Be Kind

I saw this post on Pinterest last night.

Source: tumblr.com via Liberty on Pinterest

it reminded me of the "Be Kind" cards I made up a few years ago. Remember these?

For some reason, I never listed them on etsy. Now you can get them, if you want. They're cheap enough to keep a pack in the car and have them on hand for a kindness emergency. Which we all have.

more doorstops

I don't know what it is, but I have been getting so many orders on etsy for my beanbag doorstops lately. It's really funny and I am sure that people are looking at me strange when I go to Smart & Final and buy 60 lbs of beans at once. And the funny thing is that they are going strange places, like overseas, or to APO addresses or hotels. What are people doing when they buy 20 doorstops???? Who knows? Whatever it is, it's funding my latest quilty adventures and that's something fun. Thanks everyone!

Here are some of the more popular patterns of late.

Typewriter jewelry

Recently I got it in my head that I wanted a necklace made out of a vintage typrewriter key. So I popped over to etsy and found a ton of options! But far and away, my favorite was the one that I ended up with. It's made by IvieRidge and I absolutely love it. I wear it all the time and get so many people asking me about where I got it.  Thought I'd share the source and the etsy love.

Limited Edition Collages available

I've been meaning to post this for a long time - wanted to show images from the art shows that we had, but there weren't a lot of really great images from the shows themselves (see them below)... and then it was the holidays and busy life....

 well, I was finally able to list the collages onto etsy, since a lot of people had asked about buying editions of them and having copies for their own homes.... here they are... now available in large scale museum quality giclee on canvas prints. All will be limited editions. (click this link to see all of them)

When in stress..

Things have been REALLY stressful this week. ........
Well, you know what I do when I am
stressed... I sew.

I recently got orders for 5 beanbag doorstops and apparently that was all I needed to get myself started. I coped with my stress today by cutting, sewing and filling more doorstops... All said and done, I think there are 16 finished and 14 unfinished. I have no idea as to why I made that many. That's just plain old excessive. But at least it's better than over-eating or binge shopping... And now I can list them on etsy soon... And they are cute... Cute does seem to help a little...

Earrings on Etsy

If you've known me or my creations for a while, you know that I started off on my own many years ago when I left my textile design job to make handmade jewelry. It was a lot of fun, but a little hard on my hands to be wrapping wire for 8 hours a day.  I still have all my supplies, though, and lots of jewelry that I keep finding stashed places that I simply stopped putting out at sales, etc.

Today I've listed a few pairs of earrings on my etsy store - I used to sell these for $22-$30 each, but now I just want them out of the boxes and onto people.... So they are all less than $20.  Depending on how these sell, I might be coaxed to put some of my clearance necklaces onto etsy as well.  We shall see.

And I also have a sale on my profile charms, too... They're only $10 (because I am crazy like that) just for a week. snatch them up.... supplies are limited.

New Charm Photos

I don't know why it's taken me so long to do this. I finally got some good pics of the hand stamped charms.
I'm hoping dear hubby can upload them to our actual site while he's on break from making tv shows in the next few weeks. Until then, here they are and you can order the charms on etsy, too - where you can see the pretty pics.

More Handmade Scrappy Journals.

I love these journals. And I'm picky about journals. I fill up at least 4-6 journals and sketchbooks a year and I have a collection of both used and unused journals waiting their turn to be used... But now that I'm making these, the other ones are put on hold.

I've been making them for a while, but now they're cuter, a standard size, with nicer grommets, and bigger book rings. After using these the last year, here's why I like them better than my other (waiting) journals:

1 - They're sturdy
2 - They lie flat when you are drawing, writing, etc... and they fold back, too
3 - They're refillable. Don't like what you made? need a piece of scratch paper? These are not fussy. Refill it with some other fancier - or less fancy paper.
4 - They're cute. (some of them even have pen pockets now)
5 - They're scrappy and GREEN and we all know how much I love to use my scraps.
6 - They make great gifts. (I think I've given over 25-30 as gifts)

I've recently made a whole new batch and have put a few of them tonight on etsy.

I have the coolest friends - Fierce Handbags (and giveaway)

I've known the awesome couple behind these new bags for years and this is a new venture for them, so I am super excited to introduce you to Fierce Handbags... the brain-child of my pals, Chris and Niki.

We have many impromptu Saturday morning breakfasts with their family and recently they started picking my brain about a new line of purses Chris was making made of duct tape. Not ones to make anything that's already out there, Chris has designed his own styles and he handmakes these bags the way a man's man would... with baling wire and grommets to keep the bag's shape - "fierce" colors that suit Niki's wild colorful style and great details to boot. Niki kept getting - in their words - "stalked" for her bag, so to keep his lovely wife safe (yuk yuk) he opened his etsy shop!

When I ordered mine, of course it HAD to be in red and white... I mean, their whole deal is that you get to pick from a bunch of colors and pretty much style it as you like... so I requested "mostly red" with touches of white that could pass for squarish polka dots (teehee). The extra white stripe on the flap was his idea, I'm glad it's there - it made for a nice balance.

Can I tell you I have gotten STOPPED for this purse. Everyone wants to know where I got it, what is it made of, how can they get one??? So I've been pressuring Chris to get that etsy site  up and running as soon as possible and now it is and you too can order and wear your very own Fierce Handbag.  You know you think it's cute and you how much are you wanting to design one for yourself, too?

Oh, and in case you are wondering, mine was the biggest size handbag. I'm kind of a big bag girl these days. Niki - who is also a mom of two carries the smaller handbag as her purse. So head on over to their site. The bags are super well made (s-t-r-o-n-g) and you'll be supporting an awesome family... tell them I sent you and when they pass on that info to me... I'll send you a free gift from me to say thanks for supporting my pals!

To win a clutch of your color choice, post a comment here saying which bag is your favorite, which colors you'd choose and how you'd design it... One lucky person will get a clutch... my treat.
ENTER by May 5 at midnight.

New Sale Items on Etsy

This week is forecasted to be RAINY RAINY RAINY here in LA. Which means more movies for the kiddos and the chance to actually sit down at the computer during the day and get some sale items uploaded to my etsy shop. For those of you who don't live close enough (or do, but couldn't make it to the awesome Upscale Backyard Sale) - I've listed a number of the SUPER SALE skirts that I had out that beautiful sunny day in November.

These are the last of their kinds... many of them are discontinued patterns - or ones that never really sold. They're up in the shop now. If you've been waiting to snatch up a deal - or use up the last of your Christmas $$$, now's the chance.

SEND your LOVE to HAITI

It feels so helpless to simply sit back and not do something when you hear news of what is happening in Haiti. Today, prompted in part by my daughter's school - and their efforts to raise every penny possible to send to Haiti relief - I've decided to do what I can do.

Remember the collages I did when I was grieving over AJ? I really needed some stability and the image of that mountain was really powerful for me. Today I've decided to make available some postcards and also high quality prints of the mountain collage. We had some of these made up and everyone in the family got them for Christmas, so I know they look great already... they're framed and up in each family member's home...So now on my etsy site, you can find packs of postcards, perfect for sending a little note (these work for men and women, unlike much of my stuff!). You can also find a listing for the archival print on high quality watercolor paper - suitable for framing. If you are interested, I can also get the print made on canvas in various sizes.

All of the profits from the sales of these mountain images will be donated to Red Cross Relief and/or Child Hope International - who are mutual friends of my family and run an orphanage in Port Au Prince, Haiti. They are sending updates via their website, so check them out.
Please please purchase these to help out - and pass on the idea to your friends and neighbors - blog, tweet and share about it - this actually can do something!

Green and red

Well, I couldn't find a way to post this without putting my face in, so please bear with the huge pic of my face. (have i mentioned how weird i feel about pics of myself? Let alone my huge face?) The intention was to show you my new Christmas gifts (the earrings and crocheted hat) with my most recently completed knitting project, the cowl. Why have I not knitted a cowl before? I love knitting in the round and with size 15 needles and two yarns at once, this thing was FAST! I'm also finding that a cowl is the perfect scarf to wear inside my freezing house. (subtract the earrings and this is how I looked in my house last night... Same pajama top and all)
The earrings were a gift from J's mom. They were made by a friend of hers in Beverly Hills that sells to Bloomies and Anthropologie. (I'll find out her name). They are a little heavy, but SO super pretty, eh? And the hat was an etsy gift. (When Ze Artiste saw it, he said, "momma, you used to have a blue one like that hat.") right-eo little buddy... Momma loves hats! And earrings. And scarves. Oh darn, I just love accessories in general... And I haven't even told you how much
I've fallen in love with fingerless gloves this winter, have I?

Ps. Green and red will continue to be put together LONG after the holidays are over. My two favorite colors? They have to work outside of December... Blast all convention...

My Holiday Party outfit

I mentioned earlier that it was agonizing to try and figure out what to wear to J's holiday work party. I get really intimidated dressing for his work events, especially when I know there will be movie stars in attendance. I'm not a big star watcher, I rarely recognize them before he points them out to me, but still the fashion... ah, what to wear???? The tough thing about LA parties is that the men all wear jeans and shirts - rarely jackets, but the women dress up. And I don't really do heels, so what to do?
Here's what I did... and here are the designers (or some like them) that made my outfit work.
1- simple dress - you can see it here. Here's a cute one kind of like it, and this one is similar (though tighter!)
2 - headband. My pal, Tori, gave mine to me and the designer who made it doesn't sell online,
but here is a similar one on etsy. I wore my hair very "flippy" - inspired by Alice Cullen's hair. eek, Twilight dorkdom strikes again!
3 - woven tights from Anthropologie. (about a year ago)
4 - flashy disco earrings. Forever 21. also from last year. (I liked the idea of mixing the flapper style headband and the disco earrings) I think you can see them in the above pic. I actually removed a gem that was hanging from the bottom when I first bought them.
5 - Necklace by International Sanctuary (for this outfit, I actually tucked it into my dress (um, bra) and used just the chain for an accent piece)
6 - leather studded and blingy bracelet - new this month... i love it! The designer is just getting her etsy site up right now, I have the bracelet that is dark brown with big rhinestones. (upper left corner)
7 - shiny shoes. brown patent leather... they were flats - though I toyed with red kitten heeled ones, too... I ended up with the flats for comfort sake. These aren't the ones I wore, but they'd do.
8 - okay. I didn't want to mention this, but seriously, it helped my outfit greatly. Victoria's Secret. It really worked. "Miraculously" well, considering I have almost nothing to begin with. (enough said)

anyhow... it made for a fun outfit that will likely be my New Years' outfit as well when I head to my sister's Appetizer Cookoff Contest. It was fun putting the outfit together and fun getting this post together, too. Hope you enjoyed it - I haven't done anything like this before... (oh, and with DSL issues that we've been having, this took me 3 days to write!)

Whatcha think?

I've been really wanting to get back into purses, but to find a way to make them a little more affordable and accessible to people to buy.

What do you think of this REVERSIBLE number? Ain't it the cutest? (price $39)

Do you think I should have my seamstress make a few up? My current thoughts now are that I will list these two on etsy and see the interest - they could also be made in most of the fabrics that I have on hand, too...

any thoughts?

Z Jayne

You know me and recycled or repurposed products... I love them! I'm constantly doing what I can to turn J's old shirts into clothes for the kids, I've turned old Hawaiian shirts into Father's Day gift bags, I reuse even the timiest scraps and I always try to support artists who reuse... Well, here is a great one! I cat even remember how I found her on etsy, but zJayne (www.zjayne.etsy.com) rocks!
She reuses old tshirts (she's sold over 1000 bags!) and makes them into little pouches and shopping bags. She gives you a billion choices and when it comes to personalization - you can choose your colors, etc.
I LOVE this bag! I'll be ordering more for sure. My kids are getting some cool kiddo mp3 players (link later ) for the holidays, maybe they need cool pouches like these to hold them...

I have the coolest friends - Mazie Kane

I think I have been meaning to blog about my cool friend, Amy, for a long time. Not sure why I haven't. No, this isn't the Amy that got married this summer, though I am starting to learn that pretty much every "Amy" I meet is worth knowing. I happen to love a lot of Amys.
Anyhow. THIS Amy is a fellow momma, crafter, friend who I met at church few years ago. She is the one who introduced me to my MOPS group and thus many of my good friends. She is also a really talented crafter with a business I love supporting. I know a lot of you have seen people who make picture frames and other items decorated with cool papers... but lets be honest, don't they often look a little... um... crunchy? Amy's work is flawless. She has a sensibility for the vintage that I love - her frames go perfectly in my house - and she makes the cutest baby items... diaper caddies and cool tins. What I was telling Amy this weekend about her stuff is that it's really the quality of work that sets her stuff apart. When you combine vintage taste, great items in wonderful prints and colors, and then put them together with a tremendous eye for detail - now that's a winning product. And that's what Mazie Kane provides.She recently also let me peek at her new photo albums that she is getting ready to launch. They are SO awesome. Everything is made locally here in LA, you may even see her in some local boutiques... they love her stuff. Go over and visit Mazie Kane's etsy site. Mark it as a favorite. You'll really love her stuff.

New Baby Sling Patterns listed on Etsy

I was able to find time to list the new slings today on etsy.
Oh, and some more of those great swaddle blankies, too.