chimesblog

… or else I waste a LOT of time.

I recently joined Pinterest, a website that allows you to curate and catalog different interests online. I’ve mainly been using it to bookmark great design for inspiration, DIY and craft tutorials and some ideas for my sketchbook.

Well, apparently people like what I’m posting because this week I’m in the top overall most “prolific” pinners.  I’m also one of the top 5 pinners for design+packaging.

Seriously, apparently I need to get a life. But, I’ve collected a lot of fabulous finds from around the interwebs and I’ve got my own lil station for inspiration rather than pulling out a book I’ve seen a million times.

I was futzing around on iTunes the other day and adding some key albums to my wishlist, when I remembered that a couple bands that I’ve done album art for have their albums on iTunes.  I didn’t find one of them, but I did find my friend Flip’s band, The Half Hearts.

So cool to see your artwork somewhere so public!

Although … I can’t take credit for the illustrations. Those are my friend Kim’s.

This week’s Humpday Blog love goes to my friend Steph Hertel’s Turtle Soup blog.  Don’t confuse her with the yodeling sensation, Stefanie Hertel.

I don’t even know where to start! Steph is pretty much the perfected version of what I do at my blog … she makes things … creates things … designs things … bakes things … and is pretty amazing at it.  I met Stephanie through ISU’s graphic design program — and she is extremely talented.  She works for Hallmark, which is the most coveted job in our field (or at least in my eyes anyway!)

Here’s a random smattering of lovely things that Steph has created and blogged about … you should go check her out, and don’t forget to leave her some love!

Lovely tote bag Steph created a while back

Um, YUM. Peanut butter cup cookies! Oh yes — and she shares recipes as well.

Lovely Zucchini pasta

Seriously — she is a jack of all trades! Adorable felt flower pin …

Here’s a closeup of an adorable onesie she made

Here’s a little taste of some of her great design skills … an invite for her annual cookie party and what I’m guessing is the lovely packaging she created to go with it.

And … a beautiful quilt.

You must take 5 minutes and check her out! Definitely worth it, unless you don’t like looking at well-designed and yummy things. Then … um … why are you here?

For those of you who don’t know, I’m participating in the Art House Coop’s Sketchbook Project this year.  That’s what the little doo-hickey on my sidebar is all about.

I received my sketchbook last week. My theme is “It’ll be fun, I swear.”

So far, I’ve just been playing around with simple pen drawings and watercolor. I’m going to try to make it more about hand-lettering than anything.

Here’s some photos of my progress for this week. I’m going to scan each page in when they’re finished so I have a digital copy since I have to mail it in and they get to keep it in their archives. It will travel across the country. How cool is that?

Right now I’m keeping it on my kitchen table so I can work on it while I’m cooking dinner rather than munching on things. Good plan, eh?

Oh boy.

In case you didn’t know, I hate the fair. It is absolutely NOT super-magical. Honestly, if I didn’t have to go for work, I wouldn’t go.  And I really should play state fair bingo when I do go (after my shift) because it would make the day so much more exciting.

Regardless: it’s over.

Well, my day there is anyway — the fair is still here for a few more days … blech.

First off, I must mention that I parked in front of the Slaughter residence. Yes. That is an epic last name. I wonder if they have a son around my age …

I got there and ran my shift at the Drake Day at the Fair tent. Check out the cool pix on our facebook! That was a lot of fun. My shift was slow, but we had a few awesome alums come through that made it totally worth while. Our theme this year was “Capture your love for Drake” and we were handing out pennants with a contest for the best fair photos with the pennant.  What a cool idea. Yay Drake!

I also worked at the VI building earlier that day and met a lady who graduated from Drake in 1930!  NINETEEN THIRTY.  She was amazing. She was an art teacher and a counselor for years. She also apparently has a golf cart with a bulldog on it that she wants to paint blue. Not just any blue, DRAKE BLUE. How cool!

Also, let me just say, I hate temporary tattoos. Most of my day was spent putting these on kids. Every time I put one on a kid, I felt like his mom was going to kill me. I had this one kid that asked for it on his FOREHEAD.  Seriously? I put another kid’s on the back of his neck. Honestly, he was out of room everywhere else. These kids went around to every station and got temporary tattoos. I’m sure to the delight of their parents.

Regardless. Adorable photo op!

Between my two shifts, I kind of geeked out over the quilts. I’m more of a fabric-a-holic than anything and the quilts at the fair never pique my interest as far as fabrics go, but damn. There is a lot of stitchery that goes into those quilts!

This one had a few fabrics I like and was a cute pattern.

Seriously. Look at that stitching!

All I have to say for this one is: wow. Those are a LOT of little tiny squares. This was a huge quilt. It didn’t even get an honorable mention. Really? Really.  I want to find out who did this so I can make him/her a ribbon because this is amazing.  Not as beautiful as some of the other quilts, but super amazing nonetheless. Can you imagine how much time and effort went into this? Seriously. CRAZY.

Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh. Wait.  I almost finished my post here, but then I realized I didn’t mention food. You can’t blog about the Iowa State Fair without food, right? Yeah. Okay, so I’m a health nut. I found the ONE thing that probably won’t kill me (and it was cheap too!). I had an apple with caramel and peanuts. OM. NOM. and only 2 bucks! That’s cheap for fair food.

… Steph and Steph!

I’ve got 3 more invites if anybody would like them. Just drop me an e-mail.

Fiiirst of all, I’d like to say happy 25th birthday to my friend, Steph.  If you have a chance, head over to her blog and leave her some love. Or hit her up on twitter.

I finally finished my yellow dinnerware set. I’ve had it since my friend Molly picked it up for me in May.  The yellow fake-estaware dish set.  There were a LOT of pieces to work with. But, I made a 19-piece set and lots of other random items out of it.

Yayy! Another one I can mark off my list …

And in other exciting news, I have a project to add to my WIP list … oops.

I received my sketchbook yesterday for The Sketchbook Project 2011. My theme is “It’ll be fun, I swear”. I think I’ll start with talking about how I thought this project will be fun …I’ll keep you updated on my progress.

I may or may not have stolen this idea from my friend at Domestica.

Regardless, I’m doing it.

Recently I was invited to a wonderful community where people can curate and share things that they love with one another. It’s called Pinterest. It was pretty much what I used to use tumblr for, but better. It’s like visual bookmarks for things I want to come back to. Not to mention, it’s helped me find all sorts of new things that I love to look at.

Here’s something lovely I found and posted on my designy board.

However, Pinterest is invite-only for now. BUT: I have 5 invites to give away!

Interested yet?  I know I would be.  How do you win?

Well … let’s see here … how about we make this contest about social networking — since that’s what Pinterest is about. To enter, comment on this post and tell me your favorite social networking site and why I should use it.

Good luck! I’m closing the comments at midnight on August 15 and a winner will be posted that day (winner chosen with the random integer generator).

So, I’m kind of a big deal. Maybe?

I’ve been in the paper a lot lately. Featured in Des Moines Register a while back and I’ve had my photo in various publications advertising for Market Day. And the etsy shop has been HOPPIN’ this week. Not sure what the deal is, but I’m getting to the point where I might not be able to keep up. No autographs, please.

Here’s all the lovely pretty things I sold on etsy this week (since last Sunday!):

Birdies and Coffee Creamer

Birdies and coffee sugar dish

Bluebirds and coffee oversized mug

2 of the It’s a teacup. Literally. cups

Pink musical flowers plate

Teatime with Gram set

The last 3 items went to the same lady in Korea. Not sure how she found me (guessing on Etsy), but I’m going to ask because I’m curious.

And sadly, I let my lovely butterflies and wonderland quilt go … it was bittersweet. I love this. I hope it is happy in its new home.

Anyway, I can’t believe how much press I’ve gotten and how popular my etsy shop has been this month alone. I need to get making!

Yay … I broke down and ordered more fabric. I probably shouldn’t have because my stash is kind of ridiculous, but I needed some new stuff. I had a custom request come through Market Day last week for a black and white wallet. I didn’t have any wallet-worthy black and white fabric. I like using oversized prints for my wallets, and all I’ve got in black and white is quilting fabric (for my black and white quilt that I have yet to post anything about).

So, I visited etsy, fatquartershop.com and fabric.com. Nothing really to be found on the latter two. Lots to be found on etsy. But, I realized they were all from the same seller, and that it was a familiar seller, so I just went to her website instead — Fabricworm.

Here’s what I picked up for the wallet … plus a few other things that I’ve been eyeing for a while.

Not sure what I’m going to make out of some of the stuff, but I had to have it for my stash. I also picked up a random fabric scrap bundle which gave me a couple other goodies. I wish I would have picked up more of the top black and white fabric. It is gorgeous. It’s going to make fabulous wallets.