you like my new haircut?

new haircut!, originally uploaded by maybeemily.

I am a pretty big wimp when it comes to cutting my hair. I usually opt for the same styles. Its not because I don't want to change, but usually I don't trust my hairstylist (NO OFFENSE, my dear Jordan who usually cuts my hair!) to make those decisions for me.

When your friend is going to school to cut hair, and they are incredibly creative and talented at everything they do, AND they know your taste just perfectly, well, that's when I let them decide how to cut it.

Astrid, it is brilliant!

Here is a before picture:



As you can see, it is much better now :)

embroidering brother

embroidering brother, originally uploaded by maybeemily.

my brother is super cool. he helped me at the Seattle Square last Saturday, and learned how to embroider while he was there. He embroidered an awesome robot army.

I truly believe all 18 year old boys who like ladies should learn how to embroider, as the ladies really like it!

yay knitting!

yarn in a bowl, originally uploaded by maybeemily.

I'm participating in a Ravelry KAL (knit-a-long!) for this lovely sweater: Featherweight! It is a simple and lovely pattern so far. If you are on Ravelry you can peek at it when I get my pictures up!

Urban Craft Uprising recap!

Tako Fibers vendor table, originally uploaded by maybeemily.

Yay! Pictured above is how my vendor table turned out at this years Urban Craft Uprising summer show! Posing with the table is my dear friend Brytt, who kindly helped me out the first day of the show. (Thanks, Brytt!) The lovely banner was made by Liz, and it is the cutest thing ever.

On Saturday I presented a demo on DIY Embroidered buttons.

It went so well! My students made beautiful buttons like these:






And some had never even embroidered before, but were very pleased with their results!



Sunday was busy busy busy! Many people came back that had come on Saturday. Also, Sunday was the big Bastille Day celebration at the Seattle Center, so I think a lot of people wandered over from that. Liz helped me out on Sunday, and whenever we weren't helping customers we were practicing our embroidered button skillz:



The feeling for the whole event was very different than the Winter show. At this show, I felt like everyone was looking and contemplating more. There were not as many impulse purchases. It also seemed that people were looking to purchase for themselves (and not for gifts) so they were a bit choosier!

After a long weekend of selling, I left happy (and with a lovely tympan notebook from ilfant!)


Check out all my pictures from the show in my UCU flickr set, and also be sure to peek at the UCU flickr group!

I'll hopefully see everyone at the winter show!

A quick Urban Craft Uprising note...

Spice Rack Lollipops, originally uploaded by thischarmingcandy.

It is getting late, and I still haven't uploaded my photos from Urban Craft Uprising to my flickr. I will write a more detailed post later, but I wanted to let you all know that it went very well! I even ran out of business cards! Note to self: order more than 200 next time!

When Liz or Brytt was watching over the Tako Fibers table, I made my way over to This Charming Candy. Holy crap. You guys... YOU. MUST. TRY THIS CANDY! Its better than I ever could have dreamed. I have recently become very interested in cardamom. Their Vanilla - Cardamom lolly is amazing. AMAZING. I had a little sample of Sweet Grapefruit as well - I had no idea lollipops could have such intense and complex flavors!

Anyway, I highly recommend you order some RIGHT NOW!

And I'll tell you about the rest of the show later :)

New kit in the shop!

jeweled bird contents, originally uploaded by maybeemily.

yeah yeah, just listed the jeweled bird in the shop! Those french knots sure do take a long time, otherwise I would have put it up sooner!

I hope you love it!

Featured on the Etsy Blog!

blue bird embroidery, originally uploaded by maybeemily.

I love waking up to good news! My little blue bird kit was featured in the Etsy Finds email and on The Storque yesterday. Thanks Etsy!

...

Things are winding down here in Emilyland! Tonight I am having a group of friends over to help me with all the last minute kit assembly. After that, I just need to pack everything up, and I'll be ready for Urban Craft Uprising this weekend! Hope to see you there!

Boxes! And July!

boxes all stacked and ready to go, originally uploaded by maybeemily.

Urban Craft Uprising is just one week away! I am a little stressed, but things are going well over here in Emilyland. This morning Ben stamped and stickered 100 boxes for the new kits!

My to do list is still pretty long, so unfortunately I will not be partaking in July 4th bbq festivities this year. But, I am planning on making cole slaw, and enjoying it over here in the studio. Liz and Brutus are going to join me, and we will have a grand ol time enjoying our cole slaw and fiber craft.

Have I mentioned that Brutus is the cutest little winker ever? No? Judge for yourself:


Happy July!

*** if you are available this week, and would like to help with last minute assembly, do let me know! I will feed you and give you drinks!

Meet my husband

What!, originally uploaded by benjaminjaybaier.

Please meet my husband, Ben!

Now that you have seen this picture, you know exactly what he is like.

pasta salad

pasta salad, originally uploaded by maybeemily.

Today is the first REAL day of summer... the first day of our CSA! A CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) is a super awesome way to support local farms and have a bounty of fresh, wonderful fruits and veggies all summer long. We get our CSA through Helsing Junction Farms, and I have never been disappointed! (This is our 4th year getting a CSA through them.)
Ben and I split a large CSA box with my parents, and every week we have almost more than we can eat. We also get a mushroom share through Provisions Mushrooms that comes with our CSA box each week. This week we got a crazy MEGA MUSHROOM!

Look at that thing! It is called a Lions Mane mushroom. It is very squishy. We fried it up with some other mushrooms and put it in our delicious pasta salad that we had for dinner. Yum!

I am a huge fan of pasta salad. It is filling and refreshing. I can't think of a better summer dinner!

This particular pasta salad was made with:
Bowtie pastas
Pink radishes
Garlic Scapes
A little bit of leftover salami
Big crazy mushroom as well as shitake and crimini mushrooms
Poppy seed vinaigrette (from scratch)
Served on Arugula

This pasta salad was served with my recent alcoholic beverage of choice, white wine spritzer!

yum yum!

little sneak preview!

little sneak preview!, originally uploaded by maybeemily.

So the summer Urban Craft Uprising is coming up... so I am hard at work making some new kits! I am super excited about these two new birdy kits! They are about the same size as the blue bird and the red bird.
I am having such fun drawing these birds that I may make even MORE birds! Ahhh... a whole wall of embroidered birds, in every color of the rainbow! Sounds AMAZING to me!

Here is another brand NEW design that I am making a screen of... 2 little bears in love!



(Sorry for the crappy photo quality, its a just a quick phone snapshot of the negative I will be using to make the silkscreen stencil.)

This one is going to be a beginners kit. It will not have much stitching on it, but will be a good, small kit for anyone who wants a quick easy project. I am so excited to start stitching the sample for this guy.

I hope you are having a lovely June so far!

sketchbook

bear, originally uploaded by maybeemily.

I drew this lovely little guy when I was working at the art store, in my sketchbook. I do like him very much. I can't decide if he is talking, singing, or shooting water out of his mouth!

The little loopy bits were drawn on with masking fluid first. I let them dry then painted over them, and then gently rubbed to reveal the white underneath. Masking fluid is your friend!

BUSY CRAFT TIME!

knitting, originally uploaded by maybeemily.

I am SO BUSY with crafts right now! I am in 2 awesome swaps on Ravelry (you do know about Ravelry, right??) and on top of that, I have 100 things to do for the Urban Craft Uprising show in July!

I am also working on the album art for Brian Vogan's childrens album. It is coming along so well. I can't wait to show it to ya'll!

See you in a few weeks...

Vacation

Newport May 2010, originally uploaded by maybeemily.

I don't go on vacation enough. But I take a lot of days off. I need to stop taking so many days off and just do it all in one big swoop. Because 4 days away? Totally not enough. Especially when 2 of those days involved driving for 6 hours!
Our family went to Newport, Oregon for a long weekend, and it was quite lovely. The house we stayed in was up on a hill, and we had a lovely view of the Pacific. We drank a lot of wine and ate a lot of seafood. I suppose those types of vacations are the best, where you don't really have anything to do in particular, and can just zone out and relax.
I had a lot of thinking time on this trip, and a lot of it was prompted by the book The Secret Language of Birthdays. Have you ever read that book, or looked up your birthday in it? Of course, I realize that what they write is somewhat general, and if you believe in it you can twist the words to make it sound just like you. But really. My birthday was EXACTLY ME. So much, that it made me realize what kind of person I am. Ben's was also EXACTLY LIKE HIM.
The birthday book told me that people born on my day have extremely high standards (that sure does explain a lot) and the thing that I didn't realize was me until the other day: they expect SO MUCH more from the people around them, and especially expect so much more from themselves. Perfectionism within my crazy standards. Have any of you fine readers experienced me while I am working on a project and the deadline is approaching? Or dealt with one of my freak outs as I work on something creative for someone else, and it JUST ISN'T GOOD ENOUGH EVER?!? Now that I realize that this is me, that I am like this, I feel like I can control it a little more. And I will make an effort to accept the imperfections in life as wonderful things that make us all different and unique. And perhaps I will not need to push myself so hard on the small things that really, really, don't matter all that much.

fresh eggs

fresh eggs, originally uploaded by maybeemily.

fresh eggs are the best! I am lucky to be related to family that has chickens. Fresh eggs taste DELICIOUS, and its good to know that the chickens were treated right and good!

In this particular batch of eggs, there was a HUGE EGG! Way bigger than any normal egg!



LOOK at that monster! Of course, Ben and I ate it. We made scrambled eggs with it. When we cracked it open...



DOUBLE EGG!

2nd wedding anniversary

2nd wedding anniversary, originally uploaded by maybeemily.

Ben and I have been married for 2 years today. He is the best thing to ever happen to me. He is my dearest love and my best inspiration.
We were talking a little bit about our wedding this morning and how great it was. It was miraculously sunny and beautiful out, and there was NO parking at Golden Gardens (but luckily our friends saved us a parking space so we were not late) and we wrote our vows on scraps of paper while stuck in traffic on the way to the beach.
We realized that before we know it, we'll be looking back and it will be a lot of years, and i just can't wait to experience all that time with him. I can't wait for the rest of our lives! I want to know what happens!
Now the internet knows that I LOVE YOU BEN!

errol

errol, originally uploaded by maybeemily.

just wanted to share my favorite picture of my favorite little boy :)

Nature Party

Nature Party, originally uploaded by maybeemily.

and... ta-da! Here is the finished piece! It made it to Portland, Oregon just in time for the show. (THANK YOU KIM!!!!)

I am so super happy with the finished piece, and I am looking forward to making more!!

New Work

in progress embroidery for Portland show, originally uploaded by maybeemily.

I am super excited to tell you about a new body of work I have been doing! This is a little sneak peak - the in progress shot of a piece I am doing for a show in Portland.
I am using acrylic paints and the glorious Golden fabric painting medium, and then embroidering over the paintings. I think its such a great direction for me to go in. It takes the best of my resin/gouache/acrylic paintings, the subjects on my prints, and my love of embroidery all into account. I have 4 or 5 pieces underway right now, and I haven't been this excited about a piece of artwork in a long time.
I finished and framed this piece earlier this week (with the super awesome emergency help of my friend Kim!), and sent it away to Portland. This will be the first time I am showing one of these pieces, and I am very anxious to find out what people will think of them!
I can't wait to show ya'll (yep, all 2 of you that read this) the others I am working on!
Have a happy weekend! It is supposed to be 70 degrees here in Seattle, on the first day of March! Thats crazy!

knitting

knitting, originally uploaded by maybeemily.

hello!

I've been very busy creating lately. knitting, embroidering, painting,cleaning, loving.