Halloween Cupcakes 2012!

It’s that time of year again! The Halloween Cupcakes Spooktacular 2012! Mel and I decorated our brains out and came up with some fun new creations this year!

Some of the classics: The owl and the worms

And in our office, of course we gotta have EYEBALLS!!!

Monster’s Inc character

And a witch’s hat!

The classic tomb stones…

And one of my personal favorites, PRETZEL MONSTERS!

New this year is a gang of mini aliens…

A zombie awaking from the dead!

Frankenstein marshmallow pops turned cupcake toppers!

A Reece’s bat

And my favorite new character, the pretzel skeleton!

Stepped up the Fall trees this year using Twizzlers instead of just piping it on…

And another new character: the peeking monster!

Skull with tic tac teeth

And some fun minis!

We did a batch of gluten-free cupcakes for one of the girls at work. It was quite an experience! They are pretty tough to work with because of the crumbly consistency. They taste pretty yummy though, and she is happy to be able to share in the spooky treats!

And lastly, our yearly photo in front of our masterpieces! Looking back on cupcakes from a few years ago, we have really stepped it up! It was so much fun and I can’t wait til next year’s Halloween Cupcake SpOoKtAcULaR!

I probably won’t be back until after my craft show, wish me luck! I hope everyone has a great weekend and very HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Frankenstein Marshmallow Pops

So I took a little break from crafting for some Halloween cupcake preparations! Tonight my friend Melanie and I are doing our annual Halloween cupcakes to bring into the office tomorrow. Last night, I made some Frankenstein marshmallow pops, some of which will become cupcake toppers. They came out pretty cute and were super easy to make!

Here are the ingredients, minus the pretzels. I was going to use them for the bolts in Frankenstein’s neck, but ended up going with slivered almonds instead. You’ll need large marshmallows, green melting chocolate, candy eyes, chocolate sprinkles, and pop sticks.

I microwaved the chocolate wafers for 30 second increments, stirring in between. It took about 2 minutes to get it to this consistency. Be very careful not to burn it!

Then you put the marshmallow on the stick, and dip it in. Tap the stick on the edge of the bowl to get off any excess chocolate.

Next make his “hair” by dipping the marshmallow into the chocolate sprinkles. Add the eyes while the chocolate is still melted.

I hate using styrofoam because it’s not biodegradable, but I couldn’t find anything else to use to prop them up to dry.   I have seen others using one small block of foam, or even the green floral foam covered in foil.

I used slivered almonds for the neck “bolts” and black sparkle gel for the mouth. I let the chocolate harden a bit before applying the mouth.

And there you have it! Easy, fun, Halloween treats. These would be great wrapped in little baggies for Halloween party favors, or a fun project to do with the kids.

Stay tuned for Halloween cupcakes coming very, very soon!

More Craft Show Display Ideas

The craft show preparations are in full swing! That means tying up lots of loose ends and coming up with some new, creative ways to display my stuff. I did a post a while back on craft show display ideas, but here are a few fun ideas I have decided to go with for this years show!

My favorite display utilizes this little red suitcase that I picked up off the side of the road…for free! It was in good condition except for the inside missing some fabric. An easy fix…

I hot glued on a square of red & green fabric and tucked the edges underneath the cute red ruffles. I will use a small crock to separate the mini candy canes!

How cute is this little suitcase?? A simple safety-pin holds up a string of twine that I will use to hang up more candy canes!

Next I needed a place to display my gazillions of magnets I made this year. I literally have probably 10 times the amount of magnets, between the snowman clips, the sparkly snowman faces, and the marble magnets. I decided to dedicate this board to hanging up enamel pans, which the magnets will stick to! I’m always picking up colored enamel pans when I am out and about, for this very reason!

I recently got ahold of this cool old coal bucket from my Grandma’s house. I am not going to sell it, but I will use it as a display for my primitive tree toppers. I find it so much more visually interesting than say a plain basket or plastic container. In my opinion, displays like this really work to create that primitive/country feel you want in your space!

Another idea I got was to use this old seed bag cart to hang up ornaments and pins. I tried selling this cart at the co-op forever, to no avail. It’s been sitting in my basement because I knew I would find a use for it eventually. All I did was hammer in a few nails and voila! It will add height and visual interest to my table!

I have been debating on how to display the melted snowman ornaments because of how fragile they are. I also don’t want them swinging around and burying the eyes and noses down into the snow. I think I am going to prop them up on mason jars of varying heights.  Think of how cute this would look as a line of colored, vintage bulbs along a mantle!

And lastly, I finished up a batch of country night lights and was going to hang them up. Instead, I went with them fanned out in a shallow basket.

I have had a busy few days and finished up a TON of projects! I am so proud of myself for gittin-r-done!!! Here are some pics of some of the finished projects! Starting with my #1 best seller and personal favorite…the homespun candy cane!

And this year, some MINI candy canes too! I was going to tie them together in small bunches, but I think I’ll sell ‘em individually instead.

My annual snowman magnets…changed up the faces this year. Some with eyebrows and no mouths!

I haven’t had good luck selling my rag balls individually, so I decided to bag them up. Maybe a new look will help them sell as an instant collection of bowl fillers.

And last but not least, some sets of marble magnets. All packaged and will hopefully scream “stocking stuffers!” I have tons of single magnets, so I thought some themed groups would be fun. Cupcakes, leaves, pirates, hieroglyphics, vintage machines…something for everyone!

Hope you all had a great day and until next time, happy craftin!

Another Holiday Dollar Store Craft: Snowman Clothespin Magnets

Hope everyone had a nice weekend! I’m loving the cool, crisp, Fall weather!

I have been working on a project for my show in a few weeks and wanted to share it with you, because I love how it came out! You may remember the tiny little snowman clips from years past, but this is a new take on the same project. I was inspired by my fellow crafter & blogger Lisa to use the larger clothespins and make them into magnets for the fridge, to hold papers, pictures, or whatever. See Lisa’s take on this project here: http://www.booth555.com/2012/09/snowmen-clothes-pin-magnets.html

I started with cheap clothespins from Walmart – a 100 pack for around $3. Score! I know you can get these at any dollar store also, which is why I consider it a “dollar store craft”.

I spray painted them white with Rustoleum Heirloom White. Did one side, let it dry, and did the other side. The over-spray was enough to cover the sides.

I like to do each step in bulk, rather than do them one at a time. I always start with the noses first!

Then I used a Sharpie paint pen for the eyes and buttons. The paint pen was too thick for the little eyebrows so I used a fine tip Sharpie marker (just a regular permanent marker as opposed to a paint pen) for the fine eyebrows.

I prefer the little round magnets, which are also from the dollar store, because they are a lot stronger than the flat magnets. I ran out of them, so I used some of these flat magnets, cut into thin strips, and hot glued on. They work, but do not have as strong of a hold. If I have time, I may go back and replace them with the round ones, if my dollar store still has them in stock.

Here are some of the completed snowmen. Some have scarfs and some have little tin stars, just to mix it up a little!

I also did a batch with vintage buttons!

To display magnets, I normally would use a large tin star, the back of a cookie sheet, or the back of a large enamel pan. This time I had way too many and decided to use this old tin/metal table as a display! The magnets cling to it really well. Using some brown kraft paper from the dollar store (comes in rolls, and I use it for everything!) I just cut a piece long enough to drape over the length of the table, and voila! Thinking about stamping it with my logo stamp, or some fun Christmas stamps!

Here is how it will stand up. I left the drop leafs folded over, and it stands up perfectly. As you can see, I used these little tiny dollar store clamps (the small black ones along the top of the kraft paper) to hold the paper in place. You could easily just tape it on too. I am so excited about this idea, because it will be an easy display to transport, and will give a lot of height to my table!

Before I go, a quick update on the wooden snowman spoons! I thought they were too “blah” so I grubbied them up a bit by rubbing on some Deco Art gel stain, and then wiping off. I then sealed them with sparkle mod podge, which doesn’t show up that great in the picture because it’s a subtle shimmer. They have a little more pizzazz now, and a bit more of that “prim” feel!!!

Well, have a GREAT week and happy crafting!!!

How to Make Your Own Stamped Gift Tags & An Impromptu Ghost Hunt…

Happy Fall!!! We just got home from week in Orange County, NY, for a Police K-9 Seminar that Greg was sponsoring, and boy was the weather and scenery spectacular! Upon getting home I realized there is just one month to go before my craft show and sooooo many things left I want to do…crap! I wanted to share some stamped gift tags I made because I think they have potential to be really great craft show sellers! I will also share some pictures from a little creepy detour I took in an abandoned hospital, where some of the K-9 training took place. More on that in a bit…

For these cute lil gift tags, I used a heavy stock brown kraft paper, which I got out of the scrapbooking section of the craft store. It was like  $.20 a sheet or something ridiculously awesome like that.

I cut the card stock into strips and used a small tag punch to punch out tons of tags. I got this at one of the craft stores (Michael’s I think?) for about $12, after using a coupon. It was originally around $20, but TOTALLY worth it since you can make an unlimited amount of tags!

I used a tiny hole punch to make the holes and some black string for the ties.

I made a TON more than are shown here…they are so versatile! For gifts, price tags, decoration, craft show sellers, or general crafting! You could use different thin ribbons and different colored inks / papers…there’s soooo much potential!

I decided to leave some blank and stamp some, both for my craft show. I chose this cute little gnome stamp which sorta passes for an elf for the holidays…

And of course, Santa!

 I packaged ‘em up, 4 to a bag. I am thinking $1 per bag. It’s a descent profit for me, but a great deal for customers too. What do you think?

And now, for the ghost hunt you’ve anxiously been waiting to hear about! Forget this crafty crap, now THIS is COOL!!! I thought my fellow blogger Eva Halloween over at The Year of Halloween would particularly enjoy this, as she shares my affinity for the dark side! It all started when I heard we were going to an abandoned hospital for an afternoon of dog training…

And it didn’t take long for the stories and rumors to start, about how the place is haunted and all of the weird “encounters” the officers have had while training there. Naturally, I decided to take a detour down to the morgue and snap some photos in hopes of catching some otherworldly friends on camera. I didn’t capture anything in my photos, but I did HEAR something. A cart rolling down a hallway to be exact. With no one else on that floor. Hmm…

Let’s take the tour, shall we? Not to the basement, but down to the SUB-basement we go! For those of you who are less fond of the mortuary sciences, I apologize for the morbidity of the photos to come.

Turning the corner  heading towards the morgue was this lone, randomly placed chair. I so badly wanted there to see a figure sitting in it upon examining my photos. No luck.

The freezer where the deceased were stored until they could be put to rest.

And a lovely vintage incubator that looks more like a giant toaster oven to me. Same principle I guess?

And the much-anticipated morgue. All of my photos were devoid of any orbs or ghostly encounters like I had hoped. Still very interesting to see the table and tools so up close and personal.

A little foam neck holder to help position the body. Looks comfy, eh?

And what exactly were they slicing and dicing so hard that they left knife marks and scratches on the metal table? Guess we’ll never know…

The tools…just left there one day and never touched again.

Look at the size of that knife!

I never knew the liver weighed so much!

A nearby laundry room…

And some peculiar art work on the walls of a children’s operating room. I’m not sure a giant, blood-red octopus is really the most “calming” imagery they could have chosen…

And I will leave you with one last image of the deserted hospital memorial room. This place left me so intrigued and grateful for the opportunity to explore! Sweet dreams my friends!

Dollar Store Candles Turned Cute Country Decor

First of all, let me just say I am loving this crisp, cool, Fall weather and LOVE this time for year for many reasons, including:

Upstate New York is AMAZING this time of year…just sayin’. So anyway, on to the latest project – jazzing up some dollar store candles. I ordered this burlap jute webbing with many projects in mind, and I did put some of it up for sale in my Etsy store. I simply cut it to size and hot glued it in place. It is very thick, yet cuts easily. I experimented with candles and plain glass votive holders. I’m loving the tall candles – which can be found at any Dollar Tree.

Using a little bit of twine, I tied on some vintage-looking keys.

I kinda like the look of the burlap covering the entire glass holder. These would be cute for votives or even a small vase / plant / herb holder. I currently am using this one as my tooth-brush holder. Hehe.

Another variation on this project was using some torn homespun fabric. Again – just hot glued it.

Isn’t it cute? You could use any color fabric depending on the time of year of holiday you are decorating for!

There are so many ways you can take these projects and run. I’m thinking of doing a texture fierro coating on the outside, or a cinnamon / mod podge coating to get rid of the stark white of the tall Dollar Tree candles. Hmmm…so much to do, so little time!

If you make these, send me a pic! I’d love to show some variations of the project and see other peoples ideas. Hope everyone has a wonderful week and enjoys this awesome Fall weather!

The “Melted Snowman” Ornament

I have been quite the lazy blogger lately, and for that I am sorry…I have been doing all kinds of little projects and finally just getting around to documenting them all!

This weekend I finally did a Christmas craft project that has been on my to-do list for quite some time – the “melted snowman” ornament! I thought they might be fun for my upcoming holiday craft show. I would consider this a “dollar store craft” because these shatterproof clear plasic bulbs were $1 ea. at A.C. Moore, and most of the other materials could be found at the Dollar Tree, i.e. the salt and peppercorns.

I used salt for the “snow”, whole peppercorns for the “eyes / mouth”, and orange Fimo sculpting clay for the “noses.” The Fimo must be purchased at a craft store, but you could also make the noses out of Sculpey, salt dough, play dough, or even orange paper if you wanted to.

I rolled out little noses and chopped off the thicker ends with a knife to make it look like a real mini carrot. I made little crease marks on the noses to give ‘em texture. To harden the Fimo, bake at 230 degrees for 30 minutes.

In the meantime, I propped up the clear globes in small cups and used a small funnel to pour in approximately 1/4 cup of salt.

Next I added some peppercorns, to represent the eye & mouth coals that have dropped to the bottom after our little man “melted”!

Waiting for the noses to finish baking…tick, tock…

I used black embroidery thread to hang them up, but you could use twine, holiday ribbon, or torn strips of homespun fabric! Infact, I am thinking the black thread is kinda boring and might go back and use some homespun.

I think they’re so cute! I’ve seen some with the addition of small sticks as “arms” and/or a small piece of ribbon as a “scarf.” I like em’ simple, just like this!

I carefully packed them away for my craft show. I’ll let you know if they are good sellers or not. The noses and peppercorns generally stay on top of the “snow” and don’t get buried down in too easily, which I was happy about.

*Update!* Here is the melted snowman as created by my friend Sara! She added a little scarf and also used some homespun fabric to hang it up, which I really like! I might have to do something similar!

Here’s a version made by one of my readers, Alexis! She knits those tiny scarfs by hand! So jealous…I wish I could knit!

Less than 2 months til my big craft show…time to get my crafty @$$ in gear! I will keep you posted!

This Week in “Junk” & A Vanity Table Re-Do

I say “junk” with quote because all my picks from the last week have been anything but! I found some really AWESOME stuff and am so excited to bring over it over to the Carriage Place this week! I also have added a lot of new little items to my Etsy store – there’s new stuff everywhere!!!

I’ll start with this incredible yard sale find: an antique chair from the original Silver Stadium on Norton Street, in Rochester. Thanks to my work partner and historical baseball expert Joe, he tells me these seats were originally installed in 1929 and then ripped out when the stadium was renovated in the 80′s. The stadium is now located in Downtown Rochester; now Frontier Field, home of the Rochester Red Wings. These seats are rare, as most of them were torn out and burned. I hope that a Rochester historical junkie or baseball fan will be able to add this piece to their collection – it’s headed over to the co-op on Wednesday!

Talk about another great find – this 3 gallon crock off of Craigslist. I have been researching the wreath marking and have found nothing. I really need to learn more about crock markings. I also got this old oil can with old chippy red paint and a great wooden handle. Love old, primitive tins!

I have been slowly collecting these apothecary jars – all finds from the thrift store ranging from $.99 to $2. They are all different shapes and designs, and I plan on displaying them as a group. They are a major trend right now in decorating magazines and online, such as creating a “candy bar” at a wedding, holding toiletries like Q-tips and cotton balls along a bathroom shelf, creating terrariums, or filling with ornaments or candies for holiday decor! So many uses…I am exploding with ideas for these. I am debating between bringing them to my co-op or selling them on Etsy…I think they’ll do great in either venue!

Of course I have picked up a lot of “smalls”…some vintage salt & pepper shakers, this wooden horse figure, this fun 50′s style hunter figurine, and some other junk not pictured.

And MOLDS! Tons of vintage tin molds! I love these…again, so many potential uses! You could fill them up with fixins, use em for baking, candles, tarts, soaps, bath bombs, favors…

And last but not least is this great little solid wood table with retractable arms in the front. Got this gem off of Craigslist for $10. It’s in phenomenal condition and with unfinished wood, I knew it was a candidate for a primitive/country make-over.

**UPDATE! Thanks to some readers, I finally figured out what this is! It’s a make-up vanity, with arms to fold a skirt in and out, where your legs would be. See the comments on this post to learn more. Thanks guys! **

It was full of tack holes around all the edges, which I decided to fill with wood filler, to clean it up a bit.

I used my finger to smear it into these tiny holes. Let it dry for about 10 minutes and then sanded it to smooth down the filler.

Now it’s ready for paint!

I used a satin black spray paint – Rustoleum American Accents in Canyon Black. Did a light sanding mostly on the edges to “prim” it up.

Sealed with a coat of spray polyurethane. Make sure to let it dry completely, for several hours. Otherwise you’ll get finger prints and streaks across the finish. Now, can anyone tell me what these little retractable arms are for?

I added the little teal knob from Hobby Lobby. Teal and black are one of my favorite color combos!

And here she is, ready to bring over to the co-op. I love how it came out!

Have a fantastic week and enjoy the last few days of summer. It’s winding down and soon my FAVORITE season will be here…looooooove FALL!!! Be back soon with some new pics from The Carriage Place and other crafty chaos! Later!

Dollar Store Christmas Craft: Wooden Snowman Spoons

Evening thinking about Christmas right now is slightly obnoxious, but this project just dawned on me and I felt the need to try it while the idea was fresh in my mind. I have used wooden spoons for other projects but realized their flat round spoons would make perfect little snowman faces! This set of 4 wooden spoons from Walmart wasn’t even $1…they were only $.88! Score! You can also usually find a set of 4 at any dollar store.

I spray painted them with Rustoleum Heirloom White. Any white spray paint would do, and because they are such light-colored wood, one coat worked fine.

Once dried I prepared to paint snowman faces using a Sharpie paint pen for the eyes, a thin black marker for the eyebrows and my favorite rusty orange acrylic paint for the noses.

I played around with different faces…some with mouths and eyebrows…some without…do whatever you think is cute!

Tied on a strip of homespun fabric “scarf”…awwwwww….

They would be great sticking out of vases around the holidays! In decorative jars, a little snowman family grouped in a small crock or jug, tied onto gifts…you could stick em’ anywhere!

Looking at them, I realize there is SO much more you could do with these…

• Add rosy cheeks
• Different styles of mouths (like x’s or a long thin squiggly line)
• Seal with a coat of sparkly Mod Podge to make them shimmer
• Sand the edges and use brown craft paint or gel stain to “grubby” them up
• Glue spaced out buttons down the length of the stick
• Add a rusty tin star around the neck
• Tie a tall one and short one together
• Drill a tiny hole to make em into hanging ornaments
• OR…spray paint the spoons ORANGE and do PUMPKIN faces!!! OOOOooooh…those are going to happen for sure!!!

What other ways could you jazz them up? If you try these, send me pics so I can post them here!

Have a great night and happy crafting! BBS!

One Step Thrift Store Makeovers

Thank you so much for all of the great ideas and suggestions on how to “fix” my ruler table. I agree with those who believe it soaked up too much stain because of the light, balsa-wood material of the rulers. I ended up sanding the crap out of it and just spraying on a layer of poly. It is noticeably lighter now. I didn’t want to try to remove all the rulers because I know I used a LOT of glue and it wouldn’t be worth the time and effort. I figure I can use it as a “display” table for now and slap a price tag on it, and maybe someone will like that super-grungy look.

Next time I will either experiment with a LIGHT stain BEFORE gluing them down, or not use stain at all…just a clear coat! I actually kinda like it now, even though it still doesn’t look like the original “Pinterest” project. Lesson learned!

Some other projects that have been in the works are a few easy makeovers of some items found at thrift stores. The first one was this awesome, primitive set of pine drawers, missing one knob. I’ve been looking high and low for a matching knob but of course couldn’t find one.

Since I didn’t have 4 matching knobs, I decided to change them out for 4 white, mis-matched knobs! Took off all the knobs and drilled larger holes for the NEW knobs!

Here are the knobs I chose! It’s now a functional storage piece with a little sass! Even though the knobs are different, I feel like it “works”…what do you think?

I got this large “S” from the thrift store for super cheap. I scooped it up immediately because I know large letters, either spelling out a word or by themselves, are a very popular decorating trend right now. It had some scratches and was really dirty. After dusting it off a bit and a fresh coat of black satin spray paint…

It will wait for that special “S” name person to pick it up and hang it on their wall!

And lastly, my favorite makeover, this mason jar lamp turned chic button lamp! I got the mason jar lamp base at the salvo (I know, I couldn’t believe it either) and picked up the shade at Walmart for $8. I have been looking for a shade forever and this one was so awesome I had to splurge a bit!

I filled the mason jar with charcoal gray buttons that matched the shade perfectly. I put a toilet paper roll stuffed with brown craft paper down the middle so I only had to use half the buttons to fill it up. I use this trick to preserve “fillers” and therefore save $!!!

How adorable is this lamp?? “French-cottage-chic”, or something like that…

Hmmm…to keep or to sell…that is the question….

Hope you enjoyed my mini makeovers, that really required very little effort! I love EASY!!! Have a great weekend my crafty blog friends!

My Craft FAIL: Yard Stick Desk

I admit it, I have many craft FAILS that are conveniently left off my blog. I thought I’d share this one because I am super pissed about it and need to vent! It had such potential…*sigh*.

I was inspired by this photo found on Pinterest:

Awesome, right? I had this old school desk that I thought would work great. It was in good structural condition but the top was a mess, so covering it with rulers would be perfect!

I got these yard sticks at the dollar store, 2 for $1. I was SO excited to find these. They obviously aren’t vintage, but I liked the different colored writing and designs and thought the unfinished rulers would be perfect for staining.

I measured the length of the desk top and cut them down to size with my handy jig saw.

Using E6000, I glued down the yard sticks and clamped them down good and tight to dry.

At this point things are going great and this project looks like it’s going to turn out awesome! I scraped of the glue lumps that seeped through using a small blade and then gave the top a light sanding to smooth it out. I also sanded down the edges to make them all flush with each other. This is where I should have stopped because it looked pretty cool.

Next comes the staining. I thought this Minwax stain was a medium shade, as it appeared on the label. Turns out it was a little darker than I thought.

TA-DA! So yeah…it’s WAY darker than I thought and there were all these little areas where stain did not absorb. I think that’s because there was glue residue on the surface that wasn’t completely sanded off.  It looks gross. I am contemplating sanding it down and trying a different stain or a different technique all together.  Just polyurethane? Should I? Or should I bag it…

Here she is…my major craft FAIL!!!

Oh well, I guess this is part of crafting. You gotta learn what works and what doesn’t. I’ll take another jab at it eventually since I have a sh*t load of yard sticks left over from the dollar store. Feel free to share your craft fails…I’ll post them here along with this hot mess!!!

Beach Memory Jar

Thanks to Pinterest, everyone has a million mile long list of projects they want to try. One of my favorites that I was determined to do this summer is this fun beach memory jar. We just got home from vacation up in Sackets Harbor, a quaint little village on the northern shore of Lake Ontario. We have a family cottage right on the water with a small beach, where I was able to scoop up some treasures for the memory jar. Here is the one from Pinterest:

I started out with a glass terrarium jar from Michael’s craft store. With a coupon, this was about $10. I suppose you could use a large mason jar too, which would look pretty cool.

Here are some of my finds…shells, cool rocks, some sea glass, drift wood, and feathers.

For the tag, I used my quick “grubbying” technique of slathering on some gel stain (plain brown craft paint works just as well) onto an unfinished wooden tag, and then wiping off.

Then with a fine black sharpie, write whatever. “Knobby Knoll” is the name of the camp ground where our cottage is located. I tied it on with some jute.

And here she is, all finished…except I am going to eventually add a few pictures from the trip.

There were a few stunning sunsets that are a MUST for this memory jar:

In other news, I am slowly adding more items to my Etsy store, most of which are craft supplies. It seems that Texture Fierro is slowly disappearing from the shelves at craft stores, so I scooped up some for my fellow crafters that have had difficulty finding it. I also have some jute twine and cotton twine which come in handy for all kinds of projects!

I will also be adding these hang tags very soon, as I have had many inquiries about them. They are the ones I use for tea-staining. Great for scrapbooking, stamping, gift packaging, etc. I use them as backs for my pins and other small crafts that I sell at my craft show.

Some fun red and white baker’s twine…

Loads of vintage buttons (my fave)…

…And much more. Keep checking back to see what’s new!

Thanks to all you loyal followers and to those who have ordered from my new Etsy store – I appreciate it so very much! Hope everyone has a great weekend!

For Your Viewing Pleasure: Some Interesting Eyeball Photos

Sure I’ve been doing a lot of “crafting by night” lately…however, the “eyeballs by day”  (i.e. my REAL job) has been keeping me rather busy as well! Photographing eyeballs, that is. So, I thought I’d share some of my favorite images from the last few months. Day in and day out, eyeball after eyeball, the beauty and complexity of the human body never ceases to amaze me.

I’ll start with a series of images during an iris fluorescein angiogram.  This patient has neovascularization of the iris. Note the fan-like formation of blood vessels on the lower portion of the iris.

Here’s a close up of the iris neovascularization.

And here is a different external image, where the cornea has been stained with fluorescein topically, causing it to illuminate. You can see 5 small sutures on the top part of the cornea. Kind of looks like a creepy, zombie eyeball…which is why I love it…hehe…

Below is an early frame during a fluorescein angiogram – around 20 seconds after fluorescein dye was injected into the patients arm. You can see the retinal blood vessels are only partially filled. This patient has patches of atrophy in the pigmented layer of the retina, thus allowing you to see the blood vessel layer beneath, the choroid.

Here are two frames from this same angiogram, around 1 minutes time; the right eye and left eye respectively.

Next is a super highly magnified image of the foveal avascular zone, or central vision area, in a diabetic patient. There are areas where the small capillaries have died off, referred to as “capillary dropout.” This is due to poorly controlled blood sugars.

And another similar magnified image…I love the bizarre formation of those microscopic blood vessels. Again, the jagged looking vessels and lack of capillaries are from poorly controlled diabetes.

Below, color fundus images of the right eye and left eye respectively. This patient is a young boy who stared at the sun during the recent transit of Venus in early June. A photochemical reaction has essentially burned the retinal tissue, particularly the central vision area, or macula, of each eye.

Here is an image from the same patient, magnified and photographed with a green filter. Lesson learned: do not stare at the sun! Even on a triple dog dare!

Lastly, this series shows a macroaneurysm surrounded by a hemorrhage. It is a large bulge in one of the blood vessels. In the late frame of the angiogram (last photo), you can see the “light bulb effect” where the macroaneurysm is lit up and defined by the dye. This picture acts as a road map for the physician, showing him exactly where the source of the leak is!

I hope you find these images as fascinating as I do. I am lucky to have such an interesting career. In other photography news, I have been working on photographing a bunch of items for my new Etsy store. This whole Etsy thing is a lot of work! So far it’s been a lot of fun.

Have a great week! Til next time…

Some Recent Thrift Store Finds and Updated Pics from The Carriage Place

It’s been complete chaos in my house between trying to keep my booth at The Carriage Place stocked up and getting my new Etsy store up and running! And I’m excited to announce it’s officially up! I’ve only got a handful of items listed right now but plan on adding more in the very near future!

You can check it out here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/UpstatePrimitives?ref=si_shop.

In the mean time I thought I’d share some recent “finds” that I’ve accumulated from various thrift stores over the last couple weeks. I got two extra large glass mason jars, a cool apothecary jar, a reproduction stoneware jug, a flower frog and little Anchor Hocking piggy bank.

I also found this awesome yellow lamp a few days ago and I HAD to have it!!! It’s sorta ugly but COOL! Lighting sells well at the co-op. I can see it in a cottage or lake house, or in someone’s funky retro living room…

And some “Americana” items…a little late for Independence Day, but still always a popular theme!

I LOVE this repro game board that was handcrafted by a local artist in 2008. Great wall art.

And something I pick up any time I see them…vintage BUTTONS! These will be going up in the Etsy shop soon. Love em for crafting or just filling up random jars and displaying them.

I was able to get over to the co-op yesterday and do some re-arranging and re-stocking. Here are some updated pics!

These wooden pieces were hand crafted by my step-dad Mike. He has made these mini hutches, some candle boxes, horseshoe boxes and milking stools. They are made of very old wood and constructed the old-fashioned way – hand sanded, knobs hand turned, and old square head nails. He does incredible work!

I have another cool project in the works and will be posting about it soon. In the mean time hope everyone is staying cool and enjoying their summer! Later gators!

Creating a Simple “Studio” for Photographing Your Crafts

So, my big announcement…I am finally going to open an Etsy store!

It’s been on my to-do list for a long time, and I think I’m ready to make the plunge! I think my small crafts and many un-used craft supplies have potential to sell better in a venue like Etsy, whereas I will continue to sell my antiques and larger pieces at the co-op. I have been doing some preparation in getting this baby up and running, the first being a small “studio” area to properly photograph my items!

While my photographic skills excel in photographing retinas, they are not quite as proficient in studio work. I have never had any interest in portraits or studio photography that require traditional lighting methods, studio lights and back drops, lighting ratios, etc, etc. One thing I do know is that natural light is ideal in photographing almost anything. I wanted to be able to use natural light to photograph my products, but also not have to wait until the sun comes out and the weather is bearable to be able to shoot. I do live in Western New York after all! My solution: artificial natural light.

These 7.5 watt bulbs from Lowes emanate “natural light”, or an artificial full spectrum of light. They measure at 5000K, which is comparable to noon daylight. I bought two bulbs and two of these clamping work lights:

…and set up a small area on a table in my basement. I have some white foam core boards to use as reflectors as needed. I am using a large crate bottom as my background, because you know I love that rustic look. Here is my basic set up:

And a picture snapped with hardly any adjusting of the lights. I think this is going to work just fine!

Not too shabby for a studio that took 10 minutes to set up and cost about $35.

Here it is with the lights on so you can see. I am using the slatted crates on either side, as they work well with the lights’ clamps. Also, I’d like to mention that I used my digital SLR camera for my photography; my trusty Nikon D80. It’s slightly outdated but works very well for the work I want/need to do. I would recommend an SLR over a point-and-shoot camera if you are able.

I’ll keep you posted on how it works and what tweaks I might make as I start in on this new adventure! In the mean time I have been working on lots of marble magnets of varying themes to sell on Etsy. I can’t wait to start photographing them.

Phew…I don’t know why I keep myself so damn busy these days. I figure it’s going to take at least a month or so to get the store “live” and running. I have lots of items to photograph and some other prepping to do. Anyone out there with their own Etsy store…do you have any advice for this rookie? Any tips/advice you have to offer would be appreciated!

Have a great week!