happy new year!

thanks for a great 2010! there's lot of changes happening in littlest bean land, can't wait to share it with you!

fall / winter shows are coming!

ah, my poor little neglected blog... it's so hard to find things interesting enough to say when all you do is cut felt! but i've been cutting a lot of felt, and here's where i'll be showing all of my work in the next few weeks...

first up, on saturday, november 20th, crafty supermarket in cincinnati, ohio. i've never done this show and am looking forward to it - they're are some great vendors!

next up is bazaart, on saturday, november 27th, which i have attended every year for the past 10 years... it's one of my favorites, and i'm so excited to be doing it this year! you can also check out the new exhibit at avam while you're there!

then, on december 4th, it's holiday heap... you can tell by this crafty yeti that it's going to be super awesome this year. this is a fantastic, fun show, and i can't wait to do it this year! there are some vendors you can't see anywhere else locally, and the venue is just a beautiful place to hold a show.

the next day after holiday heap, on december 5th, is merry mart! this wonderful show is held at the creative alliance, and this year, i'm not only showing my work there, i'm organizing it with my friend allison of tigerlillyshop. it's going to be great!

whew, are you tired yet? i'm tired just thinking about it! but, if i'm not tooooo tired, i'll be heading up to new york for the bust craftacular.

maybe i should go rest now. i hope to see you at one of these great shows sometime soon!

crafty bastards is tomorrow!

come by and see me in booth 35! and if you're so inclined, vote for me! get the full info on crafty bastards here- if you can make it, you should. it's just about the best lineup of crafty folk i've ever seen! plus, i have lots of new work. see you there!

the bean turns five

this has been a big few weeks for us. the bean not only started kindergarten (gulp), but she also marked the fifth anniversary of her arrival into our world. we had a few things planned to end our very busy summer, and one of them was our first trip to dutch wonderland. the bean decided she wanted to try the roller coaster... and she did! she was so brave, and loved it so much that she just had to go on again immediately. then we had to try everything, and all the time she was giggling and screaming "this is fabulous!" (i have no idea where she picked up that expression.)

as the last ride of the day she opted to get on one of those circles that spins so fast that you're glued to the wall... not my favorite. she wanted to go alone, so i told her what the ride would be like, kissed her goodbye, and waited breathlessly for the ride to stop so i could see her face. i knew either she'd come out crying or triumphant, and all i could do was hope for the best and be there when it was over.

i think that's what being her mom will be like all the time from now on. but for the record, she loved it. so proud of my big girl.

happy birthday, bean.

artscape is tomorrow!

artscape is tomorrow, and i'm so excited, and also hoping the weather decided to be very un-baltimore-in-july-like and be cool and beautiful. even if it doesn't, it's looking like the weekend will be amazing! so many great exhibits, performances, and, of course, artists! i'll be in the diy section, booths 31-34, with quite a few members of BEST, so please stop by and say hello! i've got some brand new work to share, including these kanzashi-inspired bobby pins that were lucky enough to get just a hint of sparkle after this picture was taken. (you'll have to visit in person to see!)

you might want to print your map in advance just to make sure you see everything! see you there!

indie art by the sea - this weekend

this saturday, july 3rd, i'll be at indie art by the sea in newport, ri. the show is from 11-5 and takes place along the water in ft. adams state park. the weather is supposed to be just beautiful, and i'll have tigerlilly shop and sweet pepita nearby for company.

i am soooooo excited to do this show. some days, i feel really lucky to be doing what i do. i mean, have you ever had a view like this from your office?

pile of craft, tomorrow!

it's my favorite-est local show to do, and not only will i have lots of new work never-before-seen in baltimore, but i'll have a bunch of stuff on super major sale, since i'm streamlining my line a bit and already thinking about work for the fall (yikes!)

it's happening tomorrow, june 26th, from 10-5 at 2640 St Paul Street, Baltimore MD 21218, inside St John's Church. for a complete(ly awesome) vendor list, visit cccm's website.

hope to see you there!!!

our ocean should be blue

since i saw this photo a few days ago, my need to do something to help out in the gulf has increased greatly. i'm always one of those people who runs in the direction of trouble to try and help out (often to my husband's chagrin), and it's really hard for me when i just don't know what to do.

i've always felt a special attachment to the ocean, often finding myself making the 3 hour drive there as a younger person needing to clear my head. i hope one day to be brave enough to try snorkeling or scuba, because i need to see the brilliant colors that lie beneath the surface of the water.

i can't ignore what the water in the gulf looks like now, but i can try to hope that it will once again be the brilliant blue it always is in my mind. i'm still not really sure what to do myself, but i'm going to try and help out the people who do know what to do.

the audubon society is working to help rescue and protect the wildlife and habitats of the area. to help them, i'll donate $5 from the sale of each of these ocean blue flowers. they're made from eco-felt, which is made entirely of recycled plastic bottles, so they're environmentally friendly as well. you can choose your flower to have a 2" silver plated barrette attached, or a bar pin, so that it can be worn on your shirt, hat, or bag.

if you'd prefer, donate directly. every little bit helps.

rainbows!

this year was the bean's first year of school, and it was a year she developed her artistic skills unbelievably fast. she went from drawing scribbles to drawing our entire family. and for the last few months, everything's been rainbows. when she graduated from preschool, i wanted to commemorate the occasion with something special, and i knew she'd love this rainbow necklace from my talented friend tamara over at block party press.

she did love it! and she's been wearing it nonstop. i have to admit, i was a unicorns-and-rainbows kind of girl myself, (was? maybe still is!) and her love of rainbows has sort of rekindled my love affair with them. and so my new rainbow headband was born.

i knew it was just right, because she snatched up the first one i made and put it on, claiming it for herself.

i'm going to post the headbands, made to order, in the shop now, and it's also available in a brooch version.

wow. rainbows still make me happy. nice.

more to come

two posts in one week, can you believe it? well, i've been kind of overwhelmed with the amount of ideas i've had, so i've kind of been just playing and making all kinds of new things. i'm trying to photograph them a few at a time, since my computer time's a bit precious these days.

these little hand-sewn felt earrings are reversible, so you can wear them with a few shades of green. just switch sides and a different color is visible.

here they are in a pink and wine combination. they are hung from really comfortable oxidized sterling ear wires.

i'm loving these so much. they actually are pretty difficult to make, and they require a bit of precision, but they are so beautiful on. i'm still fine-tuning the process, though i should have several pairs for Pile of Craft.

i have more to come, maybe if i'm feeling extremely ambitious i'll post more this week!

a quick preview

just a few images of some of the new work i'm making. (there's a bunch, i'm really excited!) the little guy started walking and he's keeping me pretty busy, but i was able to get these two necklaces photographed this morning.

this one and a few others, which i'm calling "peek-a-boo" necklaces, will be making their debut at Pile of Craft in a few weeks.

and this little one, made from embroidery thread and a secret new ingredient i've been experimenting with, will be posted in my etsy shop later this week.

hope you're enjoying your spring, which feels an awful lot like summer here in baltimore!

art star, here we come!

my east coast tour 2010 continues with art star craft bazaar this weekend!!!! i'm super excited, it's the first time i'll be there, since this is the first year i'm doing more traveling. i've got a ton of work to take, already packed and ready to go. i'm still working on some new pieces, but here's the new stuff i have so far.


this is an updated version of the vintage flower headbands, with some newly found vintage plastic flowers.


i'm loving these new felt feather barrettes! these have a vintage button accent and are secured to an alligator clip. and yes, i cut each of those notches by hand, separately!

the bean is trying to make off with these new flower headbands (which is always a testament to cuteness.) they're tonal felt with czech glass seed beads sewn to the center. they're stitched to the nice stretchy headbands that everyone has been asking for.

so, i hope to see you in philly this weekend, may 15th and 16th, down by Penn's Landing on Walnut Street (click here for directions.) i'll be in booth 113 with my friend jennyjen42. hopefully i can manage to be in the same tent with her all day without buying this.

see you there!

a first birthday and other randomness

it's hard to believe it's been over a month since i've blogged! we've begun what i'm calling our "east coast tour 2010," which so far has included richmond va, for the spring bada bing show, and new york city (or as the bean says "you nork") for a belated birthday trip for me. we were lucky enough to get tickets to the tim burton show at moma, and spend a day in the super cool natural history museum. i am a longtime fan of tim burton (at 14 i already knew i wanted to live in a house just like the one in beetlejuice), and rick and i have a very special attachment to the nightmare before christmas. i'd never been to the history museum, but am now totally obsessed with it. the dioramas... love.

then we settled in back home for a relaxing (ha!) weekend at home to celebrate the little guy's first birthday. it's amazingly hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that a year has already gone by. i made this super sweet little dinosaur cake, inspired by the one here, though i think that one is cuter.

anyway, wow, a year. it's been a rough one, an amazing one, there's just not enough words to describe it. but we're lucky, very, very lucky, to get to see a smile like this every day. we love you, boo!

national press

so, this issue of southern living magazine has been out for a few weeks now, but i'm still super excited about it! look at my little flowers, just popping off the page there. thanks to everyone who let me know they saw it before i did!

in other news, back to working and enjoying the sunshine. spring bada bing is next weekend!

spring scheduling

i can't believe it's april, but april it is. spring is here, and i've got the show schedule to prove it.

first up, on april 18th, spring bada bing in richmond, virginia. this show was my very first ever, and it's put on by the super-awesome richmond craft mafia. it's held a plant zero, which is a really fun venue, and i'm really looking forward to it this year.

next up, may 15-16th, in philly- one of my favorite cities, is art star craft bazaar. this is my first art star, and i'm really excited about it. i'll be sharing a booth with my friend jen of jennyjen42.

indie art by the sea is technically a summer show, but what the heck. i'll be in fort adams state park in rhode island for the first ever indie art show. looking forward to it!

still waiting to hear back from a few other summer shows (fingers crossed!) but you can always keep up with me here on my website.

hopefully i'll see you this spring!

at last...

under the heading of "things i've wanted to do for going on two years now but haven't had the chance to do"- a new swatch sheet! now i'll be able to take more specific custom orders, rather than guessing whether your idea of chocolate brown is the same as mine!

does this picture make anyone else as happy as it makes me? oh, the colors!

and yes, i'm singing etta right now.

spring is here (almost!)

just a few photos the bean (4) took yesterday of our first official springlike activities. yay, warm weather! may your days be filled with blue skies, long shadows, and chalk drawings.

a break from the norm

i love what i do, i love playing with color, i even love cutting the same shapes over and over. and over. but once in awhile, while my hands are busily cutting, my mind is working in an entirely different way. so i took a break in the last few months, and started playing around with those ideas. the ring above is just one of them. my friend sherry of dandelionblu took the pictures for me (in addition to making some pretty amazing enamel jewelry she's a very talented photographer) and i'm so happy with the way they turned out. the pieces may be popping up somewhere in the future, but for now, i'm back to work on my flowers. spring show season is coming!

dreamy

you may not know, since i rarely have the time to blog these days, but i am crazy about photo styling. crazy. we get a catalog once in a while that has such completely abysmal photo styling that mr bean dreads its arrival. while i'm paging through pointing out bad color combinations or misplaced props i know he's wishing he could run away... on the other hand, when i get a new magazine that has some amazing photo shoot in it, he's desperately afraid that i'm going to decide that our dining room needs yet another new dramatic installation or that the hallway must be repainted in stripes.

when janelle from baltimore magazine asked me to give her "lots" of pieces for a photo shoot, i was completely floored by the concept. i've told her before that being an anthropologie display veteran has totally warped my sense of the word "lots." my mind started racing and i imagined the most amazing sets and clothing. for me, after a job where spending a 40 hour work week stringing gumdrops is completely normal, a project that uses "lots" of anything has the kind of attention to detail that i go crazy for.

the magazine came out last week, and it surpassed even my fairly overactive imagination. just check it out for yourself.


this beautiful photo shoot was a collaboration between the lovely people at red tree and baltimore magazine. you can see the whole shoot here or go here to see more photos from behind the scenes. and of course, make sure you pick up a copy!

please buy me this

thank you, juliet, for reminding me how much i love this shop.