I have a hard time doing anything without some sort of applique work. I dont know what it is. I just love applique. This is my new hat project, and ive gotten a good response to them. My sewing machine does not like them however. That is why it broke :(

Holiday Seasons

I finally feel like ive surfaced through the craziness of holiday shoppers and am finally caught up and done with shows!
Sadly I broke my sewing machine and can't fix it for a while, but it gives me a chance to just focus on some other projects without feeling pressure to sew too.
Now I can focus on christmas presents of my own!

Good Grief, its been forever since I was in the gift guides! At last, I've made another appearance!



http://www.etsy.com/gift-guides/classic-gifts-for-mom/142

Yesterday I bought a YUDU screen printer. I did screenprinting at school and I've been trying to do it at home but my emulsion never works and its such a mess and so space consuming, so when I found this thing it was pretty much a must. Its this little unit which the screen anchors on to. beneath it is a light box which also exposes the screen and beneath that is a dark box with a fan with two slots to slide screens into. It comes with easy applicable emulsion sheets, no goo to squegee on! everything you need to do all compacted into this little thing. I did it all sitting on my dining room floor. no mess.

So, I'm not sure why but all of a sudden a whole handful of people requested wholesale orders and several consignment requests. It's good, but also overwhelming! Luckily I had a huge inventory building through the winter, now im wiped out :( So last night i buckled down and organized all my fabric and got rid of some supplies via destash on etsy, and just mailed off all the packages. Now I feel a little more organized and ready to work my butt off to catch up

Some of my favorites and friends :)

I thought I'd take a minute and show of some of my favorites and friends this lovely wednesday afternoon.
My sister: Lovely herbal organic soy candles by Terra Viridis


the lovely little ocean











Gorgeous porcelain jewelry by the lovely Sofia Masri










the duo at spitting image

I finally Found a good use for this olive green vinyl I have. I never like the things i make with it really, but these are super cute. I am pleased.

Wedding Rings

I found these rings that are so perfect for us. They go so perfectly with our personalities and lifestyle and are pretty inexpensive as far as handmade metalsmithing goes. And how proud can you be knowing your wedding rings were handmade?!?!

By Silver Garden
http://silvergarden.etsy.com

Yesterday was entirely productive. I made four little zipper pouches with some new corduroy i found in the discount fabric, score. I also finished another card case.

This is where I work. I would appreciate more space, but It could be worse i suppose. Things got a little akward when i got my serger.

Well, with forrester off in california this is a little vacation for me. adeleine busies herself most of the day so i get to do lots of stuff. I got a new brayer and some inks this weekend and also some high quality paper so I will be doing some printing!
When forrester isn't beating up his sister, theyre pretty cute together!

Valentine's Day

On valentine's day Jerod and I are travelling to Chicago to attend and participate in the Chicago Handmade Market. We're excited and have been working very hard to make lots of things. Its at a bar and has a fairly large reputation and following. Plus my mom is babysitting so we get to go childless and spend the night in a hotel! Fun Fun Fun
http://www.handmadechicago.com

I made some pretty cute new brooches, a whole ton of them. These are my favorites right now. And a real sweet coin purse.

I carved a new stamp last night, a sweet cardinal, and made some cute valentines day cards

I went to value village last night and hit the jackpot! maybe it's too cold for people to go shopping? i don't know but it was sweet for me! I found this awesome vintage owl lamp! and a rusty birdhouse and a whole lot of plain t-shirts in good shape each for 50 cents! I am going to take some to fasten for printing but keep some for myself for reconstruction and printing!
I also had a custom request for a wallet which involved ordering a specific color, which i happily did because I'll use it myself. I got it today and boy do I love these new colors! Cute pastels for thinking spring!

I like to buy supplies from etsy sellers because, one, its usually cheaper than michaels or joanns, and two, it feels better supporting independant business people. Today, I found an excellent etsy supply seller! She ahs some GREAT stuff for really good deals!
check her out at http://halolo.etsy.com

Google Analytics

I started using the google analytics on my etsy page right away but hadn't really had a chance to explore the report. So I finally clicked "view report" and explored and Wow! so much information. How fun is it to clikc on traffic overview and be able to see work for work how people got to your site?! 56 people got to me by searching for somethign in google. thats pretty sweet i must say. I found myself on several blogs and websites I've never heard of. So If you haven't started using this yet, I deffiantely recommend it. Its so easy. If you don't know how yet, there are several tutorials in the etsy forums, but like I said, it's so easy, you dont have to do anything!

Jerod made me these little journals to sell with my artwork (and his) on the covers. they're pretty cute. Some pages are just lined, some have little bubbles for doodling and some are blank. I think they'll be a hit :)

I am really really loving my serger. I have a lot to do trying to beef up my inventory for a show in chicago on valentine's day So I haven't had time to play around with things i can serge but i have been using it on the inner seams of the zipper pouches, then i dont have to trim. pretty sweet.

So if you go take a look at http://www.indieparade.com today you'll see one of my owl's right there on the front page :) Never even been to that site before but they sent me a message telling me they'd featured me today. so thats pretty cool.

I recently started doing some cross promotion with fellow etsian and wisconsinite Rana muck of http://ranamuck.blogspot.com/ She sent me her cards and i sent her some postcards and bookmark promotional items. We send them out in each other's packages and get some free advertising and promotion, pretty sweet. Would you like to join in on this? Give me a hoot on etsy or here and lets do it!

I worked for about 4 hourse today cutting out pieces and sewing until my back and shoulders could take no more. It's fun when a new shipment of felt comes in but then I'm overwhelmed with how much i want to make and can't physically accomplish all at once! Here's what I have done today, workin like hell to keep up with the owl demand.

Journals

I started making these little journals to try and utilize all the upholstery fabric we've got around here from my mom's old job. They look cool in the end but they're a realy bitch to bind and whatnot.

We bought a new camera today! Its a pretty sweet deal. Super fancy fujifilm. takes crystal clear amazing pictures. these are some right out of the box testers. Unfortunately theyre all yellow frmo the no flash. but theyre still sweet

I really suck at this. I try to be better. I got a serger after christmas, a gift to myself. So I'm going to try out some new things. I cant seem to make enough owl wallets. I got new felt yesterday so ill have some fresh new things!