The holiday rush is finally over. I have never worked so hard in my entire life. I have to say I am not sure I would recommend doing two large holiday shows back to back, especially if you have a full time job. Mainly cuz sleep deprivation does strange things to your mind and body. 

Now it is time to rest, spend a little time with the family, and try to return to a normal sleeping/eating schedule.  I hope everyone has a happy and safe holiday. 

Time for Giving

About  2 years ago I lost a close friend of mine to leukamia lymphoma. At the time, myself and other people didn't think it was too serious. We knew our friend Sean was having a tough battle, but being the amazing person he was, we thought he would beat it. So to wake up one morning and find out he was gone was quite a shock, especially considering he was so young.

I have many regrets about my friend passing away, many of them being that I never had a chance to see him before he passed on. His death was a very big shock and a reminder that life can come and go too quickly and too early.

I was reminded of this again this morning when I came across The Fiercegrrl Fund. Nicole is a 27- year old craftster who has recently been diagnosed with Stage 3 ovarian cancer. She can no longer work and must now pay for all of her expenses out of pocket.  You can  help this fantastic lady out by purchasing one of the adorable ornaments that are for sale on the website. And why not go a step further and repost this story on YOUR BLOG? Help a lady out. Spread some cheer and REPOST. Plus the ornaments are all super cute! Lookie lookie.

SHOP HERE!
READ NICOLE'S STORY

Pretty Birdie

These lovely cards now live in a wonderful shop in Brooklyn called Homebody Boutique. The owner, Kate, asked me to whip up a few custom cards of her store logo a few weeks ago. I don't know why, but I had a really hard time trying to find the right color combos but I think they ended up pretty darn cute!

You can also pick up my "Awesome" cards as well as few others at her shop now. So send your Brooklynite friends over to buy one!

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 . . . . .

 

 

 

Floating gowns

Last year, the New York City  Opera allowed artist E.V. Day(one of my favorite artists) to scrounge through their collection and transform some of their most amazing gowns into sculptural displays in the Lincoln Center lobby. I love the way the dresses are suspended in mid air. The outfits give off such an eerie feeling that I believe reminds the viewer of how theater is a sort of means of raising the dead.

Fun facts: 

-The artist ended up using 22 miles of fishing line to hang up her installation.
-E.V. Day's "Mummified Barbie" series helped put her on the map in the artworld. She is mostly known for her integration and use of deconstructed textiles and suspension in her sculptural pieces.


You can read the past NYTimes article HERE and check out a full slideshow of the installation HERE.

Absolutely LOVE these turbans with hair extensions!

Halloween Decorations

My former co-worker and friend loves Halloween just as much as I do. So when it came to decorating the office we went all out. Lucky for us, our efforts were rewarded since the college we work for holds an annual Halloween decoration competition. The first year we one first place, last year we won second.

Believe it or not, it really doesn't take too much to make great decorations. All you really need is some cardboard, paint, plastic trash bags, and voila! You can transform your stifling office into a scary office dungeon or even the devil's bakery!

 The first year we went for an office"dungeon" theme.

 

The black walls were made with large garbage bags that we stretched.

We copied our hands and used them to create macabre sconces.

 We used basic office tools, like hole punchers and made them into torture devices.

 The second year we created a Devil's Bakery, which gave us an excuse to make tons of fun Halloween treats. The outside of the office looked like a nice pink bakery . . .

 But the inside was filled with flames! A giant cauldron painted onto cardboard was used to block off a doorway.

 We also have an old defunct fireplace in our office and we covered it with black vinyl shelf liner and made it into an oven.

 I made some shrunken head cider

And some little vampire cookies from oreos.

Free Halloween Pattern!

Can you believe that Halloween is less than 9 days away?!? Are you busy finishing your costume? Will you be carving pumpkins this weekend? Well, just in case you don't have any spooky crafts planned here is a simple free embroidery pattern for you to trace and stitch away while watching your favorite scary movie.

You can choose from the basic embroidery pattern or try printing out the greeting card embroidery pattern and send a creepy card to your friend! Enjoy!