Side Project Fun (or New Bionic Buttercup Gems)

Remember how I told you guys about my second Etsy shop, The Bionic Buttercup?

Well, I thought I'd hopefully brighten your Tuesday and post some of my favorite, quirkiest items from my shop!

Like this mirror haunted by a little girl...




this animal cell necklace...




or this altered landscape painting...




Have a unique Tuesday!

The Dallas Flea (or What Are You Doing On September 11, 2010?)

Hey, Dallas!

Gimmie three good reasons that you're not going to come to The Dallas Flea!

See? Exactly! You can't!
It's impossible not to come to this totally awesome, totally interesting, totally rad craft fair extravaganza!

The Dallas Flea has become a huge event in a very short time in the DFW megaplex. It's an upscale craft fair for those who love buying handmade.

Check out this KADF video interview with Brittany Edwards, curator of The Dallas Flea. The video is from a prior iteration, but she does a great job explaining what you can find there:

 

Side Project (or My Ridiculous Art)

So, I'm not totally done with this project, but I can't wait to share it with you...

This past week, my husband, Josh, and I have totally redone our apartment. We deep cleaned, donated boxes and boxes of things that we no longer need, and got ourselves organized. We also rearranged some furniture which (to me) warrants new artwork on the wall! (Any excuse, right?)

My goal was "ridiculous Victorian" and I opted to paint precious portraits of ridiculous things...

I started with some wooden ovals,




penciled in some rough sketches,




mustered all of my rudimentary Bob Ross painting technique and applied it to portraiture!




Taa-daa!







This is my new favorite thing I've ever made for the house, and these little vignettes are going to hang on the wall behind our tv.

In the interest of full disclosure, Josh drew the Ninja Turtle (Donatello, our favorite! He "does machines"...)



All of Josh's 5th grade practice had led up to this momentous tour de force... I'm absolutely blown away by it! Doesn't it look authentic??

Also, we still have one more large oval to do, but we can't decide on what it should be... Any ideas?

Artisan Market Wrap-Up, Part 2 (or Different Awesome People, Same Awesome Day!)

OMG, how good does that look??
Well, once I saw the adorable packaging and sampled it, I just HAD to have a bottle of Te House of Tea chai for myself. The flavor is very complex, yet light, and it has an extra little punch of spice at the end that keeps you coming back for another cup!



Te House of Tea was started by Connie and Alyson who wanted to create a community space in Houston that provides organic and fair-trade teas, delicious food, and local entertainment. Josh and I can't wait to visit!


At the next booth was the adorable and talented Rosa Yoo.



Rosa creates all types of cakes for all types of occasions...



Obviously this gal knows what she's doing visually, but she's also an excellent baker! I tried a sample of her red velvet cake and it was, hands-down, the tastiest red velvet cake I've ever had.



Not only does she make cakes, but she also makes empanadas, docinhos (a Brazilian sweet), and even taught me the word "fuxico" - which are little decorative scraps of fabric that American's sometimes call "yo-yos". (I was wearing an applique I made that day. You can see it toward the end of this post.)


My neighbors across the way were definite craft mavens...
What Texas craft event would be complete without girly cowboy hats?



Nakoa Holder of Nakoa's makes the cutest, funkiest hats and jewelry!



I think what I like best about her work, other than the explosions of color, is the sheer size of some of the pieces. I'm a gal who likes her jewelry chunky and bright, and so does Nakoa!




Her craft booth neighbor and friend was Stephanie Brennan of Maddy Lou's.



Stephanie creates all sorts of adorable things, like these amazing flower bows for girls!



She also had some beautiful flower fascinator headbands that would be perfect for a spunky vintage wedding - or for daily wear for a gal like myself. (Yet another item I had to tear myself away from!)

I'm hoping that Stephanie and I can collaborate and make some really unique flower pieces once I figure out how to make my flowers wearable.



Now, last but absolutely not least, I got to visit with the women of the day: Sheny and the awesome team at VIDA!



The Artisan Market was held on Sheny's property in the gorgeous, tree-lined West University area of Houston.



Sheny is yet another accomplished jewelry artist who not only creates her own designs, but she also can up-cycle old pieces and make them new again!




Her shop carries her work as well as work from other artists - even her own daughter! Lucia is the multi-talented artist of bLuGrn Design. She does everything from jewelry to graphic design, and currently has an awesome line of Alice In Wonderland inspired jewelry that I just adore!



Finally, it was time for a photo-op with Brenda and Carmen of VIDA Events and Marketing.





The ladies are total sweethearts and I really look forward to participating in the Artisan Market again, and other events they have cooking around town!

(PS - Sorry, ladies. I tried my best to edit the heck out of us so that we didn't look all shiny and tired from being in the 94 degree heat all day! :)
PPS - Did everyone else notice my fuxico??)

A great day, indeed!

Artisan Market Wrap-Up, Pt. 1 (or Awesome People, Awesome Day!)

I learned two important facts at the Artisan Market on Saturday:
1) There are some really talented, creative, friendly people in Houston!
2) It's very dangerous to let me attend a craft fair because I'll want to spend all my profits on others' handiwork!

As for the day's specifics, let's start with me, shall we?



The day started out with quite a bang.
As I was setting up my booth, a lovely woman named Helen happened to jog by and bought all my tissue poofs and half my "wacky" flowers! She rode home with the flowers nestled inside her bicycle basket. Tres jolie!

After we finished setting up, to prime the pump (as it were) Josh and I added a few fake addresses to the mailing list sign-up sheet. See if you can guess who they were for... (Leave a comment if you think you know!)





I soon decided to wander around and look at my fellow artisans' wares.
The first place I stopped was Crossroad Creations by Kelley.
Robin Kelley and her husband work together to create crosses out of stone, wood, and metal.



Many of their pieces include chips of amethyst, turquoise, and other gemstones to give the rough-hewn stone pieces a bit of sparkle.
Humble, yet special... I love it!




Next up was the lovely Ana Maria Sanchez of Amaria. She creates luxurious, feminine jewelery that would be just perfect for any bride! Obviously, they'd be lovely for anyone, but I think brides could particularly benefit from her talent.



Many of my favorite pieces were her pearl ones.



Check out her Etsy shop for more examples of her finery!





Arlinda Smith of Quilt Addiction does superior quilt work, but there was one quilt that I really had to tear myself away from:



Not only is the color combo right up my alley, she also told me that the fabrics were recovered from Galveston Island after Hurricane Ike. How cool is that??

I also really liked her fabric bowls...







Right in front of Arlinda's display was Matt Slimmer, metal artist.



He doesn't just do small stainless steel sculptures like the ones at the Artisan Market...



He's also an accomplished Art Car artist! If you don't know, art cars are kind of a big deal here in Houston and there's an annual parade for the local artists to show off their creations.



Matt made the "Toybota" car/boat featured in the Readers' Digest article referenced on this site.



My booth neighbor was the adorable Mandy Welch of Help Me Pledge.



Mandy's business offers a really unique way to help fundraise for charities...



Help Me Pledgewill come and set up a booth at your charity's fundraising event and will donate 50% of the day's profits to the charity - with no cost to you!

A creative gal with a creative business idea!



Okay, that's probably enough for today...
I'll post the rest tomorrow. Tomorrow will have more excellent jewelry, excellent edibles, and one picture of me looking mega-funky after a long day in the heat.

Stay tuned!

Artisan Market, VIDA, and Earth Day (or Boldly Going Where No Robot In Bloom Has Gone Before!)

Guys, I'm soooo excited!

The awesome ladies of VIDA Events and Marketing have asked me to participate in a new art and craft event in Houston - the Artisan Market!

VIDA is the up-and-coming marketing team of Carmen Fraser and Brenda Boral. One of the thing I love about their philosophy is that they not only want small business to thrive, but they also seek to do it in an eco-friendly way! They recommend going green for the environment AND for cost-saving measures like reducing the amount of paper your business uses. For example, you can fax a document to the client's computer instead of printing and then faxing. Easy, right?

Anyway, the Artisan Market will be my very first craft show-type thingy and I have a LOT to figure out...

The outdoor market is Saturday, May 22 from 11:00am to 4:00pm at 1740 Sunset Blvd. in Houston (West University area). There will be all sorts of artists and crafters and plenty unique, beautiful things to buy.







So, for the next month, I'm going to be making more flowers than you can shake a stick at, getting banners printed, buying a really big table, and generally spazzing out -

Wish me luck!

Or, better yet, come by and see me in action at the Artisan Market!

Side Projects (or Dang! My Hands Look Old!)

I know I've been rather silent on the blog front lately, but I've been quite busy trying to revamp the website for my upcoming (very exciting!) news...


In my down time, to unwind, I've been creating silly things to start selling in my brand spankin' new Etsy shop!



I decided to try my hand at polymer clay sculpting, and these are a few of my jewelry-based results...



I've recently taken to wearing large, ostentatious rings and sculpted a few for myself. With the leftover clay, I also sculpted a few more to sell to any like-minded soul who just couldn't live without a ridiculously huge carrot on their hand.



And, you know, that's pretty much everyone, right??

I'm not sure what other types of crafts I will be selling in the future. It'll probably be things that I've made for myself and liked so much that I made a second one to sell. My place is so full of crafts and craft supplies, I may as well pass them along to those in need....... of sushi on their finger.
Hm.



Anyway, I guess I should get back to the website-revamping grindstone.

Stay tuned for some exciting news, my darlings, as the robot army marches forward with their flowers of peace, harmony, and awesome photo albums!

Poe Tribute (or The Pit and the Tentacles)

I, much like the errant Poe Toaster, should have delivered this entry back on Tuesday, January 19. Alas, I have only now to try and make up for my mistake.



Inspired by an episode of 'Gilmore Girls', I decided to embellish my two couch pillows.



I burned a quick stencil and went to work with my fabric paint.

The second pillow was naked, so I stenciled an octopus.



Tentacular!



Also, I'm quite excited to announce that fun things are brewing in the Robot In Bloom album design universe... As soon as everything is finalized, there will be a cool development coming in the next few weeks.

Hope you're as excited as I am!

Wall Letters (or No, That's Not Supposed To Spell Anything.)

I really need to get better at taking pictures of my craft projects as I do them, not just posting the final results.





So, I know that hanging letters on your wall is "OMG SOOOOO played-out!!!!1!!" in certain interior design circles, but - in the interest of Project: Swagga - I decided to go for it anyway.





My local Jo-Ann's has a great selection of papier-mache and wood letters. I've always been a fan of the look, so I decided to finally update my living room wall.





I'm pretty satisfied with my "two-thousand-and-late" look...
What do you think?