love, martha at Lill Street's Holiday Art Fair! Yay!

I'm pleased to announce that I'll be participating in Lill Street's Inaugural Holiday Art Fair!  It is Friday November 30th from 6 - 10pm.  There will be cocktails, live music, and me!  And a whole bunch of other folks too of course.  I'm busy beading to make some fun necklaces for the holidays, so be sure and drop by if you can!

adventures in beading

Oh, summertime.  The time to have plenty of excuses for ignoring this blog of mine.  I've been relatively productive in the creativity department I suppose.  My latest obsession is beading.  I've done some beading on my necklaces, but it was always a little haphazard and didn't really have any sort of pattern.  I really wanted to create a beaded pattern that was symmetrical and you know, done the right way!  I took inspiration from my trip to Architectural Artifacts last winter, specifically a lovely art deco lamp.  I had sketches in my notebook for ages and then thought, I should probably use them for something worthwhile.   So there you have it.  I think it turned out pretty nice.  Though it's not quite as symmetrical as I would have liked because I'm lazy about measuring things... but for a first attempt, I think it went pretty darn well!  And there will be more to come!  These wooly felt bib necklaces will be lovely for fall and winter!

Fourth of July

Last night, Ben and I went out to the burbs for a Fourth of July celebration!  I guess it has become our tradition, as we've done this for the past three years.  Nothing like a little croquet with some old dudes to celebrate America!  But seriously, croquet is pretty fun.  And as it turns out, I'm not that bad. Hope everyone had a great holiday! 

Kansas

Ben and I just got back from a week long trip to Kansas.  It was super hot and humid, just as I remember!  It had been a really long time since I've been to Kansas in the summer.  Ben always goes to teach his art camp.  This time I decided to go with him and had a great time.  I caught up with my family and just chilled out for a week, mostly inside some amazing air conditioning.  I ate lots of good food while Ben was teaching the kiddos.  I feel refreshed and ready for this hot summer back in Chicago!

delicious treats

We've been having such amazing weather lately that I've felt the need to indulge in a couple of my vices: gin and ice cream.  Not necessarily together of course!  This past weekend we had friends over and we made a classic Tom Collins with a bit of basil.  The next night Ben and I walked to Margie's Candies, which is probably the best place ever.  I had only had things to go up until this weekend.  Next I think I need to go with a few people and share a banana split.  They are seriously insane!  Have you been there?

space cats & jewelry

Well, here it is folks!  I feel bad for the crappy iphone pictures, but my lil bedroom makeover is finished!  It pretty much revolved around the necklaces, but let me tell ya, it had to be done.  Our bedroom is super teeny, so it definitely needed a little love to make it more livable.   Ben and I painted our once dingy light blue walls with a fresh coat of plain white and then I rearranged some of our artwork and hung up my "statement" necklaces.  I heart this space cat print so much.  It was a gift from a lovely lady and the jester type people were from my cousin... don't know where she found them, but I've always had a fondness for them!

new necklaces!

I have a bunch of new necklaces in my shop!  You should go check them out.  I took the photos myself with my iphone.  How weird is that?  Anyhoo, I think they turned out rather nice! See them here!

beads & mugs

I'm so excited that I finally have something substantial to show for my ceramics class! I went in tonight to work on glazing some more of my mugs and I found that this teeny one had been fired and was ready to be taken home.  The color is slightly more purple than this picture shows, but it's still pretty awesome.  I can't wait to see how the others turn out!  And I also made more beads out of my very favorite polymer clay the other night.  I decided this collection of pale pink and lavender is called the My Little Pony collection.  Pretty awesome, right?  You can't go wrong with pink and purple as far as I'm concerned.

what the eff i've been up to!

I've been a terrible blogger as of late.  Sorry for that if anyone is out there!  Well, today I am home sick from work. :( No fun at all.  I've pretty much just been laying around on the couch watching crappy television... But before all this sickness happened, I actually did a couple of creative, fun things! Yay!

I've been doing more work on those geometric beads for fun necklaces.  This one I made for myself because the beads aren't super perfect, but I'm really excited to see how the others turn out...

I started taking a wheel throwing class at Lill Street Arts Center at the end of March.  These are some mugs (sans handles) I made a couple weeks ago.  I'm so super excited to glaze them next week!  We just learned how to make bowls the other day, but I'm not so sure they turned out the way I wanted.

Lastly, I have been working on sanding down a mirror that I didn't like so much.  It used to be an awesome gold, then I painted it silver, forgetting that I'm much more a gold person.  So now it's a bit of both!  I'm working on a mini bedroom makeover that I'm really excited to finish and share pictures of!  We painted and rearranged some art work, added this mirror into the mix... When this stupid sickness of mine goes away, I'll finish and post pictures!!

our BHLDN arrangements

It just occurred to me that I don't think I ever shared photos from our flower adventure with BHLDN! Paul and I had such fun doing it and we may get a chance to work with them again in April. Paul made the first one with all the beautiful flowering quince branches and I made the other two.

mini craft: geometric necklace!

I'm pretty much notoriously bad at finishing a project.  So, I decided (after deleting it the first time) to try out Pinterest.  Mary, who is always amazing at craftiness, made this awesome geometric necklace using Sculpy clay and glitter, which of course she found by using Pinterest.  So here I am, pinning things like crazy.  Well, not totally crazy, but it is a useful tool.  And here is my end result!  I really couldn't be happier.  It was so much fun to make and surprisingly easy.  Here is the blog Mary found it with all the instructions.  I think now I'm going to make a million more in different colors/ glitter combinations.

things that make me happy!

A bunny I saw the other night, Jeni's ice cream and a *card* from my mom, and my mom's awesome open circle pin.

*A while ago my mom sent me a vintage birthday card which was from her Grandmother when she was a kid.  It is super adorable and features a cute little redhead.  I guess she has a lot of cards like it because she just sent me the one pictured above as well.  Pretty darn cute.  Another reason why saving certain things can be really awesome.

mini craft: altering fabric color with bleach spray

I decided after looking at a few blogs that I should investigate altering a fabric's color with bleach spray, because I have loads of fabric that is starting to bore me.  I've had this gigantic roll of blue knit fabric for a couple years now.  It was a gift from someone who was getting rid of all her fabric.  I guess you could say it was not my ideal color, but the fabric itself is really nice and has a nice drape to it.

Here's how I did it!

First I put a little bleach in a spray bottle and then diluted it with about the same amount of water.  Then I set up the fabric on the porch to contain the mess a bit.  Then I got to spraying the bleach.  Pretty much I just sprayed it in a long, fluid pattern, with the occasional random splatter.  I had to let the blue one sit for a while longer than the purple/pink fabric.  The purple took to the bleach right away and made this great hot pink.  (The blue one is actually still sitting on the porch soaking up more bleach.  I'm hoping it will get a little lighter.)  Then I hand washed the fabric in cold water and hung it out to dry. Super easy and fun!

our apartment: dinosaurs, plants and the vogue book

Now that I actually have a few Saturdays off from work, I can actually get domestic things done like a normal person.  Saturday I pretty much just cleaned and organized the whole apartment.  I'm anticipating some lovely visitors in May, so I'm trying to get everything looking extra nice.  Plus it's just nice to rearrange things every once in a while.  Ben and I did a complete overhaul of our work space also, which just opens up everything so much.  Between the two of us, we have a sh*tload of art supplies... so things can get kind of cramped.  Anyhoo, maybe tomorrow I'll share some updated photos of that space.  Ben is getting ready for C2E2 (which John Cusack will be at btw, no big deal), so things have gotten a tad bit messy again.  I know, I know, it's a work space, it gets messy...

Anyhoo, more on the pictures posted above: I planted this adorable fern the other day at work and added the little dino when I got home.  Then we have our super clean coffee table, complete with two coffee table books:  this Alexander McQueen one and the Vogue Covers book, which I just got from Ben.  Lastly, the silliest thing to be excited about, a box that I've had for a while which is the new home for my philodendron that I'm very excited is still alive!

things that make me happy!

Being able to sit on the porch and not freeze and watch what I can of the sunset, this toad that I'm (hopefully!) going to go buy today, my new tags, and last but certainly not least, the delicious iced coffee I drank this morning.  Yum!

spring outfit time

I was doing that thing this morning where I sit around at the computer drinking coffee and looking at facebook (where nothing interesting was happening as usual)... So I decided to make a lil outfit over at Polyvore.  I don't do it very often, but every once in a while I just wanna pretend I actually have all these clothes.  Some are feasible I suppose.  Though the Jil Sander sandals are from last year I think.  But I want them!  And some crazy printed pants as well! And as a plus, I think (though I don't want to jinx it) Chicago might be having an actual, real spring this year.  Unheard of.  I could actually wear this outfit today.  Really and truly.

saipua soap!

My friend Mary went on a lil trip to Brooklyn and returned with  this delicious soap from Saipua!  On a Saturday long ago, we were brunching at Lula and then we went to Fleur.  While we were there, I spotted Saipua's sea salt soap and have regretted not buying it ever since.  Isn't that silly for a bar of soap?  Well, I'm super excited to try the clary sage soap.  I'll be smelling like a clean hippie in no time!

mini craft: stamp carving!

Sunday night I got this crazy urge to make some heart stamps.  I've been wanting to do something like this for awhile now, but actually sitting down and doing it seemed difficult.  Lucky for me, Ben had all the supplies because of the Valentines he was making.  Inspired by an art deco lamp I saw on my trip to Architectural Artifacts,  I started sketching ideas and then began carving. (all while watching Bored to Death... such a very silly show)  So far I only have the two stamps, a kind of diamond like heart and an asymmetrical heart.  I'm thinking maybe later today I'll make a smaller one so that I can use it on tags for necklaces.  Which do you like better?

three horses fringe necklaces

Seriously, how cool are these fringe necklaces by Three Horses?  There are so many beautiful color combinations, it's kind of hard to pick my favorite.  If I hadn't frivolously bought this bathing suit last night, I would be frivolously buying one of these right now.  Well,  I think it might happen anyway... Which one is your favorite?  I'm leaning towards the middle one, but that is kind of predictable for me.  I also love the pale ice blue and purple one.

a trip to BHLDN

I had the pleasure of going to BHLDN's Chicago store yesterday for work, and it was pretty freaking awesome.  It just opened up a couple of weeks ago and my buddy Paul and I are going to make them some flower arrangements!  Each week they feature different local florists throughout their store.  And since I work at a flower shop, it works out perfectly!  Paul and I are going to head up the project and our work will be featured the week of March 15th.  I can't wait to see what we both come up with!