DIY Alphabet Rocks

Alphabet Rocks made for my niece's 4th birthday.  

She's wicked into both the alphabet and rocks 

so this seemed like the ideal gift.

You can use 'em to practice your ABC's...

Or spell stuff...

Or...if you're my brother-in-law you'd find out fast that you can also use the rocks to spell horribly inappropriate words that should never be used in mixed company, let alone spelled out in multi-colored kid's toys and then text them to me and giggle.

There are no pictures of those words, sorry.

Instead, here's a great tutorial I found on iammommahearmeroar.blogspot.com explaining how to make your own DIY alphabet rocks.  Check out the rest of her blog too, she's got some awesome ideas.

Later Tater!

78 days and counting...

Where is my head?!?  I nearly forgot to update the countdown.

Can you imagine what would happen if the countdown wasn't updated?

I don't even want to think about it.

Anywho- here is your taco themed Etsy item of the day:

A baby hat with a taco thought bubble on it...that's obviously what most babies are thinking.  The good ones anyway.  You can buy it here from a seller called LEFTright in Michigan. 

We're almost there!

Super Slamm!

My hilarious Sister made capes and masks for my Niece's 4th birthday party this weekend.

Clearly her dog, Sgt. Slamm, was the perfect model.  

**tutorial to follow**

81 Days to National Taco Day

81 Days to go until National Taco Day!

This is what I found when I googled "81"- I love it.  

I think the water is made of lava because their feet seem

 to have burned off.  No big deal.

Taco themed Etsy item of the day:

 

Taco Earrings by inedible jewelry, available here.

The National Taco Day Countdown: 83 days

As of today it's 83 days until National Taco Day.
It just can't get here soon enough.

  Here's your Taco Themed Etsy Item of the Day:

Buy it here.

Know When to Hold 'Em

I finally gave up on making the thank you cards for my wedding and ordered these adorable cards on Etsy from a shop called Yee Haw!  They have so many cute designs it was really hard to decide what to get.  I settled on the standard 'THANK YOU!' on a post card.  They came with envelopes and a bunch of little extra 'Gracias' & 'Merci' mini cards all printed on an old school letterpress by a human on recycled cardstock.  

So so cute!  Now I just have to send them out.  First things first.

 I also wandered over to Brookline Booksmith in Coolidge Corner and bought this little gem for my super hero loving niece's upcoming birthday.  It's from a UK company called 'Toasted' which is a blog "showcasing contemporary design and illustration" that also produces a line of cards.  The artwork on the card is titled 'Heros and Villains' by Jack Teagle.

Who also happens to be my new favorite artist:

Awesome-town.

Draw Me A Centaur

Recently I ordered a creepy goat mask from CostumeCraze.com and on the order form I saw a section labeled 'special requests'.  

So I wrote, "please draw me a centaur."

And they totally did.  Look at how good these centaurs are too!  Amazing.

Now I have to track down the artists and send them a fruit basket.  Know anyone that works at Costume Craze?

A New Distraction

I made my first Treasury on Etsy yesterday.  I always wondered what all the fuss was about but It's actually harder than it looks.  It's not unlike arranging the perfect bookshelf.  You need just the right objects, in the right colors that coordinate but don't match and just the right pop of color.  I won't tell you how much time I wasted on this but let's just say I could have watched about 3 episodes of Lost in the time it took.


I can see this is going to be a problem.  

        

flower show

The Boston Flower Show was last weekend and if you're not familiar with it, it's kind of a big deal.   They have all sorts of florists and gardeners and landscape architects from all over the place and it's rather impressive. 

The show took place at the Seaport World Trade Center in South Boston and it was a massive show of amazing flowers and incredible displays.  I spent most of the day wandering around and saying, "I just can't believe they did all of this...I just can't believe this is inside."  Over and over.  I'm sure it wasn't annoying at all. 

But LOOK!  This is inside!!  INSIDE!  I can't believe they did that!  It was gorgeous.  Oh, and this too!!

A pond with a stone archway and giant boulder stepping stones?  No big deal. 

But hands down, my favorite part of the show was an amazing found object installation done by Fine Garden Art.  Every single thing in this display was found and put together, piece by piece by.  So creepy, awesome, radical.  I loved it!  

I felt so inspired that I went to work the next day and painted these huge daffodils on the window. 

Happy Spring!!

Fabric Bliss!!!

You've probably noticed that every other post of mine mentions a great little 

cafein Fort Collins or a trip to Colorado that I took.  That is because before 

moving to Boston I called Colorado home for almost a decade.  Most of my 

friends and family all still live there and I visit at least 4 times a year.  

(Really I suggest you do the same, it's gorgeous!)  

But I digress...

This post centers around Denver; Santa Fe Drive specifically.  The 

Santa Fe Arts District is an nationally known art and culture district with 

over 60 galleries, restaurants and shops all just a couple blocks from 

downtown Denver.  

And coming soon they'll have Fabric Bliss!!

photo (C) Aurora Sisneros, Fabric Bliss

Much more than just a fabric store some of the services offered by Fabric Bliss are:

• hourly sewing machine rental (SUCH a good idea!!)
• an awesome list of classes (intro to sewing...sign me up!)
• local handmade art for sale (featuring yours truly)
• photography services (for a small fee they'll take your Etsy product pics for you!  amazing!)
• and lastly, I hear there's a kitchen full of snacks too.  Holler!!

They'll be opening in Mid-March...mark it on your calendar and get down there and make something!

Before then, you can go "Like" them on Facebook and sign up for their mailing list for a COUPON for opening day!

Good Luck Aurora!  Can't wait to come see it in person!!!

Cabin Fever

This weekend is the 2nd Annual Cabin Fever Indie Gift Show.

If you live in Boston and need a really good excuse to even consider leaving the

 house and going out into the frozen tundra that is our city right now, this is it!

Stop by to find that last minute Valentine's gift you've been putting off and putting off and putting off.  They have some really talented vendors this year...including some friends of mine:  

AntiDesigns who are an awesome local t-shirt company and my good

 friend Amy, the CEO and head artist/designer for ABCowls.  

 Stop by and check out her new Spring line up!   

Amy's cowls have saved my life this winter!  

Not to mention they look really cute on Tabitha.

the noop

Look! Liz (aka the noop) did a craft show!

Some of her adorable handmade earrings:




A chunky owl:

She made these awesome magnets too!

What a talented Lady!

Spring Fever a la the noop!

I took a stroll through my buddy Liz's Etsy shop today and her adorable paintings only served to worsen my already crippling Spring Fever! Look at these adorable little guys!

This dude is the very definition of non-chalant!! Indifference is always in style.

Go check out the rest of her schtuff. And tell her Mandee Rae sent you!

It's a Gift!

My new favorite paintings:

The Ladybug by a local Somerville artist-



Acrylic paint on construction paper.



And this one, Untitled by Cledwyn Jones-





Mixed media on posterboard.
I bought these paintings at the It's A Gift gallery down the hill from my house. What's interesting about the artists is that they're both enrolled in a day program at the Walnut Street Center a nonprofit, human service agency that provides comprehensive support services to adults who have developmental disabilities. There are so many great pieces there- paintings, t-shirts, a children's book, handmade purses, collages, jewelry, greeting cards, you name it. It's really worth taking a trip over to have a look for yourself.

And buy something!! The prices are VERY reasonable and you'll be making one of these lucky artists incredibly happy...not to mention scoring a great piece of art for yourself.

Goes to show ya never can tell.

Little Reminders

This is my niece and inspiration for everything I do, Tabitha. 

She and my beautiful sister, Melissa came to visit me last week from Colorado; naturally we had to finger paint while she was out here.  Seeing her get so excited to paint without even so much as an idea of what she was going to paint was really kind of mind blowing. 

Sometimes I get so wrapped up in the whats, whys and hows that I forget why I started to paint in the first place, because I enjoy it.  She was a welcome reminder to not take things so seriously and that sometimes you just need to throw some paint around, get messy and see what happens!

the noop!

My best buddy, art director and favorite distraction, Liz, finally opened her own Etsy shop!

thenoop.etsy.com

She paints adorable little birds, llamas, lions and the occassional walking toast.  Tiny little works of art that never cease to make me go, "aaaaawwww, i love it!"

See for yourself:

I'm proud of you Nooper!