Shopping and inspiration: New Orleans, LA

A few weeks ago I was in New Orleans for a dance competition and got to spend a few lovely afternoons browsing shops in the French Quarter. Ok, maybe I did more than browse...but look at how pretty everything is!

Birds painting by Kelly Magee: Dutch Alley Artist's Co-op.

Red Victorian boot by 67: Shoe Be Do. (This store is soooo fabulous! They stock really unique European shoes.)
Brown Victorian "Tapenade" boot, tan "Caricature" Mary Jane, brown "Aristocrat" oxford, Aerosoles.
Lace doilies, placemat, table runner, napkins, coasters: Rendezvous Linens and Lace.
Vintage earrings, cuff bracelet, and bird necklace: Rendezvous Linens and Lace.

Also in this picture is my first-place medal for Ladies 8-Hand Ceili from the 2012 Southern Region Oireachtas! Yay!

If I'd had more time in New Orleans I probably would have done even more damage. I'm sure I spent at least an hour in the linens and lace store--they had all kinds of awesome jewelry and treasures!

 

Just a few pics below from our meanderings around town. I did find time to eat a delicious Po' boy, check out the flea market, see street performers by Jackson Square, and stroll along the river watching the steamboats. I also discovered that food options are a little limited in New Orleans if you don't eat seafood! One night I had grilled cheese at a restaurant...and I will admit I ate Popeyes (or "Pope Yes" as my brother calls it) for lunch in a pinch.

 

 

 

 

 

Great times with my dance friends (not to mention our win!), good food, and awesome shopping--all in all, a great weekend in NOLA!

New etsy listings: felt flower and leaf cuffs

Happy New Year to everyone!  The past few days have been...uh...somewhat productive. Haha, I spent a lot of time reading books and watching HGTV instead of doing anything useful. Sometimes you gotta relax and do nothing though, right?

Today I did manage to get the new cuffs up on etsy!

Felt Flower Cuff Bracelet in Purple and Lavender



Felt Flower Cuff in Red, Black, and White

Felt Leaf Cuff in shades of green

Felt Flower Cuff in Blue and Turquoise

Happy holidays and new felt cuff bracelets

Hope everyone is enjoying a lovely holiday weekend!  Being sick and sitting around has been at least somewhat productive...I finished six more felt cuffs and have more in the works (as well as some more sets of felt leaf coasters).

Trying to come up with some new color combos for my next bunch...any thoughts?

Now at Love and Glitter!

Hooray! My accessories are now available for sale at Love and Glitter on Main Street in historic Ellicott City.   It's a great place to start some of your holiday shopping and find unique, handmade gifts.

Some of the pieces for sale there include my felt leaf coasters, decoupage frames, owl pins, flower barrettes, felt purses, and floral cuff bracelets. Please make sure to stop by and check out all of the cool handmade stuff in this lovely shop!

While I was there, I bought a couple of these fabulous pendants...and they have a variety of necklace chains and ribbons to pick from. What fun!

May Craft Blog Giveaway Winner

Yay! The winner of my giveaway for the Pink Leaves Felt Cuff Bracelet is:
MommyWantsToRead

Thank you to everyone for entering! Have a great day :)

May Craft Blog Giveaway: Pink Leaf Cuff Bracelet!

Happy Friday everyone!

I know it's been a while since I did a giveaway so here it is! My May giveaway is for one of my new felt cuffs--this one with lovely pink leaves. I made this piece while at a craft fair last week in an attempt to brighten the dreary gray day.

I hand-stitched this bracelet out of two layers of recycled felt, with a bright pink ribbon sandwiched in between. This cuff will fit most size wrists and is quite sturdy.

It's super easy...just leave a comment on this post below including your email address. So enter below and get yourself a free piece of my hand-stitched felt jewelry!

You can leave your email address in this format if you like: pickychickybird AT gmail DOT com, just to avoid spam.

Last day to enter is Monday, May 16th...I'll announce the winner here on my blog the following day, so stay posted!

A few more pics of the prize:

Good luck to all my giveaway enthusiasts!

New Felt Cuff Bracelets and Hobo Craft Fair Recap

I was playing around with my felt the other day and came up with this new blue/cream/peach color combination--I love how it looks on the felt cuff bracelets!

These would look awesome with jeans, or as the "something blue" in a bridal ensemble. I made the one on the blue ribbon with a long ribbon so that it could also be worn as a headband. I love the way they look together as a set.

  

In other news, the hobo craft fair on Sunday was not too hobo-y...until it started raining at 2pm. The rain wasn't going anywhere, so I packed up shortly after that. The morning was pretty good though--good temperature, nice people, decent traffic.

Some of my new crafty items out on display.

Lots of pins and barrettes!

People seemed to really like the MOO business cards I had available--they're really pretty and a great way to show lots of your different projects. Plus, they're inexpensive and super easy to make. I think I have only one left--time for another order!

Getting ready for craft fair--and spring flower cuffs!

Reminder--tomorrow is the Riverdale Park Arts Festival! Please stop by and see me if you're in the area...it's from 11am to 6pm. I make no guarantees as to the hobo-ness this year though :)

I'm currently packing up for the fair and just finished a new batch of my flower felt cuffs for spring!

Happy spring everyone!

Hobo craft fair this weekend! Plus projects in the works...

A quick side note: today is the 226th birthday of John James Audubon...please check out the Audubon Society and what you can do to help birds in your area!

Over the past few weeks, I've been working on a bunch of new items for the upcoming 4th annual Riverdale Park Arts Fest--yup, that's right, this is the craft fair Brie and I refer to as "Hobo Craft Fair" (due to the rain, cold, and our other assorted hoboness from the last time we did it).

It's going to be this Sunday, May 1 from 11am to 6pm and there's food and live music too--and hopefully no rain! Last year I was sick and couldn't make it so I'm excited about attending this Sunday.

The main projects I have in the works right now are my felt flower and leaf cuffs, and more decoupage wall art.

Three of the cuffs here were ones I finished while in New Mexico...the other three are still in progress.

And I have a bunch of the decoupage wall pieces ready to be painted. I draw in the pictures with my favorite Faber-Castell Pitt brush pen...and then they will be colored in, and sealed with another coat of decoupage finish.

On this last piece, I am still deciding what to do with the middle square. My original intention was to draw an anchor in that box, if I can manage to make it look normal. If this was going to be a personalized piece, I'd paint a big colorful letter for the person's first name in that box.

In progress: new flower cuffs for spring

After making the felt leaf cuff bracelets, I decided I wanted to do more of them, but with a springlike theme.  Here are a few of my felt flower cuffs in progress...

I probably will have to get some more ribbon (as if I didn't have 1000 spools already) because the kinds I currently have didn't really suit the cuffs. I do have some yellow grosgrain ribbon with daisies that I'm going to use for the one on the right.

If these come out cute, I want to do some purple and pink ones next!