Design inspiration from Lisa Frank

When I was in college and took a lot of creative writing classes, my poetry professor asked me once what poet had the greatest influence on my writing. I immediately said, "Bob Dylan," and he had a nervous breakdown. Sure, I love Walt Whitman, Allen Ginsberg, Sylvia Plath, and a lot of others, but I was listening to Dylan in the womb. Of course he had more influence on me than Keats, right?

Before I knew anything about Gustav Klimt or Georges Seurat, I was a sticker and stationery fanatic. So, today I salute the colorful, rambuctious, slightly hallucinogenic joy that is The World of Lisa Frank! Lisa Frank is an American artist who creates cute and rainbow laden trippy art, transformed into stickers, binders, and all sorts of merchandise beloved by young girls, and we older girls, around the world. Lisa's art inspired me in my youth because, well, it was marketed directly at me. I still love her fiercely, with that nostalgic romantic love reserved for Eighties hair bands and the TV show Head of the Class.

What brought about this winsome longing for all things Lisa Frank you might ask? I had a not so great few days. I was walking through Wal-Mart, and what materialized before my weary eyes? A display of rainbowlicious Lisa Craft products. Yes, I bought the mega box of happy stickers! Yes, I will put them on the envelopes of MAB orders when I ship! I may even get them out tonight when I'm making jewelry, and let all of those candy colors just seep right into my creations.

Lisa Frank, I salute you and thank you for your candy colored kittens and unicorns of endless happiness. You have made my life a better place.

If you want a true Lisa Frank overdose, you can visit her website. Do not get out your credit card first, I'm warning you!

Spotlight on poppyseedcats

Poppyseedcats is an amazing, cat-centric artist on Etsy. She creates gorgeous aluminum wire cat sculptures in all sizes and personalities. I have honestly never seen anything quite like them. Aren't they unique and magical!

And the great news is that she just found out that three of her lifesized wire cat sculptures were accepted by judges for an exhibition at Hull's main art gallery in the United Kingdom. Those sculptures are pictured here, and I love them. An honor well-deserved, right?

Also, poppy just found out she's going to be an auntie, so it has been a great week for her.

Stop in for all of her fantastic feline creations (as well as other charming critters) at poppyseedcats on Etsy. But don't buy the one I want before I get to it, all right?

My favorite Etsy artists, catwalk

This morning, I'm featuring the work of fantastic Etsy collage artist, catwalk. This piece, Kitty Kat skirt, caught my eye when it was featured on the Etsy front page last week. The vintage fashion image (yes, sans head) with the added layer of adorable kittens really hit me where I live, right? Vintage fashion and tiger kitties? Doesn't get much more MAB than that! It corners the market on what I like to call "The Sandra Dee niche of retro cute." Okay, I just made that phrase up, but it certainly fits here. Only without a head, which adds a tinge of creepiness that makes the Sandra Dee angle all the more appealing. Creepy plus retro cute equals amazing.

You want owls? catwalk has owls. Look at this little fellow, wide-eyed and rather panicky, cloistered in his pink suburban paradise, staring out at the big bad world outside on Main street. This collage is called They're Out There, and I love the combination of the idyllic setting--turquoise sofa, flower arrangement, ruffled sheers--with that great expressive owl face. Sweet and spooky. And, if you think about it, the owl is looking at us. Maybe we're the scary ones?

I also love this collage print, DaDa. This reminds me of Rene Magritte, with a lovely dose of vintage gentleman's evening high fashion. Putting on the Ritz with an unsettling artistic twist. Elegant, yet disconcerting in his facelessness. This is a Dad of a different species.

What I love about all of catwalk's work is how she takes these old scraps of forgotten paper--ads, postcards, sewing patterns--and re-imagines them to give them new life. It's history turned on its head, surprising the viewer by making the known fresh and unexpected.

Case in point, what's happening here with Dottie? I mean, from the chin up, she looks like an early Fifties ideal girl, blonde-perfectly-pageboy-haired, blue-eyed living doll. But her body is comprised of dots, paper ephemeral pixels almost. Is she forming? Dissolving? I'm fascinated by how catwalk takes these tiny bits of hole-punched paper, brightly colored confetti, and makes such a beautiful mystery from them.

So, stop in and visit catwalk's colorful corner of Etsy. She has journals, pendants and magnets featuring her art too. Prepare to be surprised and delighted by every single listing. Oh, and you really ought to bring a hostess gift, say a Jell-O salad with mini-marshmallows.

TV! Work of Art finale

Yay! Abdi took the title, and I couldn't be happier. I picked him as my fave from the first episode. I should have put money on it then, right? This sculpture and its brother were absolutely amazing, even on television. They were huge, emotive and installed on the floor. He had some trouble with them, but, in the end, they were the most arresting and effective pieces in the entire show.

Abdi focused mostly on self-portraits and social commentary paintings--sort of the body in relation to the world--and every piece had emotional weight. Congratulations to him for being rewarded for his talent, sincerity and hard work. A well-deserved win.

Peregrine's overriding theme was "A Day at the Fair." I enjoyed her show immensely, but it didn't seem cohesive. This was my favorite piece of hers, a wax cast sculpture. It looks like butter, doesn't it? It has a sweet, innocent grace that's touching.

I also liked her horse sculptures. She did a larger installation featuring more of these horses and other stuff, but this is just so lovely on its own. She deserved her second place showing, even if some of her work seemed to be coming from left field.

And Miles, Faux OCD Guy. Oh, Miles. His story was that he took pictures with his cell phone of security camera images at White Castle. One picture was of a homeless fellow who froze to death two days after he took the picture. I don't even know that I believe the story, but it could be true. This photo had great emotional impact on him.

So, his show was a series of screenprints taken from zooming in on this initial photo closer and closer and closer, until all you could see was pixelated patterns. Look, I can appreciate obsession as much as the next person, trust me. And I can also appreciate an emotional reaction to a tragic event. I don't get this. It seems to strip all of the impact out of the image by breaking it down to a molecular level. I can't cry over pixels. What do you all think?

I would watch another season of this show. It got me thinking about art and the creative process, and that's certainly more than I'm going to get from Jersey Shore, right? Plus, after all of the critical blahblahblah, the artist I liked the most won. Vindication! Yay!

I'll be away all weekend at an outdoor show in 90+ degree humid weather. Should I survive, I'll catch up with you next week. Now, you all have fun, and don't get into anything, okay?

TV! Work of Art

This show is drawing to a close, and I have to say that I've enjoyed it in my own warped way. Yes, it's been frustrating and caused me to yell, but that's more than I can say for most TV shows, right? That's been caused by a combination of the personalities of the artistestants and the weirdness of the judging. Also, a lot of the art produced on the show I just don't get, and I'm not sure if that's because a lot of it has been installation art, and it doesn't translate well to a television screen, or if I'm just not sophisticated enough to understand it, or if it's actually crap.

Anyway, this week was the last challenge before the finale, so two artists were eliminated to get down to the expected final three. The artistestants were taken out into the woods and told they had to get inspired by nature, and incorporate natural found elements into their pieces. I thought that you weren't supposed to take stuff from parks, but maybe not. Ah, well. Here's how they did:

Winner, Abdi! For the piece above. Isn't it amazing? It was nice to see him hit it when he really needed to. He used ground up dirt and gravel as part of the painting medium for this piece, "Baptism." This may be the best piece created during the entire season, and I hope he can sustain his momentum here throughout the finale and win the whole thing.

In, Miles (Faux OCD Guy), with his entirely incomprehensible tribute to fungus. He constructed some sort of medieval looking wooden and nail catapult that he used to penetrate plastic to drizzle bleach to make a print that looked like fungus. Or something. I don't get it, and it just smelled like cloudy cleverness again to me.

In, Peregrine (My Little Pony), for her tree in boots sculpture, with cutouts of people having sex. She has some witty ideas, and some serious skill, but I'm not sure she can win if she continues to make these sort of insubstantial little form sketches. Plus, I'm still upset over her treatment of Mark in the last episode. Bah.

Out, Nicole, for her light bulb sectioned fur pie. I was sure she would be in the finale, because the judges love her mysterious treasures. I think her stuff might be better in person. I honestly wasn't a fan, but was shocked when Peregrine made it instead of Nicole.

Out, Jackie (Naked Girl), for her. . . rock on a pipe in front of a seascape. She was in the woods. It was cold, and she couldn't take pictures of herself naked (seriously, she basically said that). She tried to use naked pictures that she took in the bathtub at the apartment, but that was against the rules. She had a cold and slept and whined. She went home. I do not understand this woman--either her basic personality or what she creates. However, the judges loved her, so I thought she had a chance. But no.

For the finale, it looks like they get a complete gallery show with mulitple pieces. Like Project Runway, it looks like they go home for a certain amount of time, and work on their final collection. I'm still interested to see what these three present, and that says something.

On a final note, I'd like to say how much I love their mentor, Simon. He's constantly telling them to "Be bold! Be brilliant!" I need a mentor like that, to come around when I'm making jewelry or just vacuuming.

TV! Work of Art

Sigh. Yes, sigh. So predictable. So silly. This show is making me yell. I'm an interactive TV watcher in general, but this is bringing out the ranting bad, bad MAB. The one who says incredibly bad words in multisyllabic strings. I think I'm still watching it just to have an excuse to yell for no real reason. Kind of like primal scream therapy.

This week's challenge found our remaining artistestants splitting into pairs to create art based on opposing big philosopical ideas. The two pieces were also supposed to be coherent together. Above are your two winners, Naked Girl and Faux OCD Guy. She painted a naked self-portrait involving a solo sexual act to illustrate women in control. Really? Seriously? Ugh. But only after Faux OCD Guy told her that's what she ought to do. Because that's how women gain control, by asking men what they ought to do, and then getting naked. Again. Sigh. Faux created another Wood Shop Sophomore Year Last Period piece, walls with holes punched in them to illustrate the violence of men losing control. How clever. Oh, he painted a wall with tar, for no apparent reason.

Mark the photography guy went home. For doing a naked self portrait. Because he isn't Barbie or Ken. He was also manipulated into doing this by Peregrine, the My Little Pony chick. In judging, she absolutely sold him out, triggering more irrational yelling.

I took a lot of creative writing classes in college, and sat through hours and hours of terrible criticism from people who didn't know what they were talking about, on top of reading hundreds of truly bad poems. This show is causing me to have Poetry Workshop flashbacks.

Faux OCD guy is going to win it. I need to Google cursewords, because I'm running out of fresh ones.

TV! Work of Art

Oh, I loved this week's challenge on Bravo's Work of Art: Take a childhood experience or memory that helped to form the artist you are today, and make a piece of art inspired by that experience or memory. Then, the artistestants were taken to the Children's Museum, and had to use kids' art materials to make their pieces. A lot of the artists had trouble with this. Some thought the assignment implied that they should create childish stuff (Abdi, Ryan, Mark). Some were completely baffled by the materials and just went blank and created dull, lifeless work because they couldn't be naked (Jaclyn). And some decided that they didn't have to address the challenge at all, and instead remade a piece they had already created and admitted it (Miles, faux OCD guy, bah). I find it amusing that everyone on the show is as annoyed by Miles as I am, and I firmly believe he'll probably end up taking the entire shebang with his fake tortured artist crap act. Ah, well.

Your winner was Peregrine, who created a warped My Little Pony Universe, full of drugs, candy and cigarettes. Peregrine was raised in a hippie art commune in California, and a lot of the people she grew up with are no longer with us. While she seemed to love her childhood memories, there was a cheery and bright sadness to her piece that I absolutlely adored. Like the morning after mess from a great party of unicorns and drag queens.

Our loser this week was Ryan. Now, I haven't been a big fan of Ryan's work on the show, but I really like Ryan as a person. He tried to explore some heavy emotional topics (his relationship with his mother) while working on this challenge, but he was unable, with the time and materials constraints, to get a good piece of art out of it. He's a creative, fun fellow, and I think the group will miss him. Plus, look how cute he is. Seriously. Sometimes, I have reality TV crushes, and Ryan just has that sweet young art school guy preciousness all over him. Sigh. I'm still rooting for the sincere and talented Abdi for the win.

My favorite Etsy artists, ParadiseLost

Seth is the California-based artist behind ParadiseLost on Etsy. This is the first piece from his shop that I fell in love with, The Book Will Save Me. I love this work, first off, on a strictly personal level. There have been periods of my life where I have found the right book at the right time, and it has made all the difference. This image is haunting, with the twigs and consumptive figure clutching the book out of sheer desperation. Such a provoking, emotional piece.

Like most of us who make things, I think it's difficult for Seth to explain why he creates what he creates. I read an interview once with Stephen King, and he said the question people ask him most often is "Why do you write all that scary stuff?" The implication is, there must be something wrong with you if that's where your inspirations lie. King explained it something like this. We all have filters in our brains. What sticks in my filter may run right through yours. The stuff that sticks is where our inspiration comes from. You don't choose what sticks and what doesn't.

With My Apologies to Vermeer, Seth takes the well known painting, Girl with a Pearl Earring by Vermeer, and alters the image to show the skull beneath. Why? Well, this is what sticks in his filter. Or, as he explains in his profile, "It is hard to put into words why I paint or draw things that are dark or evil. The best way I know to explain is that they are an attempt to find good by contrast. The world without these opposing elements is not one I care to live in. I am a student of the Old Masters who recognized a profound elegance in both." This image is as gorgeous and lush as the original, and it achieves that beauty by turning the original on its skull, so to speak.

Another fine example of this philosophy is The Piano Teacher, a stylized, romanticized scene of an Old Masters' painting, with the potential darkness that lies beneath completely exposed. It's that contrast between the rich and expected classical image with the flashing one bit of darkness that has been revealed that gives Seth's work such a sense of frission and impact. It also plays with our modern idea of "The Good Old Days," the simpler past. The past had its own set of evils and complications. Parting the heavy drapery so we can see that--now that's a talent.

Please, visit ParadiseLost on Etsy for more shadowy visual delights. And his shop name comes from Milton, so read some Milton while you're at it. Milton is good for you.

TV! Work of Art

I'm learning a lot from this show. One thing I've learned is that I really don't get a lot of modern 21st century art, and I also really don't get much of the criticism of that art. This week's challenge was to work in a team to create an installed, interactive art structure (or something) for a public space. This is the winning piece, a sort of trapezoidal thingie that had little baby thingies scattered about. I don't really get it, but that's all right. The team worked really well together, and people interacted with this piece that they made--sitting on it, leaning on it, communing with it.

I may not fully comprehend this project or the criticism of it, but I certainly do understand reality TV team project drama. And the losing team was all drama. Eric, the non-art school artist, did not mix well with the rest of the team. He would bring up ideas, and the others would shoot them all down. You had the naked woman and the faux OCD dude vying for attention, while the quirky chick tried to stay out of the way. War ensued. It's sometimes fun to watch strangers bicker on television, but I honestly felt bad when Eric was eliminated because he couldn't get along with this impossible team. I wouldn't have faired much better in this particular group of people, I'm afraid. I hope the show gave Eric enough exposure that he was able to find some success and some peace.

TV! Work of Art

Dear readers, this week's episode of Work of Art was one of the silliest reality TV episodes I have ever seen. First off, the challenge was bizarro--drive through Manhattan in an Audi to the big Audi show room, and then make a piece of art about your journey, or Audi, or Manhattan, or something. A friend of mine has an Audi, and it's a beautiful car, so I think you might be able to make Audi art. Here's the challenge issue, though: When you issue a poorly defined challenge that is also based on a sponsor, what you get is usually doo doo. It would seem that fine artists would rather create freely, with no restrictions. The problem is they try to address the challenge, but don't really understand the challenge, and don't really create freely either. You get doo doo. Unfocused but hopeful doo doo.

Now, let's talk about the winning entry, because this woman is making me homicidal. Jaclyn, the Barbie artist, who wears very tight, very short clothing and usually features semi-nude photos of herself. She was standing in the Audi Forum in Manhattan, a window-fronted building full of beautiful cars AND the crew and cameras shooting the show. Men were looking into the building. She automatically deduced that all of these men were looking at HER. Ugh. She felt so vulnerable. Whatevs. Delusional. Self-important. We've all known people like this. So, she took photos of these men, blurred their faces a little, put some suspect looking white goo on the images, added some reflective mylar bits, and she won. I don't get it. The art critics were going berserk over her "negation of the male gaze." No, she's a sponge for the male gaze. Admit what you are. Make art from there. I detest her. I'm sorry.

Also, second runner up Miles, with his OCD performance art schtick, sleeping at Audi, burbling about like some Little Prince knock off. I don't care for him or his art either. His work smacks of "cleverness," and I don't mean that as a compliment. It's one thing when a TV commercial for beer is clever. Shouldn't art be more than that?

Jamie went home this week. She was the one who kept talking about her ultra right wing religious stance. Honestly, everything she made looked like middle school art class, but she seemed nice enough.

I'm still pulling for Abdi. Everything he creates is dynamic and compelling. And he's not playing some sort of manufactured role to get more air time. He's arting his heart out, bless him.

The meh factor of this week's art was more shocking than last week's "shocking" art.

TV! Work of Art

I don't know if anyone else is even watching this show, but I'm in love with it. This week's challenge was guaranteed to fire up the What the Heck on all eight cylinders. Yeah, I'm not sure what that means either. First off, the guest judge was none other than modern art bad boy Andres Serrano, who is known for his outre subjects. I find his work thoughtful, passionate and provoking, but I don't offend very easily. With Serrano as the judge, of course the challenge was to create a shocking piece of art. Really?

Here's the thing: Shocking is one of those incredibly subjective adjectives. What would shock you would not shock me and vice versa. Plus, I'm not sure that you ought to go about creating a piece of art just intended to "shock." When an artist purposefully tries to shock their audience, well, it usually is a capital FAIL. And that's pretty much what happened here. Nakedness and bodily fluids and blasphemy. Not shocking. Especially not in terms of postmodern art.

The piece above is the winner, from Abdi, and deservedly so. Titled "I.E.D. (Improvised Exploding Device)," it's a commentary on young African American males, and how they have basically become walking human time bombs. Although you can't see it here in the Bravo screen grab, apparently the little heads were actually lit for the show, and were installed on the floor, which would give the viewer an odd point of view for the piece. I love it, as I've loved everything Abdi has done for the show.

I'll spare you the losers. One was the performance artist lady who did some sort of performance involving bodily functions and a tee pee made of fiber board. Even she couldn't explain it. The other involved self oral stimulation. Yeah. It was bad.

I wonder if it's becoming harder and harder to shock us as a viewing public. I mean, reality TV itself has made us pretty much immune to public humiliation. Remember Fear Factor? Or all of the celebrity sex tapes that were "leaked"? We've seen violence, sex and unending Paris Hilton.

Do you know what shocks me? The continuing underwater video feed of the oil spewing out into the Gulf of Mexico. Congress cutting unemployment benefits when there are still six people unemployed for every open position in the US. And Sarah Palin, every single time she opens her mouth. These things make me feel exactly like those little angry bomb heads up there. Naughty nudity? Not so much.

Once again, I'd like to recommend Work of Art. If you're a creative person, it's fascinating to watch how these people make art under challenge and time constraints, not to mention how these egos interact in a small space.

Pinups! A Brief History

5,000: Years ago that a nude female was painted on a rock shelter in Algeria.

15th: Century Sandro Botticelli painted The Birth of Venus, wherein she rises from the sea a full-grown woman.

180: Number of "Varga Girls" Alberto Vargas illustrated for Esquire from 1940 to 1946.

6: Number of fingers on one hand one of the "Varga Girls" had, as Vargas struggled to paint one pinup a week under his 1944 contract. Another girl was missing an arm.

19th: Century early in which topless Algerian women appeared on postcards. Many had no stamps or message on them, suggesting they were kept by the original buyers or mailed in sealed envelopes.

1912: Year James Kane, a New York City photographer, is said to have developed a photo of an actress whose gown had slipped open, whereupon he exclaimed, "That's real cheescake!"

1946: Year Norma Jean Dougherty divorced her merchant marine husband, James. His family disapproved of her modeling; other military men did not.

1: Years later that she appeared in her first film as Marilyn Monroe.

1951: Year it's said that Irving Klaw paid Bettie Page--a 28 year-old new to New York City--$50 an hour to pose scantily clad. He then charged photographers $20 each to take her picture.

$1,000: Prize money that future Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown won in Cosmopolitan's America's Sexiest Man contest in 1982. Of his nude photographs, Brown said, "I'm not ashamed of my body."

$1,250,000: Amount of the insurance policy that Twentieth Century Fox took out on Betty Grable's legs at Lloyd's of London in 1943, embarassing the star.

All statistics courtesy of Allure magazine, because that's where I turn for all of my important research!

TV! Work of Art

Okay, back to Bravo's new reality competition show, Work of Art, wherein a batch of artists from various backgrounds, fluent in different mediums, compete to become. . . the winner of all reality TV artists. Or something.

This is your winning work of art from last week's episode, and I have to confess that I absolutely do not get it. The artists had to create a sculpture or installation from discarded electronic equipment. All righty. So Miles, the winner from last week's episode, made a bed and curled up on it and went to sleep. Mmmm hmmmm. He didn't even use his repurposed electrical thingie, only a silk screened version of a circuit on his plastic mattress. And let's not even discuss the pair of cement sphincters.

I'm not claiming to be super knowledgeable about art, especially modern art and/or performance art and installations. However, this just wasn't all that groundbreaking. Also, I've read online that Miles' entire personality, from his OCD issues to his chronic insomnia and general twitchy oddness, were all. . . wait for it. . . one long planned performance art act DONE JUST FOR THE SHOW! Sorry to shout there, but how much silliness is that?

Miles will probably go on to win the whole shebang--the money, the mirrorball trophy, the seats to next year's Super Bowl. Okay, I'm not even sure what they're trying to win here, to be honest. But the judges and producers of these types of shows just love this sort of pseudo-innovative groundbreaking stuff, whether it has any honest intent behind it or not. There seem to be genuine artists on this show who are trying to create heartfelt works. Let's hope one of them gets some recognition next week, and not Mr. Collage Personality 2010.

Oh, and I'm absolutely hooked on the show. It's worth a watch, if only because it's always interesting to watch people create outside of their normal modes in a claustrophobic pressure cooker of reality TV weirdness. I hope they have to make something from shellfish and stuffed animals before this is all over.

TV! Work of Art

Bravo premiered their new reality competition show last night. Work of Art is basically Project Runway or Top Chef, only with fine artists. I only sort of watched the first half, but fully tuned my attention in for the judging. Each artistestant had to do a portrait of another artistestant, someone they'd just met. Oh, and they had to do it in thirteen hours.

Now, I wasn't sure if I would like this show. If fashion design is subjective, Fine Art is a billion times (more or less) more subjective. What I love you might hate. That doesn't make it good or bad; it's just a matter of taste, right?

But throw all of that analytical thinking out the window, and just enjoy this show for what it is: A bunch of high-strung, creative people who probably have ego issues, thrown together in a small living space, competing against each other doing what they love, while high on paint fumes and a steady diet of Chinese carryout.

My favorite painting from last night's episode is the portrait above. I didn't really catch the "Meet the Contestants" portion of the show, so I can't comment too much on the artist who painted it. I love the painting, and the guy did it in thirteen hours. Amazing.

There are two artistestants to watch--the bitchy performance artist woman and the outsider never been trained guy who sleeps in his truck. Both got way too defensive and verbally weird during the judging process. Both were also in the bottom three, but they got to stay. Why, you may ask? Because they have GOOD TV POTENTIAL, people! So the soft-spoken architect lady who painted a powder room wallpaper pattern was sent home.

Hey, it's summer and there's nothing on. Lost is over. No Project Runway. I watched ten minutes of America's Got Talent, and realized it was just a spiffier version of The Gong Show. I'm going through Netflix DVDs at an alarming rate. Work of Art is harmless Bravo entertainment at its best, with not a single shrewish drunken Housewife in sight. Give it a go.

Gus is taking Etsy by storm!

Lovely Patty over at catcalls whipped up some snakey cat toys for me. They were supposed to be for Franklin, but Gus is the real cat toy lover in the family. Franklin prefers playing with algorithms and world domination plans. So now Gus is the offical spokesmodel for the snakey catnip mouse toy!

He's so blonde and beautiful, with his speckled lips! America's Next Top Cat Model, I tell you. Check out catcalls shop for all kinds of kitteny goodness.

Then, the warm, sweet, and oh so talented moonstr did this fantabulous Gus portrait! Yes, he's upside down again, and reading The Book of Gus. Yes, The Book of Gus is a coloring book with very little text. Okay, there's no text, but it's quite colorful and jam packed with fluffy love. Check out moonstr's shop too. She's amazingly talented, and has such a fresh, innovative, bright outlook on the world. Plus, she's my buddy.

Soon, the entire site will be called. . . Gustsy.

On the subjective nature of art

A little first grade girl turned in the drawing below for an assignment on "What does your mom or dad do at work?"

After the teacher had graded it, and the daughter brought it home, the mother sent the note below back to school in repsonse to this lovely creation:

"Dear Ms. Davis, I would like to very clearly explain my child's drawing. It is NOT of me dancing on a pole on the stage of a strip club. I work at Home Depot and had commented to my daughter how much money we made during the recent snowstorm. This drawing is of me selling a snow shovel. Sincerely, Mrs. Harrington"

Etsy's newest, yummiest street team, Team Bacon!

Etsy has a brand new street team, and I'm ecstatic to be a member. Team Bacon! Official as of 1 April. Check out our incredible team blog, Six Degrees of Etsy Bacon, built by the information and design mastermind illustrate. Exciting things are afoot, so keep an ear to the. . . um. . . griddle, and wait for the sizzle.

Here are some amazing creations from these talented, funny and goodhearted people. You need their stuff, trust me!

Speck ist gut aceo original

moonstr

(moonie also designed my brand new Franklin portrait!)

Solid 14k Rose Gold Hand Hammered and Forged Bangle

seababejewelry

Vintage Steampunk Etsy Shop Banner package

Morrigan

(Morrigan also designed the fab banner in my shop.)

Electricity bracelet

hollygems

Needle Felted Tiger Bookmark

FeltLikeHelping

Over the Rainbow Tie Dye play silk

DesertDyeworks

Clock Hand Steampunk Earrings

ClockworkJungles

Damask Kisslock Purse

BrianaEdelmanDesigns

Gemstone Earring Suite

allisoneastmanbeads

Origami Lilly in Pink

AllegroArts

Happy Easter, from the Peeps!

Reservoir Peeps

The Wreck of the Edmund Peepsgerald

Window Peeper

Ultimate Peep Show

Peepsalot

The Simpspeeps

The Peeps of Wrath

Peeposuction

The Peeple Factory

March of the Peepguins

Octopeeps

Nightpeeps by Edward Peeper

Peep Art

Amy Winepeep