A New Year, A New Look for Crafty Mishmash

've made some changes here on the ol' blog, in the interest of making it a truer reflection of me and my work, creating a more unified focus & delivering a more enjoyable experience to all of you. I have a new tag line that I think sums it all up rather well: Living creatively at the intersection of art, craft & design!

Read on for more about my goals and vision for the blog and my personal work. If you're new to my blog, welcome! Hope you'll have a look around. If you're an old friend just checking in, thank you. You are the reason why I keep posting & I appreciate your readership. Please leave a comment so that I'll know you've been here. It truly makes my day!

Crafty Mishmash is an online journal for chronicling my creative pursuits in the world of designing and making things, from products for my small crafty business, The Snuggle Herd, to renovating & styling my home & garden. I have a love of things handmade, the quirky and the one-of-a-kind, curiosities, antiques and ephemera of days gone by (with a particular penchant for the 1920s), and objects of design that simplify our lives in beautiful ways. I seek to incorporate my passions for art, design & handcrafts into my daily life and piece together a creative career for myself, like a beautiful patchwork quilt of my interests, skills and past experiences in the fields of graphic design and teaching.

My work for The Snuggle Herd is about savoring the simple joys in life, like listening to the soft tinkling of wind chimes, watching butterflies flitting around on a spring day or wrapping pretty little gifts for loved ones. I have always been inspired and awe-struck by animals of all kinds and find them an endlessly fascinating source for artistic imagery. I enjoy creating whimsical animals and giving each one his own personality and quirks. I hope that the items I create with these silly characters will comfort, delight & inspire! My products are durable & unique articles with character and charm, meant to be loved and enjoyed for many years to come. Additionally, I strive to use as many earth-friendly practices as I can in their creation, incorporating reused, repurposed and recycled materials and reducing unneccesary waste, to help keep our earth a place of beauty and magnificent abundance.

Additionally, I'm the founder of EtsyAustin, a wonderful team of Austinites who sell their handmade goods on Etsy.com, and a partner in The WonderCraft, a business I helped create with 3 friends to bring Austin fabulous craft classes, parties & events. You can read more about me on my WonderCraft profile.

Along my creative journey, I gather inspiration from a myriad of sources, both online and in my daily life, which I'll share here on this blog. I hope you will enjoy it!

{awesome pink drop cap courtesy of Daily Drop Cap}

A New & Improved Crafty Mishmash

Crafty Mishmash is a creative archive & journal written by me, Beth Hempton, the gal behind The Snuggle Herd and 1/4 of The WonderCraft. I'm an artist, designer, maker, teacher and lover of all things artsy, crafty and handmade. You can read more about me on my WonderCraft profile.

My husband, Patrick, is my patient product photographer, web developer and tamer of all things technical. He also works really hard at a full-time job doing web development, and is an avid gardener and musician.

We both feel that leading a balanced life, enjoying the little things and making time for what is most important to you (i.e. what makes you happiest), is the only way to live. Life is too short to get bogged down with the rest, which is why I recently made the decision to simplify my online presence and house all of my creative endeavors (or at least most of them, all but The WonderCraft) under one virtual roof that I can maintain myself, making life a lot easier and more enjoyable for both of us. My previous Snuggle Herd website has been decommissioned in favor of a combination of my Snuggle Herd Etsy shop and Policies & FAQ page, and www.snuggleherd.com now redirects to this here Blogspot. So much simpler! Note that as I am writing this, it's September and the Snuggle Herd website still says "Happy Spring!" I just couldn't keep it updated like I wanted to, so I am letting it go. No more spinning my wheels and always feeling like I'm lagging behind - what good comes from that? None, I tell you, none.

R.I.P. old Snuggle Herd website

I hope you will enjoy reading Crafty Mishmash, a busy hub of creative goodness where you'll find news and updates on my two businesses as well as the EtsyAustin team that I am founder & Co-President of; cool things I find online that I want to share; and posts about Our Little DIY Victories in home improvement and What's Growin' On in our garden. I also love writing my Tutorial Collection (mostly by others on the web, though I will occasionally post some of my own, too) and Creative Geniuses posts. There are so many amazingly talented people to be found on these interwebs!

Patrick & I live in Austin, TX and love the creative vibes radiating from every corner of the city. I often post about the many unique businesses, events, places & people of this fabulously kooky city, and you'll find those posts labeled Homage to Austin. I also have a series of interviews with Austin artists called Local Talent Tuesdays.

Feel free to contact me any time at beth.hempton[at]gmail[dot]com. I love hearing from my readers and fans of my work. Thanks so much for taking a peek at my blog!