Obsession: Cow Paintings or Moodern Art?

I don't know what to say...One minute I was pinning on Pinterest and the next I was obsessed with cow paintings. I blame it all on one of the lovely people I follow Pam O'Connell. She posted one, and that was it...

I mean, come on:

(via Drunken Cows)

How does one resist that face?

Too realistic? How about abstract cows?

(via painthog)

Here's one over a fireplace! I think I'm turning you around on cow paintings...

Maybe just a little one to get started. This one is 5 x 7 and waiting for you to buy her on etsy:

(via on Deny2011 etsy)

Or, you could go ceramic...and purchase a cow towel rack/holder...late at night...when your judgement is off,...as is your ability to measure...

Yep, I am the proud owner of a very surprised cow. And I love her! I'm currently in negotiations with my husband as to where she will reside...She was supposed to go in the bathroom, that place needs some quirk, but John thinks she'll do better in the kitchen...

Cow Paintings on Pinterest!

Swiss Mission

It all started with a bowl. Actually, it all started with one of the shops in my circle on etsy listing an item in this pattern. I think it was a dinner plate and I think it was $10. It's gone now, the listing, but I totally fell in love.

It was also way out of my price range. $10 for a plate?! That's $60 for 6 plates! Which means when the plate chips or breaks tears will be shed. A lot of tears.

A few weeks after searching and pricing the Swiss Alpine pattern on etsy, I found the bowl at a thrift store. It was kind of shocking to find something I had in the back of my mind sitting on a shelf. I thought it may be a midwestern pattern and that it would be difficult to find in California.

I showed John the pattern and told him I wanted it for our "everyday" dishes but it was kind of expensive. He liked it and I decided not to sell the bowl, but keep it for myself. (Which happens more than it should).

A couple of weeks after that, I was at the same thrift store and I found 5 dinner plates!

They were $2 each! As I grabbed them, a fellow thrifter said, "Those are cute!" I said, "I know!" and grabbed all of them. (I don't think she liked my response very much...)

I brought them home and washed them and put them on the shelf ready for chicken dinners and quesadillas.

The very next day, I drove to a completely different thrift store, still in Pasadena, and found 1 more dinner plate, 2 salad plates and 9 cup and saucer sets!

It was marked as $14 for the whole set and then I got an additional 30% off! Which ended up at $10! So for $20, I got enough dishes to start my collection. And I sent an email to my mom to keep her eyes open for the pattern in her antique perusing.

That score totally made my week. But I couldn't help but think, "Boots, you gotta start aiming higher!"

musebootsi on etsy

Blue Trio Cups

I just added these little cups to my etsy shop! How cute are they? Hot chocolate never tasted so good!

There's nothing worse than wanting everything you put in your shop!

"I was in charge of cups!"

 

Lots of pretty new/old stuff  added to my etsy store...

Find it here:

musebootsi on etsy

Women Be Shoppin'

I have a new store on etsy! It's more like this place as it likes vintage and is called musebootsi!

After perusing my own collection, which needed thinning out, and trying to come up with a new project in my spare time (ha!) I decided to get a little crazy and sell some vintage delights!

So I squeezed all the info I could out of my friend, who has her own successful eBay shop. She's a genius! I'm going to see how it goes on etsy for now. 

My favorite part? I get to go shopping. All the time. Yay! Okay, not all the time. But enough.

I decided to only sell things I would put in my house, things I may not be able to part with. It'll be a lesson in letting go, fer sure.

Click over and check it out!

Let's see how this goes.

I decided to add a couple of things to my Etsy store. That place seems chock full, so I have zero expectations. At least I had fun with my listings.I only listed 2 hearts and three snowmen. I have a ton more, but it seems harder to find me...

Eat Fresh.

I've been really boring lately and inside my head. Designing and thinking about projects to make. And, as if I didn't have enough to do to avoid actually doing anything, I've been playing addictive games on the ipod I got for Christmas. Solitaire? Really, Courtney? You really need to play solitaire right now? And is that not the loneliest thing ever? Playing solitaire on your ipod at 10 at night? That and this crazy match game. If I tried to explain it to you, I may spiral into a deep depression. Right now I actually believe it helps my brain. And that thing needs all the help she can get.

So, that makes the completion of this project all the more exciting. I finished the sandwich I was making for a friend. We decided on a hippie trade. She designed some gorgeous stationery for me, (which I will link to when she posts), and I made a sandwich and a snowman for her. I did some redesign on the bread. It took a lot of thought to get something that didn't need to be filled with anything to create a thickness.

I have many more sandwiches to make, for other friends whom I feel I owe. And some other cool things I will post as soon as I get the guts to make them. In my brain they are delightful, but in the real world? Not so much sometimes. I bet more solitaire will fix that right up.

There must've been some magic in those recycled sweaters

I made more snowmen! They seem to be popular. I really like them a lot, but my love for things hardly translates to the universe's love of things. So I was pleasantly surprised. Which is the best kind.

I included a picture of a snowman before he gets poked full of sweater leavin's. (Spell check never watched Married with Children in the '80s, I guess).

It starts with a snowman shaped sweater piece and the squiggly yarn is poked through with a special needle. Permanently adhering it to the sweater. Then, I use that pile of colorful yarn to make the details. I don't waste anything. You can even see the orange yarn that becomes the nose.

I really hope I end up with one of my own. I don't have hardly any homemade ornaments on my tree.

On a completely different train of thought, I waxed my own eyebrows today. So if you see me, please don't mention that my stage right brow is a little off. I mean, they're blonde, but still.

Maybe I can get this lady to make me some emergency brows.

Toasty the Snowman

I just added him to my etsy page! I really like how he tuned out. I unravelled a sweater and it still had the curly, swirly texture of the knitting. Then I needle felted it to a base of the same sweater cut into a snowman shape.

I made a few but one is reserve for a relative and the other is for a MOMS Club raffle. 

I don't know what I'm gonna make when Christmas is over. I've had so much fun with the ornaments. I wonder if everyday trees will ever catch on?

Reduce, Reuse, Sleeping baby

I did it! I am finally an etsian! Not like the shopping kind. Like the selling kind. It's very exciting! I was finally able to get some stuff finished. I always have stuff that's almost finished that sits and stares at me and makes me feel bad. Which, not cool, crafts!

So here are some of the lovely things I threw together while waiting for Etsy to upload my scarf photos. It's very time consuming. And you have to come up with prices and shipping? I am not good about knowing my product worth. I always think, "How much would I pay?" But I'm a cheap bastard, so that never works.

(I am definitely laying off the coffee today. I am on full speed. And I still have to go to Starbucks. The obvious thing to do would be to order decaf. But when I'm there? With two wild babies? I think, "I'm gonna need more caffeine.")

So. The above items are basically made of sweaters I recycled and felted in the washing machine. Then needle felted with wool yarn to make the accents. And the mittens were finished with the blanket stitch. Needle Felting is amazing because it is so instantly gratifying. I think of something, poke it with a needle and TA-DA! Christmas tree!

I also included a picture of my sleeping baby. It was too hilarious to leave in my camera.
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