for your friday night consideration

In case you are home tonight and looking for some sort of something on the internet to entertain and maybe even move you. I give you some of my favorite choices.

This entry is inspired by the song Blue Spotted Tail by The Fleet Foxes. It came on a few minutes ago and I stopped all I was doing and started out at the twilight sky through the open window and thought about stars and summer nights.

I looked on Etsy for an illustration to match what I had in my head while I listened to the song. I didn't find one like what I imagined, but I did find this pretty awesome fabric illustration by seeinginfabric It's called "For All the Stars We Don't See"

Now, if you would like some more music and some humor, I highly recommend this Paul Simon special from 1977. It's only available on youtube. But, it's so very good. I hope they remaster it and release it soon. It's funny and the music is great. I miss the days of specials. Everyone had them for a while in the 1970's. This one's a real gem.

If you're in a more documentary mood. The BBC documentary about Easy Listening Music is pretty great. It gets a little slow at the end, but how awesome to find a documentary about real easy listening music. Someday I will start my Easy Listening interent station. Anyway, you'll hear about Bert Kampfert, Ray Conniff, Herb Alpert and Richard Carpenter, among many others. Also, only on youtube, unfortunately.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

nice smells

Don't you love yummy smelling soaps? I don't mean perfumy stinky soaps like you often find at at some chain stores. I mean rich earthy smelling soaps made from natural oils. But really, how often can you go through those soaps? It takes forever and I actually don't even use soap as much as shower gel, so then I have an abundance of soaps (especially if you are also gifted with lots during the holidays).

My favorite thing to do with them is distribute them in drawers and linen closets and between sweaters and all over. The smell seems to last even longer than sachets and you get to keep the soaps in their lovely packaging.

There's something about holding a bar of soap in nice packaging. It's smells nice, looks pretty and feels good in the hand - like a rock covered in fabric. Is this just me? I'm kind of weird that way.

I love opening up my linen closet and having the most wonderful scent come out.

These small Sweet Petula soaps are some of my favorite to use for this purpose. I just love the way they look, too.

Do you have any tips for making the closet and things smell nice? I would love to hear them. I am in serious cleaning/reorganizing mode these days. Nice smells make clean closets even nicer.

Happy February!

wintering

I have come to really like winter and look forward now to the quiet months of January and February. I always have big plans for what I will do with those months. Somehow, with the holidays over and it being winter it seems I have more time to do these things. However, I'm still working full time, so I'm not sure how much "extra" time I really have.

I love this collage by catwalk

So far this month I have been able to do some decluttering and reorganizing, but it has not been nearly as much as I need or want. Meanwhile, here it is Saturday and I'm doing a blog post. I'm hopeless!

I've been wanting to do a zine about winter for some time and what I like about it. Every year I do some writing, but I have yet to get it out. I need to declutter my to-do list!

Laura from the Welcome to Bend zine just made a zine about winter and her favorite things about it. It was a lovely read this morning over my Earl Grey tea. You can find it here.

Hope you are enjoying the winter. There's lots of great things about it. Someday I'll tell you more about about that. <3

a reinvintaged christmas

Spent most of the weekend treating myself as if I was sicker than I was hoping that that would make my cold not get much worse. It seems ot have worked. I am sick, but not that sick.

Besides my work holiday party Sunday night, the only other thing that got me out of the house was a craft show at a local elementary school. There were a good amount of vendors, but I have to say that it takes a lot to impress me when it comes to craft shows. Maybe that has something to do with being on Etsy everyday. I either like really unique things or classic old school type crafts. For example I bought a needlepoint Santa ornament from a senior citizen. Love that stuff.

Besides the always enjoyable crafts of Jenn and Jenny of Chet and Dot, Robot Candy and Plants and Animals, the other vendor that made me wish that someone would force me to spend all my money on myself was MagpieEthel.

Magpie Ethel takes old vintage findings, pieces of other decorative vintage items and rearranges them, fixes them up and adds on a bit and ends up a very fresh vintage item. Everything was so sweet. I got a snowman and a few other items. I love her generous use of pipe cleaners.

I'm looking forward to adding the new items to the Christmas display. I wonder when I will actually get in the mood to set it up. Not that much time left now. I really wish there was a month between November and December. Dear Santa...

summer to fall

Like many people, I love fall. I wonder if it really is the most popular season or if I just tend to be friends with people who like fall best.

I love the season for the reason most people do, but also because the fall brings a number of celebrations including my birthday and anniversary.

Here are some pictures from the last month. The end of summer to the first few weeks of fall. The days here are still pretty warm, but the nights are getting cold. Unlike the eastern states our tress aren't brilliant yet, but the leaves are changing.

Here's a pic of my bag from the last farmers market of the season. Included inside is: goat cheese from Dee Creek Farms, jam from Packer Orchards and Bakery and kombucha from Oregon Kombucha.

A pic from a lovely night in a friend's backyard when the nights were still warm- just a couple weeks ago.

The anniversary card to my mister (do you see the pumpkin shaped cake in the background?). I got this awesome letterpress bear cut out from Blackbird Letterpress. And then I made the little card to fit inside his paws. The card is one of the most important things to me when it comes to celebrations. I love them. My cards seem to be getting smaller and smaller. I made one that was about 3" x 2" for Valentines Day.

Here is what I did with some of the flowers that I got for our anniversary. I got this vase for about 3 dollars at a garage sale I went to a few weeks ago. They had tons of beautiful vintage ceramics. This is from West Coast Pottery of California. I love seeing flowers in it.

The wood hummingbird is new to my house as well. It was something in our house when I was a kid and my mom recently asked if I wanted it. It'd been in storage about 20 years, so it's neat to see it again and have it in my house.

I hope you are enjoying the fall so far. What's your favorite season?

etsy solutions

There is a lot of amazingly beautiful stuff on Etsy. Many of the items are way more than I can afford. Many of them I tell myself that I can afford and have therefore indulged until I have to remind myself that I don't really have any more available wall space nor do I need more pretty smelling bath and body stuff (actually I do always need this).

But, there is something that Etsy is so great for that I feel like gets overlooked. Etsy is a place where people sell their handy and useful crafts that they make in their spare time. I am not talking about people with art degrees working on their art or jewelry full time. I am talking about the kind of things you would find at church sales and local gift shops. The thing that makes you think, wow, that is clever, I really need one of those.

Things like these really nice cast iron skillet handlers I got a while back. I needed them, I looked them up and there they were on Etsy, just like I was hoping.

They're well made and totally reasonable price and just what I needed. You can see more on HomeDeconomics site

Or something like a crock pot handle knit cover (I have one I got at a senior citizen's craft store and it is very useful). Or a crock pot cozy.

I love these kind of crafts. Ones that are created from a need that makes things easier. I recently found such a great one of these kinds of crafts, that it prompted this whole post.

Being a large person, my clothes are bigger than most people's. I have trouble getting them to stay on hangers that aren't fabric covered (Not satin. Who's idea was it that satin is a good fabric to cover hangers? It makes clothes slip off easier). Cloth covered hangers are expensive and actually not that easy to find (unless you want satin). Sometimes you can find crochet covered ones. I got some of those at the previously mentioned senior citizen's store. My mom got me some felty hangers for Christmas and they are good, but I already have used them and needed more good hangers.

So, I went back to Etsy and searched again. I was looking for some crocheted ones and I found this awesome solution!

brandimcline makes the crochet covered hanger covers and sells them to you without the hangers. So, all you do is use them on any of your existing hangers. I was excited to try these and ordered a batch. You also get to pick your colors, so I got green and yellow, of course.

they arrived fast and they are perfect. I used all of them today and I covered plastic hangers and satin hangers and both worked great.

What a perfect solution and what a brilliant idea! And the best part is that the cost is only $6.00 for 5! It's a win win. Such a simple idea and so useful. I love that. I am planning on getting more. Here is a picture of them in my closet.

Happy Birthday Etsy, my old pal

birthday printable party pack by 1frogprincecreative

Etsy started 5 years ago today! What did we do without it? Etsy has made selling and buying handmade good so much easier! Probably 80 percent of the gifts I get are bought on Etsy. I love being able to find handcrafted items and being able to talk directly to the crafter. I have had a number of custom items made on Etsy, well.

I have never been a huge seller. I am strictly a hobbyist, a part-timer. But, I am a committed hobbyist! I joined Etsy on June 22 2005! Only 3 days after they opened! I didn't even realize how early on I became a seller until right now. I thought it had been around for at least a few weeks when I joined. Internet time is so much faster than real time.

When I say I am committed, it's for real. I continuously praise Etsy, and tell everyone to shop there if they are searching for something. I have told many crafters and vintage sellers about it, too. And of course. I also have three Etsy shops. That's love.

Here is a horrible 2005 photo of the first item I sold on Etsy. A pocket mirror. I sold it on June 23rd.

So, Happy 5th Birthday Etsy! Thanks for being an awesome website with reasonable fees and a great interface. Here's to many many more!

a trip back to the the cuckoo's nest

Last week I was reading some of my blogs, truthfully, skimming them, and I got pulled into one of the best things I have read on a blog in a long time. It was a new blog to me, suggested by another blog, but the suggestion had nothing to do with the post.

The blog Violet Folklore told a story about a boutique that started in Portland in 1969 and lasted through the mid Seventies. They made and reconstructed clothes from recycled fabrics and only used natural fibers. The story was also about the connection formed between the owner of the Old Portland store called The Cuckoo's Nest and the vintage clothes seller Violet Folklore. Their aesthetic and intent is similar. Through conversations and images Julie from The Cuckoo's Nest told her story of the unique store and Portland in the 70's and so much about vintage diy boutique fashion.

It was such a fascinating read. I loved all the images in the post and I am looking to more of the inside of the store that will be posted. The images that are shot for the Violet Folklore store are very similar and the connection between these two women seems strong.

Here are some images from the very image heavy blog post. I encourage you to read the post.

This is an original dress from The Cuckoo's Nest that the owners daughter is modeling. So beautiful!

You know, I was just a kid, but I miss the 70's. These pictures make me nostalgic for a place I never even went to. But, I went to places kind of like that in Ventura and Ojai when I was a kid and I remember the feeling they left in me - the dreamy longing to be a long haired prairie girl, making candles and living in a log cabin. I was sure adulthood would be like that.

i am very fond of this

by Amy Karol. She has prints for sale in her shop.

valentines day is around the corner

I really like Valentines Day. I think one of the reasons I like it so much is because the focus is on cards more than gifts and handmade is encouraged.

So, now it is a week away and it is time to get started on your project/card if you haven't already. Here are some ideas to inspire you.



I'll begin with the Valentine Match Boxes I made last year. You can always make your own version. The exact size is in the original post or you can use the free download from that post.

Printables are great, especially for people who put things off.


Valentines Labels Free Printable (above) from Mer Mag
Valentines Card Printables from Valentina Design
Valentine Printable Freebie from The Black Apple
Valentines Card Printables from Three Wheels Design



Printable Valentine Wheel (above) from Martha Stewart



If you wanna put a little extra time in there are 2 awesome looking paper cut Squirrel Valentines (above) on the Little Acorn blog. The tutorials are listed on the side.

If decorating the house is something you wanna do, a Valentine banner is a fun idea. I made one last year. You can find lots of ideas on Etsy for banners.

Another fun idea would be to place Valentines all over the house, in drawers and cars. If you want some sweet vintage valentine images for that, you can find some here and on a vintage Valentines Flickr page or on this page here.

There are also some interesting Valentines projects on this Flickr group. And of course, there is always Martha.

Okay, now I need to get to my Valentines project. Have fun!

on my mind

groundhog hat print by amberalexander

Sorry about the quietness on the blog the last couple of weeks. Ironically, I am feeling very creative lately and have lots of ideas. But, everything is in the thought stage and I haven't had time for action. So, even though I feel like I have more I would post on here, there is nothing to post yet....

A lot of it is thought, isn't it? Hemingway said something like 90% of writing is thinking about it and I think that is true for many things. I just have a problem having the free time to do all the things I think about. Well, at least I am never bored.

Tomorrow is Groundhogs Day. I like this "holiday". I watched the movie a couple weeks ago, but other than that I have no way to observe it. It makes me want to print more of my Groundhog pillowcases and napkins. It reminds me of this wonderful picture I was sent a couple years ago from a woman in Canada who bought my pillowcases and who has a pet Woodchuck (another name for Groundhog)!


Isn't she so sweet sleeping in the pillowcase I made? I hope you have a nice Groundhogs Day.

fresh starts

I like the hope that the first week of January brings. The days lay out in my mind like a walkway of fresh snow and I hesitate to step, even though I so want to. I want to wait till I am feeling clear and organized, till I know the best way to walk though the fresh white day. I don't want to muddle the snow with lots of back and forth footsteps.

Sometimes I don't ever make the time to sit down and get things clear in my head or more often I have some time, but never enough. Still some is good and I have started feeling more clear and I definitely am craving more organized days.

I haven't sat down yet to write my thoughts about last year or more importantly, what I want from and what I want to give this year. But, I do believe in doing this. Getting it down on paper, planning out things, making deadlines even. I do this at work.Why wouldn't I do it in the rest of my life? (p.s. This cute little calendar from cabin and cub would be a nice way to help you plan your projects).

I do know that on the top of my to-do list for this year is: read more. The books are piling up and I really want to start focusing on some of the subjects I have lined up.

And I know that one of things I feel most accomplished about for last year was finally getting my Dad's film on DVD, including designing the covers and menus, which I wasn't sure I could pull off.

Maybe I will share more ideas later on, once I get them situated on lined paper.

I hope you all are enjoying the new year. I would love to hear your fresh start traditions or rituals. I am looking to add a few.

Happy 2010!

gift ideas - tried and tested

I hope you all had a good Thanksgiving. I am getting over a cold that came on the day before Thanksgiving. I had such a long list of things to do this weekend, but I forgot to take in to account that I am still kind of sick. Today I have given in and am taking it somewhat easy.

I thought this would be a good time to post some of the Etsy things I have bought over the past few years that I really like and often rebuy. Sometimes it is hard to know if something is going to be truly a unique and special item, so I am passing on a few of my my fave inexpensive buys over the years.

One of my favorite things to buy handmade is body care products. These are things I go through often and I am always looking for the right color or scent for me. Usually I find it on Etsy or at a handmade craft fair.

For lotion and soap I love Cottage Garden Therapies. The goat milk lotion is my favorite and the soap is great. I have ordered multiple times from these people. Sometimes the order can take a little long and the soap dissolves a bit faster than other soaps, but these are small things and worth the quality you get. The body lotion I like is thick and rich. I have found that with handmade lotions they are often to thin. Also the almond scent is wonderful.

I prefer tinted lip balm, especially in the summer. I have tried many many tinted lip balms from Etsy. I have a hard time finding the dark color I want and have better luck on Etsy. Sometimes with the darker tones the balm can be hard or taste or smell weird. The best ones I found so far are the Ripe color from jewelryalchemy and the Blackberry Lime Tint from soap. These are all vegan. Both of these balms are rich and soft and the scent isn't too strong. They both have a good amount of tint.

Lots of the tinted lip balms I tried were not tinted enough. If you want something really light I recommend the tinted balms from FlorishBathBody. I like everything about this lip balm, except I would like it a little darker. But, I love the consistency, shape and packaging. If you don't like color at all, I really like LongWinterFarm. I have only tried their lip balms, but they are really good quality and again, I like that oval shape.

Tip: Both jewelryalchemy and LongWinterFarm are doing free shipping right now.


Do you have a friend who loves history and vintage stuff, loves old films and weird stuff like old advertising, old film newsreels and out-dated educational films. Then you can get them some really neat and unique stuff from Yumheart's shop. They create DVDs from old newsreels, advertising and psa's and found films. They compile them by subject. There are some awesome DVDs with themes like Gender Roles and Family, Alcohol and Drug Abuse, Etiquette, NY Worlds Fair....there are lots of options. I have about 8 of these DVDS and they are great fun. Some really remarkable, fun, kooky and interesting stuff here. DVDs are not packaged in any fancy way, but you could create your own DVD case. The prices are reasonable and that is a good thing.

If you have a baker friend who loves making cupcakes and candy then Bake it Pretty is the perfect place to get them a nice gift. I bought from this shop when they were on Etsy and also since they have moved to their own website. She keeps getting more and more fun things in and there are lots of great gifts ideas on the shop now. Also a good place to get packaging for the treats you are going to give away this year.

So, there are a few ideas for you. Keep in mind that I also have a great nature documentary for the animal lover on your list, interesting vintage paper products for the collector or artist on your list and fun items like magnets and pillowcases in the PonyBoy Press Shop.

Hope some of this helps you out. I need to go make my Christmas list now. Please pass on any good gifts ideas you have. I need some inspiration for a couple people.

wishing for rain

I know this may not be a popular opinion, but I am ready for some rainy days.

Today it is overcast and seems like it may rain and I find myself wishing for autumn and weekend days at home when it is raining and my windows are open and the sound of rain mixes with the music I am playing and the smell of the rain wafts through the room in intervals.

Although the sun and all that goes with summer is nice, I am already dreaming of autumn. Of course, last weeks heat wave may have contributed to that. Even though Portland is known for rain, we really have had very little this year. I am missing it. The rain is one of the reasons I moved here. I wish we could combine the long days with autumn. That would be nice.

Anyway, that is all I had to say. Nothing monumental. Hope you are enjoying the summer.

I like this rainy day print all the way from Norway:

independence day

Here are some neat vintage fireworks for ya from the Etsy store shop66.

Hope everyone has a great 4th!

everyone is special

I like this print from fricdementol.

the art we choose

I have been meaning to write this post for several months. I haven't becasue there have been so many things I have wanted to say and I was having trouble organizing the thoughts. This is my attempt. Forgive me if it is not perfectly worded.

We all like to see people like ourselves reflected in art. How many times have you purchased an art print or a vintage image for you or a friend not just because you liked it, but because the person in the image looks a bit like the recipient?

Sometimes, I think people collect images of what they wish to look like. But, if your room walls are covered with images of women or girls who are what you want to look like, but do not, how would that effect your self esteem in the long run?

I think about these things often when I am looking at some of the beautiful art on Etsy. I think about it because as much as I love some of the pieces I find, I do not want to surround myself with images of thin women and girls. And on top of that, a lot of the art you see of females is extreme in the proportions, with large heads and eyes and skinny bodies.

I am not thin. I am a fat woman. When I find an artist I like and I look at their work, there are images of women or girls with all different colors of hair and skin - and yet none of them are fat or even chunky. All of them have the same body, maybe some are shorter and some are taller, but all are thin.

Why would I want to invest in this? I know this may seem extreme, because people have seldom questioned it, but stay with me here. How is it going to effect me as a fat woman who is already being told everyday in many ways that I am not okay, that I am not normal and that I need to change in order to be loved and valued?

How empowering would it be to be able to have images by artists you love of beautiful and lovely women and girls who are also fat? I think it would be revolutionary. Imagine if there were so many to choose from that a young girl or an older woman could have many choices of images of fat beauty available to her.

There are some fat girl art pieces out there, but it is often new age in style and usually the artist only does fat people. I really appreciate them doing what they do, but why the divide? Why can't people include chubby bodies like they include redheads?

I encourage artists out there to seriously consider this. I am tempted to link here to the artists that I most want to see this message, but I think I will not. But, I do think I will send this link to some of them and I hope that you will consider encouraging your favorite artist to include diversity in body size.

Here is an image of one of the fat positive artists on Etsy, ladyatlarge. This is one of the best I have found on there. Here is hoping there will be more featured in the future.

little doll

Although it may seem like PonyBoy Press has become some sort of Valentine blog, I assure you it has not - but, it does seem clear that I have gotten a bit swept away with the upcoming holiday. This little wooden doll is a cute valentine, especially if you were the one giving it and you were a girl with short brown hair.


In general I am in favor of the recent little wooden doll trend. I've always liked them. I also like some of the neat traditional German ones. I wish I had the skills to paint my own, but I am not that good at it.

If you have those skills, however, there are plenty of places on Etsy to get the blank wood forms, including the shop nakedpeggies who sells the Valentine Peggy shown here and also goosegrease.

It makes a unique gift. And speaking of gifts, the Valentines posts are not over. I am working on something that hopefully will work out. Stay tuned!

some of my favorite Valentines on Etsy

I always get more excited about Valentines Day then I expect I will. I just love the giving of cards and the making things pretty just for the sake of doing it. I suddenly want to make some Valentines things for my shop, but I don't know if I will get to it in time. It always comes so fast!

Here are some faves I have been visiting on Etsy. Hope you find some in here you like.

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Etsy Buy Handmade thecedarchest

believe in yourself

I really like this atc print by whimsiefolksies. I have had it on my favorites for a while and I always smile when I see it.

It makes me want to wear pink, to stand a little taller and to have heart to heart talks with my closest girlfriends.

It also makes me think of the upcoming new year and how it is a good time to rethink your life and maybe get some things down on paper. I believe in the power of putting things in writing. I need to do exercise this power more often.