Pink Dyson Contest

I love gadgets. And what I love more than gadgets are gadgets companies that donate to good causes. Dyson is donating $40 to help Breast Cancer Research from each Pink Dyson Vaccuum Cleaner sold. How awesome is that! I could use one of these, I have thread bits and a cute but long haired dog to vacuum after.

Today is the last day to enter the contest to win won of these sweet pink Dysons. So head over to the Domestic Diva blog and get all the details and buttons. Spread the word.

I pledge to buy handmade...

The holidays are fast approaching and its time to start organizing your gift list. So why not take the pledge to buy handmade this year. Buyhandmade.org has kicked off this holiday season with a one-two punch to the big box stores. Buyhandmade.org is a collaboration between Etsy, Craftster, indiepublic, Craft Magazine, Interweave, Burdastyle, The Austin Craft Mafia, Design*Sponge, and The American Craft Council. Nine giants in the handmade/indie design realm.
Pluses to buying handmade are unique, one of a kind gifts, avoidance of mall crowds, quality... I can go on! So go to the Buy Handmade website, take the pledge and pass the word.

Below are some great resource links from the Buy Handmade site:

http://www.coopamerica.org/: Co-op America is a not-for-profit membership organization founded in 1982. Their mission is to harness economic power—the strength of consumers, investors, businesses, and the marketplace—to create a socially just and environmentally sustainable society.
http://www.sweatfree.org/: A Network For Local action against Sweatshops.
http://ilsr.org/: The Institute For Local Self-Reliance. The Institute’s mission is to provide the conceptual framework, strategies and information to aid the creation of ecologically sound and economically equitable communities.
http://www.dmoz.org/Society/Issues/Business/Allegedly_Unethical_Firms/Wal-Mart/ :
See what Walmart is up to in your community.

Now that you are informed and ready to do some shopping from handmade/ indie designers, check out some of these crafty peeps!

I feel the luv!

I can't help but always wonder if anyone is out there in internet-land, at least looking and hopefully liking what I'm making. Web counters such as Stat Counter show if someone visits your site (and I check once a day!) but it can't tell you if they like your site. Where as Etsy has a feature where a person can "heart" your shop or a particular item you have for sell. I use this feature a lot as I have a long wish list for Christmas and will directing loved ones to it this year. :-)

In the past couple of months, while my main website has been down for updating, I've been leaning heavily on my Etsy shop. I checked early this morning and saw that 85 people have hearted my shop.

This brightens my day and hopefully is a indicator on how today will go. :-)

An abridged look at my etsy "hearts" items.

Etsy Buy Handmade soleilrouge

Needles and thread

This time last weekend I was soaking up new sewing techniques and drooling over new sewing and craft gadgets at the Sewing and Quilt Expo in Northern VA. If you ever had a interest in sewing, quilting or fiber arts, this is the Expo to check out.
One of the 9 classes I attended was a class in crochet. I've crocheted a little, mainly just making knots, but had always wanted to learn properly. Below a picture of my crochet project in the same state as started the day of the class. I hadn't moved any farther than about 10 rows until I got back home Sunday.
and about Wednesday...
Behold! A finished scarf!!!

Crafters Anonymous Craft Swap

What to do with the extra buttons, or yard of fabric of a finished project?
Got a project that you never found time to do and now you are over it?
Bring your usable craft supplies to ArtWorks on Sunday, September 16th and maybe find some new supplies to be creative with.
Proceeds go to Art 180, "a Richmond based non-profit organization that creates and provides art-related programs to young people living in challenging circumstances, encouraging personal and community change through self-expression." So your craft addiction benefits a good cause too. Spread the word! For more info visit the website, http://www.rvacraftswap.com

A little bit of old, and a bigger bit of Nu!

The sun has set for Soleil Rouge and now is Nicole Lee Designs.

After nervousness and a little stressing out about making the big switch of names and finding one I wanted to switch to (at first not wanting to use my name) it had to be done. Soleil Rouge was a bit hard to spell by many, easily mispronounced by some and it didn't quite fit the direction I want to go in design wise. Now thats its done, I wonder why I hadn't changed it earlier. :-/

A crafty challenge

My friend Dawn has challenged me to do a craft-a-day during August.
It all ties in to the Use What You Have Movement of crafters. You see, one of the habits of crafty people is buying supplies with projects in mind, or a terrific sale or a happening of Oh My Thats Super Cute, It Must Be Mine. (I suffer from all three cases. ;-P) And for some reason the inspired projected doesn't get finished, supplies go unused. So, the goal is to use the supplies I have in house and finish a project from scratch or from partials that have some how managed not to get done each day. . Here is number one, a wrap skirt that has been cut out for a couple of weeks, no longer a UFO (Un-finished Object).

Back from Brooklyn - Fuggettaboutit!

Wow, Renegade was a such a trip! There were 5 of us making the trek by van and car and a 6th (smart to fly) member joined us in Brooklyn. RCM had never done a out of town group booth like that before. Talk about trial by fire! Everything went relatively smooth considering 6 personalities all in one place for pretty much 24 hours a day for 4 days. Renegade was a very good show and it was great meeting people face to face, some I've chatted online with for a year.

We ate at a great eatery that was just around the corner from McCarren Park, called Enid's. Exactly the sort of place you picture in a hip/artsy area of Brooklyn. Super cool place, great drinks (yay! Harrison!) and apparently mac and cheese to die for. They were always out of it when we got there. Sadness. And I don't know if they do this every Saturday, but at around 10pm, they started showing a movie! That night, The Neverending Story. Enid's Rocks!
It hurt my heart a little (ok, a LOT) that I didn't get to go over to Manhattan, (So near, yet so far!) but time was crunched. I think it would have been worse if I had got over there and then had to rush through. I would have wanted to see everything and take in a show. I'll have to take Manhattan another time. :-(

I almost forgot my Renegade goodies. The Adorn magazine booth held several raffles during the two days of Renegade and I won a goodie bag!

I've been fixed!

Jen over at IndieFixx, a favorite read of mine, featured one of my aprons in her most recent post on stylish hostess aprons. In honor of Memorial day weekend and what I consider the official start of BBQ season my hostess aprons are currently on sale.

Grill on in style!

Days of May

New stuff for May. I had a couple of shows in a row and now gearing up for Renegade Craft Fair. YAY!!!!! RCM will be there with a group both. Its a biggy and in Brooklyn, NY. Nervous? Excited? YES!!!! So, I've been busy sewing and adding more clothes. Tops and wrap skirts...oh my!

Crafty line-up...

Lots of activity happening in Richmond this week. Saturday we assembled the swag bags that we are giving out to the first 200 customers to Spring Bada-Bing. Lots of great stuff in there. Monday, we had our group picture taken by Jay Paul for an article in Brick weekly. Very exciting stuff and last minute. Miracles of miracles, all 10 members were there, and with crafty props. And we did what we usually do when we are all in one place. Talk about what projects we are working on, men, craft shows, news, men, crafts, projects to try... our photographer was very patient, needless to say. We also squeezed in one last meeting before Spring Bada-Bing, hashing out last minute detail.

Whats this all about you ask? It's all about Spring Bada-Bing!
When: April 22, 2007 ~ 10am to 4pm
Where:
The Marquee
3015 Cutshaw Ave - 2 blocks west of Boulevard & Broad Sts.
Richmond, VA

BE THERE!!

Sew crazy!

Good news!...Richmond craft mafia got into the Renegade Craft Fair! Which brings my show count up to 4 big shows this spring. Man! I have lots of sewing to do! Time to burn rubber on my old faithful Brother sewing machine. So far, I've added a new dress style to the Soleil Rouge collection. Stay tuned for more clothing as I go sew crazy. :-)

Also new is, Style Conspiracy, a blog I'm writing, highlighting other indie designers and artists of color. Go check it out and shop indie!

On the Road...

The Richmond Loves Raleigh Valentine craft affair was such a blast last weekend. Richmond Craft Mafia is heading down the road to the Handmaidens territory in North Carolina for Raleigh Loves Richmond.


Rubbin' out the mass produced, because mall is a four letter word!

Skirting the issue...

I've been busy behind the scenes at Soleil Rouge. New items added to Soleil Rouge...Skirts!!
I currently have four fabric options for this style.

Yep, I've been drawn to florals lately!

And more kitschy hostess aprons.

Richmond Loves Raleigh: A Valentine Craft Affair

Do you know how cool it is to find like minded people? I do! My fellow Richmond Craft Mafia familia. I feel very lucky to have found a group of crafty, talented and fun people to hang around with. Do you know how cool times 2 it is to find a whole separate group of crafty, talented and fun people to be around? The cool and talented Handmaidens. Bring them together in the same place for a joint event in Richmond? Freak'n Fantastic!

Move over June Cleaver!

These aren't your average aprons. I've been inspired to make hostess aprons, so I'm in full on sewing mode. Must be the holidays, with all the cooking and entertaining that goes on this time a year. You just have to look good while you do it all. Even if you aren't heavily into the cooking part, you can look like it and be stylish too.

Here are a few I've made so far.

Indie Finds Holiday Guide

Looking for something different to give for the Holidays? Then head on over to Indie Finds. Think outside the mall.

The Ultimate Holiday Guide

Indie Finds is a collective of over 150 indie designers. As you begin your holiday shopping, look to these talented designers for unique gifts and handmade items!

• Accessories


• Bath & Body


• Clothing


• Crafty Supplies


• For Kids


• For the Home


• Handbags


• Jewelry


• Stationery

NaNoWriMo...

So, I "participated" in NaNoWriMo this year. The goal, 50,000 words in 30 days, a Novel/Novella. I put participated in quotes since I got about 400 words in and just died. On the page that is.
I like to consider myself a closet novel writer. I have plots, a list of cool titles, some starts to a couple of synopsis/outlines all on my handy dandy flash drive in a folder titled Novels. Did you catch the plural novels not singular. Yeah, I have high hopes.

I was jazzed, I had a plot sort of, but I just couldn't get passed those first couple of paragraphs. There are tricks to expand your word count, of course. My favorite suggestion I read on the forum was to type potato after every word. i.e., He potato walked potato gingerly potato across potato the potato damp potato foggy potato field. Nice! I could do that, I still have until midnight, (evil laugh) but I won't. The point is the journey not the destination as the great thinkers say.

In my defense, I didn't do the prep work. I didn't have a synopsis, no outline, charactor names...title. Two days before November 1st I signed up. I jumped in both feet. It works for some, but didn't for me. I could have just hit the 50,000 word count and "won". Which is fine, it does jump start creative juices and thats the point. But me being me, I would like to have a semi-complete first draft of a novel on my hands and not mashed potatos.

It was fun though, and here at the end, I have a plot, some very cool character names, and a rough and I do mean rough outline. Next time I'll be prepared, yep I'll do it again. I recommend everyone try it. They are going to do a scriptwriting NaNo in June. hmmmm...I'm going to try it!

Bird is the word.

She's Crafty...

I try to keep crafty doing other things than sewing handbags and clothes. It helps to keep things interesting. So, I've been looking for the perfect camera case and haven't found one I liked. Of course, I hade to make one.


I didn't need anything bulky since when I take my camera its in my purse. Its a blanket stitch. I know its backwards, but I like this look better. What you don't see is a little button hole at the top for the strap to go through.