Whoooooooooooooa! So it's Friday night, and instead of having a wild night out on the town, I'm curled up with my computer doing some research for another upcoming Etsy Shop Live event (Thursday, January 8th). I enjoy getting sucked down into the rabbit-hole that is Etsy, following one whim with another (and Etsy can indulge just about any whim). Valentine's Day is coming up, so I did a search for "sexy", and the above image is one of the first that came up.
I immediately got sucked down into another rabbit hole...the one labeled "Angela Catirina". Angela, along with her mother Bonnie, sell their own line of crochet patterns on Etsy. In case you haven't guessed yet, Angela is the real deal, and an extreme crafter if I've ever seen one. The range of patterns on their Etsy site is mind-blowingly eccentric (witness the "sexy turkey" hat above). Their artistic point of view is distinct in its lack of minimalism...Angela is obsessed with color and texture--her patterns are a visual riot that will bring you into her world.
Her Etsy site is full of information about her and her mother--how they moved their business from Omaha to Los Angeles to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, how she has spent much of her adult life as an itinerant crafter, hustling to sell handmade Santas and Angels by day, then crafting by night. Her Etsy account has a link to her blog, which fills in a lot of the holes in her story on Etsy. It's as unfiltered as you might guess, with lots of information about losing her tampon (and I'm not talking about misplacing it somewhere), self-treating a lemon-sized growth on her abdomen, and the long and twisted journey that brought her to Pigeon Forge.
She and her mother took a bus from Los Angeles to Lubbock, Texas, where her father gave her an old car to drive to Tennessee. She loaded the trunk up with stuffed dolls to sell on the way, and hit the road. After lots of doll selling, car trouble and moving drama, she finally arrived in Pigeon Forge, home to Dollywood and countless olden-time photo studios.
Angela Catirina is one of the most obsessed crafters that I've ever encountered...and that's a high compliment coming from me. I think your world will be brighter if you bookmark her blog and order some of her patterns for your "to-do" list. Your relatives will thank you when you present them with a "sexy" turkey hat...the gift that keeps on giving. Why don't Angela and her mother have their own craft show yet?
ha ha.... WOW! That's just about the most entertaining biography I've ever read of me.
Thank you! You made me smile : )
Posted by: Angela Catirina | January 03, 2009 at 12:41 PM
somebody, please let those poor dolls out of the trunk!
Posted by: uncle jesse | January 03, 2009 at 12:52 PM
I just started to look at your blog today. It is really great. I especially like the turkey today. Keep it up!
Posted by: Missy K | January 07, 2009 at 09:22 AM