Farm Girl Studio

This is what I have been working one, the first one is for me. I love the colors in this skirt. I will tweek the design a bit for the ones I make to sell. What do you think

Janell is a fellow lampworker along with working in a number of other artistic medias. Her latest creations are vintage t-shirt purses. Here is a link to a picture of one of her purses at the Second Sunday on Main event. I love these and can't wait to get one for myself. Janell sells her one of a kind creations at farmers markets and art shows in the Cincinnati area. The reason that I am doing the farmers markets is because of her, she is very motivating. You can also find her items at her Etsy store and Art fire store. Look for her vintage embroidery patterns that she is adding to her sewn stuff. She is also a fantastic baker, Cake balls, cookies and wonderful jams can be purchased at her booth. Janell has a cute blog , check out what she is up to next.

The weather man was sure we where not going to have any rain on Saturday,, opps wrong again lol. It drizzled for a good part of the morning. Despite that a lot of people came out to the market! I saw so many past customers that stop to buy my new items, along with wonderful new customers I hope to see again. Here are my new gourds, I am loving these and they are a big seller so far This is not a great picture but I hope you can get the idea, silverware wind chimes. I wasn't able to get a picture of the really big one I sold. It was one of the first things I sold in the morning I didn't realize I had not taken a picture until it was too late :( I have to get back in to the habit of taking pictures of everything I make. A vendor/friend and I went for Indian food after the market,, to be honest I didn't even know there was an Indian restaurant in Dubuque. Very yummy! hit the thrift store to see if I could get anything for wind chimes. Found some wooden rolling pins ...

Things are still very hectic here, the goat is still very sick so much of my time is spent nursing her. Please say a prayer for Macy if you could. It is going to storm tomorrow so we are not doing the farmers market. This is stressing me out a bit but nothing can be done about it. I am making beads tomorrow, yes you read right lol. I just hope the electric doesn't go out. The garden still isn't in but the plants are doing ok in the green house. The weather is going to be wet until next Wednesday, maybe the garden will get planted after that. I was tagged by my blog buddy Inspiration Earth to do this questionnaire, I love reading everyone's answers. A. Age: 48 B Bed size : Queen C. Chore you hate : Weeding,, it is never ending D. Day: Everyday is wonderful, no one favorite E. Essential start to the day : Quite and coffee F. Favorite color : Purple G. Gold or Silver: Silver H. Height: 5' 1/2" I. Instruments : Violin J.Job title: Artist, house mana...

Miss Scarlet's School of Patternless Sewing I found out about this book on the podcast CraftSanity , did I mention that I obsessed with podcasts lately :P I have a really long list of books that I want to read or listen too. Some books are great listening ones and some you just need to hold. I believe this is a holding one as it comes with 3 project ideas in the back. This book is written by Kathy Cano-Murillo and her web site is Crafty Chica . Expect to spend a lot of time here. I have not gotten through it yet. This is not her first novel Waking Up in the Land of Glitter: A Crafty Chica is her first book, I can't believe I have never heard of these before. Check out her site, blog and her books.

There is a Starbucks just a couple of doors down :) This is the park we walk through House I grew up in,, it was blue back then Willow and her "little sister" getting their picture taken So Pretty Great Art My mother just happens to live 1/2 block away from the house I grew up in. So when we go back it is interesting looking at the area with older eyes :) I am from Oak Park Illinois, it is a western suburb of Chicago. It borders the city limits and is pretty built up. Most things are within walking distance or you can hop on the metra and be downtown in just a few minutes. One of my favorite things to do when I visit my mom is to take an early morning walk to get coffee. There are two,, yes two coffee shops just across the park. These pictures are from our coffee walk.

I can't say we miss much from living in the Chicago area, but Brookfield Zoo and Chicago's great food are two of them :P. We were able to make it out for a visit last weekend. Usually we don't go together as it is a project to have someone take care of the animals while we are gone. The farmers markets will be starting in a couple of weeks and will be keeping us very busy on the weekends. Turns out we pick a fantastic weekend to go. The midwest has been raining and cold, the sun shone and it warmed up just in time for our trip :D. My mom lives near the zoo so we stopped by her condo, dropped off our stuff, picked her up and where off. They have changed the zoo alot since we have been there last, we missed some of the older houses but the new animal homes are so nice. I really got my exercise in that day as we walked all over and left the zoo at 6pm when it closed. Here are pictures from our trip.

This is a great bracelet design for both girls and guys, looks wonderful with summer clothes too. My friends Jess and Trish found this link from the Rings and Things blog. When we went to the Madison bead show we picked up what we needed to make these. The tutorial calls for 6mm beads but you can change the size, just remember that larger beads are going to be really heavy. I made some single wraped ones, I love the red one so much I may keep it for myself :P. Instead of the leather I used hemp and it worked great too. For the larger beaded ones I used a heavier wax cotton. Give this a try and send me pictures of what you did, I can't wait to see everyones bracelets.

I have been wanting to make these for a couple of months now and finally got a the time. These are great for the garden, but you can even use them in house plants if you want to. Here is just one of the many sites that show you how to make them. This one only shows you how to use spoons but I have had great success with forks also. Try it let me know what you think.

I just found this blog and LOVE it,, she has the most wonderful tutorial. Even some really cute ones for me!! I can't wait to try some of the cute summer shirt ones check it out Happy Together

I think these are going to be soooooo cute for the farmers market http://blog.betzwhite.com/2007/07/by-seat-of-my-pants.html

Along with the buy nothing challenge I am putting myself on the use what you have challenge. I am an over buyer of crafting things :) I am going to use all of the stuff I already have and just haven't had the time to use. My list included gourds, horse shoes and a bunch of silverware that needs to be made into something cool. I will be posting links to sites that highlight my underused craft items.

Since I have been doing shows again I need to display my work. Those of you who do shows know how expensive displays can be. Mass produced ones are usually not very interesting either. I have been on a quest to either get displays at garage sales or make them. This project incorporates both of those things :P I found these 15" candle sticks at a garage sale for $3. Everything else I had around the house.

These are my newest creations with felted wool. I love them! Perfect pins for your coat, scarf or hat. I should have more coming soon in my Etsy store but if you want to buy these they are $10 each $3 shipping.

With your help I won the challange at Vintaj. My two sample pack will be put to good use as I am making jewelry for my fall and Holiday shows. This summer has been very busy, good for us bad for blogging :) After this weekend things should slow down and I will be back on a regular basis. I have found a new passion in sewing, don't worry I still love beads!. I have always been interested in making my our clothes and since I really don't like the way things are make most of the time in stores. Aprons are first on the list, great for family dinners and gifts. Also some very cute little girl skirts out of old t-shirts! I will post some links and pictures. Hope you have had a great summer and enjoy the last weekend!

It was made by me great customer Sharon! I love it! Thanks Sharon!

Sorry about not posting over the weekend. I was in Chicago getting a tattoo. More about that tomorrow :P Before I left I made homemade butter, it was very easy. The taste is wonderful. Take a look at this video, you can have fresh butter tomorrow. I will be getting ready for the Dubuque Farmers Market that starts this coming Saturday. A few more items to finish and I need to price alot of things. Check back tomorrow for pictures of my tattoo.

I really think every single day is "Earth" day. We all need to think of how we treat the earth and try to make it a better place. I am a crazy recycler and reuser. There is so much waste, our culture has a very disposible mind set. Think before you throw something away. Can I recycle this? Reuse it? Just to give you a couple of ideas you can use old yogurt containers to start seeds in. Old dishsoap containers can be used to spray you plants with soap water for bugs. That way you don't use hard chemicals either. My jewelry is very earth friendly, I alway look for ways to use what I have on hand in a new way. Here is a link for my ideas for Earth Day

This is a great site !! CForiginals if you are a polymer clay artisit or not you will love this site.  She has a new book  called Steampunk designs that I think looks wonderful.  Polymer clay is one of the new medias that the Bead Divas are going to give a try this year.  I can't wait!! You can download projects and look at her gallery for new ideas.  I found some polymer clay that had some sparkles already in it , Pardo Jewellery clay .  It is made by a company called Viva decor in Germany.  They have a gallery also to get some great ideas for jewelry ,  I plan on doing my art clay silver designes in polymer for a different look.   Check back for pictures  

I love these new post-it lables These totally go with the whole organizing thing for 2010 I am doing right now. I was going to buy a lable maker but I think these will work out much better, since you can remove them without any trouble. I am sure you can find a ton of uses in your home or studio for these, try them out.