chimesblog

When I was moving, I uncovered these fabulous dishes I was working on back in 2009.  I totally forgot about them, but am hoping to finish them before Craft Saturday on April 30.

Except … I have no idea what to put in the ribbon on the hearts. There are 4 plates that need something filled in and I plan to make the mugs to match.  I was going to do Mom, Dad, Love and something else, but realized if a family that didn’t have a mom, or didn’t have a dad might want these dishes and be offended.  My best idea so far is to keep it blank and personalize it for the person who buys it, but that’s not probably the BEST way to go about it.

Ideas???

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Howdy y’all.

I’ve got some good sales going on at my etsy shop for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

First — I have a few specific items on sale from Friday thru Monday.

My Beads and Lace Dinnerware set is available for $20 off the regular price.

My Black and Tan Platter is also for sale — $15 off the regular price.

And one of my lovely Fall Musical Flower plates is also $15 off the regular price.

Second — I HAVE COUPONS. For both my shops (retail and wholesale)

Today, use the code BLACKFRIDAY at the checkout from either of my stores and get 5% off any order.

On Monday, use the code CYBERMONDAY at the checkout from either of my stores and get 10% off any order. INCLUDING CUSTOMS (that are already posted).

Happy shopping! Hope you have a safe shopping trip if you’re braving the crowds.

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This week’s Humpday Blog Love installation is dedicated to The Hipster Housewife.

The Hipster Housewife is a blog started somewhat recently by Des Moines’s  own Cat Rocketship. If you live in the Des Moines area and haven’t heard of Cat, get out from that rock you’ve been living under.  Cat is a huge mover and shaker in the Des Moines Art scene. She’s a painter. A director of a local indie craft show (that I blog about often — Market Day). And she’s just recently embarked on her latest endeavor: housewife.

Well — not in the sense of the word you would think of — she’s not a June Cleaver or a Roseanne.  She moved her painting studio to her home and does an array of housewifey type things … like cooking, cleaning, and other things.  You can read all about it in this fabulous guest post she wrote over at small strokes.

Anyway, The Hipster Housewife is where Cat chronicles her adventures. Some of my favorite posts include figuring out that you can EAT the honeycomb (I did not know this!) and making cheese with her friend Kyle.

I’m a little bit jealous. I would love to have a studio at home and do all these fun housewifey things. That, and I love Cat’s idea of feminism — I DO WHAT I WANT TO DO. Don’t tack on “… as long as I’m a doctor/astronaut/physicist”.

Anyway, go check her out. I’m sure she’d love to have more than my daily comment on her blog. I’m wondering if she’s beginning to think I’m stalking her …

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I don’t have a photo of my Halloween costume just yet, but let me just say it’s pretty awesome.

I spent most of my time in my costume at Market Day yesterday.  I think the costume helped my salesmanship.

Here’s a few pix from yesterday’s sale … it was a great time and sadly, the last one for me this year. I will be at Craft Saturday next weekend though.

My booth in all its glory … Check out all the wallets!

Darby of DarbyCakes

Cat Rocketship, director of Market Day and of Rocket Assembly as a lovely gypsy lady

More of my lovelies — it never occurred to me before to have a SIGN describing what my dishes are. I think that helped sales. People saw that they weren’t just plain dishes.

A twoface mask by DaniAWESOME, who’s also pictured below as Flo, the Progressive lady. I stood by her all day and not once did she try to sell me insurance.

Fabulous day! Sad it’s the last one of the season for me, but there is next year! Be sure to go to the Black Friday sale in November at the Pappajohn building in downtown Des Moines.

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Welcome to my much-needed new feature … FO Friday.  FO stands for finished object (as opposed to UFO — un-finished object).

To recap my embarrassingly long list of UFOs:

1. Mug for a friend’s birthday present (2 weeks ago)
2. Tattoo Dish Set (July 2009)
3. mom’s pleather jacket restyle (September 2009)
4. quilt for my mom (March 2009) — in my defense, I just haven’t had the extra $75 around to get it professionally quilted.
5. coin stack quilt (March 2009)
6. Thea’s Puzzle Quilt (April 2010)
7. Roseanne Afghan (November 2007) — this project is to work on when I don’t have any other projects to work on
8. fabric scrap greeting cards (May 2010) — I have 45 blank cards left to create
9. camera cases (July 2010) —  I have 10 cases left to sew — just need to buy buttons and elastic to get them done
10. fabric scrap flowers (July 2010)
11. jeans into summer pants/shorts (July 2010)
12. Map of the states quilt (April 2010)
13. Yellow fake-esta ware dishes (July 2010)
14. Nerdy cross stitch (April 2010)
15. cookbook (December 2009)
16. Portfolio/website/resume revamp (May 2010) — don’t worry — just time for a refresh.
17. Wonky Log Cabin Quilt #1 (February 2010)
18. Wonky Log Cabin Quilt #2 (February 2010)
19. Workout/Recipe/Craft project binders (February 2010)
20. Family recipe book (January 2008)
21. ironic greeting cards (May 2009)
22. T-shirt quilt for my cousin (August 2009)
23. Fabric Frame (June 2010)
24. touch up painting my kitchen (May 2010)
25. recycled t-shirt rug (September 2009)
26. Black and white quilt (March 2009)

Today’s FO is #1 — Mug for a friend’s b-day present.

My new coworker and friend asked me to create a mug for his girlfriend for her birthday, which was August 3. Don’t worry. I had this finished beforehand. I just wanted to save the blog post for Friday so I can have a Friday feature (and more importantly have to have some FO to share with you every week from here on out).

Also, I may have lied when I said I wasn’t going to add anything to the list … if I do this Friday feature I’m going to run out of things to blog about rather quickly. Some of the things on the list aren’t going to be able to be finished in a super timely fashion because they’re either too expensive to finish or too time-consuming to finish in my spare time that quickly. So, I’m going to probably add some projects to the list. BUT instead of including the list on my blog post every week, I’ve created a page where it can live.  There’s a link on my sidebar to it as well.

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well, technically maybe 11 hours of actual painting.

I’m moving this week and I started off by painting and cleaning my new place. I agreed to rent this place on one condition: I had to be able to paint. Previous owners had painted the kitchen two shades of BRIGHT ORANGE. Not sure how they were able to cook while being simultaneously blinded, but to each their own.

So, I gained access to my new place yesterday and picked out some paint.

I had asked a bunch of people if they had some paint they’d be willing to give me, but decided to see how much paint actually cost since I was only painting one room and possibly a wall upstairs. Not bad. And Martha Stewart just released a line of paint with Home Depot. I figured if anybody could fix the orange mess, it would be her. So, I bought some of her paint along with a large bucket of greyish paint from the “oops” section for $5.

Anywho, I forgot that in order to paint, you have to tape everything off. This part is kind of a pain in the but. I enjoy painting, in fact, time flies when I’m painting, but taping stuff off? annoying.

After a couple hours and a roll of masking tape (which, by the way, do you guys have a preference on tape for painting? I got regular masking tape and the boy said I should have gotten the blue stuff. I hate the blue stuff! I’ve had issues with it. sorry. tangent) … I finally got around to painting.

It took two coats to cover the orange.  Not bad. I figured it would have taken three. Overall — Martha Stewart’s paint covers really well. The grey paint I bought was the kind that has primer in it already and MS’s paint covered just as well.

I finished painting the kitchen and the boy offered to help paint the blue wall upstairs. Apparently I should have hired him for the kitchen because he taped it off fast and like a pro. Not to mention, he’s a whiz with a roller.  We started and finished upstairs in 1.5 hours. Rock. On.

Anyway, I shall now  regale you with photographs of the experience.

This is the kitchen before I started painting.

The kitchen after adding 2 coats of the grey paint

The kitchen — finished, aside from touchups to the molding and to cover some of the orange peeking out of the edge.

Upstairs — before. I was intrigued by the paint job on the outlet.

Mark volunteered to help. I tasked myself with the hard job of photographer.

As you can see, it’s a really tough job.

Matching paint stains! Besties.

Mark was proud of a job well done. Don’t worry guys — I did buy him ice cream afterwards. Even though it was after midnight (guys, he’s not a gremlin, so I can feed him after midnight. it’s cool).

The upstairs — finished! I have a bit of touchup, but far less than I do in the kitchen. I love how the green and the wood color mix.

Also, for your enjoyment. Me after a long day of painting.

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eventually I’m going to move posts like this to my main site (chimesdesign.com), but until I get a chance to redesign the site and this blog, I’m keeping it here.

I’ve been collaborating on a project with my friend Kim, who’s an artist and activist living in NYC, and I’m starting to pull together some ideas. Here’s a few little scraps of what I’m working on to tickle your fancy. I’ll post the final product once it’s approved and accepted by the client.

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