WIST meet up!

I am so excited for the Etsy Wisconsin Street Team to meetup in Madison next month!Thank you to Caris Designs for planning and organizing every last detail.

If you are an Etsy.com member in Wisconsin and have not already joined our fabulous etsy street team, please check out our blog to see what we're all about (you can also find details about the Madison, WI meet up here) and contact Zenith Jade if you're interested in joining the team!

Magnet SALE!

I am having a sale on magnet sets in my etsy shop now through September 13! These functional and pretty sets are packaged and ready for gift giving. The perfect gift to have on hand when you need something special to slip in a birthday card, to cheer up a friend, co-worker, child, etc...or even great for a stocking stuffer (but let's not get too ahead of ourselves, right!)


















Sets are now 3 for $10 or $3.50 each and you can CLICK HERE to see what is available.

If you decide to take advantage for this sale, please type "magnetsale" in your notes to seller when checking out.

Yay for sales!!

Summer's Almost Gone.

I'm in denial! I love autumn but as usual I am shocked at how fast time flies and have no idea how it's possible that September is around the corner already. Isn't it funny how summer seemed to last for years when we were kids? And now it feels like it's over before it even started. Wild.

Winners!

Congrats to Lemonade Dusk aka Sybelle and Kellybot who had their names picked out of a hat (okay, it wasn't a hat, it was a coffee mug,) and are the winners of an Owl tote (Lemonade Dusk) and a Unicorn Tote (kellybot.)

Yay for free stuff! Thanks for participating in my very first giveaway everyone!

Renegade Handmade!

I just came across this article about the new Renegade Craft Store called RENEGADE HANDMADE that opened on in Chicago this month. So awesome! A new shop to add to my must visit list when I am in windy city on the weekends. A permanent place for fabulous D.I.Y. crafts year round. Yay!

And speaking of Renegade, the vendor list for the Renegade Craft Fair that is coming up in a couple of weeks - September 15 & 16 - is up on the website now. It's a gigantic list and I have found some awesome artists and crafters while making my way through it. I can't wait for this show!!

Imperfect Owls and Unicorns GIVEAWAY!

After several tries I finally feel like I'm starting to get the hang of gocco printing on fabric. But over the last week I have made a few mistakes and have created a few tote bags that are super cute but too imperfect to sell in my etsy shop. So…assuming that there are some people out there like me who love free stuff and don't mind something like a tiny area on an image where the ink didn't quite press through the gocco screen - I am going to giveaway 2 totes! One Starry Unicorn tote and one Owls in Love tote. Again, they are not quite perfect but I happen to think they are still super adorable and they are definitely functional.



















If you would like to be entered in a drawing for a free unicorn or owl bag, please leave a comment on this post and make sure to note which bag you like. I will draw 2 winners on Wednesday August 29. Please make sure to leave a link to your shop, blog, or email so that I have a way to get in contact with you!

New!!

Hot off the gocco! This is my favorite thing I've made in a long time. I love the color combo and just think every little girl needs a unicorn onesie.

















This onesie along with other child and adult apparel will be available in my etsy shop soon!

Front page, yeah!

My 70s bike gift tags made the etsy front page today. What a lovely bike treasury, I wish I would have gotten a better capture of the whole thing!

wasted.

Another wasted night.

I had big plans to make a significant batch of note cards with my gocco and then finish heat setting the rest of the new tote bags. Instead I:

Messed around with the gocco screen that I was trying to reuse. I tried and tried to get the ink to press evenly through the screen but it absolutely would not work. I cleaned and re-cleaned the screen but finally decided that it just must be damaged or SOMEthing. I could NOT get it to ink in one spot. So I finally tossed the screen and decided to burn a new one.

BUT I sat down on the sofa after I tossed the first screen. I was just going to relax for a bit...and here it is FOUR HOURS LATER, 2:30 a.m. - I fell asleep on the couch. Grrr! I HATE when I do this! Now I am too tired to stay up and be productive and totally frustrated for wasting an evening.

Two more weekends before renegade and what am I doing? Effing up screens and sleeping on my sofa.

I'm so screwed.

whoa!

Another long night of more gocco experiments at space oddities headquarters ended with the following results:

gocco:::what I learned

I am pretty new to gocco printing and burned some new screens to try printing onto fabric for the first time tonight. I am learning a lot with every new gocco project. Tonight was no exception!













Here is what I learned tonight:::

When burning screens:
*do NOT put any sort of tape behind the image you are burning. i used double sided tape to adhere several small images to a piece of paper intending to burn the screen that way. well the tape showed through the image when i burned the screen! weird.

*in my opinion for the best results, don't expose the screen for too long. i have already found that shorter time (2-3 seconds) results in a better screen than if I expose the screen longer (4-6 seconds - bad bad!)


When printing on fabric:
*use more ink than you think you need. re-ink often.
*do several tests before the real thing.
*don't give up
*the sixth times the charm!

I printed 17 tote bags and a onesie for my daughter. 12 of the bags turned out pretty darn good and 5 are well, not as good. I am not sure what to do with the poor imperfect owls! Well anyway I figure this isn't so bad for my first time. I have 3 more designs I am hoping to crank out of the gocco in the next few weeks. Wish me luck!

birds and branches.

Good:
I love how this magnet set turned out! Oh, can I just take the rest of the week off of work and do some FUN work? Come on!


















Annoying:
I was planning to set up a booth to sell my wares at a local festival this weekend but my friend who was the reason I was doing it to begin with cancelled on me! Luckily the event is completely disorganized and the organizers are totally cryptic about everything...so I think we can just not show up and that's that. Ugh. I guess the bright side is that I will have more inventory ready for Renegade! So...Yay!

Hot Off the (button) Press!

Last night proved to be more productive than any other night in a long time! I made a list of my current inventory, a list of what I want to get made in the next month, and a third list with a goal for what I'd like to complete this week. I managed to finish almost all of the magnet and button sets that I wanted to get done this week all within a few hours last night! And I ran out of magnet supplies entirely! My sweet husband also drew a fantastic unicorn which I intend to screen print onto tote bags. Yay for getting stuff done!

dotty birds

















fabric apples










showers

everything is just NUTS lately.

for serious.

just crazy.

i have about 17 loads of laundry to do (no kidding)
my day job is effing insane
my kids are more wild than ever
and i'll be lucky if i have ANYthing to sell at renegade...

whew! that little bit of venting really helped a LOT.

breathe in...breathe out...

oh, right...!

My treasury withdrawl problem ended quickly when I snagged this one earlier in the week. Of course by now it is expiring in about 8 hours. But you just might be able to sneak a peek here if it's not too late. Again, it's a list of favorites...this time I called it "Pretties." I am not very good at treasury names because even if I have a theme idea in my head I can never think fast enough to also come up with a clever name. Anyway, I am really digging on oranges and blues lately. I also dig every single one of the etsyians featured below. I hope you do, too!

etsy treasury withdrawl

I've been so super busy that I haven't been able to snag an etsy treasury for the past week. Boo! No fun!! Withdrawl has begun to set in...must look at treasuries tonight when I get home...

aftermath

Today is my 9th wedding anniversary! For serious!! I am 29 years old and man, do I feel OLD today!

I had a lovely weekend full of family fun. My second child's first birthday was a blast! I can't believe my little girl is so grown up! Boo!













I heart this cupcake tree that I made in lieu of a cake. I wanted to get a rainbow effect but was afraid to put all of the colors in the bag at the same time. So I settled for some rainbows and some plain ones. It ended up pretty darn cute. We let her destroy her own little cake, too. Fun!!

lonely hearts

Here it is Friday already and I seriously accomplished very little the whole week. Grrr!

Good things about this week:
1. Got a new (used) second car so that my husband and I don't have to juggle wacky schedules when one of us wants the car when the other is at work.
2. Got almost everything I need to pull off baby Jette's birthday party on Sunday
3. It's over

Stuff I am in denial of:
1. paying bills
2. that renegade is FIVE weeks away
3. that I am having 20 people over to my place for a party on Sunday - which leaves me about 24 hours to pull off a miracle if I want my house to be clean.

Here is a frame I finished this week. It's a thrift store find that I covered (via decoupage) with pretty pieces of wrapping paper. It makes me happy.

the perfect party

Just a shout out to the wonderful etsy.com shops who have helped this busy mom plan a perfect party!

















Sugar-n-Snails Boutique filled a tall order for me when I contacted her on Saturday asking if she could make, customize and ship a dress that would work for my daughter's first birthday and dedication by Tuesday. Wow! Amazing! And Ivy Arts sent these adorable cupcake invites to me just in time when I flaked out and couldn't finish making my own. Whew! I'd probably be making mad dashes for mass produced crap at Target or Wal-Mart if I didn't have etsy.com to turn to in these busy scattered moments. Yay, Etsy!

bookworm

I made a treasury for all of you bookish types today. Isn't it grand? Click here to see it up close and click away!

Shutterbug

I've been super busy working hard on a lot of stuff the last couple of weeks! In the craft world I have been busy making pretty picture frames, lots of fun cards, and hunting for the perfect supplies for a couple of other projects.












At home I have been TRYING to clean up and get my house ready for my little girl's first birthday party this weekend. We are having a grand double event! She will be dedicated in the morning and then we will celebrate her birthday in the afternoon. I ordered a simple pretty dress from Jacovia on etsy and I'm hoping it will be the perfect dedication/party dress. Of course we'll take it off before we let her dig into the CAKE!

I have also had a crazy time at work lately. Things are changing, stuff is stressful. I think it's time for coffee...

Awesomeness for little ones

Oh I am going to have fun shopping for my kids on Etsy.com this Christmas! Here are some the items currently on my wish list.

Stardust Soap Rockets made by Soapy Love


















Painfully funny Burt Reynolds ONESIE by SeboMunkee














Mushroom Cottage Play Set by Fantastic Toys

















Super Cute "I like Sea Monsters" shirt (this one comes in infant to adult sizes!) by Tina Seamonster