The holiday goodies have begun . . . .

Where have I been?What I have been doing? Making stuff!!

Including these adorable eaten gingerbread men ornaments, which will be available tomorrow at the Petaluma Downtown Craft Mart's Holiday Crafterino!

Oh yeah, these unique upcycled stockings made from sewing patterns will be available too!
Don't worry they won't tear when you pack them with treats cuz they've been fused to vinyl!

New: Detachable Collars

Remember all those wonderful Detachable Collars I spotlighted awhile back? Well, I decided to try and sew up a few on my own and they didn't turn out too bad. Here is a little sneak peek.

Happy Friday!

Rupert and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Don't let the yucky weather stop you from going out and playing a little bit, or prevent you from seeing the new Harry Potter movie.

Too busy to dream? Never!

I am busy. That's pretty much it. Super busy. And the work is not going to stop until after December 18th (if I'm lucky). So yes, the blog is taking a backseat for a little while. Trust me, there will be a surge of postings after the 18th of December.

But while you wait I'd thought I'd share with you what I have been dreaming about lately. Airstreams. And not just any old airstreams. Converted airstreams into mini portable pop up shops/craft mobiles. I would LOVE to do this someday. So big kudos to these folks below for making it happen. You are my heroes.

Fashion Designer Stacey Bendet of Alice+Olivia went on tour with a whole design/styling crew. They set up shop at a couple of music festivals and offer make-overs/style sessions. They also raised money for flood victims in the south, which is pretty awesome. You can check out their tour over at her blog HERE

 

In Texas, a group of craft ladies pitched in, bought a old trailer, named her Stella and created The WonderCraft. This lovely silver bullet caters to the local community and offers them the opportunity to bring a little crafty creativity into their lives. Their mobile is also a shop carrying local handmade goods. Want to know more? Go HERE.

The newest mobile creation to pop up is Wanderlust. This very quaint yet cute retail cart carries lovely vintage goodies. The creators Vanessa and Dan Lurie were inspired by the many food carts scattered across the Portland area and thought to themselves, "Why not take this to the next level? Why not a retail shop?" And what better place to make something like this happen than Portland. Want to know more? Check out their events HERE.

The weekend was filled with:

-Staying up late to finish some delightful new items (photos coming soon!)
-Conquering my first ever rainy day craft fair.
-Enjoying an artichoke mozzarella  panini
-Meeting a dog that catches bottlecaps and spits them back at you to throw into his mouth again.
-Watching a weird documentary about Cropsey (a child abductor from Long Island)
-Enjoying the second episode of The Walking Dead (one of my new favorite shows)

Now I am trying to battle a possible cold and am perusing the Home & Garden section of NY Times.  I discovered this rather lovely story about a woman and her husband who buy "ghost town" property throughout the west. The slideshow of their property is pretty stunning. It makes me wish I had a job that would allow me to live out of an airstream and travel like a (very) modern hobo.

Article HERE.

Slideshow HERE.

Halloween Part 2

My Halloween weekend involved finishing my costume just in time for the roller derby bout, and wondering the streets Sunday night looking at cool costumes, and fun decorated houses.

Some of my favorite costumes were this weird monster toy costume with a giant zipper and the Totorro couple (so cute!).

 

 

These girls had the best group costume. 

They were a shark, dead seagull, octopus, and my favorite, a shrimp.

Photo by Smokey's Tangle

 The roller derby referees dressed up like superheroes.

 We saw some great decorations including Wizard of Oz statues, a graveyard dedicated to recently deceased celebrities, and Little Shop of Horrors.

Halloween!

Bianca in a gnome hat and beard. She didn't really like it too much.

I'm always sad when Halloween is over. I really wish it was a 3-day holiday vs. just one day. Luckily I had the weekend to celebrate and I really felt like I made the most of it!

 After changing my costume idea 3 times (remember, I said this might happen) I came up with a wonderful costume that I had a great time making. I rushed out of work on Friday, stopped by the Creative Reuse store and found most of my supplies. With my sister's help and incredible design skills, we were able to start my costume Friday night and finish it Saturday afternoon.

So what was I? A russian nesting doll! Also known as a Matryoshka Doll. I was hoping to have some extra time to make a set of stacked nesting dolls to hide underneath my apron but alas I didn't. But that's okay cuz I loved my costume.

My sister's costume was pretty amazing too. She was a drowned swimmer and all it took were a couple of felt sea creatures to really bring her costume to life.

She took my 1930's vintage bathing suit, put the cutest felt crab in her hair, made herself paler than pale, and then draped some "seaweed" with dead fishes, shells and sand dollars tangled in between onto her shoulders. It was pretty awesome. More on our Halloween adventures tomorrow . . . . .