More Spring Fashion / Trashion Trends

Here are some more hot spring trends that may spark a creative fire in your belly.

DIGITAL duds with pixelated patterns are going to be everywhere. Even Fendi clutches have bold digital designs that prove it is chic to be geek. Think modern tie-dye with this trend.

Clunky, bold jewelry, computer-age graphics, the dicotomy of digital with softer, lighter fabrics are all pieces of this modern mosaic.
1. Prada
2. FrostCollections
3. Polarity
4. BeadworkByAmanda
5. ChelseaEBird
6. UpcycledJewelry
7. UpcycledJewelry
8. Craftastrophe



Another spring trend is going to be a LOVE FEST with sexy-sweet clothing and accessories.

Jewel-trim headbands and leather clutches, embellished dresses and sky-high platform sandals will be everywhere. Pastels and little hearts will be happening with this style.

Also check out Pantone's new spring colors which will be incorporated into all the trends.

1. Prada
2. 13threads
3. Lillyella
4. Traven7
5. Thebline
6. Lilfishstudios
7. BayouSalvage
8. Bubbletime

Spring Fashion / Trashion Trends

In my effort to stay trendy (who knew!)- I will be dissecting a few spring fashion trends this week in an effort to see how we can integrate what's hot and what's not into our own work. The first trend this spring is called American Pie, but we will just call it spots and dots.

Spots and dots aren't really anything new but are being incorporated into fashion in new ways. Constellation prints, seen on the runway at Marni and Michael Kors, adorn everything from blazers and handbags to dresses and shoes for spring.
1. Dior Dress
2. 3Dots Necklace
3. Amy Singley Earrings
4. Hotelle Motelle Smock Top
5. Apezoppa Hair Comb
6. Brooklit Print
7. Meringue Shop Bag


The old frontier look is new again. Another trend this spring is Pioneers. Plaids, stripes, and faded flower prints; think linen sundresses and chunky wood wedges.

Pieces that feel homespun and are prairie-ready for spring. Not exactly what Laura Ingalls Wilder would wear, but what she would have wanted to wear. The modern prarie look includes ruffles and plaids and crisp, clean lines.

1. Marc Jacobs
2. CourtneysCastle Shoes
3. UndertheRoot Undies
4. Kiskastyle Necklace
5. AnnieandOlive Bracelet
6. AgesPastClothingInc Skirt
7. InfraredGoggles Print
8. Astrums Wicker Bag

VOTE EARTH

Tonight's the night - turn off your lights from 8:30PM (your time) to 9:30PM to support our beautiful, amazing planet EARTH! Now let's see- what will we do for an hour in the dark on a Saturday night ....

All Sewed Up

As a closet embroiderer and avid collager I have an intense attraction to the wonderful textile collages we call quilts. Symbolic of warmth, protection (quilts were even worn under armor during the crusades) and a sense of community (particularly female) and family history - quilts in all their classic and modern manipulations can stop me in my tracks (I have been known to go into a kind of quilt-trance which sometimes prevents my bed from getting made).

I recently stumbled upon a modern quilter who reassembles everyday snapshots as refracted fabric visions. Luke Haynes works from photographs and disassembles, digests, and reconstructs images as progressive cloth murals. I think they are pretty cool.





More Cool Etsy Goodies
1. Space Spores in Search ... - sillyboodilly
2. Rooster Quilt - mariannemccann
3. Sew On Recycled Locket - polarity
4. Quilted Coasters - btaylorquilts
5. Space Spores in Search - sillyboodilly
6. Soft Patchwork Pillow Ring - raeburnink
7. Not Afraid of Needles - uncorked
8. In The Beginning - hudsonquilts
9. Nest Colorblock - littlelegwarmers

WIN A NestaUsa Print!

And the winner is.... Jen from 10oneworld on Etsy! Congrats Jen! Enjoy your "Where I Exist".


Tandie Nesta is the amazing artist and photographer behind NestaUsa and NestaHome. Tandie's work is fresh and strong and provides incredible inspiration to anyone lucky enough to be able to own something she has created!

One of Tandie's photographs was recently used in a home update on HGTV's show Dear Genevieve and we are lucky enough to be able to give away one of her amazing photographs from her NestaUsa shop as well as offer a discount for any purchases made to her shop through the end of the month!

WHAT YOU GET:
One lucky winner will receive one awesome NestaUsa 8X10 photograph of her/his choice!

HOW TO WIN:
Visit NestaUsa's Etsy Shop and check it out- HERE. Then come back here and LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW mentioning your favorite 8X10 photograph.

For additional entries:

(5) Blog about this contest, linking to this post and to NestaUsa
(5) Twitter this post
(5) Follow my blog

Let me know if you have done these things so I can give you additional entries.

Tandie is also offering a 15% discount (refunded through paypal) through the end of March - be sure to note 'polarity' or 'uncorked' in the comments to seller section of your order!

DRAWING:

5PM EST on Thursday, March 26th so enter now and spruce up your nest with a NESTA!

you know that JUNK in your trunk?

It is finally the first day of spring (and my sister's birthday!) and those snow flurries outside my window this morning are not keeping me from thinking about those green days ahead. If your head is linking spring and green and spring cleaning like mine you will want to check out Inhabitat's Wonderful Spring Greening Contest to encourage creative reuse. If you have a project in mind to re-furbish, re-purpose and re-think your trash into something amazing AND functional now is the time to make it happen. The winner receives a $200.00 Inhabitat gift certificate. The bad news is that this contest ends in one week (we always put everything off to the last week anyway, right?)- so you've got to get greening! Check back next week to see my entry and check out some amazing examples of re-use available right now from some amazing Etsy shops (plus a couple of my own).
1. repurposed fabric to dress - Infusion
2. wine cork to necklace - Uncorked
3. vinyl banner to wallet - NottyPooch
4. circuit board to keychain - Debby Arem Designs
5. skateboard to coaster - 2ReVert
6. money bag to business card holder - Chakrapennywhistle
7. plastic bags to lunch bags - Copabananas
8. car signage to necklace - dustDesignCo
9. sleeve to wristlet - zJayne
10. car part to bracelet - Polarity
11. doll to clock - IMOTIME

hiring (?) MODELS

Well, I didn't exactly "hire" them, unless you count the pizza I have promised, but haven't delivered on yet (after all models can't actually eat pizza, right?). At the urging of Noelle, of Xenotees, to get some 'models' in my pics I "hired" these two pretty (and familiar) faces- what cha' think?

this girl's got a PAINT CHIP on her shoulder

I have always wanted a yellow kitchen. I am not sure why. Maybe my first birthday cake was eaten in a yellow kitchen or that popular girl in 4th grade who invited me over for pizza rolls after school had a yellow kitchen. My memory is foggy here, but I know I have always wanted one. I have a picture in my head of this yellow kitchen (of course this picture is of a HUGE yellow kitchen, but I will make do). I know a little bit about color- or maybe I just know what I like, which is maybe all any of us ever need to know about color, so with this picture in my head and my knowledge of color, I head to the paint store. Three paint stores and thirty paint chips later I head home with my little collection of samples, but with a growing feeling of unease that none of these little paint chip yellows is MY yellow. The perfect mustard yellow that my little kitchen needs. The yellow that is in my head. The yellow that will make my little kitchen perfect. So, I hang the little paint chip cards on the kitchen wall and step back. I pace. I chew my nails. I decide to sleep on it. My husband picks a paint chip. My daughter picks a paint chip. I pace ....
1. colour theory 10 - estasketch
2. modern 3D collage - bookeesue
3. create recycled magnetic locket - polarity
4. line 256 southbound - nervousmotion
5. paint chip magnets - claireteschel
6. a paint chip for me - elizaveta
7. chipping paint expressionalism 2- kdukigrl

WIN a girlscantell! WINNER IS TESSA!

And the winner is..... Tessa! Tessa has chosen Sara's amazing anatomical heart coasters! Check out Tessa's amazing website, too!





Sara of girlscantell is Etsy's famous dissecter of all that is complicated into all that is cool!

This amazingly talented ex-Jersey girl (there's actually no such thing as an EX-Jersey girl) lives and works in South Philadelphia diagramming and hand screenprinting everyday things onto everyday things.

She gets her inspiration from city life; a bakery window, a light fixture, a great vintage dress, a construction site, old brickwork, a rusty neon sign. Vintage typewriters, bicycles, kitchen appliances and tons of other goodies are diagrammed onto amazingly incredible coasters, cloth napkins (no more throwaways!), kitchen linens and more!

WHAT YOU GET:
One lucky winner will receive one awesome girlscantell diagrammed coaster set!

HOW TO WIN:
Visit girlscantell's Etsy Shop and check it out. Then come back here and LEAVE A COMMENT mentioning your favorite coaster set.

For additional entries:

(5) Blog about this contest, linking to this post and to girlscantell
(5) Twitter this post
(5) Follow my blog
(5) Follow girlscantell's blog

Let me know if you have done these things so I can give you additional entries.

Sara is also offering a 20% discount (refunded through paypal) through the end of March - be sure to note 'polarity' in the comments to seller section of your order!

DRAWING:
A winner will be chosen at random on March 18th! Good Luck!

My House Is On Fire

Hubby and I recently received a certified letter from our little town to let us know that the local fire department has applied for a variance to build a firehouse directly across the street from our house. Now, we have always been good little townies and pay our taxes and shovel our snow and cut our grass (most of the time) but the idea of fire whistles (very loud sirens, actually) and firetrucks and firemen (this is not a plus, trust me, these are not the kind of firemen whose pictures end up on calendars) directly across from our house all the time does not seem like a good thing. In fact, it pretty much sucks .... unless, of course, our house really does catch on fire, but this is not something I am going to wish for.

So this has gotten us back to looking at land and farms and barns and back to our dreams of organic farming and crafting. I am thinking the only way this will ever be possible is if we actually live in the barn so I have been obsessing over barn conversions lately and found some amazing work by Carrier and Company that I wanted to share.

Waking Up Is Hard To Do

OK, so we sprung our clocks ahead early Sunday morning for Daylight Saving Time and lost an hour on Sunday, but why do I feel like I have been losing an hour every day since? Yes, it is nice to still be seeing the sun at 6:30 pm, but SO hard to get up in the dark. At least for me. I need that morning sunlight to program my sleeping brain to perk up and get those neurons moving! I am not a good sleeper in the best of times and not a good staying asleeper and until my body adjusts to this hour (sometime around the next Daylight Saving Time clock change) not a good getter upper either!

Some Tips To Get Moving In The Morning
1. Get a dog. As long as it has to go out- you have to get up. Juliapott
2. Get a cat. Nothing says good morning like a sandpaper tongue licking your face. Loranscruggs
3. Do yoga. It's the most relaxing way to bring your energy level up. Herbandevi
4. Place a birdfeeder outside your bedroom window. redyellowandblueink
5. Set your alarm clock. Across the room. Pilotdesign
6. Call in late. Uncorked
7. Have children- VERY effective
8. Sleep with someone who gets up earlier than you do.

Team EcoEtsy Goes MAD 4 MARCH

Eco Etsy is a global group of green good sellers who practice and spread the word about reducing, reusing and recycling. About fifty members are having a March Madness sale. Buy something from any of their shops and receive a free gift from that shop - see each shop's announcement for details on their particular giveaway! A full list of the participating shops can be found here MARCH MADNESS.

1. KnitStorm - Tea Mug Cozy
2. JenniferSquires - Purple Flower
3. Ottoman - Lichen Brooch 1
4. Shecological - Sand & Olive Plaid Bag
5. Undertheroot - Undine's Undies
6. Uncorked - Don't Be Trashy Cork Necklace
7. Polarity - Purple Recycled Magnetic Locket

Books on a Budget

To put it mildly- I love books. I mean I really love books. The problem is that I really love to not only read, but carry, touch and OWN books. I even have a library in my house, (my husband calls it the bedroom) stacked floor to ceiling. But now when I look at my books I think of the trees (and the amount of money spent on those stacks) and know I need to find a better way. So I renew my library card and plan my Saturday mornings at the library instead of the Barnes and Noble and I search for some online alternatives, too.

At Paperbackswap.com you can trade books with other users, print your postage online and get updates on newly available titles (they also carry hardcovers and the beloved audiobooks I love to listen to while I craft).

Bookmoooch.com (my favorite name) allows you to post books and earn points when one of its 100,000 moochers requests your book and you ship it out. You only pay for postage and media mail is still pretty cheap.

Bookswim.com is for the more serious reader. It lets you organize a pool of titles (like your Netflix) and receive a couple of them at a time. You pay a monthly fee of $20- $40.00 and shipping is free. And you can purchase the book if you decide to keep it.

If you seriously must have that book in your hot little hands Betterworld.com offers bargain prices, donates a portion of revenues to Books for Africa, has free U.S. shipping and offsets its carbon footprint with carbonfund.org. So there are some serious choices out there for bibliophiles to go green right now!

1. Drink In Words earrings from rhymeswithmagic
(artist Heather IS a librarian)
2. I Read Banned Books cork necklace from uncorked
3. I Read Banned Books recycled magnetic locket set from polarity
4. Turn off Your TV and Read pins from barrelofmonkeys
5. Mister Donkey brooch from yaelfran

Win Your Favorite XENOTEE! She Puts the T in Etsy!

And the winner is: (do you see your name?) Marbella Designs - I hope you enjoy your Xenotee!!



Noelle of Xenotees is one of my most favorite Etsy people. She is funny, clever and gorgeous and makes a great t-shirt! Her designs are totally unique and clip-art free and will make your friends totally jealous!

Noelle donates $1 from every t-shirt sale to the Flat Iron Wildcats of Philadelphia. There is a huge stray cat population in Philadelphia & she is dedicated to making sure that there are less unhappy animals in this world (and more creatively decorated people!).

WHAT YOU GET:
One lucky winner will get one awesome Xenotees t-shirt of their choice (under $22.00)!

HOW TO WIN:
Visit Xenotees Etsy Shop and check it out. Then come back here and LEAVE A COMMENT mentioning your favorite.


For additional entries:

(5) Blog about this linking to this post and to Xenotees.
(5) Twitter this post
(5)Follow My Blog (I am very lonely)

Let me know if you have done these things so I can give you additional entries.

DRAWING:
A winner will be chosen at random on March 9th! Good Luck!

Xenotees is also offering a 15% discount on any purchase through March 31st- simply place an order and write 'uncorked' or 'polarity' in the comments to seller section!