During our mini-hiatus we’ve been talking a lot about the state of DFF, and where we want to go over the next couple years. How do we expand? What products do we want to concentrate on-just plush, or do we start developing other products featuring our cast of miscreants?

Business decisions are always some of the hardest for both of us. We are by nature firmly housed on the creative side of this endeavor. Developing a business side and mindset has proven more difficult and still feels bit foreign to both of us. But we’re working on it…

I would love to say that we got it down rock solid, but we still have a way to go. We are, however, finally gearing back up, which feels great. Shows for this year have been and are being booked, and we have amassed quite a bit in our sketchbooks that will fuel us through the rest of the year. Whichever direction we end up going we will at least have a partial roadmap. It may not get us all the way there, but it’s enough to keep us going until we need a restroom break.

It’s been just over a month and half since we decided to join the Twitter brigade and peep portions of our work and personal lives on the interbew. During that time we’ve seen the number of followers grow from just a few hardcore DFF lovers to a mob 160 strong. While we have a long way to go to catch up to some of rockstars tweeters, we have really enjoyed sharing little snippets of our lives with everyone.

Twitter has provided us a great opportunity to open up and share our ideas, thoughts and work. We have so many new things planned for the rest of the year and some great new giveaways that we are looking forward to sharing with all our friends. So, thanks to all our followers for taking an interest in us and the work we do. Without all of you we would just be a couple of weirdos sitting in a room making dolls for each other.

Dear CN (the network formerly known as Cartoon Network),
I don’t even really know where to begin. To say that I’m more than a little upset after looking at the summer line up and the distinct lack of just about everything “cartoon” related would be an understatement.

I used to look at Cartoon Network as a beacon of hope amid a dank, depressing let down of what is currently passing for cable tv programming. I looked forward to each new season with great anticipation because of the creative genius that was being displayed time and again in purchasing ground breaking and entertaining animated shows. The network, in my opinion, was finally broadening the market and minds of a nation that has frankly lost its ability to laugh and enjoy life.

Shows like Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, Powerpuff Girls, Chowder, Flapjack, Ed Edd and Eddy, Dexter’s Laboratory, Samurai Jack and many others came to define a new era of great American animation. What happened?

This latest round of shows has gone completely against the grain of everything your network has stood for since its inception. Gone are the ballsy choices, the defining new shows, the groundbreaking animation.

The sad fact is that this nation has more than its fair share of luke warm, watered down reality television. It doesn’t need another one contributing to the thousands of hours of worthless, meaningless triviality that are already spewed forth each “season”. Honestly, reality television leaves about as much impact on television history as a wet noodle thrown against a wall-when its done it just rolls down onto the floor. Is that what you want to really be remembered for?

What is almost worse to me in this whole situation is that the network is now heading to the beginning of the line-impressing and molding young minds to believe that reality shows are what they should EXPECT and CRAVE from cable programming. Are you prepared to be a part of that?

Please don’t become another MTV. Do you remember when it was called Music Television, before they became a wasteland of reality shows force feeding a nation of young listeners into the mold of what the corporate douche bags claimed was “good listening and viewing”?

Your network has established itself as a leader of quality, groundbreaking animation. You’re not cattle. You don’t have to follow the herd.

Sincerely, A concerned fan

I would love to say that we have busted into the new year like a couple of savants-barely able to keep our creative nature under control-but sadly, this is just not the case. We have been knee-deep in research about the future of our loverly little enterprise, while also trying to get ourselves and our work environment re-located to new digs.

Now that we are just about settled, we have begun to ramp up and dive into the immense workload that has been quietly piling up. Having your life turned upside down and then trying to get it right side up again is not the easiest task, but sometimes life just sees no other option but to drop a hot, steamy pile on your head and you have to navigate with a bit of hot crap in your eyes. But life is life and you either adapt or simply go the way of the do-do (or doo doo in this case).

Here is a quick shot of a pretty, new friend of ours. She will be joining the ranks of plushies that have been piling up around our space over the last few months, and hopefully she will make her way to Etsy in the coming weeks.

Where would we be without your new saftey rules and regulations? Rules and regulations designed to stifle and maim the small business owner through copious  series of outrageously priced fabric and material testing. Of course those of us in the handmade community who rely on using only dangerous and toxic materials thank you for making us aware of the dangers we pose to the unsuspecting and trusting public. We thank you for saddling us with the responsibility and bills required to perform safety testing rather than placing it on the manufacturers who are producing and bringing these materials into this country. Yes, we certainly appreciate the fees associated with third party testing, fair pricing to be sure-several hundred to four thousand a pop. That shouldn’t take EVERY penny we make. Thank you.

And using reclaimed/recycled materials, what were we thinking? Trying to eliminate the excess and waste we see in abundance while turning it into something useable and loveable? How could we have been so blind? Toys, clothing and other wonders to be enjoyed by little people and their parents, made from items that would other wise sit in landfills. How selfish? But, in the longrun, perhaps the plastic, run of the mill, unimaginative, and frankly crappy, boring toys that line the shelves of your everyday supermarket super store should win out.

Forget about the community of artisans that have crafted the real quality items that we have come to love and appreciate. They will be silenced, waiting for the voice of reason to speak out; to protect the very foundations this country was founded on, the artist, the craftsman and woman, the visionary, and the independent thinker.

In the meantime, we’ll fight, we’ll speak out and we’ll protect our friends in this endeavor and in the end, we believe we will win, because we have to. Yes, we will work for plush.

Regards, Dolls for Friends