Tribute to Tupperware

i can remember my mom's first Tupperware party. she pulled out the card tables and TV trays and place her special bowls full of mints and peanuts. the chairs all arranged in a circle and then her special table cloth over my dad's poker table with the full array of Tupperware goods. i fund some gems that completely take me back to new days of Tupperware to commemorate the cook out. HAPPY LABOR DAY!
Go to etsy and type Tupperware for tags and you will find about 5 pages full of great vintage Tupperware!

BEST featured in the Storque

BEST....otherwise known as the Baltimore etsy street team was featured this past week in the Storque! I cannot begin to tell you about this amazing group of women who I joined up with to make up this group. I never feel alone in my sweat shop, I can always get a good answer to any crafty question as well as crafty business question I may have, and I have never felt so supported in a creative endeavor. I may never go back to painting again! Jen Menkhaus is our industrious leader who has gone way beyond her duties to help promote and glue us all together. Most of the core group will be at Hampden Fest on Sept. 13 in a huge tent together. Check out the Storque article here

i survived

i just got finished my first week of teaching kiddies and i am so exhausted. i hate to admit this but i fell asleep during Biden and Obama's speeches the past two nights. I have set specific goals this year...to be more organized, use my outlook calendar at school, make lists and follow them and try, as hard as I can to be efficient so that I can come home and work in my sweat shop. Jennyjen42 has been growing. I have gotten into many craft shows and have a lot on my plate. And I don't want to give any of it up! I made my goal of getting out of Maryland for 2 shows this year: Crafty Bastards and Handmade Arcade. Before Crafty Bastards in DC, I have 2 other shows around town. I'm awaiting news about Bazaart at the Visionary museum and Holiday Heap which take place right after Handmade arcade.Then there is the Merry Mart at the Creative Alliance and the Last Minute Maul at School 33. So yeap, I will be a bit crazy. I saw this pic from Poppy Talk which is right From Martha and I thought it was a good synposis of my goal for the year....making organization the key to making my life full of beautiful things.

oooooooo, a new find and it isn't friday

i had to post this one because I'm really diggin' these patterns. I found cicadastudio's Shop on etsy today. I love these original patterns on linen ...i'm thinking they are too nice to felt applique' birdie birds on them.

what I did over the weekend

i was a bit busy this weekend. Patrick was away so I took advantage of jennyjen sweat shop time. In between spending time with BEST...BBQ on Saturday and our monthly meeting this morning...i manage to make a couple of new items.

50 is my lucky number today!

Today, i made my 50th. sale on my etsy site as well as received my 550th. heart! Thanks everybody for the hearts and kisses!

Old School Exhibition...thanks Poppy talk!

Today was the last day for us teachers to work in our classrooms before the kiddies arrive on Monday morning. decoration day, i call it. I pulled out all of my art posters...thank god for SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) ...they give us the best posters! I like to collage all of the art postcards and exhibit announcements jumble up with any other collage materials as the year grows. I went onto Poppytalk to find pictures from the Old School exhibition opening up this weekend over at Uppercase in Calgary. I've been looking forward to seeing what ever images I can for this show. I'm quite bummed not to be living in Calgary... i know deep down I am met to be Canadian. I love this concept. I think there should be an aesthetic theory named after this style. I'm still kicking myself in the ass for not taking an alphabet line chart from the book room when I was teaching in an elementary school. I bet those are worth money now...I don't think they teach cursive anymore.
all photos from poppytalk.

saying howdy! summer vacations photo's

Remember those special trips during your summer vacations? I hope they are not going extinct due to the roaring gas prices. I remember going out west and my dad being winded by the $.65 a gallon...hey where is the cents key! I guess that is extinct too! Did we ever a cents key? feeling too lazy to font find it. I love Patrick so much...he will always make us go away every summer. Even if its ocean shitty...we will always go on some sort of summer vacation. Even with our piggy bank very dry, we found a way to go to Whistler this summer. A great summer it was. here are more summer vacations photo's from my past! Such happy memories....when I wasn't doped up on Dramamine!

back to school....remember those great days of summer

i've just spent my third day of the first day back to school. it's teacher meeting week and get your classroom in order and get ready for the kiddies week! Today was a great professional development day with other art teachers....and you try, real hard, not to make a smart ass remark to every stupid question posed . it scares me, sometimes, how disconnected some teachers are in this country. they give us teachers a bad rap and they need to get out and find another career. yes , it isn't right when smoke is screaming out of your kiln.....no the mouse cord does not connect to the Ethernet connection in the wall....this is not how you get the internet to work....your phone will not get a dial tone if you plug it into the Ethernet plug. ugh;( i really wish i could use the f-word professionally. anywho, tomorrow we build more studio walls for my increasing AP class.I am very excited about my Advance Placement kids this year!
i am off my intention for this blog entry ..i wanted to find a good last day of summer pic....i love this one. we use to go play at the German orphanage in Catonsville as kids and there was this amazing swing that could swing a ton of kids at one time. It had a center pole as its axis and a round bench that we all sat on with a pole you held on to and it would swing around as well as side to side! I loved this playground ride that I'm sure has been destroyed and knighted dangerous! Along with many a merry-go-round and sea saw! Today's playground's may be safe...but not quite as fun! I'm the one in the pink dress!

I am A Crafty Bastard!

YES!!!!! I got in...Tricia and I will be at Crafty Bastards , September 28th. Check out other vendors and info here.

new eye glass case designs

i've worked mr. owl and mr. preacock into my eyeglass case designs! you can get one at one of the upcoming fall craft shows : Catonsville Fall Fest , Sunday, September 7
Hampden Fest,Saturday, September 13 and
Crafty Bastards in DC, Sunday, September 28.

You Tube a little on the late side

the latest three posts were from two weeks ago....sorry they seem a bit out of place. Can't wait to see the W movie...and its always good to see that opening for Mad Men. Its off to Loch Raven for my morning solo ride! I love these days...get up, eat some pancakes and a couple cups of coffee...a nice ride in the 70 something weather...and then back to the sweat shop! Patrick is away all day in the mountains of PA..so I get to have some jenny time. happy saturday!

Mad Men: Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

i am so behind on this one.....how could I have missed it! if you haven't been watching Mad Men ON AMC get caught up on demand and share in my favorite aesthetic! just hope you're not trying to quit smoking!

Mad Men Opening Credits

W.

is that Parker Posey playing Laura Bush? Can't wait to see this one!

Friday Favorites...Broken Plate Belt Plates

The Broken Plate Pendant Company specializes in giving new life to old dinnerware, ceramics and anything else in my way. I love Juliet's intro on her etsy shop. Giving new life to ignored, thrown away, stuck in the junk drawer jewels is a big part of the diy phylisophy that I am still trying to grab my hands around. Juliet is having a great contest on her blog in which you have to guess the amount of plates she has in her basement! I can only imagine the stories tld around al of thse plates..the meals served...the day one had opened up a big gif box to see a set of plates.the days of glory for these gems. juliet has made them honorable again by making beautiful pendents with them. I particularly love these new belt buckels. I really need to get one...school starts on monday...meaning the paychecks are a coming!

My Summer Soundtrack...White Hinterland

You know how songs remind you of different times of your life and how wonderful those reminisce of sounds can bring memories full of emotion, smells, visions and events that roll around your head and bring big smiles(hopefully) I've been listening to Phylactery Factory, White Hinterland's debut album featuring 22-year-old Casey Dienel, who plays a nice combination of jazz and indie pop aesthetics. I kinda feel like I'm walking through the local Anthropology store as i listen to this.I've been listening to the entire CD for the past three days...and just can't get enough of it! Its a perfect listen for when those afternoon thunderstorms come around with its cloud covering and cool breezes! Take a listen to Dreaming of Plum Trees here.

Photo by David Greenwald

Change for a ten

i'm piggy backing the BEST entry today with some other examples from their blog. Being a thankful teacher of a fairly sizble budget for an art department I feel I need to do my best to share! Sounds like a better project to work on instead of curriculum writing!

ART 180, a nonprofit organization that gives young people in challenging circumstances a voice through the arts, is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. In honor of the occasion, they have created a super-cool, large-scale collaborative project called Change for a Ten.

Visit their website to download the template, then paint, write, sew, or draw your own $10 bill about the change you’d like to see in the community. Use any material you like - just keep it the size of a dollar bill. Submit along with a real $10 donation to ART 180 (0 East 4th Street #56, Richmond, 23224)

All of the "dollars" will be exhibited at a special anniversary celebration at VCU's Brandcenter on October 10, 2008. You can see what they've gotten already or read about it on their blog.