Today is the last day, this time we mean it.

Today is the official last day of the 25% off sale at Naughty Secretary Club. I know the little flyers say until the 28th of April, but just between you and me the codes don't expire until May 1st.

Snippets Interview

Have you seen the new zine Cut Out + Keep issue of Snippets? The new issue has an fashion layout on one of my favorite shoe companies Irregular Choice, an article about one of the coolest zines around Croq and an interview with little ole’ me! I have a real soft spot for zines. I did a print zine in High School and college called Scratch-n-Sniff. Naughty Secretary Club started as a zine. I have written for tons of zines (Splendid, Delusions of Adequacy, Pillow Fight, Held Like Sound, Venus). So I am always happy to see new zines popping up and keeping the tradition alive!

The big 25% off sale is still going on at Naughty Secretary Club, but tomorrow is the last day to get the discount. One of the best fashion blogs around Fashion Tribes blogged about the sale as did the SFist with an article called Craft Work that also mentions a cool new site called Craftacular. Whoo-hoo! Thanks to everyone who is helping me spread the word.

Hope you are having a lovely weekend. I spent the day yesterday working and watching movies. We sat through The Departed which was slow to start, but awesome by the time it was said and done and Hostel which was like American Pie with blood and guts. I spent 3 hours this morning at a Stitch meeting sorting out details and planning. 2007 is our 5 year anniversary so expect a craft bazaar and fashion show that will blow your mind. Applications should be going up soon we promise. More work is scheduled for the rest of the day. As the interview at Snippets reveals, I don’t exactly relax well. Sitting still has never been one of my better qualities.

I Heart Crafty Chicks

Today is my dad’s birthday so I thought it was fitting that I post a picture of him. I love this photo because we took it at the Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn last year and I find it very amusing that the shirt my dad is holding up says “I Heart Crafty Chicks”. Between my mom, Hope and I he kind of has to.

No big plans for today think Chris and I might bust out the Ben and Jerry’s cook book and make some ice cream. We stayed on Hope and Karly’s patio (they share a duplex) until the wee hours of the night last night chatting. Mostly I wanted some snuggle time with Hope and Kurts new 8 week old Chihuahua Dude. He is about the size of a diet coke can with legs, resembles a fawn (Hope wants to call him Bambi) and speaking of Disney has ears like Dumbo. Super cute! He got surrendered at Erin’s vet clinic because he had parvo and now he is all better and loving his new home. Hope sewed a pocket to the front of a T-shirt and that is where he spends most of his days, she paints and he sleeps.

P.S. This might be old news to everyone but Chris and I just watched the Will Ferrell video The Landlord and it made me giggle.

Crafty Curios West Coast Crafty Style!

I heart Susan Beal for many a reason. First of all she was a guest on Craft Lab season 2 and a crafter on a couple of other episodes (I’m telling you season 2 rocks if they will ever get around to airing it). Two she is an amazing writer and every time you pick up a crafty magazine you have probably read something by her, take for example the article about organizing your sewing room she interviewed me for in Cutting Edge Magazine. Speaking of her being an amazing writer she writes one of my favorite crafty blogs: West Coast Crafty. I recently sent Susan a couple bags of my new Crafty Curios to see what she could whip up and she just blogged about it this week. She got a pink and white batch of goodies and made a fun sparkly hair clip, bracelet, earrings and ring. See I told you the possibilities of the Crafty Curios are endless!

I was already super excited about Susan blogging what she had made with her Crafty Curios, but then I realized that Natalie Zee who wrote about Naughty Secretary Club on her blog Coquette also wrote about the Crafty Curios on the Craft Magazine blog. Whoo-hoo! Remember the Crafty Curios are 25% off until Monday too. Oh and while were at it the blog with the best tag line on the internet was sweet enough to write about our sale. Check out Sharp Lilly, where they may be scrimpin' but they're still pimpin'.

Today I am nursing a sprained ankle and furiously making jewelry for orders. Last night was our monthly Babes in Business Bonanza meeting which is always tons of fun. Susanne, Tina and I went to dinner beforehand – which was a big mistake. Kara of Kailo Chic hosted our meeting this month and she made more food than I have seen at some weddings. Yummy! After the meeting Erin and I went downtown to Side Bar and Beauty Bar. On our way to the car my favorite pair of orange platforms failed me. They went to the side and so did my ankle so today I am skipping the gym and resting my tootsie.

Dinosaur Dip

Since I blogged about dinosaur earrings the other day today I thought I would blog about dinosaur dip. Well actually this is a blog about what is on Craft Lab this week. Today at 11 learn how to have some fun with acetate. I just noticed I am wearing one of my favorite necklaces in this episode that was also in an issue of Elle Girl once. Tomorrow learn how to make a cobblestone floor out of paper mache. Friday is the day to learn how to make dinosaur dip, monster head mashed potatoes and geletain aquariums. Clare Crespo is the guest and if you don’t have adorable Hey There Cupcake Book, you should.

We are adding new revamped vintage and nouveau rings to Naughty Secretary Club today because today is actually Administrative Assistants Day. Hooray! The sale was mentioned in the Fab Sugar blog yesterday, thanks everyone for helping spread the word.

Dumpster Diving

This weekend when I was visiting my parents my mom made a sudden detour behind some stores. “What are you doing” I asked and her reply was “I wanna go over here and a do a little dumpster diving before the trucks come”. My mom apparently finds fun broken stuff for her mosaics in the dumpster behind Big Lots and Tuesday Morning. I love a good thrift store as much as the next guy, but even I have never been dumpster diving. That is until my mom took me this weekend. I come by my bargain hunting instincts naturally.

The big Naughty Secretary Club sale is going along swimmingly. Today one of my favorite fashion blogs Coquette wrote about us and then an awesome zine across the pond in England called Indie Quarter was also sweet enough to blog about the sale. Word is spreading fast and since most of the goodies are one of a kind, things are flying off the shelf. I am adding new goodies all week long, just check out the new nouveau bracelets I added this morning!

Everybody Walk the Dinosaur

One of my favorite new additions to Naughty Secretary Club are the hand painted earrings by my sister Hope Perkins of Hot Pink Pistol. You are used to seeing her paint purses, but little did you know she paints large shell earrings too. I knew because I have a pair and I get accosted every time I wear them. This being the case I insisted she paint some for the website. Pretty mod girl faces, chicks with beehives and Miss Malaprop’s Favorite Dinosaurs! These too are 25% off this week!

I’m still in McKinney/Dallas, I fly back to Austin tonight. I am spending the day bead and jewelry shopping looking for new treasures for the website. I was super excited yesterday to go to two new antique malls (new to me) Dolly Python and Curiosities. Both were super awesome and had tons of stuff. I got some vintage wooden children’s puzzles to make into jewelry!

Our 5th Annual Administrative Professionals Week Sale!

Next week is Administrative Professionals Week and Wednesday is actually Administrative Assistants Day! For the last 5 years I have been having a 25% off sale to celebrate. Remember the name Naughty Secretary Club didn’t just come from nowhere, I too was an administrative assistant for almost 4 years. I figured a 25% off sale was better than flowers or an awkward lunch with your boss.

On top of the sale I have been sneaking around and making a ton of new jewelry not mention we have added new purses. If you look around Naughty Secretary Club there are over 100 new goodies. Most are one of a kind so you better shake a tail feather and get to shopping. Oh ya and everything in the ETSY store has been marked down too!

Be sure to enter the code 310004017 in the voucher field when you check out and hit refresh. I can't go back in and add the discount later if you hit forget.

The Oldest Shopping Center in the Country.

I have not written because I am in McKinney visiting my parents for the weekend. I had meetings here in the Dallas area Friday. I hung out with my old boss Sarah today and her twin boys Will and Matt. Remember when I was the administrative assistant to business and government relations? Well she was who I was an assistant to! Tonight I had dinner with my parents and an aunt and uncle from Tyler at a place called Cafe Pacific. The interesting thing about the restaurant is that it is a shopping center called Highland Park Village which apparently is the oldest shopping center in the country.

I leave you with Yogi. Did you know that Chris and I have been looking for an English Mastiff to rescue. Well we just found 2 at Austin's Blue Dog Rescue.

*Addendum* I should have phrased this a little differently. Yogi and Boo Boo were dogs we were LOOKING at adopting and still are. We have not gotten them yet and honestly doubt we will. Unfortunately I head back from the rescue group and you have to adopt both dogs which we can just not do. Also one of them is not good with cats and well we have to think of Georgie. We will just have to keep looking.

Crafting a Revolution: A Report From Stitch Austin

So this blog is like one giant scan from CNA Magazine, but I wanted you to see the article called Crafting a Revolution: A Report from Stitch Austin writen by Alyson Udell of Duncan Paints (who is also a Craft Lab guest!). We are already in the planning stages for Stitch 2007 Nov 10th at the Austin Music Hall. The article talks about the show, Hope and I's segment, Duncan's Make and Take Booth PLUS I lists some other awesome craft shows around the country like Art Vs. Craft, Felt Club, Handmade Arcade, I.C.E., and The Renegade Craft Fair!
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Casa Perkins and Benji

I was so excited to see that Benji was coming on TV last night. Not because I think it is a great movie, but because a lot of it was filmed in my home town of McKinney, TX and my parents house was in the movie. As in the house I grew up in (Benji was filmed before we lived there) and the house I got married in (wedding guests you walked where Benji walked!). They actually piece together a lot of different houses in McKinney to make it look like the children’s home and use the town of Denton for the downtown scenes. However, all the time the kids and the house keeper spend on the back porch with Benji and his girlfriend is at Casa Perkins. The house is white in the movie and actually pink now.

Light at the end of the Fabric Tunnel.

Just when all seemed to be going to hell in a sewing basket for Austin seamsters there is a bright light at the end of our fabric tunnel. With rumors of Wal Mart closing their fabric departments nationwide and Hancocks filing for Chapter 11, things were looking bleak. Even though Austin has a huge crafting community, there are not that many stores with fabric to support it. Sure there is Fanny’s with their amazing trim, and Joann has a few things, plus I hear the infamous Best fabrics from Dallas is moving to Round Rock, but overall cute fabric is far and few between here. A lot of people also love places like Repro Depot but it is hard to match the colors in fabric on the internet. That is why when I heard about Craft-o-Rama opening up on S. Congress I was thrilled. From what I can tell it is molded something like the Stitch Lounge in San Francisco. There is a selection of fabric you can buy, sewing machines you can use and even a gift shop of sorts selling goodies by my fellow Austin Craft Mafia ladies Jenny Hart and Vickie Howell. Anywhoodle, the more the merrier when it comes to crafty goodness in Austin! Especially in a town who apparently from what I hear needing some new and exciting fabric store options.

Also speaking of Ms. Vickie Howell she and I were standing on a balcony overlooking Austin this weekend and chatting when she mentioned all the emails she gets about the jewelry she wears on Knitty Gritty. Apparently you get really up close and personal with her selection of rings on the Knitty Cam. Well you can almost bet that 9 times out of 10 the jewelry Vickie is wearing is Naughty Secretary Club. Vickie is always sweet to remember to where my jewelry whenever she can to help me spread the word. Like the time she was on the Today Show, when she posed with Isaac Mizrahhi for Knit 1 and even in the current issue of Child Magazine she has on one of my Black Heart Rings. That Vickie, she is my biggest spokesperson. Her kiddos Tanner and Tristan look so cute in the picture too!

Talking about Knitty Gritty reminds me, don’t forget to tune in all week long to DIY Network at 11am Central to watch Craft Lab. This week we are making everything from polymer clay masks to eco-friendly kudzu baskets. See Vickie and I both plus the rest of the Austin Craft Mafia gang on Stylelicious Tuesdays and Thursdays on DIY Network at 2pm central. On Thursday you can catch me showing you how to make your own Cha Cha Bracelet!

Ask A Soccer Mom: Polishing Brass

Dear Soccer Mom,

As you know last week at the uber flea market I scored myself oodles of brass stampings and charms. I have used these goodies in my jewelry for years, but this last batch looks a bit tarnished. There are dark spots and even a few with some patina. What is the best way for me to make brass new and shiny looking again?

Love,
Your Favorite eldest daughter Jennifer Danielle

Dearest Jennifer,

All uncoated brass will oxidize over time and need to be polished. Sometimes all you need is decent polish designed for brass if it has just gotten dull. Brasso and Twinkle are both good products for light tarnish. However, if there are dark spots on it, you may have to be more aggressive. You could start by washing the brass with a combination of ammonia and water. Then get yourself a couple of grades of steel wool like fine and very fine. The packages may be graded 0 for fine and 0000 for very fine. I use steel wool to clean a lot of things and it's cheap so keep some around the house. Starting with the courser of the two steel wools began polishing your brass. You are just working on a small object but if it were something like a large pot with a plain surface then you would polish in one direction not in circles and just use the very fine steel wool to avoid scratch marks. Once you have removed the spots on your little pieces, switch to the very fine for a last polish. I suggest you use gloves for this whole process or you will end up dark fingers and nails. Some people suggest putting a lacquer coating on cleaned brass to keep it looking shiny longer. Another alternative is to put a very light coating of olive oil on the brass once its clean to retard future tarnish. Your Mom

How to Make a Terrarium

Seems like marriage is in the air for the Austin Craft Mafia. In the last couple of months Vickie and Susann have gotten married and Karly has gotten engaged. Hope got engaged last fall. Jen A and I are already married and Jenny and Jesse have serious dudes so it is just a matter of time for them. Susann ran off and got married in Indiana and reenacted the wedding scene from that movie Breaking Away and then went skiing. Well tomorrow is her reception at the Elks Lodge and speaking of the Austin Craft Mafia as our gift to her each of us is making her a centerpiece for the tables. I decided to make a wedding terrarium. It was easier than I thought and now I kind of have terrarium fever and want to make one for me. Here are some simple steps in case you are in a pinch for a centerpiece or gift. Cost me less than $25 bucks!

HOW TO MAKE A WEDDING TERRARIUM

1) Find yourself a nice clear jar. I actually ended up buying 2 jars and a vintage clear plastic hat box before deciding on which one I was going to use. No she is not pregnant. I just so happen to have had my shot gun shells in one of the containers. No I don't own a shot gun they are used and for crafting. ANYWAY when I showed Karly this picture she said "Oh that is so funny, like a shot gun wedding".

2) Decide if you are going to have a lid on your terrarium. This will determine what plants you put inside. If you are using cactus you don’t want a lid because the moisture will be too much if you are using tropicals or fleshy succulents you can use a lid. If your terrarium starts to fog up, just take the lid off for a few days. I opted for a lid and succulents.

3) You plants are going to need soil to survive, but in a terrarium you don’t just dump in dirt and go. First you should add a base layer of sphagnum moss. I actually did not do this step. On top of that layer you should add a couple inches of potting soil. I hoped for the best and used dirt from my yard. Last you can use a layer of rocks or festive gravel. I hit the fish department at Wal Mart for my blue aquarium gravel. I really wanted to use hot pink, but Susann had requested jewel tones.

4) Next time to plant your plants. I used cuttings from my own garden to make the terrarium more special since some of my plants started as cuttings from other friends. I love passing plants around. I chose a small selection of succulents and decided where in the terrarium I was going to place them making sure to leave room in the middle for my wedding themed centerpiece. With each little cutting I just stuck my finger through the gravel and cleared a little space to stick the cutting in.

5) I had to make the whole thing have a wedding theme. At the flea market last week I had scored a pair of vintage bride and groom cake toppers with my plan in mind and stuck them right in the center of everything. I buried their bases under a lot of gravel to make sure they stayed put and presto the whole terrarium had a wedding theme.


On a side note I really wanted to add a hermit crab to the whole thing and make him a little ravine to splash around in. However, my assistant lectured me on animal cruelty and talked me out of it. It's not like I would have kept the lid on. Then Hope reminded me I could have painted congrats Susann and John on his little shell without harming him and I was full of regret. However Travis is a Vegan and Hope collects taxidermy so maybe it is best I listened to him.

Austin Craft Mafia and Stitch Meetings

My silly internet was down yesterday so I didn’t blog. Not that I had anything riveting to say, but I was going to talk about our Austin Craft Mafia meeting. Tina, Jesse, Karly and I had a Stitch meeting beforehand so the whole night was meeting packed. Jenny talked about the Craft Congress which sounded interesting. We talked about making the Stitch and Craft Mafia web pages bigger and better with blogs, vendor spotlights and more. We decided to start an Austin Babes in Business website and perhaps blog. Jenny and I are going to start rotating putting craftmafia.com and austincraftmafia.com on our larger ads in magazines like Ready Made and Bust to help spread the word. Stitch decided on all it's 2007 sponsorship rates. All kinds of exciting stuff was afoot!

Since the internet was down on my lap top yesterday and my “big” computer is in the shop in a weird way it was a good thing because it forced me to sit and make new jewelry all afternoon. I made new necklaces and earrings. I am experimenting with a new rainbow look. I know you are thinking that my jewelry is already pretty rainbow-riffic, well this new stuff is even more so.

Oh you knew Matt was going to win Top Design. I am not a huge fan of his work it is too plain and boring for me, though I can appreciate the classic style. I was not in love with Carissa’s room either, though I like her pop style better. My heart was with Goil who I thought was the only one who consistently did really interesting things. I refuse to start watching Shear Genius. Thank God new Big Love starts this month.

Making Designer Mixed-Media and Memory Jewelry: Fun and Experimental Techniques and Materials for the Home Studio

Yesterday felt so good I didn’t talk to a soul hardly all day. Besides taking the phone call from Travis in the morning saying he was not coming in to work and saying good night to Chris when he got home from band practice after midnight I was all alone all day. I love days like that I feel like I get so much done. I watched Marie Antoinette, made a ton of jewelry and finished putting away all my treasures from the flea market. Another chore I did is to organize my book shelves. I know that sounds random, but it is something I have been meaning to do for a long time.

You might be asking yourself why. Well I have book shelves in 4 different rooms in my house so all my books are everywhere and I have a hard time finding what I am looking for. In my bedroom I put all my business and gardening books. Plus photo albums, old journals and random fiction. In the spare bedroom are all my old books on feminism, philosophy books and other random left overs from college. In the living room I put together all my books on music, art, collecting, home decorating, crafting, fashion and jewelry making. See this arrangement makes perfect sense to me.



When I was putting together the jewelry section I realized I have never really blogged about the new book I am called Making Designer Mixed-Media and Memory Jewelry: Fun and Experimental Techniques and Materials for the Home Studio. It is the first book pictured in the above little menagerie of books I have been in. The book is written by Tammy Powley and has some great pieces. I have 3 pieces featured in the gallery in the back of the book. Besides myself you can also see two Craft Lab guests with projects in the book Maya Brenner and Julia Andrus.



Unlike yesterday I will be talking to a lot of people today. Travis will be here in an hour. I have a Stitch meeting at 5 and then an Austin Craft Mafia meeting at 7. Oh well it was good to be a recluse for one day.

Crafty Collage Curios

Since I love playing with vintage paper and have so much of it myself, I thought I would spread the wealth a bit. I have a new edition to my Crafty Curios line on ETSY, Crafty Collage Curios.


Each pile of over 50 pieces of paper has a theme (the one pictured is dogs) and I have hand selected pictures from old books, vintage cards, wrapping paper and more to make an awesome selection of collageable goodies.

As I was putting the stacks of paper together this weekend I was thinking “ya know if these don’t sell I won’t be sad because I can use them for myself”. I do make the occasional card with paper, but what I really use them for is jewelry. Here are pair of earrings I made with paper. I have a few pieces of collage jewelry for sale at Naughty Secretary Club, some earrings and necklaces. You can look at a selection on Flickr too. Oh and it is a ways off but when this years Christmas special airs on DIY Network I show you how to make collage jewelry with paper and wood!

Handmade Nation Film Clip

It seems like as of late I have blogged several snippets to watch on You Tube, but this one is so important and awesome. It is Handmade Nation: The Rise and Fall of DIY Art Craft and Design. Watch this 8 minute preview for the film (set to be released Spring 08) that has interviews with myself at last years Renegade Craft Fair Brooklyn, but also several other Austin Craft Mafia members. But wait there is more! Look for Jill Blis, Whitney Lee, Heidi Kenny, Susan Beal, The ladies of Knitta Please and more. Lot's more.

Happy Crafty Easter

This is actually a picture of a floral bunny I make on Season 2 of Craft Lab, but the picture was so cute and easter-rific I wanted to show it to you anyway. You won't see it this week on DIY Network, but what you will see are fun crafts like Crayon Batik and Painting on glass. You will get to meet guests like my good friend Kathy Cano Murillo of Crafty Chica, Kelly Ferrel of the Richmond Craft Mafia and famed cake NYC cake decorator Elissa Strauss. Tune in at 11 am Central to see all this and more.

I hope you have a wondermous Easter. It is super cold here, had to take all my plants in last night and cover everything in the garden. Heading over to Vickie's later for the annual Easterpalooza and then home to keep putting away all my flea market goodies.

Let me leave you with another Easter themed Craft Lab picture from season 2 with Bethany Mann. We made Funky Egg Art that was super awesome!

Leaf Girl and Tina

At first glance you might look and think that this is the same picture I got at the flea market yesterday, but actually it isn’t. I found her twin today in a dusty cow pasture! Now I have a pair of the prints in tacky 70’s gold frames (Ginger just brace yourself maybe there will be more next year when you come). I am so super stoked on these prints because they are both in a book I have called Just Above the Mantelpiece: Mass-Market Masterpieces by Wayne Hemingway. The cover art besides being flocked has a painting by the same artist, J.H. Lynch. Apparently the name of yesterday’s painting is “Leaf Girl” and the one I scored today is called “Tina”. Last year at the flea market I saw “Nymph” and it was already sold and I wanted to steal it I was so jealous.

Day 1 of the Flea Market

Remember when I told you that I planned my wedding around a flea market? It is the second largest flea market in the country and just so happens to be right up the road from Austin, not quite to Houston. Well my friends it is this week and today Karly, Hope, My mom and I all made it out for day 1. We will go 3 days and still not nearly see it all. Wish me luck. Today I brought home a car load of stuff like this new painting for my bathroom, rattan side tables, crafty curios goodies, vintage wrapping paper, Kraft foods posters, cuckoo clock pendants, E.T. earrings and bracelets for my new line of “make your own charm bracelet kits”.

Venus is an awesome zine.

I feel a special bond with Venus Zine for a lot of reasons. Back when Jenny, Tina and I could only afford an ad that was split three ways a black and white one in Venus before it was a color magazine was our first endeavor. I used to write for them quite a bit with music reviews and even an article on dating a musician. Their readers are nice enough to vote for me in the Hott List. I need to start advertising in there again because Venus is an awesome magazine. I just got the spring 2007 issue this weekend with Feist on the cover and flipped through it in bed last night. Here are 4 things that made me happy about the latest issue....

1) On pg. 17 is a full page story on the Vivienne Westwood exhibit at the de Young Museum in San Francisco. One of the highlights of my trip out there last month was this exhibit. Did I mention the two books I scored? Vivienne Westwood and Vivienne Westwood Shoes.

2) On page 18 I was glad to get full page approval for my new overalls I have been sporting. I wasn't sure if I looked like a total idiot, but according the Venus I'm safe. Here I am in front of my dream car at SXSW.

3) The article on Crafty blogs warmed my heart. They mentioned oodles that I already have linked here, but a few others that are not like: One Hour Craft, A Bird in the Hand (Love Lisa's art), All Buttoned Up, Angry Chicken, Cathy of California, Love Forever, Posie Gets Cozy, Print + Pattern, Scrumdillydilly, Sew Darn Cute (Jenny is the adorable lady behind Felt Club in LA), Shim and Sons, Super Eggplant and Wee Wonderfuls.

4) Are Crafters the new Pin-Ups on page 74 caught my eye. The article is about the Starlets of Craft Calendar which I blogged about a while back and features the Austin Craft Mafia as January. Other friends like Kathy Cano Murillo of Crafty Chica and my current Etsy obsession Made With Love By Hannah. The lovely ladies of I.C.E. (Indie Craft Experience) put it out.

So if you haven't already run right out and pick yourself up a copy of Venus. It makes for a good read.

Burlington Craft Mafia

While reading the Etsy blog I saw this adorable video about the Burlington Craft Mafia. I already posted about it on the Austin Craft Mafia blog, but I wanted to share it here too!

Holy Macramé my mom is on TV this week!

This is going to be a fun week on Craft Lab and not just because my mom the most awesomest mom of all time is going to be on tomorrow’s episode. Although that does help. Let me give you a run down of this week’s episodes.

MONDAY: As mentioned Fredda Perkins is our guest in the lab. She and I make a tissue box out of a cigar box and then a memory table. I can’t wait for them to start showing the season 2 episodes and you can see the art deco inspired glass frames she and I make. They are awesome.

Here are 5 interesting facts about the episode Crafting with Mom...

1) My mom made the Barkcloth jacket she is wearing in this episode because she is crafty like that.

2) If you look closely on the new set of the season 2 episodes of Craft Lab you can see that our set God Dave snuck the tissue box in.

3) My mom makes and sells those tissue boxes at Naughty Secretary Club. No you don't have to get my face on yours.

4) One of the things my mom and I talk about when making the memory table is the fact that we are putting in a key to my first car. What we could not say (because it is a brand) is that my first call was a 1984 Chevy Suburban named Shamu. Click here to watch the video my husband made for his old band We Talked About Murder where you can see the car after my parents gave it to him for his band to tour in and they renamed it "The Coffin".

5) One of the pictures of me we put in the table top is an oldie when I was living in England with crayola red hair and a leopard skin jacket. I did not make it to class a lot that semester.

TUESDAY: Susanna Conaway and I make a stained glass panel. This might have been my first time to really solder when we filmed this episode, now I love it!

WEDNESDAY: Twice in one week are we playing with cigar boxes in the craft lab this time it is to make a 3-D collage box with one of my favortist Craft Lab guests Claudine Hellmuth! Just yesterday I was standing in my kitchen thinking about Claudine as I looked at the little version of my family she made me for an episode we shot for season 2 that you have yet to see!

THURSDAY: The ever fun and vivacious Marty Stevens-Heebner stops by to make a Wire and Bead Creation with me. I was so happy to see Marty at this year’s CHA she was in the Stampinton booth because she made tsome jewelry for Belle Amore Jewelry. Speaking of I just sent them some jewelry for the next issue of Altered Couture, keep your fingers crossed something makes it in.

FRIDAY: Syuzi Pakhchyan and I do some Hi Tech Crafts in the lab. We make speakers for your IPOD and placemats that light up. Syuzi also came by and shot an episode for Craft Lab season 2 with us. More LED light action. Chris and I just bought new speakers yesterday, I should have watched this episode instead and just made a new pair.

Let us not forget Stylelicious where I get to hang out with the Austin Craft Mafia ladies and craft some wearables.

TUESDAY: Karly, Jesse and Vickie have a Vintage Revamp. The girls make fun stuff like a Mod skirt and an off the shoulder jacket. One of the best things about this episode is actually the field piece about vintage clothes shopping. If you live in Austin you know Blue Velvet on the drag is probably the best vintage store in town. Well our friend the owner Jennifer Barker-Benfield was nice enough to give a little tutorial on vintage clothes shopping in this episode. Telling you what to look for and such and you get to see inside her store!

THURSDAY: Hope, Susann and Tina get crazy with skirts! Is it a coincidence that I just added new purses hand painted by Hope to Naughty Secretary Club and one has a green alligator and on this episode Hope shows you how to make a no sew felt alligator skirt? Or did Hope plan it that way? Also learn how to clone a skirt and make a reversible skirt!

Remember if you love the shows so much it hurts be sure and write and tell DIY, they listen to you more than they do me. If you miss the new episodes of Crafty Lab they were showing on HGTV you can let them know here.

Also since I am talking about crafty TV I wanna give a big super HOLY MOLY THAT IS SO AWESOME I COULD JUST SPIT shout out to Cathie and Steve from Creative Juice. They have been nominated for a day time Emmy as Outstanding Lifestyle Hosts. Whoo-hoo!