The first step is admitting that you have a problem...

Well, I'm back from the huge weekend craft festival. Interesting experience for me, in many ways. I learned a great deal about what NOT to do with a booth set-up, and how important it is to research shows to determine whether your work is a good fit, and how important good comfortable shoes, no matter how ugly, really are. I do hope that my feet will forgive me some day soon.

I also indulged myself a bit, after all those hours of standing, and, well - I bought a bag. And then I bought another one. And I'm considering more. There were a few vendors there with really interesting bags, and anyone who knows me knows that I have some, er - issues - when it comes to overbuying bags.

So let's just go with the addiction and make fabulous bags this week's blog theme. One of my purchases over the weekend was a Carogi bag. I'm telling you, some of the fabrics I saw were unbelievable. These bags are made from high-end upholstery fabrics in some really funky designs with lots of great color.



They're not all my style, but still - the workmanship is lovely, and the designs are sure to attract some attention.

Stay tuned tomorrow to see my second indulgence. And in the mean time, please check out my Etsy shop - I'm adding quite a few new designs this week, like this one:


and I'm giving the whole shop a new look, trying to pull things together a bit more and integrate the design. I'd love to hear your feedback!

Candy Hangover?

How are you holding up today? I didn't raid my kids' Halloween bags as much as I feared I might - but now it's early morning and they're still in post-sugar rush sleep, and here it sit with the rest of the candy. It's LOOKING at me. It knows I'm here. Eep.

On a slightly less intimidating note, today's orange crush is a piece from one of my favorite Etsy sellers, neile. Her butterfly pendants show off some of nature's loveliest work.



Isn't that just beautiful? And rest assured that the butterflies whose wings grace these pieces have died of natural causes.

That's my Thursday morning goodie. Now to begin another day of my mad rush to prepare for this weekend's enormous show. I've had a blast and I feel incredibly productive after the past couple of weeks, and I have a nice stock of pieces ready, but my poor fingers are not pleased with me. Calluses, cuts, scary scratchy hands...I could have covered the rest of my body in black or white and just taken my hands out trick or treating as a terrifying monster costume last night. Let's hope a few days off will help them!

Elegant Orange

Happy Halloween!

Continuing this week's celebration of orange, I'm featuring a fun print from studio1212, whose charming dog portraits are almost enough to make you forget about the shedding and chewed shoes. "Proper 1" is a lovely rendition of what I hope will be my next dog - a standard Poodle.



Now, get out there trick or treating, and save some for me!

Boo

More orange today, this time as an accent color. It's almost Halloween (of course, if you asked my 6 year old, it's been "almost Halloween" for a couple of months now). And so, we need...MONSTERS. Scary ones. Creepy, crawly, nasty monsters with big bloody fangs and faces that turn even the bravest of men into whimpering piles of fear.

And I've got just that. Here's something from Mint Conspiracy that will scare the pants right off you.



OK,well, maybe not. Cute, though, isn't he?

You can read more about these little beasties at Jill Christine's blog.

Tomorrow, maybe I really WILL scare you.

Orange is the New Black

First of all, a cheer to the Red Sox! Fun World Series this year.

Now, the business at hand. This week's theme for fabulous indie work is a color that I've somtimes hated, sometimes loved. Lately, we're in a love phase. Orange can be a little tricky, but the artisans I've found do lots of interesting things with it.

Monday's find is this great Giclee Poppy Print from Etsy seller Modern Art Everyday. I could cover every square inch of open wall space in my house with this stuff.



More orange to come tomorrow!

New Feature Coming Soon!

Happy Friday, all!

I'm working on a collection for a feature I'm going to be starting this Monday - a Design Theme of the Week. I'll introduce the theme on Mondays, and then will feature an item from an indie artisan each day that embodies it. I've got some ideas brewing already - colors, foods (of course), cultures, news stories - it should be fun. I'm looking forward to sharing some of my favorite artisans.

For today, though, a little plug for my Etsy shop. The moon has been absolutely breathaking for the past couple of days (and with these obscenely late World Series games, I've had plenty of time to look at it). It's a classic spooky Halloween full moon, often surrounded by clouds swirling by. And at midnight last night, it was fabulous.

My Lunar Surface Earrings are out there, a nice way to think of the moon even if you go to bed at a decent hour.



Enjoy this gorgeous fall weekend - and do get out and have a look at the moon.

Nervous Wreck!

Yikes.

There's a lot for me to feel nervous, excited, jumpy about today.

First of all, the World Series (or, as my daughter calls it, the World Serious) starts tonight. I grew up as a Phillies fan and now I'm in Red Sox Nation. Anyone who knows the history of those teams knows that their fans don't ever really rest easy.

Second, I've got a HUGE craft show coming up next weekend - the Christmas Craft Festival at the World Trade Center in Boston. We're talking a three day event with attendance estimated at over 30,000. It should be fun, and exciting, but holy glue guns, Batman, that's a lot of crafters and a lot of shoppers! I'm now alternately worried that I won't have enough jewelry to last the weekend or that I will be lost in the shuffle and won't sell enough to recover my (rather hefty) booth fee.

And finally, I've had a lot of coffee this morning. A LOT. I was hoping to work on a coffee pendant to go with my Epicurean collection, but I'm thinking a saw is not the ideal tool for me when I'm this highly caffeinated.

Yours in jitters....