Long Creative Weekend

This weekend was GREAT! I work off for four days. It was amazing. On the creative side I compulsively made a snail, I started an idea that's been floating around for awhile- fabric jewelry (I'm almost finished with my first piece!), and I worked on Mud Whimsy Ceramics. It was nice to feel like I had the time to just mess around. I also designed an advertisement button:

My ad will be over at Cakies for the month of December. I've enjoyed Rubyellen's blog for quite awhile and am excited to sponsor her!

On the not-so-creative-but-very-fun side I went thrift store shopping. My best find was a tablecloth that is beautifully hand sewn. I am going to turn it into a bedspread.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! 

Encaustic Fun

A little while ago my daughter and I had some encaustic fun. She's been collecting bugs; I've been collecting feathers.

Here she is all finished and proud!

A detail of the honey bee. It was found dead. No insects were purposely killed for this art piece!

...And here is mine. I'm thinking of adding a touch of orange. Any thoughts?

New Octopus!

I just listed these in the shop:

I do love them so- I hope they find good homes!

Tomorrow I'll be adding some of these ornaments to my shop:

A few weeks ago we had a big heavy snow storm before the trees lost their leaves. Many branches were broken. I found a cool big branch, trimmed it, put it in a tree holder (for a fake christmas tree), and painted it white. It's the perfect thing to hang all my creatures on! 

Extra Hour

I'm not sure if we actually gained an hour for daylight savings but it definitely felt like it. It was strange to wake up and realize that I was awake earlier than usual. I decided to do something with my hour, so I made another octopus. (I still can't find my camera cable so I took a picture on my computer. Unfortunately it doesn't show the amazing colors in this guy!) He's made with vintage fabric that I had a small swatch of.

You get a little peek at one of my collections too... I have 9 gold framed mirrors hanging in my bedroom, all on the same wall. I just liked how the first one looked (an antique oval mirror , above the octopus' head) and kept finding them in thrift stores.

Facebook Giveaway!

Yes, a giveaway! Here's what you need to do: 

1) 'like' my Facebook page

2) Comment, write on my wall or post a link to my page (let me know if you post a link).

3) Check my page on November 14th... I will enter all contestants' names in a hat and draw a lucky winner. 

Prize: $20 redeemable in my Etsy shop! 

Inspiration

Loan Tran for Stylelikeu.com from StyleLikeU on Vimeo.


I just watched this video over at stylelikeu.com and was so inspired! Loan Tran is just herself, no apologies. She was discouraged by being turned away from dance clubs in New York and thought, "I can dance wherever I want!" And so she did, with headphones and costumes.

 My favorite quote of hers is:

"We're all different, and sometimes we need courage to show the world what truly makes us different -whether it means how you dress, or how you express yourself."


After doing a little hunting I discovered that she has a blog, an art website, a documentary in the works,  and she's been noticed around NYC...  

Etsy Treasury

Ikioma Finnish ecodesigns

I used to REALLY want to create a treasury list on Etsy but every time I would try there wouldn't be space. I even checked it at weird times in the middle of the night (silly me, I should know that LOTS of artists and crafters are night owls like me!). I think it was reformatted because when I went to check it today I was able to just create one! The title is Eco Holidays: Buy Handmade Recycled Gifts. I typically look for other recycled and eco crafters so I had a bunch in my favorites already, but I also found a lot of new great creators. If I had the money I would buy everything on my treasury- I love it all!
 Here it is
ps- more on buying handmade later...

Ornaments!

My boyfriend, Brad, sure takes some great photos! I love how these turned out. All of these ornaments are for sale in my Etsy shop HERE! As always, they are made from recycled fabric- much of it is vintage, so they are one-of-a-kind. 

(If you're interested in hiring Brad for product photography he can be found at www.torchlightphotography.com)

Updates

Here's a few more photos of Halloween. My daughter wanted to be Catwoman this year- which she told me about at 6:00 Sunday night! I offered to make her the mask. I figured that would make or break the costume. It was created with a black t-shirt, some black felt, and white stitches. I think it turned out pretty well!

And my birthday was lovely... I did everything I wanted to do, didn't work AT ALL (I didn't even put clothes in the dryer!), I ate good food all day (cappuccino in the morning, Jill's Cafe for lunch, Foolish Craig's in the afternoon, and Indian food for dinner), and I saw some of my favorite people.  My daughter wins the award for the strangest birthday gift ever:

(It's a zombie baby eating its own foot)

Today my boyfriend photographed the latest projects... I'm excited to post them! He's still editing and retouching, but they will be up as soon as possible.

Happy birthday to me!

It is officially my birthday! Every year on my special day I take the day off of work, spend time with the people I love, and do whatever I feel like doing. Tomorrow I'm sleeping in, going to a free yoga class, out for lunch with my dad, then my boyfriend is coming over to help me photograph my stuff (New whales! New octopus! Cards!). It's a good sign when I want to work on ReLove Projects on my birthday!
To help celebrate my special day I'm giving YOU a present:  20% off anything in my Etsy shop. Enter 'Birthday' in the coupon code.  It's only good today, November 1, so jump on it!