Favorite Crafty Christmas Decor at Anthro

Out and about this holiday season, I was struck by how much the handmade movement has affected mainstream decor. Crafty is the new black, it seems to me! For instance, Target had these adorable, yarn-covered bird ornaments as part of their "Craft Collection" line.

My favorite decorations were at Anthropologie, though, where the displays & decor never disappoint. How cute is the fabric-covered, faux-taxidermy deer above, with his sprawling wooden antlers strewn with felt garlands & lights?! Love.

I love the way Anthro often uses props that anyone could make at home, like these felt circle cone trees. I always leave the store feeling inspired.

Clever use of balls of yarn to create a mountain of "snowballs!"

Detail of cutesy-crafty snowballs. I heart you, Anthropologie!


What were your favorite holiday decorations this year? See anything crafty?

Handmade Gifts are Great... Most of the Time!

Spotted this example of bad craft in a thrift store in Seattle last month. We should all keep this in mind when making handmade gifts this season. Perhaps this Bud-loving "artist" had one too many??? : )

HaPPy HoLiDAze!

Little Tweed Owls

So I've been working on something new & super-cute, if I may say so myself.

This little guy is waving hello - awww!

and I just love Mr. Green Wings on his mod background:

What do you think of my newest creations? I'm working on a couple of other animals, too, but the owls are all I have done so far. I'll have these little cuties for sale in our WonderCraft booth tonight at First Thursday on South Congress, tomorrow at The Bleet-Up & next week at Cherrywood Art Fair. Hope to see you at one of these craftabulous events!

Pretty Pics: Mayfield Park, a Peacock Paradise

Patrick & I went to Mayfield Park on Sunday afternoon & I snapped tons of pics. Yes, I've blogged about this place before, but it's just so darn amazing!

More pics in my Mayfield Park Flickr set. Hope you're having a beautiful day!

Thrift Store Finds to Get You in the Halloween Mood!

Aren't mannequin parts fascinating? I like the way these look like severed hands, yet they are immaculately clean & shiny.


Hee hee hee heeee! I'll get you, my pretty! (and your little dog, too!)

This little cutie-pie wouldn't scare anyone!

All of these pics were taken on a recent fun-filled afternoon thrifting with my WonderCraft pals. I posted the full story on The WonderCraft's blog, and you can also check out more pics from the trip in my Scenic Austin Flickr set.

Bits & Pieces

a box of colorful ears...

stuffed & waiting by my machine to be spiral-stitched for that adorable quilted effect! This is perhaps my favorite step of elephant-making.

and a stack of embroidered faces on what will become the elephants' bodies.

I love seeing the pieces at different stages & watching a batch of toys come together from a stack of parts. These polka-dotty elephants will soon be getting some national attention! Can't wait until I can tell you all about it!

Digging these Miniature Hats!

I'm knee-deep in fabric & thread, trying to get a lot of stuff made in preparation for the holiday show season, but just had to share these magnificent mini hats from Harriet Rosebud. They're so stylishly detailed, it kinda makes me want to start a mini-hat collection! I came across them in my research for the turtle hats I'm working on.

Work in Progress: Turtle Mania!

Just a quick peek at what I'm working on right now. Hopefully I'll have a finished version to show you very soon! Like maybe tomorrow, if things go well. Stay tuned...

Pretty Pics: Things that Hang from Trees

This afternoon Patrick & I did some planning for new flower beds in our front yard. While we were out there we noticed how pretty the acorns looked on our deciduous Oak. They're pleasantly smooth & soft to the touch, too.

On the other side of the path leading to our front door is an amazing Magnolia grandiflora or Southern Magnolia. It looks lovely right now with all of its fruit.

Pretty, huh? It's all pink & fuzzy! Upon closer inspection, we noticed something else hanging on this tree in addition to the fruit...

If you're squeamish about bugs, you might want to stop here.

Still with me? Ready for a closer look? Okay, here goes...

Cicadas have left their shells all over this tree! Clinging to the branches...

and hanging from the undersides of leaves. They were positively all over the place. On every branch we saw more and more.

They reminded me of childhood summers at my grandparents' house in Ganado, in southeast Texas. My cousins & I would have contests to see who could collect the most cicada shells from the trees. Kinda like Easter egg hunting, except slightly disgusting. Their shells retain all of the little details of the insects that molted from them. I am simultaneously grossed out & fascinated by cicadas. How about you?

If you want to see lots more pics of cicadas, hear their song, & even watch time-lapse photography of a cicada molting (it's pretty darn cool!), check out the Wikipedia page on cicadas.

Someday Projects are now Sunday Projects

I've started a new thing in my work room that I'm calling my "Sunday basket." The idea is that I will keep an ongoing project in this basket: sewing, painting, a photo album - anything that I am working on purely for myself. Or it could be a gift for someone else, but it is most definitely just for fun & not for my business. The projects that are stowed in the basket will be my Sunday projects. I can spend all day on Sundays working on them if I want to - I'm giving myself permission to do that, and promising myself that I will refrain from doing anything work-related on Sundays. I can work on them whenever I feel like it of course, but knowing how busy my weeks are, I probably won't. But at least by saving Sundays for these personal projects I can realize some of those projects I keep telling myself I'll get around to "someday." Someday is today!!!!!!!

There are tons of things I've wanted to sew for myself (I envision a whole new wardrobe of skirts, tops & dresses) & I'll even go so far as to buy the patterns & fabric, but then I have a really hard time completing them. And then there all of those cute little one-day projects I always see in my Craft newsletter, like making bags from vintage pillowcases. I have a beautiful vintage pillowcase I thrifted about a year ago for just such a project waiting patiently on the shelf of my linen closet. Lots of other stuff I've been wanting to do just for fun, too, like collage a wall of my work room or go to more art galleries & museums, but I always seem to find myself swamped with work for my various small businesses. But I'm learning lately that in order to stay happy & inspired I really need to make an effort to carve out time for these things that I want to do, even though I always have a list a mile long of the things I "should" do. So here it is, typed out & posted to the interwebs for all the world to see: I'm taking back my Sundays!

More about what's currently in my basket in a future post...