Amanda Hawkins

4×6 Binders, coming soon

I’m big on DIY’ers and would love to see you making your own binders… but I decided to make a few to sell and see what happens! Here’s the first in progress – stay tuned for store updates and new DIY Planner templates.

Hooked on Encaustics

So, Art Unraveled Day #2 and I made my first wax paintings!

Oh. My. Gosh.

I fell in love and bought all the supplies to do it at home. *SWOON*

Art Unraveled 2010, Day 1

Yesterday were my first two workshops at Art Unraveled and they were fantastic. I was surprised that the primary age-group of attendees was 60+ (and 100% women), but who wouldn’t feel comfortable in a room full of hip and crafty grandma’s? I feel like I’m getting a headstart.

The first workshop was “Soldering for Maidens” with the lovely Paula Hardesty. Unfortunately I was too enthralled with soldering to snap any process photos but here’s what I made!

In case you’re wondering, they’re supposed to be lumpy like that – texture!! It was actually a lot easier than I imagined and Paula was a wonderful and thorough instructor, really sweet too.

Last night I attended the workshop “Ancient Amulets” with Laurie Mika. I have to say this, because I thought it all night – she’s basically who I want to be when I grow up. Wordly, artistic, smart and her techniques, swoon! If you ever have the opportunity definitely take a class, buy her book, research her online – she’s awesome.

The above photo are pieces from the class, I wish I knew who’s was who and everyones name! And here’s my little guys:

One woman’s comment on the purple one, “Oh, that one’s….. different?” Story of my life! My new friend for the day was Gloria from Surprise, AZ – kind and funny with a great attitude towards life and art and a big big heart.

Today I took the day off to get some work done, which of course I haven’t done yet. Tomorrow is “Plastered in Wax” – I’ve been wanting to learn encaustic painting for YEARS, cannot wait. Then Sunday is “Creating Hollow Forms in Color.” Not sure I’ll be blogging about every day but you can check out all the photos on flickr!

DIY dining room table inspiration

We’re in the process of buying our very first house. I haven’t written much about it (don’t wanna jinx it), but I just have SO many ideas and plans running through my head I need to get them out! Get ready for all-house-all-the-time around here, for a year at least.

I started putting together flickr galleries and even started a tumblr all about home workspaces.

But today I have dining room tables on my mind.

Since moving to Phoenix 4 years ago we haven’t really had much of a dining room. Our plan is to really work on this one and make it a comfortable place we want to hang out and entertain in. Here’s the space that will hopefully be ours in t-minus 18 days, I used a photo from the MLS listing and did a little before & after in photoshop!

First things first, LOTS of paint – I daydream about paint almost every waking moment. Dear awesome folks selling the house, can I just go over there early and start please?!

The table is the Big Sur, of course it is. But who can afford it? I mean, we could, but who wants to spend all their money on one piece of furniture when there’s a whole house to work on? We’ve searched craigslist too, but guess what? People don’t get rid of awesome furniture – they keep it.

I was looking around on flickr and came across an amazing IKEA hack by Something’s Hiding in There (above right). The colors and warn-out-ness are exactly what I was picturing for our dining room. The look reminded me of the recycled wood dining table tutorial by ReadyMade last month (above left) – hmmm, how about we combine the two!

Once the table is put together it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out how to make a Big Sur style bench to match. Then thrifting for some sturdy mismatched chairs, more paint and Voila!!

More inspiration

Almost There by Yvestown

Pallet love!

DIY Project: Pallet Daybed from Apartment Therapy

Julia & Howard

I love Julia Pott. I know I’ve said it before and I’m sure I’ll say it again. She just posted her first year project from the Royal College of Art — first year! It’s very odd and very amazing.

Where DOES the time go?

Hello, just a quick update.

A note about the Daily Drawings

It was a lovely idea, a year full of little bitty Moleskine notebooks filled with collages… how quaint! It just took too. much. time. Not that I don’t love spending time collaging, I do. And I’ll still find time for collaging… but sometimes I’d rather work on something else, like perhaps…

• Bird Themes: A new website with artsy WordPress themes!
• Building up our little web design business - Little Bird - and keeping up with our wonderful clients.
• Making more DIY Planner Templates
• House hunting with Sam for our very first house!
• Getting healthy. I had half of my thyroid removed 3 weeks ago. Documenting for a major blog post all about the fun times and awesome neck incision. PS. Feeling great now and completely recovered. :)
• Designing bags and getting better at sewing.
• And everything else. Traveling, bicycling, cuddling with Sam and Muffin, hanging out with friends/family and ya know, enjoying life.

So, that’s that! Off to cut up fabric and start on my very first quilt, have a lovely weekend!

Coming soon…

Somebody needs to get busy! EEK! On your marks, get set… 3 days, 16 hours, 28 minutes, 32 seconds until the launch of birdthemes.com Follow @birdthemes on twitter for updates!

Cozy, quirky and weathered WordPress themes for small businesses, individuals and the soon-to-be married!

Sneak Peak:

desktop wallpaper project

If you haven’t been following Kitsune Noir’s ‘Desktop Wallpaper Project’ you need to start, like, yesterday.

I’d been hooked on the same wallpaper by Alex Cornell since November… really. I tried changing it a few times but always went back. The two newest by Michael Cina might’ve just won me over for good though. #swoon

Left Monitor • Right Monitor

moonstone sprout

I’m off to take my second nap of the day. I just wanted to take a second and tell you that I’m in love with At Swim-Two-Birds on flickr. Renilde Depeuter – she has a blog full of wonderfulness as well.

“Moonstone Sprout” by At Swim-Two-Birds

a + b = impact

‘What?’ by Notamax