Whats Going On Here

Forget about March Madness, it's going to be April Insanity in my neck of the woods - I thought I'd share some of the craziness as it's about to begin this weekend with a trek over to the state capital to celebrate her Champagne Birthday tomorrow.


After that of course is Easter - I am trying hard to come up with easter basket ideas that do not involve candy, and hopefully involve items I can re-purpose from around the house. The twins are 3 so I think as long as we have fun stuff hidden in eggs to find they wont mind if it's their own toys. I found a post with a lot of great ideas here. 


A short list of ideas I'll be including - 

• Stickers
• Sidewalk Chalk
• Puzzles
• Glow sticks
• Coloring books
• New shoes - I got each of them a pair of flip flops for summer
• Chainmaille bracelets (they've been asking for one every time I work on something, it's only fair! :D)
• and yes, some snacks - probably fruit snacks and jelly beans. They actually don't like much candy.

Now the BIG events in April - which are making me a little crazy already just thinking about it, but I am so over the moon excited for - 

The Spring 2012 Indie Garage Sale!

Photo by  Rob @ Indie Garage Sale

IGS is one of my favorite shows - I've sold there several times now, and the crowd of artists and customers just can't be beat. I'm looking forward to seeing my crafty pals again and making lots of new ones. I've got a lot of new items in the works so hopefully they will be well received.

The weekend after that on April 28 is Mayday Underground in Rochester.
I've never attended or sold at that show, but I've heard great things about it. I'm nervous about doing the 2 shows back to back, but hopefully within the next month I'll have enough inventory that I should be covered with enough items to sell. All I can do now is really hope that things sell!

I've been pretty busy lately - making things, finishing my taxes (ugh) and finding other summer shows to apply to. I'll be posting some of the new items I'll have on my Facebook page, so be sure to come and visit!

Useful and Beautiful

So the other day I finished something that was initially inspired by a comment someone left on my page. Here is what I made -

Can you guess what it is?

Give up?

It's a Chainmaille POT SCRUBBER. Why did I not think of this myself? Oh wait, even if I had come up with it, pot scrubbers like this have actually been around for a while - they're like the original steel wool. This is made in a 4 x 4 inch mesh of bright aluminum rings, which dont rust or tarnish so it will take the wear and tear of regular use. I attached it to a key ring for something easy to grab onto. If I plan on marketing these pot scrubbers, I'll be sure to source the bigger rings that will not rust or tarnish as well. It wouldn't suit to have the one part of it I dont make to not stand up to the rest of it, now would it?

This scrubber would be perfect for all your cast iron cookware. Don't tell me you're not using cast iron, or I'll tell you you're cooking it wrong. Since this is the first scrubber I made I decided to test it out on my own pan.

Before:

Scrub, scrub, scrub

After scrubbing:

I'd say it works - and it would look so pretty hanging by your sink when you're done, don't you think? It *almost* makes me want to wash the dishes. Almost.

Mr. Clean Please Don't Hurt Me

I wish I could say the reason I've been quiet on the blog is that I'm super busy working on orders an making things, and while I have been a little bit, thats not the entire reason. The truth of the matter is that I've let myself get pretty disorganized and the state of my work table leaves much to be desired. I know a lot of artists thrive amidst chaos but I crave order and, well, just look what I'm putting myself through:

Yea. Someone come slap me with a swiffer, because this is nuts.

To be fair, I have made some progress on this mountain, but if anyone wants to come help with a spring cleaning, I'd happily compensate with yummy food and sparkly jewelry.

Anybody?