New Etsy favorite

Do you get the Etsy Finds daily email? (If not, sign up at Etsy) Each email is a gathering of Etsy wares based on some theme. This means that some days I love everything and some days nothing stands out.

On Sunday, something stood out. I visited DazeyChic's shop and came across this beauty, and it's on its way to brighten my home.

Spring flower makeover

I'm halfway through switching my closet to spring. Last night, I went through everything in my closet and drawers, pulling out things that I didn't wear all winter to determine if they should a) go directly to Goodwill or the church-wide rummage sale or b) live another season in clothing purgatory (a big rubbermaid box in my storage unit).

Today, I'll go through the rubbermaid boxes and swap out summer stored clothes for winter. Yay! Then, it's fashion show time, determining how can I put existing clothes together in new ways to update for 2010.

I've already added a few accessories to my collection to help the spring transformation.

These floral beauties came from OwlEyes Accessories over at Etsy. The orange flower bunch is a big pin made out of felt. It will liven up my denim jackets and cardigans and also add some more of my favorite-color-of-the-moment to my wardrobe (it's orange).

Hanging out on my gray Toms are blue flower shoe clips. I got the idea to use shoe clips on my Toms after Megs and I talked about getting 'mod-ing' our Toms. Now, my Toms can have multiple personalities without any lasting changes.

Bulletin board

Happy St. Patrick's Day! In honor of the color of the day and also the warm weather we've been having here in WI, I’ve put together some things that I like on my bulletin board to share with y’all.

envelopes (Paper Source), green vase (Etsy), pillow (Target), tealight (ZGallerie), shoes (Tilly's), necklace (Anthropologie)

I think I'm gonna order a package of these envelopes in the chartreuse green. They'll make whatever I put in them look interesting

Easter cards

You'll see a lot of different greeting and notecards here at the Table. I've been into card making for a couple of years, maybe more than that! What started with leftover scrapbooking supplies (when that was my thing), has become a way to try new techniques. Friends and family have come to expect handmade cards on their birthdays and any holiday worth sending a card (no cards for administrative assistants day!). I combined three different techniques on these cards: potato stamps, sewing on paper, and collage. 

	1) Cut eggs out of potatoes. It's surprising, but I didn't cut myself! After cutting the (russet) potatoes in half, I took my paring knife and ran it about a quarter an inch from the cut edge, at about a quarter of an inch in. Then, I start to carve the egg shape. I tried to add different designs. Straight lines were easiest, polka dots didn't turn out well at all
	2) Grab some acrylic paints in assorted spring colors and start painting the different sections of the egg. I reused the best of the 'eggs' with different color combinations. Here, remember to wipe off the paint, including the crevices or you get green when you expect yellow after a couple of stamp
	3) Lay out the cards and start stamping. I tried different combinations of one, two and three eggs. I also tried horizontal and vertical layouts. My favorite turned out to be two eggs with minimal overlap on a vertical card
	4) To keep the eggs from making a mess on my table, I used an egg carton. Yes Mom, I know I forgot to put down a drop cloth over my nice table. I promise I didn't make a mess and I won't do it again
	5) Cut strips of text from a magazine. Time Magazine worked well because it has large blocks of text and the paper is pretty thin. Then, cut a fringe along one edge. I used a glue stick to tack down the newspaper grass
	6) This part was messy. Open up a bag of the green plastic grass for Easter baskets. Cut the pieces in half because you don't need the whole length
	7) Lay the card on the sewing machine and spread some of the grass over the other grass. Just grab a handful and lay it on top; not all of it will get caught in the stitch. I probably wouldn't recommend this method if you're a perfectionist, but it was interesting to see what stuck. If there are holes in the green grass, just grab another handful and run a second stitch
	8) Trim the grass. This was definitely the biggest mess. Thank goodness for my dustbuster! I tried to trim the green grass so that it didn't stick off the card or cover too much of the eggs
	9) Fan out the newspaper grass, pop in an envelope and drop it in the mail. If you want to skip all but this last step, you can get a handmade, unique potato egg card at my etsy shop

New etsy shop

There is a lot going on around here! I didn't expect to get moving this fast, but I'm not going to complain (yet). I might change that as I try to find that work/life balance thing that folks speak of. 

 Niftytable @ etsy

In the meantime, I couldn't wait to share two projects with etsy shoppers - my easter cards and heart garlands that I made back around Valentine’s day. I’ll post pictures on both of those this week as I get everything together. But, you can start shopping now!

Crowds

There were people everywhere this weekend. Crowds can be beautiful, like this collage from etsy artist dannyliz. I love the beautiful papers, and this is a crowd I would love to sit and watch all day.

A Colorful Universe

However, crowds at the grocery store, the mall, Wal-mart, and Joann Fabrics sapped all creative energy out of me (unlike the crowd above). Too bad I saved Joann Fabrics for my last stop - I was too tired to come up with exciting projects.