Gathering Inspiration

Nathalie Lété

 

Nathalie Lété lives and works in Paris. She works in many ways, mixing different techniques and mediums, illustration, ceramics, textile and painting… She is inspired by her travels, but also by the mixing of vintage toys and old engravings of flowers and animals. Her work is colorful, naive and poetic, sometimes strange, to the point of tending towards art brut. Her world is nurtured by popular and folk art. She produces children’s and graphics books, knitted and stuffed toys, glass pictures, patterned dishes, but also postcards, ceramic sculptures, silkscreen printed t-shirts, rugs and jewels in limited edition… both for herself and for commissions. Can I be her when I grow up?

Parkour Motion Reel

parkour motion reel from saggyarmpit on Vimeo.

So AWESOME!

Prepared to be W-O-W'd: Befores and Afters

 

Did you leave your bottom lip hanging down?
I know I did when I saw these!

Read more at Design*Sponge for details...
but I am totally coveting these gems! 
Makes my scavenger self want to bolt
to the flea market this Sunday! 

 

Dollar Bill Origami

From this....

You can make these...

 

And from his newest works...(using foreign currency)

Scored and folded by the incredibly talented Won Park. Crazy good!

 

Rich Color Crayons

Meet the crayons that can make anyone an artist. Drawing as you normally would, the crayons make beautiful harmonious colors, making it easy for anyone to draw pictures with nicely blended colors. Available Here. Gotta get little Liam some!

(Via holy cool)

Paper Art by Simon Schubert | Toxel.com

Amazing!!!!

(via ffffound)

comforted by your own family tree

Ta-da!

The Hopper Creek Montessori 2008-09 quilt is completed! And just in time, as auction begins today!

It's been a great experience working on this project! I've learned a lot about what it means to be forgiving when it comes to a little mistake or when I need to rip out the thread and start over! All-in-all, I am pleased! I hope it does well, to raise funds for Hopper Creek. Of course, my heart and soul was poured into it, so I will bid, but have a limit in mind of what I can spend. Whoever goes over it to win the quilt, has my blessing!

A BIG THANK YOU to all the wonderful children that helped me to make it! Without their creativity in selecting their own leaves, and arranging the colorful felt circles for caterpillars, this quilt would not be as successful or beautiful! It's inspiring to work with such amazing young minds! (And thank you to Carmella for helping to direct the kids too!)

Of course Liam didn't want me to bring it to school today.
His words were:
"My friends won't like the pictures you took with the camera or the blanket" It's not cool for them. It should stay here (home)."

I take that as the BIGGEST compliment!~

To see more amazing auction items, visit: http://auctions.readysetauction.com/hoppercreek/home

leaves, leaves and more leaves

A little sneak peek at the leaves I've been blanket stitching felted circles on fabric leaves for Liam's preschool. Each child helped to pick out their own fabric leaf as well as arranging a selection of felted circles to create caterpillars which were temporarily held in place with fabric glue, until I could secure them in place with a blanket stitch effect.

The online auction will be May 15th, and I have about a week and a half to finish the quilt a week earlier so that it can be displayed and hopefully pull at some heart strings for a winner! Tiny beads have since been sewed on for eyes, with names being stitched in accordingly. Once that's completed, it's assembly time!

Chicken or Egg: what came first?

Easter completely sneaked up on us this year. I have my friend Jenny LaMonte to thank for having hosted a gathering the prior Sunday where she showed some friends and I, the "art of decorating eggs" using a kit (shhhh!). So much fun - and dare I say....easy, while being creative? Mine came from Williams-Sonoma, where I decided to give in and buy the Ebelskiver Filled-Pancake Pan, something I've been eying for a while. Having never been a pancake fan, these were a big hit—delicious!! A VERY successful purchase indeed!

Aside from "blowing out the egg whites/yolks", the process was loads of fun. The glass beads were from a local store in town. We will definitely do again next year! Even our cat Reza seem to like the new decor.

Happy Easter!~

apothecarian eye: take two

 

It seems that my fun for craft has definitely caught the eye of some friends. Last month, when i crafted a shadow box for my husband's birthday using literally, things I had (Japanese paper, antique coins, photos of us), our friend Bonnie was totally impressed with the end results. luckily, i remembered this for her own birthday yesterday.

What do you do for someone who has everything she needs and truly doesn't want anything but quality time with loved ones? My solution was to create her very own tale of butterfly children (namely of Liam and Sierra, her granddaughter-circa 2007). Throw in some other photos of "family" together, in vignettes of sentimental charm, and —voila, a story is told.

Today's unveiling proved to be a hit! Since this is obviously too much fun for me: I've decided to try and source some real butterfly wings. I think that would add so much more realism and make it even more ethereal.