ETSY 2008

Is there anything that's not on Etsy? Here are a few of my favorite 2008 ETSY purchases.


t-shirt for gray by evaseva


red cape for bryn's american girl doll by 3 crafty ladies


print from one of my favorite artists. yellena


armwarmers by feetingfrenzy


amy butler for my itouch! how cool is that? mamadama designs

Here's a list of my favorite places to browse on Etsy. I wish there was one favorite to share but I love them all. Each of the artists amaze, excite, evoke, tease, and energize me in different ways. Enjoy.

John W. Golden

House of Telsa

The Wicopy Shop

Hula Seventy's le shoppe

Melissa Moss

Carambatack Design

Paintings by Cathy Nichols

Here's my 2007 Etsy list .

Snowflakes

Little did I know that my favorite holiday decoration would be so appropriate this year.



Mako, Bryn and I made several for our windows this year. You can find the tutorial for 3-D Snowflake on WikiHow.

5 Completed Projects

My first RRR Challenge to myself this year was to not buy any new crafty item until I had completed 5 projects with items that I already had at home. This even meant craft glue as I soon learned halfway through the Japan shell project.

Here are the 5 completed projects...


Valentine's Day cards for grandparents.


Shells brought back from Japan now displayed in shadow box.


My Dinner Voila cookbook! The binders, books, and protective sleeves have been sitting around for months and I finally finished compiling them. The cookbook is a collection of Sarah and Cathryn recipes from what seems like another lifetime ago. Now that it's finally assembled I'm having so much fun rediscovering recipes that I haven't thought about for years.


Freezer paper stencil baby gift.


2 Cute Skirts.

It was very satisfying to know I could do it especially when it came to coming up with a glue solution for the shells. There were a few moments while browsing through blogland where I almost forget or was tempted. I held strong and since the completion of the projects this sweet bird stamp is the one item I've purchased so far.



The next item to purchase will be a new pair of sewing shears that I will promptly hide from the kids. I caught Hunter cutting duct tape with my sewing scissors the other day.

Freezer Paper Stencils AGAIN?

I can over dose on freezer paper stencils every once in awhile but I always come back to it.

Can you believe that all 3 of my children's teachers are pregnant right now. What are the odds? I made this cute skateboard onesie for Hunter's teacher who is having a boy very soon.


I couldn't resist making these two 0-3 month onsies were for our neighbors new baby. It's their 3rd boy! They were totally high school sweet hearts in the 80s with a tendency towards the finer art of hard rock. I'm not sure but I suspect there was some mullet action going on back then.

Happy Monday!

Boden Monster

I just had to post Hunter's first collage. All monster body parts come from the latest Mini Boden catalog. I love thumbing through the Boden catalogs and being inspired by not only their creative clothing designs but for all the vibrant visual imagery in their pictures and ads.

ETSY

I've been shopping at Etsy for over a year now and I'm still absolutely in love with it. Did you know there are approximately 1500 robot items, 585 gnome items, and 11,955 star items. So much more than that with jewelry... cards... illustrations... collage art... candles... patterns... ceramics and the list goes on and on. Is there anything that Etsy doesn't have that's handmade?

Here are three of my favorite 2007 Etsy finds.

The Black Apple is by far one of my favorite places to shop. I bought these great Alice in Wonderland prints for Bryn's room. I also ended up buying gift cards, mouse pads, compact mirrors all with her illustrations for gifts and myself. Her packaging is just as much fun as the items inside.

Another favorite find is TAYLOR MADE designs. Even though I love making my own cards I am addicted to her line of gift tags. I even enjoy giving the gift tags as gifts. In fact I think I'm due for an order.

My last Etsy purchase of 2007 was from stOOpidgerl who does everything from fine art to photography to jewelry. There's a Ferris Wheel picture that is calling my name in her shop right now.

Can't wait to see what I find in 2008.

CUPCAKES

 
Bryn just left with Sean to a birthday party for a new friend in her class at school this year with her first ever personally sewn pillow (almost all by herself). I freezer paper stenciled the cupcake onto a white t-shirt for a nice compliment to her sweet sweet pillow.

Bryn is so loving fabric and is fascinated by the sewing machine right now. Hunter even peeked in the other night and is now constantly asking to make his own pillow and he also mentioned something about a cape last night.

 

Life Goes On...

We're back home and still a little jet lagged. It's been a rough transition home for Bryn and Gray which means a rough transition for me. We spent two nights in a row eating cereal and leftovers at 2:00am in the morning. Despite feeling tired 75% of the time we ended up having a really fun weekend back here in Portland full of activities and great food.

Even though it's all green Sean made us some really yummy pesto with green beans and blue cheese. The basil and green beans came from the Farmer's Market along with $30 worth of fresh berries and cherries. YUM!

After some afternoon Harry Potter reading we headed out to a Luau/Karaoke evening of fun while Hunter was at a Pirate Birthday Party. I'm such a sucker for themed parties. At the Luau we ate Hawaiian food some of which was prepared by one of Saburo's Sushi House's wonderful chefs and were entertained by Hula Dancers young and old from a Hawaiian school in Portland. They were sooo fun to watch. Here are a few of the little ones doing a sit down Hula Dance.
 
I've done Karaoke with these kids a couple times now and they are a blast to watch. They're even backup dancers for the adults.
 
On Sunday we headed to the grand re-opening of the Contemporary Craft Museum and had a wonderful afternoon. The kids made Artist Trading Cards at Collage DIY Lounge, Water Bottle Bracelets at Church of Craft, and Shrines with PDX Supercrafty. There was also clay, embroidery, wood working, glass blowing, weaving, spinning, and many more things beautiful amazing craft and guilds.
 
 
The museum itself was beautiful but with three kids a stroller and hundreds of people inside it was hard to gauge the depth of it all. I'm hoping to go back with the kids very soon so we can really soak it all in without worrying about bumping into people.

Sunday evening we had a nice relaxing evening with Aunty Lulu and got to share our Japan experiences. It was fun sharing them with someone who has spent so much time in Japan.

Japan pics and recap coming soon....

HAPPY SUMMER!

Raspberries turning red... dinners in the backyard... sprinkler in use... sunscreen applied... it is most definitely summer!

p.s. I made some cds and covers of the Summer 2007 Mix. If you'd like one let me know.