I just got the heads up that Lee is teaching an excellent knitting class at Twisted — her short-rows wavy hat project! It’s so cute (I have seen it in person and can attest to this wholeheartedly) and perfect for Northwest spring — she says that it knits up really nicely in cotton as well as wool, depending on your preference. So if you’re looking for the perfect intermediate knitting project, jump on into her class — it’s May 4th and 11th.

Natalie also passed on that CRAFT: is co-hosting a pretty amazing contest: just stitch up some original baby booties using Michael Miller fabrics, add a photo to the contest flickr pool, and you’re entered to win the grand prize: a new Singer Curvy sewing machine, a $100 gift certificate to ReproDepot Fabrics, and a feature on Craftzine.com.

Three runners-up will also receive a Michael Miller Fabrics Fat Quarter Bundle (retail value $80.00) and a $20 gift certificate to ReproDepot. All the details are over at the CRAFT: blog and the winners will be chosen June 30.

I thought that these these darling little booties Diane made for our baby might be nice inspiration for sewing up your own design if you’re contest-bound. Good luck if you enter!

I adore Ryan and Lucy Berkley — they are a super talented couple in addition to being the sweetest, friendliest pair around. I first met Ryan when he illustrated Super Crafty for us in 2004, and it has been such a treat to enjoy his gorgeous artwork ever since. Lucy does amazing photography and I treasure the pieces I have of hers… and now the Berkleys have started a new blog called Let’s Share that’s just as lovely as they are.

Andrew and I were recently the lucky recipients of the most wonderful baby gift: Ryan surprised us by illustrating our family as a trio of cardinals, with a space left to add our baby girl’s name when she arrives this month! I just love them. I grew up in North Carolina, where the state bird and flower are the cardinal and the dogwood, so I had talked to him awhile back about commissioning a piece featuring the two of them together. Lucy remembered all the little details from our conversation, so my little cardinal-lady alter ego has a dogwood blossom on her lacy collar… love it. Such a fantastic and thoughtful present!

So today when I stopped by the Buckman Art Show + Sell today to bring a signed copy of Bead Simple and a raku pot from our friend Russell Mott to add to the silent auction (which is killer… seriously, make sure you have a chance to stop by and browse all the work!), I spotted this lovely Lady Squirrel print that the Berkleys had donated. And since I’ll be a few blocks away at the Buckman Bash all evening, I asked if I could put in a bid early… and got the chance to snap it up outright. Sorry, everyone else in Portland, but I couldn’t resist, and now this beautiful piece is going up in the baby’s room along with her cardinal friends!

If you want to see more of Ryan and Lucy’s work, they will have originals and prints at the Buckman Art Show + Sell this weekend, and will be selling at Crafty Wonderland on Sunday. If you’re out of town, or can’t make it by those events, definitely check out their Etsy shops: Berkley Illustration and Lucybird Photo… and their flickrs are pretty awesome too! Viva Berkleys!

ugh, I’ve had a day full of nitpicky web design details, closely followed by the last bits and pieces of our taxes/2007 IRAs, and now I’m on the verge of falling over. Good thing I have the Buckman Bash and then Crafty Wonderland to look forward to this weekend…

And CW is turning two! Wow, I remember the very first one, and it’s so cool that it’s been two whole years since Cathy and Torie started it up. To celebrate, there will be cupcakes to decorate at the DIY table… yum!

Some of my favorite Portland vendors will be selling, too: Lucy + Ryan Berkley, Totinette, Bossa Nova Baby, Monsieur T., and Mugwump, along with dozens of others. And The Weekend Store is visiting too!

Hope to see you over there, but if you can’t make it, I hope your weekend involves a cupcake and no taxes of any kind. The 16th can’t come soon enough for me!

I had such a great time at Powell’s on Monday — thank you so much for the good-luck wishes, and to everyone who came out to make earrings with me. It was such a fun night! I loved seeing all the sparkly things that people made and it was fantastic to meet so many new crafty people.

First, I chatted a little bit about beading and jewelry design and showed a few pieces from the book from the forty or so I had out on display.

I have such a goofy expression on my face here, but what can I say, I was showing off one of my favorite designs ever, created by my nephew Julian! He was five when he made this necklace and I absolutely love it.

Then I asked my lovely Portland guest designers to come up so I could introduce them and show their gorgeous designs too… left to right are Bethe Mack, Tanja Alger, Caitlin Troutman, Diane Gilleland, and Torie Nguyen. Thank you, ladies!

I did a quick earrings how-to, and then everyone got to choose their vintage beads and pick up their jewelry kits…

…and people jumped right into making their pieces. My friend Ryan even created a fancy sparkly necklace using pipe cleaners and 24mm pink faceted beads!

I got to chat with so many people, admire lots of new designs, and even sign some books. I think this is one of the few moments I was sitting down all night… that was nice, I have to admit.

There are a good handful of photos from the event in the Bead Simple flickr pool… thank you so much to Lee and Andrew for snapping these great ones. And for another review of the whole thing, be sure to check out the guest blogger over at paperdollygirl, who created an especially gorgeous pair of earrings himself!

A heartfelt thank you to everyone who came out to get crafty with me and to Powell’s — it was so much fun to get to celebrate the book together. I’m so looking forward to doing it again at Church of Craft, Crafty Wonderland, and Twisted! Just give me a couple of months to have this baby in the meantime, and I’ll see you later in the summer for sure.

Today I thought I’d post a round-up of six cool things that caught my eye this week: two to make, two to win, and two to check out in person — and all of them are free!

to make

First, the crafty projects to do are both up for grabs online. Rachel of Average Jane Crafter has been posting a series of lovely vintage embroidery transfers on her blog as part of a weeklong celebration hosted by Floresita. The designs are so charming and it’s such a cool idea to share them all!

And Lee Meredith has posted a free bucket hat pattern on her blog and on Ravelry, and shows off her version that she knitted up in her own brightly colored homespun. Gorgeous!

to win

I’m so pleased to announce that there are two Bead Simple giveaways going on right now: Jessica of Jekbot and Scrumdillydilly, who designed the Bits and Baubles Keychain, is offering up a copy of the book for her readers to win. Just comment on this post and she’ll pick a winner from the first 25 entries!

And Natalie of Coquette and CRAFT:, who designed the Vintage-Style iPod Cozy, is also offering a copy for readers to win over on the CRAFT: blog. Just comment on this post by 11 am on Thursday, and mention why you would like to have the book, and you’re entered to win there too. Thank you, Nat and Jess!!

and to do

Tomorrow night is First Thursday here in Portland and there are two openings I’m especially excited about. First, at PNCA (1241 NW Johnson St., in Portland), my husband Andrew is part of a group show called The Searchers. The exhibition originally premiered in New York at the EFA Gallery in December 2006. We performed AC Dickson: eBay PowerSeller as part of the opening week, and for this encore exhibit, Andrew has put together a visual show and essay about the culture of eBay — this is the sequel to the performance, answering the age-old dilemma: what should you sell?

Just a few blocks away, Cathy Pitters of Bossa Nova Baby is showing the beautiful chair that she created for the Chair Affair. The opening is from 6 - 8pm at The Art Institute, 1122 NW Davis St. in Portland, and her piece will be on display until it is part of the charity auction for Community Warehouse later this month.

On a related note, I would like to spotlight a fantastic site and blog, Around the Sun, which features an impressive selection of free or affordable things to check out here in Portland and beyond — definitely bookmark it or subscribe if you haven’t already. Amy is a fellow crafter and designer, and she does a beautiful job highlighting all kinds of money-saving ideas, free events, and all kinds of other interesting resources. She was kind enough to post about my Powell’s event this week, too — thank you so much, Amy!

Now that it’s right around the corner, I wanted to post again about my upcoming Bead Simple book event at the downtown Powell’s Books here in Portland next Monday night — if you’re in town, I hope you can make it over!

I’ll do a short reading and show a bunch of the 150 jewelry projects from the book, and my Portland guest designers will be there with their work, too. Plus everyone who comes is invited to make a pair of Solo Earrings to bring home as part of a little jewelry 101 demo! I’ll bring pliers, supplies, and a big stash of vintage beads from my collection (like these sparklers) for you to choose from…

Please pass the word on to friends and I hope to see you next week!

Bead Simple event at Powell’s (upstairs in the Basil Hayward Gallery)
1005 W. Burnside St., downtown Portland
Monday, April 7 at 7:30 pm

I’m also planning some book events later in the year (with husband and baby in tow) in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Raleigh, and Chapel Hill, North Carolina, so stay tuned for updates on those…

I got the chance to stop by the preview of the Bead Expo last night and check out the many many vendor booths, gaze at all the pretty shiny things, and meet some of the teachers for the weekend’s classes. There is some gorgeous stuff to see!

I’ll be writing more about it later for CraftStylish, but in the meantime, here are a few things that might be handy if you’re planning to go:

-a $2 off admission coupon on the website
-the weekend class schedule — there are some fantastic workshops!
-the other cities that the Expo will travel to later this year: King of Prussia, Miami, Phoenix, and Philadelphia

I got to meet up with Mariko and Melissa for lunch at Pine State* Biscuits yesterday and… wow. I have to say that as a Southern girl living on the West Coast I miss the delicacies of home, and the luxury of biscuits like these in the adjoining zip code is a huge improvement to my day-to-day quality of life! Now if only I could have an occasional dose of my other favorites (fireflies, thunderstorms, Carolina home games, and hushpuppies, not to mention my family who all live three hours ahead of me), things would be perfect.

But back to the biscuits: they are awesome. I had a scrambled egg and cheese biscuit sandwich with Stumptown coffee and it was perfect for a chilly, rainy day. I was too busy eating to get a picture of my delightful food, but Mariko snapped one of me with about 2/3 of my sandwich left, and even had the willpower to photograph hers before starting in on it. Impressive! As a bonus, I got a bottle of Cheerwine to bring home, along with a biscuit for Andrew. I have not had a drop of Cheerwine in the eleven years I’ve lived out here and it was pretty fantastic… and speaking of Pine State excitement, I can’t wait for the Carolina game this afternoon, and the Davidson game tomorrow!

And on the subject of my adopted state, the always-wonderful Jill Bliss is having dual art openings in Portland tonight. Both shows run from today through April 20, and they’re both on Alberta St. From her announcement:

“the colors of nature” collaborative show with jill bliss, seth neefus and amy ruppel
reception: march 27, 7 - 10 pm
together gallery
2314 ne alberta st. in portland

“califoregon” duo show with jill bliss and brittany powell
reception: march 27, 7 - 10 pm
office pdx shop + gallery
2204 ne alberta st. in portland

Jill says, “brittany’s a native oregonian, i’m a native californian. we met at c.c.a. in san francisco a few years back and have been planning the idea of this show ever since. now that we both live in portland, it’s the perfect time to make it a reality! collaborative drawings and paper cut-outs, gocco screenprints, and postcards — all relating to our favorite things and places in our two favorite states.”

p.s. Just wanted to mention that Kayte of Love Forever is doing a fun contest this week to celebrate the release of Bead Simple: just comment on this post and tell her about your favorite piece of jewelry, and she’ll pick a winner to send a copy of the book to on Friday. Don’t miss her beautiful Lacy Trio Earrings on page 39, too!

*the nickname for my native state, North Carolina.

Just wanted to announce a super cool upcoming art-music fundraiser, the Buckman Bash, benefiting Buckman Elementary School here in Southeast Portland. I’m especially excited that my husband Andrew will be hosting the show… which will include performances by James Mercer of the Shins and Stephen Malkmus of the Jicks and a killer art auction featuring work from Storm Tharp, Joe Thurston, and a dozen other artists — plus there’s a gallery of student work!

I first heard about Buckman and their amazing art curriculum through my friend Cathy Pitters, whose son Levi is in fifth grade there. Cathy has volunteered tirelessly for the school the whole time Levi has been a student there, and she’s gotten the girls of PDX Super Crafty involved in the Art Show + Sell over the last few years as well. I’ll be a bit too preoccupied this April to be much of a presence there, so I’ve donated a signed copy of Bead Simple and a piece of my jewelry to the silent auction at the school. This is the first year of the Buckman Bash, and our friend Juli Wittenmeier is organizing the evening’s festivities, with lots of cool surprises (did I mention the dessert bar yet?). I’ll be helping Andrew out with the PowerPoint during his hosting duties — so please come say hi if you make it to the show, I’ll be the nine-months-pregnant girl with the laptop!

You can buy tickets online or at either Jackpot Records location (downtown or Hawthorne). All the proceeds for both the Bash and the Art Show + Sell go directly to the art programs!

p.s. Speaking of Cathy, she has just started a new craft blog, Stitch and Destroy — be sure to check it out!