avenue H & Poppytalk

Happy November! It's finally getting cooler here in Florida, but if you live in warmer climes, maybe you're already confined to indoor spaces, which means maybe you're looking for some new online distractions. I got em right here!

Check out my new Etsy shop: avenuehandmade.etsy.com
And my new MySpace: myspace.com/avenuehandmade
And my new blog: avenuehandmade.blogspot.com

And don't forget my virtual "table" at this month's Poppytalk Handmade Market!

more promo fun!

So Blooming Lily's blog about pink things & breast cancer awareness supporters (featuring my feel your boobies shirt) was tagged as a Must Read by Coutorture this weekend! Pretty sweet how word gets around on the internets. :)

Hope your weekend was happy...mine was & I'll be posting pics this week. Cheers!

PINK press!

One of the items in my Etsy shop has been featured on Laurie Warshawsky's Blooming Lily fashion blog today!

Go check out her lovely blog, & look for my feel your boobies custom tank top! And maybe you'll buy one...it'll not only do you good, but you'll be doing good. :)

Thanks so much, Laurie!

Happy Friday, everyone....

P.S. I'm pretty stoked that I get off work in 6 hours--cause then I'm heading out on a motorcycle road trip to Venus, FL, for a Trucks Gone Wild mud rally! Hehe. Should be fun...maybe I'll have pics next week.

rocking the stitch

In my humble opinion, the first-ever Stitch Rock was a great success, not to mention lots of fun. The lovely miss Amanda & crew outdid themselves! So many creative & talented vendors...such a cool venue...I really enjoyed myself. I'm already looking forward to next year!


My mannequins did great in their big debut! (That's my wonderful hubby...on the phone...could've asked him to get out of the shot, I guess.)




My sis-in-law made me this rad owl softie for my bday...it makes the cutest card holder!


My super-sweet notecard/book rack that I got for $2! (I think next time I won't put it on the table, though, cause folks couldn't see the cards in the top rack....)


Cowboy pillowcase dress being modeled in the fashion show (fantastically coordinated by talented fashion designer Adrianne Ruffin).

Good times, good times. I'm super-grateful to my hubby for all his help & support not only during the day of the show, but the crazy week leading up to it. You're the best, Ben!

my first treasury!

Ooooooh so exciting!! Lessthanthreedesigns included me in her sewing themed front-page treasury...which I never would have known about if Jess hadn't texted me in the middle of the night with the news! I was so groggy that I didn't get up & go look at it right then, but I woke up with a vague recollection of it, & thought I had dreamt it until I looked at my phone. And then, of course, I rushed to the computer to see for myself. There my little thimble necklace was, in all of its cuteness. It's up to 416 views now, a record for me!

Good thing I caught it then, cause there's a new treasury on the front page now. But I'm just super-excited to have been included, grateful for the extra exposure it gave my shop, & super-super-thankful that my bud Jess saw it for me!! Thanks, Jess! xo.

What a great way to start the day....

mannequins!!

These pretty little ladies are in the mail, headed for my doorstop right now! Aren't they great?! I'm really excited about them; I think they'll add some pizazz to my craft show display set-up.
Their only flaw is they don't have ears, which makes it hard to display earrings...so I'm going to try to pierce their ear-areas myself...let's hope I don't mar them permanently!

Ooooh, & today at the thrift store I picked up a great rack for displaying my notecards & such, so that's pretty exciting too! It's out in my car right now, or you'd have a great picture to look at, but you'll just have to wait for that. :)

But here's a pic of the 99-cent mannequin head I picked up at a Salvation Army with Jess last weekend:



(So she's a tad plainer than the other 2...you get what you pay for, I guess. But she's a hard worker & I'm sure she'll earn her keep...wearin handmade hats!)

p.s.

Did I mention I finally did some work on my website??
Nothin' fancy, but at least it's looking prettier! And I did it myself!
Check it out: cripplecreekhandmade.com

a day late & a dollar short.

I had every intention of posting this to Littleput Books' Studio Shot Tuesdays Flickr group, but time got away from me, & it was Wednesday before I knew it. Since this doesn't really show my studio anyway, I figured I'd just post it here & talk about what I've been up to. Studio pics next week, I promise!! (Oooh, maybe I'll actually paint my studio this weekend so it'll be all pretty by Tuesday....)

Anywho, what you see in that picture up there is just a sampling of the 100 postcard/coupons I made & shipped off this week. They'll go in swag bags to be given to the 1st 100 comers at Stitch Rock (Oct. 6 in DelRay Beach)! I've been crafting like crazy to get ready for it...it's gonna be my biggest craft show yet & I'm super excited. So my little postcards feature some vintage stationery that I scanned & printed. You can mail it as a postcard but if you bring it to my booth at the event, it's a 20% off coupon too! I also stuck in some of my new stickers for the goody bags.

new design!

Hot off the crafting presses! I've just created a new button necklace design.... (Please excuse the poor photo quality; this was taken with my cell phone this morning on my way to work. :) ) I'm super excited about this new style...I love the simplicity & elegance of the buttons with the silver chain. Especially with the vintage mother-of-pearl buttons.

I'll be doing lots of crafting in the car on my way to Georgia this weekend, so check in for more goodies next week...& better pictures!

vintage spools!!

spool jewelry is the new black.

thanks to a very productive day of yard-sale-scavenging, i've got a couple of these cuties listed in my etsy shop right now, & more will be up soon!

i just love the look of these vintage wooden spools...i never fail to get numerous compliments on my necklace whenever i wear it. many of the spools still have the manufacturer's labels on them! others bear an imprint rather than a paper label....

a spool necklace just seems like the perfect piece of jewelry for a crafter, no? or maybe a pair of earrings, for the bold.

developments.

hmmm.
so obviously i haven't been updating this very regularly. not that anyone reads it or notices, but if someone someday is actually interested & looks at the archives, they might notice a significant gap between the last post & this one.
just sayin.

so what have i been doing in all this time i haven't been posting to my dear old blog?
well, work (the day job, that is) has been pretty hectic, so quite frankly i've been going home at night lacking the energy or motivation to do much of anything besides eat & sleep & cuddle with my hubby.

not have the energy to create?! perish the thought! yet here i find myself. in more ways than one.... but! i have not been entirely unproductive.... (although Lord knows i really oughta be crafting like a madwoman, what with stitch rock on the horizon--october's closer than you'd think!)

but in the past few weeks i have been pondering some new ideas, & i think they are just about ready to bring to life. i've gotten my hands on some new (to me) materials that i'm excited about, & i'm planning to spend a good part of this weekend making stuff. i also have a couple of custom orders to start working on, so that's pretty exciting too.

AND...drumroll...i've been working on a website! yep, my very own website. try not to be too underimpressed, cause right now all you'll see is my "under construction/redirection" page. but someday (soon?) it will be a glorious specimen of pixel compositions! er... ok, not really. i'm quite amateur at this sort of thing...but i hope at least to have a couple of different pages with some photos & such. who knows, maybe one day even this very blog will be hosted there.... (oh, & eventually those disgusting ads at the top of the page will NOT be there.)

anyway, that's my big exciting news for the day. i'm stoked.
i hope all's well with you, whoever you are.

dominoes & buttons.

i've been ebay-ing a lot this weekend, & i've got lots of goodies comin my way, including some amazing vintage bakelite buttons, some delish vintage pendants (they're a hoot!), & more...depending on what i win today! hooray for good deals!

so watch this space & my etsy shop in the next week or so, cause i'm going to be crafting some fabulous items with my new finds, & you definitely won't want to miss out--i've got lots of new designs & ideas brewing. i'm really excited!


i forgot my ipod cable when i came to work today, otherwise you'd be feasting your eyes on some juicy new neckwear this very moment...but all my new photos are trapped on my ipod, so you'll just have to wait a lil longer. i'll leave you with two words: mini dominoes!

where the magic happens.

due to recent fortunate circumstances (& the generosity of his parents), my hubby & i have moved from our darling little 32-foot 1986 travel trailer in a not-so-darling trailer park to a much-bigger-than-we-need house! although we still cherish the coziness of our little trailer, it is sooooo nice to finally have plenty of space in which to craft & create, especially after 2 years of living in trailers. i have a workshop! or studio. whatever you wanna call it.

you just don't make stuff as much when it is a complete hassle to uncover your supplies from their multiple stashed locations in cabinets & under couches & beds, & even when you get it all out in the open you have about 2 square feet of working space.... i'm not saying i can't create unless all circumstances are ideal...just that i find laying all my supplies for a project out on my new big table & leaving them there for a few days while i tweak a design or mull over a project is more conducive to ingenuity & inspiration. for me, at least.

anyway, last night i spent a couple hours organizing buttons (nerd!) & finally unpacking all my piles of vintage fabrics & paper scraps & yarn & spools of wire & findings & packing materials & laptop & printer & sewing machine & much much more that i could not believe was all actually somehow contained in our trailer. (my sweet hubby, he never complained about the skeins of yarn that were constantly rolling off their stack under the table & ending up underfoot, or the fact that no more than 2 people could ever sit at our kitchen table cause half the benches were taken up by bins of buttons & findings & my sewing machine was hidden underneath the table....) i also worked on some new earrings (they'll be available on etsy tomorrow!), messed around with some new ideas, & then--get this--i left off in the middle of it & didn't pack anything away!! reckless, i know. but it didn't get in the way of breakfast, because i have a workshop now!

yeah. so i'm just really excited about that, & all the fabulous new creations that are going to come out of my new workshop & the freedom that comes with it. maybe i'll post some pictures tomorrow. who knows. maybe i'll just make a mess. a mess full of potential.

alright, enough gushing. i'm off to list some new items on etsy!
a little preview:

sure enough, she had won.

well, here it is.
or here we are.
or maybe just here i am, alone.
hopefully there will be more of us soon....


so i suppose this might be an appropriate time to talk about the song that inspired the name of my (not as yet incorporated) company...but i'm not gonna do that.
i don't have any profound analogies or connections to give meaning to the name, so i won't make something up just for the sake of explanation. i like the sound of the phrase (i'm a sucker for alliteration & interesting consonance), i like the image it evokes, & i like the sound of the song from which i apprehended it.
that said: listen to the band.


moving right along.
i guess i oughta delineate some semblance of goals &/or purpose for this'ere bloggy-thing. well, maybe not so much goals as intentions. here's what i intend to discuss/promote:
+ crafts/crafting/craftiness/crafty folk.
+ basically all things crafty/creative.
+ forecasts: new projects & ideas i'm stoked about.
+ crafting narratives & episodes of disaster/victory.
+ Etsy/selling/marketing tips...which will probably appear in a "learning from my mistakes" incarnation.
+ whatever else i want.

so welcome, bienvenidos, hello & howdy!