SOME MORE JEWELRY

Remember the set of pink earrings that I sold around Christmas? Well, the person who ordered them came to me with a request that I make a matching pendant/necklace, so here is what I did:

I quite like it, actually :)

SPRING IS HERE!

I love it when everything is blooming!

PAINTED GLASS BOTTLES: RED

Enjoy my newest creation (the dark green bottle with red butterflies) along with a slightly older creation (the clear bottle with red roses).
The theme for this post: the color RED (obviously)
:)

***

Насладете се на най-новото ми творение (зелената бутилка с червените пеперуди) заедно с едно малко по-старо творение (прозрачната бутилка с червените рози).
Темата на този пост: ЧЕРВЕНОТО (очевидно)
:)

GORGEOUS BOOK

A few weeks back I managed to get my hands on a really gorgeous book by author Laini Taylor, called Lips Touch: Three Times, which features some wonderful illustrations by Jim Di Bartolo.

Now this is the kind of true gem that can make a bookworm and art nut like me jump around the room with enthusiasm like a little kid.

Not much is conventional about this book: not the format, not treatment of the topic, and definitely not the design and illustrations. It is a book about kisses, and yet there is nothing ordinary about them or what they mean. These kisses are life-changing, but they are neither cliche-sugary, nor for the faint of heart. These are not your average Disney-like fairy tales, but compelling - and maybe even a little haunting - novelettes with a twist. The illustrations, all done in shades of black and red, are just as eerie and delicious as the author's prose. Clustered in the beginning of each story, they reveal past events that we otherwise only glimpse at in the plot. The design of the whole book - from the ornamental backgrounds and red initials to the red and black borders of the illustrations - is done with great care and attention to detail. This investment definitely paid off, as the book was a finalist for the National Book Award in 2009. It also paid off because people are in love with the beauty that is this book.

And, honestly, how cool is "Spicy Little Curses Such as These" for a story title! VERY cool, this is what I say :)

Enjoy some images of this book that I took this weekend (and I hope I'm not breaking any copyright laws or anything by posting them; that's definitely not my intention):

P.S. Have you guessed who did the cover design yet? Christopher Stengel, of course. Man, this guy is good.

FUN TEES

Today t-shirts are not just a piece of clothing. They are a fashion statement. They are a personal statement.

Everyone has a favorite t-shirt or a bunch of favorite t-shirts. They can be rock concert tees, crazy or unique tees, branded tees, tees with artwork, typetees with funny slogans and whatnot...you name it, it's out there and people are wearing it to define themselves in a certain way.

Personally, I love graphic tees or typetees. I was browsing the stores for a new addition to my favorite bunch of tees, but since I was being picky and wanted something that would scream "this tee is soo 'Kossi'," you can imagine that I didn't have much luck finding anything. That's when I decided that if I can't find anything I like, I might as well try and make something myself.

I decided to start with something easy, such as making a t-shirt with some kind of slogan, and move to something more complicated (like a drawing of some sort) later on, when I know what I'm doing. After some thinking about what I wanted the t-shirt to say, I chose "curly crazy bookworm." It is very "me" (which is totally what I wanted) and it had a nice symmetry, which I could use in making the design.

I got lucky finding cheap basic t-shirts with a nice fit because of all the sales that have been going on for the past few weeks. I also got Marabu paints for textiles, which you can buy in various art stores (for example, Импресия and Слънчоглед in Sofia).

I played around with the text in Word in order to find the right font with a clean but not too boring look. I printed the final design and cut out the letters with a crafts knife to make a stencil, like the one you can see below:

Next, I painted the "curly crazy" part of the design in pink, attaching the stencil to the t-shirt with some tape and placing another sheet of paper under the fabric to keep me from staining the back of the t-shirt. I wasn't overly careful with applying an even layer of paint, though, because I wanted the t-shirt to have a kind of untamed, very slightly grungy look to it.

I let it dry and then ironed the design with a hot iron to fix the paint, following the instructions on the Marabu textile paint bottles. I repeated the same process for the "bookworm" part of the design, and voila - I had my t-shirt!

Anyway, some of my other favorite t-shirts include:
- my geeky Harry Potter inspired t-shirt that says "I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good" at the front and "Mischief managed!" at the back. I made three such t-shirts (using fabric markers) for me and two of my best friends, who also happen to love the Harry Potter books :)
- my Happy Bunny tees. Man, I love those. Especially the holiday tee that says "So I've been naughty, so what?" under an image of the bunny wearing a Santa hat. That one cracks me up every time. Check out Jim Benton's Happy Bunny website
- a bunch of Billabong, O'Neil and Roxy graphic tees that don't have any cheeky sayings on them, but feature some awesome designs.

Finally, some useful links for great graphic tees:
- Threadless: www.threadless.com
- IndieShirts: www.indieshirts.com
- BustedTees: www.bustedtees.com

PAINTED GLASS BOTTLES

Another shorty-short post from me: I just started photographing some of the glass bottles that I've painted in the last year or so, and I decided to upload one of the photos here. Painting on glass is another hobby of mine (yes, I have lots of them). Besides, painted glass bottles or glasses make great gifts. They can be used simply as decoration, or they can serve as candlesticks or vases.

***

Още един кратък пост от мен: започнах да правя снимки на стъклените бутилки, които съм изрисувала през последната година и реших да кача една от снимките тук. Рисуването върху стъкло е още едно от моите хобита (да, имам доста такива). Освен това, изрисуваните стъклени бутилки са супер за подаръци. Те могат стоят просто като декорация или да се използват за вази или свещници.

MORE HANDMADE EARRINGS AND PENDANTS

CUY68CEMWYXS

Over the holidays I sold a bunch of my handmade earrings and pendants (which was pretty great), so I though I'd share some images with you. I'm also thinking about setting up an Etsy shop. If you don't know what Etsy is, go check it out right now because there's some awesome stuff there: www.etsy.com

***

Около празниците успях да продам доста от моите ръчно изработени обици и медаьони (което беше супер) и реших да ви покажа малко снимки. Освен това мисля да си направя Etsy магазин. Ако не знаете какво е Etsy, веднагически отидете да проверите, защото там има страхотни нещица: www.etsy.com