Felt Club Fundraising!!

I think I may have had my head up in the clouds for the past few weeks! I didn't realize that the Felt Club was holding a fundraising raffle for a LIFETIME SUBSCRITION to The Sampler until this very moment. Of course the time to purchase a raffle ticket or two ends tonight, so you had better get your buy on! If you aren't sure what The Sampler is, I am happy to share! It is an uber-cool monthly mailing of fun and cool crafty items, from 1 inch buttons to candles, etc made by some oth the coolest crafters out there! The subscriptions sell out super fast, so this is a great prize!! It will be like getting a little present every month, for the rest of your life! So dont be a dope! Enter the raffle! NOW!!!!

Holiday Boutique-Woodland Hills

This coming Sunday I am participating in a home Holiday Boutique in Woodland Hills. I am taking this very cool opportunity to put a few pieces up for sale that I have never made available before, including Eduardo, John Q., Albert, Mr. Costello, and Sleigh Ride among others!!

This one is sure to ROCK! This fun holiday boutique is in a private home so there wont be any crazy crowds to contend with! There will be lots of great deals to be had! Please remember that most of the vendors will only be taking cash and checks.

The details: December 3rd, 12-6,

Who will be there?? So glad you asked!
HannahMade
Bath Chick
In Craft We Trust
Henry Road
Funky Frocks
Pookieville

Mention this blog and receive 10% off of all purchases over $50.00 (at my table only!!)

I feel a WHOLE LOT BETTER NOW!

OMG! Have you seen this mini-film??? Been a long time since 1:15 seconds has made such a fabulous example of just how nutso our impressions are! Congrats to whomever is responsible for this genius!

And thank you to BZ for bringing this to my attention!

Glamor-wk 4


As it turns out, November has been hectic! I have let my participation in the Self Portrait Challenge suffer, something that makes me a bit crazy as I sort of promised myself that I would be consistent! Turns out that my version of consistent is maintaining something for a few months, and then lapsing for a short while before kicking myself in the behind! Ha!

I guess part of my ease at falling behind in the SPC is that Glamor, this months theme, is not really something I identify with. I spend a lot of time in my sweats trying not to drop gobs of glue on them! (It is a futile effort!) I think that glamor is sonething on the inside, and I find it HYSTERICAL the things we will subject ourselves to in an effort to be pretty! Take this crazy face mask thing that my friend gave me to do the night before my Real Simple photo shoot. I look like some kind of Hannibal Lecter prodigy! The whole thing was simply too funny not to photograph, and then apparently share with the world! So enjoy my attempt at pursuing glamorous skin! The process was certainly anything but!!!

Thank you Craft Synergy!!!

Everything has been so hectic for the past few weeks that I forgot to mention that on November 13th I did an interview with the lovely Patricia over at Craft Synergy!! Every few days a new interview is posted. Patricia has made some excellent selection. All of the articles are amazingly interesting! You wont want to miss a single one!!

So glad to be home!

I hope that everyone had a happy Thanksgiving! We certainly managed to over cook, and over eat! While I really enjoy traveling and gettng to hang out with friends in NY, I am SO glad to be home!!! It was just a week, but I feel like I was gone for a month! For a person who works at home and spends a lot of time in the quiet of my studio, being out of the house and running around NY really knocked me on my ass! I know it sounds coo coo, but it is totally true! I am happy to be home!

The Saturday before I left I participated in the Sous Le Soleil home boutique in Pasadena. I took lots of photos that you can check out on my Flickr. There were lots of really cool vendors tere! I had a blast and met some awesome people! Thank you Tyn!!

I also have finally uploaded the photos from the Apartment Therapy Fall Colors Contest party at Turquiose! They can be seen here.

I am working hard to get caught up! Amazing how much stuff can pile up in a week! TTFN!

Up Up and Away!

Just wanted to let everyone know that I will be away for a week hanging out with family and friends in NY for Thanksgiving! Although I wont have time to hit the city, I will be all over Long Island and upstate. I hope you all have a fantabulous turkey day!


Here is a fun movie all about Etsy put together by a couple of guys in Brooklyn to keep you entertained during my radio silence!

NOTE: I will be back the weekend following Thanksgiving. Any orders placed while I am away will ship 11/27. Gobble gobble!

Sous Le Soleil

I am SO excited for this Saturdays craft boutique in Pasadena! I, along with 15 other artists and crafters, will be participating in Tyn Atols second annual Sous Le Soleil!! I went and checked out the space a couple of months ago and WOW! What a beautiful loctation, on top of a hill overlooking all of the city! I am looking forward to meeting the other artists who will be there, and to be outside for a day!!!Fresh air! Yay! (kinda sad huh?) If you are in LA and looking to get an early jump on your holiday shopping, you must come join us!!

Here are some of the awesome folks who will be there:
Tyn Atol
Denise Young
Renée Dominique
CJ Metzger
Kari Atol

Here is the info: 330 Redwood Dr. Pasadena 12-5 Say "Hi!" if you come by!!!

Fall Colors Party!!

This Thursday night there will be a party to celebrate the winners in Apartment Therapys Fall Colors Contest. The event will be held at Turquoise’s new showroom in Venice. I will be there with many of my works, as will Henry Road! It is sure to be an outrageous event! If you are in the area, please come and join us!

Etsy V2

The new version of Etsy is now online!!! I am over the moon excited with the new features! I love the huge new banners and larger images. Everything is just so much more organized, which suits my nerotic self right down to the bone!


For me the best addition is the ability to put our items into sections! Now you wont have to click through 10 pages to investigate what is available. The art is with the art, and the onesies are with the onesies! LOVE IT!

To check out the new duds, click here.

West Coast Style Show

I went and checked out the West Coast Style Show over the weekend. Here are a couple pics of my pieces in Vanessa's space at the West Coast Style Show. The room looked awesome! I loved everything! Thanks Vanessa!!

Illustration Friday: Clear

This weeks Illustration Friday theme is clear. I love interpreting these themes and relating them back to impressions some of my pieces have left on me. This piece's title is Float. The idea of 3 people floating on a lake having a picnic on a clear Sunday afternoon, fully dressed up, makes me smile. I partly wish that we had these kinds of formalities in our rituals today, but the other half of me is glad I wont ever have to sit in a tiny boat in a bustle. LOL. I guess I want history, with logic and sweatpants!

Felt Club this Sunday!

Bummed Etsy is down for the weekend??? Well I have a solution! If you are in LA and looking to do some indie craft shopping this weekend, come by and check out the Felt Club! There will be 2 dozen vendors all showing off their wares, including Darling Design and Hotdog n' Bun!

Shop News!

This weekend Etsy will be offline so that the much anticipated switch from Beta to V2 can be implimented! I am so excited to arrange my new shop in to categories and make it easier to navigate! So at Midnight EST tonight through Monday morning my online shop will be unavailabe. Seems like the perfect time to introduce my new Holiday Shop! The new shop is chock full of Christmas cards, t-shirts and sweatshirts, journals and tote bags. I can personally recommend the organic tees and the totes. I carry mine everywhere! Right now, through November 19th, you will receive 25% off all ornaments and cards! Yeah, thats right! Time to shop!!

What a week!!

Sorry to be MIA this week, but holy moly it has been a big one! So many things have come up, I have been clamoring to get everything accomplished AND be ready for the Felt Club on Sunday!

First off, I had the pleasure of meeting Vanessa De Vargas, a.k.a. Turquoise, this week! Vanessa is an Interior Designer and contributing writer on Apartment Therapy: LA. She was also recently featured in the New York Times! (We were both written up together last week on decor8! )What an awesome lady! I went and checked out her store on Abbott Kinney and let me tell you, it is gorgeous! This weekend Turquoise is showing off her skills at the 3rd Annual West Coast Style Show at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium here in LA. She is designing a huge dining room/living room space and she was kind enough to select 2 of my pieces to include in her rooms! This is a HUGE event, starting off tonight with a benefit sneak preview in honor of the Lupus Foundation. It is open to the public Saturday 11-7 and Sunday 11-5. There will be lectures throughout the days and vignettes by lots of renowned LA designers. Tickets are $10.00. If you are into design, this is sure to be a stellar weekend!!!! I will be checking out the scene on Saturday morning and will be sure to take lots of pics if I can!

OK-lots more to come!! Be back in a bit!

SPC Glamor-wk 1

So last week, on Halloween, my SPC was all about my non existent desire to dress up for Halloween, but later that evening it seems that something happened. I am thinking it may have been a little too much wine, at least that is the story I am sticking to! I decided to be a kitty while answering the door, and painted my nose black with eyeliner, which apparently doesn't stay put on your nose either! (I don't know about you, but my eyeliner and mascara are always all over my eyes at the end of the day! Which is SO glam!) We had a bunch of friends over and while relaxing after a long evening of door answering and dancing around we all started switching costume elements, and I must say that I kind of miss being a blond when I see this photo! The whole look is just too much fun! And yes, kind of glamorous!

So if you haven't figured it out yet, this months theme for the Self Portrait Challenge is glamor. Prepare to giggle and laugh. A girl covered in glue all day sees very little glamor! We shall see what I come up with!

Illustration Friday: Smoke

This weeks Illustration Friday theme is smoke and this immediately makes me think of cigarettes, and from there I think about how our perception has changed so dramatically over the decades as to how harmful smoking is. I find it hard to believe that people ever wanted to smoke in their office buildings, in restaurants, even in their beds. Whenever I watch an old movie and someone lights up in a space that is completely, and rightfully, off limits today, I kind of cringe. I have chosen this piece, Ron, as my IF for the week because he just looks like the kind of guy that worked in that kind of office where they all had secretaries with pin curls and ashtrays on their desks. Can you see it??

Terry and art

On Halloween morning I got the chance to hangout with my friend Terry, who I went to college with. Terry is awesome! He has such a great and unadulterated outlook on life. I love hanging out with him. He flew to LA from NYC to check out the opening of Marilyn Mansons art gallery on Melrose and we spent part of the afternoon trying to find it. I am so glad we did! I got a chance to take a quick peak in the gallery while they were setting up and wow! I had no idea Manson was a painter, and wow. Hung on the freshly painted walls where these gorgeous ornate black frames, with black mattes, displaying some of the coolest watercolor portraits I have seen. We were there for maybe 5 minutes, and the work left a mark on me. It is poignant and of course the subject matter is a at times disturbing, but it does exactly what art should do. You feel it. It marks you. The detail and craftsmanship are amazing. They actually kind of reminded me of Franceso Clemente, my all time favorite artist.

If you'd like to check out some of Manson's work, you can click here, but I am warning you, some of the subject matter may be hard to handle.

And here is an interesting article about Manson teaching an art class at Temple University.

Creative TECHniques

Today the third issue of Creative TECHniques hits newstands! I am so excited to share that inside is a great 4 page interview I did with them, and that they chose to use my portrait Jamey & Adam for the cover! This is a fun magazine full of great projects that merge craft and technology! It will get you thinking in all different directions! It is inspiring and really fun. Please make sure you check it out!!

Free Hugs Campaign

This video is inspirational and just makes me smile. I hope you enjoy it!

She's A Betty!

Just a quick thank you to the fab She's a Betty blog for including me in Volume 1 of their holiday picks! There is lots of fun on this blog! You should check it out!!

Holiday Goodies!

It is about that time for all of the holiday music, jingle bells, sugar cookies, snow, and turkey that make the end of the year so delicious! I love the holidays, especially our trips to NY for Thanksgiving. There is nothing in Los Angeles that compares to that crisp air feeling of the East Coast in November. I can't wait!

I have been working hard on fun new holiday items and have just added them all to my shop. I have put together some great stocking stuffers, as well as gift tags, and a few prints. Also coming soon will be my holiday shop featuring great tote bags, Christmas Cards, and lots of other fun goodies! But more on that later!

Happy Halloween!!

BOO!!!
One day only sale! All Halloween items in my shop are 20% off today only! Prices as marked, they are all the first items in the shop list. Happy Halloween!!

Imperfection-wk 5

This week the Self Portrait Challenge happens to fall on Halloween!! Too many crazy and stressful events have gone on in the last week for me to wallow in imperfection. Today I want to celebrate the fun. I want to haunt and spook, and give away TONS of candy! We decorated the front of our home over the weekend and Tom was very proud of his decorating skills. We were lazy, and busy, this year and didn't carve our own pumpkins, but I kind of like the Targét version! They really illuminate the front stoop and look killer in the dark!

I guess my one Halloween imperfection would have to be that I dont really enjoy dressing up. Costumes just dont seem to be my thing. I will however indulge and slap on a hat, or kitty ears, or something of that nature. This photo was taken in 2004 in San Francisco. We went to dinner at a yummy place that I cant remember the name of, where the projected the original "Vanished" on a wall. I am sure that once we have kids, and the magic of the day is fresh and bright, I will get sucked in, but for now, this will have to do!

Illustration Friday: Wind

This weeks Illustration Friday theme is wind, and although we are in Fall, and it has been unfortunately very windy here in LA for the last 2 days, this is the image I conjure when faced with this word.

I think that one of the most interesting things I have learned since becoming a full time artist is how encompassing of the 5 senses each image it to me. A lot of my memories are triggered by smells, or sounds, and I seem to incorporate certain background noises or sensations with my experience of each finished piece. I guess part of it is that we have all had a picnic at the park, and although this image is not on of my personal memories, it is familiar. It triggers personal memories.

This is Celine, and she is enjoying an afternoon at the local park with her new love. There is a warm wind blowing that wafts in the sweet scent of freshly cut grass, and I can hear the clanging chains of the swing set nearby. I can hear the kids make that unmistakable THUD when they jump off of the monkey rings and land in the sand, and I taste the grit of the sandy splash. I can see the colors and patterns of the butterflies and the wind tosses them about.

I think I might need to have a picnic this weekend!! Right after the CRAFT: magazine party! Happy Friday!

Upcoming Shows

Many people have emailed me asking for a schedule of holiday events for the upcoming holiday shopping season. So here is a breakdown of all of my upcoming fun!!!


NOVEMBER 12th: FELT CLUB
11am-6pm | THE ECHO, 1822 Sunset Blvd., Echo Park
You can see the fabulous list of vendors participating here!

NOVEMBER 18th: Sous Le Soleil
12-5 | 330 Redwood Dr. Pasadena
15-20 artists sharing their wares at a gorgeous home in Pasadena! Live music. Fun! Fun! Fun!

December 3rd: Home boutique in Woodland Hills, CA!
Paula Smail from Henry Road will also be participating! I Can't wait! More details to come. Join the mailing list on my homepage if you would like more info on this event.

DECEMBER 9th: XL FELT CLUB Event
12pm-7pm | THE UKRAINIAN CULTURAL CENTER
4315 Melrose Ave. @ Heliotrope
This event is going to be HUGE! Over 70 crafters are participating. You can see the vendor list here.

DECEMBER 10th: ROSE BOWL
With HannahMade under the canopy in the Arts & Crafts Section, booth 843B (or there abouts, they always seem to move us one to the left, or one to the right)!


ALSO!!!! This weekend is the CRAFT: magazine launch party in Los Angeles. I am going to definitely be checking that out! The event is sponsored by Felt Club and there are going to be amazing door prizes and events going on! I will be sure to take some photos!

One Step Closer

OK-so I got my logo back up (YAY!) . . . but now how do I get rid of the superfluous wording beneath it?? I do not heart beta blogger!

Any suggestions anyone??

Real Simple-finally!

YAY! It is finally here! The November Real Simple has hit the stands and I am so excited to see the article! It is surreal to see my family photos in a magazine, but it is very cool, of course! That is a school photo of my dad, and a fabulous photo of my grandmother! She was super stylish! She turned 92 last week! Amazing!

The other 3 women in the article have extremely interesting stories. Be sure that you check out the issue!

Imperfection-wk 4

My imperfection confession for this week is that, at the age of 29, I am still a nail biter. I am not proud of this fact, but I don't seem to be be able to do anything about it. My hands get so dry when I am working, that that leads to dry hands, which leads to bitten nails, and so on and so forth. And the glue I use is particularly fond of nail enamel. It will stick to polish like superglue! So manicures are a waste of time for me. My hands may be clean and tidy for a week or two, but inevitably it all goes to pot.

This photo was taken at a lovely birthday dinner that we attended a week or so ago (Happy Birthday Randee!). There was this funny, sparkly man who befriended our table and told us all about his working with disadvantaged kids and young adults. He went to the trunk of his giant Cadillac and pulled out the big box of Wet n' Wild beauty supplies and told us to pick something. Jamey picked the glitter nail polish, and then began painting her nails at the table (luckily we were seated on the patio). Despite my knowledge of the formaldehyde and chemicals in these polishes, I joined in and have spent the last 10 days picking at what is left of the sparkles. My poor, dry hands are a mess! How can something so sad, come from something so sparkly?? LOL. I should just get out the Acetone and clean 'em up! Maybe later . . .

If you'd like to see more imperfections, check out the Self Portrait Challenge site.

Website Finally up!

After years, and I mean YEARS, of having a URL, and no homepage, I can finally, and very happily, share that my homepage is now live! Now, I can just gove out one web address, instead of 3! Yay!

I would like to thank the magical and mystical Kay Stoner for all of her web expertise. If you need programming and design help, Kay's your go to gal!

If you would like to be part of my brand spanking new Mailing List to get updates on all shows, sales and special invitations to events, then be sure to sign up! I promise, your email address is safe with me!

Happy weekend!

lets see if this works . . .

For those of you who missed it, I totally screwed up the blog. Beta is not my friend! I am glad that I have been able to get the posts back up, but now I have to figure out how to replace my header . . . anyone rememebr how to do that in Beta?? All help and advice would be appreciated. I have the code ready to go, but cant remember where to place it! So I am here, trying to figure it out!

Back soon . . .

Thanks Lia!

This photo was posted to Flickr by one of my clients! I am so excited to see the piece, Jodie, in her new home!! Thank you Lia!!

Lia is also a collage artist! You can see her beautiful work on her Flickr page.

Imperfection-wk 3!

This weeks imperfect Self Portrait Challenge post is all about my knitting debacles. As you can see, I am a semi-beginner!

Let this be a lesson to all of you semi-beginner knitters out there who think that you can put down a project for a year, and then remember what the heck you were doing when you finally decide to resume the process!

I started the lace on the right last year around Thanksgiving on our trip to visit Toms parents. I don't think I have picked it up since, and could not remember what pattern I had been knitting in any of my various books and printouts. Once I was relatively certain (did I say relatively?) I had identified the original pattern, I realized I would never figure out which row I had stopped at. In my infinite wisdom (HA!) I thought that I would turn this into a scarf that had lacy ends, and a stockinette stitch center (is that what that stitch is called?). When the middle finally wrapped my neck twice, I started the other end . . . . but the laces do not match! HA! Oh well!! This will be my eccentric artist scarf. I will wear it under jackets!

At second glance, I realize that the original lace pattern was this pattern by Susan Lawrence. It is a gorgeous pattern, and hopefully I will make something from it later on. I am sort of, but not really, embarrassed to admit that I knit this!! It will be funky, but it will be the first thing that I finish that I will keep. Granted, because I would never subject a friend to wearing my Frankensteinish mistake scarf!

If you are a knitter, check out this post on Creative Swoon. It has great resources for patterns, yarns and is all based on a great scarf drive that SuperNaturale is holding to benefit Sanctuary For Families, a very worthy group that helps battered women and children.

Black and Orange

Penelope Dullaghan, the brains behind Illustration Friday, is holding an illustration contest in honor of Halloween! Click on the link to see all of the entries for the Black and Orange Illustration Contest.

Great Day!

Thank you so much to everyone who sponsored Jamey, Orliyah and me. Together we managed to raise over $1300.00 in about a week! We had such a great time on the walk. You can see photos of the adventure here.

Last Chance to Sponsor Me!

I hope that your Saturday is treating you well. It is a little rainy here which I am hoping will clear up in time for the AIDS Walk LA that I will participating in tomorrow with 2 of my friends.

If you would like to make a donation to help me meet my goal, please click here!

Lovely write up!

Just a quick thank you to Victoria Smith, the fab gal behind SF Girl By Bay. If you aren't familiar with this blog, you should be, especially if you live in the San Francisco area!! (Heads up ladies!) Victoria has the most amazing collection of flea market finds and decorative pieces. She is kind enough to post pictures of her apartment on Flickr. Here you will find no shortage of inspiration!!!

With what she calls her Bohemian Modern Style, Victoria's blog shares fun places in and around San Francisco to shop for great pieces to add to your own collections! Victoria also has a site, Petite Flea, where you can buy items that she has collected to create her own cyber flea market of sorts! But you have to be fast! Once an item sells, thats it!

Also, today marks Victorias first column with Apartment Therapy: SF. This will be a weekly column, and todays was a great guide to flea market shopping including great tips on what to take with you to ensure that you are prepared when you find the perfect item for your home!

(Header image courtesy of Victoria Smith)

Illustration Friday: Smitten

On my last outing to the flea market I came across a few images that just made my blood rush and made me want to come directly home and start working on. This photo was one of them!

This weeks Illustration Friday theme is smitten, and I certainly am smitten with her, as I am sure was every man who crossed her path! She reminds me of a young Elizabeth Taylor! The whole image is so romantic. This piece is 6"x 8", and I am inthe process of working on a huge version, 30" x 40".

Real Simple November!

I am so excited to finally announce that I will be part of an article in the November issue of Real Simple magazine. The article focuses on four women who have taken unusual and creative paths to preserving their family history! This is my first national publication and I had a great time doing a photo shoot back in September. The photographer was Johnny Miller, and his work is gorgeous. He traveled all over the country to each of the four womens locations and took our portraits. I have never done a photo shoot before. It was all very surreal!

Here a few polaroids from the shoot! I can't wait to see the issue. It should be out in the next week or so. You can be sure that I will post about the spread when it comes out!

Recent Commission

Here is a quick shot of a recent commission. This piece was a wedding gift given as a gift certificate so that the couple could choose their own subject matter and I was delighted when they sent me photos of the Brooklyn Bridge! The couple lives in Brooklyns DUMBO neighborhood, located just by the bridge overpass. I am pretty excited about the finished piece. I am still in the process of sealing it, but I cant wait to see shots of it in the happy couples new home!

Desiree

Here is a new Halloween-ish piece, Desiree, I uploaded to my shop this week. I have been saving that skeleton page from this great old dictionary for a while now! I am so excited when I finally use pieces of paper that I covet and they work well in a piece! It is a great diagram!

SPC-Imperfection Wk 2

I have been totally stumped all day as to what to post as my imperfection this week. I realize that I am censoring myself because it is hard to share your less than stellar sides with the world! That made me realize that my self censorship defeats the whole purpose of participating in the Self Portrait Challenge. I am human and the whole point of this excerise is to be honest, and sometimes honesty is not pretty! And man oh man did I get a wake up call when Hannah sent me her pics from out day at the Rose Bowl! Yikes! Not only is my posture like that of a 130 year old, but I definitely need to have my jaw wired shut, and fast! And why am I making that face! Don't I know that I am in public? So there you go, a full body profile. I will think of this image the next time I let my shoulders down and my back slouch!

BTW- I was the featured Sunday Slice last Sunday on SPC. Thanks Bekka!

The Rose Bowl rocked!!

Just a quick note tonight to share photos from the Rose Bowl Craft Fair Hannah and I participated in this weekend. We had a blast! Our canopy was the best investment ever! We met tons of really cool people and some awesome vendors! I would have to say that a fine time was had by all!

To see the photos I took at the event, click here.