Twenty Things -Here Kitty

1. When I was a kid, people called me “Little Roddy” because I looked so much like my dad.
2. I will go to the ends of the earth to help a friend unless they ask me to bail them out of jail.
3. My dream job when I was 10 years old: a race car driver.
4. My dream job when I’m 60 years old: to be a published author.
5. My cat’s full name is Cable Nathan Dayspring Summers Rodriques.
6. Clowns make me very uncomfortable, especially when they smile at me.
7. If it has cute ears and a tail, I want to take it home. Cats, dogs, bunnies, squirrels…
8. I love all kinds of music: classical, hard rock, jazz, rap, techno. The list is endless.
9. One of my dreams is to visit every continent on the planet.
10. If I really want to dance I won’t hesitate to hit the dance floor, even by myself.
11. At various stages of my life, I have been a redhead and a blonde. (I’m a brunette naturally.)
12. If I ever win the lottery, I’m going to change my name and move to Tokyo.
13. I love to read. I’ve been known to tear through a 350 page book in one day.
14. Spinach is my favorite food. Really. I’m not kidding.
15. Apples run a close second.
16. I love Japanese anime and watch it every chance I get.
17. I can be bribed with good chocolate.
18. I hate having my picture taken.
19. I love hugs, giving and receiving them.
20. Making jewelry keeps me (somewhat) sane!

Post written by Here Kitty

Let's Go Out: Farmer's Market

It's that time of year, warm weather brings people out to the local farmer's markets to purchase fresh and locally grown produce, flowers, and well pretty much anything!


Don't forget to take your reusable bags with you! This tote from Happy Family has the farmer's market feel!


Beat the heat in this light weight linen sun dress by Azulsol


And you can shade your face from the suns rays with this adorable hat by Freckles California

written by Lauren of JerseyGirlDesign

What I'm Working On: Designs by Leslie

What I’m working on now: Waist Not - wine bottle belt buckles

As part of my new eco-friendly ‘drinking for art’ line of glass work, I have designed these belt buckles made from wine and other spirit bottles.





A section of the bottle is cut and then fused in my kiln. I made a mold to slump the glass over during the second firing so the glass can be attached to buckle hardware.
Friends have generously been dropping off their empty wine bottles. I’m not sure what my neighbors think, as I leave in the morning and will come home to multiple empty bottles on my front porch. My favorite bottles to work with are the painted labels. When I shop for wine, I am now much more into the color of the glass and if the label is painted than what is on the inside.




My most recent acquisition was this a bottle of Belvedere Intense 100 proof vodka. The price was high, but then I remembered how much I have paid for sheets of special glass from Bullseye or other glass companies. I know that the buckle is going to be amazing, I just hope I don’t end up in rehab trying to get the bottle emptied.



Love what you do, do what you love!

My Favorite Etsy Shop: katedurkin

Wanna know why I fell in love with katedurkin?



because of this guy... that's why. As a dachshund owner, I am fairly smitten with any and all things Doxie... but I'm also super picky; if it's not as cute as my little short legged wonder, I'm not interested. This Dachshund Pillow is on its way to my house as we speak.

Once she'd gotten me in the "door", I couldn't resist so many other sweet things in her shop.



Like these adorable Owl Pillows. They are embroidered by hand! I love that.

And for the walls?


Well, how about this beautiful print?

Written by danamarie of greenstarstudio

Random Baltimore Photo

photo by Carlos Vigil; for info, click here.

Pile of Craft! Today!

Looking for a great way to spend the day AND a chance to catch a bunch of BEST member's in one place? Today's the day---
head on over to 2640 St Paul Street, Baltimore MD 21218, inside St John's Church, for the Charm City Craft Mafia's Pile of Craft.

This year's fair will have over 40 of the best local and national crafters, as well as craft and printmaking demonstrations and a raffle to win a huge basket full of goodies by supporting The Village Learning Place!! Check out our vendors beforehand by clicking on their name below.

Friday Finds: I See the Moon

Nothing inspires me more than the moon! I love the silvery glow of a full moon when the sky is clear. There is something mysterious about the moon and the way it makes me feel when I gaze up into the night sky. Here are a few things to inspire you!


Hush - Original Light Reactive Painting - Modern Zen - Glows in the Dark by Shayla Maddox


Sunset Tree in Fuschia and Purple Batik Hemp Dress by Batik Walla


Vintage Moon Globe by Rain Wheel

Written by Erica of CEK Custom Designs

My Three Things

Anyone who lived in the D.C. area during the '80s and '90s remembers the great old radio station WHFS and Weasel the DJ. Weasel had a daily feature called "My Three Songs"; in this game, he would present three songs that had a common thread, theme, or leitmotif, and the object was for the listeners to guess what it was.

Here are three items by Etsy artists. What do they have in common? Give your answer in the comments below!


Punk Rock Jewel Pink, Green, Turquoise, Black Scarf by Crickets Creations


Southern Sweet Tea Soap by Lanabella


Purple Glazed Ceramic Bowl by Mary Everett

Written by Erica of CEK Custom Desigsn

Pile of Craft THis Saturday!

This Saturday is Charm City Craft Mafia’s 4th annual Pile Of Craft! A one-of-a-kind craft fair for Baltimore, featuring 40+ of the country's best handmade crafters selling their own housewares, stationary, screenprinted & sewn apparel, jewelry, handbags, hats, knit items, woven scarves, plush toys, ceramics, comic books, prints, paintings and more! Support handmade and local artists and meet them in person!

A number of BEST members will be participating in this awesome event:

Jamie Zollars, Sweet Pepita, Maneating Flower, Elisa Shere Jewelry, The little Bean, Found Studio, Boxerbox Press, Sugarpaperie, The brokenplate, Tigerlilyshop ,Yummy and Company, jennyjen42, Dandelion Blu , and Block Party Press.At our BEST table will be: greenstarstudio, Design by Night, Atelier-Beads, and Jill Popowich designs. Check out the vendors page here.

Pile of Craft is absolutely free to attend and open to all ages. I hear a rumor that a photobooth will be there! Don’t miss this amazing event!

June 26th 10-5pm

2640 St. Paul Street

Baltimore, MD 21218

In the Studio with Maneating Flower: Fighting the Good Fight

When it comes to making letterpress flasks, I view the entire working process as a battle of wills between myself and my materials. It’s a struggle, I assure you. Never having come across another letterpress printer who primarily uses leather, nor one that makes flasks, there wasn’t exactly a how-to guide for getting it done. The result? All out war between what I want to accomplish and the materials that don’t want to do what I say.

Getting the printing process to work at all was my toughest battle. See, leather doesn’t like being printed on. Most normal printing inks don’t dry on leather, except for water-based ink which dries nicely but runs when you get it wet. This isn’t exactly a desirable quality when you’re making a product meant to hold liquor. After a full year of experimenting with different inks, and at the suggestion of some sweet (albeit confused) commercial printers, I found the perfect ink. Me 1, Materials 0.



I have similar stories with my adhesives, my threads, my tape, even the size of my leather panels, and through these I have emerged victorious. However, there are some times when my materials completely kick my butt.

Winter apparently isn’t a good time to print if your studio is set up in an unheated garage. This isn’t because you’re more or less freezing, it’s because different viscosity inks don’t mix when they aren’t warm. They look like they mix, they feel like they mix, then you roll a slab and your beautiful teal ink is has giant transparent splotches in it. These splotches transfer to your brayer too. I pretty much freaked out at this one and thought I was going to be out of commission for a while. Warming up the ink fixes the problem, but the stress and worry this caused me was definitely a score for the inks.

Another huge problem I had was with registration of multiple plates. While I may have won the war with this one, I sorely lost the first few battles. In general, leather is hard to work with, especially when it comes from old clothing. It’s worn in spots, fuzzy in others, and really loves sticking to ink but not always to the backing paper used to keep it stable. The first time I tried registering two plates it went so horribly wrong. Nothing was working out. The results weren’t predictable, so anything I did to compensate for the misregistration didn’t help. Apparently the stretchiness of the leather was partially to blame, and each piece of leather stretches differently from every other piece. Talk about major frustration. The second attempt wasn’t as bad, but I had problems with the leather shifting on press. Recently I fixed both of these problems with a better jig and enough spray adhesive to choke a small planet. Yes, these are fairly obvious solutions. No, I do not ever do things the easy way first.

Overall, I feel like I win the vast majority conflicts with my materials. I’m sure the score is really about even by now, but my failures force me to keep trying and eventually I wind up with a better product. And while I may spend most of my days cursing and covered in glue, ink, solvents, and tape, I seriously love every second of it. And that’s a victory right there.


Written by Ned of Maneating Flower