holiday trunk show!!!!

during the holiday season i usually like to partake in various craft fairs but money has been a little scarce. the good news is that this has made a little fire under my behind to finally plan a holiday shopping extravaganza of my own. i am having my own holiday trunk show!!!

in my quest to offer a diverse selection of fine handmade goods i have taken up jewlery making, hammered pieces to be specific. i really like working with metal, it just another extension of all things beautiful to adorn yourself.

so, come on down!!!! december 12 from 11am - 5pm
it's the holidays, time to celebrate and shop. come by to mingle and find contemporary handcrafted items for the special people on your gift list.

sterling silver jewelry, knitted hats, reclaimed leather clutches & special guest homegrownheavyz: maker of deluxe sized skateboards!!

drink SHOP & be merry!!

printing elbow and much more.....

my elbow is killing me. i can only think that it's from a print job i did for a local church here. 200 shirts in one day all by myself, woe is me (it took me a couple tries to spell woe).

in other news, i'd like to share the process in which i make new screenprints. as you know they are mostly if not 100% inspired by my surroundings and in keeping with that here is the story about building houndstooth:
i really love the houndstooth pattern. i have a pair of flip flops from reef that are houndstooth patterened and they rocked, super rocked. but one of them broke......le sigh.
so i created a new pattern, it's houndstooth but the shape for the pattern is made from this picture of the dayton towers building in my town of rockaway:

so from here i used my trusty computer to create a houndstooth design and cut it out from a spot on the picture:

the next step was to take this and turn it into a pattern:

after that i printed it out on transparency film, and used the film to create a screen, which i used to screenprint this design onto my fabric and then i sewed my fingers to the bone to create bags like these:

and that's that!

rest your pretty little head

i had a lunch meeting with my business manager (aka my bff since kindergarten) complete with arroz con pollo lovingly made by her mom. we decided i need to simplify things a little. taking on too much is making things confusing for me. there are some super women who can work, cook, clean, make stuff, run a small business, etc. without losing it - not to say i've lost it - but i need to maybe be a little less complicated with my offerings for the time being.

as anyone who has been reading this smut may be aware. besides sewing, i also have an affection towards screenprinting, so lets smash the two together to produce some items that are useful and pleasing to look at.

starting with throw pillows, maybe not the most original idea, but too bad cause i like them, so whatev. it's like having a little piece of artwork on your couch.

this is my first attempt, a screenprint of and old school train with the atomsmasher from playland in the background. printed on a handsewn pillowcase i made with unbleached cotton canvas.

stay tuned for more designs and shopping details.

handmadecavalcade was GREAT!

it may look like i was bored but that is far from the truth. thanks to the amazing efforts of my truely talented and dedicated teammates of the {newnew} we had so many shoppers at the cavalcade, it was great.

i forgot my table, Kristen from Cakehouse and her bro Ben saved my day! i was still setting up when the shoppers started arriving.

the shoppers came in waves , they were all very nice i have to say. It was so exciting for me to share my love of rockaway with people who don't really know much about it and to also spike people's memories who used to spend summer's there. even better than that was debuing (is that a word?) my new handbags that i have been working so hard on over the past months.

Thank you Lisa of Fubabee for the pic!