My First Out of Town Show...

So last weekend was my first out of town show, Cowtown Indie Bazaar, in Fort Worth, TX. It went pretty well. I guess I had somewhat higher expectations for an out of town show but it sounds like I did better then some. Everyone from Etsy Forth Worth was super nice though and I would probably go back next year.  

Cowtown was the start to my crazy busy fall! I probably won't be writing more then once or twice a week on the blog because I'm actually in the process of putting together a brand new website/blog for the shop. Along with fall shows every weekend, raising a 3 month old, and my mom visiting next week for the first time since we moved to TX my time is very limited right now. :) I also got into Blue Genie Art Bazaar which is super exciting and stressful at the same time. I have calculated I have exactly 4 weeks of working time to make mass amounts of product for the month long Christmas consignment sale.

Oh, I have also been writing blogs over at Austin Craft Riot to help out with the holiday show. Since I'm overseeing all the goodie bags for the show I'm going to post blogs featuring some of the fun stuff people have donated starting next week.  I will try to keep up with posting some of my new projects (both personal and shop related) along with recaps from shows here but if you need a fix head over to Austin Craft Riot.

This was my booth at Cowtown. I had lots of new stuff for this show including new screen print fabrics, clocks, license plate skulls and more. You can find more product pictures on my Facebook page. 

I also had mini, mini mustache pillows that everyone loved. I originally intended these to be heating pads because they are the perfect shape for your forehead or neck but I got bored so I stuffed them the night before the show.  As you can see my little helper was not much help. :)

On Friday after we setup we went to the Fort Worth Zoo. Everyone said that the Dallas Zoo is better but I was pretty impressed. Wade got up close and personal with a baby chimp who came bolting up to the window when he bent down. The weather was beautiful and I think Gabe just enjoyed all the colors and sounds.

Here are some of the goodies I traded for or won in the raffle while I was there. Lets just say I made out like a bandit!

upcycled clothing necklace by The Snootie Pig
vintage domino pendant by Maggie May I?
skull and cross bones dog lease by Lizziebees
 pirate tooth fairy box by Sima Design
recycled paper necklace by Make It Sick
notebook by Subtle Acts
soap and lotion by Clean Jellybean
notecard, print and love notes by Fifi Duvie
awesome owl painting by 3 Bears Studio

Shop for the Cure @ Atown

Atown is having a charity event tomorrow, Wednesday the 12th from 5pm-9pm, where 10% of store wide proceeds and 100% of the raffle donations will go to the Austin Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Amazing "pink" raffle prizes have been donated by many of Atown's local artists including this beautiful jewelry set made by myself and GemJunkie! 

 Stop by to enjoy champagne, chocolate and live music by Austin's own Marty's Music Menagerie. Special guest, Lydia Miller, will also be there to share her story.  As usual, don't forget to shop local while your there! I was in the store yesterday and there is a TON of new stuff including a special line of "pink" products that will be available for sale all month. I didn't miss out on this opportunity to make my own line of "pink" products. Check them out!

 

 Visit Atown at 5502 Burnet Road here in Austin. For more info check out their Susan G. Komen Facebook Event.

Dia De Los Muertos

I've been working all month to make new products for my fall shows starting with Cowtown Indie Bazaar next weekend, Oct 15th.  These are my new favorites! I wanted to give you a sneak peak of what you can look forward to seeing this month at Cowtown and Viva la Vida Fest.

  Headbands made from recycled soda cans and bottle caps. These were really fun to make!

 

New bottle cap charm necklaces in 4 fun colors!

I wear a lot of sweaters in the fall and love to spice them up with fun, colorful brooches!

 

 Skull bottle cap wine charms - set of four.

 Last but not least, I'm finishing up a batch of new skulls made with license plates, bottle caps, and soda cans.

Going to Renegade!

After participating in the 2nd Annual Austin Renegade Craft Fair back in May, Kelly and I took a chance at getting into the 1st Annual Holiday Renegade show this November. Well it paid off! R+R Design and GemJunkie will be back at the Palmer Event Center November 26-27th for the Renegade Craft Fair holiday show! We are working hard, making lots of new products, perfect for holiday gifts.

A reminder, you can also find both of us at the Austin Craft Riot holiday show on November 12-13th along with tons of local handmade artists. Keep an eye out on my Facebook fan page or GemJunkie's for pictures and updates on new products you can find at all of our fall shows.

Craft Project Complete!

So I've been wanting to make this for months and I finally got around to it this weekend. If you remember back in June I had a list of my favorite baby DIY projects and this breast feeding cover was one of them. Well here is my finished version and just in time for fall shows and grandma's visit in October!

While I'm at it...Here is a pic of my beautiful baby Gabe who is now two and a half months old.  He is all giggles and smiles lately especially around the camera. He has started cooing and is desperately trying to crawl or stand on my lap any chance he gets.

PS. As you can imagine I've been busy, busy with baby and getting ready for fall shows along with my Austin Craft Riot duties. The blog tends to come last to all those things and I apologize because I enjoy sharing these projects with you. I've got lots of new stuff I'm working on that I'll try and post soon as well as a long overdue recap of my sisters visit to Austin. All for now.

Get Organized!

With a newborn baby, getting ready for fall shows and trying to keep up with my Austin Craft Riot duties I've been been scribbling notes and lists on anything I can get my hands on. I need to get organized so I can better time manage my day (Example: I'm writing this at 4:30am while trying to coax a two month old back to sleep). So, I created this little weekly check list based on one Etsy put out at last years Craft Party {click HERE to see Etsy version}.


I love planners, especially this ONE from Robo Roku, but I liked the idea of being able to fold this into a pocket size piece that I can easily take in my purse or pocket to run errands, etc. That and I had just downloaded a ton of fun fonts I wanted to play with. :)

The version below is a little different then mine. I generalized the daily checklists for the average crafter/shop owner. Click on the image to download a copy from Google Docs. Enjoy!

This is where I'll be this weekend...

DIY Project: Jewelry Frame Display

Here is another fun, easy project you can make for your shop or home. I made my first set of frames years ago to display all my fabulous earrings in the open so it was easy to pick and choose what to wear. You can make 1, 2, 3 or more frames in different sizes to suite your needs. I made this set of three frames for a friend's birthday. They are all second hand frames I picked up at different times and just painted them to coordinate.

What you need: 
Frames (as many as you want in different sizes)
Paint
Mesh screen (Not household screen but larger gage wire screen from the hardware store. It comes in various size openings like shown below.)
Wire cutters
Staple gun
I bought frames without glass so I didn't have to waste it. If you find a frame you like that has glass you can dispose of it, give it away on Craigslist or think of something creative to do with it. I picked out three coordinating frames, two that had gold and one plain brown. I painted the large frame black and antiqued it then painted part of the small frame in black to match. I also recommend finding frames that are solid wood and have enough depth in the back to staple to.
The next step is to cut and adhere your wire mesh to your frame. I used the opening of the frame to mark my wire and because I had deep frames I added a 1/4-1/2 inch to all the sides so I could fold the edge over and staple into the side of the frames. This way the wire was contained and I didn't have it scratching my wall. If you don't have very deep frames you can add an inch to all sides and simply staple to the back of the frame. If you're worried about scratching your walls use strips of felt and a glue gun to cover the rough wire around the back of the frame. Just make sure that it is not visible from the front.

And voila, your done! You can now hang your frame(s) on the wall or I have also used mine with a stand at shows to display my jewelry for sale.  One last tip...depending on what type of wire mesh you get (stainless, galvanized, etc.) you may want to spray a couple layers of clear acrylic on it so you don't turn your silver jewelry. I only had problems with my sterling silver but some cheaper metals can turn as well if your not careful. Some hardware stores sell wire mesh that is coated with a thin layer of plastic coating. It is more expensive but a good option if you have lots of sterling silver you'd like to display.
Here is a great tutorial from The Borrowed Abode on how to make a larger wall display with old windows like the one above. This is great for someone who has a shop or workspace with ample wall space or those at home who want to display more than just earrings. Enjoy!

Happy Monday!

I had a busy weekend of grand openings, fall fairs, birthdays and more. Enjoy these pics...

Friday Night...Official grand opening of ATown. My stuff looked great! 

 

Saturday...My first fall fair after being home all summer with baby Gabe.

 Austin Flea at The Highball

My new shutter door display for screen prints. I thought it looked pretty sharp. :)

New mini French mustaches. These were a popular seller this weekend.

 

New CD coaster sets, also a popular item at the Austin Flea this weekend.  

Sunday...I'm 30!! I spent my birthday selling with friends at the Cafe Medici downtown.

Fall Fair: Handmade & Vintage put on by The Thinks.

I finally got to use my other new shutter display and it was great!

Spoons are back! I just inherited 500+ from my sister and her thrifty shopping so expect to see them at all my fall fairs.

Another new display I made out of pegboard, newspaper and a thrift store frame. A little stain on the frame to darken it up and it'll be perfect!

First Shows of the Season

Come join me for my first fall show, Austin Flea, tomorrow at the Highball from 11am-5pm! I'll be outside enjoying this beautiful Texas weather and sipping mimosas. A portion of the proceeds from tomorrows flea will go to the Central Texas Red Cross & Austin Pets Alive to help with the relief efforts of the local fires. For more info visit their Facebook page HERE.

Then on Sunday I'll be at the Cafe Medici with Kelly from GemJunkie and other awesome handmade vendors for the Fall Fair from 10am-5pm. For more info visit their Facebook event HERE.

ATown Grand Opening

ATown is having their official GRAND OPENING bash tomorrow, September 9th from 5-9pm at their new store on 5502 Burnet Rd. Come stop by to shop local, grab free food and drinks from sponsor Rebuplic Tequila, and stick around for your chance to win a raffle prize from one of the amazing vendors listed below. All proceeds from the event will go toward Austin Pets Alive, one of my favorite local organizations. I'll be there with the hubby and new baby to support local handmade!

While your at Atown I highly recommend picking up one of the new Go Local Austin cards. With this new card you can get sweet deals at hundreds of local stores, restaurants and hot spots. It supports your local economy and helps the environment by replacing hundreds of paper coupons with one little card. You can use it immediately and as many times as you want for up to 12 months after purchase. For more info about the Go Local Austin card click HERE. 

And There Were Three...

So the blog may be a little slim again this week because my two awesome little sisters are coming to visit! I'm sure I'll have some adventures to share next week as we intend to explore all things Austin yet again. We'll also be doing a little consignment shop tour and craft day so I'll hopefully have some fun new projects to share as well.

I've always been fond of this old picture of the three of us with my grandpa at the ranch in Nevada so I thought I would share it with you.

Happy Monday, have a great week everyone!

Get Hammered @ The WonderCraft

Newborn baby and family made their second outing into the real world (outside of hospitals and shopping at Target) last night to visit the WonderCraft fashion event "Get Hammered". Our first venture was Austin Flea at the Highball back in July. We figured being a crafty family we better start the kid off early. For a few hours last night new mom and dad were able to enjoy a few cocktails with friends while baby Gabe enjoyed the stimuli of new sounds and color.

Gabe sported a mustache onsie by Beth of Paired Hearts in support of the handmade goods sold at the WonderCraft.

The WonderCraft hosted artist Teresa Basa and her beautiful collection of jewelry for Austin fashion week. Teresa was originally born in Chili, then moved to California and currently has a studio in Round Rock, TX. Her jewelry is made of traditionally dyed Chilean horsehair, copper, brass, recycled silver and re-purposed leathers. You can find her products online at teresabasa.com, at Parts & Labor or the Mexic-Arte-Museum here in Austin.

The "Get Hammered" event allowed guests to create their own personalized metal stamped jewelry in demonstration of the WonderCraft's new Craft Bar menu of make-and-take projects now available to the public. You can find a full list of the standard make-and-take projects available at the WonderCraft HERE.

This is the adorable metal stamped necklace I made. It is a play off my son's and my initials, TG and GT. I love how it turned out with the letters highlighted in marker giving it an antique look.

In addition to Teresa Basa the event featured several other vendors and artists including specialty sodas by Rollerfeet Sodas (now available at the WonderCraft), CHOCBite build your own candy bars, and Christie Mathis Ultralicious Photography.

Hubby and baby hanging out while I made jewelry and chatted with friends. I had to laugh at the fact Gabe kept himself content by eating his fist half the night because we forgot his pacifier. His dad went home with a huge slobber spot on his nice shirt.

Here is a preview of the awesome goodies available for sale at The WonderCraft including my recycled license plate ornaments and our new CD coaster sets featured below. Make sure to stop by and check out all the amazing handmade products available for sale from artists such as GemJunkie, Polished Two, Craft Chi, Paired Hearts, Baby Bolt, Lip Glossery and many more.

Airstream Love

I have always wanted an airstream trailer in my back yard to makeover into a luxurious office space. If you have too here are some beautiful photos for inspiration...

via Re-Nest

via Ready-Made

via Design Sponge

via Able + Baker Design

via Design Sigh

And we can't forget our own local inspiration...the Wondercraft