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uffta (OOF-tah): interjection: Exclamation of Norwegian origin, popular in strongly Scandinavian settlements in the upper Midwest, used to express surprise, bewilderment, astonishment, pity, pain, and fatigue. Syn. yikes, oh boy, whoa nelly, hoo-wee, good gravy.

As an artist who's been chest deep in topographies for about two years now, I keep an eye open for other forms of artful topography or topography-like art. I've started a collection and I'm happy to share some of what I've found so far. Today's selections showcase the variety of substances in which artists have worked in some very tasty topographies, intentionally or implied.Paper and wood are children of the same source, more or less, as plant pulp, and so it's equally gratifying for me to find awesome pieces made of either material.

Yay! Back to back Saturday Craft fairs are done! The HandmadeMN Spring Market was fun! Everyone's tables looked great and there was a fairly steady stream of shoppers all day. It was neat to have awesome music throughout the day thanks to Kelly of Kellybot and her love of The Current's playlist.

Tomorrow -- YIKES! TOMORROW ALREADY! -- is the first annual HandmadeMN Team Spring Market!

The St. Paul Craftstravaganza was a blast! It was my best show so far and everything went very well. There was a steady stream of shoppers all day, and for every sale I had, I received about 4 or 5 "Wow"s or "Beautiful"s or something sweet along those lines -- how cool!

Last year, I took in my first St. Paul Craftstravaganza as a shopper, in awe of the awesomeness at every single booth (yes! None disappointed!), and taking mental notes for what I might do were I to tackle my own craft fair booth someday.

Thanks to my local Twitter contacts and some artsy friends, I heard about "Foot in the Door 4" with enough time to create and submit a piece for the event. The exhibit is produced and managed by the Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program as a subset of the Minneapolis Institute of Art. You can read all about it on their Web site, but basically the once-a-decade exhibit displays any and all submissions so long as each one fits within one square foot. It took me a while to get the play on words.

If you live outside New York and want your own set of the custom-colored, 4-card set of these topography cards, you're in luck! They are now available online at the MoMA Store site.

The requests for custom pieces continue to roll in and have been my "bread and butter" lately. Each one is a new challenge that helps me to learn about places on the map as well as new techniques to render those places. Here's a look at some of the latest custom pieces I've created.

Our massive piles of snow are retreating and there are buds on all the twiggy things. Despite the fact that the temps stay above freezing even overnight these days, I am still hesitant to break out the shorts and sandals and welcome Spring.