Stitch Awesomeness

My summary of Stitch:

Stitch rocked.
I sold a lot, which also rocked.
I won the grant, which rocked asteroid sized rocks.*more details below, it deserves a second chance to be written about*
I was interviewed for the Indie Craft Documentary after I won, which was kind of embarrassing because I was really tired and not very entertaining on-camera.
You can see the pics here.



*About the grant, quoting from the website: "Each year Stitch gives a portion of its proceeds to charity...We've loved being able to give money to charity each year and are happy to continue the trend again this year, with a twist! We decided to focus our attention on giving within our own independent design community and created the Stitch Craft & Art Indie Upstart Grant. Our community is busting at the seams with creative, inventive, smart peeps with the most amazing ideas...We want to help someone totally awesome with a kick-ass business idea get started (or continue to grow) their rad company. We are super excited about this grant, as it will further our efforts to build and connect our creative community. We will give the grant recipient a minimum of $1000 ... winners will also be invited to participate in Stitch 2007 and will be featured on the Austin Craft Mafia website."

Cool, huh?? When they announced the grant winner and called out "freshie & zero", my mouth dropped open! I was so surprised because after seeing all the awesome stuff at Stitch, I thought the chances of winning were pretty slim due to the stiff competition! I hugged Greg and said "Holy shit I just won $1000!!". I mean - HELLO - the Austin Craft Mafia - the mafia that started it all - awarded me a grant. That's SO awesome! I am soooo grateful and if you ladies are reading this, thank you again!!! I'll have to give Zero a big treat, too, since he's half the namesake and all. I also must reread my business plan that I submitted to see what in the world I said, including what I was planning to do with the money!

In addition to all the grant awesomeness, I have to list some fabulous jewelry artists that I saw at Stitch and would have bought tons if I didn't make jewelry myself:
My Olivette (fortunately we traded)
Gypsy Born Designs
Angel Court Jewels
Erica Weiner Jewelry (a direct link to my favorite necklace of hers)
Lisa Chandler
and cute purses & wallets by:
Sweet Tooth Bags
and cool manly belts by:
Steel Toe Studios



Oh yeah - when I told my mom about the grant, she cried, but she denies it.

The end.