BIG ART SHOW No. 3!

I'm going to be at the third ever Big Art Show in Baltimore! It's the biggest one in Big Art Show history...three stories of art at the Load of Fun Warehouse....24-HOUR ART PARTY! Whoa! Luckily, we have an excellent family babysitter. Wish me luck! If you're in the area, please do come out. This show is going to be huge. Bands, music, art, and all the MICA students you care to shake a stick at.

Adorn is gone!

I was just alerted by a myspace buddy that Adorn has folded!

Well, it's more like she asked me (one of those random buds that you aren't too entirely sure if you actually know them or if they are just a myspace contact...so it was strange getting a random question like that). Anyway, it appears that their site is gone, their doors are closed, and there will be no more Adorn. So sad!

Sharing resources...linkage!

I've now instituted a section of handy links. See "Linkage." There's Besty, We Love Etsy, the fee calculator, and Buried Treasury. There's also EtsyBitch if you're looking for entertainment or to gripe, as well as What the Craft, Craftster, and Indiepublic if you're looking for tuts or socializing. Enjoy!
PS - If anybody has any links I should be posting here, feel free to ge in touch, and I'll add right away. Thanks!

Featured Shop!

My latest favorite shop is Maked. Not the the verb/adjective so much as rhymes with naked, their tagline: "Where we expose our handmade crafts." Sweet! Maked is Lisa, Kalin, Rhiannon, and Megan (don't they all have some wicked names??) It all started when Kalin was organizing Vancouver local get-togethers for the folks on craftster, and the four of them were the steadfast regulars. They took their love of craft and developing techniques, started doing shows, and grew into the Maked we all know and love today.
For future plans, I think Lisa said it best: "Future plans fall just shy of world domination. Actually - we just love to craft. We love to get together and get excited about someone's idea and go to town with it. And then sell the result so we can buy supplies to go to town on another project. We've got so many ideas brewing our biggest problem is figuring out what to do next and stopping ourselves from trying to do it all at once. We'd like to get a regular income from our etsy shop so the pressure is off the craft fairs a bit, other than that the goal is to have fun and CRAFT!"
The four are contemplating digging their toes into some animal rescue organizations. They create beautiful, elaborate custom sock monkey creatures (and all kinds of goodies!), and were thinking of donating a portion of proceeds to a worthy monkey-rescue group. Research is in the works!
The Vancouver scene for fairs and shows seems pretty sleepy this season, but plans are brewing for the holiday season already. You can find dates on their website and blog. Among shop favorites...Kalin likes the vintage flower button ring, Megan likes the novel notebooks, and Lisa likes the Delica necklace. Rhiannon was out of town, so we have no idea what her fave is! Short of listing 57 other shops, their favorite Etsy shop is Colleen Baran's. They met when they were next to each other at a craft show, and her work is to die for.
Maked is a wonderful shop with alot of variety. Keep an eye on them, guys!

Baby pictures!

Clickable for bigger versions!

Living with boys

Today I made the mistake of not looking before sitting in the bathroom. My house is full of men: Matt the BabyDaddy, young Jonas, Brien the housemate, and Chester the un-castrated dog. Do I not have enough testosterone in my life? You'd think after all this time, I might learn to look before I plant my derriere, but as I sat on the toilet this afternoon, I felt my rear contact some rather *cold* and probably filthy porcelain, and almost fell through the toilet bowl. Ew! Maybe if there were another set of ovaries in the house, I might get the seat down some time, some day? I don't understand men: why do they make lids for toilets if you're supposed to leave the seat up? The world may never know...

Featured Shop

My latest Etsy shop find is Darlincrafts, a quilter's dream. Darlene learned to crochet from her mother when she was just 10 years old and picked up sewing from home ec (not her favorite, but she does it alot). She's an at-home mother of two grown sons in West Michigan, Sand Lake. An avid supporter of animal rescue for many years, she is devoted to her dog. When family needs stepped in the way, she had to take a break from working with animal rescue, but remains a constant help tothose around her. When her brother was diagnosed with follicullar lymphoma, she was there to help with a subling stem cell transplant, which has helped him to make a full recovery. Darlene's sister suffered an aneurism at age 42, and she was also there to help. She remains a lifelong supporter of cancer research and animal rescue. Her favorite saying is "don't breed if you can't rescue."

Darlene started Darlincrafts in March out of financial need, so she hasn't decided just where she would like to take her business in the future. Be sure to check out this shop, guys! She's a super-devoted. super-active lady and her stuff rocks!