knick knacks & ric rac

since the first pair i painted, i’ve been thinking about what to paint next. i pulled these ones out of my closet yesterday afternoon.

i bought them at the thrift store about 7 or 8 years ago, i don’t think i’ve ever worn them. they’re actually quite comfortable but every time i try them on, the big white band across the toe looks too…well, too big and white! i was originally going to paint something totally different on them, but when i sat down to do it i looked at my scherenschnitte skirt (which i find myself wearing all the time) and thought how cute it would be to have coordinating shoes! they also go very nicely with my favorite things skirt. here’s how they ended up!

 i like them so much better now!

were you entertained (or traumatized?) by this classic german book when you were a kid?

 my favorites/most feared stories were pauline and the matches, (they changed her name to harriet in my copy). the last picture of the kitties crying around the pile of her ashes always brought a tear to my eye. and naughty little suck-a-thumb hit a little too close to home when i was a little suck-a-thumb myself…i found this animation that somebody made of suck-a-thumb, take a peek at it here if you want to be creeped out.

have you seen the latest issue of craft magazine? it features a crafter profile of me! how exciting! written by the delightfully lovely and especially clever jenny of felt club and sew darn cute fame. take a peek at the article here!

remember way back when, when i was talking about getting a wooden house purse and painting it to look like a little cuckoo clock from my collection? well, i got one that was barn shaped because i thought it resembled this. i finally finished it up, here’s how it came out!

for the weather house couple and flowerboxes, i scanned in images from a cute german tablecloth, printed them out and decoupaged them onto the purse after i finished painting it.

 i also did that for the bird and deer on the back. i added some tiny 3-D mushrooms and a wooden pine tree (the ones i use for my deer brooches) and then topped it off by gluing some alpine ribbon trim around the bottom and on the handle. festive!

i just added a new colorway for the schwarzwalder skirt! it’s pale gold with a brown print, brown toadstool applique and brown ric rac trim.

have you ever painted on your shoes? last night i painted some flowers on a cute pair of shoes that needed a little something extra…

for a first try i think they came out really cute. if i were a better painter, i might have tried something a little more ambitious than simple flowers. next time!

i used neopaque paint because the colors are concentrated, opaque and cover black exceptionally well. also it dries permanent and flexible so it won’t crack. i prepped the area i wanted to paint by wiping it down with acetone. the colors came out super bright, so after i finished painting i put a wash of diluted black paint over it to tone the colors down and give it kind of an antique-y feel to match the look of the shoes. lastly i shined them up with a little saddle soap. i’ve been wearing them around today and i can’t stop staring at my feet!

i love painted shoes,  i have a collection of painted clogs, but this is the first time i’ve tried it myself. i’m already thinking about what to paint next!

for some more shoe painting inspiration, check out these amazing clogs and this cute pair of shoes on etsy that i love.

lately i’ve become enamored with this pixelated style of folky graphics. they’re supposed to look like a cross stitch sampler, but it reminds me of old fashioned computer graphics, or being bored in math class and coloring in the squares of graph paper with one of those big retractable ballpoint pens that had 5 or 6 colors in it. do they still make those? i couldn’t find any online, but they were pretty popular when i was in elementary school. here are some close-ups of a few things i bought recently for inspiration.

 

i found the little lamb planter at the thrift store on saturday…i should have been doing a bunch of other things today, but made this picture instead. i couldn’t help myself, the knick knacks just went together too perfectly! it looks like i’m wishing for spring already. i found the dutch girl planter at a thrift store last year, and the little cottages are a pair of salt and pepper shakers i bought on etsy recently.

i just added the print to my etsy shop.

did you know the poem “mary had a little lamb” is based on a true story? it’s about mary sawyer from sterling, massachusetts, who took her pet lamb to school one day.  another famous resident of sterling was ebenezer butterick, inventor of graded tissue paper patterns for home sewing.

my friend christina owns a little shop in a small town in bavaria and has a line of handmade clothing and accessories for women called mein herzblut. she also makes little outfits for her collection of old taxidermied critters and decorates them with felt flowers and crocheted toadstools! she sent me a few pictures and i thought i would share, take a gander at these!

…checking out the lastest issue of bust magazine.

recognize anything in the holiday gift guide?

my pink matryoshka skirt! how exciting!

and check out the article on the most adorable angela and her clothing line mode merr on page 44!