Mermaid Monday

Sirene by AFancifulTwist
Summer Deep Sea Redhead Mermaids Coconut Rose Handmade Soap-BubblesVarietyShop
Last Call Black Tee-Tsai-fi
MERMAID With Wings - Limited Edition-MaryMakiRae
Frankenstein Carrying a sexy Pinup Mermaid Holder-SweetHeartSinner

Shopping!!!

Alright, I went ahead and did it. I bought these great bookmarks from pairabirds. Yes, yes the same pairabirds I featured in my last post. They were only $5 so I don't feel too guilty spending money, being unemployed and all. And I get five! They are going to look great hanging on my bulletin board above my sewing machine. When we finally move into our new place.

Dreaming of a Place of Our Own

The days of staying with my in-laws seems to be coming (very slowly) to an end. Dave and I have been looking at apartment after apartment since we have to time to be picky. NowI daydream of how we (I) am going to decorate it so this blog is dedicated to pretties to hang on the wall.

From top to bottom:

Plummage-the pair a birds I love the simplicity of her artwork. (Is simplicity a bad word to use to describe art?)

Chimneys In Dublin-artquirk This artist will even do a painting of your house!

San Francisco Letterpress Print-labpartners Letterpress and gocco + San Francisco=Awesome.

Umbrella's In the Rain- Kecky My new favorite artist! Her artwork is very influenced by Disney animation and she works at Disney! Her profile even ends with, "Have a Magical Day!" AND she will even do a custom cartoony picture of you! I have a feeling I will be investing in that soon. I am so cheesy.

Butterflies In Her Hair-7seventeengallery I have a feeling I am going to buy this one.

Big E

So I am missing my nephew a little bit (okay a lot) so here is a cute picture of him. I cannot wait to see him next month. It is going to be slumber party heaven. When I was telling my other younger brother how much fun it was going to be to spend time with Ethan and how it was going to be like a slumber party, he groaned and said, "Please don't dress him up in girls clothes and take pictures." You see, he is referring to when we were both a lot younger and I would dress him up in my doll clothes. My brother is 8 years younger than me so when I was around 10 he was 2 and like a living doll to me and my friends. And there are pictures documenting this. We don't seem to know where they are though. Hopefully they don't get in the wrong hands. My brother is going to kill me for posting this.

Another pretty shop

The the avatar of bluembrownlee's myspace page is what really caught my eye. It is a pendant made with a real Madagascar Sunset Moth wing. The pendant pictured above is made with a Monarch Butterfly's wing.

But don't worry about them being made from real butterfly wings. I found in her shop this assurance:

"All of my wings are gathered from butterflies and moths that have lived out their natural lifespan and have not been harmed. They are collected after passing on from natural causes from farms that raise butterflies and support local communities instead of capturing and harming wild butterfly populations!"

Rooting through myspace

So I was bored the yesterday and started going through all of my "friends" on myspace. And what did I discover? A lot of amazing art and jewelry! For example, this amazing jewelry by Magenta Tarantula. It is incredibly unique, not like anything I have seen before. The skulls and polished stones used look rustic and delicate all at the same time. If you are in San Diego, CA you can find her work at Neighborhood Boutique. Anyone else interested, it seems you can contact her through myspace.

Cute stuff in the mail!

Last week I entered in a contest on Bagladee's Blog It was for a whole package of cute stuff like a zipper pouch and stickers. Well, I was the first prize winner! Yay! Now a package is on it's way to me from Nottingham, UK. Emma, has a beautiful shop full of purses and pouches. I can tell we have the same passion for fabric. She has also launched a new website. Go check it out!

Alright, I'm putting this out there...

I want to sell 100 items from my shop by Sept 1st. That is only 12 more items to reach that goal. Only 12 more items...
(imagine me squinting right now and trying to use jedi mind tricks to magically make sales happen in my shop.)

Another Fun Contest

Go check it out!

Win Free Undies!

So I wanted to help promote this cute shop Small Threads Daily and their contest to win free undies! (Okay, so promoting it would help me get more entries into the contest, too but they would look so cute on my nephew!) I am really diggin' the vacaction set and the mermaid/tattoo diaper bag.

And check out this really cute video filled with fun stitched plushies! I want to visit that world.

Bought my plane ticket!

Last night I bought my plane ticket for St. Louis to participate in Strangefolk! Yay! A weekend of friends, family and crafts!!! Seriously what could be better. I did have the difficult task of telling my dad that I was going to be staying with my brother at least part of the time. I don't think he was too thrilled with that but I can't wait to spend some awesome one-on-one time with my nephew Ethan and meet my new nephew, Garrett.

Another bonus about that weekend is my other brother, Cody will be in town too. He is going to be my chauffeur for the weekend. (Not sure if he knows that yet or not.) He did volunteer to help me with the craft show though. So crafty ladies, the handsome military man with me at my booth is single.

Family and friends: My plane tickets are for Friday the 26th morning and I fly out Tuesday the 30th midafternoon. Yay! Right now, Dave is not coming with me but we will see if that changes.

New Fabric!!!

So I really shouldn't consider myself unemployed. I have been cranking out purses like crazy. I am gearing up for Strangefolk in September and Rock n Roll Craft Show (hopefully) in November. Yesterday, since I did so well at the Caffe Market in Deland, I stocked up on some great fabric. Here is a preview of some awesome purses to come!

Anna Maria Island

A couple of weeks ago, Dave and I went to the cutest Gulf Coast beach area, Anna Maria Island off of Tampa. It was so super cute with short little multi-colored houses squished onto this island. I wanted to take pictures but a picture just wasn't going to do this place justice. We went to the beach but it was raining so we just walked up and down the beach. More cute houses crowded the edge of the coast and when we stepped in the shallow water, little bity multi-colored shell fish dug themselves deeper into the sand. That was a little disturbing yet fascinating all at the same time.

We stopped at coffeeshop/cafe/consignment/gift shop. This place had a cafe with smoothies and coffee drinks and pastries baked fresh there. The shop was crammed with antiques, art, gifts and these amazing handmade shell chandeliers. I wanted one so bad but with a hefty pricetag of $400, all I can have is a picture of it. I had a yummy coconut banana smoothie and an apricot scone. Notice the awesome 1930s antique bamboo aquarium behind Dave. I want that too.

Highlands Hammock State Park

A few weeks ago we went to the Highlands Hammock State Park near Sebring, FL. It was beautiful with big mossy trees and a windy boardwalk trail through some swampy area. Along the trail, the trees were so pretty coming out of the water which reflected to make it look like stretched into oblivion. As we were walking along one section of the trail, we walked up on some baby alligators. They were only about a foot and a half long and just sat and watched us as we watched them.