Porter Flea

Yesterday was East Nashville's Porter Flea art and craft show. This summer's show had some great work.

My favorite artist at Porter Flea was Tracey Milum. Her work is just amazing and brings out the little kid in me that is so fascinated with tiny, detailed things. I literally wanted to buy everything in her shop. Here's one of my favorites:

There were tons of other amazing artists at the show yesterday, and you can check out their work on the Porter Flea website. 

Little card designs

For once in my life, I'm planning ahead, and NOT procrastinating. I'm making some little designs for Christmas (and other holidays), and I will be turning these into cards to sell in my etsy shop. There will be many more to come, but here's what I have so far! I'm having so much fun cutting paper and making cute little pictures!  Which one is your favorite so far??

Tennis elbow, or something

For those of you that were following the story with my cat, Bubba, he's still on the mend. His liver numbers are still not quite normal, but he is eating like a little pig and was even acting like he was on crack this morning while playing with his toys. I think the following photos prove he's feeling somewhat better:

Needless to say, I'm glad he's acting like he's feeling better... those three weeks were very emotionally difficult for me.

As for other things going on, I was taken off the calendar at one of my jobs (whatever that means), so I'm now only working 40 hours a week. It's been quite some time since I've not worked more than one full time job. I have to say, even though I have no idea how I will make ends meet... it's kind of a huge load off to have some down time. And for the first time in a while I feel like I have my life back. While I'm only working 40 PAID hours a week, I'm still in full force stitching mode. Porter Flea (go ahead, click on it!) is fast approaching, and I'm not gonna lie, I'm way behind on my ties. Unfortunately for me, my whole right arm, from fingertips to shoulder, keeps getting tingly and becoming useless. I think it's the combination of the cake decorating I'm doing all day as well as the stitching I'm doing at night. So..... that should be interesting. I'm pushing through the pain right now, but if anyone has any words of wisdom to make that stop, please, let me know!

Lastly, I'm planning a photo shoot with some friends to show off all these ties I'm working on, so expect to see some really great pictures by my photographer friends soon!

Have a WONDERFUL week, because I said so.

lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

Well it's been a good week. On Tuesday, I hung my paintings at Bongo Java in East Nashville. It's the first time I've shown this series to strangers, so that feels.... kind of interesting. And I'm stitching away on my ties for Porter Flea. I have about 42 to go in order to reach my goal. YIKES! So if you don't see me for the next month.... you know why.

I just keep looking at this note I wrote myself

CONGRATULATIONS!! YOU'VE BEEN ACCEPTED!

That was the first line of the email I received yesterday from Porter Flea. The rest of the email explained that I was chosen to participate as a vendor at the Handmade Holiday Market. I will be selling ties and handkerchiefs, and I'm so excited as this is my first market to sell in. YAY! Hopefully all the cool people of Nashville will drive over to the east side and check out all the cool handmade gifts they can buy for people this year!
BUY HANDMADE!! :)

Stitching like a crazy person

I've been stitching my little fingertips to the bone this week in order to get these made:

Aren't they beautiful? The pictures I mean. My sweet friend Sharon took these yesterday.

I took a total of 10 ties to Art and Invention today, I'm hoping they'll do well! More pictures to come!

Enjoy your weekend....

Baby boys

All my friends seem to be having babies. One of my oldest friends is having a baby boy very soon, and yesterday I made him this tie. It'll be a few years, but hopefully one day he'll love it.

more ties

Cowboys and Cowgirls

I just wanted to take a minute to post some pictures of some things I've made in the last month or so.
I really love embroidering. It's just a different way to create line, color and texture. It takes patience and as I've mentioned before, that's something I'm working on in my own life.
And honestly, running my fingers over the stitching brings me joy. It just feels so awesome.

all the cool kids (will) have them

I've been meaning to do this for awhile... stitch on some ties. Most guys I know refuse to wear them, but maybe this will change their minds.... maybe?
My friend Rebekka and I went thrift store shopping yesterday. And there I saw them. Ties. Lots of them. Mostly weird ones, like with Santa Claus on them, or golf balls or something. But I picked up a few that I think will look very nice with some stitching on them.
And robots are so hot right now (said in a Mugatu from Zoolander accent).
I have some even better designs in my mind, but you'll have to wait on those.
These are my friends. They're married to each other. Aren't they cute?

But the best part of this day, is that my good friend Grace went into labor! So excited.

Birthday Bear

My nephew Rhys turned 1 yesterday! I have been fortunate enough to spend a lot of time around him during his first year of life. It's been really cool to see him change and grow. But it's just as cool to see my sister TOTALLY in love with her child.
Anyway, I made him this:

It's kind of funny looking, but hopefully he'll like it. I've really gotten into making my nieces and nephews gifts over the last year. There is just something special about it. And it's nice to sit and think about them while I'm creating a unique creature that's just for them.

This pattern came from a book called "Softies" by Therese Laskey. My sister Heather bought it for me for my 30th birthday. I'm glad to be using it! You can find it here: http://www.amazon.com/Softies-Simple-Instructions-Plush-Pals/dp/0811856526/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304017777&sr=1-1



Cards in the Mail

I made this today, for my friend Brenna in Colorado.

We've been friends for 17 years. SEVENTEEN. That's a lot of years. Most of those years, we've lived in different states. And sometimes we go months without talking. But we always pick up where we left off, like we just saw each other yesterday. Brenna is having a baby! I'm so excited for her, but I truly wish I was close enough to see her going through this lovely and amazing stage of her life.
So I made her this card. I've been thinking about how convenient technology is for keeping in touch, but also how much it's taken away from hearing each other's voices and seeing each other's handwriting. So I'm going to start making cards for people and mailing them. If you want one, email me (irony) your address (ashleystevenerart@gmail.com). And I challenge you to make more personal connections with your friends as often as you can.

Hankies for sale!

You can find some of these at The Family Wash in East Nashville until mid-February.

Grandma Jewel's Handkerchief

This was my grandmother's handkerchief, and I decided to embroider this pretty little bird and flower on it.

My Toms

After making my little sister some embroidered Toms, I had to have some as well...

Kristyn's Toms

I made these for my little sister for Christmas:

Sock animals for friends

I've been making large amounts of sock animals for friends... here are some I've made in the past week. Also, the bunnies I posted about awhile back... they're at a store called Made in East Nashville.... a great place that supports local artists. Yay!

Painted TOMS

I painted these for a dear friend of mine. They came out pretty dang cool if I do say so myself. I think I'm going to get myself some and embroider them... can't wait to show you how those turn out!

More embroidered converse

Therese had me make these for her... it only took me approximately 3 months to do them.

*pardon the caca photo*

Little Guys (and Girls)

I've finally gotten a chance to make some little friends after a long break from being creative. It was a nice vacation, but I'm glad to be back at "work". I spoke with the owner of MADE, a store dedicated to supporting local Nashville artists, and I will be selling some of these sock and glove animals there.... in the very near future. I'm working on tags for them, hopefully they come out FANTASTIC.

Anyway, the monkey and elephant were commissions from a very old friend (think Jr. High School) who I haven't seen in, um, 17 years?! What would we do without Facebook?

The bunnies are some that will be for sale at Made, along with others.

I feel like it's ironic that bunnies mate like crazy to make more bunnies, and here I am, cranking out bunny after bunny with needle and thread. Seems appropriate.

I'll also be updating my etsy shop soon... if I can remember the password. That's how long it's been.