On a whim I decided to send some mail to a stranger. Real authentic pen-in-hand-paper-on-the-table mail. It felt good.

Thanks to the people over at the Invisible Creature Blog, who inspired me to do something I had never done before. The challenge: send a self-addressed-stamped-envelope to them and get something (what? I don’t know!) back. Simple. Oh, and make the envelope you send it in super-cool-looking.

Easy.

Front:

Back:

Surprise!

You can send one, too, but you have to hurry!

I am a prolific maker of mixes. Always have been. I was that kid, back in 1994, with her ear glued to the boombox speaker, pressing “record” when those special songs came on the radio. Those mixes were fantastic – complete with choppy interjections from radio DJs. If I caught a song already halfway over? No problem! I recorded it anyway – I never knew when I’d be able to catch it again.

As technology improved, so did the mixing skills. CDs helped, Auido Galaxy helped even more. (Remember Audio Galaxy?) These days I make mixes all over the place, and give them out to friends like I was tossing out candy at a Memorial Day Parade.

Here’s a very special mix I am working on right now:

Today is my very-great-friend Cassie’s birthday, and I am perfecting a CD to send her for the occasion. We have a regular mix exchange, which I love – getting a CD from Cassie in the mail is like stepping through that elusive wardrobe to another world. She’s got excellent taste in tunes.

So, in the grand tradition of some of my favorite sites, like PikaLand and LesDouDoux, I will now present you with this groundbreaking glimpse into the world of a mix master.

1. Ingrid Michaelson – You and I

2. The Mae Shi – Run to Your Grave

Run to Your Grave from the mae shi on Vimeo.

3. Mirah – The Garden

4. The Kooks – She Moves in Her Own Way

5. Little Joy – Unattainable

6. Ok Go – This Too Shall Pass

7. Miriam Makeba – Pata Pata

8. Broken Bells – The High Road

9. Blitzen Trapper – Furr

10. Hockey – Too Fake

11. The Finches – Last Favor

12. Silversun Pickups – Well Thoughtout Twinkles

13. Late of the Pier – Blueberry

14. The Velvet Underground – Oh Sweet Nuthin’

15. Jason Derulo – Whatcha Say?

16. Edith Frost – Mirage

17. Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros – Home

18. Okkervil River – Unless It’s Kicks

I stumbled across this the other day online somewhere and it made me laugh.

It also reminded me of me as I have an odd preoccupation with teeny wind up toys.

It’s reminiscent of this gem from my original photo archives:

I like this one, too, taken by Jonathan McIntosh, in Boston in 2003.

Have a wonderful day!

I am falling in love with Amanda Visell. I’ll be out trolling the internets for inspiration, when I come across something like this, and think, “Wow. That is some gorgeous design.”

Then, the next day I find something else and I think, “This is amazing!” and sure enough, it’s another piece by Amanda Visell. This happened over and over until I said, “Enough!” I am officially a fan.

If you live in LA, you can see her work now at the Natural History Museum.

She also does a lot of collaborative work with Michelle Valigura. Together they make The Girls Productions. And they are cool. I want to be friends with both of them.

So what do you say, ladies? Can we be friends? Call me!

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We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming to bring this super-important-crafty-news-brief!

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I’ve been working hard on the March/April Plushteam challenge – mythology! (That’s any mythology, not just Greek or Roman.) I brainstormed Sea Serpents for a bit – the Leviathan, the Yacumama. I even whipped one up that I was sure was going to be mind-blowing.

It wasn’t.

The felt scales looked amazing – until I sewed the piece up and tried to turn it inside out. The layers were so thick that I had to pry and wrench the fabric to get it turned, and by then . . . well, it had lost its magic.

So I have to start from square one, but I’ve got a killer idea that is sure to make even my high school Latin teacher proud! It’s due by the 11th of April, so you won’t have to wait too long to see it.

My Muckety Muck Mud Puddle was featured on Etsy’s front page this week in a quirky April Fools Day Spread:

And thanks to that brief stint in the limelight, the PterodactylPants Etsy shop now has over 300 Hearts! That means that there are at least 300 people out there that loooooooove me! It’s enough to make me feel as warm and fuzzy on the inside as my maggots feel on the outside!

(Isn’t that Squid Hat the coolest?)

In other news, PterodactylPants now has over 100 followers on Twitter! Small potatoes for many, I know, but for me it’s cause to celebrate! What? You’re not a follower yet? Get your booty over there and follow my tweets! You’ve already missed me tweeting this evening about Charlton Heston’s stellar performance in The Ten Commandments! I shutter to think what other saucy tidbits you’ll miss out on if you don’t get moving.

And, as usual, I’ve been trolling the internets for inspiration and stumbled across this illustrator via Pikaland – New Giraffe City. I love this one in particular.

Well, it’s back to cutting, sewing, and stuffing for me!

So it shall be written. So it shall be done.