kim markel and her dancing chair

Meet designer/fabricator Kim Markel and her ghostly furniture.  Kim takes traditional, Louis XVI style furniture (mostly found) and casts the wood in a mold so that she can then remake each piece in resin.  The result feels at once old and new.  Light, because it is a translucent material but still heavy with it's luxurious scalloped detailing.  See dancing chair video below.

re-use this!

We recently went out to California to visit family.  While I am definitely of the reduce, re-use, recycle generation, I am humbled by how far my mother-in-law has taken this challenge as is illustrated here in her deft use of a milk carton.  Eat your heart out at this good thing, Martha Stewart!

put a bird on it, part 2

Back in February I made 43 birds for my 43rd birthday.  This week was marked my mom's 70th so I made another 27 and put them all together on this mobile for her.  

put a bird on it

Sometime in January I decided that I would make a bird for each one of the 43 years I have now lived.   Forty-three is my lucky number so I wanted to mark it in some way.  Perhaps this is a sickly sweet, overly sentimental thing to do but I could not help myself.  I like to make things and even though I know it is totally hip and trendy  (as is hilariously clear in portlandia's 'put a bird on it' skit), I still like birds.  Stay tuned for some kind of hipster bird hanging device....

Tsia Carson's Side by Side

It's out and it's great!  Tsia Carson's new craft book, Side by Side, a book of craft projects that you can do with your kids while making your own.  

This was a super fun project to work on (because Tsia is awesome) and the photos are used wonderfully big and lush.  Thank you Tsia!

craft crasy

Every year I stress out about the favors for my kids' birthday parties.  In the past I have filled paper bags with plastic junk and then forgotten to pass it out at the end of the party.  Not this year! Thanks to my friend, Allyson, and this link, I found something much more complicated.  This craft project involves writing the alphabet hundreds of times, sawing, sanding and cursing.  If you are into that sort of thing, dig in.  One note:  you need to make room enough for 26 spaces, not 26 lines, or you will be forced, like me to spell crazy: crasy.

craft gone too far

I did not pull this out a box of 1970's memorabilia.  It's from the latest JoAnn Fabrics insert.

click here for my website

pouches

Made for a fundraiser for my sons' elementary school.

preview of craft book with craftologist, tsia carson

reduce, reuse, recycle!