New in the shop: Acorn Garlands!

I've listed a brand-new item in the shop today: acorn garlands! These are 6ft garlands of felted wool acorns in natural acorn caps, strung across a length of high-quality baker's twine. I know it's been a while since I hinted at them here, but I wanted to perfect their packaging before rolling them out. You can also see them in action in my show displays here and here.

So far, I have four colors in the shop: red, black cherry red, earth tones rainbow, and white.

This batch is on classic red-and-white baker's twine, but soon there will be grey-and-white and tan-and-white twine options also, as well as a multitude of acorn color options, so keep an eye on the shop in the coming weeks!

We Make Portland Awesome: Anna Magruder

"We make Portland awesome" is a bi-weekly series. I’m interested building our community of artists by helping us all find out more about each other.

This week: Anna Magruder

Who are you?
My name is Anna Magruder and I am a Portland, Oregon oil painter.

What do you make?
I create original oil paintings and sell high quality prints of my work. My favorite subjects are people and animals and whatever lies between. Drifting between realism and surrealism, I love recreating vintage America, re-imagining the lives and stories of the characters on my canvas or just exploring the emotional color of faces in the crowd.

Besides making things, what do you do?
I love visiting thrift and antique stores and flea markets.

What inspires you?
I am inspired by past eras and love anything vintage or antique. I collect old yearbooks as they are a time capsule for clothing and hair styles from the past and I enjoy being inspired by the faces and stories represented.

Where can your work be found?
www.annamagruder.com/
www.annamagruder.etsy.com
Occasionally I show in various galleries and small shops around town.

What do you love about Portland?
Oh how I do love Portland... I love the connectedness of neighborhoods, McMenamins, the cloudy days as well as sunny days, Hawthorne St, Stumptown Coffee, accessibility to mountains and the ocean... I love the supportive community of artists and crafters that I have found here. It allows for the nurturing of creative thought and experimentation that goes hand-in-hand with art-making.


Make sure you check out Anna Magruder's Etsy shop and website.
Thanks for sharing, Anna! 

Planting the garden!

Over the weekend, we planted the long-awaited garden! It's absolutely huge. This is because when we asked the neighbor if we could borrow his tiller, he brought over a tractor with a tiller attachment! It's a shared backyard, and the neighbor is the one who mows it... so I can see his point in turning a whole bunch of it into a garden instead. He was about to make it even bigger than this, but we thought that 12'x45' was big enough. :)

We planted china peas, asparagus beans, pinto beans, purple beans, lemon cucumbers, regular cucumbers, white & orange pumpkins, and zucchini! We figure that even if even not all of them make it, we'll still have plenty. There's a wild rabbit who lives at the farm, so hopefully there will be too much for him to eat, and we'll get some of the harvest too. Probably even too much!

I'll keep you posted! Seedlings are just so cute and photogenic, so there will probably be many photos of them as they grow. In the meantime, you can check out this post from a while back when I was just planning & anticipating the garden.

The Afghan of 2013... Finished!

 

Yes, I know the year isn't over. But this project is! Not only were my calculations slightly off in how many rows I'd need to do to finish it, but I ended up loving the cozy little wrap-up-on-the-couch size of the afghan as it is now! So I bound it off, and now I have this lovely little afghan, my very first crochet project of this size. That's one life goal checked off my list! :) You can see how it all started right here.

Milestone: 250 listings in the shop!

My Etsy shop now has 250 listings! It's the most that I've ever had at one time, as it's hard to get ahead when they keep selling. ;) My goal is, at some point before the end of the year, to have 300 listings, so I'm using the slow season to get ahead. I've even come up with several brand-new products because of the challenge of this goal!

**Somewhat related: If you've been contemplating a purchase from House of Moss, you have until the end of May to get 10% off your order using the coupon code "SPRINGPDX"! You have more choices now than ever before!**

Crafty Wonderland Spring 2013 in review

Well, several days later I am finally writing about the show! Saturday was Crafty Wonderland, the next day was Mother's Day, and a busy couple beginning of the week at my day job have led me to a Wednesday review of a Saturday show.

Scheduling craziness aside, it has been decent. Crafty Wonderland was good. It was definitely better than last year's CW Spring Sale. <-- Oh my, you should definitely check out that link. My display has changed so very much since then, and I didn't remember that we'd had a crazy May heat wave last year too.

Many of my favorite people were selling there this year, as well, including:
Pepe of Muluk,
Andrea of Travelust,
Michele Maule,
Agnes of Betty Turbo,
Torie of Totinette,
Jackie of Scrumptious Suds,
and so many others!

Many thanks to those who visited, to those who support my business with their time and encouragement as well as with their purchases!

We make Portland awesome: Ready Maker Design

"We make Portland awesome" is a bi-weekly series. I’m interested building our community of artists by helping us all find out more about each other.

This week: Jaclyn of Ready Maker Design

Who are you? What do you make?
My name is Jaclyn Hudak and I make hand drawn wedding invitations, personalized stamps, and hand drawn gifts. I also work as a graphic designer for small businesses and nonprofits through my company Ready Maker Design (www.readymakerdesign.com). I've always enjoyed making things, but it wasn't until I was asked to do a few wedding invitations that I found out I have a unique hand drawn style that I love to create. As a graphic designer, Etsy was the perfect platform to create a little shop for my wedding invitations, paper goods, and gifts.

Besides making things, what do you do?
I enjoy sewing in my spare time, but I’m just learning so I’m not very good at it yet. I also just started a second Etsy shop called HuzzArtShop, where I sell my photographs that I make with alternative process like cyanotype (the same process that was used to make blueprints). I love making them because instead of using a camera, I can use negatives and stencils to create fun shapes and crazy prints. (etsy.com/shop/huzzartshop)

What inspires you?
I’m most inspired by the couples that will be using my invitations. I love imagining how their weddings will look and how happy the celebration will be.

Where can your work be found?
Currently my work is only online at Etsy, I think it’s a wonderful platform and makes managing orders so easy.

What do you love about Portland?
I think Portland is special because it’s a small “big” city. It’s small enough that you can feel at home, but large enough that there’s always something new to explore. My favorite aspects are the food trucks scattered throughout the city, how you can get around the city easily with out a car, and the music scene. I also love how beautiful it is in spring when all of the flowers are blooming.


Make sure you check out Ready Maker Design's Etsy shop and website. 
Thanks for sharing, Jaclyn!  

TOMORROW: The Crafty Wonderland Super Colossal Spring Sale!

 

Great news for everyone looking for something fun to do tomorrow: Crafty Wonderland's Spring Sale is happening! There will be aisles and aisles of handmade amazingness, as well as crafts, a new wedding-vendor section, and cats. Yes, CATS! Cats with handmade bowties, available for adoption! What could be better, seriously. 

And if you're one of the first 200 shoppers, you'll get a goody bag... some of which have free House of Moss acorns in them (similar to these from the Holiday show). You'll have to get there early, though, as the line has been seen to line up around the corner!

If you're not so lucky (or you just want to sleep in a bit), stop by at BOOTH #88 and pick up your own acorns. I will have multitudes of them, as well as other felted wool home decor and treasures, including hearts, coasters, terrariums, nests, pebbles, and more! I'll bet your mom would like a pocket-sized felted wool heart. :) Or just stop by to say hi, or to check out my new cube packaging for my little bottlecap gardens.

Here is a map to help you find me tomorrow:

Plan plenty of time, because there are SO many amazing makers lined up to be here. Lots of my good friends, as well as new ones at this show! So, stop by tomorrow (Saturday, May 11th) from 11am to 6pm, and immerse yourself in the awesomeness.

What's New: Cube Packaging

 Finally, my new 2" cube packaging has arrived! These are for my small items like seedlings, mushrooms in bottlecaps, and sheep in bottlecaps. They'll provide even more cuteness, as well as simply protecting these delicate items. See how each one is a little "habitat" for the item?

 

 I also added some sweet little sayings to some of them, so that they can be given as gifts or in place as cards. Who wouldn't love a little "I Love Ewe" felted sheep?

Special thanks to my dad, Michael Comfort, for his ingenious design on these. He's a superb graphic designer, and I'm so lucky that I have someone nearby who can make my rough designs into the printed products that I'd imagined!

These cubes will be used for local boutiques and shows. Online sales will still be packaged in a reusable kraft box, unless you request this packaging specifically, as they're not quite strong enough to withstand the Post Office's handling. :)

I'll be rolling these out at the Crafty Wonderland Super Colossal Spring Sale this Saturday, so stop by and see them in person!

Favorite Things Friday: Cuppow Lid

Continuing the theme of mason jars this week, I thought I'd share another recent find that I love. This lid is called a "Cuppow" and makes a mason jar into a drinking cup for hot liquids. It's like the top of a disposable coffee cup, only reusable!