Fun Freebie: My Birdy Valentines

Some little birds for all the lovelies in your life. You can download a sheet of them from my Fun Freebies Flickr set & print your own. How sweet!

Quirky Valentine Idea: Mail Order Pals

Mail Order Pals is a really creative & fun little Etsy shop that could be the answer if you're looking to send someone a unique Valentine. Get a load of their Shop Announcement:

committing creative acts of correspondence

here's how it works:
if you buy someone profiled in the shop, that person will send YOU something made, found or otherwise created

These are some of the artists' photos - click on a pic to go to the listing for that artist.

Don't these folks seem like they'd send interesting mail? There are other artists too, so be sure to visit the Mail Order Pals shop to see them all.

I bet, if you act quickly, you might be able to convince one of them to send a one-of-a-kind Valentine to your sweetie!

Getting mail is always fun, especially in this digital age we're in now. You could brighten someone's day by sending them a little piece of art - for under $5!!! What could be better?

Creative Genius: Emily Hensen

Have you ever seen a more cheerful room?! This display of bird houses on a painted tree is such a simple, lovely idea, but something I've never thought of myself or seen done anywhere else. I love it! It caught my eye over on Design*Sponge today.

And oh how I love this chalkboard wall! You see them a lot, but this is one of my favorites - it's just so cute & Parisian cafe-looking!

Emily's living room is so funky & light & airy! We're trying to create a more light & airy feeling in our own home, so this pic really spoke to me. We definitely won't be painting our floors white (they're original hardwoods & in beautiful condition), but I am looking for a lighter color for the walls.

We've just re-painted our hallway & seeing how good it looks makes me really look forward to doing the rest of the house! I'll be posting soon about the extensive remodeling we're doing right now in our hallway. Take a peek at my Flickr set if you're curious to see the process unfolding. And be sure to pop over to Design*Sponge for the full Sneak Peek: Emily Hensen post.

Fun Freebie: Patterns for Colouring

Check out the awesome Patterns for Colouring blog to download tons of cool, free patterns! Perfect for coloring as relaxation, making some art to spruce up your work area or giving to the kiddos as free & creative entertainment. This site is really well-organized & searchable by tags such as organic or symmetry. Fun stuff!

Digi-Doodle: Nanners To Go!

This silly drawing was inspired by some Richard Scarry books I just bought for my collection. Love his work, which is always full of busy little animals working, raising families & otherwise being productive citizens. It made me wonder, if this guy had a job, what would it be? A banana delivery driver, of course!

P.s.
I decided to change the name of this series from "A Design A Day" to "Digi-Doodles." Trying to do one a day turned out to be a little bit over-ambitious. I'm still going to stick with this challenge, but it will be more like every other day, or perhaps every 3 days, or maybe every 4 ... whatever I can muster. : )

Care to share some of your own doodles? Post them on your blog or Flickr account, then leave a link in the comments below. They can be in any medium - photography, digital illustration, collage or traditional illustration that you simply scan in - anything you like. I'd love to see what creative things you're doing!

What's Growin' On: Winter Color

Most of our backyard is still looking wintry-sad, but our Christmas Cactus is in full bloom! We brought it inside to better enjoy it. Check out those gorgeous red blooms!

Etsy Crafters Support Haitian Relief Efforts

Lots of wonderful fund-raising efforts for Haiti going on now in the blogosphere, particularly in the Etsy community. There are currently over 3,000 handmade & vintage Haiti Relief items for sale on Etsy.

The items I'm featuring here are all ones in which 100% of the proceeds go to Haitian relief organizations! If you have any gifts to buy (or want to treat yourself!), consider some of these fab handmade goodies. Pictured above is a pretty headband/neck warmer by bitsy blossoms. These bands come in tons of colors & are only $15-$17.

Modern Bird is donating every bit of the proceeds from sales of items marked "Haiti Relief" to Oxfam International. One such item is this lovely sterling silver Peace Dove, available for $48.













These adorable little bear postcards from Stockton come in a set of 6 for $6. Proceeds go to Doctors Without Borders.
















From now until February 30th, 100% of the proceeds from all sales at Twee Prints will be donated to Habitat for Humanity to support the relief effort in Haiti. They have lots of cute cards for all occasions. My fave is this funky Thank You card with an orange bird perching on a bicycle, available in a set of 8 for $16.












The sale of these cool peacock earrings from Pretty Paris will also benefit Doctors Without Borders. The earrings are only $11 & also available in gold.
















You can keep your coffee warm (& cute!) with this knitted coffee cozy from One in the Hand. The cozies are available in many designs, and for the rest of January, 100% of the proceeds from every sale will be donated to Partners In Health, an organization started in Haiti that provides medical care to the poor.

Remember, this is but a small sampling of the items available on Etsy that benefit Haitian relief efforts. Search for "haiti relief" to see 'em all!

Embroidered Neckties are cool!

Made this last night at The WonderCraft's "soft" grand opening at our new spot at The Art Pad. It was a trial run for the BIG Grand Opening we're planning next month. You can read more about it (& see lots more pics of the cool ties people made!) in my re-cap on our Get Crafty blog.


I had a great time helping people add some embroidery to their neckties. Beth A showed our guests how to screen print on them & even made some with our WonderCraft logo for the 4 of us to sport at the GO! Stay tuned for more details on that upcoming par-tay...

Digi-Doodle: Monkey Face

Inspired by a vintage monkey mug that I keep my pens & pencils in.

Care to join me in my "A Design A Day" challenge? Do your own doodle, post it on your blog or Flickr account, then leave a link to it in the comments below. It can be in any medium - photography, digital illustration, collage or traditional illustration that you simply scan in - anything you like. I'd love to see what creative things you're doing!

Pretty Pics: Small Towns in Southeast Texas

Over the weekend, P & I traveled down to my parents' hometown of Ganado, TX for my cousin's wedding. Along our trip, I got lots of shots of the wonderful scenery. The pic above is a field that was right outside of our motel room in Wharton.

The rest of the pics below are from the drive home, when we stopped off in Bastrop, right outside of Austin. I spotted a highway sign that touted it as "The Most Historic Small Town in Texas!" Surprisingly, neither of us had ever been there, so of course, we had to stop! Glad we did; it's a really charming town. It was Sunday though, so most of the shops were closed. We'll have to go back on a Saturday because there were some great-looking antique shops.

If you're enjoying these pics, check out my Texas Towns Flickr set for lots more!

Of course we had to end our exploration of Bastrop with a peek inside the bakery! We had already had donuts that morning though, so got a mini buttermilk pie for the road & a package of hamburger buns for grilling later this week. Yum!