What did you discover today?

Ok, I’ll go first. Hmmmm, I’m thinking… thinking…. thinking…thinking.

Yikes. I’m suddenly realizing that I didn’t really discover anything “on my own.” Those moments of sheer delight in my day were made possible by you. Yes you – out there.

A la mode got me keyed into notcot.org. Erica who set up the Electro Dub Tango station on my Pandora. Grace from Design*Sponge who reminded me (and many others) about Outstanding In the Field. My dear friends at Etsy (I don’t really have any – but I think we’d get along) for leading me to Baby Jives!

Thanks to our interconnectedness – it’s a time of great discovery. Let’s savor it! Let’s get fascinated – like the adorable baby who gazes at these beautiful mobiles.

Here’s to Baby Jives! Aren’t they fabulous?

A little bird told me – fabric sculpture on yarn wrapped branch

Three little birds told me – fabric mobile with yarn wrapped branches

Continuing with our spotlight on Team HiP members, I am happy to feature Jen of Peachy Tuesday. Jen is no stranger to this blog as she was recently interviewed by our own Ellie. Jen has been a huge supporter of our team, all while being a talented craftsperson and mommy. Here are some of her delightful items:

Silver and Sage Green Headband

Deconstructed and Re-purposed Girls Skirt

Hand Stitched Felt Birdie Headband

Celery Green and White Swiss Dots Hair Clip

Since I’ve taken over the Handmade in PA Street Team a few short months ago, it has grown to almost 60 members! While we are still building momentum, I think we are well on our way to having a supportive group of artisans and crafters here in PA.

Alice In Wonderland Journal

One of the many talented members is Jenny from the Painted Lily. Her work features vintage inspired kaleidoscope collages, alongside handmade home decor items featuring her artwork. Here are just some of the gorgeous pieces Jenny has created. Enjoy!

And Her Eyes Met His

What She Found In The Trunk- Journal

Stone Coaster Set- Rich Colors

Look at that face. Adorable.

Up-cycled shirt

Based in Lancaster, PA, Jen Hartman designs hand cut, hand stitched hair accessories and up-cycled clothing, using bright colorful felt, buttons and fabric. I talked to Jen about her inspiration, beginnings and how she balances crafting while raising her two daughters.

“I have been crafting, thinking and actively creating for as long as I can remember,” says Jen. “As a child I made pillows and doll clothing for my toys. As a teen I enjoyed raiding my father’s closet for ‘vintage’ clothes and adjusting them to fit me and my friends. (early day up-cycling) I have dabbled in collage many times over in my lifetime, have always adored photography…Being artsy is just in my blood.”

Jen describes herself as “a 36 year old ice cream-addicted mother of two sweet, saucy, adorable little girls (ages 5 and 7), and wife to a dashing, supportive, artistic well, just plain awesome husband.” As well as keeping her entertained, Jen’s two daughters were the inspiration for her Etsy shop, Peachy Tuesday. “When my girls grew to be preschoolers and their hair started to “accept” doo dads, I started buying barrettes, headbands and clips galore. Eventually after being unimpressed with the holiday hair accessories I could find I made some holiday headbands of my own. They gained rave results from friends, even strangers!

Funky headband

“I made some hair clips using the same style and the same occurred. I enjoyed looking at the hair doodles on my happy little ladies, but the friendly compliments were wonderful as well. In addition to making hair accessories I have always adored photography. Consequently, I photographed everything I made, and posted the pictures to Flickr. A friend of mine, also a crafter, saw my pictures and urged me to sell my hair goods. I wavered, feeling little confidence, but eventually decided why not?”

Jen has been selling on Etsy ever since and has recently started looking into other outlets to raise the profile of her accessories. “I recently attended my first craft show in Lancaster, at Landisville Camp Meeting. I will be setting up Crafty By Nature at Shupp’s Grove in July and August as well. In addition I have sitting on my desk, an application to become a consignor at Hodge Podgery in Harrisburg.”

Jen’s items are bright, different and extremely cute and she is right on the mark with what attracts her buyers. “I feel like the abstract nature of most of my headbands and embellished clothing is different from tons of things available out there. I love playing with color, Hand me a pile of crazy colorful felt and I go nuts!”

Another funky headband

Like many artists and crafters, Jen sometimes struggles to find time for everything, especially combined with raising two little girls! She says, “I have never calculated the number of hours I spend with Peachy Tuesday related things. I sure feel like it is full time! I do also work part time at night in the image department of a direct mail magazine, AND by day I am a CEO of household/momma. Both of my little girls will be in full-day elementary school in Fall 2010. This monumental time will be sad in many ways but I do look forward to having a lot more time to work on Peachy Tuesday.”

Jen Working

“I work in my kitchen, my office and living room. Sigh, I’d love to have a studio. It is a goal in the next two years to have our attic bedroom converted to a studio space. For now working amongst the chaos of the high traffic areas of my home is just fine though.”

As Jen grows her business, gaining support in the local area is essential. “The handmade scene in PA is great! I attribute so much of what I have learned and gained from the awesome support I have found online with the hand-makers here in PA. Honestly, if it was not for all the support I have found making online friends I’d have closed up shop long ago!”

For more information, visit Jen’s Etsy shop, follow her on Twitter and check out her Facebook Page.

Ellie is a UK-based designer of handknit and crocheted accessories. In her rare time away from the needles and hooks, she can be found scouring Etsy and Folksy for cute and quirky handmade items, and chatting to indie sellers via Twitter, Facebook and blogs. Ellie sells her creations via Etsy.

If you’re a soon to be bride, or know of one, or you have a love for flowers and other pretties, you will love this week’s artist. I am in love with Kacey’s shop, Twisted Crystals, and in awe of what she has accomplished. Kacey’s work has been all over Etsy since I joined, and I’m sure long before! Enjoy a day in her life.

Most week days start with my phone ringing around 7am. This will be one of my three sisters calling to chatter away while they drive to work. If I’m lucky I’ll hear a few giggles in the background from my adorable 2 year old nephew, Ethan. From there it’s time to pull myself out of bed and get ready for the day. Making berry fruit smoothies for breakfast and packing lunch for Greg (my boyfriend, best friend and endless supporter) to take to the office.

Then the emails begin, mostly through Etsy. I’ll spend the first 1 to 4 hours replying to emails and trying to catch up with clients about custom orders (92% of my business). Depending on the time I’ll try to work on a few orders before grabbing a quick lunch, usually wheat naan and hummus.

From here I’ll continue to work on layout designs for custom orders and new pieces. Setting up Ella (the dress form wearing the wedding gown) for photos, editing the images in Photoshop and back to emailing to send these images out or put up new listings. I’m still working on switching over to having packages collected from the home studio. If needed for international orders I’ll run out just before 4pm to drop them off with my ‘work associate’ Bill at the Post Office (okay fine, he works for USPS, but when you work by yourself all day its nice to get out and talk about shipping locations and the weather (its a very small post office)! On the quick four mile drive home I’ll stop to pick up groceries and supplies if needed.

It’s usually between 4:30 or 5 at this point so I’ll do my best to sew a few more pieces together and photograph them before Greg gets home. We’ll have dinner together and go for a lovely walk at Longwood Gardens (basically in our back yard) or through our neighborhood. From here we’ll tuck in together on the couch, he’ll read while I put together new layouts, sew or reply to the thankfully never ending emails. Depending on the evening we’ll be up until about midnight before my eyes grow weary and my hands are tired.

I’m incredibly fortunate to do what I love and work from home. The one piece of advice I would give someone hoping to make this move would be to really follow your heart and don’t give up!

This week I’m proud to feature fellow Team HiP member, Staci of Contempo Jewels. Staci is a busy mom, who creates lovely jewelry and hairpieces. Enjoy a day in her life!

7:30 Is wake up time! Time to get my son and daughter off to school. I am not a morning person, so I may yell a lot in the mornings. I need a good hour to adjust to consciousness. If it weren’t for my kiddos, I’d probably sleep til around 10:00ish.

8:30 Everyone is gone, peace and quiet!  I begin my routine with coffee, breakfast and interweb all at the same time… it’s a talent! I check etsy, facebook, emails, twitter, etc. I spend a good part of the morning answering emails, responding to convos, relisting on etsy, doing promotion for events. Around 9:00 I feed my dogs and run them out, then it’s back to my computer.

11:00 I am ready to get to my studio at Surface Artist Cooperative. At my studio I get my orders ready to ship, take pictures of work,  tag and display new work and I generally have a couple of appointments for bridal pieces, repairs, custom work, corporate gifts, consignment and putting on events. If I have some extra time, I squeeze lunch in and I might make a piece or two.

2:00 I will run to the post office, bank or anywhere else I need to go before my kids come home.

3:00 They’re home and they are hungry! I will chat a little bit about their day at school, have a snack, look at the papers they bring home. Then they do homework and some cleaning. I’m back on the interweb! I post my new pictures, I send them to clients, list on etsy, add them to facebook. I make up any invoices that may need to go out.

5:00 I make coffee for my husband and I. We chat a bit and I start dinner. Dinner time is important to me, I like to sit together as a family.  Conversations include “Why are you so mean?”, “I don’t like what you made for dinner” and my favorite “I hate my brother/sister”. But, I wouldn’t change it for the world! After dinner I clean up a bit and then it’s back to work!

7:30 I finish any interweb business I didn’t finish earlier and then start production. I really like to create at night. There is something very soothing about the process and it is hard for me to sit still during the day. At night I can concentrate and focus. I am generally behind on my work, so it isn’t hard for me to “find” something to make. I am rarely uninspired, I have a check list in my head of what I need to accomplish that day and I rarely achieve my expectations.

10:00 It’s time for a glass of wine. The kids are asleep and I’m still working. If I don’t have any early meetings, I may stay up and work until about midnight. Otherwise, I go to bed around 11:00. A girl needs her beauty sleep!

Hard metallic silver and soft vibrant felt.  It’s an uncommon combination but they look as if they were destined to be together.

WearableJULES is from Juleann Benkoski, a recent graduate of Millersville University. She sums up her inspiration like this:

When I first decided to become a full time creator, I knew I had to focus on what made me happy. What makes me happy everyday? Color! Crafting fun, colorful, and lightweight jewelry keeps me inspired. I figured if I couldn’t create in my studio everyday and be happy, then why create at all?  It’s so exciting to hear people at craft fairs say, “You can really tell you love what you do!” I get a little giddy every time that happens.

Her joy and playfulness shines through in everything she creates from the early bird crew series (above) to necklaces, earrings and cuffs.

Want to see more? Stop by Juleann’s blog, etsy shop and Faceook fanpage.

What is pyrography? The art of burning images onto wood using a heated tool or a fine flame. Basically wood-burning. These works aren’t just wood-burnings but also mix in mixed media elements. Artist Lauren Gray explains her inspiration on her blog:

I love to explore textures and depth, whether it comes in the form of the knots and split bark of my woodburned tree pieces, or the process of trying to pull depth and interest from my bare bones mixed media pieces. I favor monochromatic works in most respects, as I find myself distracted by color and prefer the subtle appearance of a muted palette.

They’re gorgeous.

Cathedral

Figurative

Homegrown

Found

Companions

TeamHiP is an Etsy street team comprised of artists and makers featured on this blog. Below is a sampling of what you can find when you go to etsy.com and type in ‘teamhip‘ to find members of this new-ish group.

Be sure to follow them on Twitter and Facebook.

Hummingbird by 111collagedesign

Ginkgo Earrings by contempojewels

Assorted Ceramic Washers by JoanMillerPorcelain

CUPCAKES cover by brookiellen

Reusable Waterproof Snack Bag by The Point

Capelet by PrettyCoolClothes