random nicole's random life

my first giveway and my blog's new home!!!

HELLO!

my blog has a new look and a new home... http://randomnicole.com/blog/ so please bookmark it, update your news feed etc.. :)

also below is my first entry on the new blog which features my first ever giveaway!!! all the details on how to win a random nicole tea towel are below...

-nicole

when i took a year off from random nicole to finally finish graduate school, i had no idea how behind i could get in the 'business side of crafting in only 12 months'. with my new shiny diploma in tow i returned to random nicole ready to jump back in where i left off. within weeks, i realized i was super out of touch and my web presence was seriously outdated. so i made a few moves to not get left behind...

1. resigned my website: this i did on my own which naturally took a while since there were several things about the back end that were new to me and i had to teach myself via trial & error, googling troubleshooting articles and emailing my web guy for advice. i hadn't redesigned my website in YEARS, like maybe even 6! there were tons of things on it i didn't even make anymore. with the new site i opted for just linking my etsy storefront instead of building my own. (more about how i feel about etsy vs. my own storefront coming soon)

2. i made random nicole a business facebook page, i joined pinterest and started pinning things (thanks jackie!), i got an iphone, i added pulse a blog feed app to my i phone and began to follow blogs that made me happy & inspired, i began blogging again and i tried overall to be more active in the crafty handmade world online. i know these things take time but i think about all the hours i spent drooling over the pages of the now defunct readymade & domino magazines and i figure that's the time i use now to peruse pinterest. i'm also only doing the things i enjoy--despite many people's encouragement-i don't tweet! i tried and i didn't like it-so i'm not going to force myself. i think it's better to find that social media tools that fit with you than try to fit yourself to them.

3. finally...i redesigned my blog! and thanks to steph from hearts & laserbeams who built it for me and made my ideas and comps a reality. so to celebrate my new blogs' coming out party... i'm introducing my very first giveaway!

how to enter:

1. please meander through my posts on my new blog

2. leave a meaningful comment or comments on posts that inspire you or make you happy. make sure to leave your email so we can let you know if you won!

3. one lucky comment leaver will win and will be announced on halloween! so be sure to get your comment up by midnight on the october 30th. that's 6 days...

4. anyone can enter! p.s.-claudia this means you too!

what you win:

*one of my brand new hand printed tea towels to spruce up their lackluster kitchen or bathroom! the winner can pick the towel of their choice! all the new designs are now ready to be viewed in the tea towels section of my etsy shop.

here are a few of the towels to inspire you to take a little trip though my blog...

happy sunday!

blog posts have been sparse the past few days because...i have a brand new blog design on the way! how exciting is that? i designed it and steph calvert of hearts and laserbeams is building it. steph is the best-fast, reliable, honest and so knowledgeable- in other words she rocks! so hold on i have tons of great posts on the way and i'll be introducing a new writer too!

sunday in the santa rosa suburbs...

DIY coffee filter floral lamp

i recently discovered aunt peaches blog and i'm sort of obsessed. the project that really got my goat is the floral pendant lamp created from coffee filters. it's so bright and gorgeous. i'm for sure adding it to my DIY projects list for after the holidays when work gets quieter.

image sweetly borrowed from aunt peaches :)

MAKE WEEKLY: lea redmond of leafcutter designs

1. please introduce yourself?

i consider myself a maker of things and experiences. and i have a big heart. i grew up on the southern california coast and spent a lot of time out on the ocean as a child. i like to think the vastness of the ocean was a big influence. now i live in oakland, california. my home is also my studio and i love bouncing back and forth between projects in the studio and my tea kettle in the kitchen.

2. what do you make or do?

i love to design and make objects that are more than just things. i try really hard to make things that are infused with poetic thoughtfulness and invite people to experience the world in new ways. i especially like making things that help us connect to each other in positive, playful ways. one good example of this is my world's smallest post service, which is a transcription service in which i turn your message into a custom teeny tiny letter (just one inch wide!) and send it to your recipient in the mail with a magnifying glass. it's a whimsical way to connect with each other. i also make other fun toys like theaters that pop out of matchboxes for spontaneous performances. and then there's the more "fine arty" sorts of projects that involve things like my clothes tag exchange and shirt made of woven maps.

3. where can we find your creations?

everything is for perusing, participating, and purchasing on my website: www.leafcutterdesigns.com

 

4. how long have you been creating and is it your full-time job?

it became my full-time job a couple of years ago, mostly due to all of the business i got for teeny tiny mail. and that came mostly from lots of lovely and generous press online and offline. i feel like i got lucky. i certainly didn't expect the idea to take off the way it did. it started as a goofy little performance art project. one thing that i think is interesting about this is that i wasn't trying to make a living with my art. it just sort of happened. i'd like to think that this is because i followed my heart and was simply doing something in the world because i was inspired to. then the world hollered "yes! do more of this!", so i did. now the tricky part is finding time for the other projects that are close to my heart that don't have the same mass-appeal and income opportunities as the tiny mail project.

 

5. is creativity a luxury or a necessity for you?

oh my goodness, absolutely a necessity! as i see it, i really have no choice but to make things. it's in my blood. a lot of people have this idea that art in general is a luxury. while, yes, perhaps food comes first, i have tons of faith in the role of the arts to help actually create the sort of world where people don't go hungry. art can raise consciousness and inspire action.

 

6. where do you find inspiration?

i'm most interested in the extraordinariness of the everyday, so i'm inspired by lots of simple things - tea bags, napkins, spices, antique toys. and then i like to put a creative twist on the forms in a way that calls attention to their ever present potential for marvelousness and meaningfulness. i love browsing ebay for curious old objects. books have also been a huge spark. in undergrad, i spent most of my time reading and writing about culture and i think this sort of work influenced my current work much more than any artist or maker of objects. i don't really keep up with the art world much. i wish my philosophy professor from undergrad lived around the corner so he could comment on what i'm making! oh and i think joseph cornell and i would have been fast friends.

 

7. what would be your perfect day off?

day off? boring.

 

8. what inspiring advice would you give to other creatives be they established or just starting out?

be careful that your creativity isn't dependent on institutional structures. find a way to make it happen in your life no matter what sort of support you may have or lack. you can do it!

 

thanks lea!

 

watch out lisa frank: wallpaper made from tiny stickers!!!

did you love lisa frank as much as i did? did you have a sticker book? did you collect and hoard them. deeply sniffing the ones that were scented and rubbing the ones that were felt? when i saw this dizzyingly cool wallpaper made from stickers on craftzine, my love for stickers rushed back and i kicked myself for ever letting my sticker books go.

check out the art installation "the salon at sundown" by brian kaspr and payton turner, so amazingly cool!

images sweetly borrowed from craftzine and thanks to laura cochrane for her post that alerted me to this!

wooden camera iphone case

while searching for the perfect birthday gift for my beau i discovered this super rad techie meets woodsie case for your iphone made by photo jojo. i thought it was a little too hipster for my levis and converse guy whose entire wardrobe is grey and blue due to the fact that he's colorblind. but i will be adding it to my own holiday wishlist!

image sweetly borrowed from photo jojo :)

the fine art of being a libra: balancing writing & making

for the first 23 years of my life i was not known as random nicole. i was a writer. my first journal entry "today i did see my friend" wasn't a classic but once i put pen to paper, i knew that words were my way to get it all out. i was also a furious devourer of books, with flashlights in the backseat of cars on road trips to mexico. i read things i shouldn't be reading when i was too young. henry miller, anais nin, jack kerouac. when i was a freshman in high school i forced my parents to take me to see the film naked lunch based on william burroughs book. drugs, cockroaches, russian roulette-i imagined them having a late night talk afterwards, asking each other "where does she find this stuff?". growing up in orange county i was hungry for anything that had an artistic pulse. i also painted, drew and made crafty stuff like a pencil holder from some random car parts i found on the side of the freeway when my mom's old toyota broke down once. now making has taken the front seat even though i just finished my master's in creative writing and am now working on mfa. i feel like the last few years have been about my struggle to find balance between art and writing. i've always felt like i had to choose just one. i was listening to a podcast on craftypod with sister diane a few days ago and she was interviewing kathy cano murillo (crafty chica) who just finished her second fiction book miss scarlet's school of paternless sewing and has found a way to intertwine her love for storytelling and her crafty life. inspiring! i actually was lucky enough to meet her at CHA in 2010...can't wait to read her new book, look forward for a review!

then i found these cool notecards by booknotes on etsy and fell in love! i so agree with what maria wrote on her etsy bio, "I read, write, draw, & paint books. Though both physical books & handwritten notes are on the decline, I believe that the preservation of both is important."

images sweetly borrowed from booknotes on etsy:)

 

MAKER WEEKLY: scrapbook and t-shirt artist amy tangerine

1. please introduce yourself…

hi, i am amy tan (not the author of the joy luck club). i grew up in the northern suburbs of chicago and moved to atlanta to start high school. i currently live in venice, ca.

and here’s a little background info:

born and raised in chicago, amy spent much of her childhood wallpapering her bedroom walls with the colorful and glamorous pages of fashion magazines. she learned how to sew her senior year of high school and what developed was her first passion: designing. within five years, she had become an award-winning designer and founder of the popular handcrafted t-shirt line amy tangerine. her collections were featured in hundreds of retail outlets, including bloomingdales, neiman marcus and barneys new york, and yielded impressive worldwide sales.

in 2007, her business expanded to include scrapbooking, with her fashion design work now being produced on a custom basis. her love for sharing her clothing and now also paper crafts has taken her all over the globe and given her the opportunity to teach creative classes from hawaii to tennessee.

she loves traveling, leisurely bike rides and relaxing in her little venice beach apartment, which she shares with her boyfriend, jc, and her two jack russell terriers, buster and bamboo. over the past two years, she's been working on perfecting what she likes to think of as the “art of truly living,” which includes enjoying the everyday; working smarter instead of harder; globetrotting; achieving balance in daily life; and collaborating with other creative people.

2. what do you make or do?

i make hand embroidered tee shirts and scrapbook pages. also i've created a line of scrapbooking supplies with american crafts.

3. where can we find your creations?

check my website for tee shirts, and go here for amy tangerine & american crafts scrapbooking goodies.

i also blog 

4. how long have you been creating and is it your full-time job?

i have been creating all my life and feel blessed to have had it as my full-time job for the past decade.

5. when you're not making things, what do you do?

one of my favorite things to do is travel. lately i have been watching a lot of tv and am hooked on breaking bad.

6. is creativity a luxury or a necessity for you?

it is both a luxury and a necessity. it is my therapy. having a creative outlet allows me to feel grounded. although i've turned 2 hobbies into businesses, i continue to try and expand my horizons by experimenting with different mediums.

7. where do you find inspiration?

i find inspiration in the world around me. i also love different books. my current obsession are little japanese books. super creative projects with wonderful photography, which means it's ok to not be able to read a word. looking at the beautiful photos is enough. now that the internet has played such a huge role in our daily lives, sites like pinterest make it super easy to keep track of inspiring pieces from all over. traveling and meeting people is also inspiring. i think i find it just about everywhere.

8. what’s on the horizon for you and what you do?

i have an online workshop at big picture classes which starts on sept 22. it's 4 weeks and is called the good life. here is more info 

9. if money wasn’t an issue how would your life change with regards to your art?

i'd probably just do what i am doing, but more of it. maybe open a local studio where people can come and try different techniques. creating is so therapeutic, it would be wonderful to start a non-profit where craft carts would be available to people in hospitals and nursing homes.

10. what inspiring advice would you give to other creatives be they established or just starting out?

do what you love, no matter what. share your art on a blog. you never know who will see it. and always be kind.

 

 

coolest tent ever that looks like auntie delilah's vw bus!

after hearing about how much i loved my first camping trip, my beau's dad (an avid outdoorsman) suggested this tent that looks like a vw bus from festival kidz to add to our camping supplies.

*photo sweetly borrowed from festival kidz

i'm pretty sure it's the cousin of auntie delilah's jam van. here's our family photo from last holiday's jam session at delilah's house (we included the van since it has become part of the clan).

 

jennifer collier's paper sewing machines & typewriters

remember my diy tutorial on how to pimp out your sewing machine? how i decoupaged it with pages from a book? well a week later, a friend forwarded me a link to jennifer collier's art pieces, which are common objects created from paper and i got so excited. i fell in love with the typewriter and of course...the sewing machine!

images sweetly borrowed from jennifer collier :)