Ashley Anna Brown / Fern Animals

It's finally finished!

After weeks and weeks of working out the details of this custom order, I have finally finished this little Fern Animal - with a fully removable hooded suit! I can't even believe it! It was incredibly difficult, due to its size. But, alas, here it is! To see more pictures of this special little one, please visit my Flickr.

YAY!

I have already received lots of custom order requests, and I am really excited about all of them! Everyone seems to be digging deep into the archives and asking for animals that I haven't made in months, some even well over a year! Thank you so much! I am going to get started right away!

Do me a favor... and I'll make you something

So, I don't like to ever talk about money issues on here because, well, who wants to here about bills and such? But, Justin and I finally found the most perfect apartment in Northampton, and can move in as soon as two weeks from now! The glitch is that we need some more money to pay for it. So here's what I am thinking...

I am finally going to accept custom orders again! For two weeks only! Email me your request, we'll discuss it back and forth a bit to make sure we've got it right, I'll send you an invoice, you'll pay, and I'll mail out your new special little one within two weeks. What do you think? Any kind of animal you want, any color, any material combination, you name it, I'll make it (within some kind of reason of course - please don't ask me to make a specific animal that I have never made before - like a giraffe or elephant - this would take much longer than two weeks to design and get right.)

Okay. So that's that. You think about it, look through my archives of animals that I have previously made, send me an email, and we'll get started! ashleyannabrown(a)gmail.com.


This is a commission order I completed back in January, just as an example.

Ribbons and Bows

I've been working on some new little animals this week and will be posting lots of cute little ones tomorrow afternoon. There will be at least one fawn/lamb (the white one pictured), suits with collars and little bows, and even some antlers and beards!  

Here are three bird bodies, awaiting their wings and beaks and legs. They will be there, too! And some more little strawberries! It is an absolutely beautiful day here today - bright blue skies over a green green mountain. I hope you have managed to get outside at least a little today. I kept finding excuses for myself to go out for little walks. My Etsy shop post will be tomorrow, Friday July 11th at 2pm EST. See you there!

Strawberries

Happy 4th! I hope you are enjoying the day off! It's cloudy here, and promising rain and possibly thunderstorms, so I don't think there'll be much of a chance to see fireworks tonight. But I am having a nice day inside just the same.

I've been sewing up some new birds and listing a few things as well. In my shop I have added three little strawberries and a grey and blue bird.

My next official shop update will be either Thursday or Friday. Check back here early next week for the specific time. Have a great weekend!!

I thought we could catch up...

But, I guess I was wrong. I had this whole blog post planned out for tonight, with lots of pictures and stories about my weekend, and my next shop update, but TypePad is NOT cooperating tonight (!), and I am giving up. I never had any trouble with TypePad until they tried to make their site "better" and changed everything. It is definitely not better. This is the only picture I could get to load, and, while it is cute, it is completely out of context now. 

I need to walk away from this tonight, but I will be back tomorrow to try again. I am planning on making a shop post tomorrow afternoon as well, with around six or seven new animals. If I can, I will have pictures of the animals on here early in the day tomorrow, and my shop post will be at 4pm EST. If you come back here and I haven't been able to get any photos loaded, please check my flickr. I'll be uploading lots of new photos there tonight.

Good night!

Renegade Recap

Hello! Wow, this weekend was like a whirlwind! Justin and I stayed up pressing and packaging buttons and magnets in the studio Thursday night all the way until six am on Friday, got in a few hours of sleep (three, to be precise), and then packed everything into my little car to drive down to New York. Once in the city, we had to find our way to the Etsy Labs, so some Fern Animals and I could have our photo taken together (thanks for the invite Anda!). Getting there was a little messy, but we made it in one piece! It was great to get to stand in the Etsy Labs, where all the magic happens!

Getting to the pool Saturday morning was so much easier, with our friend, Karin, a local Brooklynite, leading the way! (Compared to the hour we spent driving in circles last year! Literally!) We met our neighbors, and began to set up shop. Boy, was it hot! I know a lot of people are already posting about Renegade and the crazy weather, but really! I was dripping sweat! 

Once my booth was all set up (with only twenty-nine animals, it was pretty quick and easy!), I immediately went to meet Lauren Alane and her felted birds. We have become good friends through emails over the past year, turning to each other with questions about business-y things, and it was so nice to finally meet her in person! She is so cute and such a sweetheart! Her husband Joey is really great, too! 

When I stepped back to take the first photo of Lauren in her booth, I bumped into another online friend, Melanie. She has been a HUGE Fern Animal supporter since last fall, and flew out from Washington to check out the craft fair. (She has the largest Fern Animal collection of anyone around. I asked her to take a photo of all of her animals together and I can't wait to see it!) 

Melanie was so sweet in person, and I feel totally flattered that she came out to meet me! This is the number one reason why I like to go to craft fairs - you spend so much time building relationships through emails and blogs and Etsy, then to be able to go and meet all of these wonderful people... it's overwhelming and so great!

Here are some other friends that I finally got to meet in person:

They are so cute!! It's funny, because at first I get so star struck! I was standing in my booth talking to Lauren Alane (look, I am totally name-dropping!) and Stephen walked in. I casually looked over my shoulder and found myself saying, "Hey! That's Stephen of Something's Hiding In Here", all quiet like. (The same thing I did when I spotted Frances McDormand knitting at the Museum of Arts and Design a couple years ago. I try to play it cool, but I just can't!) But, then of course Stephen heard me and was totally nice and and we introduced ourselves. Shauna wasn't at Renegade on Saturday, but she came on Sunday and was super nice, too! And, did you see their booth? Amazing! I can't believe Stephen built that case! I took home one of these beautiful plaster logs in a pale blue. 

I actually couldn't stop buying things this year! Everytime I left my booth, I came back with something! I went and met Nicole of Astulabee, and couldn't help but take home one of her amazing kitties. They are so cute and beautiful and everything else that's great!

 Her woodland creatures are amazing too! With the little hairs and pretty cape-lets! 

Let's see, what else did I love and have to buy... this card from Sycamore Street Press, this Etsy t-shirt, an etsy bandana, with the face-off design by my friend, Elise of ArgyleWhale, some mini paper dolls from The Pin Pals, and, of course I had to have a little felted owl by Lauren Alane.

Did I mention yet the crazy weather this weekend? Well, yes, dripping hot and gross most of the day on Saturday, and then, all-of-a-sudden, Sue (of Renegade) came over, yielding a walkie-talkie, and told us we should tie our tent to the stage behind our booth. (Stephen was kind enough to lend us some rope because we were not quite as prepared as he was!) 

Then came the rain. And the crackling thunder and streaks of lighting right overhead. The pool began to flood and everyone took cover and attempted to wait it out. 

I felt extremely lucky to have sides on my tent! When it became apparent that the storm wouldn't pass, we packed up our goods and headed out for the night. Sunday started out a bit cloudy and rainy, too, but by the afternoon, it was beautiful: sunny and warm, and a bit breezy. I was able to sew up a few more animals at my table, but it still looked a little bare all day! Now, I have about fourteen animals left (I haven't actually counted them, that's a guess), which I think is a good start for the Boston Handmade Marketplace that will be coming up in a couple weeks. Tomorrow I am going to get back to sewing, and I will be listing a few of these little ones from Renegade in My Etsy shop. I'll be putting them up at 2pm est, along with some note card sets, and buttons and magnets. If you'd like to see more photos from the Renegade Craft Fair, please visit my Flickr. I think maybe I have gone on about the craft fair enough for tonight. Maybe I will remember some things I wanted to mention tomorrow. Hope to see you in my shop! Good Night!

Random ramblings (and a shop update!)

One week until Renegade! Yikes! I have been sewing as much as possible, and am not even close to being done yet. I think I have only about twenty five animals fully completed, and about ten others in various stages of being finished. Last year I brought around seventy five animals to Brooklyn with me, but that's just not going to happen this year! Oh well... I have been planning out my display in my head for weeks, and hopefully this weekend I will have a chance to do a practice set up. Then I'll have to package up my new card sets, press some buttons and magnets, and make some table signs. Plus more sewing, of course. So much to do, so little time! Always! 

I've been working at home a lot these past couple of weeks, and it's been great to get to spend lots of time with my cuddly kitty, Kitchen. Justin and I have been going to a local video store on Wednesdays (dollar night!) and renting five or six films at a time. I saw Rosemary's Baby for the first time and I can't stop thinking about it. I love their apartment! All white and yellow. We are currently apartment searching (again!) and I keep daydreaming about our new place and making it look like Rosemary and Guys place (minus the Castevets, of course). I can't wait. We have moved a lot over the past couple of years, and I really need this next place to be somewhere we'll stay for a while. I want to actually put curtains up. For some reason, if I am uncertain about an apartment, I can't ever seem to settle on curtains. And I feel like it is curtains that make a room feel more cozy and homey. Needless to say, the apartment we are in now has TEN curtain-less windows. 

Other movies I watched recently, while sewing up little Fern Animals: The Graduate, The Birds, Benny and Joon, Vertigo, Goodwill Hunting, Mommy Dearest, and The Stepford Wives (the original). Then a few episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm and Seinfeld here and there. 

So, I probably shouldn't talk about how few animals I have for the craft fair and then list some of them on Etsy, but... that's what I am going to do tomorrow. Only two or three, though. I have been missing my regular weekly updates, so I'll make one tomorrow evening around 5 or 6pm est. Sorry I can't be more specific, but I have to work at the UPS store tomorrow, and I'm not sure how much time I'll need to photograph and list the animals when I get home. I can't even decide yet which ones I will post, so you'll just have to stop in to see! 

It's supposed to be in the nineties this weekend! I hope everyone enjoys the weather! See you tomorrow evening.

Small shop post today!

Today, Sunday May 25th at 1pm EST.

I can't stop watching this: