Holiday Sale #2

Sunday December 14th
10AM - 7:30PM
The Metropolitan Pavilion
125 West 18th Street, NYC

I'll be there selling Naughty Naughty Pets Plush Toys, Giant Pillow Size Plush, Handbags, Wallets, Watches..and other fun stuff!

Holiday Sale #1

'Tis the season...Here are the Naughty Naughty Pets at the Designer Lounge. The sale was OK..could have had a better attendance, but it was fun nonetheless. My friend shared the table with me. Her product is these cute Re-Gift Kits..great idea!!! Check it out at www.theregiftkit.com

Parson's Toy Design Class

I visited the Toy Design Class again at Parsons a couple of weeks ago. Many thanks to Caty for inviting me back. I always love talking about Naughty Naughty Pets.! ...and another fun plush design project..!

Designer's Lounge

It's time again for the Holiday Sales..! I will be selling the Naughty Naughty Pets plush toys and other items at the Designer's Lounge next Tuesday, December 2nd at PS234 in Tribeca at 292 Greenwich St, NYC from 7-10pm. Hope to see you there! and stay tuned for more Holiday Sales coming up....

Judith Stiles Designs

A friend of mine opened a lovely new store last week on Warren Street in Tribeca. She has beautiful ceramic lamps, vases, platters, bowls, glass sushi plates, funky cake stands, sconces, cool wooden spoons, tiles..and NAUGHTY NAUGHTY PETS..! So check it out...a great place for Holiday shopping.!!

Judith Stiles Designs
72 Warren St
New York, NY 10007
Tel: 212-349-8470
open daily 11am-7pm

My beautiful studio

Just got back from a weekend upstate and took these pictures of my beautiful studio. The weather was rainy and cold..just a perfect day to paint in the studio with my kids. I'm working on a big Ivan painting to sell in my Holiday Sample Sale (coming soon...)

Aldrich Museum- Toy Workshop a BIG success!

The Toy Workshop at the Aldrich Museum was a huge success this weekend. I've never sewn so much in my life! There must have been 100 kids..I think we sewed about 80 toys altogether. Anyway, it was great fun..the kids were so creative..and so were the parents.!

VOTE

Aldrich Museum-Toy Workshop

Inspired by the economy, election anxiety, and the anticipated chilly November weather, The Aldrich announces Free-for-All Family Day, Saturday, November 1, 2008.

Family Day will feature a plush toy-making workshop with Wendy Ann Gardner, author, illustrator, and creator of Scary Stories and Naughty Naughty Pets, on Saturday, November 1, 2008, from 12 noon to 5 pm. Organized activities begin at 1 pm.

Adults and children of all ages are invited to visit the Museum totally free to enjoy an afternoon of shapes and zany creatures during a four-hour toy-making workshop from 1 to 5 pm. Learn how to make your own plush characters, starting with a crazy shape. Gardner will help with the sewing, the rest of the creature details are up to the designer!

The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum
258 Main Street, Ridgefield, CT 06877
Tel 203.438.4519, Fax 203.438.0198, www.aldrichart.org

HAPPY BIRTHDAY...!!

Pictoplasma

This week I attended the Pictoplasma conference in NYC. It was a great event..very inspiring..particularly the work of Tim Biskup, Motomichi Nakamura and Friends With You. Check out their amazing work at the links below...

http://www.motomichi.com
http://www.timbiskup.com
http://www.friendswithyou.com

Remembering Daisy Peekypoo...

Kiefer Lost and Found

This story ran recently in a UK newspaper about a baby who had lost her Kiefer doll. When I was alerted to the story I immediately emailed to see if I could send a replacement. Anyhow, it seems that the Kiefer was returned to them and a subsequent story the next week showed Kiefer at the Blackpool Tower recuperating from his ordeal. So glad it ended happily..!

Piggy Project

Recently I participated in the Piggy Bank Project. Graphic artists from around the world were asked to design a pig character for an exhibition in Spain this summer and this was my submission.

He's a Fan..!

This photo appeared in this month's InStyle magazine..so I guess Josh Groban is a fan..!! Who knew.?!?

A Song for Me

My daughter who is just finishing up her Kindergarten year wrote this song today at school. Somehow I felt it really summed up where I'm at right now so I thought I would share it with you..

Sometimes We Are There

Sometimes we are there
Sometimes we are not
La La La
Ba Ba Ba
So that's how you feel
So really that's how you feel
Da Da Da
Oh really
that's how you feel
Oh really that's how you feel
Oh Oh Oh
Really Really !

Figurines

Today I worked on an art project at my daughter's school. Each child had to make a miniature figurine "portrait" of themselves for a scale school model that they are working on. We used Sculpey to make the figurines and we baked them in the school's convection oven. I think they turned out great !! They are so cute! and they really capture the personality of each child.

My new designer

My Daughter has been helping me to design new birds for Happy Sugar. She's only six but I think she has a bright future ahead of her as a designer!!

Happy Sugar Shop on Etsy (click here)

Today I opened a shop on Etsy called Happy Sugar where I will be selling my new line of plush toys..Sugar Birdies.!!! There's only three items up so far...but there's more to come so please check it out. I hope you like them.!!! Happy Sugar! Happy Sugar!

One for the road...

I quickly made this new Birdie for my daughter to take with us on our Memorial Day weekend trip...more to follow...

New Fabric

I think this is my favorite part of making toys...buying the fabric.!! and today new fabric arrived so I am eager to start sewing more birds. Way back when my toys were manufactured, I used to go and roam around the warehouses of House of Pile in Brooklyn (they were so nice to me!), choosing giant rolls of polar fleece, in all different colors, to be sent to the factory to be made into my toys. House of Pile isn't there anymore so now I buy my Polar Fleece online from Malden Mills http://www.milldirecttextiles.com/
I usually choose a bunch of different colors and buy a yard of each because you can never really tell what the color will look like from the swatch chart. Here's what arrived today. The satin is from 39th St in NYC...a great street for fashion fabrics.
Anyway, wish me luck! I hope to be putting some of the Birdies up for sale very soon.

Video Guest Speaker (click here)

Recently I created this YouTube video for a Fashion Design Class at Orange Coast College in California. Yes, it's slightly awkward and unedited..you'll see a few interruptions..but I think it gives a good sense of what it's like trying to be productive, creative and run a business with kids and cats.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AjYdC5zjZw

"Fashion instructor, Mika Yamamura, is using YouTube to help students reach out and virtually connect with the fashion industry entrepreneurs. While bringing an array of guests into the classroom is challenging, inviting them to do quick YouTube interviews has proven a big success. Mika invites people from the fashion world to answer questions about their work via a YouTube video. The guests tape and post their responses on YouTube. When the Fashion class meets, they begin the class by watching and discussing the guest interview of the week."

Happy Birthday Nina!!

more birdies.....

A thank you from a fan....

I received this very lovely thank you from a fan the other day..those happy smiling faces are thanks enough!!!

Happy Birthday James..!!

Happy Birthday James.!! I made a WONDERHAM for you..I hope you like it...
Visit James and WONDERHAM at www.wonderham.com

Birdie Num Num

Here's a preview of some new toys I'm working on...