Saturday, December 25, 2010

Merry Christmas!

The moon is peaking through cloudy weather, and the last large sunflower still standing tall is drooping in front of the window. There are candles burning, a fire going and it's Christmas Day! I hope to enjoy the day today with family, treasures, and food preparation! Here's to the clear day we're about to have, with crystal ice on windows and toast feet in bed. Merry Christmas.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

The Flower Fairies


Cicely Mary Barker has penned and illustrated some of the loveliest children's books. As an adult I still love them, and each seasonal book is still lovingly placed out on a table to flip through and admire. Her books have accompanied my growing up years, through each season, marked with images of beauty and delicate poetry in a style all her own. Flower Fairies of the Winter is out now, and here is an illustration of the Christmas tree fairie that is in the book.
I've been working on my ornament collection for about a year now and have amassed quite a few that just appeared, so I spent some time putting those on the tree last night, finishing wrapping, and ice skating out in the open air and frigid winds of the big northeast!

Monday, December 20, 2010

Music Mind

Today I'd like to feature the music of Nik Bartsch and the collaborting quintent, Ronin. They call it zen funk, and I think that is a great description of what they do. I don't even remember where I came across this music, but it's positively magical I think. So creative rythmically and timing wise they make very odd time signatures so effortless in these compositions. This music feels very grey, and very winter and matches the day perfectly. Please enjoy.





An excerpt from their website:

"There are two paths a samurai can walk: that of a clan member, and that of a ronin, a lonely warrior. The former is highly esteemed in Japan, the latter is bitterly detested"

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Wood Series: Christmas Tree's




















What better way to grace our spaces with the beautiful messengers of the woods themselves, silent in snow and wind, they hold down the fort, putting up with our holiday attire that we adorn them with, sturdy and pleased with themselves, some of them puff out with the grandeur, others droop with embarrassment, but whatever kind of tree you have, or with whatever personality, you know the holiday season has arrived when they accompany you day and night. When they light up the night sky outside, or greet you in your dark early morning, they are bringers of hope and light.

Wood Series: Tobacco Barns















Images via google images.
Today's wood series is inspired by old Tobacco Barns. It may not be know that here in the Northeast there are still many tobacco barns that still stand from the days when it was widely produced here. I think all of these pictures though were taken in places down south. I love that they are these positively huge relics that still stand in half grown over fields, watching over the land after they've been abandoned, or just waiting out the season till the work and the sweat return to their walls. A testament to the wood that made them, and the labor that lives all around it's being.

I attended The National Biodynamic Conference back at the start of October, and during the first day there was a half day offering of a gathering for young people, farmers, and those involved in agriculture. The first activity that we did was to answer the question "If you were a beehive, where would you live?" I answered that I would live in the corner of an old abandoned tobacco barn in North Carolina, next to an old oak tree.

Where would you live?






Monday, December 13, 2010

Kraft Paper Lables and Cards

Here is a fun quick last minute craft project (if you have more time to cram another project in)
A little group of Christmas trees cards! Draw out your tree shape on paper, trace onto fabric, and then cut out. I used batting for snow, and free form sewed around in a contrasting thread. Select your favorite fabrics and buttons and use embroidery thread to attach your star/button to the top of the tree.

I've been utilizing some leftover Kraft card stock paper that I used for making labels for my Brown Boot Salvage table a few weeks ago and folding small squares to turn into Christmas cards!


I cut out a template of a kind of funky Dr. Seuss like tree, pinned it to fabric and then cut it out. I then sewed the tree shape to the card stock with my sewing machine.


Then I picked out my favorite color if embroidery thread accenting the tree, chose some leftover wool fabric (you could use an old sweater, or any other textured funky fabric) and embroidered on the trunk of the tree. Then I sewed on a little button for the star! Voila a sweet looking and totally handmade Christmas card.





Now I'm working on some shape cut outs for gift labels!





Just tear or cut squares of the same Kraft paper card stock, cut out shapes from some pretty fabrics ( I used silk, cotton and linen) and sew onto your cards. Mine are still a work in progress right here, but now they are hiding in a closet and adorning gifts.














Steppin with the Handmade Revolution turns Dubstep

The reggae/dubstep/funk obsession has begun to amplify itself over the past few months. Friends have passed along good albums, and the what I like to call "band association research" has taken place over and over. Basically I like to make a map, starting with musician/artist number 1. Then look up what collaboration they've done with others, (via album covers, online wikipedia searches, or music articles and reviews) who their band mates are what they've done musically etc. It doesn't take very long to make a musical map of a specific area or music scene.


Try it out with a favorite track on an album. Look up names. Do the leg work (in this case it generally means dancing to all the good tracks you've found) and enjoy!


Here are some videos that I've found that I really enjoyed, starting with Rootsmanuva. Jamaican born, UK rapper. Great great rythms.

This video features the track Witness




Here is the UK Dj duo Coldcut featuring Roots Manuva.

The track is called True Skool



Check out this wonderfully creative video by Coldcut
Coldcut-Colors of the Soul







I hope you've enjoyed the days mashup of musical selections. Keep searchin and keep moving!








Saturday, December 11, 2010

Christmas in the Sticks


The holiday festivities have kicked into high gear around these parts. I've spent the day today finishing a knit garment for a Christmas gift, baking sugar cookies, and decorating a huge tree that required a ladder to reach the top! We're expecting our first snowy messy weather day tomorrow and it's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas out here in the sticks!

I'm excited I've really been getting to do a lot of work on projects that needed doing for presents, and also for Brown Boot Salvage. I had some help in getting a beautiful wooden stand for my bags made, so that I could bring them to a local retail shop that sells things at Christmas time. Though I don't have a picture of it yet, I'm really proud of how my garlands and bags look hanging there on a real rack in a real store.
More on my recent projects soon, one of which includes a pink silk elf hat complete with pom pom and magical bird adornment...

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Indie Extravaganza Photo Update

My Booth at the Space over the weekend

My new Brown Boot banner, bags and booth!


A veiw of all the makers in the main room at the Indie Craft Extravaganza
Once again I had a wonderful time at the craft fair and met many great folks and made some great connections. I already have some more ideas for improving my booth for next time and I'm working on some new product ideas. Thanks for looking.



In the wood and Stave Churches






I am always inspired artistically by the element of wood. I love it in art, in homes, in architecture, and in so many forms. I have grown up as a carpenters daughter so the sound of an axe splitting wood in the early morning hours is something that feels very visceral to me. I remember being woken up with the subtle vibration of the splitting maul hitting the wood (driven by my father) so hard that the ground shook up through the house, and underneath my pillow, to awake me to the sounds of the wood stove door creaking open and the freshly split logs getting loaded inside.

We live in an old re built cape, and the homes of New England feature wood as a primary structural element, with exposed beams, wood floors, old wide shingles and the ever present backyard barn. This exposure to the northern style homes, and living out in the sticks near a lot of woodland has made me a forest and tree's kind of lady, so in lieu of my interest in the uses, history and craft of using wood in human life, I'm going to be doing a series on this special and integral part of our lives.

First I'd like to take a look at the work of the Stave Churches of Norway. A medieval form of post and beam construction many were built in the 1500's and still stand to this day. Here are what I found to be some inspiring images.










Monday, December 6, 2010

After the Show when the lights go down...


I had such a wonderful time at the Indie Craft Extravaganza yesterday at The Space. I've been working so hard to get all of my products, packaging and display booth ready I haven't had much time to post on my blog. If you're reading this because you took a card or met me at my booth yesterday, welcome, and thanks so much! Drop me a line if you feel like saying hello.

As my first craft show experience as a seller and not just an attendee I was really impressed with the turn out of the crowd and vendors, and also the quality of the workmanship that people put into there goods. I feel like I walked away with some new friends, some good feedback on my products and booth and a bunch of great resources. My neighbor seller, Treasures of the Moon bought a bag from me, and I bartered an amazing fabric cuff with Magaly Ohika.
I worked so hard to get everything done for the fair, but walking away with some products left over, I'm now moving on to the next goal of getting my bags in a local antique shop and
food co-op.
I'll be posting pictures later on of the craft fair and of my booth, and everyone cloaked in pretty lights and christmas music!