Amanda Hawkins

Merry Christmas Mix!

I’ve been putting together Christmas ‘mixed tapes’ for the past couple of years. Just finished my newest – I think it might be my best yet! Although the previous years are pretty fantastic too. :) All mixes are available for download below through mediafire.com. I’ve discovered lots of great new bands searching for these, if you find one you especially like tell your friends and buy their album!

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas, enjoy!

Merry Christmas Mix, ‘09 :: (download)

previous mixes ::
Merry Christmas Mix, ‘08 :: (download)
Merry Christmas Mix, ‘07 :: (download)
Merry Christmas Mix, ‘06 :: (download)

block ornaments

Make your own!

These ornaments are super simple to make, you just need a wooden block, an eye hook, gluestick and whatever else you want to glue or stamp on!

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ornaments @MADE //

Spent yesterday sitting at my sewing desk experimenting with piles of buttons, wire, pliers, embroidery floss and fabric scraps. I’ll probably try a few more times but am pretty happy with the above results. I’m donating the ornaments to the 5th Annual Artist-Made Ornament Exhibition at MADE art boutique!

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WordPress theme updates

Made a few little changes to Paper, my WordPress theme –

Updates include cleaner code, better looking comments, new graphics and formatting on the date, tags and category, moved sidebar to footer for better SEO and a darker shade of gray in the background.

View the demo and download here

I *heart* Ann Wood

Meet Rebecca, handmade by Ann Wood. She was my Christmas present year before last from Sam!

Visit Ann’s website to see more birds, ships and owls – all gorgeous! If you want to purchase something though you should subscribe to her RSS, email list and twitter. And be prepared to drop everything and buy RIGHT AWAY when something new goes up. It’s gone fast, for good reason.

Two months ago she did a Vintage fabric give-away on her blog, out of over 100 people to enter I was one of 5 winners! I was shocked to find this huge box of fabric outside my door –

So nice. Still trying to decide what to make, I’ll keep ya posted. xo

Ann Wood’s website :: blog :: @annwoodhandmade

diy, rushmore beekeepers

My brother ‘n law Zach, (aka Rushmore Beekeepers) released a brand new cd the end of October. I helped him out with the design and in true diy-fashion printed, cut, folded and sewed the booklets together myself! Zach and Carrie (most-awesome-sister) folded all of the cd cases together drew the RB on the front with a handmade stencil and stamped ‘Rushmore Beekeepers – Throwing Mud at Your Streetlight’ on the case and printable cds.

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Pretty Calendars

I’ve never been big on calendars, strange for how into planners I am – these are gorgeous though!

Cats let nothing darken their roar

Ink and Wit

DIY Planner for 2010+

New color 8.5 x 11 printable planner pages through March of 2012! -$8
Included: 2010, 2011 year-at-a-glance, October 2009 – March 2012 monthly pages, fill-in-the-blank month & daily page, to-do & weekly appointment pages, goals & idea worksheets

$8, 40-page 8.5 x 11 PDF

(Buy now through paypal – you’ll receive an email within a few minutes with a download link to the file.)

Sample of pages:

View all pages to purchase and download here.

I remember, I can’t explain

How beautiful are these videos of Yo La Tengo by La Blogotheque?!

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DIY Masonite Panels w/frame

I was never happy with canvas, my fourth year of art school I tried masonite and never looked back! I love digging into the wood through the paint and gesso to pull out wood colors and textures. One of my favorite painting tools is an old nail!

Supplies

Masonite (Hardboard), 1″ x 2″ Plywood, Wood Glue, Nails, Hammer, Saw, Safety Goggles & a pencil

Trip to hardware store!

Bought a piece of 4ft x 8ft masonite ($12) – and had them cut it into 8 2ft x 2ft pieces. Also bought goggles and a little jigsaw (only $45 total, worth it if you’ll be doing a lot of sawing – hand saws are cheaper but SO much more work and time)

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