Crafty Chica Podcast!

I hope that you have big and exciting plans for tonight to do something fun. I still need to play outfit party for the soirée I am attending. This can take a really long time, not to mention I wanted to go get some fake nails and eye lashes. It’s new years why not go all out. Only problem is that it is cold so that totally kills all cute outfits, I might as well where my jammies under my coat.

Anyway if you are not going to spend the rest of the day putting your hair into hot curlers and painting your fake black fingernails to look like dominos then I thought you might want to listen to the podcast I did with Kathy Cano Murillo of Crafty Chica yesterday. We chat about Craft Lab, New Years Resolutions, Crafty Business Tips and more.

Remember Kathy is on the very first episode of Season 2 called “All That Glitters” airing Tuesday at 9am Central on HGTV!

Have a fun night and try not to get into too much trouble.

Craft Lab Season 2 starts Tuesday, here is the scoop!

I am super duper excited to that season 2 of Craft Lab begins this coming Tuesday Jan 2nd at 9am Central on HGTV. It is super duper awesome because not only is one of my very favorite guests of all time on the show, Kathy Cano Murillo of Crafty Chica, but my husband is a guest crafter. Look for the cute guy in one of Vickie Howell’s “I Heart Crafty Chicks” T-shirts!

On the new season you will notice something are a bit different than season one. The set is different for starters and I love it. Reminds me of my studio at home this way. We have added crafters to each episode to play along with the guest and I. There are several other tweaks and changes to keep your eyeballs peeled for I really hope everyone loves the new episodes.

As I mentioned the first episode is called Everything That Glitters with Kathy Cano Murillo. We make a glitter cactus garden and play with one of my old crafty standbys casting resin.



Wednesday another good friend of mine and repeat guest from Season 1 stops by, Traci Bautista. If it will sit still long enough Traci will figure out how to work it into her collage art. In this episode we paint with crayons and make some crayon cupcakes!

Thursday is the Leather Brew episode. This is the show I told you about with the Brew Holster Cult that you can watch a sneak peak of at DIY Network. These girls are so rad they are even in all girl ACDC cover band called AC/D Shee. I LOVE IT! The crafters play along and tool me a leather belt. Another fun bit about this segment is that Cat is off to the Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago for quizzes.

Friday is the Retro Home episode. Matt Maranian is the guest and we make one super duper rad coffee table out of bamboo. Not only is it made of bamboo, it can grow it as well. Or serve as a chip and dip table, it’s up to you. Matt is the author of one of my favorite home decorating books of all time Pad: The Guide to Ultra Living, so you know his crafts are good!

So please be sure to watch HGTV at 9am Central to catch the new episodes with Cat and I. Season 1 will be repeating on DIY Network at 11am Central.

Make Your Own New Years Eve Tiaras!

Sure you could just go out to the party store and pick up some cheap tiaras that say “Happy New Years”, but if you are a crafty kind of guy or gal you would make your own. Several years ago (as you can tell I have short hair in the picture) Erin, Tina, Hope and apparently my dog Lucy and I all got together to make tiaras for a New Years Party we were having. We went to the drug store and bought them out of cheap plastic head bands and then headed over to the craft store to stock up on pipe cleaners. When we came home we all just kind of sat around for a few hours and had a tiara making party. They were a huge hit that New Years which I think was 2001 going into 2002.



This year there is another party to prepare for so Cory, Hope, Erin and I all got together to do some handy work. The tiaras are really easy you just wrap the pipe cleaners around the head bands. If you want to make the crowns you just attach two pipe cleaners together to form a circle or base of the crown and adorn that just like you would the headband. For extra bling we also busted out the hot glue and gem stones. Randomly I also had a package of these foam tiaras that when we ran out of pipe cleaners and headbands we adorned.



So you have no excuse for non exciting head gear this New Years Eve. Just look at the pictures you could write words in pipe cleaners on a tiara or make and exploding oil rig crown. The possibilities are really endless.

Starship Pegasus

One of the best parts of my trip to Dallas for the holidays was when we pulled over in Italy, TX to let our dog Lucy go to the bathroom. In Italy/Ennis there is the Monolithic Dome Institute that you can see from the highway. You can’t miss it there to the east it is a community of domes, but the most prominent one is right up on the highway and is several large domes connected and painted to look like a caterpillar. A caterpillar with cowboy boots on if memory serves. Anyway, right up the road from the domes is this abandoned putt putt golf / ice cream parlor shaped like a giant spaceship. Let me reiterate that these places are in the middle of nowhere so it quite strange to out of nowhere crammed between a couple of truck stops spot the Starship Pegasus. Chris and I went to the truck stop first where we scored some gas and lemon drops then we decided to drive over to the space ship to let Lucy do her business for no other reason than we wanted a cheap excuse to walk around this intergalactic establishment. The putt putt range was maybe 12 feet long and 6 feet wide and right next to a major highway so it was clear to me why it didn’t make it. I found the sticker on the front door that says “We sell Blue Bell Ice Cream” almost as amusing as the graffiti alien that someone had doodled on the electric meter. Anywhoo, some people in Texas get their pictures taken with the Blue Bonnets, Chris and I think more people should stop on Italy to get their pictures taken with the regal Starship Pegasus.

Hope's Kitchen

I recently spent an evening at my sister's house and I was very jealous of her new kitchen cabinets. Hope that tricky thing went through and painted different sweet treats on all the doors. Here you are seeing Peeps, Gummy Bear, Twinkie, Doughnut and Banana Split. The other side cabinets are painted with delights like fortune cookies and ice cream cones. Man is that awesome looking. People should start hiring her to paint their own kitchen cabinets. Lord knows I might.

Big Girl Furniture

Man did it feel good on Monday to send out my last package. I know I have been a slack blogger, but as you might imagine December is the busiest time of the year for me. I can’t even count how many packages Travis and I must have shipped this month. I hope everyone is super happy with their jewelry. Besides packages to ship I have been trying to keep Parts and Labour and the Blue Genie Holiday Bazaar well stocked. That is where this picture is from it is the Austin Craft Mafia booth. I have oodles of one of a kind jewelry out there that if it does not sell will be hitting the website in January.

Speaking of January and Parts and Labour looks like my shelf will be moving there again. This time I am moving to a smaller shelf right in front of the cash registers. With the website and traveling for the TV show so much I am not always so hot at keeping my space stocked so a smaller shelf is a better deal for me. Keep your eyeballs peeled for new and exciting goodies in there.

On the TV show front, looks like it is official Monday January 2 season two of Craft Lab is premiering on HGTV. I am so excited the first episode is called “All That Glitters” and the guest is my good friend the adorable and talented Kathy Cano Murillo of Crafty Chica. The other hilarious part about that episode is that we filmed it when my husband Chris was visiting me and he got to be a guest crafter. It’s a giggler!

Ok I need to get ready for some reason I am torturing myself and going to IKEA today. I need new couches and I am currently torn between a cheap one from IKEA, recovering the 50’s ones I have or getting a new very over priced sofa that looks like it is vintage. Oh the drama of shopping for big girl furniture. I remember when a hand me down couch from grandma was all I needed. Oh for those days.

JoBoxers - Just Got Lucky

This video is totally redic, but I can't get this song out of my head and since it is not on ITUNES for download watching the video is my only option.

Forest Whitaker is 68% my celebrity look alike.

I found this link on a friend's My Space page and though I usually never fall victim to these type of things I had to try this one. It said to try it twice to see if the same people with different pictures came up more than once. The one repeat I see is Jennifer Lopez and besides the chubby cheeks, I don't really see a similarity.

If I was a more fragile woman the fact that I apparently look 68% like Forest Whitaker might break me, but actually it just makes me laugh. As does the fact that I seriously do look kind of like Lance Bass. On the second round it mentioned Molly Ringwald and that is who I have gotten comparisons to for years. The record label my husband and I own is called Has Anyone Ever Told You? Because a girl came up to us the night we were picking a name and said: “Has anyone ever told you that you look like Molly Ringwald?”. A lot of the people I have never heard of must be a lot of foreign actresses. Oh I did like the comparison to Ornella Muti. Dude that is the lady who played Princess Aura in Flash Gordon. As in Ming’s hot daughter. If only I looked like her, like I said I think I am closer to Lance.



So hope your holidays are going well. I am furiously booking through orders and Christmas parties. I have a party or dinner with friends every single night this week and sometimes 2 and three things a night. Monday night I made appearances at the Flipnotics Party at The Peacock, then Cory and I headed over to see Forward Russia at Stubbs then over to Side Bar to cap off the night. Last night we ladies of Stitch had our celebratory dinner at Uchi. It was the best sushi I have ever consumed. Tonight is dinner with Tina and Jenny. Whoo-hoo!

My cat, lil' Matt Damon.

Two important bits of information today.

1) Chris and I have decided to start calling our cat Georgie "Lil' Matt Damon". No reason in particular other than it makes us giggle. My sister Hope said that if I did that I had to change our dog Lucy's name to Ben Affleck, but I'm not doing that.

2) Don't forget TODAY IS THE LAST DAY TO ORDER FROM NAUGHTY SECRETARY CLUB to get your goodies to you before Santa.

"Quietly" by Adreon Henry

Today Chris and I drove out to Blue Genie and I picked up my Christmas present to myself, a new painting. I never buy art. Not because I don’t want to but honestly because I can never find pieces that match my house. I know to some true art connoisseurs that sounds like a really stupid thing to say, but I have a very distinct theme and color palette to my casa. When my eyes met with “Quietly” by Austin artist Adreon Henry my heart went pitter patter. My favorite color is chartreuse green and I love tigers. So much I have a pink and green one tattooed on my arm. So see it was meant to be. Here is the painting in its new home at my house what do ya think? I also got my glittery popsicle, but I'll blog about that when I get it hung.

In other news two more brief Austin restaurant reviews. I went to The Parlor for my first time last night and though the pizza was very good, it was not the best in town as I had been told. What was awesome was the band Ume that opened for Beta Valentine. Little girl singer and guitar player that I really dug.

Today Chris and I were aimlessly wandering around north Austin running errands and went into a Persian restaurant called Alborz for lunch. I have never had Persian food and now I want it all the time. They had a lunch buffet and everything was wonderful. Cherry rice might be one of my new favorite foods.

Thumb Texting is Hard.

You know I never realized how crucial fingernails are to using a Blackberry until today. I usually have fairly long fingernails, but as of late and a few jagged edges I trimmed all my nails off to sad little numbs. No big deal right? Wrong. Now when I am texting and emailing on my phone it is coming across like I have a first grade education because I am hitting all the wrong buttons. I suppose I will get used to this, but in the meantime please take pity on my misspellings I am used to using my fingernails not my thumbs.

Went and did more voice over work for Craft Lab today. Man do I hate parking around campus. I left my house 30 minutes before my appointment and was 30 minutes late because there was no parking. The University of Texas is a big place with clearly not nearly enough parking spots. Then the ones I can find are for 30 minutes only so I get parking tickets.

One more small rant…why is there an open Hawaiian Shaved Ice stand on S. First? It is 40 degrees here in Austin, who is buying shaved ice right now? I mean really.

Hey come out to the Parlor tonight on North Loop and see Chris’s band Beta Valentine play. I’ll be there.

Magazines and Art Shows

Wowsers I went to Borders yesterday and found 3 magazines of interest. The new winter issue of Venus is on the stands with the 2006 Hott List. This is like a reader’s poll for things like favorite band, book, and more. Naughty Secretary Club has been in the top 3 for Best DIY Business for the past 4 years, but this year we were tied for the number one slot. Like whoa! Thanks to everyone who voted for us. We are going to have another sale or something exciting to celebrate after the holidays. Also check out my Austin Craft Mafia buddies Sublime Stitching and Sparkle Craft in the top 3!

I also found a mention of Craft Lab in the latest issue of Adorn Magazine. Have you picked this mag up yet? It is seriously the cutest magazine in the world, I really love it. The projects, the styling, everything about it appeals to me. I need to start advertising in there. Anywhoodle, my friend Susan Beals (AKA Susan Stars from Portland Super Crafty) was sweet enough to mention Craft Lab in her column. In other exciting Craft Lab news I just found out that starting in January the show is going to be moving to a new time slot on DIY and the new season I just shot this fall will be airing on HGTV starting Jan 2. So if you could never watch the show because you don’t have DIY well now you can and check it out on HGTV and see what you are missing over on DIY.

The other magazine I found was the Love issue of Knit 1. Little early for Valentines day, but hey. If I knew how to Knit I am sure I would worship this magazine. It makes me want to knit and even years of friendship with Vickie Howell hasn’t done that for me. Anyway you can look all through the issue and see Naughty Secretary Club jewelry like Black Glitter Earrings and the Red and Gold Cha Cha Bracelet. I just had some pieces photographed for an upcoming nautical inspired piece they shot and yesterday I sent the stylists oodles of veggie themed goodies for Cutting Edge Magazine. I think Cutting Edge, Adorn and Knit 1 are all the same company. All are equally cute.


So today I have to go do more voice overs for Craft Lab in the studio. After I was telling you last time that the studio I did it at was where they tape Austin City Limits I just read they are building a huge venue to move the show to. Willie Nelson and lofts are involved, but everything in Austin seems to be related to those two things. This evening is the opening party for two amazing art shows that if you live in Austin you should come out to!

First up is the Gallery Lombardi Christmas show. Gallery Lombardi is getting bulldozed to build what…lofts of course, so this is their last show in this space. The gallery is moving somewhere else so don’t worry, but if you love an art show by train tracks this might be your last one. Take special notes on my friend Chris Hernandez’s pieces and my sister will be showing her series of self portraits painted into gangster clown girls.

After Lombardi tonight is also the opening night for the Blue Genie Art Bazaar. Naughty Secretary Club will have goodies in the Austin Craft Mafia booth, and some good goodies if I do say so. I made 15 one of a kind revamped vintage necklaces the other day that have not ever been on the website just for the show. I am excited because this year I saw some art that I might actually buy. There was a big chartreuse piece that had Tigers and piano keys on it and then a giant glittery popsicle. I’ll take some pictures and post them for you, but if you live in Austin come out to Blue Genie sometime between now and Christmas Eve to do some shopping and hang out.

Drakula and The Melting Pot: A Tale of two dining experiences.

So today’s blog is not going to be that relevant unless you live in Austin, because well it is a restaurant review. I don’t often do these, but this weekend I went to two new places: The Melting Pot and Drakula.

Friday night was the Melting Pot, located (pardon my French) way the hell up north on 183. I’m not even sure it was still Travis County. Chris’s company Christmas dinner was being held here and honestly I was excited to finally meet these people and put names to faces. We had our own little room so we could all get Fondue crazy and get to know each other. Let me say that I don’t like going to restaurants with strangers where things are served family style. Like where you all have to share. Not because I am afraid of germs, because you are always afraid to eat as much as you really want for fear of not leaving enough for the person sitting next to you. Same reaon I don't like PF Changs. Since there are communal hot cheese bowls involved in Fondue this was the case. Lots of little squares of bread and some various veggies to dip.

Second course we had to cook our own meat. You heard me, cook yourself. I for one don’t even put the frozen pizza in the oven around my house, let along come face to face with raw gelatinous chicken breasts. I was afraid I was going to get Salmonella or Ecoli. Sure there are hot boiling pots that you cook the meat in, but there is no timer and the room was dark so how do I know if I got everything cooked all the way. What a deal this restaurant has, they don’t have to cook. They serve everything raw and you pay $30 a person to do all the work. Actually the whole experience was pretty fun, I ended up getting plenty to eat and no food poisoning from undercooked meat ensued. Plus I got to chat with all of Chris’s co-workers who all turned out to be super nice.

Saturday afternoon Chris had the wild urge to go toot around town. This is usually something I love to do and he hates. Since he is at the office all week and I am home working all week on Saturdays I love the idea of going around to little shops and such and Chris since he is never home wants to lie on the couch or work in the yard. Since he had been working from home lately too he decided we were going to run errands around town. We went to Barnes and Nobles so he could blow a gift certificate and looked at books and magazines. Did a little couch shopping on furniture row: leather or cloth that is the question. Also went by our friend Chris Hernandez’s work where he was giving away pieces of art. He did an exhibit where he painted different atomic bomb explosion scenarios for everyday of the year (ya so he did 365 of them) and I got 9 awesome looking dates I am going to frame and hang. SO ANYWAY ABOUT THE FOOD… Chris decided we were going to go and try Romanian food at this place again way north called Drakula.

When we pulled up and the chalk sign out front said the daily specials involved cabbage, I was a little trepadacious. The interior was well, not good. The place is in a strip mall and the decorations are sparse. The techno Romanian music inside about drove me to drink. Before we ordered I noticed there was a review on the wall from Texas Monthly so I went with their recommendation of the stuffed cabbage with polenta. I tried to smile as we waited and be pleasant but I was actually really hungry and firmly convinced our food was going to suck (no pun intended). When our sweet little waitress came out to bring me my lunch it was a huge plate with sectional goodness. Going around the plate there were three perfect scoops of polenta, 4 stuffed cabbages logs that looked like spring rolls, 3 rosettes of sour cream, some sausages that were curled up on the ends and a pile of I guess string cabbage in the center. I took a bite bracing myself and low and behold – I liked it. I mean really liked it. Not something I would usually order or think to eat, but it was delicious. Chris ordered the stuffed bell pepper and sadly his was not as good, so I shared with him. If you are ever at the Capital City Comedy Club on 183 and the hunger pangs strike, go over to Drakula it’s in the same shopping center.