Lu & Ed colors too! I don't have any shows booked currently, so if you know of any in the SC area, let me know! :)

Daft is Closing, But Not Dying

*sadface* Only two days left until the closing of Daft Crafts, the brick and mortar store that we own.

Exterior before

Exterior Dafter

Interior before

Interior Dafter

It's going to be a busy two days. We are having a huge going out of business sale, selling displays, meeting the new shop owners (They are opening a handmade boutique in our location, so at least it is continuing to bring handmade joy to the neighborhood!) and artists will be stopping in to pick up their merchandise. On Thursday, we will box up everything left and ship it back to the artists, with final checks. Then cleaning out the shop and removing the left over furniture. It's all very bitter sweet, remembering all the hard work that went into it, all the fun times and great memories at the shop.

Me, my kidlet and Jessica playing dress up!

Soap making classes were always a riot

If you never visited Daft, you don't know about that toilet

Tie dying was always a huge hit at Daft!

 But instead of allowing the Daft Crafts dream (to offer unique art at affordable prices, and an affordable venue with unrivaled exposure for artists), I have decided to grow it into something else! The Daft Crafts Facebook and Daft Crafts blog will remain active, and function as art advocacy and an art business resources. We will promote artists, provide indie business resources, and also an epic outlet for Midwest artists!

I am working with Debbie Luttrell, long time Daft Crafts vendor, even longer artist and event coordinator, to coordinate a large indie event called Daft Crafts Show!

While still very loose in the planning, Debbie and I have so many ideas and a great event outline already! A large indoor/outdoor two day event with poi (fire) spinners, a drum tribe, live music, free craft stations to experiment with new mediums, local bakeries selling yummy cupcakes and goodies, and dozens of artisans and indie designers! Swag bags with merchandise and coupons from the vendors and businesses that sponsor the show, raffles, and games! Face painting, Henna art, and more!

So far we are planning tentatively for May or June of 2013 for Kansas City's first Daft Crafts Show! It will be held in Independence, Missouri, where Daft Crafts was born. Since we are relocating to South Carolina and will be back to visit at least once a year in Missouri, I figure why not make it a really big deal!?

I am very excited about this! It's going to be a grand event, and a lot of fun to plan with Debbie! :) Not much actual planning can be done until closer to the event, but as we begin the process of securing a location, booking artists and entertainment, and developing media for the event I will share with all of you! ♥ As always, thank you for supporting me in my monster making, and my crazy and ambitious dreams! You guys are amazing!

And the winner of Ralph is....

First off, thank you guys so much for your participation in this raffle! We were able to raise $110 for Camp Encourage! FANTASTIC! You guys seriously rock so much! Thank you all for your donations and support. It's been such an honor working with this organization, and we had a blast at Alpacas for Autism's Fall Festival we attended this weekend in Adrian. Here are a few pictures from the event that I thought you guys might like! ^_^

Jules manning the Daft Crafts/Lu & Ed booth!

Some info about Alpacas

View of the pastures!

Feeding the alpacas!

I love their hair 'dos!

'Sup?

And here is the part you've been waiting on.. The winner of this guy!

 

And here is the name my lovely fiance, Trace, drew at random while blindfolded... duh-duh-dun! 

Congratulations, Becca! I will be mailing our Ralph tomorrow!! ^_^ Yippie!

Also, a ginormous thank you is in order to all of our fans who made donations! ♥

Thank you to:

Lisa Y

John B

Jaime R

Kayla K

Katie K

Leighann M

Abby N

Telah

Megean K

Roni B

Chrissy

Norma D

Lu H

Danielle M

Becca B

Thank you all so much for your donations! You guys all rock so much! And to celebrate what a great success this raffle was, use code "Alpaca" anytime before Oct. 31st to get 10% off your purchase!

I have kept a secret for far too long

I am terrible at keeping secrets. Honestly, just terrible. I guess you could say my lips are a bit loose or maybe even make it sound like a cool character trait, like believing in the free flow of all information, if you want. No matter how you word it I have just never liked keeping things from people. But this time I felt it was necessary to protect the integrity of Lu & Ed and everything I had worked so hard for. I didn't want anyone to even speculate that I had even lost a sliver of my dedication to this monster making madness that I call my job. I love what I do. I am passionate about it, and I made the decisions recently in the best interest of Lu & Ed, and all my monster loving fans. Most people would probably start the next paragraph with "I thought long and hard about this before I decided..." but not me.

I decided I wanted to open a local brick and mortar store. Less than two weeks later I sat outside in the rain on E Lexington Ave waiting to view a store front right off Main St that was for lease. Less than a week later, I'm planning the grand opening event to take place in July.

It has all flown together so fast. It's exhilarating! I have known the name of this store for years, and had a vision for this store for even longer. Daft Crafts will be a colorful shop filled with amazing, off-the-wall handmade merchandise geared towards punky young adults and parents. As a 20-something mom, this will be the shop I always dreamed existed but never did. I'm so excited to have vendors such as Shear Nonsense with furry hats galore, Kamikaze Kreations with duct tape creations, JB Baby with up cycled clothing, Quilted Callings with amazing quilts(these aren't your grandma's quilts, guys!), Karma Crochet with fun tile pendants and button pins, Melli's Trinkets with unique beaded jewelry, and many more. I love their creations and can't wait to be surrounded by them and sharing them with everyone else!

Now let me address the top three questions I've had since beginning to release the news about the store:

Yes, I will still be making monsters. I am going to be taking my machine into the shop with me to work on orders and stock monsters during down time, and still working on them when I'm at home! I could never stop making monsters!

Lu & Ed monsters and Mon-stors will still be available in my online store, though I am going to be focusing primarily on selling local! I won't be promoting as much online anymore. I love all my online fans and I will always provide you guys with monstery awesomeness, but I am spending too much time online every day trying to make sales! That's time I could be sewing more of these guys for you, or spending time with my kid and fiance. Even workaholics like me have priorities. :)

I will keep selling my monsters at Scrivner's in Leavenworth, KS as well as in Daft Crafts in Independence, MO. If you are local and you haven't checked out Scrivner's yet, you should. :)

I hope that clears up any confusion, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask me! :) I will keep you updated on news about Daft Crafts, but if you want day by day updates be sure to fan our page on Facebook. :)