It’s a Picnic!

Picnic is almost here!  For those of you who know, you know this is one of the most fun arts, crafts and music festivals that Portland has to offer.  For those of you who DON’T know, then you better find out!  Saturday, August 25th brings sunshine (I hope), arts, crafts, and loud noises to Lincoln Park in Portland, ME.  Lincoln Park is right by the courthouse, on the corner of Franklin Arterial and Congress Street.

Once again, Little Eye will join Kate Sullivan-Jones at a fun-filled booth of buttons, bottle caps, metalwork, vintage goodies, screen printed kid’s clothes and canvas totes.  And I’m sure whatever else we can cram in to our luggage as we pack for Picnic!

We know you’ll be there to enjoy the yummy snacks, get some books signed and listen to some music.  Stop by and say “Hi!”

Hopefully I’ll have some pictures of our new products that will be debuting this weekend… we’re busy, busy in the workshop so no promises!!

The Big Thaw Applications are open – and will be until February 29th!

Click here to purchase last year's poster from my Etsy shop

Hello, all, just a quick word that The Big Thaw 2012 is going to be on Saturday, May 12 at the Mayo Street Arts Center in Portland’s East Bayside — applications are open and available at the Big Thaw website.  You have until February 29th to get them in!

 

Cameraman Hair Clips by Little Eye Designs, not yet listed.

I don’t have much time here. Why?  “What have you been up to?” you think — well here it is, in a nutshell.

Friday was nice friend time.  When you end up at Amigo’s at any point past midnight you know you’ve ‘still got it.’  However — whether I ‘have it’ or not I was definitely going home with it shortly after.  Lady’s gotta sleep!

Saturday I took advantage of some more-than-excellent sales at Michael’s and A.C. Moore and, yet again, ended up with an inappropriate amount of ribbon.  Why do I keep doing that?  I think I’m going to start wrapping my shipped items in it just to justify my weird impulse.  I also watched “Hoarders” for the first time and am glad to know that although I’m cluttery I’m not pathological and I don’t eat food that’s been expired for two years.  Did you know I’m also organizing a craft fair?  Some work was done for The BIG THAW today, too.

Sunday started with our new crafty morning tradition with Kate and Kristina although ‘crafty’ also translates to ‘eating pancakes,’ ‘eating chocolate croissants,’ ‘talking about lifetime movies,’ ‘painting our nails,’ or whatever one really sees fit to do.  I started working on Kate’s birthday present, which matches her hair, even though she was right there.  Whatever!  Kristina had to go and Kate and I totally did the following:  went to Michael’s to buy paper for business cards and chain for my new creations, went to CVS to buy printer ink for business cards, shot a bunch of Etsy photos, modeled for each other (see above picture) and printed business cards.  Whoa!  Oh yeah — I also assembled an entire wedding album.  Go me!

My new project involves those bezels I was telling you about a week ago.  They are awesome.  Here’s a little non-descript picture of the scene on my coffee table this weekend:

 

Cloudy Sky paper is a classy backdrop for epoxy pouring...

I’m very excited – these are super classy.  On the right are EARRINGS which I’ve never really been able to successfully do.  I’m making SETS and they’re going to be prettyyyyy.

Lastly, now that I have paper and ink it’s going to be fun to be merchandising Little Eye again.  It’s always way more official when you’ve got matching fonts and clip art.  G’night kittens!

 

Bam!

Holiday Shopping on Etsy

Ahh, the long weekend.

Over the long weekend, I got involved in some “BNR”s on Etsy.  For those who don’t know the wonder of BNRs, here’s a little tutorial:

A ‘curator’ selects a BNR ‘Treasury’ which is a collection of images (listings) from different sellers on Etsy.  The listed sellers are then notified that they are part of a BNR and these sellers should then spread the word in various forums, blogs, on their Facebook page, etc.  BNR stands for “Buy and Replace” which means different sellers can purchase items from those listed in the treasury in order to take that previous seller’s spot.  The idea is hopefully someone will want your item and will want to buy out your spot!

I’m not totally sold on how viable a business model this is, but the exposure it creates and the networks it builds are invaluable.  In a BNR you end up watching a little obsessively, hoping your item will sell so you can buy another.  😉  So you end up ‘chatting’ with the other people in the BNR for quite some time.  I made a few internet-friends this weekend!

The other plus is that it enables my spending bug which, if all works out accordingly to plan, will break even if others replace my listing in the BNR.

~

 

Creatures of Habit Zine collection $3 from EastoftheSun on Etsy

 

Peppermint Pine Moose Sachet $5.95 from WSDreams on Etsy

I ended up purchasing a couple items, one from East of the Sun (Anna Simmons) and one from Winter Solstice Dreams.  One ended up in my car to freshen out all the bad smells (where do they come from, anyways?) and the other was gifted as coloring books for my super awesome niece!  While I was puttering around on Etsy, I found some other wish list items.  P.S.  Hands off my WSDreams lavender eye pillow for future purchase!

 

Vintage Holt Howard Cat S+P Shakers from twolittleowls on Etsy. Xmas present for my mother was a hit!

 

WANT WANT WANT Jewelry Organizer by BluebirdHeaven on Etsy.

NEED NEED NEED Figural Wood Hat Rack from Eden Cove Treasures on Etsy