Archive for the 'Coverage' Category Page 2 of 3



Thank you Bumblesea

Have you seen the breathtaking jewelry of Bumblesea? I know I’ve spent time gazing longingly at Jennifer’s work, dreaming of rewarding myself (for who knows what) by purchasing one of her lovely pieces.

Then, can you imagine my surprise and delight when I discovered the other day that she featured my work on her own personal blog. I was absolutely thrilled. I think she must be a kindred spirit as she said she has wanted a room with fake plastic grass (rather than carpeting) since she was a child, and she apparently hates Metallica (according to her bio blurb). Well, Jennifer, I’ve never had a fake grass carpeted room, but I incorporated the stuff into almost every art class I took in college. And as for Metallica, well, I went to a music festival once where they headlined and I made sure to exit well before they came on because I loathe them sooooo much.

Not only did she feature me, but then the next day she used one of my paintings to illustrate her post. I feel loved.

Thank you so much Jennifer, you made my day!

And since she asked about my ecosphere. It’s still going well. I think most of the tiny water flea-like things have perished, but the snails, and the brine shrimp-like creatures are thriving. I don’t know if it is just me, but the plant’s roots seem to have grown deeper as well.

The thing that is so cool about the ecosphere is that, although it is just a jar, each and every time I sit down and begin gazing long enough I discover new life. For example, just now I discovered an almost microscopic, white creature, with what looked like it had a shell, but was swimming around freely. How cool, huh?

Weekend Wrap-up

clouds & concrete, originally uploaded by robayre.

I hope everyone had a relaxing, yet productive weekend. The weather today was perfect.

I have a few things I wanted to share.

-I’ve been sooo delighted to be featured on Etsy’s front page not once, not twice, but THREE times within the last 4 days. As I said last week, I get stupidly giddy whenever I make it to the front page. I hope this feeling never goes away as I continue to plug away with my Etsy shop. I just love it so much. My only sadness is that Etsy was not around when I was a child/teenager or even college student.

-I’m still going strong on my goal to ride my bike to work everyday for a month. This too is making me beyond happy. I wish I could do it all year round. At this rate I imagine I will probably be riding to work throughout the summer, well past my goal of one month. It only takes a few more minutes to ride to work, than it did to drive, but I feel that instead of getting into a car, putting on the music, being in the zone and just getting to work, now I am much more aware of my surroundings. I get to enjoy the weather, and nature, greet people along the way, and really have experiences traveling back and forth to work, rather than lost time.

-I’ve been working on my mini zine for the swap-bot swap. If I am happy with the results I might add some to my shop as well. I just have so many ideas and I don’t think I’ll be able to add them all to one zine, especially one this small (it has to fit into a small matchbook).

-Before I forget to mention, I’ve updated my banner. If you are like myself, you read your blogs through an rss reader and probably wouldn’t have even noticed had I not said anything. Now my blog and etsy work together.

-I’ve mentioned my twitter here before, but I thought I’d bring it up again, and invite anyone interested, to follow me there as well. I occasionally post fun/inspirational/informative links on twitter as I come across them.

-Speaking of inspiring site links, here is one I found via booooooom. It’s a website devoted to the upcoming movie of Where the Wild Things Are and all of it’s assorted influences. VERY COOL SITE.

-One last link, a new to me blog.  How could I not love a printmaker who has pet rabbits, and a hedgehog? Then on her sidebar she has a list of goals, things like make a stop-motion movie, learn letterpress, and make a zine. This seems like my kind of gal.

Etsy Item of the Day

I’m very proud to say that today one of my Framed Yo-Yo Sets is featured as the Etsy Item of the Day. Check it out!

In celebration and thanks, I’d also love to offer an extra little free gift in each order for any purchases made in my etsy shop today. Thanks Jackie!

Etsy Item Of The Day

Weekend wrap up

How was your weekend? It was beautiful Friday, but rained Saturday and Sunday. Spring is in FULL swing, the grass is green and the magnolia trees are exploding.

On Friday I went to some thrift stores and picked up a couple secondhand white square frames that I was excited to use for my framed Yo-Yo sets. Above is the project I started and had mentioned on Saturday. A completely white set. It’s not even half way finished, and will be much larger than the regular sets because these frames are bigger than the ikea ones I normally use. I think it will look really great white on white. Now I’m kind of debating on using tea to slightly dye some of them so the are all off-white to different degrees. The frames are slightly distressed with the wood showing through in worn places.

Today I had a wonderful surprise when checking out my blog subscriptions. My friend Tiffany wrote the warmest post about me in thanks for a postcard I sent to her.  Last winter when I had my show I had posted one of my mailart pieces that said “I have everything I need”. She commented that it really spoke to her, as it was something her daughter said frequently, so I sent it to her. Tiffany, I’m so glad you, and Q loved the postcard. It always gives me great satisfaction to send one of my mail art pieces and for it to make it’s way to it’s destination and be appreciated. I could ask for nothing more :) Thank you Tiffany for being a friend, internet hugs ((Tiffany)). Did you notice that there was a stamp for each of you?

I would like to give another shout out to etsy seller monpetitfantome. You might recall a couple weeks ago I favorited his shop and was sent a kind message that I was his 1000th store favorite and he wanted to send me a free item as a thank you. I chose a framed rabbit silhouette, similar to the one above, as a tribute to my pet rabbit that passed away last fall. Last week I checked my P.O. box and it had arrived and it is beautiful. Please check out his shop to see if any other beauties stand out to you.

Lastly, I signed up for a mini zine matchbox swap through swap-bot. It’s been quite a while since I’ve participated in a swap-bot swap and this one really enticed me. A while back I blogged about my interest in zines. I look forward to this swap and because of its small size it will be a fun and less overwhelming introduction into zine making. I would love to encourage everyone else to join in this swap, the more the merrier. The parameters for this swap are that each member will make and send 3 zines and the zine will be small enough to fit into a 32 ct. matchbook box. Please join me :)

fun links to share

I will hopefully be going outside today and enjoying the weather and weekend. But before I do, I have several links that I would love to share with you.

-Above is an inspiring Etsy video feature about the living space of design team Something’s Hiding in Here.- For etsy users: Did you know that you can now visit Craftopolis and Craftcult find out if you are featured in a treasury, gift guide or if you’ve recently been listed on Etsy front page. It was how I found out I was on the front page this week with this treasury.

-My Everyday Create comrade Tiffany wrote this flattering post on her blog about me. The article made me smile and laugh out loud when she said “her interests are all over the map.” It is so true. And her kind compliments made me feel warm and loved. Thank you so much Tiffany.

-There was a post this week on Decor8 about the artist Aprile Elciche. I have to admit I’ve been following her other blog Not Paper (which features other collage and mixed media artists) for a while now and was delighted to discover her personal blog and have fallen in love with her artwork as well.

-Check out my other Everyday Create cronies here, where Bri has done an interview of Joon.

-And finally, this week I was looking at Brandi Strickland’s work, whoa nelly! this is some beautiful stuff to my eyes.

Have a good weekend everyone, and fill up with plenty of inspiration!

polaroid and etsy front page

the cheese, originally uploaded by robayre.

Hmmm, I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned my love of polaroid here before. Well, maybe I’ve commented on it once or twice before :)
Earlier today I was looking at my flickr contacts and came across a picture from my flickr contact Minkoff. Besides having one of the coolest websites, Julia also takes beautiful polaroids. It inspired me this morning to take out my prized Polaroid Colorpack II landcamera and load new film in it. I was a little worried that I wouldn’t be able to get it to work, as last time I used it I ruined the rest of a pack of film when I actually tore a print as I was pulling it out. I put in the new film and took the above picture and was delighted with the results. I am constantly thrilled by the pictures that this camera turns out. This picture is of “the cheese” at my elementary school. Everyone that was a lincoln lion will always have a soft place in their heart for “the cheese”.

Speaking of Polaroid, I’d also like to give my internet friend Tiffany Teske a shout out, as Polaroid is her medium of choice. She has a lovely etsy store and shows and publishers her work frequently. She also has a blog devoted to her love of polaroid.

Today I had a real thrill when I got a message from another internet friend, Joon, to let me know my treasury I created a few days ago was being featured on the front page of etsy. It is such a huge thrill to have etsy admin choose a collection I made to represent their whole company.

I had the day off today again and had a long list of things I wanted to get done. The main thing I was excited to do was go out for a long walk, but with the temperature being 7 degrees Fahrenheit , as opposed to the 28 degrees that my mac widget had promised, I didn’t think it would be a good idea.

One of the things I did get done though is to finish cutting down and folding the booklets that will go in each artomat box. I finished the paintings for this series forever ago (last spring?) but just have not sent them in because I didn’t have these books complete. I didn’t even have an idea for how to compose them until last week when I forced myself to sit down and brainstorm ideas.  I made them on the computer but they have a very hands on/handmade quality about them. I really love how they came out.

Shome shtuff to share

I’m excited to announce that today is the beginning of the Poppytalk Handmade Love Transforms showcase. I added a banner over to the right, so please check it out.

I’m also happy to share that my friends Tom and Nikki won the essay contest about whose love rocks. I’d like to thank everyone who followed the link here and cast their vote to make that possible.

One more announcement: Sweetcheese is having a contest/giveaway on her blog. You could go over there and check out the awesome stuff she will send you, or um, I mean me, when I win. Um, I really want to win :)

One last thing. When I was napping yesterday I had this dream and when I woke up I wanted to remember to mention it for my blog entry about sleeping and dreaming, but then of course I forgot. It wasn’t until I went back to sleep that I remembered it. It wasn’t anything all that special, but I just thought it was awesome while I was dreaming it and funny when I woke up. I dreamt that I lived in a different house and we had a HUGE fish tank in our living room. Imagine a standard 10 gallon tank but only hundreds of times bigger, probably about 10 feet tall. Funny enough, even though it was so big, it didn’t take up too much room. I got the idea to climb in or maybe I fell in and as I was climbing back out I grabbed the edge and decided to kick my legs and splash. Then I realized how cool it would be to swim around in the tank. I couldn’t wait to tell matt and have him join me so we could swim around in the tank and explore it. Before I had a chance to track him down the buffalos (yes, there were buffalos in the house) came to the edge of the aquarium to drink (and yes, they were just regular sized buffalo, but they could drink over the edge of a 10 foot tall aquarium) and like a cheap plastic kids pool, if you bend the edges they fold in or out and all the water in this HUGE aquarium came spilling out into our home. Once again, how a rigid flat glass tanks edges could bend is beyond me, but it happened. I started freaking out that all the water was in the house, but even though I was worried about the flood, I was still excited about the possiblity of swimming in an aquarium in my home. Hmmm, I wonder what a dream interpretation would say about this.

Okay, I know I said that was the last thing, but just one more quickie. IT’S SNOWING! Snowing like crazy. Since last Friday we’ve probably had about 12 inches or so and it’s supposed to continue snowing (blizzard warning or watch) style till early tomorrow afternoon. Matt told me how he heard so many people at his work already saying they weren’t going to be able to make it into work tomorrow. I think that is the most hilarious thing, when people start talking about “THE SNOW!” “THE SNOW!” and then even if we only get 1 or 2 inches, no one will show up to work the next day because they already made up their mind the day before that they would have a snow day the next day. I’m not one of those people at all, but it’s still fun for me because when you go into work on those days, it still feels like a special snow day because no one else is there.

Okay, I’m done.

features

Today I was very happy to find that my recycled envelope and stationery sets were featured on the blog Indie Parade.

 

And then my yoyo set was featured in this treasury “elegant dreamer”

like, stuffff

Today I  discovered a post that used my artwork to illustrate a challenge. I thought that it was kind of cool so I thought I’d share it you. It is a creative challenge to create a piece of artwork and leave it somewhere anonymously. They also mention Found Art Tuesday as well.

Yesterday I realized that my show goes up THIS WEEKEND! Yes, people, just a few days away. It is major cram time. I was freaking out when I realized this, but now I think I am just getting excited. Excited for the show…um, not so much. I’m still nervous about the show, but excited to do all the things that I have felt too guilty to do for the last couple months. You know the saying “you always want what you can’t have”, well, that saying can sum me up since I’ve announced that I would be having a show. Instead of working on artwork and all my BIG PLANS for the show, all I’ve been wanting to do is knit, and spin, and even cook. Yes, you read that right. Cook. “But, Robyn,” you say, “You hate cooking!”Other things I’ve wanted to do: geocache, redesign my entire website (long overdue), and buy one of those kids’ kits to make dozens of woven potholders.

One last thing - Watch or just listen to this youtube video for Ben Folds’ music video You Don’t Know Me (featuring Regina Spektor). After I discovered it last week It’s been getting some heavy play. It might be a little scary for some, as it’s directed by Tim and Eric, of the Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! on Adult Swim. Matt loves this show and makes me watch it occassionally. It can be very funny, but also very disturbing. There are just some things on there that are so weird, disturbing or gross that I have to look away. Anyway, the song is great, and very catchy, so just check it out.

Yo-Yos

Yo-Yo set, originally uploaded by robayre.

More links to share:
There is a really great design blog that is new to me. Mint is run by Ellie, in North Carolina who is a fellow graphic designer. She was kind enough to feature my framed yo-yo sets (like the one seen above, and in my shop) on her post about yo-yos.
I absolutely love this post from Mint recently where she introduced me to Daily Poetics. DP also has a flickr here for you to enjoy.