snow day part two

i was blessed with another snow day that is looking more like a sludge day outside.
But the sweatshop is looking pretty sunny! this was last night's bag. today is patches and another bag in red. so keep posted!

how I spent my snow day!

I needed a good day to work out a new bag design. the pattern is by amy karol...the water tower drawing is mine... drawn with my machine. Fabrics are what I have left over from the holiday season products. I'm liking the pattern and the water tower....any comments would be very much appreciated....to sell or not to sell?

Looking for some Pink for V day?

Here are some of favorites Pink Ideas for V-day from the BEST team

Just Rosy Magnet Set - Pretty in Pink by Block PartyPress

printable lotus stationery by three wheel design

Bon Jovi short- sleeved infant t-shirt by Sweet pepita

Heart of Hearts - Handmade Lampwork Bead by Dorset Hill Beads

Magenta leaf Broken Plate Pendant by The Broken Plate Pendant Company

Cherry Blossom (this is the pick of the week) by dandelionblu

Pink Lily, 1 1/2 inch button ring by Tigerlily shop

lily card by the book room

felt pointy flower brooch by jenmenkhaus

Thanks Baltimore Magazine!

I love the BEST support

Happy Obama Day!

Barack Obama HOPE canvas art poster 2008 for president

OBAMA Silhouette Illustration 44th US President Print Vintage Style Light Blue T-Shirt

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA. wall sticker surface graphic by Lana Kolefrom B-more!

Today is such a wonderful day! I am so excited for our future. I'm not sure which part of today made me the happiest...Obama's speech or watching Bush fly off in the helicopter! So ha[[y to hear an intelligent speaker with inspiration, foresight and wit! As well as someone who can pronounce his words and read sentences longer than 5 words! I found some good finds on etsy today to celebrate today! I know, some were on the front page this morning...but I really enjoyed these today!

i like bread and butter

From the cobblestone streets of D.U.M.B.O...comes bread and butter. A collective of awesome artists and designers located in Brooklyn, New York. When they're not designing book covers, art directing or laying out magazines, Carol, Deb + Kelly are busy working on projects and making things in their studio. You can find these treasures on their etsy site here
All letterpress goods are hand-printed on a Chandler and Price table top press, using soy based inks. I got to use this letterpress myself when I printed my peacock and birdy bird cards.
I was so happy when I noticed their updated shop just in tome for the holidays. I got Patrick the Hells Yeah card which is now framed and hanging in our gallery of favorite artworks! Highest quality! Great gift idea for that someone special or for your own gallery of fav's.

Daniel Firman

I love the vision of a swimming elephant. If you saw the Fall, you would have seen that amazing scene in which the elephant comes to save the bandits off the island. I think it the most beautiful sight ever, a swimming elephant. How about a suspended one, that is balancing off of her trunk? Daniel Firman 's show in Paris last summer includes this beautiful vision of a taxidermy elephant. I don't think I could have contained myself if I was in the presence of such a magical creature.


At a distance f 18,000 km from the earth, the elephant Wursa could balance on her trunk. It is on the basis of learned scientific calculations that Daniel Firman reached this conclusion, and came above all to produce this extraordinary work which confounds all our certainties regarding the gravitation of bodies. The life size creature's precarious equilibrium seems to put us in danger. The hyper-realist sculpture borrows from the skills of a taxidermist which gives us the opportunity to seesaw between a proven scientific phenomenon and the real and physical putting of the world into perspective. Wursa, conjures up a Russian Sputnik and the conquest of space, is fixed in her position as if one of her acrobatic feats had been arrested by the pause button: this vision enables the artist to offer a novel physical and psychological experience.

- http://www.ashadedviewonfashion.com/

Handmade Nation::: Sneak Peek April, 2007

Monster Trucks!

Patrick showed this to me today and then I found it on Beautiful decay! I love this effect...making monster
trucks look so small! Artist Keith Loutit combined two techniques – tilt-shift and time-lapse photography– to create a "dreamy" impression of the monster trucks rally in Brisbane, Australia.

YeeHaw...there's a new ranger in town!

CAMPING SQUIRREL JR RANGER SCOUT LETTERPRESS PRINT IN A LETTERPRESS VIGNETTE MAT ORANGE AND BROWN

i'm diggin this ranger series by yeehaw industries. These also fall into my fun sense of nostalgia aesthetic! Illustration by Bjorn Lie!!! These letterpress images are printed on on cream paper & matted inside my kraft letterpress mat. Image area is 4.25"x6"and the full matted print is ready to go into an 8"x10" frame. They also can be sold with one-of-kind handmade frames made from salvaged wood from New Orleans!

FISHING BEAR JR RANGER SCOUT LETTERPRESS PRINT IN A LETTERPRESS VIGNETTE MAT YELLOW AND BROWN

HIKING BUNNY JR RANGER SCOUT LETTERPRESS PRINT IN A LETTERPRESS VIGNETTE MAT ORANGE AND BROWN

RIVER RASCALS JR RANGER SCOUT LETTERPRESS PRINT IN A LETTERPRESS VIGNETTE MAT GREEN AND BROWN

Darling Clementine..getting closer to my bib!

I have posted this picture, way back, of my cousin cathi and I at Christmas, I believe under my Aunt Anna's Xmas tree, and I am obsessed with the bib that I have on. When I think about happy times, and I had many happy times as a kid, I think of an aesthetic of products that (we're talking mid to late 60's, early 70's) completely represent that happiness to me.

IN my browsing of sites this evening, I found a shop, darling Clementine that comes very close to this aesthetic that I have learned to love since being a kid. I love these canvas bags as well as the camping card set. The card set Marionette comes closest to the lion on my bib and the monkey's on the box next to me. I still haven't figured out what that is. Anyone know, please let me know.
Out of Oslo, Ingrid Reithaug & Tonje Holand are the illustrators and designers of these wonderful products that bring a fun sense of spirit and nostalgia to the table. Visit their etsy shop here and their web site here.

Trying to Jump Start your Craft Business?

Photo by pixelthis

If one of your resolutions is to start up or refresh your craft business, we have a workshop for you! BEST will be hosting its first business meetup at the Creative Alliance on Sunday, January 25th. The meetup will feature roundtable discussions led by Cynthia Blake Sanders, MD Lawyers for the Arts; Rebecca Cason, former director of the Buyer's Market of American Craft; Jen Menkhaus, working crafter and one of the founders of the Baltimore Street Team; Nita Gale, web designer; Ariella Levin of Baltimore's Best Bookkeeper; and Thomas Wynn, professional photographer. Practical discussions will include legal and accounting basics; marketing, wholesale and pricing; and looking your best– on the web and in promo photos. Lunch will be provided, a great time to get connected with other local artists and crafters to make new friends, show off your work, and share ideas. I'll be there!

Details:
Sun Jan 25. 10am-2:30pm.
Adv reg $25, $20 CA & BEST mbrs. Walk-in $30, $25 CA & BEST mbrs. Includes lunch.

Register here.

Tale of the Green Hat!

I have to tell you about this wonderful story about my green hat that I got from Sarah and Phil of rocksandsalt on etsy. They had the booth behind me at Handmade Arcade this past November. Allison (Tigerlily of BEST) and I noticed that everyone who tried on one of their hats, looked absolutely perfect! Now that's a hard product to make! And I mean it, everyone looked so hip and so perfect in their hats. I had my eye on this green one ( you can see it on my pic ) and I asked them about it. They gave me an awesome price on it since I was a vendor...and then showed me another one that had the smallest flaw..I have to admit this...I couldn't see the flaw that Phil was pointing out. And They gave me an even sweeter deal. It grew to be my up most favorite hat that I have ever owned!
Sad part of this story is that it got lost, walked away...not sure what happened while I was doing another craft show in Baltimore. My heart sank and the end of my 2008 was pretty much a symbol for how 2008 was for the USA.
I wrote to sarah and phil and told them my disheartened story. And guess what! They found another one, in the same color green and they sold it to me for the same sweet price! Thanks You Guys! I have been so happy about joining this diy, made handmade movement because these stories and connections! 2008 was actually awesome for me in this world! And now I fully look forward to exciting 2009!
So check them out! Here is a sampling of their awesome hats! Thanks Again Rocks and Salt!

More Iron ON Patches

Just posted in my shop

new eyeglass cases!

look for these on my shop...i'll be posting them all this week

Happy New Year!

Well...it was a good year...jennyjen made it out of Baltimore on the craft show circuit , made some excellent friends in BEST and got to ride her bike and found air and some bears in Whistler . Made some great connections with some new fabrics and designs..and got more students to art school...with my first in Parsons! Cheers to you Simone! Got to meet up with Matt Stinchcomb from Etsy and meet other crafters from other parts of the country. Best of all Obama was elected! The most I have ever been excited about a President! This year was spent in front of the TV thanks to the elections, Mad Men and the final season of The Wire. It was a rough year in terms of economics , another year of Bush and a small stink of Unemployment. But MICA saved the day for Patrick ! Life is doing A OK here on Argonne Drive. The cats are healthy and entertaining as hell. My brother is going to marry his long time girlfriend in '09! My goals for this year are to do more craft shows out of Maryland, set up a better way of tracking my sales and expenses, find some good places to sell my wares and exercise more! Find a better friend in my bike and do yoga more. Try to stop making announcements to my husband everyday, and try to keep a more organized and clean house! Make more off season so that I don't go crazy during holiday season. Maybe seek out an intern at MICA..ok that sounds good...and yeah, and find new recipes to cook.
Happy New Year Everyone. Thanks For Keeping up with me and staying in touch!

my favorite photo of this year by Tya

Reptile House 1985

So i'm finding the distractions of facebook to be ..well...quite fun...but very distracting. Good thing I'm on break! I have found the best photo's of my past...course none of them have me in them. Funny, I remember hanging out with Allison Futeral at most of these punk rock/Jules events...in fact we got stuck many a time working the door or making the kiddies come inside! but no pictures.
Anyway.....here is one of the original Reptile House....I wanted to post a pic of London May....one of my X's from the past.Wonder where he is these days.

did you notice the date? my bday after graduating from Towson State!

Blaine Fontana on Juxtapoz

I've been trying to catch up on what I've been missing over the last past months of very heavy crafting season...sleep...not been getting up until after 10AM everyday!..cleaning and organizing..Patrick is actually cleaning his office as I write...grant applications...Baltimore Individual Artist grant...completed this morning...a break with some Law and Order....and now for some posting and Artist hunting. I have some major unit and lesson planning to do over my break and I'm in search of new mentors so its off to Juxtapoz to discover Blaine Fontana.Check out the entire interview with Brian Sherwin of My Art Space. I love any work that deals with juxtaposition...I have learned to hate that word...too many times it is used..but have to admit it is my love of work that deals with placing different and conflicting worlds together in creating new ideas, spaces and worlds.

And to all a good night!

we gave into a fake tree this year and I absolutely love it! i'm ashamed to say that I got it at Wal-mart, but they had the one I was looking for. I first thought I wanted a slver one, but am very happy with the white one! You can really see my antiwue ornaments as well as my quirky ones. Happy Holiday's everyone!

monkeys for Paige and Bailey!

i've been back behind the sewing machine, having a good time making these two little monkeys with very cutie dresses. I'm thinking about closing down my bookroom etsy shop and starting up a sock monkey shop! i used to make tons of sock monkeys until I just had enough. I think these two guys could take me back into the monley business. I need to make a sock monkey diaper bag this week too.

BEST Featured on the Storque!

Our team is featured today on Etsy's blog! Profiles on a bunch of us and cool portraits from around the city, check it out!