Scribble Nation

Shrine-O-Rama Craft Night

The Hat City Scissor Squad got together this past Saturday for Shrine-O-Rama Craft Night.  Like most special Craft Nights, it was a lovely little intimate gathering of about 6 squad members. We glued, we glittered, and of course, we gabbed it up.

Here we are hard at work! I'll give you a peek at everyone's individual shrines:

First, we have Elizabeth's awesome Yarn Forest Shrine. Check out the doll eyed explorer getting mamed by a giant scorpion. Rock on.

Alessandra's lovely shrine to Remedios Varo.

Jessica's shrine box was primed, painted, and adorned with goregous sequins on Saturday. All that's left is to fill it with some shriny goodness.

Sarah created a shrine to world travel. This little shrine was made out of a box.

Now she can keep stashing mojo friendly travel tokens inside!

Michelle uses a tiny little wooden box to make a Happy Family Shrine. Hearts on the outside...

and a cute little piggy family on the inside! Squeeeeee!

I made my shrine into a Birdhouse. I am planning on donating it to a charity auction that supports Project Return, a cause very near to the heart of my friend Christine.

Scissor Squad Holiday Swap

We decided to extend the holidays a little this year in order to give all of our lovely squadders some extra time to create gifts for our annual Holiday Swap.  The Holiday Swap is one of my favorite Scissor events.  Everyone who participates in the swap makes up a batch of small crafted items, one for every person who is participating.  At the swap party, we each hand out a gift a piece, and wind up receiving an awesome variety of small, crafty gifts.  This is truly the best way to swap.  Everyone goes home happy every year, and it is always such fun to see what everyone shows up with.  We've seen a great variety of ideas over the years.  This year was no exception.  Some of our newest members joined in the fun, and we were all treated to a fantastic pile of loot!

Here's a peak at the great goodies that I went home with. What a haul! I had originally had great plans for this swap. They involved Marmalade.  When I ran out of time I decided to go with a trusty standby, Soap, Bath Salts, and other bath goodies. I threw them all into oversized Mason Jars and called it a day. I hope the ladies enjoyed them. :)

The Scissor Squad Meets Martha!

As you may have heard, The Scissor Squad was recently invited to a taping of The Martha Stewart Show in NYC. We had pretty short notice, so we had to scramble to get enough people together to fill every seat. In hindsight, I am actually very happy that it turned out the way that it did, because while brainstorming likely candidates for the extra seats I remembered my great pal Sharon from Morgan Street Soap! Sharon is one of those people that I just instantly get along with. I knew she'd fit right in with the scissor ladies, and boy was I right! We all had such a great time together at the show, and afterward storming local craft shops. I don't know how I've lived this long without shopping in the Fashion District.  Next time we go down to NY I am coming prepared with my business tax ID and a supply budget. The shops in the area were totally incredible, and many only sell wholesale!

We also invited one of our Brooklyn Scissor sisters, Kaitlyn, to the show, who brought her lovely friend, Maura.  I'm so happy these ladies could join us, especially on such short notice!

But I digress, the show, the show! We swooped in around 8:30 and were led with slaughterhouse precision through security, coat check, and into the two large waiting rooms where we were instructed to fill out some forms, think up on-topic questions for the show, and generally keep ourselves busy.  We soon learned that the episode we were there for was NOT a crafting episode, but a stress/dog episode, segwayed by a feature on Dog Yoga. This was a weeeeeeee bit disappointing, but life goes on.  We were actually invited back to the show in March for Craft Week! Now, that is an exciting prospect.  We are also looking forward to getting a cushier amount of notice so that some of the ladies who couldn't make the first trip might make the second.

I've been nosing around online, waiting for the video of our episode to pop up. The show ended up being Live that day, so I never told anyone to tune in! Mitch's hubby Tivo's it though, so we were able to watch it later that night.  I guess our brightly colored outfits were favorites of the camera men because I am pretty sure they showed us in 99% of the audience shots. Go Scissor Squad! We are so famous. They never did mention the group, which was a drag, but I am still holding out hope of a mention during Craft Week.  Maybe since the episode will be more relevant, AND we've proven ourselves to be SUCH a classy bunch it will happen then.

And now? Pictures from our trip. Forgive the sloppiness, please. I stupidly brought my old camera instead of the fancy new one for the sake of the size/weight difference. Bad move! I knew there was a reason I replaced it.

 

Here's Michelle & Christine, enjoying some small talk on the early morning train ride.

 

Here's what hit Anne in the head a half hour or so into the ride.  Apparently the guy behind us has a problem with cheery small talk in the early hours of the day. Jackass.

 

We did not appreciate this guy's antics, so spent the next half hour or so giggling and making snarky remarks as he shot poor Sarah, the only one in his line of sight, looks of death. Eventually he realized this was a fight he could not win, and left the compartment to find a another seat.

 

After a very quick taxi ride from Grand Central we arrived outside Chelsea Television Studios, home of Martha!

 

We were soon shuffled inside, checked for security, supplied with paperwork, and sat in two spacious waiting rooms. If there is one thing I can say about the staff here, they are organized! (One particular staff member seemed to be organized with a VENGEANCE. I don't know what her damage was, but there has to be a more polite way to enourage people to get a move on.) 

 

Our tickets! They hand us these inside. They determine all the seating before the audience enters the studio. We lucked out with great seats, right in the dead center of the audience.

A shot of the kitchen side of the set.

And one of the garden side.

My camera was really behaving shamelessly, so I aplogize for these terrible pictures. If you want to see some far better shots of our trip, check out Sarah's rundown on Scissorina.com!

Who's on Martha?

What!? We are! Well, we aren't going to be ON the show, just in the audience, but it's a lot closer than we usually are to television stardom.   The Hat City Scissor Squad has been invited to the taping of an upcoming episode of The Martha Stewart Show.   They graciously offered us ten tickets, and I've spent the last week rounding up some lucky ladies to make the trip.  We are crazy excited since we are all big Martha fans.  For me in particular, I see Martha as an example of how much you can get done if you are willing to work your ass off. It amazes me how someone could have their business grow in so many directions while still keeping such personal involvement in each project.  Her staff must be incredible! I imagine Martha as not being the easiest person to work for, but hey, where did anything easy ever get anyone?

I'm told that the episode we are seeing in person features some crafting, and possibly a guest crafter. I am dying to find out exactly what the episode will entail. I'm still trying to figure out exactly when the episode will air.  At first, I thought it would be live that day, but now I'm not so sure. I'll definitely post an update as soon as I find out. 

I can't tell you how excited I am to get a chance to share The Hat City Scissor Squad with more people, even if it's just a quick wave from the crowd.  When Sarah, Michelle, and I started this club in 2004, I couldn't have imagined what an important role it would play in our lives all these years later.  Many of the ladies we have met through this group have become some of our best friends.  I can't imagine never knowing them, but chances are we would not have met or had the chance to get to know each other so well without this group.  We chat, craft, and knit away each Tuesday night together, and over the years we've been there for each other through all of our struggles and success.  It's amazing to me that four years have gone by so quickly, especially when I think of all that has happened in our lives since we began meeting in 2004.

Good friends are rare gifts, and The Hat City Scissor Squad has blessed me with more than my fair share.  I often encourage people to start craft clubs because my experience has been so great.  There is NOTHING like having a weekly ritual that gets you out of the house, and into the company of great people.  Add a tasty beverage to the mix and you've got heaven!  

Ultimate Crafting Tool

Last weekend The Scissor Squad had their Super Secret Pal Craft Swap.  Each participating squad member made a secret gift for their randomly assigned partner. As always, it was amazing to see the great variety of gifts that the ladies came up with. There was jewelry, knit pouches, hand sewn accessories, swanky purses, handmade notebooks and more. The ladies really outdid themselves this time around and I think everyone walked away happy. The gift I received was especially personal and thoughtful. My great buddy Jessica Em (who is moving away next month - boo!) made me the ultimate crafting tool...

It's a shrine/altar for praying to the gods of crafting. You are meant to light the little candles inside anytime you feel stumped and pray your little fingers off for inspiration! This was such an clever idea, and her execution was simply adorable. The collage on and inside the box is filled with cute, kitschy details including craft supply bits and snippets from old vintage magazines and patterns. It is divine!! Here is a sweet collage to show you some more details:

Thanks Jessica!!!!