Ticket giveaway to Maker Faire

At last week's Austin Babes in Business meeting, I was chatting with the lovely Rachel of Average Jane Crafter and she offered up some free tickets to Austin's Maker Faire for me to giveaway on my blog. Thanks Rachel! So here's the deal...

I have 4 tickets to giveaway: 2 adult, 1 student, 1 youth. The event is Saturday 10/18 and 10/19 at the Travis County Event Center and Fairground.


To participate in the giveaway, just submit a comment to this post using the comments section below. This Friday, 10/3, I will randomly select a winner who will get all 4 tickets, valued at $75! I'll post the winner's name on Saturday and you can email me your address so I can mail you the tickets.

What is Maker Faire?
Maker Faire is a two-day, family-friendly event that celebrates the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) mindset. It's for creative, resourceful people of all ages and backgrounds who like to tinker and love to make things. From the event website: "In a nutshell, Maker Faire is a two-day, public gathering of tech DIY enthusiasts, teachers, students, tinkerers, hobbyists, inventors, science clubs, authors, manufacturers and retailers, print and broadcast media all coming together to share their projects. There will be scheduled performances, demonstrations, and an abundance of hands-on activities, all designed for an amazing and thrilling experience for those who attend!"

For more information on the event (maps, faqs etc...), visit their website.

Lots of new stuff

I have been sewing to my hearts content to get ready for the upcoming holiday shows. Here's a few quick pics of what I've been working on. My first show will be 10/22 and 10/23 at Riverplace so can't wait to see how that goes. Pretty nervous but really excited!

Look at my new labels! I ordered them from Hong Kong via ebay and I love, love them!

I hand dyed this linen, and silkscreened this chair I designed. I appliqued the lamp and sticthed the upholstry pattern onto the chair. I'm hoping to have at least a dozen of them done this week.
Covered composition books. The ribbons on the front are pen pockets.
The first printing of my fabric! I'll be selling (hopefully!) some small quantities.

My new favorite thing to make. I love these fabric collages! Still trying to figure out if I'm going to frame them or stretch them over canvas.



House ornaments. They are hanging off of every door knob in my house. So cheery!
I'll keep you posted!

Amazing surface design class

I had the great opportunity to take a cool surface design class last week. It was really amazing. Five whole days of learning new techniques with dyeing fabric, resist, silkscreen. It was a little slice of nirvana. And I got to meet some really great new people. What a talented bunch of ladies and I'm so glad that I got to share the class with them. Kat, our instructor was amazing. So inspirational and patient. Not to mention incredibly talented. If anyone is in Austin, I highly recommend taking one of her classes at Studio 1408.

Rachel of Average Jane Crafter was one of the crafty crew and she documented the whole journey on her blog. Here are a few of the pics she took and a great series of posts talking about what we got to do. Thanks Rachel! You rock sister!

Photo by Average Jane Crafter

For more pics surface design class photos, take a peek at Rachel's photostream on flikr.

My etsy store is open!

A day ahead of schedule, the store is open for business. I've only listed a few products to start but I'm super excited. I have applications for holiday shows due on Monday, so it's up and ready for them in time! Have a great holiday weekend!

http://www.scarletfig.etsy.com/

Productive day!

Well, today was a good one. I finally got some product photography. The lighting in my apartment is pretty lousy so still need to work on that, but here are some work in progress. The images still need to be cleaned up a bit (ragged edges)...

Pillows

Some collage pieces that I'm thinking about having printed as notecards.

Stuffed trees for the holidays

I have a small forest of them in the apartment in different holiday patterns. I am battling with the cat to keep her off of them!

And last, but not least. here's a peek at the website. www.scarletfig.com. I will be selling my stuff through Etsy.com, so once that is up (hopefully within 1 week) I will direct traffic to the store.

Making progress

I know that I've been absent from posting since I arrived in Austin. It's been a whirlwind of activity. I've been sewing and creating like a crazy person and loving every minute of it. There are some holiday shows here in Oct/Nov/Dec and the deadlines for submissions are looming. So I'm creating as fast as I can so I have some samples for my applications.

So far, there have been some winners and some losers. Pictures of everything will be shot this weekend, so I will get them posted soon. I promise.

I've been making some pillows that I really love so those can go in the winner pile. The baby quilts were a disaster. I couldn't sew them fast enough to make production realistic, so they are going on a back burner. I've been doing some collage that I'm pretty excited about. I think I am going to scan them in and get them printed as notecards. I've ordered some yardage of some fabric I designed so am anxiously awaiting it's shipment from North Carolina.

I've also been working on getting the website built and getting my online store ready. I will have something up by this weekend. I'm still waiting on a bunch of materials so it will be a small sampling to start, but you have to start somewhere, right?

My friend Brian has been amazing and has built me the prettiest logo, business card and header for the website. And my new company's name is...

I will send out an email to everyone once the store is officialy up. Again, thanks for everyone's support!
--laurie

Getting settled in Austin

Well, we finally made it! Coming to you from my little balcony here in Austin and it feels great to be back. It's been so fun to get to see my friends and see all the familiar old haunts. And of course all the yummy Mexican food. It's amazing how quickly I feel at home here. It was a scary decision to leave and come back here but it just feels more and more right every day.

The movers were a nightmare (ripped couch, broken furniture, crushed boxes etc...) but I'm no longer seething (I do wish a pox on them though...) and am focusing my energies on making my new home comfy and getting started on my new venture. I should have everything put away once I make a pilgrimage to Ikea tomorrow. And I will be sewing by Monday! Can't wait to get started. I'll post pics next week.

Does anyone have any suggestions for business names?

Ahhhhh....Texas

Finally crossed the state line today and am posting from Waco, TX. I will be in Austin tomorrow! That's an 1800 mile drive!

As a diversion from the trip have been catching up on some online reading. Fun game all over my favorite daily blog reads so I decided to play along.

The Game:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into Big Huge Labs Mosaic Maker.



The Questions:
1. What is your first name? Laurie
2. What is your favorite food? Mexican
3. What high school did you go to? Coronado
4. What is your favorite color? kiwi green
5. Who is your celebrity crush? Patrick Stewart
6. Favorite drink? Guiness
7. Dream vacation? Tibet
8. Favorite dessert? Crème Brûlée
9. What you want to be when you grow up? Happy & Healthy
10. What do you love most in life? My family, friends & my pets
11. One Word to describe you. Goofy
12. Your blog: lauriewis.blogspot

Almost there

Will cross the Texas border tomorrow. What a doozie of a drive. I'll be in Austin by Thursday. Can't wait to get there. And the dog and the cat are ready to be there too.

Texas bound

Movers finally, finally, finally got everything loaded. Wow they were slow. Wouldn't have made it through the day with my sanity had my sister not been there to keep me from freaking out. Thanks Wendy!! I'm really going to miss you! We got the dog and cat loaded into my car and I finally hit the road late in the afternoon. I was very sad to be leaving NY. Thinking that I will stop at the Quilt Museum in VA tomorrow. Off to sleep!

Rain pouring down

Movers not moving quickly. And now there's a torrential rain storm. Delightful.

Bye Bye Brooklyn

Waiting for the movers to arrive. Sad to be leaving Brooklyn but excited about what's next.