Cheap frills

I've been enamored with the idea of ruffled streamers since I saw the Made post on them back in May. A relatively easy, relatively cheap craft that results in brightly colored ribbons we can hang all over to fancy up the place? I'm in. I'm all in.

I finally had a chance to justify some streamer manufacture at the end of July, when my parents threw a graduation party for my sister Jordan, Joshua and me (high school, college and college, respectively) at their house in Minnesota. Several bags of 99-cent crepe paper streamers and a few hours in front of the sewing machine later, we had piles and piles of textured paper goodness. Pre-party, we stapled them to the garage rafters -- paying far too much attention to alignment, considering they were paper streamers. (It's how we roll.) They were everything I hoped for. 

Dana has posted a great, informative tutorial on Made, so I won't rehash the instructions here. Really, you'll only need streamers, a sewing machine and patience.

   

Jordan takes to the power tools to make the garage a more colorful place.

A peek at the party invites.

Repurposed feedsacks

These burlap/canvas buckets are from Maya Donenfeld's popular pattern. She suggests using old coffee sacks, but I happened to get my hands on some old burlap feedsacks. I particularly love the look on the buffalo's face.

This one is a crazy-enlarged version of the original pattern with a 15" diameter. Good for loose blankets and living room what-not, maybe?

Clutch

I made myself a new clutch last week. I was kind of making it up as I went, and my pattern could use some tweaking. I love a good clutch, I think because it gives me something to do with my hands.

Here it is in action at Josh's rock show on Saturday:

New books

I just finished a new batch of books for my beloved former place of employment, the Electric Fetus in Duluth, Minn. They're making their way there via the postal service right now.

And we returned mostly unscathed from our weekend RV trek/urban camping adventure to Joshua's band's out-of-state show. This is what I was doing during the show:




You know it's a party when there's a sparkly purse involved.

Josh is a good Josh

Joshua got me much-needed gocco supplies for my birthday this year. Last year he helped me stock up on polaroid film. Everything I love seems to go out of production. I am the kiss of death for art supplies, recording media and restaurants - the cooler, the harbinger of the end. It's a cruel, cruel world when you can't get hold of your supplies.



And he got me this book which has made me want even more to build a screen printing studio...which will involve more tools and more supplies and more ink smears....

Bonnet-y thrifting and haircuts

So several things have happened lately - I went out and had my very long (for me) hair abruptly chopped off into what could be accurately described as a Dickensian urchin shag, but which I had hoped would be a pixie.



I printed out and lovingly x-acto knifed Patricia Zapata's 2009 wall calendar. It is still January, but I took the picture of the March page, because it has my favorite backing paper. Since I was holding the camera, it was my call.
This was a pleasant task of exactly the kind of piddly, time-consuming paper-cutting that I love.



I finally got around to making a bonnet from my Amy Karol King Pod pattern that I've only had sitting around for months, waiting for some attention.
I made this bonnet out of a really nice gray light weight wool with an almost comically oversize chartreuse ribbon. It's great, I look like I'm going out to tend to my flock of imaginary sheep with it on, but that's kind of the idea, I think.



My thrifted sideboard is spread out and primered smack in the middle of the house so you have to navigate the workspace everytime you want, say, a glass of milk from the fridge. I maintain that this piece of furniture has a lot of "potential" and is going to be nifty as can be with a little more paint ( a lot more paint?)

Fresh ink

A whole box o' flyers, all fresh and crisp and new. Very exciting.

post holiday shop update

There's a charming little post-holiday shop update going on over at my shop - a few bears and a sea creature here and there.

I hope everyone's holidays went well. Ours involved a lot of over-eating, which is the whole point, I guess.

itty bitty

Tiniest Shop Update Ever!

In the store now: this nubbly knit loch ness monster and her companion, this puzzled-looking brown bear. I'm trying to get a few more things in there in time for the holidays, so here's hoping.

baby deer

This is what is and will be the Fawn Shop store front for the next chunk of December. It's a limited-time only sort of gig, so probably best to get in soon for all the goodies.
Especially the work by local ceramicist Tasha McKelvey - I'm coveting her little flower earrings.

And yes, that's my swan-goose in the window there.

sparkly soft local handmade

I just dropped off a whole bunch of new and exciting softies at Chop Suey Books in Richmond for their annual holiday Bizarre Market. I also accidentally drank too much coffee. From what I saw, it looks like it's going to be a whole shop full of lovely things. woo!

the fawn shop

For anyone in the Richmond, Virginia area, this should be a treat. And I'll have a bunch o' stuffed animals there for all of your holiday gift-giving needs. Cheers!

an overscheduled november

My days between now and Thanksgiving will be, to take a line from Bill Watterson, just packed. In light of that, my posts for the rest of the month may be quite skimpy.

For now though, I thought I'd share a couple of things from the ol' vault - two collages I made a while back from vintage advertising bits. They were part of a larger mass of handmade postcards I sent to Joshua (or rather Joshua's held mail) while he was away on a trip. They seem appropriate for this time right before the holiday onslaught when everyone (possibly including me) seems to be thinking about food.

For Thanksgiving this year I'm pretty eager to try the Nutmeg-Maple Cream Pie from the Smitten Kitchen, probably baked in large shallow tart shell. But I really shouldn't even be thinking about that until I get at least the first half of my to-do list in the can. Sigh.

feather in your cap

Admittedly, this has nothing to do with tea towels or the scantily-clad women who adorn them, but it was a pleasant way to spend an evening with a bag of feathers, a pair of vintage clip-on earrings, and a tube of very strong craft adhesive.

Yes, it is a bit on the Kenley Collins side of things, but I'm going to try to ignore that, because I was much more inspired by the ladies at ban.do. Their work is beautiful and full of whimsy, especially to me since I am exactly the sort of girl who thinks putting big fake flowers in her hair is a very fun thing to do.


For anyone that wants to try this, I started by gluing an appropriately sized piece of wool to each of my barrettes and then layering feathers until a.) I ran out of pretty feathers and b.) it looked "done."
I think next time I'll be a little more mindful of of where the feather fuzz ends up. Perhaps the little black and white number could benefit from a bit less fuzz, but then, this was a trial run, right?



A re-purposed earring.



and it's twin.

distractions

This is what I was working on while we watched the most recent presidential debate. It's a very spur of the moment embroidery idea based on a drawing from Kris Chau's website, that I love a lot. Carbon tracing paper is definitely my friend - I now look at a lot of things and wonder how'd they'd look on a tea towel. I have half a mind to fill the bunny in entirely with french knots. I love the idea of the nubbled effect but not so much the idea of making that many french knots. We'll see.

In my next post I may share my series of Sailor Jerry cheesecake pin-up girl tea towels that happened in much the same manner - I simply cannot sit still and watch television, I have to be doing something with my hands. I'll have to wrangle them all first though, as they long since went into dutiful, if scantily clad, service in the kitchen.

here fishy fishy

In the shop now: George, the chubby unassuming cable knit shark. I'll be honest, this was an experimental pattern - he's sort of a modified manatee - but I think it works if you like your sharks round and woolly.

from the deep

In the shop now, Nessie, the diminutive felted wool/angora blend Loch Ness monster. Rowr.

los osos

New bear in the shop now. Otso, the felted wool polar bear. In other less exciting news, it is pouring rain here and I have big plans for some tandoori chicken which is currently marinating in the fridge is what I can only describe as bright orange goo, but which I know to actually be a curry/yogurt marinade.

claudette

New swan in the shop, lots of cake left to eat, time for some tea and my attention-whoreish cat, I think.

a little slow on the uptake

Some new bears will be up in the shop soon. I don't quite know why they've been so slow to come together this time. No matter. bears. soon. really.