He's cute, he's cuddly, but he needs a name!

Meet the newest critter to join Live.Dream.Create.!
Each one is completely handsewn from felt for extreme cuteness!

But we need YOUR help!
What do we call this creature?

To find out, we will play a "Name Game"!

Some suggested names so far:
Chubba bug (due to his round little belly)

Cuddle Monster (because he is so cuddly)

Wuvvle (because he is so lovable)

Round 1:

Please comment on this post with your name ideas!

Stop back late for Round 2 and we will vote on our favorite names!
The name with the most votes wins! :)

P.S. More colors are coming soon!

Octo Tuesday: A Walk on the Wild Side!

This week my husband and I went to the Cleveland Zoo! We had a lovely day and saw

 Flamingos

 Bears

 Camels

Giraffes

 Tortoises

 Red Pandas

 Me riding a camel

(Definitely not something you get to do everyday!) 

 Meerkats

 Lions

 (We even heard the king of the jungle roar!)

Koala Bears and More!

We had such a great time,
and it gave me some inspiration for Octo Tuesday!

Take a walk on the wild side with these limited edition zebra and cheetah print baby octos!
Each baby octo features it's favorite animal print, comes with a sticker pack, collector card and more!
Find them at www.ecofriendlyfun.com

*These will be released in two parts. Zebra octos on 7/17/12 and cheetah octos on 7/24/12

Be sure to catch your favorite before they are gone!

Introducing Octo Tuesdays!

Baby Octos

Baby Octos are cute little plushies,

with eight legs and big personalities!

Baby Octos like to make new friends,

share hugs, be silly and have fun!

Each baby octopus has his or her own unique personality, 

as you can plainly see!

Some like to help in the garden,

while others like to throw a celebration!

Some enjoy things that glitter,

others dress-up like their favorite character!

Baby Octos may seem mischievous, 

but they really just like to play with us!

Baby Octos are looking for their forever homes,

a place where they can always go,

Where they will be loved and cared for,

by a fun loving boy or girl!
************************************************

Introducing "Octo Tuesdays" at Live.Dream.Create.! 

• Each Tuesday, a special edition baby octopus will be introduced to the shop! Be sure to friend us on Facebook to make sure you get the announcements first! (Don't forget to check your settings to make sure that Live.Dream.Create. posts appear in your newsfeed!)
• Each baby octopus is handmade one at a time, giving each one his or her own personality. 
• Patterns, stitching and colors may vary slightly in each collection, so be sure to check them all out to find your favorite! 
• You will receive the baby octopus that you order.
• These will be made in limited quantities ONLY! I will announce how many are available each week.
• There might be 2...or 4... or 8 in a collection... But once they are gone, they are gone! (So, don't miss out!)
• Sorry but there will be no holds or reserves on baby octos.
• No re-orders, special requests, or custom orders for more limited edition baby octos. (This would defeat the purpose of being "limited".)
• Each baby octo will come with a "collector's identification card"
• Card contains a picture of your baby octo, its name, a "baby octo number" (overall baby octo number) and its number in the collection (ex. 1 of 2 or 2 of 2) and something about your baby octo. 
• Each baby octo will come with other fun goodies- like stickers! (Because who doesn't love stickers!?) Goodies may vary from week to week, but they will be announced.
• Everything that is included with each Baby Octo will be listed at time of purchase.
• You can find Baby Octos from "Octo Tuesday" for sale in the "Limited Edition Octos" section in my Etsy shop.

Live.Dream.Create. Updates

Things have been a little quiet around here lately, so here are some updates! :)

Oddmall was a blast! Made some new friends, got to see some cool things, and got to try out some new displays and new items! 

You can find the pictures from Oddmall here. 

For easier shopping, I now have www.LiveDreamCreate.com (my Artfire shop) and www.EcoFriendlyFun.com (my Etsy shop). 

I was able to get my NEW tent! I am super excited to now have an "ez-up" style. The one I had before was okay, but let's face it, no one wants to wrestle all those poles and keep track of all those connectors! ;) I was able to upgrade into the "commercial grade" tent, and like my husband said, I should NEVER have to buy a tent again! (Well, at least not for a long time.) The whole tent thing was a little bit of a fiasco, and I really am glad to have it crossed off my to-do list. 

The original tent that I purchased was NOT what was advertised. I had even called back to the store after seeing it the first time, and the lady said that "all of the tents [they] sell are WHITE". Um, dark brown is NOT what I would call white. So my husband helped me return the first one, then we went to Dick's Sporting Goods like I should have in the very beginning. In the bag, the new tent is as tall as I am and weighs probably 50 lbs- so it looks like I will be getting a good workout this summer! :)

I have started lining up the shows for the season. I will start listing them on the "Events" page as I get confirmations back. These are the next two:

• June 2:  Kent Masterpieces on Main's Art & Wine Festival
• Downtown Kent, Ohio
• Noon - 10pm
• Free Admission
• For $10 customers can purchase a wine glass and 3 "taste" tickets to use at the wine booths
• http://www.mainstreetkent.org
• June 9 & 10:  Summerfest
• Lake Anna Park, Barberton, Ohio
• Saturday June 9th: 10am - 6pm
• Sunday June 10th: 10 am - 4pm

You can also view the events on the facebook page. Feel free to share the events with your friends, family and whoever else you feel like sharing with! ;)

As a final note for the evening, I am working on setting up an email newsletter. This would contain event updates, coupons, and new product info. I am thinking once a month. (My in-boxes have over 3000 spammy emails piling up, so I understand if you are hesitant, but I promise I won't send them very often! - and you can always opt out later if you decide it is not for you.) If you would like to sign up you can do so here: Newsletter sign up. 


P.S. Feel free to "Like" us on Facebook!

Art Takes Times Square contest

Hello everyone! I wanted to take a moment to share this incredible art contest I entered today!

It is called Art Takes Time Square. Winners get their artwork shown on a billboard in NYC for the whole world to see! (And some other awesome stuff, but I'm pretty sure getting to be on a billboard is PRETTY awesome in itself!)

I have set my page up here Krystal Tomlinson (Art Takes Time Square Contest)

Please visit my page and click "collect me" in the upper right corner. The more people that "collect me", the  better chance I have of winning!  I need 7 votes to make my profile available for public viewing and voting, and 77 to get a guaranteed viewing at the after-party. The grand-prize winner will be selected from the top 200 with the most votes.

You can add other artists to your collection, and the judge with the best collection also wins an awesome prize!   (A $5000 trip to NYC!)

Feel free to share my page (and your other favorites) with your family and friends- anyone can be an art judge! There is a "share" button next to the "collect me" button in the upper right corner with TONS of share options to make life easy! :)

Super huge thank you to everyone!

Hello 2012!

2011 was a great year for Live.Dream.Create. thanks to all of our friends and fans! Thank you everyone! I went to many great events and shows, branched out the shop online and in the local community, expanded the items in the shop, made many great custom orders and had TONS of fun!

One of my favorite custom items this Christmas season is this giant 3 ft penguin! (I had a lot of fun playing elf!)

2012 is here and I am looking forward to a whole new year! Some of the things in store for Live.Dream.Create. in 2012:

• This weekend (1/8/12) Live.Dream.Create. is wrapping up at the Double Feature Gallery in Cleveland, OH.
  A big thank you to everyone at Double Feature for including us!

• I have been reorganizing and regrouping after the busy holiday season. The Etsy and Artfire shops have both been on vacation while I do so. They should both be back open soon. I've been rewriting listings and descriptions and hope to fix up some of the photos as well.
• One of my goals is to reorganize my supplies and materials. Part of this is separating my sequins by color and size to make my life easier. It's a little OCD. I know. But I am going from a box full of sequins like this:

To THIS:

And finally, to THIS:

Not only will the cat no longer knock them all over, but I can arrange them in rainbow order!

• I have a whole bunch of new ideas and things to try out this year. It is a rather long list since I can't sew fast enough to keep up!
• Over Christmas I made Hedwig plushies for my brothers and sister as gifts. She should be making an appearance in the shop soon!

• After the giant penguin, I am itching to make something HUGE! I'm not sure just what it will be yet- maybe a giant cake slice or octopus...
• More goodies will be coming to the felt food collection!
• I also have a long list of new animal friends to add to family.
• I really want to do a project with dinosaurs! For some reason January and February feels like the perfect time of the year for dinosaurs... :)
• I will begin looking into shows and events for the upcoming spring/summer season and will post them as soon as I can.

There is so much to look forward to this year! Here is to a happy, healthful and prosperous 2012!