Super Size Saturday TastyLinks!

Oh where do the days go?  I simply don't understand how it could possibly be Saturday...again.  Sometimes I swear I've slipped into a time wrinkle and missed the entire week.  Do you ever feel like that?!

A while back I went to visit my good friend Ben Sander in NYC and we shot two fun filled Brini Maxwell webisodes together with her partner in crime Thom Hansen as the irrepressible Mary Ellen.  The second video features a recipe I found in a 1965 Better Homes and Gardens magazine.  I collect vintage paper, as many of you know, and I have a nice collection of fashion and home magazines.  I found this issue at a local antique market and when I turned to the Weiner Loaf page I fell off of my chair in hysterics.  Not simply because shoving some weenies into corn bread mix and calling it a meal was funny, but because the picture in the magazine was so horrid one wonders how the art director let it slip into the issue.  Still this wiener loaf intrigued me and I decided to whip up a batch for a family gathering two years ago.  After the initial recoil, a few brave souls dug in and I have to admit, we all found it quite tasty!  Now you can make your cornbread from scratch and you can arrange your weiners in a more artful manner and serve this with a variety of flavored mustards, but I wanted to be true to the original recipe...and so...without further blather...here's a brand new Brini Maxwell vidcast offering with yours truly showing how to make weenie loaf!  Don't miss Mary Ellen's wanton antics in the background, she's hilarious!

Don't forget about the Crafty Cabaret Cruise this September with Brini Maxwell and me!  We're going to have such fun taking classes, open studio time, two full days in the Bahamas, a cabaret show starring Brini and Madge and we've got an amazing line up of sponsors.  Beadalon, ILoveToCreate, Fiskars, Ranger Ink, Create Your Style with CRYSTALLIZED-Swarovski Elements, Sizzix, Scrapbook Adhesives...and more to come!  

Vickie Howell is doing a month long giveaway in her blog for her fabulous new book CraftCorps and today I'm the featured crafter! Leave a comment in her blog for a chance to win a signed copy of Beyond the Bead and a generous sampling of metal pendant frames from HHH Enterprises!


I had a most interesting week.  It feels good to have reached a point where people value your professional opinions.  Lord knows I've got a lot of them and I'm not afraid to share!  It's easy to forget when you're toiling away all by your lonesome in your studio that you're making an impact and you're building a name for yourself and people do pay attention to you.  It's a one woman show here at Studio Madge, some days I swear I hear carnival music in the background.  


Without further ado, here are this week's links from the crafty gurus in the Crafty Bloggers Gang:


About Family Crafts 
If you cannot wait for April showers to bring May flowers, here is a collection of flower crafts you can make now. 


Aileen's Musings 
Back in November Aileen posted about an Erosion Bundle Project she's participating in....yesterday she opened her bundles after 5 months! Stop by and see her after pictures...


Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world 
Craftside's got a great tutorial on how to sew tie style straps, a peek at how to turn ideas into inspired design, identifying different types of metal, a thread painting tip, a lace detail and a bit of ballerina brilliance from the hot new book Mixed-Media Dollhouses. 


Crafty Princess Diaries 
Knitters will be happy they know the Crafty Princess after finding out about this great 40% off deal on the new book entitled In the Loop. 


Margot Potter The Impatient Crafter 
Madge reviews metal clay artist Kate McKinnon's amazing new book Sculptural Metal Clay Jewelry. 


Mixed Media Artist 
Duotones can give a whole different look to your photos than plain black and whites! 


Stefanie Girard's Sweater Surgery 
Check out my summer knitting project from Toe-Up Socks for Every Body by Wendy D. Johnson 


The Artful Crafter 
How to make an envelope book for little treasures or clutter. 



The Crochet Dude 
Drew reorganized his garden this spring using squares, and the results are fantastic! 

A Window into Madge's World

Madge waits, demurely, for her next adventure. Photo copyright Avalon Potter
Madge says, "Bring it on, baby." Photo Copyright Avalon Potter

Today, if you'll indulge me, I'd like to write. I'm running out of free projects to share...so I'm going to share some of what I do every day. I think there's immense value to folks who think they'd like to do what I do to see that...it's a lot harder than it looks...and it's much like being on a tightrope without a net...including the circus costumes if you're me.

I lost the part time job that pays a fair share of our bills recently and it's put immense amounts of pressure on me. I'm still 'employed', but I have to wait until a new position opens up. Since there are only a smattering of these positions, it could be a long wait. I'm not sure how long we can afford for me to wait...so in the interim I'm ramping up my efforts here at Studio Madge. If you're one of the many companies that reads my blog...please feel free to contact me to discuss possibilities. (She says without an ounce of shame.)

I've had a concept for a book series in mind for a while now and I've finally forged ahead with the proposal for the first title. I'm very excited to report that so far it's being met with excitement from the publisher. This would be a departure for me. Actually it would be less of a departure and more of an expansion or maybe it would be more aptly described as a tangential pathway. I can't clue you into what it's all about because I have to sell it first and then write it and then wait for the publishing date to approach so that I can finally spill the beans. I can say that it's bigger than a bread box and it's also bigger than my current focus. It's kinda like taking everything I've done in my lifetime and mixing it all up in a pot and saying...Stew's ready!

Yeah, it's like that. I think it's a mighty tasty stew, too.

I've also been working on scoring a TV show. I have some good folks working with me, so I'm confident it will happen eventually. It's tough right now because no one wants craft shows. The old model is broken, but we knew that already. No one wants to see the same host/guest/project format. It needs to be mixed up and given a new life. I don't really want to do just crafting...I want to be more of a Lifestyle Expert...but with a big twist. I'd like to think of myself as Julia Child with a glue gun or a slightly irregular Martha. I'm not afraid of showing the seams, making messes, being bold...and I want to inspire women to break out of their normal routine and try something outrageous. So...that's the plan. I'm getting closer. I know with absolute certainty that it's my destiny. It's what I do best and no one else is doing it like I would.

Speaking of Martha, I applied to be a guest on her show yesterday again. I don't have any formal 'in' so I just go to the website periodically and fill out the form. It's a total shot in the dark. What the hell. I think Martha and I would be funny together. We're totally different yet similar enough that I think we could find common ground. I really want to show Martha how to make jewelry properly. I keep seeing jewelry projects in her magazine and the instructions are...well...how do I put this delicately...incorrect. I know how much she likes doing things excellently and I'd love to show her how. So if you're connected to Martha and you read this blog, please don't hesitate to sing my praises. (She says without an ounce of shame.)

We are forging ahead with Beads and the City! Madge is taking you to NYC and we're going to bead shop until we drop! May 13-16th 2010. I will have info for signing up very soon. We can only bring 30 people, so the spaces will be limited. Also if you're interested in our Crafty Cabaret Cruise, please consider signing up. It's a small deposit and small monthly payments and you can elect to cancel up until three months before the ship sails and get a full refund. If you wait too long, we won't know how many people to plan for...

So my little Smurflings...along with the multitudes of other projects and deadlines I've got on my roster...you can see my work is cut out for me. My studio currently looks as if it's been attacked by a Tasmanian devil and I simply don't have time to stop and tidy it up. I've got largish rabbits to pull out of smallish hats and no time to stop and clean. Messes be damned...my muse is in the house!

Until next time...craft on with your bad selves.

xoxo
Madge

Three Big Things!

Copyright Margot Potter 2009 Butterfly for Houston Museum Holocaust Project
Copyright Avalon Potter 2008 Butterfly for Houston Museum Holocaust Project

So much to share, so little time! Eek! I have three big things to share today.

First I wanted to let everyone know we are nailing down the details of the Beads and the City trip for August 13-16th 2009 and the Crafty Cabaret Southern Caribbean Cruise for October 9-17th 2010. As soon as I have links to the sign up info online, I’ll post them here along with details about both trips! I hope you can make it!
Secondly I received my Create Your Style with CRYSTALLIZED™-Swarovski Elements Ambassador kit on Wednesday afternoon. Calloo callay! I am one of 21 designers who have worked with the CYSWCSE brand as teachers and consultants and were invited to become official ambassadors. A few folks asked for a sneak peek, so here is a little of what I got. I also received bead mats, a Create Your Style color wheel, the ginormous catalog, a look book for Spring/Summer 2010, a jaunty mouse pad and educational materials. As always, impeccably presented. I’m so honored to be among such a talented group of designers and to be an ambassador for a brand in which I wholeheartedly believe. Plus...we all know how much I love to sparkle. Here’s a little sneak peek at some of my kit.

My daughter and I worked on butterflies for the Houston Museum Holocaust project. You can see our finished designs above. We both used Tim Holtz™’s Grungeboard Elements, CRYSTALLIZED™-Swarovski Elements and Ranger paints to make these vibrant three dimensional butterflies. Avalon did a stellar job, I love the colors she picked! I followed her pop art vibrant color lead.

The Houston Museum is attempting to collect 1.5 million handcrafted butterflies for a display that represents the 1.5 million children who died in the Holocaust. My dear friend and gifted poly clay artist Michelle Zimmerman asked me to participate. Her father is a Holocaust survivor. Everyone is invited to join the cause and I truly hope if you’re an artist or even if you’re not, you’ll consider making a butterfly and sending it to the museum. If you’ve never read the poems written by the children of the concentration camps, you should. They are deeply moving and viscerally powerful. It is my hope that one day we will live in a world where this sort of thing is impossible. Unfortunately, we’re not there yet.

Here is the poem that inspired this project. Amazing.

I Never Saw Another Butterfly

The last, the very last
So richly, brightly, dazzlingly yellow.
Perhaps if the sun’s tears would sing against a white stone....

Such, such a yellow
Is carried lightly ’way up high.
It went away I’m sure because it wished to kiss the world good-bye.

For seven weeks I’ve lived in here,
Penned up inside this ghetto.
But I have found what I love here.
The dandelions call to me
And the white chestnut branches in the court.

That butterfly was the last one.
Butterflies don’t live in here, in the ghetto.

Pavel Friedman, June 4, 1942
Born in Prague on January 7, 1921.Deported to the Terezin Concentration Camp on April 26, 1942. Died in Aushchwitz on September 29, 1944

Finally if you posted about internet piracy and copyrights this week, send me your link so I can do a link round up for tomorrow. Thank you very much for your participation!

Love,
Margot