Art Star and Summer Preview

This week has been quite hectic and busy. Normally my work week is very manageable, except for this past week. It was our annual big to do and I ended up staying late two nights. And bringing home lots of leftovers to eat, so I'm not complaining. On top of all that, I've been preparing for the Art Star Craft Bazaar.
Some of my new designs ideas have worked out better than I expected, while others still need some tweaking. Here's a little preview below...

bizarre butterflies?
Nope. Just pieces for my new bangle bag. I really like the way these came out.

And I'm also introducing a new mustachio to the Mustachio Collection: the Biker.

These and lots of other new things I'm working on are going off to the Art Star Craft Bazaar. They won't be up in the shop until after the show. If you can't wait, you can always email me.

Pins at Crafters for Critters

A couple of my pins are up at Crafters for Critters. This is a great online shop that supports both crafters and critters. Proceeds from any item bought from the store goes to Greyhound Adoption of Ohio, Great Lakes Rabbit Sanctuary and Farm Sanctuary during this round. Go check it. How can you not feel good about buying something from such a fabulous shop?

Etsy Shop: Bake Sale Designs Yard Sale

I opened an Etsy shop! I've been thinking about it for awhile for two reasons. One, there are things I'd like to sell--vintage goods I come across and can't pass up but can't keep as well as "not quite perfect" items from my main shop--that just don't quite fit in with my Bake Sale Designs shop. Two, Etsy draws in a lot of people so it's just one more way for me to get my goods in front of people.


The shop is Bake Sale Designs Yard Sale. There are only a few items up right now, but I'm hoping to expand that and offer more supplies there in terms of vintage fabric and notions. And if you haven't browsed around Etsy, go check it out. There's lots of good stuff there!

Art Star Craft Bazaar

It's a good thing there was a turn around in my apartment hunt. George and I found a place we like and were moving in at the end of next month. I'll even have my own teeny tiny sewing room. I'm excited for the move. We need a new start. But I can't spend all my time daydreaming about how I'll decorate the new place.
I have to focus on the upcoming Art Star Craft Bazaar. I'm going up to Philly the first weekend in June for a two day craft fair--my first. I even bought a canopy for this one. But once again, I have a lot to do before I go.

The other exciting thing about this show are all the people I get to meet--some other crafty shop owners/bloggers who I talk with but have never met. (Hi out there!)

The apartment hunt

Sigh. The apartment hunt is not going very well and it's very frustrating. It made the weekend rather stressful. We saw four places this weekend and one that I thought would be very promising was disappointing. The apartment itself is great. The bedrooms are a little small, but the kitchen is an eat-in, which I love. But get this--we would have to go outside and into a door a couple doors down to do our laundry. Four old buildings are attached, but the laundry room isn't connect by a stairwell to all of them. Perhaps I'm spoiled, but we have a washer/dryer in our apartment now, which for some reason is quite common in Baltimore. But I really don't want to have to lug all my laundry down three flights of stairs out onto a fairly busy sidewalk and then into this separate basement door--especially when it's not saving me any on my current rent. And the place doesn't have a deck. And I love my outdoor space.
So the most promising apartment didn't exactly wow us. I don't know what were going to do. I don't think we'd even consider the other places we saw. Many are simply too small or have really small kitchen--I actually cook, so that's a problem. Or the apartment is not in the best area.
I've made a couple more calls and left messages, but I'm really not feeling good about something opening up within the next 4 weeks.
Anyway, getting all stressed out about moving doesn't really make me want to sew. I did get a bag done today, a skinny tote made from the maroon island fabric I picked up from the GBMC rummage sale.

The Twins!

As I mentioned a couple post below, I arrived home on Sunday to a big package from Jen over at Piddleloop. Inside were the most magnificent knit mary jane slippers. Some time ago, we arranged a trade (cause I can't knit) and Jen was game enough to go along with a wacky idea of mine. I wondered if I could have "twin" slippers. This idea was inspired by Camper Twins, shoes by Camper that certainly go together but don't quite match, for example...

Jen packed lots of great stuff into the package, including some hilarious one-inch buttons from the Moustache Factory. What's funnier than baked goods wearing little mustaches, I ask you? And I was honored to get some Chicken poop, that's lip balm.
But the piece de resistance were the twins! Jen did such a wonderful job on them--they're a product of her creativity, here they are...

Aren't you jealous? They're so pretty I almost feel that I shouldn't wear them.
Thank you, Jen!

Mom's Day

The very first fabric flower pin I made went to my Mom for Mother's day. I saw it when I was at my parent's house last weekend, and the thing is huge--about twice the size of the ones I make now! It was so odd seeing how different it is from the ones now. It was the prototype of the flowers I make now, which are much smaller and more manageable as a pin. I gave my Mom another new pin as an early Mom's day gift, so now she has a smaller one.

If you still haven't found something for Mom's Day (psst, it's this Sunday) I've got lots of fabric flower pins that any Mom would love, plus they last longer than real flowers!

Fabric Swap

As I mentioned below, I went to a farbic swap hosted by the Philadelphia Sewing Collective while I was in town for the weekend. I happened to see an ad for the swap and figured, if I'm already in town for a wedding I'm might as well stay for fabric. And I was not disappointed. It was a gorgeous Sunday in Philadelphia and the swap was right off Rittenhouse Square. There was so much great stuff there. I brought some fabric to swap, but I was just ashamed of what I had, so I ponied up cash for everything. A young woman there that I got a whole batch of great fabric from was also selling really pretty cards. I made sure to get a card as she said her website was in the works--but I can't find the card anywhere now! It must have gotten lost in all the shuffle from my parent's house back to Baltimore. I believe she's a member of the collective, so I'll just have to keep an eye out for her site.
Below are two batches of fabric I got. Some is more spring like than others. I love the purple and blue/green/gold one. It reminds me of a Cadbury chocolate wrapper, except there are birds on it.



And I also got two huge ziplock bags of buttons. These a just a few samples, and most of these have matching sets.

When I left the swap I was just so pleased with my haul and chatting with other crafters there. People are so generous with their fabric and notions--and there was yarn for the knitters too. I would really love to have a Baltimore fabric swap. I've already been thinking about some places in the city to have something like this.

Goings on

I've been busy outside of my crafting life of late. George and I have officially started a new apartment search. I thought we might have even lucked out and found a cute little house in the Hampden neighborhood of Baltimore. A friend of George's is moving and his mom owns the house and could have been willing to rent it out again. But it doesn't look like it's going to happen. I got a little to attached to it too soon. I was mentally furnishing it and making it my own before it was my own.
So the search is on in full force. We'll be looking at some more places this week and weekend. One at least looks fairly promising, but you never know until you set foot in the place.
But if anyone knows of a good apartment in Baltimore where two kitties will have some space to run around and windows to lounge in, let me know!


I made a work related trip to DC last week. It was good, but it's a tiring trip nonetheless. And right after I got back I had to go find a top to wear to my friend's wedding, which was this past weekend in Philly. So I've been all over the east coast in the past week.
I have so much more to update on the blog, but it will have to wait a little while. I want to fabulous fabric swap while I was in Philly. It was inspiring. More on that later. I would love to do one in Baltimore.
When I got home on Sunday night, I was greeted by a wonderful swap package from Jen over at Piddleloop. The package was just burgeoning with amazing goodies, photos of which will be posted soon as well.