Friday Finds - Inspiration is Everywhere!

With their cute new umbrella, Microworks transforms the boring umbrella strap into a little creature's tail.

How can we incorporate something fun and unexpected into our own work?

Konstantin Datz has created a Rubik cube for the blind. The colors are in Braille, so that the visually impaired can be driven crazy by this game, too!

How can we reach out to a new niche market with our product?

How can we make our product accessible to an overlooked audience?


PIG swine flu masks designed by Zijns Design Office. The mask is printed with a pig's nose graphic.

How fun are these for a pandemic?

How can we incorporate something totally timely into our work to generate some amazing buzz?


Mouse Graphics Design is a Greek studio providing package design. Their design for olive oil producer Agrovim is spectacular!

How is our product packaging helping to create our brand?

How can we make our packaging more interesting and memorable?


Onesies designed by Steve Denekas with letters and designs that face the baby!

How cool and genius are these!

How can we make our own designs better and more exciting for the end-user?

Maybe it would help if we start looking at things upside down!

Have a wonderful weekend and remember that inspiration for your work is everywhere!

Upcycled Shovel and Pitchfork Planters DIY Tutorial plus those flea market bargains find a new usefulness

First a quick update on the new lives of some of my recent flea market finds, although the bicycle wheels are just taking a little pitstop ...


1. more little golden books for our book wall - pants hangers from Ikea
2. this horseshoe has a nice new home bringing us some good luck
3. vintage doorknob plus cork = cool new bottle stoppers
4. bicycle wheels make a great temporary seed holder
5. vintage mallet makes a perfect little bookend
6. old baseballs + stampings = a total homerun


Now, this tutorial is almost too easy peasy to call itself a tutorial,

but since everyone who sees mine goes home and makes one, I won't let that stop me!

Your rusty old shovels and pitchforks can be easily turned into great planters that will add some whimsy and old-time farm magic to your garden!


what you need:





1. empty coffee cans
2. screws, washers, screwdriver
3. metal straps from hardware store
4. some rusty old farm tools
5. your drill


1. the cans can be double strapped (top and bottom) or double screwed into your shovel or pitchfork handle very easily
2. pick a great spot in your garden that needs a little height and gets enough sun for your plantings
3. add your plants and a garden gnome to keep watch and you are all set!


And check out some amazing gardener goodies on Etsy:

1. Succulent seeds by PlaidPigeon
2. I dig dirt toddler tee from RoundBottomBaby
3. Green thumb locket in my Polarity shop
4. Rusted handmade ceramic herb markers from Glazed Over
5. Woodland Waldorf Gnome from MariaAsenova
6. Work With What You've Got collage by TinyArtbyJMullin

Whining Wednesday - yes, it's back, but just for one week because I'm a glass half full kind of girl now

I have been aching to whine for weeks

I mean it is in my DNA,

but I have been busy staying positive and professional and all that.

Since it is the first week of summer and the birds are singing, the bees are buzzing, the kids are BORED .. I think it is time to whine a little ...

Whine 1 - I cut myself shaving. I know, I know we all do that. But I cut my face shaving my legs.

Let me set the stage without being too indelicate ...

I was in the shower and reached the razor behind my head to put it under the water so I could rinse it off and as I did, I felt the cold razor blade on my face and suddenly I was bleeding ... alot.

My first response was a bit of a freak-out thinking I had just scarred the only 50 square inches (how many square inches is a face do you think) of my anatomy left unscarred from one mishap or another,

but once I got a little bit calmed down realized that I had just cut my face shaving my legs and would get to wear one of those tiny little pieces of bathroom tissue stuck to my face for a little while, which was actually kind of cool, although I was the only one home and no one would see me.

So, I kept checking out the window for the UPS driver, so he could see my tissue-papered injury and I would get to announce - yeah, just cut my face ... shaving my legs ... but that never happened.

Whine 2 - this is kind of a little lesson wrapped in a whine - my chiropractor raised his prices and my health insurance doesn't cover chiropractic care

(or dental care or vision care or any of the other things I guess we are not really supposed to require)

even though hubby and I pay over $8000.00 a year for it ... sigh


Anyhoo, he raised his prices and it honestly wasn't very much of a price increase and I was actually sort of ok with it until I happened to be in the parking lot last week when he pulled in -

and I saw his brand new, incredibly shiny, incredibly red JAGUAR

and this little resentful voice in my head immediately was all

"well, this we do not like."

He had gotten an expensive new car, and I judged that a little bit.
(actually, he had gotten an expensive new Jaguar and I judged that alot)

And that voice continued with, “Is this why I am paying more?"

"Who does he think he is?!”

Ouch ...

So, I had to take a breath and sit with my little self-righteous self for a minute and think this all through. What exactly was I judging here?

Because here’s the deal - I know we are not meant to stay small. I know we are not meant to be broke.

My chiropractor is very good. Why doesn't he get to drive a Jaguar? I don’t want to stay small. So, why would I want him to stay small?

Even though my idea of EXPANSION is not a Jaguar - what was my real problem with this?

(it wasn't a Hummer, for pete's sake)

Whine 3 - We've got crop circles. Well, we don't exactly have crops and we don't exactly have circles, but we've got something in our corn ... or what used to be our corn ... or what could have been our corn ...

Let me set the scene - hubby goes outside to water the farm garden and he comes inside for about 30 seconds to get a drink of water

(he will not drink hose water or let Olive drink it - personally I am not bothered by the bacteria growing in the 100 degree, 100 feet of plastic tubing, but I am a tough Jersey girl after all)

He goes back outside. He then comes in screaming the kind of four letter words that even I will not lay down on paper. The corn was dead- all the corn was cut off as if with a little sickle, every single stalk within the 30 seconds it took George to walk across the yard, into the house, drink a glass of water and walk back outside.

"Is this some kind of f---ng joke!", he is yelling up at the trees.

The most logical (if there is one) explanation is that this was a very hot day, he had just watered the corn, corn stalk leaves hold water very well, some tiny little thirsty critter gang had rushed the corn stalks for the water and cut every stalk off at the base to get to the leaves ...

(or maybe the corn was just tired and wanted to lay down ... like forever)
it was something like this -----> ... well, sort of

16 stalks in 30 seconds

some kind of crop circle making record, I am sure.

Hubby later described this to people as the stalks being cut almost all the way through, almost down to the very base and then pushed over, just like you would cut down a tree ...

When he said this, I caught his eye and held it. He knew what I was thinking.

He knew I was thinking about the trees we had just cut down. The trees that, although rotted, were also in the way of his farm garden and his sunset just like his little cornstalks were in the way of that critter gang getting to its water supply.

Of course, hubby thinks I am the kind of person who sees signs in all sorts of ridiculous things, including burned toast crumbs.

(which was just that one time, when they happened to fall into an amazing silhouette of a dangerously bent bicycle and had me driving my car to the post office that day ... just in case)

And of course, since I am the kind of girl who turns lemons into lemonade

(well, cans of frozen lemon concentrate anyway)


let me recap (1) if we see a girl with a piece of bathroom tissue stuck to her face, maybe we should feel a bit of shock and awe for the type of shower manuever she was most likely performing and not assume she had just popped some kind of gigantic pimple

and (2) when someone gets a new car, even if that car is a bit much and that someone is someone we are paying- maybe especially if that someone is someone we are paying, be happy that our money has expanded their world and know that it is busy expanding ours, too.

and (3) when crop circles happen just think of the great story this will make one day (and next year plant your corn with some critter-proof fencing like all the other vegetables or at least get some kind of video monitoring system installed to determine which critter gang is responsible for the carnage and maybe win yourself a free year's supply of dog food on that amazing animal tv show).

Life is a classroom folks. Lessons are everywhere.

crop circle digital print by SkinkInk

Take 10 Tuesday - the summer version ....

Now that summer has officially come to this part of the world and I am allowed to get officially lazy

(yes, it's like, in the Constitution or something)

as opposed to the unofficially lazy way I usually operate, Take 10 Tuesday will be reduced to Take (insert any number here) Tuesday for the next few weeks.

(why don't I just call it Take 8 Tuesday, etc you are probably asking ... well, I don't know ... it just doesn't seem to have the same kapow, you know what I mean)

Anyhoo, here's some stuff you might want to check out:

1. My own interview with Tara at Scoutie Girl about Creative Thinking!

2. A seriously good podcast over at Crafty Pod where Megan Auman nails it about Professional Crafters and Hobbyists on Etsy

3. Tips for Etsy Sellers - Product Descriptions that Work by the amazing tinahdee

4. 5 Reasons to Title Your Art at Art Biz Blog - why numbering your work is not a good idea

5. Very funny post Why Having a Toddler is Like Being at a Frat Party over at Suburban Snapshots.

6. 5 Quick Tips to Take Better Photographs by the amazing Jessica Torres.

Jessica also found some stunning new work for the Photographers of Etsy team blog which included an amazing photo by my buddy Ann Wilkinson, who is hopefully in North Carolina as I right this, having a wonderful summer and drinking alot of wine (she sends me her corks) - I'm not trying to wish a drinking problem on her or anything, but I do need those corks Ann ...

7. Chris Brogan's post Make the Ask - why is it so hard for us to ask for the sale?

8. Get WAY Better at What You Do NOW by Tara Gentile - what have we done lately to improve our maker skills?



rustic spinner ring by tinahdee
Peek fine art photo by Jessica Torres.