GIVEAWAY - Wallpockets by Ampersand - CLOSED

Ampersand is the Ohio studio of Tim Karoleff -

an industrial design student who was inspired by clusters of barnacles and simple geometric shapes.

Tim's die-cut cardboard wallpockets are part wall art, part ingenious storage solution!

Recycled cardboard cleverness - what's not to love here?


We are so lucky to have a set of their Ampersand's amazing wall pockets for this week's giveaway!


WHAT YOU GET: One lucky winner will receive a set of Wallpockets!


HOW TO WIN: It's easy, peasy - leave your contact info in the comments section below!

For additional entries:
(5) Twitter this post
(5) Blog about this contest; linking to this post
(5) Follow my blog
(5) Facebook this post

Let me know if you have done these things so I can give you additional entries. This contest is open to everyone!

DRAWING: Enter by midnight on May 13th! Good luck everyone!! Winner will be announced on FRIDAY!

Recycled Key and Keyhole Jewelry Tutorial


Now this is an easy-peasy

(just the way I like 'em)

way to repurpose old keyholes into jewelry. 

Sometimes you have to add some paint

(if you do use a light sealer - varnish or wax)

and sandpaper to give your keyhole the kind of character that starts screaming at you

"do something with me!"


You will need : old keyholes from cabinets, cases, etc, old key, chain, doodads

I don't think we need a step by step for this one.

Once you get the keyholes the way you would like them just add some large jumprings to the screw holes and head into your stash of doodads, beads and junk and have some fun with them.

Don't be afraid to mix your cool and warm hardware here - upcycling works best when it's eclectic and messy (in a good way) and all about us!

Happy Earth Day 2012!


Every year on Earth Day my family starts 5 new things to help save the planet.

Since we are already doing all the big things

(most of the time - we aren't perfect)

this year we have to get more creative:

1. SKIP THE COFFEE STIRRERS AND STRAWS

Americans alone toss 138 billion straws and stirrers annually. Simply putting our sugar and cream in first and then pouring in the coffee will make it well-mixed (this is actually one for hubs who buys coffee every day at a local place near his shop) and we definitely don't need to be drinking from straws in restaurants.

2. PRINT ON BOTH SIDES OF COMPUTER PAPER

I always print out my online orders and then after shipping, since the orders are recorded online, I shred the paper. What a waste! I am now putting my used paper in the rear feed tray (to print things like customer online orders) and my new paper in the bottom tray (for things like shipping labels).

3. ICE CREAM IN CONES AND NOT CUPS THIS SUMMER

Eat the packaging to save the planet - we gotta do what we gotta do folks


4. GET RID OF OUR LANDLINE AND ANSWERING MACHINE

We have kept it for 3 reasons - 1. We have a really cool, easy to remember number

(I guess we can live without this - no one memorizes phone numbers anymore anyway)

2. We need a fax - people tell me you can fax online now - I have to figure that out

3. I like to see if I have phone message by checking for that blinking red light - I will miss that red light.

But answering machines use energy 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And when they break, they're just one more thing that goes into the landfill. If all answering machines in American homes were replaced by voice mail services, the annual energy savings would total nearly two billion kilowatt-hours - so when it breaks I'm switching to voicemail (another plus is no lost messages in a power outage).

5. AND MOST IMPORTANTLY REPLACE METAL DOORKNOBS

So we don't get those little shocks of static electricity - what a waste .... (and carpets and clothes from the dryer and balloons actually now that I think about it) :D

Don't miss the final hours of the EcoEtsy team's Earth Day Auctions - you can pick up my save the bees recycled wine corkboard and lots of other goodies HERE:



Also save 10% in BOTH my shops this week for Earth Day - Uncorked and Polarity with the Coupon Code DOORKNOB

Navigating Change for Makers Part IV - it's not a time to go historic, it's a time to have faith in ourselves

As a maker with a maker business

(or a wannabe maker business - which is an exciting, and yes, sometimes scary, place to be, too)

at a time of immense change when we do not know what to do next - when life is cracking us wide open and up is down and down is up -

it is often the time to be still and listen (ie hear and pay attention).

We hope the answers will come to us quickly - and sometimes they do - but often life wants us to have this empty space.
It's not a time to panic -
it's a time to stop.

(and sometimes the problem isn't that we don't know when to stop, but that we don't know how to get unstopped - and sometimes when we just can't get clear on where we are going it is because we are already exactly where we are supposed to be and we just haven't made full use of it yet)

Prayer and affirmations are a great way to ask for what we need, but meditation is really the best way to listen.

This listening part can take awhile.

Sometimes we have to let pieces of our life (and other people's lives - we are all connected after all) shift to allow what needs to happen to happen. We have to trust that there are lots of things going on behind the scenes - we have to have faith.

This can be the hardest part for people who like to take action. But our fallow times are there for a reason - the universe can't send us stuff - ideas, people, connections, etc - if we haven't made room in our life for it.

Fallow times can bring up alot of fear.

(Asking ourselves - is there any excitement in this fear? because there almost always is - is a good idea. We are designed to move through fear - we were not designed to play it safe)

Fear is faced with courage which means speaking one's mind by speaking one's heart. We always have to do what works for us.

(and sometimes we find out what works for us by finding out what doesn't work)

A few years ago

(after 9/11 but before the Iraq War)

I trademarked the words Homeland Security Blanket - I made a few sample blankets with the tagline "don't forget to tuck and cover".

Then the Iraq War started and almost over night this entire concept that I had put so much time and energy into just didn't work for me anymore. There were still plenty of people who would have bought my blankets, but it just wasn't in my heart to make money with them.

If I had stayed with this - I'm sure I would have made money, maybe as much money as I have made with Olive Bites, maybe more,

but I would not have made the life I have now. I let it go trusting that something better and more authentically me was waiting.

When I first started my new lines I had absolutely no idea I would be making a living with cork and car parts. I had decided to go back to school and was looking to make enough money to pay for that. I had no idea where following my heart would lead (and of course I still don't).

"This doesn't work for me" is a higher reason to not do something than "this isn't going to pay my bills".

I would not have thought I could pay my bills with my jewelry and believe me I did enough craft shows pre-Etsy with poor sales that it was only the knowledge that I knew I was speaking my heart and would find my place that kept me moving forward.

Sometimes people give up too soon and decide - "this isn't going to pay my bills" - and maybe it won't, because many things don't - but it could evolve into something or lead us to something or take us somewhere that will.

This is a time in our planet's history when we are being asked to give things up (or life is prying those things from our fingers - which is why I do not worry about broken nails anymore) - it is time to let go of what isn't working because we are meant to have so much more.

And this "more" isn't always something external because life is big and messy and complicated (and small and neat and simple - isn't that amazing!).

Sometimes the desire to create a business is more about what that "desire" does for us inside than about the thing we are trying to produce which may or may not make us money now. Maybe the desire is preparing us for something else later.

1. Give Something(s) Away (Part II)
2. Make Something (Part III)
3. Listen
4. Then Choose Wholeheartedly

As always I will wrap up this series with the disclaimer that following any advice on my blog could result in you ending up living in your parents' basement and addicted to Angry Birds, so proceed at your own risk

(unless of course this would be an improvement over your current living situation in which case I will take full credit for your success).

* released print by oreilly ink