My weekend: full of color

This weekend was jam packed, but oh so colorful and super fun.

On Saturday, I went to Rory's rainbow-themed 6th birthday. His momma, Jenni, did an amazing job putting it all together, and there were rainbows everywhere. Rainbow bunting, rainbow banners, rainbow signs and tons of balloons.

She even made the food rainbow-themed. There were rainbow cookies, rainbow fruit platters, rainbow veggie platters, rainbow decorated cupcakes, and the awesomest 6 layer rainbow birthday cake.

After the party it was HMM Crafter-noon time. We made etched glasses. Even the guys got in on the fun for this Crafter-noon. They got super serious making their designs.

After the day of rainbow partying and crafting, I went out to dinner and some retail therapy at the mall with one of my best friends, Melissa. We didn't do too much damage at the mall....

Sunday morning, after waking up at an abnormally late time (only due to the time change), I went to my Mom's. We went out to hunt for our supplies for our second cake decorating class. I got almost everything I needed. I'm just missing my cake holder (to transport my cake).

Once we got all our supplies, we made our frosting for class this week. Since I have a kitchen aid mixer, Mom made her frosting at my house too.We each made a batch of frosting and then colored all of them. I absolutely love that Wilton gel icing color. It makes the frosting so vibrant! Now I just have to bake and frost my cake, and I'll be all ready for Thursday's class.

I needed to get some sweatshop time in, so I started to tackle the work in progress door for Odd Duck. I got 3 half done half aprons finished and started on 3 other kids aprons. I gotta hustle making stuff, cause my stock is seriously thin.

This whole losing an hour on Sunday really sucked, cause I totally could have used it to keep sewing. But I can't complain I had tons of fun and got lots of stuff done this weekend. I hope your weekend was great too.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1 things about me!

While 2011 is wrapping up, I'm taking Craft:'s call to share my 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 things. So here goes:

One Project You Are Particularly Proud Of

Without a doubt Handmade Miami! I never thought I'd be part of starting a craft group here in Miami, but I'm so glad I did. I still can't believe that in under 2 years it has turned into what it has become. It's given me the chance to teach my craft and learn from so many others. Plus I've met some great people and have made some truly awesome friends. Crafty friends are awesome, they just get you!


Two Mistakes You've Made in the Past
1. Doing the wrong kind of craft shows. I've signed up for tons and some are great and some are not. Now, after all of the experience of doing so many, I can tell which ones are a good fit for me. Without doing the bad shows I would never know what the good ones are though.
2. I gave myself a lovely cut along my thigh while rotary cutting on my bed and accidentally leaving the blade open. I didn't even notice til I saw blood. Thankfully, it wasn't too bad (and I didn't bleed on the fabric). I've learned now to always close the rotary cutter between cuts!!

Three Things That Make Your Work Unique

 1. The retro vibe

2. Bright colors and fun prints

3. Great quality. I make my stuff to be as good or better than store bought.

Four Tools You Love to Use

1. my sewing machine, "Sewphia"

 2. rotary cutter

 

3. my bias tape maker! best machine ever

4. a sharpened dowel (for turning out straps)

Five Inspirations

1. The show Mad Men. The awesome 60s fashions are just amazing... and I can't get enough of Joan, Peggy or Don Draper!

2. Fabric. I have an entirely too huge stash of it just waiting to be worked on. When I see a cool print I just have to have it.

3. Pinterest. I've become a pinning queen. I have an entire board dedicated to "crafty tutorials I will complete one day."

4. Blogs. I read all kinds of blogs: fashion, food, craft, makeup, just general, but they all inspire me. Seeing what others are doing and/or making really inspires me to get out there and do it too.

5. Old pictures. I have tons of old pics of the family. These pics are awesome real-life inspiration. The fashions and hairstyles are so amazing.

 

So that's my 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 things...  Grab the button and add your 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 to your blog too!

Crafting up a Carnival... and other things too

As I mentioned before, along with my group, Handmade Miami, we're putting on the Craft Carnival this November. It's totally a labor of love. We got our postcards this week! Don't they look great? We gave the graphic designer a bunch of images and had him pick the ones that would work best. I was happy to see he picked some of mine.

But along with running Handmade Miami and our monthly Crafter-noons (not to mention our business workshop this weekend), actually working full-time and the Carnival, I feel like I've been neglecting poor designed by Diana! It was time to give my business some love.

So, last weekend I got back into the sewing for dbD. I figured I should finish making my things to sell at the Carnival early, since I'll have a LOT of last minute things to coordinate. And I'd love to make some goodies from designed by Diana to giveaway in the swag bags too.

This week, I've managed to made about 20 pouches! I was totally ready to sew up the 10 others I had already cut out, but as luck would have it, I had no more labels to sew into them. I went over to my printer to print them out and keep going, but, of course, I had no ink in my printer. And if you are anything like me, I drag my feet to get ink. It's so expensive (if anyone has tips on where to find cheaper HP ink, let me know). But I've been on a roll this week, so I figured I might as well get the ink on my lunch break. At least I only need color, so I only have to buy one cartridge.

Since I didn't want to lose my crafting momentum last night I got started making the swag bag items that Handmade Miami will be giving away at the Craft Carnival. It was all going great. I was using my rotary cutter and cutting them out while sitting on my bed and watching TV. Everything was going great, but then I grabbed my rotary cutter from my lap, and cut my leg. Now I've cut my fingers before with the rotary cutter, but never my leg! Note to self (and to all of you too!): close the rotary blade unless you are using it! The cutter had a new blade in it, but I didn't think of anything since it didn't hurt. Then when I got up and saw the blood on my leg, I thought it might be band-aid time.

So the band-aid is covering my craft-related injury and I'm ready to get back to work. I'm also gonna whip up some Halloween costumes for my nephew and niece this weekend, so I can send it to them before October. Those are gonna be adorable, so I'll be sure to post pics.

Wish me luck in my ink search and safe crafting tonight!

The Craft Carnival

It's always been a dream of mine to put on my own craft show. It'd have an indie crafts vibe and be right here in Miami.

When I started Handmade Miami with Frances, Julie and Vanessa, we often talked about this and putting a show together ourselves. Well I am happy to say that finally our dream is becoming a reality.

Along with Handmade Miami, I'm proud to present the Craft Carnival!! This is gonna keep me pretty busy til November, but it's definitely a labor of love.

I hope you can come out and join us. And if you want any information about vending, sponsoring or buying an ad at the Craft Carnival, check out our website theCraftCarnival.com.

It's been a month?

I can't believe it's been a month! I'm sorry to my very few readers. But I've been crazy busy. And the heat. I have to blame the heat, it is the middle of summer after all.

I can now officially say that my fab group Handmade Miami is putting on its very first craft show. It's called the Craft Carnival! It will feature some of the most awesome indie crafters in South Florida, along with food, games, raffles and even a DIY table so you can make and take your own crafts! It's being held on November 5th at the Miami Elks Lodge from noon to 5pm. I'll be posting tons more when the date gets closer.

It seems like the Craft Carnival is taking up so much time, but I'm also juggling planning a new party. I'm hosting a baby shower for one of my best friends, Kristina. She's having her second baby, a little girl, so we're getting ready for her by showering her with gifts. As usual I'm doing a LOT of DIY for this shower, but having so much fun doing it. I can't wait to post all the pics when I'm done.

And tonight I'm hosting a little pool party/get-together for me and my cousins. I wasn't gonna do any decorating, but now I'm thinking up some simple decorations to make and put out by the pool. I'll definitely post these when they're done.

I hope everyone is staying cool this summer!

Catch up post... birthdays and beaches

I've been a slacking blogger! I've just been so crazy busy the last couple of weeks, I haven't had a moment to site and blog about the insanity.

First off, I'm sad to say that my craft room hasn't improved. But there is a really good reason. Last Friday, June 10th, I along with my Handmade Miami chicas hosted Etsy Craft Party and Handmade Miami's 1st Birthday Party! It was so great to have new people come out and share their love of craft. But it was just amazing to realize that Handmade Miami is one year old. We've done so much in one short year and we've really made the handmade community in Miami come together.

the HMM chicas

The day right after that was one of my best friend's birthdays. We went to the mall to get a new outfit and along with some friends we took the fabulous Melissa out to dinner for her birthday. Meli is all about doing her own nail art, so if you want to see her nail creations and recommendations, check out her blog, Meli's Fabulous Nails.

the fabulous birthday girl

And today, June 17th we did a community service project at work. We spent the day cleaning up a beach. It was great to give back and even though it was really, really hot, you can't complain when this is your view at work. But now I am dead tired! Man that sun can really zap your energy.

And in between all of that I've been planning something for Handmade Miami. It's pretty big and super exciting. It's gonna get really hectic around here really fast, but in a good way. As soon as I can spill the beans about the good news I will (and trust me I'm dying to tell everyone!)

Crafty Overload

I know I haven't posted on here in a few days, but I've been crafting and planning to craft like crazy!

I don't know if I mentioned this, but back in June, along with a few crafty friends, we founded Handmade Miami. We started out at the Miami Etsy Party last June, which Vanessa and I planned. Frances and Julie (of Mindy and Lola) were there and we decided that it would be great to get the Miami handmade community together. So with that, we started Handmade Miami. We have monthly Crafter-noons and are planning an Etsy Business Workshop in a few weeks and will also be doing some volunteer work at Miami Children's Hospital soon too. A few weeks ago we even did our first crafty party. The group is growing and growing and it's so exciting to see it all happen so fast! (This cute pic was taken at our Crafty Picnic Crafter-noon this past Saturday (L to R: Frances, Vanessa, me and Julie)

I'm also getting ready for the Odd Duck Indie Craft Fair on April 9th. This show is in its second year and looks like it'll be even better than the first. So the sweatshop has been in full effect getting ready for that too. I'm working on lots more aprons and lunchboxes. I'm also trying to get together a new display to go along with my cute new logo. I just hope I have time to do it all!

What's making this all a little harder than usual, besides the lack of time, was the fact that I moved my craft room recently. I've been slowly trying to put it all back together and get it organized, but it's still pretty crazy in there. And later this week we will be starting a remodel in the kitchen, so my KitchenAid and a bunch of other kitchen stuff has been creeping in. But I have great ideas for my new craft room, and I'll post pics as soon as I can get it all done.

Well looks like it's about time to get back into the sweatshop.

Happy 2011!

Hope everyone is having a happy new year. 2011 seems to be off to a great start.

I have lots of projects on the burner (as usual), but I'm totally amped up and ready to get going.

On the sewing front, I've been trying to think up a new lunch bag for myself. I need a new one for work and just wanted something different. Something along the lines of this one perhaps? But I'd have to adjust it to make my tupperware be able to fit well in the bottom of it. I'm also in dire need of a new purse, and I have something fabulous for that in mind.

I'm also planning a couple of awesome parties that you'll see here on the blog soon. A baby shower and a kids birthday party. They are both gonna be pretty great with plenty of handmade touches, as always.

Plus, have you heard of Handmade Miami? It's an awesome craft get-together group that I founded along with the ladies of Mindy & Lola. We have Crafter-noons every month, and they are so much fun. This past weekend we got together to make DIY bath & body stuff. We made bath salts and bath fizzies. They smell sooo good. And it so much fun to craft with friends.

I hope to have some finished products up soon for you all to check out. I hope everyone else is having a great year!

Etsy Craft Party Miami

Friday, June 18th was Etsy Craft Party day all over the world. Here's a peek into our party here in Miami. It was a great event and we had an awesome turnout. It was great to see that so many Miami crafters are out there. Though we didn't make it into the top 50 parties to be able to get one of the gift boxes from Etsy, with our own ingenuity and some extra supplies, we were able to have a great party with plenty of crafts and giveaways for everyone. Plus everyone had a fun time making things and meeting new friends.

Our Miami Etsy Craft Party was held at Sweetness Bake Shop & Cafe. Everyone really enjoyed all the goodies they had to offer. It was a hot Miami summer night, but everyone kept cool with iced coffees, gelato and of course, who could resist the Sweetness's gourmet cupcakes.

Right outside the front door we set up our sign-in table. People came, signed in and got their name tags. Then it was time to pick up the goodies, we had some of the tutorials and templates printed out from the Etsy Craft Party Kit. We also had coloring pages for the kids (and the kids at heart) and our friendship bracelet kits.

We filled up the place, and had a great time crafting the night away. Etsians and non-etsians alike all got in on the fun.

After some trial and error, everyone got busy making their friendship bracelets. After a few tips and a little mini-refresher course, people seemed to get the hang of it and really got going. It brought back memories of making them in middle school!

Some people opted to color or draw. Some even make their own Etsy Birthday party hats! We asked our Craft Partiers to make handmade Birthday hats in honor of Etsy's 5th Birthday. We had some great handmade birthday hats at the party. But hands down the winner was Johanna, who made these great blue hats for her and Elizabeth. (There is Elizabeth showing off her hat) Vanessa treated them to some yummy dessert shots from Sweetness.

We also got to meet some great etsians and just plain craft folk from the area. It's always nice to know that someone else out there has an unhealthy JoAnn's obsession and totally has stacks of project cut out, but not sewn.

I think the Etsy Birthday party is definitely gonna become a yearly event around here. And we're definitely gonna start getting together as a Miami crafting community more often. There are already plans for another meetup this week. So if you want to be included, just leave a comment, and I'll add your email to the list.
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Etsy Craft Party

Have you heard about the Etsy Craft Parties yet?

On Friday, June 18th Etsy challenged its members and local creative communities to create, join or step up to organize an Etsy Craft Party in their town. Along with the awesome Vanessa of Sophie's Keepsakes, we're organizing the Miami Etsy Craft Party.

We're having our Etsy Craft Party at Sweetness Bake Shop & Cafe. They are a new family-owned bake shop and have the most yummy desserts around (and yes I stopped by twice this week). Anyone can stop by between 8pm and 10pm, meet some cool crafty people, learn to make a friendship bracelet and have some goodies. By the way, the friendship bracelet supplies are free :).

Vanessa also had a great idea for the party. We're asking everyone to make a handmade Etsy birthday hat. The hat that gets the loudest cheers will win a dessert of their choice from Sweetness, courtesy of Vanessa.

It's gonna be a great night and is sure to be the first of many.

Check out the Etsy Storque article about Craft Party night. And check out the Meetup Everywhere site to find an Etsy Craft Party in your town. So this Friday get out there and get your craft on!