Fun Freebie: Pretty, pretty desktop wallpapers from Liberty of London

Oh my goodness, aren't these new Liberty of London for Target designs gorgeous?! I just saw a sneak peek from Nicole at Making It Lovely. Had to pass it on! You can find the desktop wallpapers in the Pattern Your World menu. Roll over your favorite pattern & the download links will appear below it.


I cannot wait until this stuff is at my neighborhood Target (as if I need another reason to shop there)! I already have a hard time getting in & out of Target in less than an hour because there are so many fun designer things to look at. These new Liberty things are going to make it impossible!

Come Tie One On at The WonderCraft's Grand Opening!

Re-posted from Get Crafty, Austin.




This is going to be a blast, y'all! We hope you'll come out to craft with us, peruse the awesome handmade goods in our lovely little Airstream boutique, and learn about our craft classes & parties. We'll also have some of our favorite local makers vending at the event, so you won't want to miss all of this amazing handmade goodness!

While you're there, you can enjoy tasty treats from our fabulous sponsors, including Blue Note Bakery, Apothecary Cafe & Wine Bar and The Cupcake Bar.

We'll be posting features on each of our sponsors & vendors {on Get Crafty, Austin} from now up until the Grand Opening, so stay tuned. Be sure to check out the write-ups we've done recently on Squid Ink Kollective and Merritt Gade if you missed 'em!

Weekend Ink Sketches

Over the weekend I did some playing around with brush & ink, my favorite medium these days. I was mainly experimenting to see what kinds of textures & varying sizes of brush stroke I could create by "letting the brush do all the work," as they say in art classes.


Coming up with some patterns that can be used here and there as borders & embellishments was my main goal.

I gathered some scrapbooking papers & this photo of a bullfighter's costume from National Geographic & taped them into my sketchbook for inspiration.


I'm feeling pretty productive lately - been working on my kids' activity book & got 2 more pages done! I'll post about those soon. Hope your Monday is off to a great start!

Quirky Valentine Idea #2: Monsters!

Tamara of Art, Adventures and Toddler has made *the cutest* Valentines ever! Yes, I mean that. The cutest Valentines in the history of all Valentines. I can't get over how silly-cute they are! I was alerted to this tutorial by the always on top of it folks at Craftzine. I highly suggest you subscribe to their e-newsletter or blog feed if you haven't already; it is awesome.

Tamara has kindly put up a full tutorial on how she makes these cards, so you can make some with your own delightful little characters.

And not to worry if you have a sewing machine aversion, you could sew these by hand or skip the sewing all-together & just opt for glue. I think the stitching definitely adds to the cuteness factor, though.

If you're finding yourself short on time to get Valentines made, check out my printable birdy Valentines, Fun Freebies I made just for you! xoxoxo

Adorable Postal Workers by Richard Scarry

How cute is this Valentine delivery man, er, squirrel? I just love Richard Scarry; he was a childhood fave of mine. I scanned this from his Best Storybook Ever, which I recently bought used on Amazon for only a few bucks.

I also got What Do People Do All Day? which has another cutie-pie postal worker, Uncle Benny the Postmaster.



If you ask me, there's nothing cuter than animals going about their days doing the laundry, fighting fires, building roads & bridges, plowing the fields & raising their kids. All while remembering their good manners, of course! My growing collection of inspiring children's books definitely feels more complete now that I've added some classic Richard Scarry.

What was your favorite picture book as a kid? I might need to add it to my library!

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.