Redo and rambling

Sometimes, fairly regularly actually, I get this feeling like I wanna redo my life. I am going to save money, get rid of stuff, eat different, change old habits, etc... I have been feeling like that recently and actually have been doing some of those things. Because of this, it felt so good last night to go home and rip out almost all of my dying plants in my "garden". I cleaned up, repotted some plants, planted some lettuce seeds. I kept the large kale plant I have and some of my snow peas. I have been getting herb plants at the farmers market regularly and am looking forward to getting lots of basil this year. Next trip I am going to get a summer savory.

Speaking of gardens, my mother has this sign in her garden:

It says "Flowers are Nature's Jewels". She has all kinds of signs around the house with this kind of folksy wisdom. You know the type. This one cracks me up though. I mean aren't jewels nature's jewels? It isn't like they are man made! Ha!

Have you ever noticed the plants and edibles section of Etsy? It is always so tempting to me, the idea of getting plants and homemade cookies in the mail. But, then there is this other part that isn't as appealing about it. In fact kind of weird. Have any of you done it?

Etsy Find - Papered Together

This artist may not be a surprise to you if you spend anytime on Etsy or scouting out craft blogs. Papered Together's shop seems very busy and with good reason. Krista's letterpress cards are so lovely. They are small and made on the most wonderful thick paper. Her designs are intricate and beautiful and they all come packaged very sweetly. Whenever I need a card, her site is the first place I go. The coasters are really nice, too.

New Crafty Project Planners and French Vocab Magnets!

Yellow and Green!

I have been obsessed with yellow and green for awhile. Preferably together. I am doing my bedroom in yellow and green as I think I have mentioned before. I wanted to do it all vintage 70's, but that was too hard to find, so now I am updating the idea.

When I was a little girl my mother did my room in green and yellow. I had the daisy sheets that you see here in the pillowcase and she had made these daisy decorations on green felt carpet squares that hung on the wall. As soon as I moved into this apartment over a year ago I knew I wanted my room to be those colors again.

This last weekend I found my bedspread after looking for over a year! I got it at Target. Man, I am embarrassed about how much I love Target. Only the soon to be opened Ikea in my own town will seriously rival my favorite housewares store. Here is my new bedspread

They call it a coverlet. This seems to be the new word for bedspread. Not sure why it is a coverlet. It is reversible, though, which is nice. I think it is very considerate that Miranda July's new book goes with my decorating scheme:

I have only read one story in it so far, but it was great. I am no lit major (well, actually at one time I kind of was) but it reminded me of Raymond Carver.

Some other nice yellow and green things from Etsy:

in the garden

I don't really have a garden. I have a box of dirt in my back driveway, but it is more than I have ever had before and the raised bed makes gardening so much more pleasant. I grow vegetables and herbs mostly. Since my space is limited I do something new each year. This year I tried Fava beans. I just picked and used the first batch. You can read about it on my other blog, click on the beans.

I like how big bean plants get and with these fava beans I found myself thinking about the Jack and the Beanstalk fairy tale, well, really just the part where he climbs the beanstalk. I wonder if there were beans on it, too and how huge they must have been. Just grabbing some of them on the way down could have fed his family for a good long time.

I am also growing snow peas, they are just starting to come out.

I love garden decorating, it is a good thing I only have a little space. Otherwise, I would cover my garden with all kinds of little ceramic and plastic animals and pretty iron and glass things. I already have a few. I love these little guys:

One day I am going to get one of the garden stakes from Jennifer Readington's Etsy Shop. I am just waiting for the right one. Oh and this. I love this:

Etsy find - neato art magnets

Now, here is a neat new craft. It takes a lot to see something really new, I think. I guess especially for someone like me who looks at this kind of stuff everyday. This is one big magnet, cut out in one piece:

There are a number of designs. The designer lives in South Africa. Here is her Etsy shop. I think these are really neat.

I like it when I find craft items like this that I could never do. It allows me to just appreciate it and not have to add it it my endless list of projects. Pretty much any illustration falls under this category.

sewing

I keep collecting fabrics and not sewing. I really don't know how to sew. I mean I can thread my machine, but most of what I know is through trial and error and just trying to figure it out. Mostly I make simple square things. Pillows, pillowcases, tote bags. Today I finally tried to make some curtains. I have been collecting fabric for bedroom curtains and general decorations for about a year. I originally wanted to do my room all vintage 70's, in green and yellow. Like daisies and ferns, but a certain look. I have found it is very hard to find what I am looking for, so until then I am doing a more modern yellow and green room.

Today I picked up some fabric from Superbuzzy and came home and got to work. I was so in love with the big trees fabric and it was the prefect size for my small window. Here is a pic of half way through with my favorite pin cushion porcupine working hard. It is from Carryboo!

Here is the unfinished product. I may make the top border smaller, or hem it more, although I like the extra coverage if you have the blinds open. I still haven't hemmed the sides. I am pretty damn happy with it though. I mean, really, how can you go wrong with this fabric?

Etsy!

Do you have any idea how much I really love Etsy? I don't think anyone really does. I try to keep a little bit of a lid on it.

Let's just say, I check my favorites almost everyday. I check other people's favorites, too. In fact, this is a great way to find new shops. Etsy is just enormous! It surprises me how fast it grew and how everyone, even people who have really nice online shops, use Etsy now. I love the way it has really brought the crafting community together.

I am going to use this blog to post a favorite Etsy find every so often.

I find many Etsy shops from the shopkeeper's blog and I find the blog through some other blog! Yeah, I can get a little obsessed sometimes. I found Marmee Craft's blog through her Etsy store I believe. Actually, I don't even know how I found her, but I am glad I did. I completely fell in love with Mr Fox (one of my boyfriends names for me is Mrs Fox and I call him Mr Fox sometimes, so I loved it even more becasue of that). I would have loved to get the original, but decided to be prudent and go wit the print, besides I like the faux mat she created for it. Mr Fox is sitting on my desk right now waiting to be framed. He is my most recent Etsy purchase. Check out her shop here.

off to Bloomington

I finally got the zines together for Microcosm. I was out of all but one when they ordered. Figure 8 #2, 3 and 3.5 and Imaginary Life #6 will now be back in stock there. Ahhh, feels good.

Also, zines are restocked in the shop!

The cheerleaders are gearing up for FatGirl Speaks on June 9th. There will be an awesome zine table there too, from Not Sorry Distro. Hope to see you there!

It's been a long long time

PonyBoy Press has been pretty inactive lately. I haven't been doing crafts and I am still working on getting out a box of zines to Microcosm Publishing's new headquarters in Bloomington. Everything stopped because at the end of March my father died. He was an amazing man who did incrdible things with his life and his loves. He was a cinematographer, author and contractor. He provide footage for Walt Disney and Lassie, as did his father. As I was growing up their were all kinds of weird animals in our little track home in Southern California; otters, racoons, ring-tailed cats, bob cats, foxes, snakes, flying squirrels, kangaroo rats, owls, whatever Dad needed to film.





His heart attack was sudden and no one saw it coming. It has been very hard. I am working on getting his film out on dvd. He wrote a book and made a film about my grandfather and the golden eagle that he had for 16 years. You can read more about it here. It is only on video right now.