Old School Crafty Goodness

Robin and I come from a very crafty family, and thinking back to my childhood there wasn't ever a time when I wasn't making something. Both of our parents were always making things (still are actually) and the family tree is loaded with great-grands, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins who are multi-talented and creative.

This got me to thinking about how many items I still have that friends and family have made for me over the years. (Go ahead and say it: pack rat!) And, no surprise here, I've noticed the things that mean the most to me, and that I've kept the longest, are almost all things that were handmade by people I know. I thought it might be fun to share them on the blog once in awhile because some of them are really great.

First up is a little blue bag from 1973 or 74. My aunts made these personalized bags for all the cousins for Christmas one year. Of course they were filled with pencils and notebooks and other presents and even had a matching drawstring coin purse inside. I just love the red top-stitching and the hand-embroidered name. This one is Robin's, but I have mine packed away somewhere. It has a groovy heart patch on it! You can see this one was used a lot as it has a nice big glue stain in the lower lefthand corner.

Now that I sew I have a much better appreciation for this bag. It must have taken quite a bit of time, not to mention patience!

Back From the Time of Vacation

Feeling a little slow and fuzzy this week as I try to get back into the swing of things after vacation. We went to Cancun, where it was very, very, hot with hardly a cloud in the sky. Oven hot. Wring out your socks hot. Fry an egg on your forehead hot. But the snorkeling was great so it was all worth it. We had a couple of little glitches with United for the return flight, but after reading this and this (via BoingBoing) about what has come to be known as the Poop Plane, I'm really counting my blessings and thinking we didn't have it so bad after all.

More To Love About M&M's

As if being the website for a yummy chocolate candy wasn't enough, the M&M's website has lots of fun things to see and do. I usually don't plug advertising but I just love the M&M's Addams Family commercial. It is finger-snapping good. Another great diversion on this page is the Find 50 Dark Movies Hidden In A Painting. It is a great way to test your memory of scary movie titles. If you are feeling creative you can create your own M&M character. Making yourself into an M&M character is fun but I have even more fun creating M&M characters of people I know. (I am still laughing at the image I created of my brother as an M&M.) Once you have a character you can put them in front of backdrops for snapshots or put them in a movie. I can't think of a better way to waste an afternoon as long as I have the bag of M&M's to keep me going!

What Happened in the 80's Should Stay in the 80's

About two years ago I saw the first signs that 1980's fashion was circling around and becoming popular again. Girls at the local community college where I print were wearing leg warmers with their mini-skirts and flip-flops. Yes, yes, I know, it makes no sense, but wearing Uggs with your mini-skirts in sunny southern California doesn't make any sense either.

Now it seems there's a little trend back toward Tyvek clothing. Remember Tyvek jackets from the 80's, with lots of nice bright colors and eye-popping graphics? As with all returning fads they are somewhat reinterpreted for today's fashionistas but it looks like Tyvek clothing is on the way back.

Make Your Own Tyvek Bag

And in more exciting and crafty news, via laissezfaire, here's a bag kit using Tyvek! Created by Sac A Faire, it comes with one giant sheet of Tyvek and patterns for 10 bags so you can sew them yourself. I like the clean crumpled-paper look of just the plain white Tyvek, but I wonder if you could print on it? I'm thinking silkscreening, possibly linocut. I guess I know what I'll be shopping for this weekend!

Leg warmers photo by fran-cis-ca via flickr used under a Creative Commons License.

Spooning

You have to see these beautiful spoon pendants! Just found them via the Make magazine blog. Love these! I'd like to see smaller ones; maybe made from little baby spoons.

Supremely Good Idea

The awesome and talented Communicatrix just helped Megan Mullally launch a way-cool web site called Supreme Story Program. The goal is to get people in touch with their creativity. A topic is presented and anyone can submit their personal stories which are then posted on the site. I've already spent way too much time reading them; there's just something very compelling about people sharing these little parts of their history. Lots of good links for inspiration too.

What a Character

I found this little book from the 1940's at a yard sale recently. It contains the "secrets" of analyzing a person's character by the size and shape of their heads. Here's an excerpt from the preface:

"You will find yourself described in this book; also your friends, your sweetheart, your husband or wife, and your child. It was written from a practical point of view after the author had made thousands of analyses of students, soldiers, statesmen, executives, farmers, people prominent in society; in fact, men and women in every vocation and in every department of life."

The first chapter talks about using character analysis in business, and the "new profession" of vocational analyst, to help people find the jobs for which they are best suited. The author also talks about resolving conflict with business partners and family members by understanding your own specific personality traits as well as those of others. He then goes on to describe the traits of different types of profiles, head size and shape, and body type to name a few.

Some of his "scientific" findings are pretty funny; a person with a narrow forehead is narrow-minded, a person with thin tight lips is secretive. He even surmises that people with crow's feet are jovial and like to laugh. Interesting little handbook on psychology and character judgements though.

Little Bitty Kitty Update

Hey, remember when we told you about Little Bitty Kitty and his hilarious podcasts? Well, because we were fortunate enough to be picked for a Girl Power Moment we also received this really great calendar! We received it months ago so it's a bit of a belated acknowledgment (sorry LBK!) but we love it and thought it was cute and funny to boot! Thanks again to Little Bitty Kitty and if you haven't listened to one of his podcasts yet definitely hightail it over there.

Anatomically Correct

I'm finally getting some of our hand-printed anatomy cards up in the shop. We're cooking up some other product ideas that will also feature these old medical illustrations. I made the etching plates using a very cool toner-transfer technique that I need to post as a separate tutorial. On some of them I then I used a process called chin collé in which you add an additional piece of paper in between the plate and the printing paper. Sprinkle on some powdered wheat paste and when you run it through the press the dampness of the printing paper and the pressure of the press activates the paste and it all sticks together. It's a great way to add color to a piece while printing with black ink. There are so many interesting things you can do with this process, I just love it!

Customized Fortune Cookie

Here's a neat little marketing idea, that I'll bet is actually pretty expensive when it comes right down to it. Customized fortune cookies! (Click on the photo to see a larger version.) We ordered some snorkeling gear recently and this was in the package. I have to tell you though that I did not eat the cookie because the wrapper had come open, but I thought it was a really interesting way for Snorkel-Mart to make themselves memorable. And it's not the usual snorkel or dive related promo such as something to do with the ocean or fish; I like that the fortune cookie promo was paired with snorkel products. What other ways have you seen to make your packages more memorable?

I Finally Know What a Tasket Is

Taskets are these wonderful little odds-and-ends holder thingys made by Jenn Maruska. She also makes too-cute-for-words sewing books. I hadn't heard of a sewing book before but now that I've seen these I know my crafting life will not be complete without one. And the best part is she also blogs! Go check her out!

My Cupcakes Need Feet

How adorable are these?! I officially dub these the cutest silicone baking cups ever! Found them in Family Fun magazine and they mentioned their kids were using them on their desks to hold odds and ends. So now I'll have to order enough to use for cupcakes AND in my office.

Wilton is the company who makes the extra tall cupcake pan that everybody's been talking about and now I see that they have jumbo muffin pans as well. Michaels carries the Wilton brand if you don't want to pay for shipping. Hooray!

And Another Thing....

One other thing that used to bug me about some blogs is the tendency to forget about things they say they'll post at a later date. Now that I have my own blog however, I see how difficult it is to keep up on this. In fact, I can think of at least a couple of things I said I'd be posting on here and then promptly forgot about. Shame on me! So, as previously promised, here are some personal favorites from the Etsy/BazBiz Upcycle contest:

Korean Cookie box made into a pen case - This item has sold already but take a look at the rest of Dingo's shop. Love this teeny tiny little book!

Recycled Paper Shower Curtain - Love the design and colors of this piece. She has some lovely handpainted scarves too.

Blue Capacitor Bug - So cute! This one is sold out, but there are plenty more where that came from.

Plastic Bag Rain Coat - I was really sad that I missed out on buying this back in February. Love the design! Check out the cute felted hair clips.

Bottle Cap Necklace - Love the seed beads in resin. More recycled stuff in her shop.

Missing Time

Holy Moly, has it really been two weeks since I posted to the blog? Unforgiveable! I really hate it when my favorite blogs aren't updated regularly so I had been trying to make a more concerted effort to post consistently. But then work was busy, and I had a LOT of cleaning to do to get ready for a parental visit, and then the 'rents came out for a *very* fun week of galavanting around SoCal and here we are. May 16th and mentally it feels like March. sigh. (The photo is from a car show we went to in Hermosa Beach. It's a side view of the tire cover on the back of a beautifully restored old car. I really love photos of reflections.)

Lots of stuff going on right now:

Maker Faire - This weekend! May 19 & 20! Check out the full schedule here. Don't forget to swing by Bazaar Bizarre inside the Maker Faire and look for our two Etsy Upcycle contest winners JackRabbit and New Orleans Craft Mafia. We had to pass on it this year (*sob*) so please let us know when you have photos posted.

Felt Club - Applications are now being accepted for Felt Club's summer show. But hurry, the deadline is this Friday, May 18th.

Sew Useful Contest at Etsy - Sponsored by Etsy and Instructables this contest is looking for a tutorial along with the finished product. Put your thinking caps on and check here for details.

Better Late Than Never.....Right??

Now that it's practically May, I can finally reveal our big Christmas 2006 project! ha ha We decided to make gifts for the nieces and nephew this year and they turned out great. We've had an ongoing joke that as Aunt and Uncle we'll always be on good terms with the kids. You know, the Aunts and Uncles are always the cool ones, even when the kids get to that age where they find their parents embarassing. We're pretty happy about that. So I made a 70's inspired graphic of Dan's face that said Uncle Dan Rocks and we silkscreened it onto shirts. I usually use oil-based ink for silkscreening, but it smells to high-heaven and it's best to use it in the studio where there's better ventilation and it doesn't matter if you spill some on the table or floor. For this project I bought a water-based ink that is especially for fabric and it was terrific. So nice to have easy clean-up for a change. First, we put chipboard inside the shirt to protect the back in case there's any ink bleed-through and also to provide a smooth surface on which to screen. I had Dan hold the screen in position while I pulled the ink through and then we let the shirts dry overnight. The next day we heat-set them with the iron so that the ink wouldn't fade when washed. It was super quick; more time went into making the graphic. Dan's not happy about it but other people have asked for t-shirts with this graphic and I'm thinking tote-bags would be cute too!

VA Comes to its Senses

The Department of Veterans Affairs settled a lawsuit in Wisconsin and will finally include the Wiccan pentacle among religious symbols allowed to be displayed on veterans' grave markers. I thought this was pretty ridiculous back when I heard they had to file a law suit in the first place just to resolve it. Seems like a trivial thing for the VA to get persnickety over when we're talking about grave markers for people who willingly chose to fight for their country.

Here's an excerpt from an AP article listed on TwinCities.com:

The lawsuit argued that the VA's refusal to act on requests to permit the symbol on veterans' grave markers violated Wiccans' constitutional rights of freedom of speech, religion and due process.

The lawsuit also said it made no sense for Wiccan symbols to be banned from grave markers when Wiccan soldiers can list their faith on dog tags, Wiccan organizations are allowed to hold services on military installations, and the Army Chaplains Handbook includes an explanation of the religion.

The list of allowed symbols is here on the VA's web site. More on the widely misunderstood Wicca religion here. Info on the pentacle here.

Boy Oh Boynton

You all remember the Boynton characters, right? Sandra Boynton's adorable cartoon characters were all the rage in the 80's, adorning everything from greeting cards to coffee mugs to who-knows-what else. I love the characters but I think it was the wordplay that really got me hooked. She's licensed some of her characters for a promotion with Kohls. They're selling book/cd sets and these adorable plushies! All proceeds "support health and educational opportunities for children nationwide." Unfortunately they didn't make a plushie of the infamous Boynton cat, which was Robin's personal favorite, but they did include the pig, rhino, dog, and chicken. I couldn't resist getting the chicken. It must be the nostalgia factor. And look at the little embroidered signature on the bottom of her foot! So cute. Dan remarked that the chicken kind-of sorta reminded him of a Muppet chicken. Which brought to mind a Muppet chicken sketch in which they sang along to an all-chicken version of In the Mood, which was actually listed as being performed by the Henhouse Five. Not sure if it was from Sesame Street or The Muppet Show but the song by itself, which was actually by Ray Stevens, is hilarious. Anyone else remember it?

Oh my goodness, there's Boynton jewelry, and a penguin song performed by Davy Jones! I'm having flashbacks to adolescence.

Rainy Friday Round-Up

Yes, it's actually raining here in Southern California! Well, what they call "rain" here would more accurately be characterized as a light drizzle in other parts of the country. Whatever you call it though I'm happy about it because I *love* rainy days. Here's a round-up of some things that have come up this week that I just knew you would want to hear about:

-Hook a Sistah Up Alison, friend to crafters everywhere, organizer of BazBiz Boston, crafty gal behind Wonderland Q, has suffered a medical emergency and has no insurance. Etsy and the crafting community have come to her rescue with this awesome Etsy store. All proceeds will go directly to Alison to help with her already mounting medical bills. Donate something to sell in the store if you can or do some Mother's Day shopping!

-Next Big Thing Today is the last day to enter Fred Flare's Next Big Thing contest. We were too busy this year, but maybe if we start planning today, we can get it done in the next 365.

-Stitch 'n Pitch Contest You have until May 31st to enter this one. Craft magazine has teamed up with The National Needle Arts Association for a contest. Entries must be a needle art (knitting, crochet, cross-stitch, needlepoint, or embroidery) and must reflect the theme of baseball.

-Fun OSX Trick Press ctrl-option-cmd-8 to invert the colors on your monitor. It toggles on and off. Is this a useful feature? I don't know, but I've been playing with it all day. Look at photos in your browser after converting too. via kottke.org

Get Out the Band-Aids®

As much as I love books, and thus might have a hard time cutting one up, (I know Robin is cringing even more than I am right now) I'm dying to try a project like this. I'm sure artist Georgia Russell uses only older books that would have been destined for the landfill anyway. Surely I wouldn't feel bad about cutting up an old college textbook that they wouldn't buy back from me because there was a newer edition available.....right? Aside from the part about destroying to create, I suppose I might also have a bit of a problem with the inherent dangers of using an X-Acto® knife for any length of time. You'd think my years of graphic design work and crafting would have left me with a fair bit of skill with sharp implements, but alas, it just means a higher incident of accidents for a clumsy girl like me. I'm not really allowed to use knives in the kitchen unless carefully supervised and I have yet to cut my own mats for artwork. So, maybe I'll just admire Georgia Russell's work on the internet because additionally I doubt I have the attention span for this type of....oh look, a chicken!

via Fun Forever

Photo on a Rope

Holy Cow, this is the coolest display idea I've seen in awhile. I'm a sucker for anything photo related and especially for new ways to display my photos, so this is right up my alley. I'm envisioning a whole line of these covering a wall! And of course the best part is they are easily changed out as the mood strikes. It's a 43" cable that comes with 8 magnets. (Note to self: order more magnets.) The top of the cable has a loop for hanging and the bottom is weighted to keep it straight. This would be great in my office too for reminder notes, or sketches, or what-have-you.

I'm also digging these photo clips, and this monster pod, which sticks virtually anywhere. These are all from PhotoJojo.

We're Not Edgy

So, apparently, and we had no idea, there are some people who prefer the [gasp] outer edges of food items. Like brownies and Pop-tarts® for example. Robin and I are both completely flabbergasted by this revelation. We thought 99.9% of the population preferred the yummy, gooey, delicious center of certain foods. Like brownies and Pop-tarts® for example! That's why they started cutting the crusts off of sandwiches in the first place, right? All the Idle Hands, spouses included, prefer the middle pieces of brownies. We also barely tolerate the crusts of the Pop-tart® in order to get to the delicious, frosted, sugar-filled center, and feel quite upset if we encounter a Pop-tart® that suffered a glitch in the production process thereby rendering it with too much crust. Center lasagna is better too. I also prefer Uncrustables® to regular peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. (Unless it's one of Dan's patented Grilled PBJs of course.) Turns out our Mom is also a middle person, so maybe this explains our preference. Now I'm wondering if it's learned, or genetic. Still waiting to hear from the Queen Mother, aka Grandmom, on her brownie prefs.

I saw the above pictured edges-only brownie pan somewhere (maybe on BoingBoing) and while incredibly clever, I initially thought it was a joke, or a one-off item. Because surely there was no way there could be a market for a pan like this. Who, in their right mind, would want a pan that created only brownie edges? Then Daily Candy sent an email touting Brownie Butts from Mary Louise Butters. The sacrilege! Finally I started asking around, and my friends, let me tell you, I actually know some of these edgy brownie people. [gasp, clutch the pearls]

Edginess is not always across the board however. Our friend Sean prefers the edges of brownies, but is definitely a middle-Pop-tart® person. Our friend Aldo says it's the transition from the crunchy edge to the chewy middle of the brownie that is the best part, and he thinks the edges, the CRUSTS for goodness sake, of the Pop-tart® are the best part! [insert eye roll emoticon here] He says the middle is too sweet on its own. It's true what they say, you learn something new every day.

We're still polling friends and family members so feel free to comment or drop us an email weighing in on this potentially controversial and divisive matter and we'll post the results next week.

It's Better Than a Sharp Stick - Really

Mom is officially retired as of 1:00 pm MST today! We've got a sale going on to celebrate this momentous occasion. Because she worked for various insurance agents for the last 27 years, we're offering a 27% discount on selected items through April 30th. Being a relentless optimist, one of Mom's oft-used sayings has always been "It's better than a sharp stick in the eye!" Hence the name of our promotion. Now we can put her to work crafting more wonderful handmade goodies that we can list on the web site. Well, okay, we can let her have some downtime before we insist she does our bidding. But we know her, she won't want to be idle for long!
Seriously though, we couldn't be happier for her and we're sure she's going to find a million fun things to fill her time.

Some Much Needed Monday Inspiration

Check out this wonderful flip book video of George Lange's work from 2006. Really beautiful.

via sfgirlbybay (aka Victoria Smith)

I Only Have Eyeballs For You

Is there anything better than an eyeball pin cushion? Not if you're weird like us there's not. I found these creepy cool eyeball bottlecap pin cushions while browsing through all the entries for the Softie Awards. I kept seeing these wonderful pin cushion entries and found that they were all made by VeryBigJen. She has generously shared her method for making these little beauties with a Flickr tutorial. Thanks Jen!

Design and Illustration Goodies

Here are a few links to some graphic design-y type things with an illustration site thrown in for good measure.

Create, share and search color schemes online with Adobe's Kuler.
via Spencer from Kernspiracy

Another color tool; generate a palette based on any image.
via Josh from Kernspiracy

Paul Giambarba's blog 100 Years of Illustration and Design.
via the Illustration Friday blog

Logo trends of 2006 from LogoLounge.
via Graphic Design Bar

Bazaar Bizarre at Maker Faire Application

Interested in being a vendor at Bazaar Bizarre San Francisco with the Maker Faire this year? Last year was a blast and I think this year will be even better. The big news is that the craft section is being held indoors this year! This will eliminate the problem we had with windy conditions. Over 20,000 people attended and it was the first year for this event so I think the numbers are going to be much, much higher this time. The Maker Faire will be held on Saturday and Sunday, May 19th and 20th, 2007 at the San Mateo Fairgrounds. Deadline for BazBiz applications is March 25, 2007.

Grandma's Lawn Chair Redux

Remember those old plastic-webbing-clad aluminum lawn chairs from your youth? The ones that your grandparents brought out for the family picnics? April from Rosewebs has found a new, and dare I say, better use for that durable but stiff webbing that was always scratchy on bare legs. She makes the cutest little zippered pouches, clutches, wallets, and messenger bags, all from lawn chair webbing. I found her through her submission to the Bazaar Bizarre/Etsy contest and had to order a little pencil pouch. It was so adorable, and so well made, I ordered a bunch more for family and friends. She uses webbing that she finds at thrift stores and home sales but which has never been used on a chair. It's a clever use for a recycled material and I love the nostalgia factor.

We'd Like to Thank the Academy...

We were thrilled and honored to discover that we were the featured artist on The Little Bitty Kitty Show's Girl Power Moment! If you haven't heard of Little Bitty Kitty go check him out asap. We're featured in episode 8: John Wayne's Ghostie Must Die.

When we first started Four Idle Hands one of our goals was to reach the feline market and Little Bitty Kitty has helped us take this all-important first step. LBK is the definitive voice in feline podcasting and we can't say thank you enough.

Photo Gift Idea

Need a unique and inspired gift idea? Something personal, and above all useful? Then check out PicPads, notepads created from your personal photographs. I haven't ordered them yet but I'm making a mental list of potential gift recipients. The cost is only $27.95 for four 5" x 8" or four 3.5" x 8.5" notepads and you can add an inscription. Starting March 1st they'll have color notepads available but I'm a sucker for black and white photography so I'll probably stick with the original.

Thanks to Lori for the reminder on this! (I think I may have also seen them last year on Fototiller.)

Prolific

I'm reading a book about Picasso. Here is what was inventoried from all of his houses, apartments, vaults, etc. after his death. (And it took 4 years to catalogue everything by the way.)

•1,885 paintings
•7,089 drawings
•1,228 sculptures
•6,112 lithographs
•2,800 ceramics
•18,095 engravings
•3,181 prints
•149 books containing 4,659 drawings and sketches
•8 carpets and 11 tapestries

These are just the works he had in his possession. This doesn't count everything he sold or gave away throughout his life. And I think I'm doing good if I manage to get a couple of print editions out in a semester! ha!

Winners Announced!

Craft magazine announced the winners of their Valentine's Day Card challenge and they're incredible! There are three winners:

Postbird by Ciana Bodini; love the map envelope. Be sure to look at her other photos so you can see what the card looks like unfolded.
Monster Valentine Card by Blythe Church. This one is a personal favorite because it opens to reveal an anatomically correct heart pin. So cute.
Altoids Tin Valentine by Emma Axelson. I love the floating frame in the lid of the tin with the little hearts suspended there.

You can see all of the entries here.

My Bloody Valentine

Have you seen these Bloody Valentine earrings we have in the store? I love these little heartshaped hematite beads, and in two sizes no less. There's also a matching necklace if you're so inclined. Sorry, the knife is not included. You'll have to get your own Valentine's knife.

And if you're just not feeling the love this year maybe you'll relate to these Anti-Valentine e-cards by Meg. I especially like the "Do the Math" cards.

Someone's Got a Case of the Mondays

Okay, not necessarily an official case of the Mondays; just wishing it were still Sunday. I finally have our photos up from Bazaar Bizarre. We really didn't get that many good photos. Luckily Robin took some good ones of the set-up the day before. I didn't make it upstairs for any photos at all of Swap-O-Rama-Rama and of course no sponsor shots, no DIY shots, no favorite vendor shots. sigh. Actually, I'll have to remember this for next time.....on-site professional photography would be a good service to offer at a craft show. That way one person could be dedicated to just photographing everyone in their booths and taking candids throughout the show.

On another note, some fun links:
Check out these really interesting photos by Chema Madoz. via kottke.org

Serious bookbinders rejoice - extensive tutorial on case binding from Indiana University. via the Craft blog.

Don't Go Breaking My Heart

I've always loved that song by Elton John and Kiki Dee. Call me a sap but I can't resist those light-hearted pop songs of the 70's. But I digress....I really want to tell you about Craft magazine's Recycle Your Heart Valentine's Day Card Contest! Put your creative genius to work and fashion a Valentine's Day card from recycled materials. And they're not limiting it to paper either, so this is a good excuse to get crazy with found objects and unusual materials. Hurry though, the deadline for entering is Friday, February 9th at 5 pm PST. Ooooooo, one of the judges is Megan Reardon of Not Martha; I love her blog!

Splenda heart garland by Rakka.

And the Winner Is......

Congratulations to JackRabbit, the first place winner of the Etsy/Bazaar Bizarre Upcycle Contest! There were around a thousand entries and believe me when I tell you it was difficult to whittle the list down. Everyone put a lot of thought and time into their projects and it was very obvious that the upcycling theme really struck a chord with a lot of folks. Over the next week or so we'll be featuring some of our personal favorites so be sure to check back. There were so many beautiful, clever, and kooky items that we just can't resist pointing them out to you. They'll really get you in the mood to think creatively and be more mindful about what you're throwing in the trash. For the complete list of winners check out the Etsy blog. Many thanks to the whole gang at Etsy, and especially Matt, for doing a stellar job with this contest!

Finally, a New Use for Post-Its®

Walt must be very popular and much beloved by his coworkers because they spent a fair bit of time artfully covering his Jaguar with post-it® notes. Growing up in a household of car enthusiasts my first thought was one of concern for the finish on the car. Granted, post-it® notes are pretty benign as far as sticky stuff goes, but I wonder if they will leave any marks. heh heh We'll have to check with Steven (yes, that Steven) to get his professional opinion on the after affects of post-its® on automotive paint. In the meantime though take a look at all of the work-in-progress photos of the Jag. What I'd really like to see though is the photo of Walt's face when he went to find his car after work that day!

Found via the Flickr blog; photo by Scott Ableman.

Bag Empty - Cat Gone

I'm very excited that I can finally let everyone know about the big secret project that came up in September. I wrote a linocut tutorial for the second issue of Craft magazine and it will be out any day now! (Actually, subscribers should be receiving their copies any day and it will hit newstands on January 23rd. Subscribe here if you haven't already.) The theme for Craft:02 is Creative Copies and I can't wait to see all of the other stuff they've got in there. You've probably noticed from my earlier posts that I am a bit enamored with Craft, so to be able to write for them, about printmaking no less, is beyond exciting. I'm totally geeked about it! They're such a great group of people and the whole experience was thoroughly enjoyable.

The photo above is just one example of why you won't see anything but my hands in the article photos. ha! I have a tendency to close my eyes or make some other equally goofy face when having my picture taken. And by goofy I mean weird and frightening. But I feel good about posting this one on our blog. If I can't share embarassing photos with the whole internet then what's the point of having a blog, right?

Back Amongst the Living

Holy Smokes! I think the month of December gave new meaning to the word "over-committed." We're just now coming out of the fog of a whirlwind December and a much needed holiday rest.

Thank you so much to everyone who came out to Bazaar Bizarre and stopped by our booth to say hi! We had a great time, met lots of wonderful new people (Tess and Heather from Vermin and Tess, the uber-talented Jaime Zollars, and the infamous Matt from Etsy, to name a few) and reconnected with some old friends too. (Hi Karen!) Lori from Hip Line Media did a fantastic job with Swap-O-Rama-Rama. All eleven sewing stations were busy the entire day. And kudos to Marshall, silkscreener extraordinaire, who came to LA just for this event. He printed like a maniac all day and barely had time to eat lunch!

One last thank you to all of our volunteers.....it takes more work than you might imagine to put on events like the Bazaar and the Swap and we honestly couldn't do it without the generosity of like-minded folks who are all about promoting the DIY spirit. Thanks a million!

Bazaar Bizarre + Etsy Contest

You could be a winner! Bazaar Bizarre has teamed up with our wonderful sponsor Etsy to bring you this amazing contest which will bestow upon the winner a free booth at Bazaar Bizarre San Francisco, which is held inside the Maker Faire, along with airfare and hotel accommodations. (Well, up to $1,000 anyway.) The theme of the contest is "upcycling" a term coined by William McDonaugh and Michael Braugart in their book on ecologically intelligent design, Cradle to Cradle. Here's an excerpt from the Etsy contest page:

In the simplest terms, upcycling is the practice of taking something that is disposable and transforming it into something of greater use and value. In this contest we challenge all Etsy users to create an object to sell on Etsy that is comprised of materials that would have otherwise ended up in the trash heap.

Take a look at all the great entries that have been submitted already. You can find more details about the contest and submission guidelines here. Go ahead and open your own Etsy store while you're at it. You'll be glad you did.

Everybody's Working for the Wiikend

We picked up our new Nintendo game system a couple of weeks ago, the Wii, and let me tell you, this thing is a work of pure genius. We're not hardcore gamers by any means, so I hesitated to even blog about it, but then I realized that's the true beauty of the Wii; its accessibility to anyone! I'm lefthanded and have always had issues with "normal" handheld controllers. Computer games were fine as long as I could use the mouse and keyboard, but even joysticks presented a problem if there was a "fire" button on the side. Our most recent console purchase was the GameCube and I hardly ever played it because it was backwards. I thought I would be able to find a left-handed controller for it but alas, there is no such thing. So you can imagine how excited I was when my husband told me about this new thing called Wii. (I agree, they missed the mark on the name, but the controllers and the functionality make up for it.) The main controller is about the size of a tennis racket handle, which is very convenient for playing the Wii Sports tennis game, and an additional joystick controller attaches to the remote with a cord. Having these two components separate makes a lot of ergonomic sense and makes me wonder why it hasn't been done before now. Even for rightys it's an easier, more comfortable position for your hands and arms. The Wii controllers are sensitive to motion and position in relation to a sensor bar you set on top of your television. You get to move as if you were the game character. This is what makes the sports games so fun and also what has already led to cases of tennis elbow. I can vouch for the fact that even though you know it's a virtual game, and you know you don't really have to swing it that hard, it's difficult not to when you're trying to slam the ball over the net. And this is also why the remote comes with a wrist strap! We're still figuring out all of the Wii's bells and whistles so stay tuned for more updates.

Will It Blend?

Robin has discovered the Holy Grail of blenders! Does everyone else already know about these blenders? You've got to go to this site and check out the videos. They're divided into two categories, Don't Try This at Home, and Try This at Home. I haven't even looked at the Try This at Home videos yet because the Don't videos are so much fun. I think it's the cheesy 70's music that adds the perfect touch. Check out the Thanksgiving dinner blend and the Movie blend. Oh, and you have to see the Marbles! I can barely get my blender to chunk up a couple of ice cubes and this thing is turning marbles into dust. They're not cheap, but the ability to make every single meal into a milkshake would be well worth it.

Quirky Collectors Unite!

Angelica over at Swapatorium is compiling a list of people interested in helping each other with additions to their quirky collections. And by quirky she means things that might seem "worthless" to the uninitiated. Things like business cards, worn photos, gum wrappers, buttons, you get the idea. I signed up for ticket stubs! hooray! Members send stuff (for free) to other members on the list to help them build their collections. She's only allowing one collection item per person, and she won't list duplicates. So once she has someone down for take-out menus, which she does, she won't add anyone else who collects those. Sounds fun, huh? If you wanna play hop on over to the site and sign up. And take a few minutes to visit the rest of the site, there are some really great finds!

Open Call for Swap-O-Rama-Rama

You may have already heard that Bazaar Bizarre is presenting Swap-O-Rama-Rama this year but did you know it marks the Swap's debut in Southern California? SORR is a huge clothing swap and DIY event where folks bring in bags of unwanted clothes, sort throught the piles that everyone else brought and pick as many new things as they'd like, and then hit the various DIY sewing, embroidery and silkscreening stations to create wonderful new things. It's going to be a lot of fun and of course the best part is we're helping people express their creativity through clothing while keeping textile waste out of the landfills.
Right now we're having an Open Call for designers, silkscreeners, seamstresses, and DIY types of all kinds to participate in this event. We also need people to help sort as we're anticipating approximately 10,000 lbs. of free clothes! More details are in this PDF, or you can email Lori from Hip Line Media to volunteer now.

Fly the Coop to Giant Robot

Talented illustrator/artist Susie Ghahremani of BoyGirlParty fame has a solo show opening at Giant Robot in Los Angeles this weekend. Here's an excerpt from GR's site:

"For Bird Call, Ghahremani is creating an expanded collection of animals, invented creatures, patterns, and color studies. There will be about 150 gouache paintings on wood, board, and paper. Dimensions range from “mini” to “not so mini.”

The opening reception will be held Saturday, November 11, 2006 from 6:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. at GR2 which is located at 2062 Sawtelle Blvd.

Dia de los Muertos

I've been reading up on Day of the Dead and it's very interesting. Apparently it goes from October 31 through November 2nd, which I did not know. We were throwing around some ideas for a contest, or promo, or a related product launch, but the fall is so busy for us we just ran out of time. Let me point out these skull jingle bell earrings though. They're the newest item in our growing collection of skull jewelry products.

Here are some other awesome skeleton products we found on Etsy:
-cute skeleton holiday cards from catboxartstudio

-adorable little amigurumi skeleton from NeedleNoodles

-cutest skeleton plush ever from blacklilypie

Sneak Peak

What is this you ask? We've got something big brewing here at the casa de cuatro manos ociosas. (Any spanish speakers out there feel free to correct my junior high spanish.) This is but a glimpse of a super-terrific top-secret project we're working on....keep checking back and we'll spill the beans as soon as we can.

Trick or Treat

This is what halloween costumes looked like in the early 1970s in Trenton, New Jersey. They were homemade and they were FABULOUS! Thanks to our very crafty parents of course. That's me on the left as a cigar/cigarette girl.....uh what? I know, I know, sounds weird to me too but Robin pointed out that maybe it was more "kitschy" back then. All I know is I got to stock that cigarette tray with bubble gum cigars and candy cigarettes and a nice little sugar buzz trumps all when you're a kid. (Actually it still does.) That's our brother Steven in the middle (yes, *that* Steven) and he's dressed up as a boat-racer, complete with cardboard boat. Boat racing was very popular back east at that time and our Dad was really into it. He even built his own wooden boat completely from scratch. Hence, the boat-racer costume. That's Robin on the right and trust me when I tell you this is the only time we will ever see her as a blonde. And it's a little weird. Cute, but not "her" at all. I'm not sure why she couldn't have been a brunette Little Red but I guess donning the wig made it seem more like a costume. I always loved that little red cape.
So the ulterior motive for this post is Craft's Halloween Trick or Treat contest. You should check it out, there's still time to enter. Have I mentioned how much I love that magazine?

The New Phone Books Are Here!

Craft magazine is out and it's bee-you-tee-ful! It's jam-packed with cool projects and interesting articles, all wrapped up in a nice clean design. It is a little pricey from the newstand ($14.99) so it's a much better deal to subscribe. (Don't forget, if you're an Etsy seller you can get 5 issues for the price of 4.) And, if you think about it, since it's quarterly the cost-per-month price is about the same as other magazines. I scanned in some pages showing the great coverage for Etsy and Etsy sellers, just in case you haven't seen it yet. And, for fellow SoCal locals, you won't want to miss the launch party this Saturday, October 28, 11 am to 3 pm.

Things are going to start happening to me now.

-Navin R. Johnson

Chlorophyll Printing

Found the artwork of Binh Danh over at Boing Boing this morning. Simply amazing! I'm actually surprised someone hasn't thought of this before. He uses the process of photosynthesis in leaves to create photographic prints. I will definitely need to try this for myself because the possibilities are mind boggling. (I love anything that involves photography and have a great collection of old family negatives. Being able to "print" photos onto leaves would be so cool!) He puts the leaf into a little bag of water to keep it alive, lays it flat onto a board with a negative and a piece of glass on top and "bakes" it in the sun. Here is the link to a gallery of his work, an article with him from two years ago, and an article about a similar process. All of these links are from Boing Boing.

Have You Seen the Wonder That is Posy Press?

The lovely Amy from Posy Press was our very first commenter to the blog! Thanks Amy! If you haven't heard of Posy Press yet, or seen Amy's work you don't know what you've been missing. She is a dedicated blogger (my role model for frequency and quality of postings!) and has the most beautiful designs in her shop.

Bazaar Bizarre Blogger

The BazBizBlog has officially launched! Greg Der Ananian, founder of everyone's favorite multi-city punk rock craft show, and author of the book by the same name, is blogging about all kinds of interesting stuff. You really need to go check it out for yourself.

Don't forget to mark your calendars for Bazaar Bizarre Los Angeles which is being held on Saturday, December 16, 2006 at the Shrine Expo Center. And if you're local, and can help us put on this really big show, we can always use volunteers. Email me if you're interested! You'll be our BFF.

Halloween or Day of the Dead Accoutrements

Two of our idle hands have been busy in the mad scientist lab cooking up some scary stuff just in time for Halloween and Day of the Dead celebrations. These little cuties are jingle bells!

Halloween Contest

Halloween contest over at Penelope's.