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love and hugs and giggling and friends and art tears and and fun and craft and joy and water and trees.
It is so hard to put into words the magic (yes, I said magic! Alchemy? Sparkles? Joy?!) of Squam Lake and the Squam Art Workshops. So until I can put it into words, even though this was my second time there and I should be able to synthesize it into words now but I can’t, you can see my photos on my flickr here. This session was similar but also so different, so special in its own way. Some of the same people, many new faces and quite a few folks who I felt like I already knew. I kept having the “don’t I know you from somewhere?” conversation, and it went both ways; we both felt familar, but there was no way we had met before. Ahh, the bliss of kindred spirits.
I also want to say a huge thanks to everyone who came out to the Squam Art Fair and loved on my crafty goodness and took home some goodies. I am so thrilled that a handfull of my birdies will be living in loving new homes and my art will be gracing the walls of some really rockin’ creative souls’ homes. You all blow me away.
And the teachers, the Teachers!
Lizzy House (top) and Marisa Haedike (above), you are so amazing beyond words. Thank you for imparting your knowledge to us in such a kind, thoughtful, joyful, eloquent way. You are both such fantastic artists and it was a joy to meet you. I am a better person for knowing you. And I hope to be a better artist, armed with some super tips and techniques that you brought to us in your classes. These women are both forces of nature to be reckoned with, but bring such compassion to their interactions and relationships, and every piece they create has such meaning and feeling behind it. I can only hope to expand on what I learned from each of you.
We also had the honor of being joined by the fantastic Ms. Jonatha Brooke again this session, who continued the tradition of serenading us by the bonfire on the first night, and brought tears to our eyes once again with her songs of trust and pixie dust throughout the weekend. Lovely seeing you again, dear soul!
I am so thrilled to have been mentioned on the Fiber Farm blog and the sweet “loving it” section of SouleMama, Amanda Blake Soule’s blog as a result of being at the Squam Art Fair. Fiber Farm was part of the Art Fair on Saturday, and Amanda was part of the books and authors forum on Friday night at Squam, and I had the pleasure of meeting her at the book signing. What an amazing and lovely woman; I so plan on using her creative-family-raising ideas someday with my own family. She is such an inspiration!
ok, I guess I did have some words to describe it. And I’ll bring you more later, but for now be sure to enjoy my photos. Here are some of the work I created, too (top two from “Create a Painting in a Day” with Marisa Haedike, and bottom is the result of both “Pattern Design” and “Block Printing Fabric” with Lizzy House):
this is a real quick update, because I need to get to bed and rest up for tomorrow… because it’s TWIST!!! I’ll be in NoHo for the day tomorrow, setting up in the early afternoon, getting ready for the crafty goodness. I’m so thankful my pal Sarah G. will be joining me, as she’s supremely familiar with the area, since she went to Smith for college, and her fantastic brother Lyon and his girlfriend Alice will be letting us crash at their pad after all the fun tomorrow night; Lyon is part of some amazing bands, so check him out!
I hope you will come visit Northampton tomorrow, Friday May 1 from 5-9 for the opening event and market party — it will be a great time and there will be lots of crafty goodness to enjoy (over 60 vendors!), as well as tasty local beer, and tunes from a live DJ. Or come visit Twist on Saturday May 2 from 10-6 . Pride is also taking over the town, so there will be all kinds of fun shenanigans, I’m sure!
The other thing: I’m holding a special little Sale in my Etsy shop for Mother’s Day: buy one note card, get one free! I’m allowing you to choose any other card listed in my shop (while supplies last!) or if you don’t specify in the “notes to seller” upon checkout, I’ll just send you a second of the same card. What a super deal! This special will be on through Sunday May 10 (but you knew that was Mother’s Day, right?).
yippee! hope to see you at Twist this weekend!
Tina Seamonster tweeted one day recently that she was looking for a Hello Craft podcast submission for an episode sponsored by Readymade Magazine, and since my latest upcycled bird sculpture projects have included scraps that I’ve gathered up from my friends’ craft projects, I thought when better a time to begin my foray into the world of podcasting? You can hear my episode here. {FYI, I recorded it on the (free!) Speakeasy app for my iPhone, then sync’d it to my mac with Speakeasy Connect (also free!), then edited it in GarageBand, hence the less-than-ideal sound quality, perhaps, but hey, a good start, eh? (and I’ll try not to rock the lispy s’s next time… not sure where that came from!?)}
The friends I mention in the podcast are:
Bella Bags by Marcia: Marcia’s bags are beautiful, well constructed and sturdy, as well as being made from the most fantastic selection of colorful and boldly patterned fabrics; I’m using her fabric scraps to construct the birds’ bodies, wings and tail feathers. She sells wristlets, totes, cosmetic bags, sunglass bags, messenger bags, and re-useable lunch bags, as well as accessories such as headbands.
&
Crispina ffrench: Crispina is a master recycler in her own right, and I’m constantly learning from her amazingly sustainable business practices and strong eco-warrior convictions. She makes gorgeous rugs, pillows and blankets as well as clothing and soft sculptures from repurposed knitwear. She collects sweaters, washes them until felted and cuts and sews them into all sorts of shapes. The scraps from the work she produces are available at her studio for $5/lb, and you can choose your own colors! Using these scraps is kind of like a twice-baked potato, only, er, twice-recyled? I’m using these scraps for the little leaves on the metal trees.
I so love everything about Hello Craft (who’s tagline is “the future of making is in your hands” and who’s podcast is entirely listener generated!) and I sooo wish I could make it this weekend to the Summit of Awesome and Show of Awesome (um, crafts, music and cake?! count me in!), but alas, I will be bringing my crafty goodness to another wonderful crafty opportunity, TWIST!
Twist is a “fresh kind of fair” in Northampton, MA at the Northampton Center for the Arts at 17 New South Street on Friday May 1 from 5-9 for a spcial opening party, and on Saturday May 2 from 10-5. There will be over 60 amazing vendors; see the vendor list with links here. Come visit and get yourself (or your moms? it’s Mother’s Day NEXT WEEKEND May 10!) some crafty goodness!
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.
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.
[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!
I love your thoughts on homesteading/our house, etc. — thank you!
I have yet to wrap my mind around the rest of my thoughts regarding this, but I surely will get back to that one of these days.
Today, I’m here:
It’s actually in much better shape now, this was a shot (with my new fisheye lens adapter!) from last week when my studio re-hash project started. I’m working AT my desk now, which is very exciting. The hall is full of stuff looking for a new home, but the studio is in pretty good shape. And now all mine, after I moved John (with his permission of course!) and his computer down to the living room. I had a heck of a time getting a wireless adapter to work with the PC, but it’s now working and mostly reliable. And now I can make as big a mess as I want and not worry about John having to navigate it, just to do his homework.
Last weekend, we were here:
In Burlington, Vermont! Having fun playing with the new fisheye (I hope my nose isn’t that big in real life…?) and visiting the lovely Sarah G. and her man CPCC, who recently celebrated a birthday on San Patricio’s day — happy b-day, CP!
We had a great time, resting, rejuvenating, trying to pretend it was spring and walking too far in cold wind along lake Champlain. We even got souvenir rosy wind-burned faces! It was sunny the whole time but really really still winter coldness. Sarah’s apt. has a great view of the lake, the Adirondacks and the sunset — lovely!
As I mentioned previously, Twitter has been helping me express myself more concisely — but, not being online for a few days was really nice. Therefore, I’m here to say I’m taking a little blogging break. Not that I’m so frequent a blogger anyway, but I’m often feeling a little guilty about not posting more often. I also have a fair coming up soon — The Design Hive Market in Cambridge on Sunday April 5th. This all leads me to the conclusion that I’m going to be back to posting here around then, maybe before the fair, maybe after, or maybe I won’t be able to contain myself and will be back even more frequently or soon — who knows!
see you then, then!
It’s a catchup day here on Willow Street. I’m pulling out all the piles of mail and such that I stowed away in the past week to create a semblance of calm and organization around the house. I’m also doing some shipping and maybe getting a new haircut. Still not sure what direction I want to go with that — John wants me to keep growing it out but most others I’ve asked (and I’m leaning toward) think I should go back to shorter… we’ll see what I decide at the last minute!
{ok, I just thought this photo was funny. Has nothing to do with anything. Jane is in a box of recycling, and Happy couldn’t take her eyes off her. Her herding instinct can be so funny!}
We had a wonderful Christmas time — I have to say this is one of my favorite times of year, for so many reasons including sparkly decorations, handmade gifties, my birthday, fun with family and, best of all, old friends coming home to visit! We had a lovely little holiday party with a crazy yankee gift swap, asking people to bring either a new gift, re-gift or object from their life that needed a new home. The best gift had to be a huge old coat rack that found a very happy new home. Hilarious! There were also some great mustache-related antics. Sorry guys, I just had to post these. Too funny!
And yes, in case you were wondering, I am now very, very old…
I’m still not sure what we’re doing for New Year’s Eve. Possibly just staying home and cozying up for some instant netflix movies and take out? Anyone want to join us? {did you know you can watch instant movies on netflix on a Mac now? We had cancelled our subscription last spring for lots of reasons but one being that we couldn’t watch them on my computer, which we hook up to the tv to watch tv-on-the internet. Looks like they just started letting macs have some of the fun, which was a fantastic suprise to us when we resubscribed last night as our x-mas gift to one-another. whoohoo!}
I Should be doing homework, cleaning, crafting for upcoming sales, and unpacking/putting together my purchases from an all-day IKEA extravaganza yesterday (! was helping my friend Sylvie get a couch, ok?). But instead I’m lending a hand and heading down to Gould Farm to babysit for two of my favorite children in the world. Aren’t they the cutest?
