Bauble-icious

Tangentially to the Great Re-Decorate of '08, I finally completed my custom jewelry box, made from IKEA's famed FIRA mini-chest. The FIRA collection is perhaps my favorite, and the most versatile of IKEA's small storage solution offerings.

I stained the exterior with my all-time favorite Minwax Wood Finish - Red Oak - and lined each drawer in a floral print that couldn't have matched my dresser any better if I had tried (and I swear I didn't, I bought this fabric on spec, with lampshades in mind). The drawer bottoms are lined with felt in a super bright fuchsia.

Love it! Now I have plenty of room for all the great necklaces I've been accumulating. FYI - I am so over earrings; it's all about adorning the decolletage (haha...or lack thereof in my case).

And here's a tip: glue sticks! Glue sticks are my new favorite crafting supply. Perhaps not quite as secure or permanent as spray adhesive, but so much easier and less of a hassle to use (plus, I can use it indoors).

The Great ReDecorate of '08

I am redecorating my life! And by my life, I mean my apartment. And by my apartment, I mean my living room.

The inspiration? This lamp, my latest sidewalk rescue project!


I am horrible at remembering to take before pictures, but lucky for me, it was from Ikea (just imagine it with a busted shade and looking like its previous owner didn't clean the house all that often).


Now as far as the Great ReDecorate of '08 is concerned, everything hinged on finding just the right fabric for a new lampshade, and I was absolutely thrilled when I found this one from Lindylou Fabrics. And FYI, Etsy is becoming one of my favorite venues for supplies.

The fabric has tons of colors - including everything I needed, plus everything that was missing from my life. And it has already inspired even more great Etsy purchases. Updates to come...

What's been keeping me so busy

while not a "craft" project, per se, I now present my latest creative endeavor...

A question for the ages

Is a blog about the fact that I haven't blogged in way too long worth blogging about?

Oh, blog it!

Crafty Marketing

Every once in a while, you've gotta take a break from making THINGS, in order to make SALES!

I have been super slack on putting together the most essential of marketing tools, namely business cards. But in preparation for the upcoming Atlantic Antic, I figured it was about darn time. The jury is still out on whether or not craft fairs are the best venue for me, but even if they don't result in a lot of same-day sales, you never know what future sales may be lurking around the corner. That said, it's sort of ridiculous that it's taken me until now to put together a proper business card.

However, most of Saturday afternoon was actually spent designing a postcard. The postcard is so much more fun! By its very nature it allows for some actual messaging, and the opportunity to get a little more creative. But the business card is still an essential. Why? Because it fits in a pocket.


My philosophy as far as business cards are concerned is that the design should be clean and simple, and not distract from their primary purpose as a quick reference tool. Therefore, I kept it pretty straight forward (plus I was a bit burned out after spending so much time on the postcard...)

Been feeling a bit pigeon-holed...

The 'ol Etsy sales have been a little slow lately, which frankly, is a.o.k. with me. It's coincided quite nicely with a (hopefully temporary) lull in my enthusiasm, plus given me the time to get to some other craft projects.

When I first learned of the freezer paper method of stenciling, I was hankering to give it a go. Well, I am pretty sure it's been on my to-do list for well over a year now, but FINALLY, here it is: my first ever, original stenciled piece.



I wanted to keep it simple - I don't know how people do the really intricate stuff, clearly they are way more skilled with an x-acto - so I went with this lovely pigeon silhouette. Despite being the rats of the bird family, they're still pretty cute I think. And as you can see, I couldn't help myself from embellishing it just a bit with that one little rhinestone.

I'm pretty happy with how it came out. There are a few teensy, tiny places where the edges could be a bit sharper, but other than that the only real problem is that it got a little messed up during the final step of heat-setting the paint with the iron. The tutorial I was following suggested placing a clean piece of freezer paper over the dried image during this step, which in the future I wouldn't repeat. Granted I was a little antsy with letting the paint fully dry, which probably exacerbated the problem, but the piece of freezer paper left a bunch of blotchy, waxy residue over it. Even after touching it up afterward, it still appears a bit blotchy. Oh well, lesson learned. Should have used the tutorial linked to above ;)

Where's your Olympic spirit?

I was browsing through Etsy, really hoping to find some cool Olympics inspired stuff, and I gotta tell ya, I was wanting more. I can't believe no one has stenciled Phelps' goofy, beautiful grin on a t-shirt yet? Maybe everyone is just too busy being glued to the around-the-clock coverage (like me) to post new items.

Here's what I did find (click on image to view Etsy listing):

A little cutesy for me, but I have to give it props seeing as how swimming is THE sport to watch (and the fact that I was a swimmer):


The beauty of sport:


Classic iconography:


Instantly classic iconography:


The coziest way of all to show your Olympic spirit: