Summer Of Craft

Big News!

2008-07-14T15:45:00.002-05:00

As a lot of you know, I've been discussing a large tote bag order with the National Trust for Historic Preservation for their conference in October. Well, I got the order today for 2000 tote bags! Yay for me!

The Birthday..

2008-07-07T13:22:00.000-05:00

Thanks to everyone who came out. I've got way too many sweets left over.. it's South Beach sabotage around here today. We had a nice crowd of friends and family and I think everyone had a good time.

Tara made the adorable matryoshka cupcake toppers. Love them!

And see the lovely handmade hat on the table? Kristen (the newest Tulsa Craft Mafia member!) made that.. so fun! Thanks again to everyone and I love my gifts. I can't wait to use them!

The rest of the weekend was a blur, but I know that Sunday held a visit from the family. My aunt, uncle, 2 cousins and their wives, and my cousin's twins stopped by late in the afternoon. What little cuties! Two sets of precious twins in one weekend is a lot of babies! All of these babies and baby happenings are giving me the baby bug..

Expect new projects this week!

Lots to do

2008-07-03T23:55:00.000-05:00

Thom asked me tonight why I would want to make all of this food and work so hard on my own birthday. I tried explaining that I really enjoy making treats.. probably more than I even like having a birthday party.

But, I am dying to make some more buttons/mirrors/bottle openers.. Ahh, I'm ready for Monday!

Tonight we ventured to El Guapo's with Tara & Estela before going by the Breast Impressions Gallery Opening.

I'm not sure what was going on here..

Then a stop by Jackie's Liquor Store (Mad Dog Liquor, by the way! On 11th, between Memorial & Mingo.. you should buy all of your booze there) for some Raspberry Liqueur (for the truffles!).

Almost my birthday....

2008-07-03T14:01:00.001-05:00

Time for another party. This time, the menu is as follows -

Appetizers –

Hummus, with carrots, celery, broccoli

Tabouli

Spinach Artichoke Dip w/crackers

Main Food –

Grilled Antipasto Platter (http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_31179,00.html)

Spanakapita

Desert –

Cupcakes (I’m going to make reduced sugar cupcakes and do two different sets of frosting, one is http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_36089,00.html, and the other is http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_35902,00.html)

Raspberry Liqueur Truffles (http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_35378,00.html)

Rum Truffles

Choc. Covered Strawberries

Smores Brownies (http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_35380,00.html)

Drinks –

Soda

Thom’s Beer

Margarita Mixer

Sangria

Call for Artists!

2008-07-02T16:01:00.000-05:00

Be a vendor/artists/designer at Indie Emporium 2008!

Stelabird Party

2008-07-02T10:40:00.003-05:00

What Fun!

Above are my new buttons/mirrors/bottle openers. Come buy some at ReggaeFest next weekend! Also, there are the candles I still have left at Dwelling Spaces. They have new and lovely labels now!

Happy StelaBirthday!

On the way home, I daydreamed about business ideas. Lots of new ideas floating around up there....

Stelabird Birthday Party

2008-07-01T17:00:00.004-05:00

I dropped off my buttons, mirrors, bottle openers, and other goodies at Dwelling Spaces this morning. Along with cupcakes and candy! Come have some of these tonight!

Inspiration in odd places

2008-07-01T09:59:00.004-05:00

I love this little yam forest. It was hiding out in the pantry. Nothing rotten or stinky, just a sweet little purple forest growing.

Crafty Weekend! Loads of pictures!

2008-06-30T09:18:00.010-05:00

The baby shower was a success! I have only been to 2 baby showers ever and rather than the gross out baby games and embarrass the mom games, we did baby crafts. I forgot to take a picture of the completed onesies, but we each made baby Devan a onesie and started some plushies for a mobile. Here are pictures from the shower.

We spent a lot of the weekend battling the problems with our pool. It's gotta be swim-able by the 4th! Today holds another trip to Leslie's for more expensive chemicals.

Also, over the weekend, I finally got to try out the button maker!

All I can say, is I'm pretty much in love with it.

On Sunday evening, Thom decided it was time to brew his "Thespian Stout" beer. I probably wasn't a lot of help, but I took some pictures of the process.

Lastly, I made some new labels for the tops of our travel tins. Let me know what you think!

Tuesday!

2008-06-29T15:53:00.003-05:00

Come celebrate Stelabird's 1st birthday with cupcakes and drinks!

Be one of the first 5 people to buy an owl snuggly and get a birthday present!

I'll be there with some new button/mirror/bottle opener designs! And I'll be bringing cupcakes!

Truffles!

2008-06-27T14:53:00.001-05:00

An entire entry devoted to truffles.

"The original chocolate truffle was a French confection meant to simulate the much-sought-after truffle fungus. They were rolled rough like the real fungus, not round, and covered in cocoa powder to replicate the dirt they grow in. (Whose idea was it to make people think they were eating dirt?) Chocolate truffles are a rich, decadent treat with a special elegance all their own." - Sherry Yard, The Secrets of Baking

I'm making Swiss style truffles today. The main difference in Swiss truffles and other European truffles is that rather than using fats or oils to add to the chocolate, you add dairy. They have a creamier, softer consistency, but must be consumed within a few days. They are also more complicated to make, at least without molds. But, I've been wanting to try it.

First, you'll need some chocolate. I used a regular (1/2 lb) bar of bittersweet chocolate, like you use for baking. It needs to be finely chopped, which is quite a task. I read that you can put it in a food processor, but it seems like that would be quite messy, especially if the blades got warm. I just got out a knife and started shaving the chocolate squares. It took about 20-30 minutes to finish the entire bar, but I may have been a little too obsessive about getting it fine enough.

Put it all in a bowl, I used a regular mixing bowl. Then, boil 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream. It will start foaming right before it boils and if you aren't right there to turn off the heat, you'll have a huge mess. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and shake the bowl lightly so the chocolate is all coated. Then place something over the bowl to hold the heat in for about 5 minutes. (I kept lifting it and peeking to see how well it was melting)

Then, stir the chocolate/cream mixture until it is smooth. If you are adding flavoring, this is when you do that. I chose rum. At this point, put the mixture in the fridge for about 2 hours. I ended up leaving mine for 3 hours and it was pretty hard to work with, so I let it sit on the counter for about 30 minutes before proceeding.

At this point, the chocolate is about the consistency of a soft cheese. Spoon it out onto wax paper. The next step is the hardest part. Since I don't have molds and I wanted to try this the authentic way, I had to give my hands an ice bath. That's as much fun as it sounds! I filled up a big bowl with ice and added some water and dipped my hands in for a few minutes. If you are handrolling the truffles and you don't do this, the chocolate warms too much and won't be shaped properly, not to mention the huge mess you'll be. So, I waited until my hands were red and a bit tingly and began rolling each truffle into a round ball. Part of the beauty of truffles is that they are not perfectly round, so I wasn't too obsessive about the shape, just focusing on smoothing them out. after about 5 truffles, my hands would start warming and I would take one of the ice cubes and rub it on my palms to cool it back down. I would have photographed this process, but my hands were too messy. I eventually got all of the truffles rolled and then decided to chill them for a little bit before rolling them in powder.

The recipe I was using suggested rolling them in pure cocoa powder. I wanted to sweeten them up just a tad, so I mixed in a little bit of confectioner's sugar. Yum. You could also use toasted coconut or finely chopped nuts.

Make sure to chill these until you serve them. So delicious! Perhaps people who like more american chocolate should add sugar or corn syrup to the recipe, but I really prefer dark, bittersweet chocolates and I love the simplicity of the recipe. Next time I want to try adding a fruit liqueur. Maybe for my birthday party next Friday!

Lots of Cooking/Baking

2008-06-27T10:13:00.000-05:00

The shower is tonight and I've done lots of preparing. The button maker arrived late yesterday, and I've really been itching to break it out of the box and play with it, but that's going to be my Saturday morning treat.

So, I took a lot of pictures while I was cooking today.

First I made pasta salad, and way too much of it. I thought I'd double the recipe, because it said it was for 4 servings. I guess whoever wrote the recipe must have liked really, really large servings, because I think my doubled recipe made like 20 servings. Two big bowls of it.

I used wheat pasta, cooked and rinsed, then added red and yellow peppers, and onions. I minced some garlic for it and added fresh cracked pepper and sea salt. A few tablespoons of olive oil and about 1 cup of sour cream later, it was ready to chill for a few hours.

Next, I made the chocolate covered strawberries. I make these a lot when we are entertaining or going somewhere. They are super easy, and relatively inexpensive, depending on the season. They always look fancy and nice too, which I love since presentation is my favorite part of food.

So, basically, just melt some chocolate chips, much like the wafers for the candy. You are supposed to add shortening to the chocolate because it helps it form and harden properly, but shortening has partially hydrogenated oils in it and that just disgusts me. I could probably write an entire blog about trans-fats and how disgusting they are.. but I'll just leave it at saying that we don't have any foods with anything hydrogenated in our house. We do however have partially hydrogenated soybeans to make our candles with. Think about that folks, candle wax... in your body.. doing all sorts of yucky things to your arteries. Anyway, I digress. I will sometimes add just a tiny spoonful of Smart Balance to the chocolate to make it shinier on the strawberries. Today, I was making some white chocolate, some milk chocolate and I didn't listen to my own advice. I burnt the white chocolate.... So, there will only be a few white chocolate covered strawberries. Fine, since most people prefer milk chocolate ones anyway. I always wash the strawberries under cold water and then dry them with a towel. If you don't dry them, the chocolate slides off, and looks lumpy and weird. Not pretty.

I'll update later with how the truffle making goes! I need a bath and a trip to the store for balloons.

Thom wins

2008-06-26T09:42:00.003-05:00

His hookah arrived today. My button maker comes tomorrow.

I now have everything to make the baby shower food. I also stopped at Hobby Lobby and picked up a candy mold and some dark chocolate mint wafers to make baby themed chocolates as favors. I've been looking everywhere for cute favor boxes, and I finally found some I liked in the wedding favor section. I thought they looked fancy and nice, not like most of the baby ones that have some weird rattle drawings and things. I used a blue ribbon around each to make them look a little more baby boy themed.
I've made candy lots of times before. It's super easy.. First, you just melt the wafers (30 seconds at a time, you don't want to burn the chocolate because it's super gross if you do). So, melt, stir, melt, stir, melt and that's usually all it takes. Then, just spoon it into the molds. It won't be flat and perfect looking until you tap the edges of the mold and the chocolate settles. Then, pop it in the fridge for about 20 minutes or until the chocolate starts to look frosty through the mold. Put down some wax paper and pop the chocolates out onto it. If you have little weird edges, just break off the excess and you can smooth it out with a clean, dry finger. Easy enough!

I'm going to make some of these for the Stelabird birthday party too if I can find a cute mold. I was hoping to find a small cupcake shaped mold to use, but I haven't had any luck with that yet.

Oh, and I spent the morning at Leslie's, having our pool water tested and coming up with the "prescription" to fix it. $296 later, I hope we have everything to treat it. Pool ownership sucks.

Wednesday Project

2008-06-25T18:11:00.006-05:00

The rest of this week might consist of baby related projects. Not that I'm reproducing yet, but my best friend is. And I'm throwing a shower for her on Friday. I've dreamt up what I'm going to cook, what I'm going to make as favors and what we'll do instead of gross out diaper/poop baby games, but I haven't actually moved on any of those plans.

This might be a lame project, but as I mentioned previously, this blog may sometimes have a recipe or cooking experiment as my daily craft. So, that being said, my "craft" today is meal planning and shopping. Lame, right? Pictures will follow when I start cooking. I promise it will be more fun than it sounds. Cooking is really not a bad thing.. A lot of girls seem to view being slightly domestic as a bad thing and and then some people just don't like cooking. I go through phases where I really don't like to cook, but I always like baking. Or making candy. Sorry feminists, this girl isn't ashamed to enjoy kitchen time every now and then.

Appetizers -
Hummus - with carrots, broccoli, & celery
Spinach & Artichoke Dip with bread and crackers

Meal -
Spanakapita
Whole Wheat/Veggie Lasagna
Pasta Salad (wheat pasta with julienned peppers and onions)

Desert - most importantly!
Choc. covered strawberries
Marshmallow truffles w/pecans
mini cheesecakes
truffles (i've never made these before!!)
and of course, cupcakes!

To Drink, I'll make some sort of sparkling juice, prob just white grape juice and ginger ale or something.

So.. shopping time.

New Projects!

2008-06-24T18:07:00.003-05:00

My big online purchase should arrive on Thursday! Thom and I are seeing which of our thing will arrive first, his hookah, or my BUTTON MAKER!!!

That's right folks, I'll be getting a Tecre 2.25 inch button maker, the rotary cutter, and lots of blanks. I've been hording fabrics for years in hopes of some project maker to use little scraps on.. and I found it. If it's at least 2.65 inches, I'll be putting it on a mirror, bottle opener, magnet or pinback button. I'm seriously more excited about getting this than I have been about many of my craft purchases.

Oh UPS, why must you take 2-5 days?!?!

Weekend Recap. And More!

2008-06-23T15:02:00.004-05:00

The weekend included a trip to McNellie's for my dad's father's day gift. I'm not into beer, but I thought I'd try one since we were celebrating and all. I ordered a raspberry cream beer. Not so good.. I guess I just don't like beer. I've tried, but I really just prefer girly, fruity drinks.

After McNellie's and an attempt to stop by JazzFest, we meandered over to Momentum Tulsa to meet Tara. She had some lovely artwork in the Momentum Market. I saw a few pieces of artwork that I really liked and I think that I'll definitely apply next year. But, then again, I say that every year.

Tara posted these pics that she took at Momentum.

After Momentum, Tara & I decided to check out "ladies night" at CHOCS. The patio looked so pretty and made me miss Santa Fe. We weren't there for long, but just long enough for Thom & Daniel to have found themselves at Long John Silvers (gross). We met them there for fun and photos.

No crafts yet today, I'm busy trying to get caught up on some necessary stuff. BUT, I paid for my birthday present today, and should have it soon!

Craft Week - Finale

2008-06-21T01:42:00.002-05:00

Lots of fun today. First, I brought a bunch of paintings/artwork downstairs to create a bit more inspiration in my summer craft space.

Second, I went to the casino today and won $450. Thom and I made so much money gambling this week.. He ordered his new hookah tonight, and I ordered my big birthday present! I can't wait to get it.....................

Tonight was supposed to be Gocco/Ghetto Screenprinting night. It really ended up being more of a casual dinner party, but Stella did make an awesome Riley screen so she can print his face on all of her clothes and all over town.

Tonight's group was Tara, Estela, Amby, Nathan, Renee, Josh, Daniel, Thom, & I (wow, a crowd!) We enjoyed a variety of "grilling out" themed food. And.... We finally got to use the pool! Daniel, Tara, Thom, & I hopped in for a late night swim. I've been buying, and hording bathing suits like a crazy person, since I haven't been able to actually swim. I actually just got a new Michael Kors bathing suit on Wednesday. (that's the only picture online I could find of it)

Tomorrow is Momentum Tulsa! See you there!

Craft Week - Day Four

2008-06-19T23:35:00.001-05:00

Tonight Holly taught us to make polymer clay roses. Tara, Holly, Renee, and I were joined by Thom for this class. He's really excited at the prospect of making polymer clay Christmas ornaments.

First we snacked on desserts. Since I'm on south beach, I tried to make a low-carb, sugar free dessert. Hmm, not so much.. I made a "chocolate cake". Instead of flour, the recipe called for ground pecans, so I ground pecans into a cornmeal consistency. We tried it fresh out of the oven, and it was really not so good. BUT, it was a nice attempt at the survival food that Tara and I have been studying. Not quite acorn pancakes, but hey, if there comes a time when we have no flour/sugar, at least I'll still know how to make cake! Anyway, it was much tastier the next day drizzled with strawberries/blueberries and sugar free yogurt.

On to crafting! Holly showed us some of her techniques on making roses and gave us a general idea of how polymer clay works. And, I got to try out the $3 toaster oven that I bought for crafts. I'm really looking forward to playing more with polymer clay. We'll be donating the roses to Breast Impressions, to include in the Tulsa Craft Mafia basket that will be auctioned at their event on July 3rd.

Craft Week - Day Three

2008-06-18T23:56:00.002-05:00

Tonight was Mosaic Night. I had a teensy bit of a stressful afternoon after finding out that Thom's aunt, uncle, two cousins, and aunt's parents would be coming through town and stopping for dinner. I suggested a dinner out, since I was to teach Mosaic's at 7:30, but instead we wound up cooking spaghetti for everyone. Family arrived about 5 and left about 7.. Just enough time left for me to pick up my parents dog (we're house/dog sitting this week).

Tara, Estela, Holly, and myself enjoyed salad, spaghetti, and wine before starting our mosaics. I think they turned out well, what do you think?

Oh, and I bought some super discounted Armani sunglasses today! Beautiful!

Craft Week - Tuesday

2008-06-17T23:48:00.002-05:00

This week is the Tulsa Craft Mafia craft week. Last year, we did this in August, but seeing as one of our lovely ladies will be having a baby in August, we thought it might be better suited for June. Craft Week started when I was daydreaming one day about a craft community sometime about this time last year. I originally was inspired by my great-aunt's artist month that she hosts every October. She is a super talented artist, and has been painting her entire life. She's made wonderful artist acquaintances from all over the world and in October, she invites everyone to her house for a month/week/weekend (however long you can stay) for an intensive painting study. She does this at her home in New Mexico and everyone just paints all day and spends this amazing quality time together creating. They teach each other different techniques and experiment with new paints.. it sounds like so much fun. She doesn't charge room or board, just requires that while you are there, you are in charge of preparing meals and cleaning up for one day of your visit. I'm really hoping I can go for a week this year, but October will be busy with Indie Emporium and a visit from the inlaws. Maybe I can make it to New Mexico in between the two.

Anyway, I originally wanted craft week to be a similar project as my Aunt Floy's painting month, but since reality is that most of the people I know have to have jobs and do things to pay the bills instead of crafting all day, we made craft week a series of crafts over each night of a week.

This week is 2008 Craft Week. Lastnight was knitting night at Amby's and I totally missed it. I suck. I actually still have my knitting project on the needles from last August.. I don't know how to take it off!

Tonight we had "Build Your Business Night" at my house. Tara, Holly, Estela, Kristen, and I enjoyed some dip and then discussed ways to grow and promote our craft businesses. Not exactly our most creative night, but I do feel like the series of Build Your Business nights that we've had have inspired me to actually list things in my etsy shop and focus a bit more on the business side of things. I didn't take any pictures tonight, but I'll try to remember to the rest of the week.

(Tara posted this pic of Build Your Business Night on the TCM myspace)

Tomorrow is Mosaic night!

Even More!

2008-06-16T17:19:00.000-05:00

Here are a few pictures that Tara took at the fashion show.

New crafts coming soon!

Swaporamarama

2008-06-16T16:42:00.008-05:00

The Swaporamarama was a blast. Tara and I got to sort out all of the donated fabrics shortly after arriving at Struble Studios on Saturday. We both found some really neat fabrics and after things were sorted and people started arriving, we did some cute projects. A few of the OKEtsy girls (Claudia and Sara) were also at the Swaporamarama making and giving away tshirt totes. It was awesome to see the diverse ages and people types working together making things and creating together. Here are a variety of pictures from Saturday's events.

Here is the pile of fabric I ended up with.. at first. It kept growing.

Thanks so much to Kelli and Stephanie for organizing this. You girls rock!

Yeah, the middle picture is a braid of hair that Tara pulled out of one of the donation bags. Real, or not??

Tara made an "abstract" giraffe with on the embroidery machines that were at the Swaporamarama.

More Fashion Show Pictures

2008-06-16T09:36:00.000-05:00

More pictures from the Re:fashion show by Derek Reust. Re:Fashion Show Photos.

Re:fashion Show

2008-06-15T23:12:00.003-05:00

I'm home from OKC and although the trip was great, I'm absolutely exhausted. I'll try to recap (with photos!).

Friday, Tara picked me up around 1 and we headed out for OKC. About 3 miles into the trip, we got a flat tire.. in the rain. That was a bummer, but within a pretty short time, we were back on the road, with 2 new tires. We ended up getting to Struble Studios after 5, but we still got everything set up in time and the only thing we missed out on was picking up lunch/dinner. Here are some photos of our setup.

The fashion show was really fun and pretty packed! I couldn't get many good pictures because my decent camera is broken, but here are the "artistic blur" shots that I ended up with. Yeah, we'll pretend the blur was on purpose.

I think Tara was able to get some better photos of the fashion show. And a few of the pictures here are from her. (thanks tara!)

After the fashion show, I ended up selling a few dresses, shirts, and the one jacket that I printed peacocks on. I was pleased with the sales and I definitely want to participate in this show when it happens again.

I'll update tomorrow about the Swaporamarama and Saturday events (with more pictures!).

Thrifty

2008-06-12T22:36:00.003-05:00

Check out how much ink I was able to scrape off of the screen before washing it! I had no idea I could save that much ink. I just used a scrap of cardstock and a toothpick.

Gocco

2008-06-12T16:24:00.001-05:00

Well, rather than freaking out anymore about the missing gocco inks, I decided to improvise. I tried out the Speedball Fabric ink that I've been using in other projects. On the first screen I tried, it smooshed all the way to the edges and made the cardboard really soggy, but the prints did come out just fine. After I got the hang of it on the next screen, and learned that ink blocking corrects a great deal of the mess, I really think I might actually prefer the prints made with Speedball ink. The gocco ink is much thicker, but I find that I have to reload the screen a lot more frequently.

I made lots and lots of shirts and printed on some dresses too for the show this weekend. I'm also going to work on some more appliqued dresses/skirts/shirts and will update after the weekend in OKC.

Wish me luck!

Here are some random gocco pictures from the last few days to get you through the weekend.

Did I mention that I have about 100 items to heat set tonight?? At 3 minutes, per side, per item, I think I might need Thom's help! He's been awesomely supportive and helpful with my craft endeavors.

Craft Emergency

2008-06-11T14:02:00.002-05:00

I'm about to shed tears over my lack of gocco inks for cloth right now. I *know* I had black ink for cloth.. I know I had orange... And they are missing!

Remember my discussion of moving my craft studio downstairs for the summer? Well, those neatly packed boxes have been crazily rummaged through in a mad panic trying to find these inks. Twice. I've probably spent about 2 hours today focused on this ink that I so desperately need. Oh Riso, why don't you continue manufacturing, and add to your vendors one in Tulsa so I could just go buy some of the ink I need.

Well, I have green, red, yellow, and white to work with. I have yellow shirts that really need bees, black bees on them. Imayhavetotrythespeedballink. I'm really afraid of the results and wasting a screen.

Stress!

I've got about 501 million things to do before Friday, so I'm going to scoot. I promise to be more thorough with these posts once I'm not stretched for time because of my awful procrastination. I haven't tagged or priced anything for this weekend folks, that's right, anything!

5 new designs

2008-06-10T15:01:00.002-05:00

Are ready to be xeroxed for gocco-ing! Sadly, it's already 3 o'clock and I have to be at work at 5, and then an Indie Emporium planning meeting, so I don't know when I'll get to gocco them. BUT the designs are ready to go.

Weekend

2008-06-09T10:05:00.003-05:00

Well we managed to clear out space in the garage! But I haven't gotten couches switched yet. Normally I would just do this myself, but after a recent trip to the doctor where I was told I have a disc slipped in my back that is touching a nerve and causing weird numb sensations in my leg, I've decided to NOT move furniture alone. Maybe tonight we can get things set up.

Thom and I had a nice weekend together. We stopped by Lundeby's EcoBa by on Saturday to buy the Kleen Kanteens that Thom has been wanting so badly. I normally hate branding where things are spelled improperly, but I made an exception for these. Lundeby's is looking great and we were glad to hear that some of our soy candles have been selling. We also went to the Cherry Street Farmer's Market, but it was almost 10 am, so most of the veggies were already sold out. We did get some lovely fragrant garlic. It should be good in our Indian Chicken on the menu this week. I really plan on adding cooking to my blogging. We have completely changed our way of eating over the past two months and I'm feeling so much better. I haven't had even a drop of processed flour or sugar in 6 weeks! In fact, the only sugar we've had at all has been from berries and we're introducing whole grains into our diet about two servings a week. Summertime is always so great for fresh foods and I *will* eventually grow some of my own. In fact, I'm going to get some pepper plants this week to plant in the backyard. We've got cherry tomatos growing and I picked 18 off of the plant on Saturday alone. I have to pick them when they are yellow because otherwise the birds get them.

Sunday meant craft mafia! We made lots of fun plans and it was nice to come home to notification of an etsy sale. This picture was stolen from Amby's blog.

Happy Monday everyone! I'll be posting with some sneak peaks at my new shirt designs this afternoon. I'm hoping to sell a lot this weekend at Re:fashion, but I think these will be good for Reggaefest on July 11th & 12th also.

Still altering clothing!

2008-06-06T14:28:00.002-05:00

I will have more variety in my crafts after this next week of preparation for the Re:Fashion show. Until then though, it's all clothing related. I'm still printing, I know, days and days of this make it less exciting, but I've got a bunch of design ideas still.

I'm going to switch methods though, perhaps on Monday and work with my gocco. It feels unloved and unused and Thom isn't thrilled with my latest big craft lust since I've barely used the gocco that I *had* to have. I do love the gocco, but there is a lot of anxiety that goes with using it. I always worry that I'm going to ruin a screen or waste bulbs and they are somewhat hard to come by.

In other news, we have a craft mafia meeting this Sunday evening and craft week is quickly approaching. I probably won't be posting over the weekend since my big goal is to get a big enough spot cleared out of our garage to fit the ugly couch in, so I can switch furniture around and move my studio downstairs for the summer. We're trying not to use our upstairs air conditioner and I don't think I'll be inclined to work when it's like 250 degrees, so I'm making a "creative space" out of our second living area. It will host my sewing machine, a big craft table, shelves of supplies, a big comfy chair for the husband to do his writing in, and perhaps a permanent(for the summer) printing area with drying shelves (the last part is still in the works and not definite).

Have a good weekend!

Lots more screen printing is happening

2008-06-05T09:54:00.002-05:00

I've been finishing up some of the shirts from the earlier post. I had a lot of trial and error with the heat setting of the speedball ink, but I think I've got it figured out now.

Also, today was a big shopping day. I bought a bunch of dresses and shirts to print on, applique, embroidery, and otherwise alter before the Re:Fashion show next weekend.

Oh yeah - Day Two thoughts

2008-06-04T14:32:00.002-05:00

So, lastnight, someone stole the blinker part of my left headlight. More than angry, it made me really sad.. I mean, at least if they stole money, I could justify it, thinking that maybe they had a hungry family at home to feed or something. But, the blinker light off of a 9 year old car??? Seriously. Fortunately, I found this on ebay.

That's right, a whopping $18 that someone could have paid to replace their light, but instead they chose to take mine.

And I was hoping that $26 in my paypal could go towards this.

Day Two

2008-06-04T14:01:00.003-05:00

Screen printing - without all of the nasty chemicals! And it's not using my precious gocco.

2 designs today, perhaps one more this afternoon! I had to take a break on the pinup screen because I got ink on the wrong side of the screen and had to wash it out. But by the end of the day, I think there will be pin-ups on everything!

I'm trying to get ready for the Re:Fashion show next weekend in OKC. I'll be showing two dresses and two tees in the fashion show and will have a booth where my designs will be available.

Anyway, back to work!

Day One, Part Two

2008-06-03T10:07:00.006-05:00

Day one and I'm already slacking! I meant to post this yesterday, but I'll post two today.. promise! Yesterday/this morning, I made the invitations for my best friend's baby shower that I'll be hosting later this month. I'm sure I'll have more projects posted here relating to the shower, but for now it's just the invites. I actually did most of the work on it in photoshop and then had them sent electronically to Walgreens (twice even! Yeah, make sure you double check everything before you submit!). About an hour later, I had a lovely email that they were ready to be picked up. I also printed little photocards with her registries so people can get exactly what she wants! Next, I just trimmed the edges,Marked some cardstock at the appropriate places and cut them into 4x6 pieces to glue the photo-invites on to.
And, voila! Simple, but cute shower invites and registry cards.

Day One

2008-06-02T12:39:00.004-05:00

Today's main project was to "craft" myself a better layout for the blog. I didn't do much, but it's better than "template #whatever".

I do have a real project in the works for this afternoon though and I'll post it when I finish!

Welcome

2008-06-01T18:38:00.000-05:00

to my summer of craft. I'll be posting a craft project a day and at the end of the summer, I will be selling all of the completed items in my etsy store, summerofcraft.etsy.com.