the big thaw

well. big sighs of relief over here! I.C.E. was a big hit
and i had an awesome time in ATL.

my sweetie-pie j.B. was nice enough to come along and do the big-city driving. this was my first time in atlanta and my first craft fair since childhood when my mom made puffy-paint sweatshirts and sculpey earrings.

we drove down on saturday and arrived with just enough time to take a breather before heading to the eyedrum. i would definately recommend the highland inn to anyone going to atlanta. it's in the beautiful highland historic district and just beside of a soul vegetarian food restaurant with delicious soy ice kream.

(crafty peeps waiting for ice to start)

we got lost on the way to eyedrum and arrived in a bit of a frenzy, me more-so than j.B. the eyedrum is an amazing space with three large rooms and a side hall where the models gathered for the fashion show.

luckily my booth was easy to set up:

i ended up using a metal stand my dad gave me for the bags,and it worked really well:

i made these little hoot-owl cards for I.C.E. and i'm going to put them up for sale in the shop as soon as i can. each card is hand cut and glued together.

i also made these fruit-slice brooches (also coming to the shop soon!) from a lot of my fabric scraps and some vintage beads/pearls/etc. i had come across. i hung them on a little fruit tree for display.

there were so many tables of great crafty goods and lots of people to meet and greet with. i was most excited to visit the other n.c. booths: edge of urge (i think i'm going to sell my brooches there!), make-me fabrics, and india*romeo.

(ileana of india*romeo and charles)

i, along with everyone else, was quite sweaty and exhausted by the time the fashion show rolled around. there was no a.c. in the eyedrum and little to no ventilation. phew. talk about dripping in sweat! that was probably my biggest complaint about the entire event. other than that and the parking/direction problems, everything went pretty smoothly. i think that I.C.E. is definately an event that will improve with each passing year, and i am glad to have been a part of the first.

i leave you with a pic of my favorite model, helena.

and that's a rap!

good luck to all of you headed to renegade this weekend! i'll be there in spirit!

roy -gee- biv

certain color combinations really throw me off. i don't know if this happens to anyone else out there...in particular red and black. any time i've tried to make a bag in this combo it takes me forever! pink and black do the same thing. and actually black in general is a color that i generally steer clear of. a lot of times color combinations either remind me of food (i.e. pink + brown + white = neopolitan ice cream, red + yellow = mcdonald's) or certain decades (pink + black = 80s, orange + brown + yellow = 70s). i could go on and on.


i started thinking about this again today as i worked on a black and red bag (*what* was i thinking!) and was completely blocked. does anyone out there have any recommendations for books about color usage, particularly in design? luckily my trip to staples got me back on the right track. office supply stores lure me in every time. i could spend some cash if i had it on office supplies and pens. my favorite office supply store around here is carolina office supply. it's really small and the people are super-friendly. they have great prices on ink cartridges and lots of hard-to-find pens, like expresso and the paper mate 'ultra fine flair'. (gush)


anyway, i just wanted to check in and say hi! i'm on the home stretch towards ice. well. at least the calendar is on home stretch and i've gotta get back to work, eeks! i'd love to get five more bags done. plus i still need to finish my brooches and get my table set up all sorted out. i hope i'll have enuf stuff. it certainly is a lot for little old me!

oh MY!

yay! flap bags are now available at MY MY. look for bloomingBeauty and nostalgicNellie in the bags section (of course!)!

flap will be available at two other online consignment shops in the next few weeks, fingers crossed!

i'm still sewin away over here, hoping to make all of my goals by the 18th! today i sent off 500 kite fliers to i.c.e. for the swag bags. man that was a lot of cutting! ten days and counting. i see quite a few all-nighters in my future. what a relief it will be to have everything done, get down to the show and have a relaxing, enjoyable time meeting everyone and seeing their wares. i can't wait!

is it steamy where you are? it's all i can do to make it through work...we don't have air and it gets pretty miserable in the summer months. lots of sitting still and slurpies, milkshakes, etc. there's a nice little storm outside so hopefully that will cool the air off a bit.