Another little purse...

I made another purse today:

I used another striped sweater, but this time I cut it up and pieced it - and inserted an orange/yellow striped upholstery fabric from my stash. The off-white fabric is from remnants of the slipcovers I made for the living room sofas, and the button is a great ceramic one I found somewhere and hand on hand. The lining is just from a fat quarter I had on the shelf, but I like the color and pattern with the stripes.

It's cute, but I like the one I made yesterday better. This one is a bit fussy and I don't think the results are worth the extra time it took. The simplicity of yesterday's is just much more appealing. So tomorrow I'll make another and see if I can settle on a design and then maybe make some for the shop. Now to figure out price...

What I did today...

I'm still fighting a nasty cold, but I managed to make a little wristlet bag that I'm pleased with:

I made it without a pattern because it's more fun that way! Materials include a recycled striped cotton sweater that I fused with a lightweight knit stabilizer before cutting, a washed heavyweight linen that was in my stash, and, for the lining, a recycled striped linen shirt. All the recycled parts came from my favorite Salvation Army - love them!

I'm still working out some kinks, so this isn't something for the shop, but eventually something similar might get listed. (The colors in the bag are accurate, but the backgrounds sure came out blue today - better go check my camera settings!)

What I look like...

You'd think I'd dress like this to further my "branding" of Lille Hus, huh?

Well sometimes I do. Just ask my friends and family who are often perplexed, amused, or really horrified by my choices. I take full advantage of be a Creative Type.

But this isn't me. This is Karoliina, 34, as featured on one of my favorite sites, Hel Looks that shows snaps of folks dressed for the day in Helsinki, Finland. It's a great site for inspiration. So many wear second hand items that they get for free. And a lot wear things that belonged to their mom or grandmother. I love that!

Anyway...

If I never need an employee, I'll call Karolinna. She'll fit right in around here.

Spring Cards...

Finally getting the spring/Easter designs listed! A couple of others will go up in the morning.

They looks so cute, don't they?

Chickie Tweaking...

Little Miss Spring Chicken got a bit of a makeover and she told me she is soooooo happy with her new look!

Me too:

You can check out her "before" right below this post - in yesterday's post. Better, yes?

More chickies...

I'm having fun coming up with new designs and reworking some older ones. Here's the newest - a little Spring Chicken all decked out for the season:

I just realized that this is one rendition behind - the final version has some little white petals around the white spot on the big flower.

I might give a try at making this little chicken in fabric - she just wants to come to life! And the flower, too.Or maybe both as little sculptures in polymer clay? Hmmmm!

But first I gotta conquer the blasted light box challenge. I tried turning my IKEA Lack table on it's side and draping fabric over the legs and it would be super for earring-sized things, but it's just not big enough for my needs. Doing the same thing with a card table as described here is a bit too big. So...I found part of a white plastic bookcase (the base and one shelf) that might just do it. Fingers crossed!

Getting Hoppity...

Spring is coming. That means I need to be thinking NOW about designing a few cards that would be appropriate for the season. Did two today (I watermarked them):

 

I really like the little chickie in the last one!

Also finished up a little nursery print: 

This one reminds me so much of when Megan was a baby - she had cloud sheets in just these colors, and a little blue sky and clouds onesie. So sweet!

All three will be in the shop as soon as I can get them printed and photographed. 

Yahoo - I'm actually getting some work done!

Am I blue?

Nope.

But that's the name of the next show at the Carlisle Arts Learning Center: The Blues. The opening is next Friday, the 17th, which also happens to be my sweet husband's birthday!

I submitted a photograph of a big fish that I had taken with my Instamatic camera (!) when we lived in Hawaii years ago. I scanned the photo and then digitally adjusted the color, intensifying the blue. Then I added a bright red horizontal line and two lines of red dots - one going up, the other down. The red really jumps on the blue.

Here 'tis:

Big Fish, Small Pond. 2012

The large mat has an offset opening. I like how it emphasizes the smallness of the "pond" the poor fish is trapped in.

I feel his pain.

Another self portrait perhaps? Hmmmm...

Impatient Chair...

Love this little chair (I just listed it in the shop):

A self portrait if there ever was one! Me: waiting for a sale from someone I don't know.

It will happen. All in good time. Until then I'll be sitting here...tapping my toes. La-dee-dah, la-dee-dah.

(Want to come wait with me?)

Getting better...

Aaaaaaaah....

Such a relief to have a clearer idea of what I want the shop to look like! Take a peek here - doesn't it look nice?

I started adding a few vintage items. Good photos with white backgrounds are tying things together and making the whole look cohesive. Crisp. Fresh. Contemporary. (My new mantra, remember?) Even the vintage things look fresh. I like the mix of products so far. Now to figure out how to make new goodies I want to bring in look like they belong...

In between all the other things I've been doing, I did some experimenting with materials yesterday, trying to find something that will suit what I have in mind. These photos give you an inkling of what I'm doing, but aren't finished pieces - just experiments:

fun foam, heated and stamped, wrapped with thread

neoprene tubing, plastic grid, waxed linen thread

Experimenting with materials - particularly ones that are usually used in some pretty mundane crafts like these materials are - is one of my favorite things to do. My goal is to use them in a way that the finished item has a certain quiet sophistication to it.

The workmen that have been installing the new a/c on the second and third floors of our home (read: my studio) should be finished on Monday. I'm looking forward to being able to be in the studio full time again! But, boy, will it ever be nice to be cool up there come summer; it will be worth this temporary disruption.

NOOOOooooooooo!

Geez. This figuring out the shop stuff ain't easy!

As I was running errands yesterday I just about had an anxiety attack when it hit me that, as much as I like the little quilt I made and showed you yesterday, it just wasn't right for the shop. Too cutesy. Too country. Too wrong.

I took it down this morning. I also took down all but one print because having things available as both prints and cards just looked too confusing. Waaaaaay too confusing.

So.

I left the cards and will be adding some new ones soon. I will add several new prints, too - but they will be available as prints only.

And I'll be adding some original work - some small collages to start and then some small drawings perhaps. Not a lot, but enough to give some choice.

I want the shop to look fresh, crisp, contemporary. I've been repeating those three words as I go about the day. Fresh, crisp, contemporary. Fresh, crisp, contemporary...

But enough fiddling with the shop today - I'm off to get a frame. Carlisle Arts Learning Center is having a show and I'm entering a piece and have to have it ready tomorrow.

Later alligator!

Fiddling around...

How many ways can you waste time?

Waaaaaaaay too many.

I can get totally lost in Photoshop making layers and patterns and twists and turns.

At least I have something to show for it:

I don't know, I don't know...

Maybe what is supposed to be "the world" looks too much like something my sister's cats might cough up, you know?

Eh. Not my best. But I sure had a good time wasting most of a perfectly good Saturday! And maybe I'll take parts of it and do something I like more. I have a whopping big file of "parts" from this, believe me!

And, yes - I even watermarked this hummer - that's what the faint "lillehus" is on top of the image

So what did I miss while I was doing this, huh?

I have nary a clue...(but, shhh, don't tell: I don't even care!)

Late entry (VERY late!):

Better, huh? Maybe...

February. Really???

Can't believe it.

Way too much I want to do to have the time going by so fast. 

Do you feel the same?

Here's a little landscape I did - time in nature seems to make everything slow down:

The Mustard Field. Digital drawing. 2012

Okay - time to get on with the day. I'll make sure I get outside a bit, too - will you?

Cheers,