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Hopefully for the last time, at least for a while, this blog is moving on over to my sparkly new website, www.lauriecoyledesigns.com! Come on over and say hi! And then be sure to update your feed reader (or go ahead and subscribe!) {And be sure to give me props since I designed it myself using wordpress!}
ok, well, the warm weather has officially begun today (80s here in South Lee today, possibly warmer around the greater Berkshires), but I had to share this blog feature; fellow BerkshireMade‘er Stephanie Gravalese has featured me and my work on her blog, Atomsatwork.blogspot.com in a post titled “Crafty Goodness to prepare for warm weather”! (Thanks for the wonderful feature, Steph!)
Stephanie is a fantastic artisan in her own right, putting together wonderful creations from vintage buttons, such as earrings, necklaces, barrettes and more that she sells at fairs and on Etsy at atomsatwork.etsy.com. She’s recently started making wall-art collages which I just love, being a wall-art junkie myself. She also made some wonderful glass ornaments for the holidays with buttons floating inside. Fantastico! (oh, and check out her avatar glamour shot by Deb, complete with laser background. Oh the 80s glory!)
I’ve been selling my crafty goodness on Etsy for just over two years and boy is it fantastic! If for some reason you live under a rock and have not yet gotten yourself a (free!) Etsy account, get on over there and sign up so you can start buying handmade, wouldjya? Happy Etsy Day! (currently an impromptu holiday, but hopefully by next year it will be a national day of recognition for all things handmade! represent!)
I made the little painting above in recognition of Etsy Day, it’s a love letter to Etsy, distilled to its basic essence surrounded by a collection of some of my hand-making-tools. yum.
New prints are up in my Etsy shop, a series of four prints from original watercolors of hand-illustrated type and sweet little birdies:
Available as 8″x10″ high-quality archival giclee prints (slightly smaller than the original paintings in these photos) for $15 each in my Etsy shop. Each print will only be available in a limited edition of 50; contact me for info on the originals.
I’m hoping to include at least one of these originals in the “Vision of Squam” art show at Artstream Gallery in Rochester, NH in September, along with one of my birdies on a branch. This series was no doubt inspired by my trip to Squam Art Workshops in September, if you remember all the soul searching that it spurred in me and other attendees. [btw there's still room to join me (and my pal Sarah G.!) at the June session -- register now!]
I think these prints would make lovely gifties for a speical friend, or maybe even your sweet mama? Mother’s day is right around the corner, May 10! I’d be happy to expidite shipping to you if you need it for Mother’s Day, just let me know in the “notes to seller” section upon checkout.
I’m definitley going to take part in this, it sounds like such a fun idea. We will be at the Alchemy Initiative Earth Day party Wednesday night, where will you be?
from EarthMosiac.org:
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Calling all photographers and Earth-lovers …
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Help us record a day in the life of our planet, in pictures.
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Here’s your chance to be a part of something audaciously ambitious!
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Wherever you are, whatever you’re doing on Earth Day – 22 April 2009,
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we’re asking you to take photographs of the world around you, select
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your best one, send it to us, and we’ll use them to make a giant mosaic.
Visit EarthMosaic.org for all the info and more linky goodness,
or click here to join the flickr group!
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the 12 days since my last post have gone by in a blur. A BLUR I tell you! Well, I’m here again. A happy new owner of an iPhone (happy dance!) which has also made me a new owner of the wordpress application for iPhone. That I haven’t yet figured out how to use. But I will. and then maybe (just maybe) I’ll blog more often. Wouldn’t that just be the bees knees?
Things that have happened to me lately:
#1 sold my wares at Design Hive! It was a fun time, and I got to chat with lots of fellow makers including Marcia and Brandon of Bella Bags by Marcia from out here in the Berkshires and Elise Towle Snow of Argyle Whale. It was pretty busy, not so very lucrative for me, but a nice reminder on how to pack my car, schlep my stuff and how very wonderful my boston-area homies are; thank you thank you thank you to Jaclyn, Vanessa, Courtney and Heidi — what would I do without you?! I am so very blessed to count you as my friends and my craft-fair helpers. Next up in the Boston area is the South End Open Market on May 15 & 16.
Design Hive, Cambridge MA 4.5.09 — in the lower left corner you can see one of my new birdies looking out over the sea of craftiness.
two of my intrepid helpers, who will probably hate me forever for posting their photo to this blog. but I will love them forever for their help, so it’s all good, right?
#2 Did I mention I’ll be vending at Twist Fair 2.0 in Northhampton May 1 & 2? So excited for this fantasic opportunity. The floorplan and vendor lists are out and I will be in some VERY good company, including some of my favorites ever, MIAOW, Ranunculae and Sarah Ahearn — super!
#3 Easter. I have a chocolate hangover. But I might have still eaten more today, but as they say — bite that durn dog that bit you, right? Plenty of the three f’s yesterday: fun, family, food. And more food. Everyone came through with old favorites, and I managed to sneak in some quiche made from our backyard eggs and some jello “salad” (I’ve been warned that it’s not really a salad if it has no, um, vegetation or remote nutritional value, and I concur) — it’s an old time favorite family recipe passed down through the ages. Ok, well, maybe just from my Grandma, but we all like it!
#4 Holy CROW — I just looked up to see a gigantic (maybe it just looks gigantic right next to the chickadees and goldfinches?) Crow in the tree outside my window — it’s HUGE! ….Sorry, that was clearly a tangent; get used to it. This is twitter’s influcence on me, clearly.
#5 This afternoon shall be learn-to-make-websites day. Ok, really it’s a beginning day. A day where I delve into the depths of Lynda for a little techie tutorial help perhaps? Wish me luck.
HEy! If you happen to find yourself in Portland, OR tomorrow April 3rd check out my bro’s art show (he’s the one named Thom May, and that’s his juicbox-sippin-kitten on the left):
- First Thursday; April 2nd
- Litterbox; Everett St. Lofts (NW Broadway & Everett)
You can find his work and that of his cohorts, Dominic De Venuta and Blaire Stapp, at AccidentalSnacks.com
And no, he didn’t even ask me to tell you about this. And yes, I do get the reference to accidental litterbox snacks and I think it’s referencing my dog but we’ll just leave that one alone. Because Thom + HappyDog = True Love Forever
[via CasaSugar} "The word 'upcycling' was coined by William McDonaugh and Michael Braugart in their book on ecologically intelligent design, Cradle to Cradle. In the simplest terms, upcycling is the practice of taking something that is disposable and transforming it into something of greater use and value." (I'm halfway through that book, btw, and it's great!)
Today I'm sharing with you a new creation that I'm super excited about, and that I just entered in the CraftStylish Crafty by Nature contest (in the running to win a Yudu screen-printer! fingers officially CROSSED for that one!!):
My first completely Upcycled Bird Sculpture. This one doesn’t have a name yet — any ideas? She’s made from fabric scraps from Bella Bags by Marcia, the leaves are sweater scraps from Crispina, the metal is scrap from my darling hubby’s metal-working (he built the tree! isn’t he fantastic?!) and the wood is scrap from our house projects ’round here. All re-purposed, all stuff that could have just as easily (ok, much more easily, actually) ended up in a landfill somewhere.
Doing a happy-earth-day-dance a little early. She’ll be available for sale this weekend at Design Hive, possibly with a few new friends, if I get my act together!
Once upon a time I was a web designer. No, really. It was only for a short time during a summer research grant through my university, back in my other lifetime, but it was really fun. Alas, though, I got distracted by my set design and theatre education and I never really went too far with it, but today is a new day; today I went ahead and bought myself a shiny new copy of Adobe Dreamweaver (from the Adobe education store — score!). Dreamweaver is software that makes websites in a WYSIWYG style, which is great for me (FYI, WYSIWYG = What You See Is What You Get :: visual designing and not too much code, phew!) as a visual learner and do-er.
I am on my way! Not 100% sure where that is, but I am planning to design my own LaurieCoyleDesigns.com as well as a new version of BerkshireMade.org and maybe something for you? Yippee!
If you’re interested in what all this is about you can get yourself a free 30-day trial version of Dreamweaver here, what fun! Want to learn along with me? Have any tips/ideas? Send ‘em along! I feel like I’m starting from scratch — I’ve completely forgotent how to do this, and all things webby have changed quite a bit in the past 8 years or so. For reals.
Here we go!
I hesitate to post this because I don’t want you to ruin my chances of winning (kidding!): Kathleen at Twig and Thistle (one of my new favorite blogs) is having a giveaway for a sweet adorable li’l tweet stitch kit (in any of four colors). Go on over and join the fun, and look through her other fantastic goodies for sale in her Etsy shop while you’re there!
