kidney drop earrings

Crystal Kidney Drop Earrings and Crystal Sun kidney drop earrings that are featured in my Etsy shop.

tape it!

Wouldn't this patterned rice paper tape be perfect for wrapping gifts, decorating paper lunch bags and sealing envelopes? I love that it's not the typical masking tape, it's a semi-transparent japanese rice paper designed by Kamoi Kakoshi. ('mt' brand). You can see all the beautiful colors here and here.

stamped paper bags

I found these small kraft bags today at Micheals that are perfect to put my earrings in when someone purchases a pair. I hand stamped the bags with white and bronze ink to spice them up a bit. I'm really happy with how they turned out.

Etsy shop is open!

I've been a mad woman lately trying to get my Etsy shop up (making jewelry is the easy part!). I am happy to announce though that the
simple + me shop is officially open. I will be adding items regularly so make sure to check back and see what new things I have for sale.

profiled.

Silhouettes are quite the trend right now but they are so modern and fun and easy to trace. I'm going to print and frame these ones and give them to my cousins for their birthday or Christmas this year.

Granola Bar Recipe

Tonight is a big night. I have a double header in soccer plus it's our last night of the season! I couldn't resist making granola bars so I had my mom send down a recipe. She used to make these all the time when playing sports is high school, tasting them brought back so many memories.

GRANOLA BARS
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp honey
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups Rice Krispies
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup wheat germ

Cream sugars and butter. Mix thoroughly with egg, vanilla and honey. Add rest of ingredients. Press into 9x13 pan. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.

Lollipops anyone?

Check out Julia Chiangs work made from melted lollipops. Oh and Happy Valentines Day!

L Letterpress

Oh my gosh! My night ... week ... month has officially been made! I was just getting ready for bed, catching up on my Google reader and there it was. Black Eiffle posted about the L Letterpress. It's a portable letterpress machine!!!! I've dreamed about the days of letterpressing my very own cards and personalized invitations. I definitely want one of these.

neon love

{via ffffound}

Happy Weekend!

I love it when I laugh so hard that I can't stop and my eyes start to water and my stomach begins to hurt. See more of Darwin's pals here.

Sewing 101

I took Sewing 101 tonight at JoAnn Fabrics. I first learned how to sew in Home Ec class back in 7th grade and it's been years since I have sewn anything so it was time to freshen up my skills. Plus I've been dying to try my hand at quilting and I need to start somewhere.

So tonight we learned the basics about sewing and the how-to's of the sewing machine and then we got to make a pillow case. I have to say, mine didn't turn out half bad and it was so simple to make! You can find detailed instructions here.

P.S. Want to know a little secret about taking classes at JoAnn's? Once a month they run a promotion where all the classes are 1/2 off when you pre-register. So ask a sales associate what day that is and you can save big!

this holiday season remember to

Something for everyone to think about this holiday season when you're sipping on wine and attending all your holiday parties. (Some fantastic printing to drool over too)

[Purchase poster here]

holiday card preview

Some cards that I've been making.

home sweet home

I am finally feeling all settled into my new apartment. It's quite charming and all decorated for the holidays. Living in Eastown is a great change of scenery.

holiday collection

One of these years I am going to launch a holiday card collection. Just you wait. I'm loving this minimalist set by Blue Pool Road that I spotted over at simple + pretty.

I always have these big ideas and a huge list of projects that I want to do but a lot of them never even surface. I'm also great at starting projects and then never finishing them and then I don't ever have the heart to throw the incomplete ones away so they sit in a bag in hopes that one day they'll be finished.

gwen frostic

Look, look, look! Anthropologie is now selling note cards and books of poetry by artist Gwen Frostic. I am so ecited to stumble upon this. I grew up going to Gwen Frostic's shop in Benzonia, MI and always loved her art. Frostic's woodcuts are inspired from the nature around her Northern Michigan studio.

my new toy

My Diana F+ camera arrived today! I'm so excited to play with it. I first have to get film though and read the instruction manual...I have no clue how to use it. If you're not familiar with lomography check out this article and see examples of the style of photographs that it takes.

my halloween mask

happy halloween

Happy Halloween everyone!

Last night I had a few friends over and we made masquerade masks for our halloween costume. If you haven't decorated a mask before this is something that you have to do. I started with this gold mask from Hobby Lobby and spray painted it black. Once the mask dried I covered it with glue and sprinkled it with black jewel glitter. Then while that was drying, I hot glued a cluster of feathers together and glued them to the mask. And Tah-Dah, my mask is created.

more earrings

Here are a few more earrings that I made. I really, really need to get my etsy shop back up and running so I can start selling my stuff. It's such a chore to upload everything that I keep putting it off.

xpedx paper show invite

Here's a sample of the invite, chocolate favors and drink ticket that I designed for the annual xpedx paper show.

wicker chair revamped

One of my favorite things to do is find furniture on the side of the road (or at garage sales) and then give new life to it. I conveniently nabbed this wicker chair from across the street and put 2 cans of black spray paint to it. It still could use another coat and a nice bright cushion but that will have to wait until I find out if I have to move yet or not. I found out on Saturday that we may have to be out of our house in 30 days, I will know more in a week. I love everything about my apartment and really don't want to move!

the winner is Ran Ortner

With all the positivity and energy that ArtPrize has brought to the city of Grand Rapids I hope to see this event take place year after year. Thursday night I went to the closing cerebration to hear the winner's announcement. They had an amazing performance by a shadow dance troupe and bollywood dancers before the big announcement. Mrs. DeVos also made a really good point about how much this event has impacted the children in our community. I never even though about the children until then and how ArtPrize has influenced and inspired thousands of kids. That alone is a pretty amazing thing.


The shots above is the Open Water oil painting that took home the $250,000 by artist Ran Ortner.

daily decorative intials

Have you been following the Daily Drop Cap? Typographer and Illustrator, Jessica Hische has been creating a new decorative initial cap each day.

Top 10 Finalists Announced

It's been an exciting week for Grand Rapids. There's been a lot of art to see, I still haven't seen it all but it is now narrowed down to the Top 10 artists. You can see a complete list of the finalists here.

[Collage courtesy of The Grand Rapids Press File Photo]

ArtPrize: Day 7

Tonight I made my way to WMCAT, you can't miss the giant 42 ft. Gray Whale made out of clay and wood. Another favorite was Armin Mersmann's portraits done with graphite. The detail that he was able to portray was impeccable.

Shay Church: Gray Whale

a closer look

At artist Eric Daigh.
When you get up close to really look at these portraits you'll see the incredible arrangement of push-pins. It's pretty remarkable. You can learn more about Eric here at his website and vote for him at ArtPrize here. (him and his family also live up in Traverse City which makes me happy)

My good friend Candace.

ArtPrize: Day 6

If you haven't been to the Old Federal Building yet where the old art museum was, you have got to check it out. It's a definite must-see. Plus since it's suppose to rain the next few days it's a perfect indoor activity to do.

Here are some of my favorites with links to each artists ArtPrize bio. That way you can learn more about the artwork. Heidi Van Weiren medium is Elmer's glue and ink on wood panel. It's pretty incredible that her medium is glue. And look closely at J. Thomas Pallas work because it's a custom Air Jordan stamp that is inked on the drywall to make up the portrait. Eric Daigh's portraits are all made up from push-pins.

Jerry Gretzinger: The Gretzinger Map

Heidi Van Wieren: Badlands 00101

J. Thomas Pallas: Jordan

Eric Daigh: Push Pin Portraits

Mari-Megan Moore: Organismal Constellation

Nadine Saylor: 10,000 Breaths

Stephen Duren: Painting and Painting