Sunday, December 16, 2007

Bazaar Bizarre


Thanks to everyone for coming out to Bazaar Bizarre SF!! It was such a fun day and I sold almost everything! I have a couple of plushes left, a few scarves, some brooches...I will list them in the shop throughout today and Monday.

I also have another elephant, whale, owling, and a couple of lapdogs in the works and will try to have them available Monday as well! It's been SO very busy and I've been neglectful with the blog...after the Christmas craziness I can figure out a better schedule for postings and such. For now, just trying to keep my head above water and fulfill orders and get ready for family coming.

Have a great week!!

xo, Devon
My table at Bazaar Bizarre...

Darwin the lapdog & Juniper the elephant...both sold.

Santini the penguin and his penguin buddies all found homes :o)

Geronimo and Tiki the owlings...Tiki has sold & Geronimo will be in my shop later on!

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

A bright spot of inspiration to keep me going...


Yes, still playing hooky (really, I just haven't been feeling well and have been swamped getting ready for sales!). But I saw this today on etsy - loved it and had to share! This is from stitchindye's shop.

I'm currently working on a slew of little owlings including a darling custom order. This Sunday is the RISD sale in San Francisco and I have loads to do before then!!

xo, devon

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Wooly Flowers & African Plains



Wow, it's been forever since I last posted! I truthfully have such a hard time balancing my two work lives and I guess sometimes things unravel. I've been locked up in a teeny bathroom painting a lovely African scene with a Noah's ark worth of animals for the past week and I've had nothing on my mind except that. I'm always wishing I would split my brain up, or something. Because I get home so late from my client's house I'm pretty wiped and can just barely make dents in the custom orders I've had for the shop - but I'm almost done!! I'll be listing an adorable Millicent the owling clone later today :o) I don't know how some people balance things so amazingly...they need to teach me their proficient ways. Or, maybe they're just pretending - maybe it's not possible to be able to do so much in so little time. Who knows, I'm going to keep keeping on and will just do what I can!!


Oh, the IIDA boutique sale I was in on the 8th was terrific & many of my plushes, flowers, scarves, and prints found new homes. I had made several lovely new brooches and I just think they're so fun.


I'm back to my African mural on Monday and will hopefully finish that day - please cross your fingers!! Here's a sneak peek:



xo, Devon

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Cut Sew Felt


It's that time of year again...

So sorry to be away from posting so much these last few days! It's been a little nuts trying to get ready for the sales of the season. My first one is this Thursday in San Carlos - the IIDA Sale at Inside Source. It's such a fun event and I want to have LOTS of goodies. Scarves, plushes, brooches, cards...


I've got my studio all set up from my fun day of creating with my friend Karen. We had a super fun day! Got a bunch of work done, lots of chatting & catching up, then a quick trip to my favorite thrift shop, followed by a yummy homemade meal. We (me, Jared, & Karen) made apricot & almond stuffed chicken breasts (with a little help from Zannotto's), harvest grains blend (israeli cous cous, corn, carrots, & more good stuff mixed in), mashed roasted butternut squash, and a delicious reisling wine that we brought back from the Rhine Valley in Germany. For dessert, a scrumptious blood orange sorbet that was really amazing.

It was so great to see Karen again. We actually live pretty close to each other and should hang out more often. She and I were in the textiles department together at RISD and have lots of fun memories. Karen just opened shop at Esty actually! Her work is really unique and thoughtful and you'll love it so check it out! She brought a really sweet house warming gift and included one of her cards for me - it's from this print - I just love it & plan to put it in a little frame. Thanks Karen!

Karen worked on a gorgeous knit scarf for a lucky friend and a totally cute skirt for herself.

Phylo was a good boy and I think he really charmed Karen!

Gorgeous cinnamon orange tulips Karen brought. How I love tulips!! Did you know that they actually continue growing after being cut? I think that's fascinating. Tulips have so much personality.

So, I'm off to work on my flower brooches today!! I'll post some in my shop and will have pictures to share of course. But cross your fingers I sell most of them this Thursday! Have a lovely Tuesday everyone :o) xo, Devon

Saturday, November 3, 2007

Etsy homepage!


What a terrific surprise this morning. I've been running around working on stuff, getting ready for my friend Karen to come - we're doing a little creative work day in my studio today :o) & I thought I would just quickly add Gizmo the owling to the shop while I had a minute. Then I saw my little Calvin the owling on the homepage!! Yay! So very cool - thank you for adding me to your treasury list, kunklebaby! I love the look of everything on the page together - it's absolutely darling.

Oh, and meet Gizmo and Koki when you get the chance - they're cuties!!

Gizmo

Koki

happy saturday everybody :o)
xo, devon

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Oh the joys...

...of a fresh new website!!
You might have thought I was lazying around the past few days? Well, maybe you didn't think that...but if you know me you'd realize I was probably up to something :o)

This morning I replaced old with new...www.devonindustry.com is fully updated (well, there's a wee bit of content still missing - but I'll get there!). It may be less picture heavy but definitely more clean and navigable - and super cute I might add! I amazed myself by whipping it out yesterday...till about 1am last night - yep, now I'm pretty tired, but a good tired like an 'accomplished tired'. And I have to give credit to some lovely, fabulous, and oh so helpful folks on the Etsy forums who helped me figure out how to add my Etsy shop to my website. It's there now - you can see it! It's a really cool feature.

So now I can get back on my feet...or back to my sewing machine rather! I've got to scramble and pull together a bunch of goodies for Kaleid gallery drop off this week. I'll be joining up with the gallery again after a little break and will be doing the big holiday event in December. I also have a mural project tomorrow - a darling little nursery for a baby girl soon to arrive.

If you have a moment, would you please let me know what you think of the new site? Any ideas for making it better - or thoughts on what you'd like to see? I'm totally open to suggestions! :o)

Have a really lovely day! xo, Devon


ps: check out my little shop update...with more to come soon :o)

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Shop update Friday

Hello! I'll be having a little shop update this Friday about 2pm PST!
Owling babies and penguins and more wooly goodies - hope to see you then :o)


Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Kitty games

Sanguine's making me smile today :o) She must have had a great nap as she's got tons of kitty energy. Today she found my felting 'inbox' was empty - oh my, how fun! I looked over and saw a little black and white head popping out and wanting to play. Alas, not such a comfy place for a nap so off to her reclaimed kitty bed after exhausting herself.


I've got SO many new little owlings coming together!! Check back for more yummy pics, and check my shop soon too!

Have a great Tuesday! xo, devon

Monday, October 22, 2007

Where's the sun??


Maybe we tricked ourselves into losing the morning sun by getting up so early all those days last week. But wow, it is REALLY dark at 6:30! I thought for sure the glow would be out by then and we'd start having some 'wake up light' (I love a natural alarm clock), but nope, super dark and not very inspiring I have to say. It's terrible how tied to light I am - I really need to get over it. Actually in Germany it was dark till around 7:30am while we were there. Oh, and I suppose with daylight savings on the way (4th of Nov) things should lighten up a bit.

I actually am better suited now for the darkening of the days toward winter. Jared helped me change out the overhead light in my office/studio and it's TONS better now. I had a pretty half globe paper shade (ikea!) up on the ceiling that really glowed more than illuminated. Now I have a little spotlight track (more ikea! - 'as is' dept. $10!) that has 5 halogen lights that cheerfully light up all the important spots...computer/sewing desk, paper cutting/mail center, painting/sewing prep area. It's funny how I could go so long without fixing the lighting situation in here. I've probably had the track light for a year! So that along with my desk lamps and some accents, it feels really cozy in here :o)


I've got a new penguin boy in my shop today! His name is Mango and his fabrics/colors are really sweet. I was trying to finish him up on Friday but my mural sketches took the whole afternoon! I'll try to remember to post those as well - I'm happy with how they came out, and just need to hear back from my client. Oh, I also mentioned wanting so badly to get little plants for my 'plants on the brain' planters from clayflower at Etsy...I finally did on Saturday - yea!! They are too cute...I will be getting more little plant heads, if not for me then for some of my friends who love to garden too.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Benbo & Penny


Cute picture eh? This is Penny the cat who belongs to my friends Mona & David :o) Sitting next to Penny is Benbo the owling who they adopted from me at the last Bazaar Bizarre in San Mateo. I hope they're pals...sometimes Penny has jealousy issues - like with their Roomba vacuum.

Still haven't finished my mural sketches...spent a lot of yesterday trying to understand the nature of the Serengeti plains through photos of animals and landscapes. It's sometimes the pits trying to put together sketches to be honest. I'm just not the type to jump in and start drawing - it really takes me a TON of time! Until I'm convinced that what I'm drawing has some legitimacy to it, it just ain't happening. So...here's me crossing my fingers that the most gorgeous African landscape for a teeny powder room setting will come to life today. Fingers and toes...oh, and when it's completed I'll probably post it on my other journal site, Mural Studio blog for anyone to check out.

I just finished a fantastic new penguin this morning too! He's quite nice and has a boyish look to him, though would be appreciated by many I think :o) I sure like him...he just needs a name, and photos, and then I'll post him in the shop - maybe later today.

And if I finish all these things...I can run over to the nursery at Orchard and buy teeny plants for my 'plants on the brain' planter heads! It'll be a sweet reward.

Another early post...




Well, earlier than usual. We can't seem to wake up later than 5:30am these days...this morning it was 4:30 - ugh! But it's been fun to have the mornings together. I made biscuits and honey butter and we enjoyed them with strawberries and coffee. Sanguine our cat is has decided she prefers Phylo's mat in my office more than hers and the poor guy isn't brave enough to reclaim it so he's retreated to his big bed where he sleeps at night. I put his little mat up against the wall and now Sanguine is sulking around and meowing at me. Such drama with the animals today!

In less dramatic - but just as fuzzy and cute - shop news, I have 2 new little plushes up! Abby is a polka dotted mini owl with a corduroy back, and Lillian is a lap dog with a gorgeous Japanese fabric and my own handmade felt eye details. I'm going to try and get finished up with more plushes as soon as possible, but have to finish some mural sketches first. I'm finding it hard to focus - is it possible I had TOO much coffee this morning??

Off to collect research on the Serengeti plains, then draw my best lions, giraffes, hippos, wildebeasts, zebras, birds,...

Oh, and here are a couple more shots from Paris...the first one is in the Louvre Museum in the section of Napoleon's apartments - gaudy goodness!! The second is from a window in the Louvre looking out at the glass pyramids, right before the sun burst through and we got lovely blue skies.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Mmmm, did someone say chocolate?

I had to share some of these pics from the trip...this was the "Chocolate Company" - a chocolate shop in Aachen, Germany. A fabulous place!! We ate and drank and bought more chocolate than I could imagine - it was irresistible. We brought home tons of dark chocolate stirring sticks for making hot chocolate. At the shop I drank the raspberry, and can't wait to try the lemongrass and the cinnamon (both dark chocolate, of course...). Jared had an espresso and they brought us a little plate of treats - they were eaten very quickly!

Wish we had bottomless stomaches and could try EVERYTHING!


Dark chocolate with raspberry mixed into hot milk makes the most delicious hot chocolate!


And in shop news...I'm working on some new little guys and have will them up later today. A little lapdog and an owling - they look so cute together. I slipped the little gocco owl cards above into the packages I just shipped out. Hopefully they'll be a sweet surprise :o)

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Tuesday morning...or is it Wednesday?

Hello!

It's about 11am PST here...and 9 hours later in Germany and France where we had just gotten used to the time difference. Needless to say, we are in slightly rare form. We had an amazing trip and just got back yesterday afternoon. Too many photos to share of course! But I'll keep posting them on my flickr (there are some there already that I had the chance to post during the week). Hope you enjoy...


Germany really is a neat place, and we loved Paris...the sites, the food, the wine, the people. It was so much to take in, and my French is a mix of maybe 9 words, but we enjoyed it immensely and can't wait to go back. We had our share of aggravations...but survived. We weren't fully prepared for every aspect of travel - had it been too long? More on those things later....I have SO much to catch up on. Packages of cozy plushes to mail, sketches to complete for mural projects, a pile of sewing and a shop update, and tons of domesticities that are calling my name:

...do the laundry...sweep the porch...clean the garden beds...clean everything, really :o) A fall clean up I suppose - time to accept that fall is here, summer is past. At least there's Halloween to look forward to!

See ya tomorrow...


Friday, October 5, 2007

Au Revoir...

photo by put puri from flickr

& Auf Wiedersehen!

photo by beyond the grave on flickr


Yep, we leave tomorrow for Germany and France! We picked up phrase books for both languages to help us out a bit. I'm feeling self conscious about sounding like an idiot speaking German. I feel a little better with French...it's phonetically more like Spanish which I'm more than familiar with. In fact, I'm afraid I'm going to bust out in Spanish without thinking about it...sigh, it's going to be embarrassing, but what can I do. I'm sure we're going to get the giggles more than once :o)

I'll keep posting on my flickr page...you'll be seeing the sites of Aachen, Cologne, and the Rhineland in Germany (as well as the Nurburgring where Jared will be racing a car - yes, I said that right...more when we get back). And photos of Paris...possibly Giverny as well. Why Giverny? That's where Monet's beautiful home and gardens are located. It's about an hour by train from Paris and I'm really looking forward to it.

Have a lovely week...

Grosses Bises!

Devon

Thursday, October 4, 2007

Iron & Wine and Millicent the Owling

I just had the most lovely of morning sewing sessions...

I subscribe to 'all songs considered' from NPR and today was treated with an Iron & Wine concert that was recorded live at the 9:30 club in D.C. Many folks know...I'm a nut for Iron & Wine (moniker for Sam Beam, the bearded and magical musician) so I was thrilled to get to listen to a concert. I have yet to get to go to a real live I&W concert...I'm sure it would be so much more amazing than listening to it over my laptop. But I really did enjoy it this morning and was super productive putting together my new owling friend, Millicent. You can find him in my shop today. I have a showcase going on that you can view as well.


It's pretty tough typing with a 50lb dog perched on my lap so I'll keep this short and sweet and close for now. Have a great Thursday!

ps- if anyone has any tips/ideas/thoughts etc. for travel in either Germany or France please let me know! We leave Saturday morning for Germany (through Jared's work) and are taking the week to see Paris and the Rhineland and little bits in between. Neither of us have been...can't wait!

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Priscilla and friends

I just listed some new animal lovelies in my shop...including Priscilla the penguin. She has some truly great fabrics - one straight from Japan thanks to my parents. This is one of my absolute favorite patterns - overlapping arches, scallops...forget what it's called - oh, probably fishscales - that's what it is :o)

This is Percy the elephant plush...isn't she snazzy?? I love how she came together. She'd look great in someone's modern space with her pop of red and black & white - classic. She is available and in my shop!

And I just finished a little custom order that you can also check out. The trio includes Cosette the penguin, Cassie the lapdog, and Daphne the owling baby. They look really sweet together and I can picture them in her daughter's room - tucked into special spaces or grouped together. They're sturdy enough for some play (not rough play...) and hopefully they'll give and receive lots of love over the years.