what's new?

I have a few new things in my shop this week. First, I listed some fun Star Wars and super hero pins














I am lucky to have lots of comic scraps left and plan to make lots more of the smaller pins, magnets and maybe some bigger magnets and mirrors for upcoming shows.

I also decided to print more owl-iday cards this year since they seemed to be pretty popular last year. I cleaned up the image and revamped the text just a bit to give it a slightly different look than last year. I'm happy with how the cards turned out.



















Well, we are leaving town and will be gone for a few days. Enjoy your halloween and the last gasp of autumn!

xo
andrea

We went to Halloween at the zoo on Sunday. Of course it was nuts and we didn't even attempt the trick-or-treat circuit. We did have a really nice time, though. We rode the carousel, (Jette always says "I ride the monkey!") we played in the leaves, we looked at the creepy reptiles and insects. It was a nice morning. Jette had a cute costume under her coat. I'm determined to get a shot of it later this week. I don't think I got any of Lars with his puppy costume on, either. He wanted to be darth vader but last minute decided to wear last year's puppy outfit. What can I say, he likes puppies.

I made another owl candle last night.

It turned out bad. Bubbly. Plus it was really really messy and cumbersome. Maybe this is not my gig.

Tonight I am determined to bust out the gocco and print some cards. I also want to get a batch of items ready to take to Anthology this weekend. I have a few other new stores to send goodies to but I've had a hard time getting everything together. All I want to do lately when I get home form work is chill with my kids and once they're in bed I want to sleep or make candles.

Maybe it's time I make a list of short term goals again. It seemed to work last time.

Tonight I would like to:
Go to the post office to mail etsy orders
Print owl-iday cards
Make and package a batch of big magnets

I'm not even going to start tomorrow's list because it's too overwhelming. If I can accomplish these three things tonight and maybe make dinner, spend an hour at the park with the kids, and do dishes...I will be thrilled.

In other news, on my half-awake drive to work this morning I thought I heard the guy on the radio say that it might snow next week. Was I dreaming? Autumn is so short. It's hard to believe that October is almost gone. Winter is really coming, isn't it?

Owl Candle

So here it is, my first attempt at candle making.














































I didn't have time to try again tonight. I also managed to drop this candle while I was trying to get a picture. I guess it's better than dropping the camera.

Candle making is HARD.

So instead of knocking some items off of my to-do list yesterday, I randomly decided to try making candles for the first time. I found some awesome vintage candle molds at a thrift shop recently (an owl and a mushroom!) and have been itching to try making candles with them.

It was harder than I thought.

I had gathered all of the items I thought I would need according to the 1978 instructions (ha!) --- wax (pariffin,) dye, scent, candy thermometer, pyrex pourer, double boiler, lots of newspaper in case I spilled...and I googled a couple of last questions I had like could I re-melt if I screwed up and at what temperature should I add the dye and scent, etc.

Well here's what happened: I melted the wax to correct temperature, poured into pouring container, added in the dye in small pieces...and before I could even stir it in the wax was already starting to solidify. I quickly added the scent and poured in what I could. I re-melted the wax and tried again, this time letting the wax get a little hotter...and then poured again, a little more successfully but STILL the wax started to solidify pretty quickly. CRAP! Does anyone have candle making tips? Am I just not letting the wax get hot enough?

I finally filled the mold and this morning I was happy to open it and find an adorable avacado green owl that smells like peppermint. (I'll add a picture tonight.) YAY!!! But I have a looong way to go before I perfect this craft.

I think I will give it another shot tonight. I'm super excited to try again and hopefully get an even better final product. Hopefully one that doesn't take like four hours to get right. Any advice is appreciated!

xo
andrea

This weekend has been pretty uneventful. Of course I had good intentions to clean my house until it was sparkling clean and finish every project on my list but does that ever really happen? Not at my house. Yesterday we only made it as far as the west side farmer's market and to the grocery store and then spent most of the rest of the day doing craft projects with the kids and lots of loads of laundry. Today we're trying to clean up the house so that we can accomplish lots of other things in a calm, organized place instead of a messy crazy one. It's been pretty slow going. But the kids are having a blast "helping."


Here are a few newish pin sets that will be added to my shop this week:




















I also have lots of new mirrors, and they now come packaged with organza pouches! Here are a couple that I really like:



















Well, our NEW vacuum cleaner is already giving us trouble so I am off to try to exchange it. I lost my receipt! I really hope I can get a new one without a huge fuss. Wish me luck. This house needs some major work. :)

craft shows + cuteness

I have to share the illustration Chad made for the Holiday Craftacular coming up in Madison in December. The full poster will be printed soon after we finish a few details and get it off to Naomi but I thought it was about time to share the cuteness.















If you are around Madison and are still thinking about applying for the Craftacular there is still time! Just click here and apply by Friday 10/17.

And if you're part of the Wisconsin Etsy Street team there is still time to apply for the trunk show at Lazy Jane's on December 13. The deadline is coming up quickly (October 20) so GO HERE for details now!

xo
andrea

i heart minneapolis

Where do I begin? Minneapolis kicks ass! We spent the weekend doing crafty stuff with crafty people in crafty places. Good times, good people, and lots of amazing art!!

Saturday we drove up to White Bear Lake as eaaaarly as we could make ourselves and made it just in time to set up our table. The show was fun. Our neighbors made by keli and fahzies were both fantastic and fun to chat with. Thanks so much to the ladies from Truly for putting on such a great show! We are planning to send items to them for consignment soon so if you're in White Bear Lake you should be able to find some of our work there soon.

After the show on Saturday we went out to dinner at Triple Rock with our friend kelly and her boyfriend greg. You may know Kelly from her etsy shops kellybot and pequenopequeno. The food was amazing (I've been dreaming about another minneapolis po' boy,) kelly and greg are amazing, and the only thing missing was sheela's cupcakes (triple rock was fresh out of them, boo!) I have to insert a HUGE SHOUT OUT/thank you/we owe you/you are awesome to greg and kelly for letting us crash at their place on Saturday and making our stay in the cities way better than it would have been if we were not in the company of friends.

Sunday we peddled our wares at the Handmaidens Fall Show in uptown Minneapolis. Again, it was super awesome. The i like you girls really know how to put on a show! There was a steady crowd of lots of enthusiastic shoppers and again, tons of great artists and crafters. We had more terrific neighbors and met lots of people we hope to see at future shows. We also started some early holiday shopping and made some fun trades with other vendors. Excellent.

If only we had MORE TIME to spend in the twin cities! Well, we'll take we can get. Thanks for your awesomeness, Minneapolis.

p.s. - my favorite thing all weekend was the "i (stomach) minneapolis" shirt at the i like you booth. hahaha! so clever.

Free MONSTERS!!!!!!!

Look! Chad is giving away a set of his Series One Monster ACEOs on Christopher and Tia's blog this week! You know you want it! CLICK HERE to enter!

I'm Totally Into______Right Now

I'm Totally Into______Right Now
Originally uploaded by space oddities

Since I can't do custom pins at the shows this weekend, I made a big batch of random stuff that people may or may not be totally into right now.

I think I need a SLEEP DEPRIVATION pin for tomorrow.

out of whack

So my blog is all wacky. An etsy friend made me aware that you're not able to leave comments and while I was trying to fix that I broke some other stuff.

I have a list of about 25 things to finish between now and tomorrow at like 4pm so I won't be attending to broken blog junk until next week when we are home from MN.

Okay I am off to start crossing stuff off of my to do list! Goodnight and have a lovely week!

A weekend of INDIE CRAFT GOODNESS!

We are heading up to Minneapolis this weekend! We'll be selling our wares at two shows, one in White Bear Lake and one in Uptown in Minneapolis.

On Saturday we'll be at CRAFTED TOGETHER which is featuring 60 local artists and crafters, live music and yummy food.














On Sunday you can find us at the Handmaiden MPLS Craftacular sponsored by i like you.

















Chad and I are thrilled to be able to do both shows and spend the weekend in Minneapolis. We'll also get to meet the fabulous lady behind Kellybot and PequenoPequeno, yay! We haven't been to the Twin Cities in YEARS. I wish we had an extra day to just hang out and shop but we'll take what we can get.

If you're in the area please stop by and say hi! Looking forward to meeting lots folks this weekend!

Craft Gossip Feature!

Thanks to Craft Gossip for featuring our cupcake tote on their blog today!! What a nice surprise!






















You can see the post here!

a whole lot of cupcakes.

Last night I decided to use up my brown gocco ink to print a few random blank onesies I had in my bin of supplies. I printed the 3 onesies and still had some ink so I decided to print on one of my favorite shirts. And then on the pocket of a sweatshirt...and then I started digging through my laundry to find more things to print cupcakes on. Luckily I ran out of ink, or I'm afraid that pretty much all of my wardrobe would have been adorned with chocolate brown cupcakes. Once I start printing it's hard to stop. I'll often dig through the kids' dresser drawers to find anything blank that I can print for them. Am I the only one who does this? Ha! I start thinking...would my son like a cupcake shirt? Could I use cupcake dish towels? Eventually I either run out of material or out of ink, thank goodness.

It's too early and I am already feeling like it's going to be "one of those days."

Blah.

The Cupcake Tote!

I hope you all had a lovely weekend! Mine was busy as usual. Guess what? I have a new tote bag design ready to reveal!

Introducing....

The Cupcake Tote:























This is another one that has been stuck in my head for a long time! The cupcake tote comes in light pink or light blue and includes removable cherries (pinback buttons.) The buttons are made from all kinds of papers including french text (a favorite of mine), pretty wrapping papers, fabrics, etc. - so each cupcake tote will be unique.

This bag has already got me wanting to frequent the bakery more...yes, I am seriously that impressionable.

We have two shows coming up in MN this weekend! I'm super excited and will post more about them in the next day or two!

Hope your day is the sweetest!

I'M TOTALLY INTO_______RIGHT NOW

It's been a crazy week!

Geek.kon was fun but super exhausting. I was definitely ready to come home and relax on Sunday! I am working on a lot of random projects this week and trying to get enough inventory ready for the two shows in MN next weekend. Of course my kids have not been in the mood to play quietly while mommy gets stuff done in the evenings! Chad started a part time job and so far it's been totally fine. We still have a few nights a week together and they are being super flexible when he needs weekends off for shows.

Jette has been totally into hats this week. When she doesn't have a hat to wear she is totally whining MY HAAAT!






















It's so annoying and cute. You know, like cute little kid annoying. :)

And then there is this:













































These totes are the new item that I was super excited about last week! I gocco printed the text and the idea is that you can change out a text button (BIG 3" buttons!) whenever you feel like it. I'm going to be selling packs of buttons in sets of 5 - right now the only listing I have is for a CUSTOM set but I plan to put together fun themed packs. New phrases coming soon! You can look at the bags more closely HERE in my etsy shop.

Also I have to tell you that the 'gnomes' pin was a huge hit at geek.kon. I never knew that gnomes had such wide appeal!

Have a lovely day!