First off, I just want to say thanks to Bonnie from Going Home To Roost for giving a shout out about my new online store! It is very much appreciated!
I spent yesterday outside of Whole Foods Market on Magazine Street getting sunburned (oops!) and showing people how to recycle their old t-shirts into reusable grocery totes. This was sort of a dry run for the t-shirt recycling workshops the New Orleans Craft Mafia will be doing in a few weeks at Bayou Boogaloo. We’re also going to be doing a Crafty Meet & Greet with the ladies of Stitch n’ Bitch Flanagan’s in a few weeks at Flanagan’s Pub (625 St. Philip Street in the French Quarter) on Wednesday, May 5 from 8 pm – til. We’ll be looking for crafty volunteers to help us at Bayou Boogaloo, so let me know if you’re interested in getting involved! (I took a bunch of pictures yesterday but haven’t had a chance to download them yet from my camera – I’ll try to post them soon!)
Handmade Louisiana, a great community of Louisiana based artists and crafters, is celebrating its 1st birthday with a big birthday sale! I’ve met some new-to-me local craft lovers through this group, which is open to both crafty businesses around Louisiana as well as people who don’t sell their work but just love to craft!
I got a note from Tiffany Balk about her business, Bluberry Haven, and couldn’t stop drooling as I browsed her website. Based in southwest Michigan, which produces 44 percent of the blueberries on the U.S. market, Tiffany’s company offers all sorts of blueberry related products, and she also offers some delicious sounding recipes on her site. (I really, really want to try my hand at her Chocolate Chip Blueberry Cookie recipe. Yum!)
The Friends List is a fun new site put together by Meaghan of oh ginger and oh meaghan. I love the idea, and I want to put together a list for the site — basically it’s a blog with user-created lists. One friend tells a little story about their best friend and creates a list of fun finds from handmade and vintage shopping sites that they think their friend would like. I think it’s such a fun idea and a cute way to bring friends together. Check it out!
I saw these Mini Thank You Cards by Jennifer of Cards and Notes, and these Think Pink Daisy Flower Earrings by Gemma of Indie Handmade and I thought they were fun. I’ve always had a soft spot for Gerbera Daisies, and I think both of these are fun for spring!
I just heard about this collaboration between the band Anti-Flag and and the company USELESS, which creates repurposed goods from materials that would have otherwise ended up in the landfill. They’ve taken overstock band t-shirts and screen-printed a new design on top of the old screen-print to raise awareness and funds for the The Kundorwahun Project, which supports clean water and sanitation in Sierra Leone, Africa. I think this is a really cool idea. This is kind of why we’ve been doing t-shirt recycling demonstrations with the New Orleans Craft Mafia – we’ve gotten a lot of t-shirt donations from special events where there were way more t-shirts printed than needed or sold, so we’ve been helping people transform them into something new, just like USELESS has done. Pretty cool!
MORE CRAFT & DESIGN LINKS
fox pillow ((sneak peeks!)) @ A Beautiful Mess
true cost :: buying handmade and the national health care debate AND what prevents you from buying handmade? @ Scoutie Girl
Hands On @ Make & Meaning
vintage finds for a modern world: swarm. @ sfgirlbybay
take me to your treehouse. @ Mixed Plate
Blue & white @ kRISATOMIC
Thistle Cottage Studio – The Genius That Was ERTE @ Handmade Spark
CRAFTY BIZ LINKS
Considering All the Angles @ Bixbe.Biz
Selling Art: 3 Ways to Get it Off the Wall And Into the World @ Meylah Blog
best business advice i’ve ever received. part 1 @ White Hot Truth
understanding growth @ craftMBA.com
