Obsessed with Hipstamatic

Anyone else?

Small Business Saturday sale!

{The Lola Show desk calendar!}

Tomorrow is Small Business Saturday and everything in the milkshake crafts shop is 15% off! (Just enter code CYBER11 during checkout.) The sale continues until the end of the month, Wednesday November 30th, at midnight.

{5"x7" owl print.}

 {5"x7" seahorses print.}

Lots and lots of new items have been added the past few days. There are new prints, desk clocks, pendants, wall clocks and art blocks.

{Red clematis pendant.}

{Blue seahorse wall clock.}

Happy shopping!

Small Business Saturday sale!

{The Lola Show desk calendar!}

Tomorrow is Small Business Saturday and everything in the milkshake crafts shop is 15% off! (Just enter code CYBER11 during checkout.) The sale continues until the end of the month, Wednesday November 30th, at midnight.

{Seahorse print.}

Lots and lots of new items have been added the past few days. There are new prints, desk clocks, pendants, wall clocks and art blocks.

  
{Red clematis pendant.}

{New seahorse wall clock.}

Happy holidays!
Lisa

milkshake {shop}

sweet inspiration {blog}

milkshake crafts on FB {facebook fan page}

Updating the website

I just finished taking the last of the photos I need for my website update. Finally! This has been on the back-burner for months now. Good thing I finished when I did - it started pouring after I finished. Paper and water don't mix very well.

 {The most popular desk clock - blue chickadee.}

I take my photos on my falling down, in need of repair shabby chic picket fence in front of my house. I have to bring Lola outside with me when I do it or else listen to her bark and cry inside the house the whole time I'm out there. (And be prepared for whatever toy of Malayna's she's chewed up during that time.) So she's in the backyard and I'm in the front yard taking photos, and she still cries and barks at me even though I'm less than a foot away from her. Or she's jumping on my plants and ripping them apart. Fun! I'm glad I at least have a well-behaved child.

I'll be updating my site for the next day or so and then having a Small Business Saturday/Cyber Monday sale! I've decided to leave "Black Friday" out of the mix because I really despise everything about that day. What would I need so badly that I would have to camp out overnight for it?!

Support locally-owned shops and artists!

Waldorf Holiday Fair recap

One of my favorite shows - The Waldorf Holiday Fair - was this past weekend (Friday night and Saturday). It's held in a beautiful space in the Waldorf School of Philadelphia (all the classrooms are painted different colors and don't have distracting posters on the walls like lots of schools do), the food is delicious (seriously, my roommates and I decided that one of the reasons we do the show is for the yummy food!) and the people who come to the show are very supportive and positive about our handcrafted art.

I shared a room with Cara of Cob Studio (we've been in this room together for at least the past four years), Renee of Tadpole Creations (our second year together) and Sarah of Gritty City Beauty Co. (who made the room smell good with her candles and body butters). We had a good time as usual, catching up with each other and chatting during the (little bit of) down time. The only drawback to a good show is that you don't have time to go around and see the other vendors and all the good stuff for sale. I'm sorry I didn't get to take home a scarf from Untold Imprint - her work is beautiful!

The new seahorse image I created was a big hit! Sold a few clocks, prints and magnets featuring that image. I'll be adding those products to the Etsy shop this week!

Next up: The Abington Friends School Craft Fair on December 3rd from 10-3 and then the MamaCita Holiday Party & Show on December 11th from 1-5.

Skippyjon Jones reading and book signing

{Halloween, 2011.}

My daughter, Malayna, loves Skippyjon Jones. She discovered the books about a year ago and reads them over and over. We have also listened to some books on CD while driving to the shore over the summer. She dressed as Skippyjon for Halloween (in a costume that I made), and gave me very specific instructions on what she wanted it to look like. I made many pairs of paper ears and paper masks before she gave me the "okay" to make them in felt. She knows what she wants.

We had the opportunity to meet Judy Schachner - the author and illustrator of Skippyjon Jones - over the weekend. She held a reading of her latest book, Class Action at a bookstore in downtown Philadelphia. When I told Malayna about it, she was thrilled - way more excited than I thought she'd be. She wore her Halloween costume and took a book with her for Judy to sign. It was a great reading - Judy was funny, animated and told some jokes that only the grown-ups got. She had Malayna stand up and show everyone her costume. (Afterwards Malayna told us she was a little embarrassed at that part, so I think if it were just one year later she wouldn't have worn the costume.)

 {Showing everyone her costume.}

When it was time for the signing, Malayna was the first one in line. It was like she was meeting a movie star. She gave Judy a drawing she had made and a picture of Lola dressed up in Malayna's Skippyjon Jones costume. Malayna smiled the entire time Judy was talking to her. When we were on our way home, she said, "I wish the reading didn't happen yet so I could do it all over again."

 {The drawing and the picture Malayna gave to Judy.}

 {Thrilled!}
The two photos above were taken by the husband
of one of the women who designs the Skippyjon Jones apparel.
http://www.skippyjonjonesstuff.com/

Thank you Judy Schachner! You inspire Malayna every day.

New designs!

Appearing on clocks and art blocks at my next event! Stop by the Waldorf School of Philadelphia's Holiday Fair on November 18th from 6-10 and November 19th from 10-5. This show is always fun, with arts and crafts for the kids and yummy homemade food. Oh! And of course there are fabulous artists selling their wares! Hope to see you there.

Perfection

Perfectionism, anyone? I'm feeling it today - I've been trying to work on my new seahorse clocks, but I cannot get the design the way I want it. It's one of those days. I'm putting it aside to go teach the after-school art club at my daughter's school, and hopefully be inspired by a bunch of young artists!

Seahorses!

I love this new image I finished yesterday and can't wait to use it on clocks! Maybe it can go on some art blocks, too… What do you think? What else would you like to see this on?

Sneak peek of new images!

Every once in a while I create new images to use on my clocks, art blocks, notecards and pendants. It usually happens around the start of the school year, since that's when Malayna is in school all day and I can spend most of my time working on milkshake crafts.

Here's a sneak peek of some new images I'm working on. This is the first phase - I draw the images on paper with a black marker, then scan them. I then use Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to clean up the lines and play around with color and pattern inside the images.

 

The Lola Show

Yes, I know that my banner up there still says "summer 2011." That's because I'm in denial about it being fall and summer being over. I'll change it soon.

In the meantime, here are some photos of Lola to make you laugh. This little photo project started out at Malayna's bedtime a while back. She would make me wait outside her door, and then dress Lola in something silly. Being the control freak that I am, it turned into me bringing costumes from her dress-up bin up to her room and us dressing her together. We would sometimes come up with a theme that day, and think of all the things we could put on her. Some of these crack me up.

I've had some requests from friends on Facebook to make these into a calendar. If I do, I'll donate a portion of the proceeds to the rescue that we got Lola from - Puppies and More in New Jersey.

 {Back-to-school}

 {Happy Labor Day!}

 {Sexy beast.}

 {Facebooking.}

 {You've got a friend in me!}

 {Borrowing her sister's stuff.}

 {And my personal favorite: Prepared for the hurricane.}

Back to school and back to making!

School starts here for Malayna on Wednesday - just two days from now! I'm always torn when September rolls around. On the one hand, I'm sad that she's going to be gone all day and we won't be free to do what we please (trips to the shore, playing outside all day, swimming in our pool…), but on the other hand I'm happy to be getting back to a routine.

As far as milkshake crafts is concerned, I don't do any shows past early June, and the amount of making I do in the summer is slim. I do teach art classes in July & August, but that's different than sitting at a desk all day making clocks!

I'm looking forward to getting a list together for all that needs to be done by September 18th - my first show since June! Milkshake will be making an appearance at The Clover Market in Ardmore that day. It's a great show, with antiques, vintage and handmade. But I have a lot to do before that…

This is my studio. It needs to be cleaned up.

By the way, I'm having a back-to-school sale on my website right now. Enter code SCHOOL for 15% off!

Summer art class: Georgia O'Keeffe-inspired flowers

{Artwork by Malayna}

One of my all-time favorite artists is Georgia O'Keeffe. I've loved her since I first saw her work back in high school. It seems like her work is on everything - calendars, notecards, t-shirts, coasters, umbrellas, etc., etc. Despite the over-saturation, I still love her style. She was one of the most important artists in the 1920s (and one of the only famous females). Because all of my art class students are girls, a Georgia O'Keeffe-inspired lesson is inevitable!

 {Lola is wondering if the flowers are edible…}

Before class started, I went out to my yard and cut some fresh flowers. I looked for simple shapes, and wound up using black-eyed susan and rose of sharon (both white and purple). I put a few of each in little vases and placed them on each work table. (Unfortunately, we were experiencing a heatwave in this area, so we weren't outside for class.) I had several books about O'Keeffe's work that the girls could look through for inspiration. We read Georgia O'Keeffe (Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists). Some of the girls couldn't understand why she was only one of a few famous female artists, so we talked a bit about what girls and women were doing in the 20s. They thought it was very "unfair" (Malayna) that most of the famous artists we've heard about are men. I agreed!

{Busy at work!}

Before they sat down to work we talked about how O'Keeffe basically zoomed in on flowers and didn't necessarily include the entire flower on the page. I told them they should fill their page with the drawing and could even have the petals going off the edges. I first gave each girl a small piece of paper to do a trial drawing. I wanted to be sure they knew what I meant by filling the page with the flower. This was an important step, because some of them made their flowers teeny tiny, and it gave them the chance to practice drawing big. When the drawings were finished they used watercolors to fill them in.