ICE Artlantis

Last Saturday, Missy and I headed out to Atlanta to attend the I.C.E. ATLANTA SUMMER MARKET at the AMBIENT PLUS STUDIO in Mechanicsville. We're usually on the other side of the table at I.C.E., but our big ambitious plans for the sale fell through when we ran short on time and stock, and frankly, we didn't want to put out a half-assed effort. Anyways, we happily went to show our support by shopping for unique handmade goods from the 80-plus vendors in attendance...



We were particularly impressed with NOOSH STUDIOS who BLOCK PRINTED his original designs onto t-shirts, right on the spot:





We stopped at CUYLER HOVEY-KING's booth, a perennial favorite of Missy's for jewelry...



Another I.C.E. regular was the PROTOTYPIST INDUSTRIES booth, where their prototyping "printer" will build up intricate designs layer by layer. It looked like they even had a HAND SCANNER that could scan your dimensions (or any other object) into a computer, render a 3-D design, and then "print" and actual object. Pretty cool!



Missy bought a cute little NEEDLE FELTING KIT from the ATLANTA INSTITUTE OF STICHES & CRAFT:











At the FERNWORKS booth, Missy couldn't resist the ring that had a tiny BIRD'S NEST with tiny BLUE EGGS, encased in resin:





There's this ANTIQUE SCALE at Ambient Plus, a reminder of the building's former life before it was converted into a photo studio and mixed-use building. Missy weighed herself and came up at around 100 pounds (she's never weighed more than 100 pounds). I half-joked that her bag and all the contents in it made her a good 6 or 7 pounds heavier than she usually weighed:







After our little shopping spree at I.C.E., we met up with our friends Juliet and Jeremy (of GOLD-BEARS fame) and their little daughter Sophie, for some lunch in downtown Atlanta. They suggested we try this new restaurant in town called TAKOREA (clever, right?), which served up the sort of Korean-Mexican fusion cuisine that was first popularized in Southern California. Suffice it to say, the food was beyond delicious...





Their menus had these adorable CHILDREN'S BOOK ILLUSTRATIONS:









Missy and I split a plate of fries sprinkled with a healthy mix of Korean-inspired seasonings. Missy also got a tofu taco and a tempura avocado taco and I got a forearm-sized tofu burrito (which wasn't as interesting to photograph as the tacos and fries). Everything we ate was spicy as all get out:





After lunch, Missy and I headed out to the ARTLANTIS art and music festival, in Poncey-Highland. The festival was held at the DRUID HILLS BAPTIST CHURCH, right across the street from the holiest of hipster wastelands, UrbanOutfitters:













Bands set up and performed on the steps of the church and the spectacle slowed traffic on the busy Ponce de Leon avenue. We were able to catch a set by FAUN AND A PAN FLUTE before trekking back to Athens...

My Sleeping Bunny and the Dainty Squid

Do you know Kaylah from the Dainty Squid? She is one of my all time favorite bloggers. Please check out her blog, I especially love her outfit posts. Aw, look! Here is her photo of her wearing my Sleeping Bunny Wood Pin. Doesn't my wood pin look great with her jean jacket and vintage dress?


I also love the woodland backdrop with such a lovely outfit. Kaylah is the cutest!


You can get your very own bunny pin from my Shoppe Sugar Cookie on Etsy!

Dolly Day

I took a needle felting workshop at our favorite local store, TREEHOUSE KID & CRAFT. My class made needle felted dolls. Here is mine, this is the first step. This is the form for the body, including the head.




I made my doll by working on needle felting the head and body first. Then I worked on the arms and legs. Here is my doll in progress. I think it looks sort of like a marshmallow head and body!




I attached the arms by needle felting them to the body. The teacher said to try and make this as seamless as possible. This takes a lot of poking the felt with the special barbed needle. It is fun, and the more you felt the wool, the tighter it becomes, and my doll sort of shrunk a little at this point. It did help shape the doll's neck and arms, though.


I added the legs the same way I added the arms. Here is my doll in progress.


I decided my doll is mori girl inspired, so I gave her natural color tights. I used a light color that was mottled and pale tan color.


This is as far as I got in my first class! I really like how my doll is shaping up at this point.


I worked on some outside of my class, too. I added brown shoes with yellow buttons. I think they look really mori girl and they came out so cute!




I added a camisole as her underpinnings.




And then she got some undies!






Here I added her hair. Then I felted it at the part. I did mine down the center and I made braids. I did not felt or tie the braids, so later on I can maybe give her a different hair style later on. I think she looks cute with the long braids. She looks really mori girl then!


I am adding her face next.




Now she has a face! I made her have green eyes.




I sewed her some clothing - a top from an old turtleneck my mom gave me. I used a boatneck shirt pattern from my Blythe dolls. It fits her pretty good! I made a little skirt from some eyelet lace.






Then my dolly went to school!

Nilla One-Hundred And Twenty Nine