Bringing Home the Crafty Bacon

I've mentioned before that my friend Vickie Howell has a new and exciting podcast called Craft Rock Listen. She has been interviewing people like Kathy Cano Murillo of Crafty Chica, Will Forte of Saturday Night Live, Debbie Stoller of Bust Magazine and Stitch-n-Bitch and more. When she asked me if I wanted to be a guest on an episode of CRL to talk about business it took me about 1.2 seconds to say YES!

I could seriously talk about business, marketing and branding all the day long if someone let me. Vickie didn’t let me talk all the day long on her podcast about it, but she did let me talk a good 30 minutes or so. If you run a business or are thinking about starting one you need to listen to this episode of Craft Rock Listen called Bringing Home the Crafty Bacon. Vickie and I talk about issues like deciding where to advertise, the benefits of making the craft fair circuit, getting editorial coverage and more. If you have 30 minutes to spare snuggle up next to your Itunes and listen to the Naughty Secretary Club edition of the CRL Podcast. Oh and special thanks to Michaels for sponsoring my segment. They even made this cute Vickie and Jennifer banner just for Vickie’s blog and the episode that shows our projects from their holiday ad.

P.S. Here is a little contest without a prize (though don't forget I am having a real contest on my blog right now to win free jewelry)...half way through our phone interview my cell phone rings, try and guess what the tune of my ring is.

Bye Bye Has Anyone Ever Told You

I’m sure somewhere along the line I mentioned to you guys that once upon a time I ran a record label with my husband Chris called Has Anyone Ever Told You. It started because Chris has always been in bands and we thought why should they try to get someone else to put their record out when we could do it ourselves. One of the things that brought Chris and I together in the first place was our love of Indie music and mutual adoration for labels like Merge, Simple Machines, Teen Beat, Kill Rock Stars and more. We thought, why can’t we start a label too? How hard could it be? That was almost 10 years and a lot of nativity ago. A lot has changed since then. Chris has stuck with the label and for me Naughty Secretary Club took up too much of my time so after awhile I was no longer involved with the label other than hearing Chris talk about it. We put out some awesome releases through the years that I am really proud of. Some of the bands on Has Anyone Ever Told You are still going strong like The Gates and Beta Valentine who are playing tonight at Beerland as a matter of fact. A few of my favorite songs through the years include: The Search for Saturnalia “Boomer Sonata”, Chris Boehk “All Wagon No Star”, Drowners Sailing “Walking Pet Peeve”, We Talked About Murder “Victimology” and tons more.

Since we are closing down shop Chris has marked every single CD on the label down to $2. Seriously cheap for some seriously good music. I wanted to repost Chris’s final newsletter for Has Anyone Ever Told You? here on my blog. The record label was my first real business and though I have not been involved with it for years I feel kind of sad to see it go.

News
December 2007
Closing Up Shop

After over 8 years and 18 official releases (and several more unofficial), Has Anyone Ever Told You? is shutting its virtual doors for good beginning January 1st. Under normal circumstances, I'd have it in me to write something really sappy. Like how this breaks my heart or how we can longer realize our creative vision or some other such nonsense. But...I don't feel bad about this at all. This label is something I no longer enjoy doing, so I'm going to stop doing it. Sometimes it's good to put things behind you and move on.

In order to give you a final chance to pick up any releases you've ever wanted, we're having a big sale on everything in the store. All CD's are $2 each. Seriously. After New Year's, you won't be able to buy them anymore, so get on it.


Independent Music Video Festival - Austin
The IMVF is coming to Austin! Beta Valentine's Curse of the Midnight Idol made it into the festival and it's been playing all over the world. Check out the show on December 17th at the Alamo Drafthouse Downtown (320 E. Sixth Street) in Austin. The show starts at 9:45pm and it's only $2. Beta Valentine will be playing live and their will be videos from the following bands. See you there.

ARSENIQ 33 " Malachop" Dir: Mathieu Grondin Label: Les Disques Indica (CANADA)
BETA VALENTINE "Curse of the Midnight Idol" Dir: J. Conway of Pushingnormal Label: Has Anyone Ever Told You (USA)
BLACK YEAR "Draw It Out" Dir: Tonny Benna Label: Journeyfilm (USA)
BRENT AMAKER & The RODEO "You're No Good" Dir: Black Daisy Label: J-shirt Records ( USA)
CADENCE WEAPON "Black Hand" Dir: Fluorescent Hill Label: Upper Class Recordings (CANADA)
ELIZABETH "War Is Beautiful" Dir: Alexander Rupert Label: Pop Echo Records ( CANADA)
EPOXIES "Stop Looking at Me Dir:Tyson Carpenter Label: Dirtnap Records (USA)
THE GRATES "19-20-20" Dir: Stephen Lance Label: Dew Process Records (AUSTRALIA)
I LIKE TRAINS "Terra Nova" Dir: Broken Pixel Label: Fierce Panda Canada ( U.K.)
LILY FROST "Silver Sun" Dir: James Genn Label: Aporia Records ( CANADA)
OCTOPUS PROJECT "Music Is Happiness " Dir: Nick Smith Label: Peek A Boo Records (USA)
PLASTER " Would You " Dir: Sebastien Theraulaz Label: Parallel (CANADA)
PRINCESS SUPERSTAR " Perfect" Dir: Ned Ambler Label: K7 Records (USA)
RAFTSIDE "Flower For the Mood" Dir: Sandy Lorente Label: Indie (LUXEMBOURG)
SCISSORS FOR LEFTY " Ghetto Ways" Dir: Danny Drysdale Label: Rough Trade (USA)
SKOPIC "Mahonis" Dir: Lise Angelica & Frank Wilson Label: Lunaticworks (USA)
SPARKS "Dick Around" Dir:Shaw Petronio/Tammy Glover Label: In The Red Records (USA)
STINKMITT "Keep Me Fat" Dir:Lisa Schwartzman Label:Teenage USA Recordings/Swollen Mitt (CANADA)
THESE ARMS ARE SNAKES "Horse Girl" Dir: Artificial Army Label: Jade Tree (USA)
UGRESS "Kosmonaut " Dir: Svein Sund / Yesbox Productions (NORWAY)

Egon's Last Stand
One final thing before we are shuttered for good. I've posted the final song that Egon wrote and recorded. It's never been released and probably never will be. It's called Ostovar and you can download it from the sounds page. If you've been keeping up, Victor, the primary singer/songwriter of Egon has a new band called The Gates and they've just released their first album (our last release) called the Black Heart Bride. Pick it up.

Thank You
I'd like to thank Jennifer Perkins, my wife, whose ideas for this label started it all. She is responsible for this label in the first place. Her energy, creativity and devotion to music is undying. As you know, her own business Naughty Secretary Club took off and she didn't have the time to deal with the day to day affairs of the label, but her initial workings really got it off the ground and set it in motion.

I'd also like to personally thank Victor Talamantes for being such a good friend and for putting out his records through this label over the years. His contributions are too numerous to mention and I am grateful for his support and dedication.

Finally, a thanks to all of the press, distros, bands, fans and friends over the years that gave this little label a little love and made it worthwhile for me personally.
Chris

I leave you with Chris's attempt at Super 8 and video directing...
Check out this video: We Talked About Murder "Promise Play" Super 8mm



Add to My Profile | More Videos

Late Night Stroll Through Bloglandia

I had a horrible night sleeping last night. I woke up at 3am and could not go back to sleep. What is a girl up in the middle of the night supposed to do with herself? Read blogs for 4 hours is what I decided to do.

I started on a blog called Anything Indie that caught my eye because she blogged about Louise Black. Carrie is a friend that has been on the runway at Stitch several times. I also clicked the links for Plasticland to look into some cute little retro Christmas ornaments. From here I seriously went through her blog links and just started killing time waiting for the Tylenol PM to kick in.

I loved the trippy graphics on Anahata Katkin and if I had a lick of sense I would buy some of her Christmas cards now.

From Anahata's blog I clicked on a few links like Poppy Talk where I thought deep thoughts like are Octopus (Octopi) still the new Owl or are they on their way out? I saw a picture framed in an embroidery hoop and it reminded me of the pictures of this I have been saving thinking one day I will do the same in my house. (thanks Purl Bee for the picture) Also from Anahata's blog I clicked on the link for a blog called SFgilrbybay which I enjoyed. I loved the post on Chris Brown and his Curious Goods goodie bags which reminded me of my Crafty Curios but with cooler stuff for the assemblage peeps. Kind of like a country Michael DeMeng.

And then I went back to home base Anything Indie to follow more links.

Clicked Athena Says and checked things out. Behind the Dot had a lengthy article on consigning with stores that looked interesting. Blog Me Baby was colorful and chaotic, and I loved her felt bird kits. I liked Charming Sam though the small font made me squint a bit. Oodles of pretty things to look at on Creature Comforts, I especially loved the post on fabric the one with the people on it is awesome.

A lot of blogs have way more bells and whistles than my does? For instance I really liked the blog Cuteable and I noticed on this blog after every post you can Email this • Digg This! • Share on Facebook • Stumble It! • Save to del.icio.us • Google Bookmark This • Bookmark With Yahoo! Bookmarks is this only a type pad option? Can I do this on Blogger? So many blog questions were running through my mind at about 4:45am at this point.

The vintage flower brooch post on Cyn Contemporary reminded me of my friend Susan Beal because she often wears a necklace she made out of one of these old vintage metal flowers. I have a whole jewelry box full of them in bright 60's colors I should do something with.

Creative Adoration made me feel like my breakfast is ugly with the beautiful pictures. Is oatmeal ever aesthicly pleasing?

It's no secret that I am a fan of Miss Malaprop, Manic Trout, Indie Shopping and Indie Fixx. I sent my mother the post about Pistol Stitched from Indie Fixx right then and there.

I LOVE Modish and am currently kicking myself in the butt for not advertising on there during the holidays. I was drooling over the yarn wreaths post last night that I sent out to all friends vaguely interested in yarn and Christmas like Vickie and my mom. Checking back in today the post about handmade jewelry especially the necklaces by Kjoo make me want to scream with excitement.

My Indie Jewelry reminded me how much I love the art of Kate Black and how one day I need to get some of her jewelry. Check out the Ron Jeremy necklace. Ya know once I got to ask him a question through Jane Magazine. I asked why guys like Corn Dogs so much. I forgot what his answer was.


There was a post on cute wallets at Purple Pink and Orange so I felt compelled to tell them about Burgers and Friends. I'm never a blog lurker, if anything I am an over zealous commenter. Is that bad?

Around 7am I finally started feeling sleepy and it worked out well because I had gone all through the links on Anything Indie. It's gonna be an early night tonight. I fly to Dallas tomorrow morning at 6:30am for a meeting and then fly back that evening. Barf.

Join Me in Crafty Crime

Have you flipped through the latest issues of Adorn or Altered Couture recently? Notice the girl on the first page in black and white stripes up against an orange wall? Guess what, that’s me! I have always loved Duncan and all their products like Aleene’s and Tulip so when they asked me to be a part of their ad campaign that has featured the likes of Kathy Cano Murillo, Traci Bautista and Pattie Donham who was I to say no! The deal was they said we are going to send you a bunch of our Liquid Fusion and Fabric Fusion glues and we want you to go crazy and make a bunch of jewelry for the ad. Talk about a dream job. Besides the fact that both glues really are super strong they are both non-toxic. I'm here to tell you it is hard to find a good glue without a health warning on it so I was pumped to find Liquid Fusion!

First of all I picked a color scheme and my mom was nice enough to help me and gave me a bunch of her vintage Barkcloth for the project. I love how everything turned out and the cool thing is you can go to http://www.duncancrafts.com/crime/ and get all the instructions to make everything yourself. There are instuctions for the purse, headband, earrings, ring, choker and bracelet. Some of the supplies I used you can find in the Naughty Secretary Club Etsy Shop and other items like the Carved Coral Ring you can score on Naughty Secretary Club for yourself.

I also made some other jewelry that is a little harder to see in the ad like a bib necklace, bangle bracelet and pin.

Well guess what you can win some of this jewelry right here on the blog. That's right I have the rings, bib necklace, purse, bracelet and more to give away. I'm going to pick lucky winners one week from today on Monday December 3rd to win some free jewelry. All you have to do is leave me a comment right here related to the project and the ad. Which is your favorite piece of jewelry? Do you have a favorite craft glue? Did you try making any of these jewelry projects yourself? Leave a comment anytime between now and next Monday and you could win one of the pieces of jewelry pictured.

P.S. Special shout out to my amazing friend Cory Ryan for taking the picture, to my friend Alyson for thinking of me for the ad, to my mom Fredda Perkins for helping me sew the purse and to Craft-o-Rama for letting us take pictures in your craftaliscious store.

Craft Lab Holidays

Tomorrow begins Christmas in the Craft Lab. Looks like from here on out for the rest of the year we are in store for a whole lot of Christmas themed episodes. Just in time too because I put up my Christmas trees yesterday and need to hang the light bulb ornament I made with Leah Kramer of Craftster who’s episode is on tomorrow. That’s right tomorrow in the Craft Lab Leah and I are making kitschy ornaments out of light bulbs, tin foil and coffee cans. Leah is the author of The Craftster Guide to Nifty, Thrifty and Kitschy Crafts, so you know she came up with some fun projects for the show. Don’t laugh at my Santa and his eyebrows. We literally had to stop filming this episode several times because of the uncontrolled off set laughter at my Santa and how bad he turned out.

Also this week another one of my favorite episodes is airing with Debbie Chialtas of Soapy Love called Holiday Suds where we make Soapcicles. Yes people soap shaped like popcicles and they are super duper holy moly a-doorbell cute! I went through a soap making phase years ago and filming this episode brought back the love for me.

The third episode is called Kid Holiday Crafts and this one was such a fun one to film because we really did have little kids there. They kept wanting to eat the dough for the ornament. Also in this episode I have a quickie project where I make an old magazine into a Christmas tree. Technically my friend Dave Lowe made it. I loved making this project when I was in grade school and when they asked me if I had a quick and easy holiday themed craft for the episode I was ready.

So anywhoodle tune into Craft Lab this week to start getting yourself into the Holiday mood.

Bead Bloggers and House Cleaning

It's time again for Bead Bloggers. I feel like cheating since I am really writing this on Sunday, but tampering with my time settings to make this post on Saturday. It's like a blogging version of time travel. I was busy yesterday. My house keeper got here at 8:30 for an all day deep cleaning and Chris and I cleaned and worked right along side her until 6:30. People often ask me how I manage to juggle so many jobs and projects, someone to help me clean the house is one of my tricks. I used to feel weird about it until I read this article about time management. It was talking about the amount of time people who run companies spend doing things that are not all that beneficial or rewarding to them. Sure if you love to clean house, do it. I just hate it and realized the time I was wasting doing dishes, running a vacuum and scrubbing toilets would be better spent working on something else. Ok so enough rationalizing about why I have a housekeeper. The point is Chris and I worked our tooshes off on the new studio yesterday. On Friday Chris and his dad put up my new peg board to hold all my finished jewelry. Yesterday Chris installed my cabinets above my desk and a new shelf above my pegboard. It is really starting to look like a studio! After all of that I still stuck to my promise and got my Christmas decorations down. I have a lavender tree on my dining room table, a red tree on the bar in the game room and a hot pink, teal and silver tree in the den. I'll take pictures of their sparkly goodness soon. So anyway all of the above is why I didn't get around to posting my bead blogger links on Saturday and am having to cheat and post them today on Sunday. Oh and the pictures are some of the new jewelry I added to Naughty Secretary Club. Don't forget new goodies every Monday, Wednesday and Friday and all orders placed before December 14th will arrive before Santa does.

About.com Jewelry Making
Give a double wammy of beads this holiday. Tammy has discovered a group that has great beaded jewelry to give and get that also gives to needy young women.

Art Bead Scene
Only a few days left to enter the Art Bead Scene challenge with the Coffee Haus theme! Get your caffeine on and get moving on a coffee related design using art beads!

Bead Arts
Cyndi is ga-ga over the pictures and information she found recently on Kanzashi, Japanese hair ornaments.

Jewelry & Beading
Two of Cyndi's pieces are in the lastest issue of Jewelry Crafts.

Naughty Secretary Club
Grab a left over turkey sandwich and tune into the DIY Network Holiday Special this weekend with oodles of different craft projects. One with Jennifer Perkins making a chunky charm bracelet and necklace using decoupage.

Pearlesq.
Check out Robin's closeup photos of Distress Crackle Paint along with tips and techniques to get the best "crackin'" results!

Savvy Crafter
Last week Candie found herself in a maze of seed beads in Kathmandu. See pictures of her visit to the Indra Chowk bead market…

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!
It's not too early to start stashing away those hand-made teachers' gifts for the Holidays! You will be glad you did later when the rush is on! Jean shows what she decided to make the teachers (shhh! It's a secret!) this year!

The Impatient Blogger
If you're feeling the holiday stress, take a moment to enjoy a delicious little gem of a movie that'll spark your creativity and make you smile. A kinda movie review from your pal Margot!

Idiocracy

I finally got around to watching Idiocracy the other day. Idiocracy is a movie about the dumbing down of people in the future staring Luke Wilson, Maya Rudolph, Dax Shepard and others. Mike Judge directed and it was filmed here in Austin, TX. Several years ago when the movie was filming I got a call from a store I sell to called Parts and Labour that there was someone in the store working on the movie that wanted to talk to me about my resin jewelry. It was a long time ago obviously since I have not made resin jewelry in forever. Anywhoodle I set up an appointment to meet with some woman named Debra McGuire. At the time I had no idea that she is a HUGE costume designer who has been in charge of getting the casts of Friends, Heroes, Knocked Up, Super Bad and more dressed. I just thought it was some lady from California who liked my jewelry. She realized that I could customize the resin and asked if I would make a ton of jewelry for the movie. If you have seen Idiocracy you know that everything in the future is covered with logos. She gave me high res files of all those logos and I went to work making necklaces, rings, earrings and bracelets for the cast. The movie’s release kept getting pushed back further and further so I was always curious whether any of my jewelry had actually made it into the movie. The other day I noticed Idiocracy was on the free to rent movie channel on my digital cable so I fast forwarded through looking for my jewelry. As you can see from the picture I found a few pictures. Now I have to go back and really “watch” the movie. I have heard mixed reviews about how it is and I think I may be the only person I know who did not find Office Space to be all that hilarious so who knows what I will think.

I am Thankful that I Hoard Fabric.

Today among a lot of other things I am thankful that I am a pack rat hoarder type. A bit like those birds that pick up any sparkly thing they see to line their nest with, I am that person that even if I have no clue what I will use something for, if it is pretty and colorful I will pick it up with the hopes that it will come to me later. For years I have been picking up fabric scraps, feedsack in particular. Maybe it came from being at flea markets with my mother waiting for her to sort through stacks of Barkcloth. I had to look at something in the booth to occupy my time. I’m not much of a seamstress and don’t know anything about quilting, but for some reason I just kept picking up the pieces. Yesterday when the wild urge to make jewelry involving fabric swept over me I was thankful that I had a big basket (or two) of colorful vintage fabric scraps to play with. I sent Hope out to score me a seam ripper, I hit the thrift store looking for wool sweaters to felt and spent the rest of my evening like a mad fabric scientist and for the first time really breaking in my new studio. I wanted to share what I came up with and what you will soon be able to find on Naughty Secretary Club.

Here are the piles of vintage fabric that I started with. Feedsack, quilting yoyos, Barkcloth and more…


Next up are my favorite necklaces that came out of the night. Who knew I had some much different chain in my studio? It’s amazing the things you find when you switch studio spaces and are as unorganized as I am…




Sure I am thankful for more important things than fabric like my wonderful friends and family. I am just thankful for the little things to, like fabric I can make jewelry with. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I hope you are all set to eat lots of yummy food, including my personal favorite sweet potatoes with marshmallows. I am headed down the road a piece to my mother-in-laws house (father-in-law is already here staying with us). We are meeting up with my brother and sister in law and their adorable kiddo. I am also really thankful that today I get to meet my mother-in-laws new baby donkey Samuel.

Learn how to Make Decoupage Jewelry with Me on the DIY Holiday Special.

Remember back in February when I flew to Vermont to film the DIY Holiday Special and we got trapped in the 2nd worst blizzard in their history? Well guess what it is about to be on your TV starting this weekend! For your Thanksgiving weekend viewing pleasure, DIY's Holiday Gift-nanza-- featuring Michele Beschen (B.Original), Sandi Genovese (DIY Scrapbooking), Cathy Filian and Steve Piacenza (Creative Juice), Jennifer Perkins (Craft Lab) and Vickie Howell (Knitty Gritty)--premieres this Saturday at 9pmET/8pmCT/6p,PT then shows again 9 different times through the holidays. Poor Allison Whitlock of Uncommon Threads was suppossed to be on the show, but she could not get to Vermont because of the storm. She flew all the way from Australia and made it as far as DC. The important thing is that the producers already had her crocheted earrings on set because they were for me :)

Vickie and I shooting an outdoors scene.

Cathie, Vickie and I outside of the Vermont set.
(Before we found out that the entire cast and crew were snowed in for the night)

I am particularly fond of this Christmas special because I got to make jewelry! We do a secret Santa type swap where hijincks ensue and I won’t spoil the surprise and tell you who ends up with my jewelry, but I will say that it was hard for me to part with it. I made this crazy chunky necklace and bracelet using my friend Traci Bautista’s graffiti style paper, Aleene’s Decoupage, some rad clip art of ladies in big hats and more. I really wanted to keep it for myself, but that is not very Christmas of me so I gave it away as planned. Check out the DIY Network website for instructions or just read on for a how to guide….



Materials:
wooden discs (spray painted green)
green spray paint
Traci Baustista decorative paper
female cameo clip art
decoupage glue
Diamond Glaze
scissors
rotary drill with small bit
gold chain
beads
jump rings
jewelry clasp

Steps:
Spray paint the discs green on both sides and allow to dry.

Cut circles out from the graffiti paper, slightly smaller than the discs, and use a punch to cut out the cameos. Cameos need to be printed with a laser jet printer so they won’t smear.

Apply decoupage to the discs and then top with the graffiti paper and cover with more decoupage. Allow one side to dry to tacky and repeat for the other side.

Repeat the above process with the cameo paper. Allow to dry overnight.

Apply Diamond Glaze onto each side of the cameo charms. Allow each side to dry.

Once the charms are dry, drill a small hole at the top of the charm.

Apply a jump ring to each of the charms and all of the beads

Cut the gold chain to the proper length and alternate beads on the necklace, leaving a space for them to hang.

Attach the clasp to the chain.



The project is super similar to the Dutch Treat Necklace I did in the current issue of Make It Mine Magazine and the Twinkle Charm Bracelet I did for the Michael's Holiday Ad. Apparently I was on a decopauge kick this year, what can I say. That is why I sell the Crafty Collage Curios Packs on Etsy so you can use the pictures for jewelry!



If you give it a go and make your own version I would love love love to see what you come up with. Here are some pictures of other pieces of decopauge jewelry I have made for some more inspiration.

Happy Birthday Hope Anna Banana

Wow if my younger sister is turning 30 today, what does that say about me? But this post isn’t about me it is about my amazingly talented and beautiful sister Hope Perkins. You might have seen her “jazzing or gussying up” some clothing on Stylelicious. Perhaps you have visited her web site Hot Pink Pistol or seen her hand painted purses at Naughty Secretary Club. If you flip through the current issues of Adorn, Bust, Tribeza or Altered Couture Magazines you will see her handy work gracing the pages. If you made it into the Duncan booth at Stitch you saw her life size cut out and quote not to mention her array of glittered presidents on the runway. If you pop into Method Hair or Gallery Lombardi today her paintings are on the wall. That sister of mine, it’s enough to make a gal proud.

If you are buddies with Hope, or if you have stalked her from afar and always wanted to meet her in person, please join us tonight at Club Deville around 9pm for a celebratory drink or two.

New Goodies 3 Days a Week!

Man oh man do I have a lot of new goodies to add to Naughty Secretary Club. So many in fact that I decided to make a fun promotion out of it that includes this eye catching animated banner. Animated banners mean I am really serious about this. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for the next couple of weeks you can check into Naughty Secretary Club for a new product update. Today is our kick off date and it is all about the Nouveau Rings. Look for updates in the upcoming days on Pop Purses, Thing-a-Ling Earrings, Nouveau Necklaces, Watches, Hot Pink Pistol Purses, Nouveau Bracelets and more. I am here to tell you there is a lot of stuff about to grace the website and just in time for holiday shopping. Everything ordered before Friday December 14th will make it into your hot little hands before Santa shoves his booty down your chimney. So check back 3 times a week for updates and new goodies!

Torched Metal Clay on Craft Lab

Not that I don’t love every single episode of Craft Lab the exact same, but I have to say I get particularly excited on the episodes where I learn something that relates to jewelry. Tuesday’s episode entitled “Torched Metal Clay” with Cathi Milligan is one of those episodes. First of all Cathi is an amazing glass bead designer (check out her website Bead Brains). On this episode Cathi and I use precious metal clay to make sacred heart belt buckles and matching button covers. Fun stuff. Also on this episode you might recognize one of the guest crafters, Erin Murphy. Erin was Tabitha Stephens on Bewitched. Erin and I had been partners a year earlier at a hosting boot camp in Los Angeles and when she read the listing on Craig’s List that Craft Lab was looking for guest crafters she recognized my name and came out to say hello and get crafty. Also this week look for repeats of fun episodes like All That Glitters with Kathy Cano Murillo and my hubby Chris as a guest crafter and Painting with Crayons with Traci Bautista.

In other news it has been a long weekend. Thursday was spent going to the Stitch after party at Saba, which then turned into a quick trip to Qua to see the shark tank dance floor, then over to the opening party of Pangea, over to Whiskey Bar and then closed things down at Beauty Bar. For a girl who rarely goes out anymore, it was a long night. Friday was spent working and then going out to Smithville to see my in-laws. Saturday was more working and starting to move into my new studio. I’ll post pictures soon of everything. Saturday night was the Team Fabrication fashion show at Mohawk so I was downtown and out late yet again. Here we are at Sunday and I really want to lay around but I’m being a good girl and blogging to you, working on my book (just finished 2 projects and a blog list) and adding new goodies to Naughty Secretary Club. I have to go out yet again tonight for the annual Thanksgiving pot luck at my friends Matt and Courtney’s house. It is always tons of fun and if I had not gone out for the past 3 nights in a row I would be much more excited. Between then and now I want to write another project or 2 for the book and move some more things into my new studio so I best scoot.

Two Weeks Worth of Bead Bloggers Links

Needless to say last Saturday I was at the Austin Convention Center from 8am - 12am so I missed Bead Bloggers. Today I will repost the last two weeks to make up for lost time. I am also posting some pictures of the new jewelry I am going to be adding to Naughty Secretary Club over the next few weeks. Check back every Mon, Wed and Fri for new goodies. Ok on with the links....

Art Bead Scene
Cindy tells us about how she has merged some of her favorite obsessions (beads, books, and blogging) in her new Bead Lit Blog

Bead Arts
Bead Arts brings you another artist profile, this time of Olivia Competente's gorgeous mixed media jewelry.

Katie's Beading Blog
Check out this idea for a fun, versatile necklace and bracelet set using gemstones and Swarovski crystals.

Naughty Secretary Club
In her quest for continuing education in the business world Jen attended a Women in Command breakfast where the key not speaker was jewelry designer Kendra Scott. Read the recap with oodles of tips on running a successful business.

PearlEsq.
Robin's got more frames to show off from the recent Ranger U class and some tips and techniques on how to work with your stamps!

Savvy Crafter
Candie crochets the day away with her students to make multi-strand necklaces. Bead one, Crochet two, anyone?!?!

The Impatient Blogger
Did Margot finish spinning her daunting straw pile before her tropical getaway? Click here to find out and to read about the Swarovski Tucson Event this year!

Art Bead Scene
Pull up a Cup 'o Joe and warm up with our little gallery of coffee related bead treats made by the editors of Art Bead Scene

Bead Arts
A maple leaf on top of a maple leaf! Cyndi has created a necklace that features both a full sized and a miniature leaf. Can you spot the big leaf? :-)

Jewelry & Beading
Artist Wendy Van Camp has shared with us about her inspirations and creative process in making her beautiful wire and gem jewelry.

Katie's Beading Blog
Katie's been a busy blogger this week! Get links to instructions for a fun necklace & earring set, vote for your favorite thing to bead, and check out Katie's new CafePress shop!

Naughty Secretary Club
Have you seen the new issue of Altered Couture Magazine? Look for two pieces of jewelry by Jen and a 3 page spread about her sister Hope Perkins and her hand painted dresses.

PearlEsq.
Robin just wants to show you her nieces' new puppy Charlie, go "awwww!" and have a good smile.

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!
Jean shows a bracelet she made for the November Art bead Scene challenge: lots of fun--coffee is the focus!

The Impatient Blogger
Margot shares some thoughts about the transformative power of the creative force in this thought provoking post.

Stitch is almost over.

I won’t even bother fully explaining where the heck I’ve been, because well you know. It was Stitch city USA last week and all I did was blog on that site. After that I immediately snuck away to Dallas to stay with my parents for a few days. During times of high stress I love to go home and stay in my old room, be driven around in the back seat and have all my meals paid for. Call it regression or what you will, but when I am that stressed out I just want to go home. It was a much needed break even if Hope and I did only stay for 2.5 days. I’m back in Austin now and in full effect!

Tonight is the last of the Stitch after party-ness. Please join us at Saba Blue Water Café for our thank you party. Everyone is invited and we will have some free food, cheap drinks and good music. Should be a ton-o-fun. I guess tomorrow is when the post-partum depression will kick in about Stitch being over for the year. You spend so much time and energy planning something and then boom back to normal life. Actually normal life sounds pretty dang awesome about right now. I want to clean my house, move into my new studio, put up Christmas decorations, add new things to my website, play with felting old sweaters, finish writing my book – all things I have not been able to do for the past 3 months because of Stitch.

One after Stitch thing that I am completely excited about is my copy of the program. This year we had super nice slick and shiny programs made that are full color. I can’t wait to come through the program and shop online. I didn’t get to do as much shopping at Stitch as I was hoping, actually I only bought a Seibei T-shirt (which I have been wearing for days straight) but with the program I can track all the people down online and score myself some awesome! Whoo-hoo. If you didn’t make it to Stitch and didn’t score yourself a program or a goodie bag you might check out our friend Jessica’s blog Funky Finds where you can win one!

Indie Fixx Interview

Hooray I was interviewed for the Indie Artist Fixx section of one of my very favorite blogs Indie Fixx. Read all about fun stuff like what blogs I read daily, my crafty ancestral history and which Grease (1 or 2) I like better.

Threadbanger Does Stitch!

Naughty Secretary Club November Newsletter

The Latest Stitch News...

The Stitch Fashion Show and Craft Bazaar is this Saturday Nov 10th at the Austin Convention Center (500 E. Ceasar Chavez) doors open at 4pm.

Snag your advance tickets here, or buy them at the door.

Here is the latest Stitch news...

The Word on the Street About Stitch
See: News 8 Austin & CW Network (tune in tonight between 1-3am to see Stitch vendors Take Off Your Clothes and to win tickets)

Read: The Austin Chronicle, The Austin American Statesmen, Rare Magazine, Austin Style Watch, Austin Tidbits and Bust Magazine. The Austinist has been doing a special Stitch Preview series featuring interviews with designers like.
31 Corn Lane Booth # 429
Aorta Designs BOOTH # 321
Freshie and Zero BOOTH # 524
I Like Apple Juice BOOTH # 113
Burgers and Friends BOOTH # 526

Hear: Listen to Karly and Jen on KROX 101.X tomorrow at 9am chatting about Stitch and then listen to the Fashion Friday Fix on Mix 94.7 at 4pm Friday afternoon for your chance to win a Stitch goodie bag and free tickets.

More Like 650 free goodie bags to give out. All our generous sponsors overloaded us with cool goodie bags, so many in fact that we had more bags than we did swag (It took us 6 hours to stuff them). Get there early to snag a bag from our rad friends
31 Corn Lane
Anne Marie – Style for the Individual
Lollibomb Beauty
Kailo Chic
Ballistic Sweater Girl
Flapper Girl Designs
Blue Velvet
Loyalty and Blood
Victrola Studio
Harrilu
Blue Q
Alisa Burke

PROJECT RUNWAY DOUBLE WHAMMY: Bradley Baumkirchner from Season 3 of Project Runway will be at Stitch presenting prizes and Baby Lock Sewing machines to our two amazing grant winners as well as showing a piece from his collection that will be added to the raffle. On the runway look for a segment by Simplicity showing patterns from their Built by Wendy and Project Runway line!

After Stitch please join us later in the night for our after party...

New Necklaces and Bead Bloggers

As always here are my Saturday Bead Blogging Group links. This time I have peppered the post with pictures of some new necklaces I just added to Naughty Secretary Club!

Art Bead Scene
Stop by Art Bead Scene this week to see the winner of the October challenge and the theme and prizes for the November challenge. We are sure it will "wake up" your creativity!

Bead Arts
Never throw anything out! Not even Chinese fortunes...

Jewelry and Beading Blog
Is it a trick or a treat? If you are passing out these beaded Halloween cards discovered by Tammy over at the Jewelry and Beading Blog, more than likely your friends will think they are the perfect treat this year. Plus, no calories or cavities!

Katie's Beading Blog
Are you selling the jewelry you make? Katie compiled a list of links to articles that are full of helpful tips and info. Check them out or just add yours to the list.

PearlEsq.
Robin's added another Technique of the Week, showing some fun ideas with Adirondack Alcohol Inks, Embossing Powders and Color Wash, all products that work as wonderfully on paper as for mixed media jewelry designs!

Savvy Crafter
Not sure what to do with that handful of cloisonne beads? Head over to Candie's blog for some inspiration!

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!
Jean just keeps loving to make those crazy little spiral seed bead bracelets. This one has a funny name!

Stitch Austin / Naughty Secretary Club
Jen writes for several blogs, one of which is for the Stitch Fashion Show and Indie Craft Bazaar that she produces. Stitch is Nov 10th at the Austin Convention Center and Jen blogged a roundup of all the amazing jewelry designers you will find at the show!

The Impatient Blogger
Got a restless streak a mile wide? Enjoy Margot's musings on how she's turned her 'creative adhd 'into a career. Impatient? Well, yes!