Furniture Makeovers + A Giveaway

There is a reason that my Gittin' Crafty Wid It board on Pinterest is my most popular. I love a good craft project! Okay, more accurately, I probably love the idea of a good craft project. But Barb Blair is getting me off my crafting keister with her newly released Furniture Makeovers from Chronicle Books.

Having started the illustrious Knack Studios, Barb has a long-standing reputation of being a creative genius in the furniture refinishing arena. Furniture Makeovers does not disappoint with a slew of ideas for turning trash into treasure. With 26 featured techniques, from using decals and découpage to getting the 'dip-dyed' look, my head was swirling with possibilities. I've been inspired to tackle creating a faux inlay look to a couple of dated chairs I have that have been dying for, well, a makeover. I have my supplies lined up and will be kickin' it crafty style this weekend!

Should I tell you that "Midnight at the Oasis" was the impromptu theme song during this photo shoot?

All images are by your Uncle.

Gittin' Crafty Wid It

Coffee, Tea, or Me? Okay...tea then.

The Lab & The Lazy

Okay...I confess I am being a REALLY lazy blogger right now. But going to see "the movie" over in Seattle and gotta catch a ferry boat in, like, minutes! But here are some links to information about the evening's event from Mary and Megan. (Thanks, Ladies!) I'll be back tomorrow with some updates about what I thought and learned. One thing I learned...I have a crap camera! But it is what it is...y'know?

The delightful Mr. John Tusher starting off the evening singing "Don't Cry For Me Argentina". Ok, kidding...he's just warming up the crowd...which isn't hard to do 'cause the man's dna is just downright hospitable!

That's Erin from Apartment34 talking about the upcoming Make Mine A Million event. (The coat and her shoes? Sarah Jessica would have approved!)

The lovely and informative panel. Paola, Elaine, Mary, & Megan.
They were wonderful! (Sorry about the awkward shot, ladies.)


Megan, Mary, & Tula.
(This...being the best shot of the bunch is from Mary's camera...not mine!)

Patience IS a virtue.

And Kids....y'all are seriously "virtuous"!!! Love your hearts, I know I have absolutely pushed you to the limits but I am now in the home stretch of my magazine project. Only a couple days left to wrap things up and then it gets shipped off to NYC!

After that, I'll get caught up on rest and posts and you'll have your Uncle Beefy back in business! Maybe it'll be time to do a giveaway? Hmmm? Have you earned it though? Uh, yeah...I think that's been settled.

And I THANK YOU so muchly for all your support! XOXO

Designers...make it work!

I posted about this a short little while ago and now it's happening! All you Seattle-area designer/crafter/artist/entrepreneurs are invited tomorrow night (Wednesday April 16th) to the Seattle creative meet up from 6pm- 8pm at Velocity's South Lake Union showroom on Yale Avenue, featuring special guest artist Matte Stephens.

"The events will go by the name of The Lab - we are hoping that they will become a place to experiment with new ideas, foster creative thinking and provide us all with plenty of opportunities for networking and inspiration. Please feel free to invite anyone you think would like to come and remember that The Lab is open to both men and women."

And many, many thanks to Paola for helping to organize all of this. As well as thanks to John Tusher and the fine folks at Velocity for hosting and sponsoring and, of course, Matte Stephens, guest speaker extraordinaire! Thanks, Kids!

Also... it's supposed to be raining tomorrow so there are no more excuses for not attending! As if rain would ever be allowed as an excuse in Seattle! See you there! Designers, make it work!

Seattle Design Meet-up

Many of you may already be well aware of Grace's ingenious Biz-Lady Meet-ups that take place all over the country. Well, after her recent visits to Portland & Seattle, Paola from MirrorMirror took hold of the reins to put together a local Seattle group. And Grace kindly filled me in that this would allow boys in too (hooray!). The first meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, April 16th at Velocity Art & Design's new South Lake Union location with the fantastic Matte Stephens presiding as first guest speaker!

If you are a Puget Sound artist, designer, creative, /entrepreneur this should be the perfect means to take hold of your own reins and help guide your career. Let Paola know if you'd like to be added to the address list! (You can click the "email" link below or visit Mirror Mirror.) Hope to see you there!

(This is from Paola's first announcement....)

"After the Biz Lady meet up in Seattle, I left my email addy on Design*Sponge to see if anyone wanted to continue meeting up.

And lo and behold, one of the people who responded was John Tusher of Velocity, who wanted to keep the inspiration going and was offering the new Velocity store as a location!

So on Monday I had tea with John to have a chat about the format such meetings could take.

We thought that it would be good to aim for monthly meetings and we would get a guest speaker or panel of speakers for each one (John's obviously got some great contacts he can tap). We also wanted to set aside a bit more time for socializing and networking afterwards.

We thought it would have more of a general design focus rather than just a business focus, though we might touch on small business-related topics at some point. Oh and given John's involvement, and the general design focus, we thought it would be odd if it were exclusively for women, though it would probably have a preponderance of women attending given what it has sprung from.

So I really just wanted to open this up to get people's thoughts and ideas on the above. I've sort of ended up doing this by default and am keen to create something that everyone feels a part of and will enjoy.

All ideas, comments and suggestions are hugely welcome - either via email or in the comments below. We'd particularly love to hear from you if you've got good ideas for a great name; know someone who would be a good guest speaker; can point us in the direction of wine/cheese/bakery sponsors; or want to get involved in any way. If you're a Seattle-based blogger and think your readers might be interested it would be immensely helpful if you could point them in this direction.

Most importantly, email me if you would like to attend the first meet-up, which we're aiming to have organised for mid-April."

Le chapeau d'oiseau

(Click on the photo to enlarge.)

This is a petite party hat that I made inspired by Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette. While the movie left something to be desired, the styling of the film was spectacular. It's quite small and has a similar little jaunty heir like the hats below.

Kristine loved it, and it loved Kristine. (I know Kristine...I need to let you have your hat now.)

My profound apologies if my French is atrocious.