Treasury Tuesday: Snap!

Happy Treasury Tuesday! I'm not sure I'd consider myself an actual "photographer" (yet), but I love taking pictures (as you may have noticed)...and thought I'd make a treasury paying homage to the magical little box that lets us capture those little snippets of life...

Snap!

And a Random Etsy Treasury...

Happy Camper

I happened to catch this treasury that made the front page of Etsy yesterday. It seemed so appropriate after a day like yesterday that was perfect for campfires and s'mores! (yes...we made s'mores last night at a friend's house!) Many a time did I catch the scent of wood fire yesterday. It also makes me miss the Adirondacks...~sigh~.

As always...be sure you go check out the Treasury Tuesday post I write over on the RNEST blog and go see more treasuries that feature some of my awesome fellow RNEST members! (if you don't, you're missing out!)

Happy Etsy-versary!

3 years ago today, on May 30th, 2008, I created an Etsy account, and opened up my shop.

That means that today is my 3 year Etsy-versary! (and this is the first year I've thought to "celebrate" it!)

The funny thing is, it is 2 weeks before my wedding anniversary (5 years), which is 2 weeks before my birthday, which is 2 weeks before my husband's birthday!

I really wish I'd thought enough ahead to do plan really cool here on the blog, but I didn't. I have this feeling that I should do a giveaway, but I have had a personal goal for a few months of hitting 200 fans on my Facebook page before I do my next giveaway. (I have 188 fans at the time I'm writing this, so there's not too much further to go!) So if you'd like me to do a giveaway...go to my Facebook page and click that "like" button!

Make It! Monday: Post-It NoteBooks

At my request, my mom wrote the original blog tutorial for these cute little Post-It NoteBooks that she makes. I've done a bit of editing, elaborating, and reformatting... but all the craft work shown in this post is all her! (I should get her to do a tutorial for one of her coffee cup cards/books).

Step 1:

First cut your base card stock 7 1/8 inches by 3 1/4 inches. (I used black...since a friend, who was destashing her scrapbooking supplies, gave me a lot of this thick, sturdy, black cardstock.) Crease at 3 1/2 and 3 6/8. (See picture above.)

Step 2:

Create Flowers or circles from punches or what ever design you want. You can even use rubber stamps, markers, geometric shapes, whatever you want! (This is the fun and creative part!)

Step 3:

Glue a 3 by 3 piece of paper on top of the black cardstock (I used lime green), then glue on your embellishment (I used green & yellow paper flowers).

Step 4 (Optional):

If you want your inside cover to be a pretty pattern or a different color from the base cardstock, you can glue some patterned/colored paper on the inside of the cardstock cover.

Step 5:

Finally, glue the spine of the 3 inch Post-It Note pad into the area where you creased for the folds. (OR, alternatively, you could glue the pad to the bottom of the inside of the booklet, but I recommend gluing the spine.)

And there you have it! A cute little Post-It NoteBook to pretty up your regular old boring Post-Its! You can make lots of them with different designs. You can even personalize them. It's a quick and easy project and can be a great little handmade gift!

*A special thanks to my mom for humoring me and writing the original tutorial on her blog (even though she is insecure about her blogging capabilities!), and for providing most of the photos!*

Etsy Favorite Friday!: ArtSnack

I met ArtSnack at Mayday Underground (sorry, the artist's real name escapes me at the moment!). Her work is great because it's like play food in pillow form! Her work is delightful and the foods she chooses to translate into pillow form practically scream summer!

Pink Watermelon Pillow

I think the watermelon is my favorite! My mouth is watering just looking at it! (I may just need to go buy a watermelon this weekend!) Mmmmm...

Orange Creamsicle Pillow

Mmmmmm...Ice cream!

Ice Cream Sandwich Pillow

Be sure to check out ArtSnack's Facebook page as well as her Etsy shop!

Treasury Tuesday: Summer Joys (and more!)

I went a little Treasury-making-crazy this week. Curating Etsy Treasuries can be a little addicting sometimes.

Summer Joys

The weather around here has been getting warmer and warmer, and summer feels like it's just around the corner. So I was inspired to make the Treasury above with items that remind me of the simple joys of summer.

I (heart) Buttons!

If there's one thing I love as much as buttons..it's photos of buttons! This treasury includes work from fellow RNESTers PeachesPictures and AlisonTyne.

Spools!

If you're a regular reader of my blog, you already know how much I love photos of vintage wooden spools of thread. It's kind of ridiculous how happy they make me.

I (heart) Wooden Toys!

Wooden toys are just so great. I love them for their simplicity, natural beauty, durability, and classic feeling. You just can't go wrong with wooden toys!

Bird-Watching featuring PeachesProducts

With spring finally being in full bloom, the birds are back and twitter-tweeting away (well, y'know...not really with Twitter...bird don't use computers! Ha ha! ~ahem~) Anyway, after that trip to my grandmother's house and watching the birds outside her kitchen window, I was inspired to make this treasury highlighting some pretty bird-inspired work, which includes a feather hair comb from my friend Casey of PeachesProducts. I know birds and bird themes are ubiquitous on Etsy (and everywhere else!) but they're just so pretty!

Be sure you go check out the Treasury Tuesday post on the RNEST blog and go see more treasuries that feature some other awesome RNEST members! (if you don't, you're missing out!)

Terra's Sister

There is a kitten at the farm right now that looks almost exactly like Terra when she was younger...

That's because she is Terra's younger "sister". The little girl at the farm has named her "Hannah".

One of the little girls at church yesterday actually thought it was Terra and asked me, "Why did you bring your kitty today?" I had to explain to her that it was Terra's "little sister".

Her eyes are a slightly different color (Terra's are more of a yellowish green), and the edges of her ears are darker. And of course, since she's younger (and an outside cat) she is a lot skinnier than Terra is right now.

But, despite being a "barn cat" she is a very friendly little cat. She still has a bit of the typical barn cat skittishness (just the slight noise of my camera turning on or focusing seemed to spook her a bit), but despite that, she is one of the few newer cats at the farm that is most likely to snuggle up next to you and let you pet her! Most of the other cats barely tolerate people to get close to them.

Handmade Plush Angry Birds Set

I was asked to make a set of 4 Angry Birds recently...the red bird, the blue bird, the yellow bird, and the "exploding egg" white bird. I've only ever made the red bird before, so it was cool to see how the other birds turned out.

Of course, you've seen me make the red bird before. The next time I make one, I want to shorten the beak, since when you look at him on the game, his beak isn't really that long. (but whatever, he's still cute!)

I think the yellow one is my favorite now. I like how his pyramid shape lets him sit nicely without rolling over.

The blue bird looks so tiny compared to the others!

I think it would be cool to figure out a way to adapt the pattern to include a little pocket at the bottom of the white bird so you could fit a plastic Easter egg that it could "lay". Would that be cute, funny...or just plain weird? Hey...I think it would be brilliant! I just have to figure out how to do it.

Want to make your own handmade Angry Birds plushies? Check out the tutorials at Obsessively Stitching! It was her birds that originally gave me the inspiration for mine!

***Obligitory disclaimer thingy: I do not own or claim to have any ownership of Angry Birds. They are owned by Rovio. These are just handmade, artistic interpretations of the characters.

Feet Photo #1 (Spring)

I took this picture as I was leaving the luncheon at the Methodist church that I went to with my Grandma on Wednesday. I saw all the pretty pink flower petals on the ground and, inspired by the memory of the "Rejoice" photo that I love that's on Lisa Barker's business card, I took a picture of the ground and my shoes. (of course, it doesn't beat Lisa's photo!)

I'm glad I was wearing cute shoes! I'm liking this idea of taking a series of photos of my shoes/feet. I think it would be cool to do a series of them by season. This one would be spring. I have an image in my head of my bare feet in the grass with dandelions...then my red shoes in the fall with leaves...and then my boots in the snow for winter (although I may need cuter winter boots for that!).

I hope Lisa doesn't mind that I was inspired by her photo and "stole" her idea!

But, "we're all idea thieves" you know... ;) I'm sure there are whole Flickr groups out there that are dedicated to photos of people's feet and/or shoes.

Etsy Favorite Friday!: Our Secret Treehouse

This week's Etsy Favorite, Our Secret Treehouse, is a shop that I discovered because I met its creators at Mayday Underground. Richard, the cartoonist counterpart of the team, visited my booth and was wearing a shirt with this cute little beaver design on it. I commented on it, and he told me he'd designed it himself and that their booth was around the corner from mine. So one of the times I left and let my mom run my booth, I popped over to check their stuff out!

Woodland Critters - XOXO Print 5x7

I had a nice time talking with them. We talked about how they are planning on adding some new woodland critter designs and joked around about how "Beavers will be the new owls!" (although...I don't think anything will be truly de-throning owls for awhile!)

Zombie Dinosaurs - The Complete, Three-Button, Medulla-Snacking Set

The zombie dinosaurs make me laugh!

They've got some really cute designs. I think they should offer T-shirts in the Etsy shop though!

Visiting Grandma: Part 3 (Stained Glass Window)

I spent Tuesday night at Grandma's house and on Wednesday I went with Grandma and her friend Sybil to a luncheon a local Methodist church was having as a fundraiser. Grandma and Sybil had been planning on going, I just kind of tagged along. There were a ton of people there and they actually had to have people wait in the sanctuary until their ticket number was called! While we were waiting, I became mesmerized by the large central stained glass window and passed the time until our numbers were called by taking pictures of it and playing with the settings on my digital camera.

The colors were so gorgeous...

Although not as impressive as the main central window, I enjoyed taking photos of the side windows as well.

I took this shot, but then decided to play with the camera settings...

I took the picture above after messing with the white balance and exposure settings. I like it better than the shot before it. It has a more moody, peaceful feeling to it. I think it would make a nice print.

Grandma and Sybil waiting for lunch...

Grandma and Sybil after lunch in front of a flowering crab apple tree.

Grandma and I in front of the tree. (It was sunny and Sybil was having a hard time seeing the view screen...so that's why our heads are a bit cut of at the top!)

Visiting Grandma: Part 2 (Birdwatching)

As far back as I can remember, Grandma has always had a birdfeeder right outside her kitchen window. She has a passion for birdwatching and is my resident bird-expert. If I see a bird and don't know what kind it is, I just ask Grandma. When I was at her house on Tuesday, I spotted this beautiful little blue bird outside her window.

Not a Bluebird...just a bird that was blue. It was SO pretty and I'd never seen one before!

Grandma said she thought it was a Blue Bunting. She checked her bird book (that she keeps right by the kitchen window!) and thought that it might be, more specifically, an Indigo Bunting.

Then there were also cardinals...

And a Blue Jay. At times like this I wish I had a fancyschmancy professional camera with a telephoto lens so I could zoom in and get a good clear shot!

There were also house finches and chickadees that were camera shy and would flit away as I was trying to zoom in on them.

Grandma gets the prettiest birds in her backyard. I want to get a new birdfeeder for my house now (I have one now, right outside my dining room window, that looks like a little red barn, but it's all cracked and broken). I only wish my kitchen was set up so that I could look out a window while doing the dishes like at Grandma's house. My sink faces a wall and the window is behind me. Although we are talking about taking that wall out someday to expand and make the kitchen and dining room into one large room, and then I will be able to see the dining room window. But that plan is way in the future for our house renovation plans.

Next post: Part 3 (Stained Glass Window)

Visiting Grandma: Part 1 (Grandma's Birthday)

My Grandma's 86th birthday was this past Tuesday, and I had decided that I'd go visit her. We went out to lunch with the "Tuesday Girls", Grandma's friends that she's known since high school. They used to meet every Tuesday when they were younger, but now they meet one Tuesday a month.

I bought these earrings for her at the Lilac Festival. They are pressed Forget-Me-Nots, one of Grandma's favorite flowers. Grandma doesn't have pierced ears and wears clip-ons. The earrings I got originally were for pierced ears, but the lady was kind enough to change them! She just switched the charm onto clip-ons for me right when I bought them!

I also made her some Raspberry-Rosemary syrup and some sugar cookies that look like buttons.

I got the "Button Cookie" idea from this site (the cookies on the site there are peanut butter cookies, but I didn't have enough peanut butter). I wanted to do this idea of stringing a ribbon through the holes for the presentation, but wasn't sure if I could do it without the cookies breaking. But the jelly canning jar presentation was cute enough.

And Mom sent Grandma's presents with me to give her, which included this small bouquet of flowers (Forget-Me-Nots, Lilies of the Valley, and Lilacs) from Mom's garden.

Next post: Part 2 (Birdwatching)