Shopping and inspiration: Antiques in Hancock, MD

On the drive back from a weekend in Cleveland, I got the urge to stop along the way and do a little antiquing...and found some great stuff at Hancock Antique Mall in Hancock, MD.

My favorite spot was definitely the Lill booth--the owner had set it up super cute, with all kinds of teapots and china and glass trays and lovely tea things. I also considered getting a shabby chic sort of carved wood frame mirror but it looked like it needed some repair...and there were some pink goblets to match the bird bowl that I wish I had picked up too. Might require a return trip!

 

From top:

Dep pink bowl with birds on side: Lill

Popegosser china dessert plates: Lill

Kentucky Cardinal apples sign: Lois

Nippon handpainted dip plate: Lill

Blue marble trinket box (with cockatiels on it!!!): Lill

Vintage hankies: Lill

Micro floral tapestry vintage pin: Val

Metal coaster set: Lill

Car coasters: Lill

Omg I was SO excited to find the cockatiel box especially. I happened to go back to the Lill booth after my round of the entire antique mall...I was really looking for vintage hankies and teacups so I overlooked it on the shelf somehow the first time! This is definitely my favorite new piece.

In other news, welcome to fall! I was half-surprised to see the leaves on the sidewalk yesterday, even though the weather is getting noticeably cooler.

 

 

Might be time for a road trip to enjoy all the pretty fall leaves :) Or more apple picking!

PYOP (Paint Your Own Pottery) ladybug jewelry box

Things have been pretty busy--I'm studying for an exam, switching to a new office at work, and how does the laundry keep piling up? In between all the craziness I did find some time to go paint pottery with Juli at The Pottery Stop. Thursday is ladies night so gals get 20% off the price of the pottery, and you can bring your own wine or beer.

I wanted to make another jewelry box since the last one with the butterfly turned out so good...I wanted a similar look and feel like they were part of a set. I used my usual wax resist technique to give it that stained glass look. On this one I did a ladybug with some leaves and flowers. It turned out so pretty!

On the bottom I don't like to just put my initials (boring!) so I painted a little bee picture with them...get it...bzzzzz...

 

 

 

 

Next time: PYOP coasters!

PYOP (Paint Your Own Pottery) Part 4

My friend Angie was in town this week and she is also crafty so we spent an afternoon at The Pottery Stop. I finished two pieces that came out pretty darn cute, if I do say so myself! Angie had never tried PYOP before and she had a great time and may be hooked on it too :) And her piece came out amazing!

Angie painted this lovely bowl (as part of a vertical spoon rest) with a Tuscan countryside scene.

 

I just love the koi on the inside of the bowl, what a beautiful touch! Angie has really meticulous attention to detail which paid off here, especially since the bowl is actually quite small (about 4 inches in diameter). It looks awesome.

 

This time I thought to take "before" photos of my pieces...partly to show the difference, and partly to remember what paint colors I used and how they looked before they were fired. I tend to use blues that are too dark and hide the black outlines and don't want to make that mistake on my next one.

 

Here's my three-section tray, with a ladybug, bird, and dragonfly. Before:

 

 

And after:

The ladybug was my favorite section on this one once it was fired. See what I mean about the overly dark blue sky in the other sections?

 

I also decided to paint a cute little design on the back.

 

After I finished this piece, I had some extra time while waiting for Angie to paint her tiny trees, etc. So I started a new tray (wavy sushi plate) with one of my favorite little scenes that I've painted in watercolor and other media before...whaley!

My little whale scene before:

 

 

And after being fired:

 

 

I love how bright all the colors turned out! And I did a little bit of a dotted texture detail in the coral, which came out better than expected. I added a silly little chicken legs box signature design on the back for fun:

 

 

We really had a great, relaxing day painting our pottery! What a nice way to spend the day with a friend :) And then picking up our pottery pieces was like a surprise present all over again, to see how they turned out!

PYOP (Paint Your Own Pottery) Part 3

I went back to pick up my latest pottery piece from The Pottery Stop and was sort of surprised with the results. The vase turned out great on some sides...on others the design did not come out quite as I intended...but overall it was a pretty successful experiment!

 

The side with the red bird is the one I'm happiest with. Even though the branch near the top didn't come out quite as visible as I would have liked (I underestimated the darkness of the dark blue I used for the top), it looks pretty close to what I had in mind. The birdie is so fat and cute!

 

 

Here are some of the other views...

 

I'm not thrilled with how the side with the monarch butterfly below turned out...I think I was rushing to finish on the leaves and they didn't come out quite right.

 

The colors on the leaf were not what I was expecting for some reason! Haha. Otherwise I am happy with the dragonfly panel though. 

 

 

This side has a bird on it but you can barely see the top because I used too dark of a background, unfortunately. Otherwise it looks really pretty...sigh.

Vase bottom...I guess it got a little scratched in transit to the kiln?

Overall the vase was sort of an ambitious project for a beginner at PYOP so I'm fairly pleased with it...and ok with the slightly imperfect results. Hey, I can always go back and do it again! It was lots of fun to work on :) What a great crafty activity to do with friends!

Paint your own pottery

Check out what I made!

 
I recently tried one of those paint your own pottery things for the first time at The Pottery Stop. I wasn't sure how my piece would turn out since 1) it took me a hundred years to do, 2) I was trying a wax resist technique that seemed iffy, and 3) I made up the design as I went along. I also experimented with putting a ton of different paints in some of the areas which gave it a cool marble effect (but could equally have come out as a disaster for all I know).

But I totally love how this switchplate cover came out! The leaves look pretty cool. I would totally go again--and next time I want to make:

• a larger switchplate
• a round trinket box (maybe with a monarch butterfly on it?)
• a large rectangular vase

A big thank you to Juli for introducing me to this fun crafty outing! :)

Leaves in all colors!

I finished lots more batches of leaf coasters and have posted them to etsy...go take a look!

Brown, Tan, and Ochre Leaf Coasters

Leaf Coasters in Shades of Blue

Burgundy and Brown Leaf Coasters

Gray and Black Leaf Coasters

Any other ideas for color combos?

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?

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.

Some spring inspiration

Sounds like a lot of folks are having a tough week, so I thought I'd post some happy/inspiring spring pictures. I took a walk around my neighborhood this afternoon and it was so darn pretty out!

is that broccoli growing out of the planter?

blue jay in the tree!