Crafty Bastards Vendor Q&A with Lemon Cadet

One of the first decisions that you make for your kids is whether or not they will dress cool. This decision can and will be taken from you when you have a baby shower and everyone gives you the same Carter Outlet onesie with the giraffe on it. If you wanted your kid to be cool, you will curse that happy giraffe and all that he stands for. Don’t let the giraffe ruin your kid’s chances of a stylish future, instead, check out Lemon Cadet’s amazing line of “appliqued clothing featuring nice monsters, smiling bean guys, and furry yetis”. Beth’s designs are quirky and fun, check them at at booth #28! Below, she answers our questions.

1. How long have you been making things?
Since shortly after leaving the womb.

2. What is your earliest/favorite crafting memory?
One of my favorite crafting memories involves my mom. She was super crafty when I was a kid. She used to make huge Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls that were bigger than me. One time, she was asked to make some really big puppets for a local church. I remember that she let me pick out the eyes and help with making their outfits. They were a big success and I remember feeling very proud of her.

3. Why do you make things?
I don’t have a choice. I was once lucky enough to go to a talk by the writer Margaret Atwood. I remember her saying, “If I can’t think about words, I go crazy.” I think that really sums up the creative process for many of us. If I go too long without being creative, without making something, I can feel it – this uneasiness inside – and I have to get to work.

4. What sort of things do you make?
Lemon Cadet is a line of appliquéd clothing featuring this wild yeti, some friendly bean guys, and these other alien-like designs. I do mostly onesies and toddler clothing but I also have a line of panties for ladies. I started branching out and have been making bean softies. I’ve been working on a yeti doll too. He’ll be great.

5. Any success stories you’d care to share?
I helped launch Yeti Loves Seamonster with Tina Seamonster. It’s a website where we’ve hand-picked our favorite makers of cool stuff for kids and put them all in one place. We have free coloring book pages for parents to download, tutorials, and tips. There’s so much crap out there for kids. We wanted to create a resource for people like us who can’t take another day of Dora.

I’m also really proud of my blog. I don’t know any html so it was such a challenge to get it started and looking the way I want it to. I think a blog’s a really important business tool. Since I can’t make my own website yet, this has been a nice way to house all the information about Lemon Cadet into one place.

6. Inspirations?
I’m a photographer/visual artist so I’m actually mostly inspired by contemporary photography. I like the work of Hiroshi Sugimoto. His work is clean, stunning. I don’t like anything that’s cluttered. I like simple design and good craftsmanship.

7. Craft supplies you can’t live without?
My baby, my Huskystar. I got it a few years ago (before they came out with the designer series that has the floral pattern on it). It’s a real work horse. I’d be lost without it. I need my iron. I need a needle and thread. I usually have an X-acto knife on hand most of the time (with a cutting mat and a metal ruler, of course!).

8. Describe your work area.
I work out of the spare room in our house that we recently remodeled. We pulled up the nasty carpet (and the layers of interesting building items underneath) until we got to the hardwood floors. They were trashed from a bad repair so my husband and I bought some deep red paint and covered it with two coats. We installed a bunch of shelves in the closet so that everything will be organized. I also planned the color scheme around the Omelet King’s Couch. The Omelet King is Rudy Stanish, a famous Pittsburgh chef. He used to cook for all the famous people who came to town. Rumor has it that the likes of Elvis and Marilyn Monroe have sat on this couch. Two of the walls are apple green. One wall is white to serve as a backdrop for my product shots and one wall (behind the couch) is a nice avocado green. We spent a few weeks putting a beadboard ceiling up. I don’t recommend that.

9. Family? Pets? Plants?
I’m married and we have two cats, Groucho and Sasha. We have a nice vegetable garden each summer next to our house. We only have a couple of house plants.

10. Favorite color or pattern?
I love lime green for the way it works with royal blue. Such a nice combo.

11. Have you been a Crafty Bastard before?
Nope.

12. Tell us about other crafters you love and your favorite handmade purchases.
I love Tina Seamonster. She’s just an amazing person and her stuff is hilarious. I try to only buy handmade items for gifts and for myself. I think my favorite recent purchase would be two prints from Marmee Craft. I bought Edith and Edith and Butterfly. I’m going to go up to IKEA this weekend to try to find frames for them. (Handmade frames are out of my budget). I was really impressed by the quality of her prints and how professionally they were packaged and mailed.

13. What is one thing everyone should know how to do themselves?
Wow. That’s a tough question. I’d say learn to drive stick but even I don’t know how to do that. I’d say learn to change a flat tire but I have AAA. If you can’t cook, you can buy food.

OK then: Read. Everyone should know how to read. It’s sad that not everyone can.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 28th, 2007 at 9:00 am and is filed under Crafty Bastards Arts and Crafts Fair, Crafty Bastards Vendors. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.