Showing posts with label grace dobush. Show all posts
Showing posts with label grace dobush. Show all posts

Friday, August 10, 2012

Fame & Fortune!

No not really. Well maybe a little bit of fame. My friend Grace Dobush's sequel to her widely popular craft business book "Crafty SuperStar" has just been republished. It still has the same great content with a good number of additives and I am proud to be one of them!

I  chimed in on my experiences on Regretsy. Yes that was plural, I've been on Regretsy more then once and not ashamed of it at all. In fact let's take a gander back at those links here and here. It's nothing personal just bored people who love to flame. I'm not upset by them at all in fact it gave me some amazing traffic on my etsy site and resulted in a good number of sales. You can read more of my opinions and lemons to lemonade philosophy in the book!

 
It was super exciting for me to have a little Bio in at the end with a shout out back to my blog. I can easily say this year has been one of the best years of my life, Craft Wars to another publication credit. There was a good reason I wasn't able to get into Grad School. Let's hope the good things keep happening and I can bear the work that is coming up for festival organizing and personal art/fashion projects.

To help with all of that I finally started to move into my shared studio space with Stinky Bomb Soap maker Megan Green over at Junctionview Studios! I look forward to some long nights in silence getting some work done.



So the studio has been my excuse from doing blogging, among other things. I have a lot of catch up work to do and embroideries planned. I need to put my mind to the grindstone and since all the festivals are pretty well formed it's just a matter for me not getting distracted. My biggest distractions are starting new projects when the old ones need desperate attention. ONWARD!

Monday, October 17, 2011

Water colors and Weekend Re-cap

 This weekend was filled with crafty, relaxation and celebration!
I knitted the most intense purple I have ever met and selected some new colors to add into my hair clips for Craftin Outlaws.  Which as always was a huge success.  I was also a dope and failed to remember to take any pictures while I was walking around.  I did pick up some cute things which I will post possibly tomorrow.  Jessica Miller did get some fantastic photos of booths and their wares.  Below are mine but you can go HERE to see the full set

 I am too short for my own booth, this is me standing.

 Great picture of my Pincushion rings.


 As for celebration it was my Nieces 7th birthday that we celebrated a day early after Craftin Outlaws.  She had a full schedule Sunday so it was nice to have an intimate family dinner with the little one.  We of course ate Korean Good at one of our favorite places Kaya.  I Shared some Dol-sut Bibimbap with Andy and of course we grilled out own Galbi and some other meat I can't recall because I was too busy gobbling what was right in front of me.

Sunday I just took it easy.  Our house guest Grace Dobush left that day after we shared a wonderful brunch at Third and Hollywood around the corner from the house.  With the Husband out hiking with some friends I settled down for a very relaxing day of nail polish, knitting and crying my eyes out to silly Korean Dramas.  The particular one I picked up is called Secret Garden.  I am 4 episodes in and so far the only thing that is happening in a garden are some awkward social status fights and daydreaming.

I picked up this stunning blue nail polish after Grace put a bug in my ear of gorgeous colors and brands when we had intense nail polish discussions Friday night when she came in from Cincinnati
The Base color is OPI's Miss America Line "Swimsuit…Nailed It!" and the top sparkle Coat is OPI Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night". I spent the rest of the time after  my nails dried knitting on a personal project that has been on the back burner for years.  It is this cute lace cardigan out of a variegated aqua blue yarn in a lace pattern.

Finally we come to the end of my first week of  daily water colors and/or sketches.  I did pretty good doing mostly water colors this week and pushing myself.
The first one is of my Cat Sophie when she does her back wiggles on the carpet seeking love and belly rubs (I know a cat especially orange girl that likes belly rubs?  crazy eh?)

Trying some more wet brush techniques doing fish and failing horribly because of the wrong paper.

I was watching some episode of Star Trek the next generation when I did this one.  Not sure what I was going for here.  I guess just some doodling.  I worked a little bit on some blending techniques since I was on the proper paper now.

A fashion sketch of something that has been mulling in my head and some gradient work on the edges.

A light sketch that started out as wanting to be a dragon fly and slowly evolved into being a palm tree with coconuts.  I really enjoyed doing this and letting the colors meld together on their own instead of forcing them.

More random sketching.  I wanted to compose something small so why not some flowers?  I tried a few different techniques here.  Flowers have been on my mind a lot because I want to do a little embroidery stitch sampler for myself using flower motifs.

Last night I nearly forgot that I needed to do something.  I sketched my toy sitting on my stomach before I went to Bed.

Tonight I have a Crafty Ladies Night at my friend Claire's!  I think I will try making these Fabric Boxes I have been eying out of a Japanese Craft Book I have.

Wednesday, June 08, 2011

Midwest Craft Caucus

 It was a great event.  One that I wish I could of been a part of the entire time but even going for just the Sunday portion was a great experience.  Olivera of Wholly Craft was the main organizer of this event and it came together great.  We had such a huge list of speakers and panels leaders.
 We got to hear from Danielle a representative for Etsy about the great conglomerate and how it started, where it's going and what changes are happening.  It was also wonderful for everyone to get a chance and ask her in depth questions regarding, sales, listings, business practices etc.

Other Great Panels provided information on hiring interns/employees, small business legals, how to take better stock photos, booth set up and presentation for craft shows and events, keeping relations with current and making new customers and those are just to name a few.
 Each panel was packed with a lot of eager people to learn as well as seasoned crafters to put their knowledge out to the collective.  A lot of great conversations were started as well as new friendships and connections.  Some of the key panels that I think were especially helpful were about pricing your work, how to apply for craft shows and inquire why did not get in with grace, also how to get published

Craftin' Outlaws Showcase Showdown!
This was Saturday night after the first day of the Caucus.  We had a mini craft show with the Craft Corner Deathmatch as the highlight of the evening.  We had a great turn out and it helped that it was near tornado weather outside so people got to be stuck indoors drinking more free beer and shopping around while they waited it out. 

I shared a table with my friend Laura Stith of Creux Poche who does these cute reversible fabric bowls.

Some close- ups of a few of my wares that I brought out..  it is hard to be a knitter and sell for these warm months so I have evolved myself into some knit accessories such as my Cat's Band yarn Guards, then my Sewing Pincushion rings and just cute Kanashi type hair pins that I enjoy making.

Here's AmyD Sporting the Craft Corner Deathmatch Champion Belt before the real show begins!
The judges seriously deliberating and trash talking as the teams work hard on their crafts all for the Glory of an Original Flamestitch champion belt.  It was great times and I made out better then I expected for this first time event.  I'm excited to apply for Craftin' Outlaws.  If I get in this will be my 3rd year with them.  
I've also just released the applications for Independents day 2011 also so I'll be busy with that.  I might as well commit Social Suicide because with the wedding coming up and all the sewing and DIY decorations I have I'm not going to have a social life at all.

If you would like to Apply for Craft Alley the Application can be found here!

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Before the Road

Sorry I've been a bit MIA over the past week.  I truly wasn't here.  I was amidst great friends in Chicago prepping for my Best Friends Wedding that happened this past Sunday.  I had the privilege of being the Maid of Honor, or as I like to call it Bitch of Honor.  I love my best friend a lot.  I ran back and forth in the city, parking cars, running errands and keeping her cool. It was also pouring rain was I was doing these tasks.  I drove in from Columbus, Ohio Wednesday night.  We met to run some errands and do dinner then I drove off to a friends apartment in Wrigleyville where I stayed till the rehearsal on Saturday.  Before I left this was the outfit that I was wearing.  Something a little casual and fun.

Drapey Navy Cardigan from Anthropologie
Tokidoki VS Marvel Spiderman Shirt
Navy American Apparel knit mini skirt
Harajuku lovers Yellow Jelly Wedges from DSW

Close up of my lovely shoes.  If you look for these get them in a size larger then your normally wear.  They are a bit narrow at the front and run all around a little small.  Since they are rubber they will not stretch with your feet.  I got these as a present to myself for my past birthday since DSW was so kind of give me a little discount.

I have a few more posts to make from my Chicago Trip.  Sorry these is nothing on sewing at the moment.  Currently my studio space is a wreck.  It is situated in the basement where we have a non-functional Air Conditioner that is being replaced tomorrow.  In preparation for that all the shelving and storage normally surrounding the HVAC and A/C was displaced to my area.  I'd be lucky to find my scissors in that mess.  On top of the missing AC we found our one and only bathroom to be severely clogged and turns out we need to get our main-stack water line replaced completely.  Now the final kicker I caught a cold of course while running around in the rain.  I am a tad miserable and going to work on some hand sewing projects till after the Midwest Craft Caucus.

If everything goes without a hitch in the house tomorrow for repairs we will be hosting Grace Dobush writer of Crafty SuperStar during the Craft Caucus.  I'm very excited about this!