Which came first?

My mini collection of eggs...

Remember to watch the show tomorrow—I will be crafting with a hard boiled egg and Hosanna is crafting a "soft" boiled egg! And on Friday, Martha host a show full of chickens!

getting ready to be on Martha again...

making really cute fuzzy boxes made from real eggs!

The idea came from thecraftsdept blog reader, Anita Eydt. It is safe to say that she is the originator of this idea! Here's what she says about discovering this craft:

"I learned about these boxes through experimentation. Having always loved the shapes of certain fruits, one day I decided to papier mache some limes, oranges, avocados and eggs with their peel and shells still on. When I opened up these shapes to release the insides, I noticed that the egg shell was stuck to the papier mache cover and realized how smooth and beautiful it was. It was easy from there to figure out

how to turn these delicate little shapes into boxes. A little sanding was needed to make things more finished and polished."

Above is an Anita original egg box and if you watch Martha's show on Wednesday, I will show you how to make what Anita shared with me. These egg boxes are flocking awesome, even Pico wanted to make them!

Thank you so much Anita for sharing this wonderful idea!

polaroid scarf

Love scarves, love polaroids, love this concept! A polaroid scarf—brilliant idea! Clever thinking Philippe Roucou.

owl

Owls are very popular in the arts & crafts world—similar to toadstools, squirrels and acorns, deer, flora & fauna—things that bloom and come to life deep in the forest, that bring whimsy to reality. Crafters love to draw them, sculpt them and even knit them.

I too love owls; they are the ones I admire even though they are birds of prey.

My Nana collected owl figurines—I got a couple when she passed away. She must of had a similar fascination with them.

After reading Wesley the Owl about a year ago, I developed a different appreciation for this dark creature. I would recommend the book to anyone—it's an easy read that relates to every pet owner that has a true bond to their fuzzy, feathery or scaly friend. Wesley was a unique owl.

Tonight I came across a live webcam of a barn owl nest. I have been watching it, while blogging, and already the mommy owl's mate has dropped off a rat for supper. It is really a treat to get an inside look at what goes on in an owl house! Definitely a site to bookmark.

I remember recently reading about a guy who rescued an owl off the road on his way to work. He took a few pictures of the wide-eyed creature as he transported it to safety in a cardboard box. What an incredible species.

Stitch Fest!

Come on! Time to get your tickets!
I would pay $30 for the book alone!

Custom Keds

I'm sure you've heard of Zazzle—it's the official website for customizing just about anything, including the American classic sneaker, Keds! I had the chance to design a pair and was psyched to finally be able to rock them this past weekend in the amazing spring weather!

Ashley took a photograph of paint peeling in a subway station. I love abstract textural photos and thought a pair of kicks was the perfect application for this image. I converted the image to black and white and bumped up the contrast in Photoshop.

Zazzle makes it really easy to upload your photos or art and lay them out however you desire on a product. For the Keds, I was able to layout each section of the sneaker and control the details like the stitching, piping, eyelets, sole and even the inside colors.

Now I don't need to worry about staining a crisp pair white Keds or wearing in a new pair of white Keds so they don't look SO new and blinding white. These are perfect for me— Make a perfect pair for you! Awesome.

Umbrella death & the antique show at the piers

Broken umbrellas on 1st avenue—5 in a 10 foot radius.

Ashley and I ventured out finally on Sunday—after the rain storms had finally settled—to check out the annual antique fair at the piers here in New York. I get super excited for shows like this and having never attended, I didn't know what to expect.

Well it was certainly worth the treck to the west side. I was overwhelmed with amazing collections of all sorts. I wanted to photograph everything, but after being told by a vendor "NO!", I put the camera away and feared pulling it out again...

I was lucky to have taken these 3 pictures to remember the day...
1. the funny life-size dogs in basket—mommy and pups. There was an amazing taxidermy bird shadow box that I wish I got a picture of. It had a sold tag on it and whoever purchased it certainly got a treasure! It had about a dozen small birds in it, beautiful old hummingbirds, and various large moths, all mounted around a tree shape—quite exquisite!

2. enormous ruby earrings—so much amazing jewelry I want to throw up. Jewelry really makes me happy. I hate to sound so generic, being female and loving expensive jewelry, but I really appreciate the craftsmanship, quality, and the earth's natural gems in jewelry. It's a combination of earth's work and man's work—truly impressive, and can never let me down.


3. and my absolute favorite piece of the day, a Georgian double band engagement ring that I absolutely couldn't resist trying on. Circa 1860, I have NEVER seen any antique diamond ring like it. I fancy antique diamonds but this one was truly unique. It caught my eye and I asked the vendor why she had two of the same ring stuck in a single ring cushion. Well what looked like two rings was actually one! The diamonds were all set in sterling silver settings (unusual) but the band was 14k yellow gold. Really the most bizarre yet amazing ring I have ever seen. Worth the trip to the antique fair alone.

egg.

I am currently developing some Easter crafts for Martha, so I've been surrounded by pastel colors, fuzzy bunny rabbits, chicks, pink baskets, and eggs—Martha's unique home raised chicken eggs, hard boiled grocery store eggs, blown chicken, goose, ostrich, quail—you name it, there are eggs just about everywhere.

I check my emails and blog updates every morning when I get to the studio—and after reading a post on designboom called "the art of chess" this A.M, I was reminded of a chess set I made in college, using guess what?!? Eggs!

I hacked apart yellow and pink egg cartons and glued them back together to create the "checkered" board and used brown and white eggs as the pieces. Each egg was stamped with a grade to determine its rank.

Here's a chess board that will be featured in the Milan furniture fair in april. I like all the miniatures.

sand art: Joe Mangrum

Paintings made from colored sand.

Joe Mangrum in action, Sunday, February 28, 2010, in Union Square, NYC.

Pretty incredible public work piece—never thought sand art could be beautiful.