NYC and TastyLinks Monday!

Well folks...I survived NYC! We had a great time shooting videos with Ben Sander (aka Brini Maxwell) at his charming apartment. Mary Ellen joined the fun and I think the videos are going to be super cute. I'll post them here when they go live. Ben took us to the fabulous Rosa Mexicana restaurant for dinner, but we got deluged on the way back to the car. My hair met an untimely death and it never quite recovered! We had to blow dry our shoes so we could wear them the next day!

As fortune would have it, we stayed across the street from a huge flea market in Chelsea, so I scored some fun new ephemera, a small smattering of vintage watches and a pair of vintage Foster Grant sunglasses. Ah...nothing gets me happier than a flea market...even if this one was seriously overpriced! I think I did better in Paris!

We met my old friend Scott Long for lunch on Sunday. We used to be in a 'cowpunk' band together in the early 80s called Big Hair and he's been doing concert promotions in NYC for the past few years. It was great to catch up. It's so fascinating where life can take you if you're willing to be open to the possibilities. Scott's a very cool dude.

The Michaels' event was amazing. There were lines stretching back into the aisles and a zillion people working at the store. I had five or six helpers and a special handler named Angel who made me feel like a Crafty Rock Star. Seriously! Folks were patiently waiting to do the make it/take its so we stayed an extra half an hour. There were still people working on the earrings when we left to battle Manhattan traffic and head home. I can't thank the fine folks from Michaels Manhattan enough! What a wonderful experience...and the store is gorgeous!

Here's what the fine folks from When Creativity Knocks have for your craftertainment this week! Make a fun Rocket Card in this video with Sharon Jankowicz.

Here is this week's sampling of TastyLinks and I'll be back tomorrow with the final installment of Terrorific Tuesday:

The Artful Crafter Make a pretty fall triple wreath wall hanging for your own wall or as a housewarming gift. With a little imagination, you can adapt the design for Christmas or just about any other occasion/season.

Stefanie Girard's Sweater Surgery Polymer Clay Candy Corn Beads Hot out of the Oven made using a "recipe" from the book The Polymer Clay Cookbook

Mixed Media Artist Do you have a signature style? Cyndi wants to know what it is and wants to help you show it off!

Farm Girl Roots, City Girl Style Linda revisits a quilt she made a while back.

Crafty Princess Diaries Diggity Doggity, the crocheted dog blanket is done!

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world At Craftside there is a free cross stitch pattern, a downoadable label and idea for a spooky Halloween decoration and some wild pumpkins, a sneak peek into the new book What is Illustration?, how to sew gathers and ruffles and finally a fun question to be answered to be entered to win a free craft book.

Cathie Filian Make a warm mug of Chai Tea at home with this traditional recipe from Cathie.

Aileen's Musings This week Aileen offers a free pumpkin label for you to download and print. Also, a very cool photo manipulation site, so gather your favorite pictures and have some fun!

About Family Crafts Sherri offers several free pumpkin carving patterns for you to download and use!

The Impatient Crafter Madge scares up another fiendishly fabulous mixed media design for Halloween!

Busy Busy!

Image Copyright Enoch Bolles

I had a busy day yesterday with a photo shoot and a ton of errands to run. I'm off this morning to NYC to visit Brini Maxwell and tape two segments for her NPR video podcast. Then on Sunday I'll be at the brand new super fabulous Michael's store in Manhattan (808 Columbus Avenue at 97th Street) to sign books and host a fun make it/take it. I have been so busy, I haven't had time to stop and blog or post any projects...but I've got something fun for you on Monday.

Until then...craft on with your bad selves!

xoxo
Madge

Madge's Monday Updates!

(Thanks to John Fritzinger at Beadalon for taking this shot!)

Here's a sneak peek at the earrings you can make with me at Michaels Manhattan next Saturday October 25th! (I'll also offer a floral design.) I'll be signing copies of my best selling first book The Impatient Beader and assisting folks with this fun Make it/Take it! Big thanks to Beadalon, Fiskars, Ranger, Tim Holtz, Krylon and iLoveToCreate for donating materials. I'm super excited! Plus I'm really glad I found a use for the huge bag of plastic flies I got at Five Below. Tee hee.

I would add a chain with a big plastic spider on each earring, but I was thinking subtle.

Har har.

While we're in NYC we're also going to be filming a two part segment with my friend Brini Maxwell for her NPR Podcast videos. As soon as that goes live, I'll let you know! I'm really excited!

Speaking of Brini...we're retooling the Crafty Cabaret Caribbean cruise to make it shorter and less expensive. As soon as that's arranged, I'll provide the link here. We're still planning on Fall of 2010. I'm also finalizing the details on Beads and the City May 13-16th 2010! So stay tuned for the 411!

I'll be back tomorrow with Terrorific Tuesdays. Until then, craft on with your bad selves.

xoxo
Madge

One Degree from Martha

Hey looky lou! Click on the image above to see! That's l'il me on a big ol' flyer for the Grand Opening of the new Michael's Manhattan! Check it out! And if you inspect further you will see that my meticulously cut out image is located one degree away from the doyenne of all things domestically divine, Ms. Martha Stewart!

Oh yeah, I'm near Martha! Smell me!

Uh, on second thought, maybe that's not such a great idea. How about you just say, "YAY!"

Who cares if Martha and I are polar opposites. We both love cooking, crafting, decorating, entertaining (okay so I don't do that so much but I still love it in theory) and having exotic chickens. So we've got all that in common! That and we're both going to be at the Grand Opening of the new Michael's Manhattan, albeit on different days. Oh and if that wasn't enough to get your knickers in a flurry, Ed Roth of Stencil 101 will be there and so will Megan Nicolay of Generation T...and the delightful Michael's spokeswoman Ms. Jo Pearson all on the same day before Martha arrives. I feel like a Crafty Rock Star!

Maybe Martha will sit in the same chair I do! Maybe I should leave her a hand calligraphied note taped to the bottom of the chair in a pretty repurposed vintage glass jar with a handcrafted label made from old book pages and my Cricut Expression. Maybe she'll see my smiling face on this fabulous flyer (that has my name spelled wrong but that's okay...) and she'll say to herself, "Gee Martha, who is this fascinating and enigmatic Margo(t) Potter person and why haven't we had her on the show yet? Hey there assistant minion person, get on this stat!"

Maybe her producers will call me and invite me on to show Martha how to open and close a jump ring, make a fun Teen themed craft and whip up a delicious low fat multi-grain macaroni and cheese followed by the two of us singing a duet of Let Us Craftertain You! Then we'll go shopping for designer shoes at Barney's followed by a nosh at a posh restaurant.

After that I'm sure I'll get Martha's private cell phone number and we'll text each other cool craft ideas every day! She'll be my new BFF! Or maybe my new frenemy...how do you spell that anyway?

Oh the possibilities! Oh the excitement! Oh frabjous day, calloo callay! I'm one degree from Martha!

If you're in Manhattan on October 25th, please stop by Michaels between 4 and 5pm and say howdy. I'll be demoing fun mixed media jewelry making ideas and you can see a host of other great demos while you're there. Oh and if you know Martha, do tell her Madge said, "Hi!"

xoxo
Madge