We started the new year by having the Columbia Association of Puppeteers guild meeting here at our shop, as Steve, Marty and Candace performed Nutcracker Cracked, a Victorian style rod puppet show designed for Steve's folk’s last company Holiday party. It’s a miniature satire of epic proportions of the Nutcracker Ballet, complete with 84 new rod puppets -- thank god for the Dollar Store and some very creative efforts on our company's and friends' part, it came out wild and wacky and oddly enough appropriate for children as well.

January then switched to profound sadness. We had to put our faithful companion, Aaron to sleep. He was at our sides for 16 wonderful years, but finally time caught up with him and his quality of life was so poor that we had to make the decision to let him go. It left a big hole in our hearts, but we picture him in full health, running through Heaven, chasing kitty cats. March 27, 1990 - January 31, 2006

Moving into February was a snap as we designed Sophie, the five foot and a few inches tall, life size River Otter costume for the Fort Vancouver Library District. Sophie was quite the mascot -- a deluxe costume to create and build, complete with two sets of feet, one for parades, one for indoor use with padded toes. Building Sophie ended a three year dream for design and funds for the library and we all were quite pleased with the outcome of our furry mascot for their children’s reading program. Rome wasn’t build in a day, and it actually took us until the end of March to finish this project from drawings to fittings to shipping her off across state borders for reading-promotion purposes.

To see the complete saga of Building Sophie, click here

If April showers bring May flowers, then that was a perfect time to begin the new revamp of Steve’s Mom Bobbie’s new guest room. You have all seen the fancy end papers inside expensive books that look like melted colors all in a swirling pattern, well think of that in burgundy, plum, and ivory, and presto, incredible walls, add ivory trim, and you've got a room folks love to be in, which is nice since it’s now their new guest room. It actually turned out quite beautiful and Bobbie fixed it up with several select pieces of art work and knickknacks, and elegant yet simple furniture.

Also in April, Our friend, Joel Park, took Horace Greeley's advice to Go West Young Man, and arrived from Florida to relocate, and we began work on building a new puppet stage and characters to get him on his feet and into the puppet industry professionally. Using the pipe structure from Bobbie’s old traveling puppet stage and some old bed linens and things around the shop Steve, Joel, Candace, and Marty created an incredible jungle stage for his new theatre troupe, Trails and Tails and Company.

Steve also worked on yet another prom dress for the daughter of a friend of ours, taking a classic black formal and splitting the back adding leather straps and chains and fake zippers to give it that oh so chic biker babe look, and yes, Elizabeth was the belle of her ball.