I create little felt mice that come in a large variety of styles and characters, all with their own little personalities; each individually handcrafted mouse is inspired by everything from occupations and culture to movies and fantasy. Handmade mice, little mice with big hearts.
My mice are made with many different materials but I use more felt than anything else, I also use ribbon, beads and card. Some of my mice have accessories made from wire, polymer clay, wood, buttons and metal. I like being able to combine these materials in different ways to create new characters for my store.
Oh that’s a tricky question, that’s bit like asking someone which of their children is their favorite. I love them all! If I HAD to pick right now I would say it’s my Mother and Baby mice, mostly because that baby mouse is really pushing the limit of cuteness before it makes my head explode!
We all pull from different things to inspire our art. What 3 things inspire your creativity the most?
When I first started making them the inspiration came from my friends and family, as I was making each mouse as a Christmas present with a certain person in mind. After Christmas I was inundated with other suggestions from the people that received them!
I regularly think of other mice to make while doing my everyday things, I’ll be watching a movie and think “Oh, a Supermouse would be cool!” sometimes it is from finding an object and trying to see it from a mouse-size point of view. For example the Gladiator Mouse's shield is actually a particularly ugly earring I picked up at a car boot sale. Suffice it to say the ideas hit me all the time.
I also regularly get suggestions from people visiting my shop or MySpace page. And there is continued stream of suggestions from my friends. I have a little book I always carry with me to keep my ideas in.
To me, success is having spent the day doing something creative, whether that creative thing in it’s self was perfect or even satisfactory does not matter. If I have made a creative step that day then I have had a successful day. I know that your question is asking about success as a business or success as an artist, or perhaps success as a human being . . . over a much longer period of time.
However I do not like to look at the top of a mountain and see how much further I have to go, setting myself difficult goals often results in my being scared by them and then unwilling to start. Now, I take a small step every day in the form of making something, I let The Universe choose the direction I will go in.
It is a little embarrassing to say this but I have not found Etsy particularly challenging so far.
Having done my research before I opened my shop – reading all the storque articles I could find on setting up my shop, and making sure I understood Etsy’s policies and rules - I have enjoyed myself a great deal so far. However I have only been selling for 3 months so perhaps I have not yet discovered the challenges you mention. I think perhaps that because my mice are very different from anything else sold on Etsy that I have an advantage over many other sellers.
I feel bad for the jewelry sellers in particular as they have so much competition on Etsy. The biggest challenge for me is to keep the time I spend of Etsy to a minimum, I am still a little addicted to chat, making treasuries and lurking in forums!
That’s a tough thing to do, narrowing it down to just one. My first exciting experience was my first sale, I think anyone who sells on Etsy would agree that the first sale is a big moment. A week later I had one order for 11 mice to the same person, that was amazing and I was thrilled someone liked my mice that much! But most recently, and perhaps most exciting of all was seeing one of my mice on Etsy’s Front Page.
Strive to do better. One step at a time.
If I could I would buy back my Grandmother’s shop in a village called Mousehole in Cornwall on the south west coast of England .
My grandparents died when I was only 3 but I do have some memories of that shop. I think it would be wonderful to have The House of Mouse reside in the Mousehole shop where my grandmother made and sold her own little mice. She never had the chance to pass on to me the knowledge of how she created her mice, which were slightly different to mine.
I learned how to do it myself, but you could say that it is a family tradition. There would be a great feeling of completing the circle if I could return to that place and start a business there.
Remy, from the Pixar movie Ratatouille.
(Remy; Photographer Mouse Female by House of Mouse)
Oh, I have a list longer than both my arms of new characters for my shop! I plan on expanding my collection of mice inspired by famous faces, including Elvis mouse, Madonna Mouse and Marilyn Monroe Mouse. I am also working on a line of new Musician Mice and hope to have a whole orchestra full of them in a few months time. But I am sure that in time there will be new additions to every category of my shop. At some point in the future I would like to expand into making hedgehogs, owls and cats too.
Yes, when I was very young I went to a fair with my parents. The only thingI can remember about it is the candyfloss! I have a sweet tooth . . . .________________________________________________________________________________________________
Fashion is equivalent to candy, in my book. Whether it's a fabulous handbag, a gorgeous shoe, an adorable blouse, or sexy knee-length skirt, I always get a heady rush whenever a sweet piece catches my eye.
Weekend Cool: Pink Lovers Dream Tam (sold) Vintage Wooden Bangle Bracelet $7 Ocean Front Necklace $18 Daisy Tunic $85 70's Multi Color Marble Glasses (sold) Vintage 1970's LETISSE Softest Leather Clutch (sold)
Brunch in the City: Peach Purple Stripe Printed Tank $24.50 Silver Cats Eye Bracelet $19 Vintage Knit Red Pencil Skirt $14 Nightsky Earrings $28 Elegant Vintage Navy Clutch Purse $18
Office to After-Work Chic: Retro Cropped Sleeves Jacket $52 Filigree Cup Ring $12 Sleek Leather Clutch $95 The Lucy Jumper $109 Purple Peep-Toe Shoes $15 Pair of No Slip Hair Clips $3.75
The Bright Side of Life: Beautiful Hand Painted Tan Dress $42 I Am Perky Ring $6 STRENGTH Five Stone Bangle Bracelet $66 Black Fish Leather Sandals $76 566 Oxidized Sterling Silver Wire Wrapped Hoop Earrings $65 Yellow Canvas Totebag w/Pink Camera Print $10
Jetsetting 101: Vintage Inspired Jeans Jacket $250 Sweet Horse Chestnut Droop Studs $170 Vintage Leather Oversized Convertible Clutch $32 Retro High Waisted Knit Pencil Skirt (sold) Golden Rock Crystal Ring $13 Vintage 80's Snakeskin Peep Toe Heels $42
Each time I do a special feature on my blog, I like to ask the artist: "We all pull from different things to inspire our art. What 3 things inspire your creativity the most?".
Oranges. They're refreshing. They're sweet. They're one of my all-time favorite fruits.
Yeah, I love mangoes too, but since I'd already added the Mango Breezes Triple Stack Cookies to the shop, I decided to create a couple of orange-flavored treats for those of you who also love a little tang.
The Choco-Chiptastic Citrus Mini Cakes (Left) are 2 cakes packed to the brim with chocolate chips and orange flavor. If you're crazy about the orange, but would rather hold off on the sweet bits of chocolate, you can munch on Carnival's Sweet Spice Orange Cookies (Right). These moist and aromatic cookies are made with a blend of rind of oranges and sweet spice.
Enjoy either one with a cup up milk, tea, or rich hot chocolate. Or, if you really want to overdose on your orange fix, grab a glass of fresh squeezed orange juice. Your mouth will thank you big time :)
I've now added gift-packaging to the shop. If you find joy in giving, you can joyfully opt to have the gift recipient of your choice receive any one of Carnival's mouthwatering treats in either a cake/cookies box or a candy box as seen below:
Carnival Candy Packaging
Carnival Cake/Cookies Packaging
And you don't have to go far for a greeting card either. These babies are hand-stamped (by me) with special designs. Add your personalized message to one of Carnival's coordinating cards. I've added one card to the shop so far - 3 more are set to come very soon. Check them out:
Carnival Greeting Cards
To visit the Carnival's shop, please click here.
The coolest thing about my Etsy store, is well . . . me. I'm an artist with a very different perspective of the world and a unique style. This comes out in everything that the store has, so that even though every day there are new products and items, the style is always personal, rough, and a little strange, like me.
I love discovering new things to work with and I get bored doing the same thing over and over again. So, I keep finding and making up new things. The last discovery was leather. It's amazing - I always liked how leather looks, but actually working with it is new to me. It's very different than anything I've ever worked with before. Somewhere between clay and paper, but also like fabric. I can't wait to experiment more.
That's a hard one. Over all, I don't really treasure the items in my store. I don't get attached to art so much at any rate. Most of my joy comes from the process of making it, not from owning it. And I love it when things sell in my store - it makes room in the studio for more things.
Saying that, I do have this one painting (below) that I made a while ago, and for some reason decided to list it even though I had no intention to give it away or sell it after I made it. I think I was trying to challenge myself with selling something that's really precious to me. So far, it did not sell (which is a bit of a relief). I would be sad to see it go.
We all pull from different things to inspire our art. What 3 things inspire your creativity the most?
More than inspiration, I'm just driven by a need to create and make stuff. My hands feels itchy if I don't draw or paint or make things for more then a day or two. I have a sketchbook in my bag and I basically draw every minute I'm not doing something else. Between courses in a restaurant, in concerts, even, once or twice, on the back of the motorcycle.
However, I do use a lot of reference in my art, and one of the major influences is Ned's photography. He's an amazing fine art and fashion photographer and the way he shoots makes me want to make art all the time. Also, I love botanical or zoological vintage prints and I have a few books of those that I use a lot for both inspiration and reference.
Another big source of inspiration is the internet - so many amazing artist and people to meet and interact and share my art with. I spend a lot of time on Flickr and on Etsy making friends and looking at art.
Being free. Making or having enough money to not have to work a 9-5 job. That, I don't like. overcoming fears and having faith in oneself. Also, living a life in which you don't have to lie or hide things and being able to be the same person at any situation without apologizing for who you are. Is that to vague?! I guess I'm still trying to figure it out.
The hardest thing for me is to keep at it even when nothing sells for a while. I just came back from a 2 weeks vacation to visit my family in Israel and ever since I got back the store hadn't really bounce back. It's really hard to keep making stuff and listing when no one buy my things. So I guess for me just keep doing it is the hardest part.
There is so much! It's all exciting. Every time I make a sale I get all excited about it. I guess the most wonderful part was being picked for a video Storque article about our wedding. I love the way it came out. When we got married my family wasn't there - they live far away - and so, being able to share a movie with them about the preparation and the whole thing was the next best thing. Tara - who made the video - shot us 2 evenings for about 3 hours each, so I had no idea how the whole thing was going to come out, but when I saw the movie, it all made so much sense and was beautiful.You can see it here.
Just that it's important to be original and make cool stuff, oh, and play nice with others
It would be right here in Williamsburg, I love this neighborhood, it's a really nice place to live and a lot of young people and artists live here (even though the rent's going crazy now). It feels like Brooklyn is the place to be right now, both with art and with craft. Plus, I like working close to home!
I have no idea! I really don't get that much media exposure, so I'm not even sure who's a celebrity now. I love the author Chuck Palahniuk. Last year I went to a reading he did in a book store. He talked about how he loves to collect strange things that people send to him and sometimes he send them things back, just very random toys or papers or anything really, so I think it would be cool if he took pictures with one of my pieces before he sent it to someone.
(Chuck Palaniuk; Fly Away Business Card Case by Louche Lab)
I'm actually really excited about that. At around Christmas, I illustrated a deck of tarot card, The full Tarot Deck is 78 cards - that's a lot of Illustrations. It's divided into the major arcana and 4 suites. At the end of December, I started selling the major archana which had 22 cards, and then, in February, I started working on the suites. I designed and illustrated the first one, which is "the cups". I'm now working on "The swords". I'm really happy to go on with this project and I know a lot of people are waiting for it. So, once I'm back from my big trip, I'm going to finish illustrating and start producing. In the meantime, the major archana and the cups can be found in my store.
I'm actually not a big fan. I have a traumatic fair experience from when I was about 3 which involved, me on some scary ride trying to jump off a plane shaped pod thingy and crying like crazy. I do however, love Coney Island, last summer we rode there all the time, and it's one of the most wonderful places in New York and the world, I love the colors and crazy combination of old, new, beautiful and derelict. I'm SO glad it's staying open for at least another summer.
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My mother had a strong faith in God. I imagine that was taught to her also as a child. And she passed that strong faith onto me - she taught me that God sees everything - He pays you back for every good deed you do 100 fold - maybe not right away, maybe not in the way you would like, but he will. He knows what He is doing, and He will never give you more than you can handle.
My Mom taught me to be a survivor. Years ago I married a man I believed to be "the one". After two years of being brutally beaten he finally went the extra mile and almost killed me in front of my child. For months I cried and fell deeper and deeper into depression. I drank to kill the pain every day. I was not able to be there for my child or myself.
A significant life lesson my mom has taught me is to always stick up for myself, keep a good head on my shoulders, and love unconditionally. My mom never personally told me any of these things, but yet, she showed them to me by doing these three things on her own. She is one of the strongest people I know.
With the warm weather showing it's face more often, tiny buds waking up from their slumber, and birds chirping their melodic songs each morning, we all know that Spring is in the air! If you're like me, thankfully, you celebrate the gorgeous weather each time you step outside to start a new day. And if you have a little princess that's ready to turn one year older, I know you'll also want to celebrate how she's blossomed before your very eyes.Your primary goal is to make the birthday child feel special. A secondary goal is to ensure that everyone has a good time at the birthday party. The children will remember whether they had fun, not whether your house was spotless or whether you carried out your chosen birthday party theme down to the last tiny detail. As far as I'm concerned, a successful birthday party is one in which no one bursts into tears.
The first step in planning a birthday party is to sit down with your child and find out what type of birthday party he or she wants. Then determine if your budget, your creativity, and your energy can deliver that type of birthday party. If not, scale down. Don't worry that your preschooler is going to want clowns or ponies. You may be pleasantly surprised. For his first "friend" birthday party (i.e. not just the immediate family), my son wanted to go to the play place at a nearby fast food restaurant. When my daughter turned four, she wanted everything to be pink -- pink balloons, pink lemonade, pink cupcakes, pink napkins. Both birthday parties were incredibly easy and inexpensive.
You can't be in two places at once. In birthday party terms, you can't play musical chairs, cut the cake, and direct traffic to the bathroom at the same time. Enlist one or more "big people" (adults or responsible older children) to help you at the birthday party. If your birthday kid is very young, chances are the parents of your guests will ask if they should stay for the duration of the birthday party. The answer is yes! They can help with games, pour the punch, and take care of minor boo-boos. Just be sure to reward them for their service when you pass out the birthday cake. If you don't expect any parents to stay, and you can't talk your best friend into helping, hire one of your regular baby-sitters to help you. It is well worth the investment in terms of stress reduction.
Tropical Berry Fusion Paper Cake $24 Blue Hydrangea in White Vase $40 Maki Girl $30 Vintage Kid Tea Set in Basket $49.95 Lil Miss Vanilla Cookies $9 Mini Colouring Booklet $5.50 Cake Photo Holder $9.90 Personalized Circle Stickers $12 Baby Blue Linocut Squirrel Birthday Card $5; TOP PHOTO: Roses are Pink Halter Dress $60
And don't forget you have to dress your little one too. Here are a few more Etsy items to make her super cute:
Butterflower Hair Flower $9 Kinchi Fresh Flower Dress $59 Glass Post Earrings - Blue Velvet $8 Boutique Autumn Flower Rhinestone Ring $6
Rainbow Windowpanes Infant Dress $36 Turquoise Colored Spring Baby Shoes $25 Flower Power Baby Hair Clip $8.95 Fleece Rainbow Jacket $42
Angel Halo with Custom Headband $25 Pink Ruffle Sleeve Sweater $28 Hot Pink Felted Mary Jane Booties $22 Starlet 1st Birthday Name Bracelet $23.50
A proud native New Yorker, Tameka Allen-Mercado will tell you that she's only hiding out in Goodyear, Arizona. With every bit of time she can find, the mastermind behind Pretty In Peace, creates jewelry, collages, cards and other pretty little pieces of art while pondering stuff to write about. Yes - writing is her first love. Yet, her hideout in the Grand Canyon State is where this wife and mother creates an amazing collection of earthy, eco-conscious pieces. Her warm and peaceful shop makes your fingers itch to purchase every pretty item that catches your eye.
I design art and artistic wares that make Mother Earth smile. Stop, shop, smile and live Pretty in Peace.
It's a tie between junk and organic materials. In jewelry I absolutely love working with wood, copper and semi-precious stones. For my mixed media pieces, I'm rather fond of ephemera and random fabric scraps and such . . . y'know junk!
I think this piece (below) is probably the best visual interpretation of who Tameka is. There's smoothe stones and faceted ones and wood and rugged little bells. It's all organic, and funky just a mix of loveliness. It's my favorite.
We all pull from different things to inspire our art. What 3 things inspire your creativity the most?
What is your definition of success?
I'm a cultural sponge, growing up in NYC has exposed me to so much beautiful color and culture. It's all sitting in a grey fold somewhere waiting to make itself tangible. I listen to world music while I create and burn incense . . . so I'd say my inspiration comes from, "Far away people, places, and patchouli."
Success is the journey. As cliche as it is I have no destination, but everyday that I rise and create something is a successful one. Sometimes, it's a meal other times a mess, but always a success.
Not necessarily Etsy related, but on a whole I'm not sure how I feel about art as a business. Pricing a piece of my self is at times difficult, granted you have the materials but the creative process is really a part of your self and, putting a price on it is bittersweet. I want people to be able to afford my wares and at the same time I want to feel a deep appreciation for the creative process, money doesn't do that. Coupled with not seeing and feeling the energy of my customers. Internet sales can be impersonal.
There isn't one, the mere existence of Pretty in Peace is exciting. Everyday that a new design is born makes me giddy all over again.
From my husband, an artist and musician, "You just gotta keep doing what you do." It is so easy to identify the target demographic on Etsy (or anyplace else for that matter) and design around their desires, but in the end it doesn't pay off on the grand scale.
Key West, Florida. We honeymooned there, nothing would please me more than to ride a bike with a basket in the front to work in a quaint little village town full of funky little shops and folks.
If you could select only one celebrity to be photographed with one of your pieces, who would it be?
Corinne Bailey Rae. Before I took the plunge and left corporate America to "make stuff", her song, Put Your Records On was my mantra.
(Corinne Bailey Rae; Trois Fleurs Ring by Pretty In Peace)
Actually, just today I listed my first mixed media piece, and plan to continue adding some ACEOs and other pieces of visual art alongside my wearables.
Carnivals . . . aah sweet nostalgia, funnel cakes, cotton candy, giant rainbow swirl lollipops...of course these things taste much better on the way down than on the way up. o_0
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1. What significant life lesson has your mother (or a mother figure in your life) taught you?
2. How has this lesson benefited you and molded you into the person you are today?
Get Your Geisha On . . . for $500! Found, Now Home
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A 16 Month-Old Creates a Masterpiece michvanetta
Wanna Own a Piece of Graphic Art? OMG! Lia?
Bring Out the Dragon in Your Man 1337 Art
A Quirky Greeting Card Obsession Nature Manipulated
Smell Good Enough to Eat My Best Friend's Soap
Lo and behold: Bridal season is here. Bridezillas everywhere are putting the finishing touches on all the details for the big day they've anticipated for years.While thinking about a wedding shower you may wonder, who throws this party? When do you plan it? Where should it be held? When should it take place and what to feed your guests? Here are our suggestions for a fabulous Bridal Shower!
A nice description on the history of the Bridal Shower is shared here at Wikipedia. The Bridal Shower is traditionally one of the main duties of the Maid of Honor. Held in her home she is the hostess for this party where the bride to be is the Guest of Honor. The rules of Etiquette are changing and becoming more lax these days, so you may consider sharing these duties with members of the Wedding Party.
Here is some advice when planning a Bridal Shower for the Bride to Be!
* Always consult with the Bride, the groom and families as to how to proceed and what forms of etiquette are important to them.
* When putting together the guest list the Maid of Honor should always consult with the couple as to who to invite.
* It's also common these days to use an online invitation service to contact and invite your guests, as long as they are internet savvy.
* Never invite people to the bridal Shower that are not invited to the Wedding. This is a etiquette question we get a lot and one we feel all couples and those planning the Shower should stick to.
* When inviting guests and picking a date, consult with the Bride and family. You'll want to also pay attention to road closures or major sporting events that will make travel more difficult.
