Modish

Handmade Spaces: Hand Picked Pumpkin

Today I have the space of Hand Picked Pumpkin to share, where the creator, Allison, makes her line of adoooorable, custom baby clothing.  Let's see where it all takes place!

What do you create in this space?
This is the Hand Picked Pumpkin design studio where we create a modern line of limited edition and custom baby clothing.  This space is headquarters for many, many tasks from pre-production brainstorming to sample fittings and alterations to fabric and product storage to marketing, accounting, order fulfillment, and anything else I find myself responsible for while nurturing a growing business.

Please describe what we see in the pictures a bit:
I have bins where the smaller quantities of woven fabric are stored for easy access while cutting each custom order. You’ll also find stacks of woven bolts.  You can also find my size 18m dress form used for first round fittings before I go the extra step and test fit on real tots, and some finished pieces hanging ready in the closet.  There are two racks of tag board patterns as well as shelves of small pattern pieces, and a packaging table where I try and neatly store all the goodies I need access to when shipping out orders including tissues, stickers, ribbon and enclosures for wrapping gifts, promotional look books and sample swatches.

How do you feel when you enter your handmade space?
I feel extremely happy and lucky when I come to work each day.  I did not always do something that I loved and so I am extremely grateful for the position I find myself in now.

Wow, this space looks mighty organized!  Thanks for sharing it with us Allison!

Check out all the cute creations that Allison makes here at Hand Picked Pumpkin!

Fit for a queen

I discovered Royal Buffet last week on Bloesem and just had to share their incredible gift tags with you here, perfect to add a special touch of spring to a special gift.  Aren't they pretty?

A big-ass ain't so bad!

I recently received a new crafting book and have been looking over it with awe all weekend- with its funny, yet totally accurate title, the Big-Ass Book of Crafts is a great big book of diy goodness, packed full with over 150 project ideas that are fun, kitschy, easy and inspiring.  Written by Mark Montano who's a TLC designer and host, there's a wealth of ideas to get your crafting juices flowing- some of my favorites are the colored pencil vases, the popsicle stick lampshades and the fashion plates- there's tons of ideas for the home, a whole section on bath and body, one on outdoor projects, a papergoods section....it is looooaaaaded with great ideas.  Check out a little peek inside at Amazon and pick up a copy for yourself, or your craft lovin' friends! 

Skin Guard-ening

I'm a slather some SPF on and get out there and dig kinda lady. Okay, not so much a "lady" per se, considering while the neighbors are taking modest precautions (a bandanna around the neck to prevent the most literal interpretation of being a Southerner "redneck") I'll don in a knee length skirt and cowboy boots to shovel my patch of earth around, meanwhile showing all sorts of leg.

But just because I like a little sunshine on my limbs doesn't mean it's open-season for skin abuse.   

1) Raw Beauty Happy Hour hand and body lotion: This lotion contains green tea to help protect the skin from UVA and UVB rays. They're a great indie replacement for the Body Shop (now owned by L'Oreal) lotion I used to use.  $12.99

2) Natty Girl Phat Lips: Moisturize your lips and then dab on those fresh-from-the-garden cuticles that need a little extra nourishment. I'm a former Burt's Bees addict, but once they were bought out by Clorox, I needed to find a new love. $15

3) Ban Stinky's Pink Sugar Pit Love: I've been looking for a good replacement for the Tom's of Maine deo I used to use.  (FYI--despite the "green looking" packaging, Tom's of Maine is now owned by animal testing giant Colgate) One of the best things about gardening is the detoxifying sweat your bound to work up.  One of the worst things is that very same anti-social stench. This looks to be just what the stink doctor ordered.  $6.44

4)  Joyful Girl Naturals Organic Sun Protection:  Probably one of the hardest things for me to find is a suitable, organic lotion with sun protection without buying corporate, and if you plan on doing any yard work SPF is a pretty big deal.  Joyful Girl Naturals steps up to the task for about $10 less than Estee Lauder's Aveda products; that's enough to make me a Joyful Girl, too!  $15.00

5) La Diva Bella Natural Bug Repellant: Another good replacement for the Burt's Bees insect spray I used to depend on, this DEET free combination of essential oils will keep the skeeters skedaddling.  $3.00

6) Mama Bomb Coconut Milk Bath Soak: A suitable vegan alternative to a milk bath, especially if you ended up a little pink after a day working in the sun.  The coconut milk and oatmeal will soothe your savage skin, and you might be so relaxed you can shrug off all the "Your mama jokes" sure to ensue. $21.00

Take a second to feel good about the skin you're in by protecting it and supporting indie shops, and get out there and grow!

Happy gardening, and until next week, your sweet smelling gardening gal pal~Renee

Renee Garner has a passion to make things grow, although her brownish thumb wants her to believe otherwise.  When mud pies aren't on the menu, you can find her doodling the days away at Wolfie and the Sneak.

Handmade Spaces: Oprikka

Today I'm so delighted to bring you the handmade space of one of the sweetest ladies I've ever (virtually) met, Mirka from Oprikka!  Mirka creates wonderful goods from traditional Finnish techniques and fabrics, updating them with a little modern style under the Oprikka label- you can read my write up about Oprikka here, and let's take a peek at where she creates all these wonderful items!
What do you create in this space?
In this room I make handbags, accessories and home decoration items under my Oprikka label. But this is also a good space to do other creative things like silk screen printing, card making, Christmas decoration etc. either for friends & family or for myself.  Sometimes I just sit there and read a book or a magazine or then I´m doing something with computer.  Sketching I do mostly elsewhere, because I have to put ideas right away on paper when something comes up. I have pens and pencils everywhere in house and when I get an idea, I draw it on any piece of paper I can find!
Can you describe what we see in the pictures a bit?
My studio is an old class room (we live in an old school building). There is this big chalk board on one wall of my studio. The children of my brother just love to draw on it when visiting us.
You can also see a wall hanging by Finnish artist Anna-Maija Lahti (bottom picture)- it was one of our wedding gifts & it's called "Happy Animals".  I think it´s so nice to have work from other artists around me as well.  You see the sun shining in the studio and my Marimekko ironing board (in Finland we have a million things with marimekko patterns.... ;)  I also have some of my own art hanging- a silk screen print I made ages ago when I lived in Holland. It´s called "At five o´clock in the underground".

How do you feel when you enter your "handmade space?"
I think one of the best things in this space are the big windows that allow lots of light to pour in. The room is oriented to south/ south-east, and especially in the summer it is very light there. The yellow walls also add vibrancy. On the other hand, every time I enter that space I feel like going back in time, because the yellow + strange brown colors are so typically from the 60-70´s. We have not done any re-painting or renovation there yet, but when that happens, I will surely choose other colors.  I´ve understood that this class room was used for handicrafts lessons before, so that gives a kind of nice feeling to be continuing something that many children have done there for decades before me.
How awesome that she works in an old school room!  And it's even more cool that it was used for crafting by the children who came before her!  Thanks for sharing your space, Mirka!

Be sure to take a closer look at all her lovely Finnish creations at Oprikka!

Taming the inner beast

Some days (uh, today) this is what I feel like:

A lion on the inside roaring to get out (and play/slack/shop/veg out/sleep/read/not work) and a lion tamer on the outside saying "No! Bad lion! Do a trick! Get to work! Dance, lion, dance!"  Damn tamer.  At least she has some pretty awesome boots to boss my inner self around in.  Pay homage to the days when you feel like both the lion and the tamer with this awesome screenprint from Animalsleep, just one of many other awesome screen-prints, and originals.  Now, back to work! {crack!}

New goodies in the shoppe!

I just added some fun new spring things to the modish shoppe!  Take a peek!

New glass animal pins by Happy Owl Glassworks- collect the whole menagerie!

And new neckies by Marinade in some bright, fun, spring colors!  Most of which are made with re-claimed yarn, so they're earth-friendly too!  Perfect for chilly spring mornings!

And introducing a new artist to the modish shoppe, Eclectic Eccentricity!  This line of re-vamped vintage goodness is made by the lovely Lucy from England- her designs are cheery, feminine and so cute!

There's more new stuff to come in the next few days (and weeks!) and a BIG day to celebrate next week- stay tuned!

Try this at home with Maddy: PROJECT- Seed Packets (Part Two)

Better late than never, right? Here are two pre-designed seed packets to use for your personal use. I am retaining the copyright on the patterns themselves, so please do not use them for any commercial purposes!

You'll notice these PDFs do not contain the dotted fold lines - check Part One for the master dieline and folding instructions which apply to this one. Enjoy!

Download the Green Flowering Vines Pattern or the Red and Aqua Flower Pattern - or both!

Have fun!

-Maddy

Maddy Susser is a graphic designer and artist that has a soft spot for all things paper and English period pieces (in other words, men in tights and funny vests). Armed with a number of years in marketing for retail on a small business and corporate scope she collects tidbits of information learned along the way and puts it into easy terms to share, formerly on her blog Try This at Home, and now on Modish. She's currently working on a line of paper goods.

Silver that pops!

I love this jewelry by Joanna Rutter, a trained silversmith from the UK who put her talents to good use combining silver with felt, fabric, resin and beads to create a wonderful range of colorful delights!

And this is just a small little smathering of some of the goodies available on the site- check it all out for yourself at Joanna Rutter!

A slow and breezy afternoon

When I think of spring I have this idyllic image of riding my bike with my boyfriend thru the neighborhood: there's a slight and lovely breeze in the air as we ride through streets scattered with pink petals from the blossoming trees above us, and we're laughing and counting all the kitties (last time we saw 12!) and daffodils we see along the way...ah, what a nice day it would be... And always in this little daydream (or when I ride my bike in general) I'm wearing a hat; a hat like one of these from Piper & Paisley!

These hats are so cute in kind of a modern newsboy cap style in light and airy, perfect for spring fabrics.  Find one to suit you at Piper & Paisley and stay stylish in your spring daydreams too!