I couldn’t have said it better, so I’m here to point you to this post from Maya of Maya*Made about our journey “In the Fishbowl“; Marisa Haedike’s 6 week online course. I’m really missing it already and love love loved it so much. It’s been fun to see Marisa continuing with video posts on her blog, too. If you haven’t seen any yet, be sure to check them out. It’s part of a month-long project she’s been working on with the ever-inspiring Supercoach, Michael Neill. (Can’t I just have all these amazing souls over for dinner?)

This weekend, rock out handmade-style!
Here’s your opportunity to act on that “buy local” resolution you made to yourself, or to start one!

There’ll be all kinds of local art and craft, including jewelry, woodworking, handbags, fiber arts, ceramics, stationery, fine art and more! It’s also a great time to learn more about BerkshireMade! (and I’ll be there!)

It’s all at the BerkshireMade Artisan Market and Open House

Artisan Market: Saturday and Sunday July 18th & 19th, 10:00am-4:00pm

Open House: Saturday, July 18th,  4:00pm-6:00pm; For artisans interested in becoming a member and businesses interested in partnering with BerkshireMade. Free Snacks!

Both events are free and open to the public will be held at the Howard Building at the corner of First and Fenn Streets in Pittsfield, MA.

BerkshireMade is a cooperative effort by a select group of Berkshire artisans to promote their high quality, locally made creative work.  BerkshireMade’s goal is to promote a shift in the shopping paradigm, so Berkshire consumers seek to purchase local goods created by local artisans, in the Berkshires or on the Internet; Buy Local, Buy Handmade!

Click here to read The Advocate’s coverage of BerkshireMade or Click here to visit BerkshireMade online (thanks to BerkshireCreative for the shoutout to BerkshireMade, too!)

I am so loving reading everyone’s impressions of Squam. That’s one great thing about getting a bunch of bloggers together — the event will be well documented, for sure! Some of my favorite accounts so far are Betz’s and Maya’s.

One of the new things I sold at the Squam Art Fair was my littler version of stuffed birdies. They were a hit, and I’ll be listing a few in my Etsy shop later this week (maybe even today?).

Maybe I’m biased, but I think they are such cuties. I really loved making them and you can be sure there will be many more to come. I got some fab. hand-dyed fabric from my cabin-mate Tracie Lyn Huskamp, who taught Painted Prayer Flags. The students in these classes made some really amazing work, and many of them hadn’t ever painted before. I’m sure she was a very nurturing and fun teacher to have, and I just looove her style. Can you guess why? hehe, bird nerds unite!

love and hugs and giggling and friends and art tears and and fun and craft and joy and water and trees.

It is so hard to put into words the magic (yes, I said magic! Alchemy? Sparkles? Joy?!) of Squam Lake and the Squam Art Workshops. So until I can put it into words, even though this was my second time there and I should be able to synthesize it into words now but I can’t, you can see my photos on my flickr here. This session was similar but also so different, so special in its own way. Some of the same people, many new faces and quite a few folks who I felt like I already knew. I kept having the “don’t I know you from somewhere?” conversation, and it went both ways; we both felt familar, but there was no way we had met before. Ahh, the bliss of kindred spirits.

I also want to say a huge thanks to everyone who came out to the Squam Art Fair and loved on my crafty goodness and took home some goodies. I am so thrilled that a handfull of my birdies will be living in loving new homes and my art will be gracing the walls of some really rockin’ creative souls’ homes. You all blow me away.

And the teachers, the Teachers!

Lizzy House (top) and Marisa Haedike (above), you are so amazing beyond words. Thank you for imparting your knowledge to us in such a kind, thoughtful, joyful, eloquent way. You are both such fantastic artists and it was a joy to meet you. I am a better person for knowing you. And I hope to be a better artist, armed with some super tips and techniques that you brought to us in your classes. These women are both forces of nature to be reckoned with, but bring such compassion to their interactions and relationships, and every piece they create has such meaning and feeling behind it. I can only hope to expand on what I learned from each of you.

We also had the honor of being joined by the fantastic Ms. Jonatha Brooke again this session, who continued the tradition of serenading us by the bonfire on the first night, and brought tears to our eyes once again with her songs of trust and pixie dust throughout the weekend. Lovely seeing you again, dear soul!

I am so thrilled to have been mentioned on the Fiber Farm blog and the sweet “loving it” section of SouleMama, Amanda Blake Soule’s blog as a result of being at the Squam Art Fair. Fiber Farm was part of the Art Fair on Saturday, and Amanda was part of the books and authors forum on Friday night at Squam, and I had the pleasure of meeting her at the book signing. What an amazing and lovely woman; I so plan on using her creative-family-raising ideas someday with my own family. She is such an inspiration!

ok, I guess I did have some words to describe it. And I’ll bring you more later, but for now be sure to enjoy my photos. Here are some of the work I created, too (top two from “Create a Painting in a Day” with Marisa Haedike, and bottom is the result of both “Pattern Design” and “Block Printing Fabric” with Lizzy House):

I love this post. So much.

From Jess Gonacha, of the abundant reality at Pecannoot.

ok, well, the warm weather has officially begun today (80s here in South Lee today, possibly warmer around the greater Berkshires), but I had to share this blog feature; fellow BerkshireMade‘er Stephanie Gravalese has featured me and my work on her blog, Atomsatwork.blogspot.com in a post titled “Crafty Goodness to prepare for warm weather”! (Thanks for the wonderful feature, Steph!)

Stephanie is a fantastic artisan in her own right, putting together wonderful creations from vintage buttons, such as earrings, necklaces, barrettes and more that she sells at fairs and on Etsy at atomsatwork.etsy.com. She’s recently started making wall-art collages which I just love, being a wall-art junkie myself. She also made some wonderful glass ornaments for the holidays with buttons floating inside. Fantastico! (oh, and check out her avatar glamour shot by Deb, complete with laser background. Oh the 80s glory!)

I hesitate to post this because I don’t want you to ruin my chances of winning (kidding!): Kathleen at Twig and Thistle (one of my new favorite blogs) is having a giveaway for a sweet adorable li’l tweet stitch kit (in any of four colors). Go on over and join the fun, and look through her other fantastic goodies for sale in her Etsy shop while you’re there!

The top five things I’m happy about right now:

1. The sun is out, and it is 39 degrees instead of the customary 6 or 7.

2. Little birds (goldfinches, chickadees, nuthatches and pine siskins) playing at the feeder right outside my window.

3. Tickets and plans to go see the NY premiere or Handmade Nation next week at the Museum of Art and Design!!!

4. Feeling a tiny bit better each morning; finally the end of this death-cold  is in sight.

5. My friends’ lists of 25 random facts/goals appearing lately on Facebook — so interesting!

What’s bringing you joy today? Keep the joy ball rolling and tell us!

I’ve been tagged! Sweet and talented Cattoo (aka Helen of Just a Little Peek — Just a Little Peek) has tagged me, so here we go, 6 random things about myself.

The rules: link to the person who tagged you > post the rules on your blog > write six random things about yourself > tag six people at the end of your post and link to them > let each person know they’ve been tagged

1. In 6th grade I went through a very unfortunate red-black-and-white phase. No joke. All my clothes AND my room was decorated in only red, black and white. I don’t know why, but my mom speculates I was, ahem, “trying to make a statement.” (and get a load of that vest!)

2. I went to the same school from Kindergarten through 8th grade, Richmond Consolidated, with only about 200 other students at any given time. My class was usually about 22 students. I learned a lot about art and the civil war, and made some good friends, but otherwise led an ostensibly sheltered life until high school.

3. I love birds. Oh, you already knew that? I have a great squirrel-free birdfeeder filled with black oil sunflower seeds out all winter, and I wish I could keep it out all year but the other critters (such as bears.. eek!) don’t allow that around here. I have Goldfinches, House Finches, Chickadees, Tufted Titmice, Juncos, Nuthatches, Blue Jays, Cardinals and recently a new little Carolina Wren that visit regularly.

4. I flew alone to London, England when I was 17 to meet my friend Sarah who’d been doing an exchange program in France that year. I’m not sure I’d have the guts to do that again even now… Even with cell phones so we’d avoid the confusion that happened where we were each standing at different “Victoria Stations” (why, London, do you have two stations with the same name? UGH.) late at night in a city we didn’t know. Otherwise, though, I’ve never left North America. I am hoping that changes someday soon.

5. I have had two horses. I was about 10-12 years old. I was REALLY into horses. I haven’t ridden a horse since about 2000 when my ex-boyfriend and I went to Yosemite and took a riding tour of the park. I would like to have horses again someday, especially if we owned more land.

6. I have a BA in Theatre Arts with a minor in Studio Art. I was a theatre kid in high school and college, and I loved it. The last play I did was in 2004 in San Francisco. I think about getting back into it someday, but I’m not sure how to go about it. I was a director, stage manager and set designer. I finally figured out what I liked about set design was making the little models and painting, and that helped lead me to where I am today. Boy I sure loved making those models!

I am now tagging:

Kelly Barton of the Camp

Liz Elayne of the Little Room

Crispina ffrench

Cynthia Gunsinger

Maeg of Ranunculae

Stephanie of Life in Avalon

hey hey I’m back from Boston — what a fun time! We really enjoyed Design Hive (Kari and Sarah joined me for the day, and Jaclyn, Vanessa and some other great friends stopped by!) — thanks everyone for buying my goodies and all the smiles and great feedback. It’s so fun to see people’s reactions to my work. And I’m happy to say that two of my new needle-felted birdies found a good home, which really makes it all worth while.

Also a few of my Peace Cranes made it to the Design Hive blog — thanks Val!

We also had a fantastic time shopping the Bazaar Bizarre, which was so inspiring to me. I brought home a few handmade holiday gifts as well as maybe a few things for myself (I only have so much willpower, really). There were some wonderful vendors there, including some of my favorites:

Ranunculae silkscreen cards and fabric goodies

Swallowfield Intricate art and fantastic-ness

1Girl1Boy Hand block-printed fabric goodness

Argyle Whale little illustrations of hedgehogs and goats and things

Campfire Goods T-shirts a-plenty for the type/geography/pop culture nerd in all of us

Egg-a-go-go Illustrationy crafty goodness {we all love the Button Collecting Bird!!!]

Family Dinner for One super star cliparty T’s

Fern Animals tiny soft sculptures

Mean & Wroughten welded art pieces (he was set up across from me at Design Hive, too!)

Miaow wonderful whimsical softies, so huggable!

Sewing Stars adorable plushies

Soto Softies more adorable plushies (sensing a theme?)

Traveling Rhinos Yarn and fiber goodies

Twigs and Heather gorgeous silver jewelry — my favorites are the maple seeds, I don’t think I’d ever take off a necklace so beautiful!

I also got some gorgeous earrings and a necklace at Design Hive from Erica Walker at Walker Silverworks, who was set up right near me — I’m wishing I had picked up a few of her star ornaments, since we’re about to decorate our tree tonight or tomorrow — they’d be so fantastically sparkly with the lights reflecting on them!

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