Knit Aid by: Vickie Howell

Don’t you love it when you get presents unexpectedly? Who doesn’t really? Yesterday was one of those days. I stumbled into the gym way too early with only 2 Diet Cokes in my system and climbed on board an elliptical machine waiting for my friend, co-partner in Craft Out Loud and author Vickie Howell to join me. When she walked in much to my surprise she had a signed copy of her new book Knit Aid for me. I even scanned the signature in for you to see so you wouldn’t think I was lying. I don’t knit even though as you can see from where Vickie signed she has tried to several times to “bring me over to the knitting dark side”. I may not knit, but I know a good book when I see one and this is it.



Knit Aid: Rx for the Knitter is a learn it, fix it, finish it guide for the knitter on the go. I envy the knitter that their craft is portable and they can take it with them wherever they go. We jewelry designers do not have the same luxury and I am a touch bitter about it. This book is totally portable, it is not even as thick as my Blackberry so talk about handy to drop in your purse. Afraid the book might get beat up in your purse? Don’t be it is hard back. One of my other favorite qualities, and I think all craft and cook books should be this way, is that it is spiral bound. That way it lays nice and flat and stays open to the page you want. If I am making a project from a book that is smack in the middle and I need to see the instructions I find it very frustrating when the book keeps closing out of sheer logistics as to how it was made like it is flipping me off on it’s way to closing saying “ha-ha you will never get to make this project”. Knit Aid will stay open mentally holding your hand the whole time thanks to Mr. Spiral. I am quite partial to the illustrations throughout the book. The artist Leela Corman illustrated another of my favorite books You Grow Girl by Gayla Trail. Bless this girl’s heart I remember taking digital pictures of Vickie’s hands on more than one occasion holding what seemed like a million needles at once so she could email her the photograph to then be illustrated. Drawing rounds being jointed on double pointed needles is no easy feat I’m sure. I also like to think that with Knit Aid I have been illustrated. Since 99% of the jewelry Vickie owns and wears was made by the wee little elves at Naughty Secretary Club (AKA me) and she is wearing a necklace and earrings on the cover, it feels like I too have been illustrated. Did I mention the book is under $10 bucks!

So if I were to knit this would be one of the first books I scored myself. One day I am sure Vickie will eventually score another one of the knitty team and I’ll get hooked. Be sure and read this fun interview I did with Vickie about her book Not Another Teen Knitting Book. Sometime you should listen to the podcast I did with Vickie on CRL called Bringing Home and the Crafty Bacon. Also peep the video Vickie made below. It's a real life tour of Knit Aid! We both scored ourselves Flip cameras and she is being better about using hers than I am. One day I promise I will vlog, that just means I would have to get out of my jammies and put on make up and that seems so daunting.

36 Pieces of Art I May Not be Able to Live Without

One of my goals for 2008 was to buy more art. Or at least buy more art prints. Now that Chris and I are getting more serious about moving our bedroom I have started thinking deep home decorating thoughts. We are moving into the master bedroom which was once Naughty Secretary Club Headquarters before the garage conversion. I have started perusing some art I would like to adorn the walls in the bedroom with. My old office has pink walls and a vintage Barkcloth window treatment that I would like to keep. Well I might use a glaze on the pink walls and take the color down a notch. Below is a picture of me in my office for the upcoming Handmade Nation book, but it shows the room and the window treatment. I framed the picture in a scan of the fabric that I am also planning on using to make a duvet with. I am kind of basing most of the room, including the art I am thinking about purchasing, based on these colors. Good thing these are my favorite colors anyway.



I spent all dang day looking at art today and collected a few of my favorites I am seriously considering. I want several small prints to hang in a collage like cluster. A special thanks to A Thing of Beauty for their amazing list about the best 100 artists on Etsy. Their list was invaluable. Auburn and Ivory thank you as well for the links!



1) Feather Pattern by Clever Nettle
2) The Triumphet Arrival by Wow Out 888
3) Virgo. Whats Your Sign by Art 4 Friends
4) I Would do Anything by Shelby Healey
5) Bunny Hat by Old Cake Paintings
6) Paper Airplanes by Betsy Walton
7) Too Shy # 3 by Rosie Music
8) Dressing for a Full Moon by My Folk Lover
9) Pink Wallpaper by Brandi Strickland



1) Jumping is Fun by Patrick Leger
2) The It Crowd by Inkandar
3) Hifi by Chris Silas Neal
4) The Book of Love by Sea Spray Blue
5) #4 by Irana Douer
6) Let Go by Jennifer Davis
7) Jumbly by Genevieve Dionne
8) Big Air by Kris Chau
9) So Many Tea Cups by The Black Apple



1) Hurry Up I'm Slipping by Restless Things
2) Siren by Gala House
3) Just Let Loose Don't Loose by Restless Things
4) Let Love Grow by Shelby Healey
5) I Miss You Already by Jared Drew Moody
6) Napolean III by Inkandar
7) Trio by Brandi Strickland
8) I Like Your Scarf by Ashley G
9) Neapolitan Delight by Aussie Patches



1) Treasures by Pepperminte
2) Sing With Me by Laura George
3) Judy and Her Carousel by Daily Practice
4) Cecil and Sadie by Lily Piri
5) The Bleeding Knees Club by Pepperminte
6) Tea by Wilson Hsu
7) A Vendedora De Baloes by fricdementol
8) Hello July by Ashley G
9) Their Tones Waxed Loud by Heidi Burton

Interestingly while shopping around today I noticed a few reoccurring themes among several of the artists, art trends if you will. Apparently painting chairs above all other furniture is a biggie. Girls with big hair and things like pirate ships within that big hair seems to be popular. Twins and in particular Siamese twins is something I was surprised to see so much of, but was oddly attracted to. Bird cages, especially when the cage is used as the body of a woman. It just seems like these were things I saw again and again, not as much as anthropomorphism, but a lot. Needless to say I like all these themes and book marked several.

I’m glad I did this little blog it is helping me sort all the pieces and make a life choice seeing them all mapped out. Any opinions? Oddly I am really drawn to the picture of the bloody knees. I’m kind of waiting for just the right Irana Douer piece. I know I will be getting something by Aussie Patches, I am just not sure what yet. I love the pictures with couples since after all this is going in a bedroom for two. I hope that Chris does not think these are too effeminate. They are going in a pink bedroom after all. Oh who are we kidding, it’s not like he gets a choice in home decorating. I always joked and said one of the main qualities I looked for in a husband is that they had to have absolutely no opinion about home decorating and when I married Chris I lucked out big time in that department.

Planters out of Bird Cages, Cookie Jars and Coffee Cans!

I spent Sunday night just the way it was intended, sitting on my butt. Well, not JUST sitting, as you might have guessed I am a little too ADHD for that (no really diagnosed and everything). I sat and watched Lars and the Real Girl, ate my Indian food left overs and made jewelry. After last week’s super sale, impending in-law visits this week and a trip to Dallas on the horizon for this weekend there was a lot of jewelry to get made. Luckily I hammered through a ton of stuff and Hope and I should be able to mail out a lot of things today. Anywhoodle after Lars and before the movie about Genesis (the band) Chris and I watched an episode of House. It makes me sad that they have my favorite Massive Attack song as their theme even though I actually like the show. During the episode a Miracle Gro commercial came on that caught my attention and I have spent the entire morning looking for the clip or pictures from it.



Usually I don’t look up for commercials, let along ones from Miracle Gro but this one was really cute. There was a young girl and the story line was “look at this quirky girl make all this weird stuff into planters for her garden”. I too being a weird quirky girl that uses cookie jars as planters and has trophies stuck throughout my garden was glued to the TV. She made a hanging basket out of one of half of an old metal globe that was amazing! Old drums were used as flower pots (and to think I have just been using them as trash cans around my house) and my favorite were the bowling ball planters lining her stair case. The other two projects I get, but I need more details on these bowling balls? Did she cut off the tops and they are hollow inside? How did she cut off the tops? Did she cut off the bottoms a little too so they would lay flat? There is so much I need to know because I have a ton of brightly covered bowling balls in my house. Who can resist them at the thrift store, I know I’m not alone. I even registered on the Miracle Gro website and posted on a blog there in hopes of an answer! In the meantime I thought I would share a few pictures of oddball planters around my house.


I collect thermoses and a few were missing their lids so I spread the collection out into my dining room and made them into planters!


I found this vintage ice cream maker at an antique shop and the minute I saw it I knew it would make an amazing planter. I took out what mechanical guts that I could and filled it up with dirt and ferns.


This is a little array of planters on my back porch. Some are just plain pots, one is mosaiced and one is a vintage plaid coffee can. I also found a bag of dirt bike trophies at the thrift store that I stuck into a ton of plants.


A metal meat drawer from an old fridge now holds plants in my backyard. I found this little treasure in someone's trash one day.


Chipped cookie jars missing their lids are transformed into planters at my house. I have another one that sits next to my stove and holds ladles, slotted spoons and other tall cooking utensils.


One of the things Chris and I used to love to do together when we first started dating 10 years ago were crafts. Well we didn't do a lot of crafting but we did adorn these flower pots with shells and super glue after a trip to the beach. This is a before and after picture as to what the weather has done to the pot through the years.

Back when Naughty Secretary Club was a zine I had a few gardening how to ideas. I thought I would repost the project about making a bird cage into a hanging basket here.

So I was reading that Fab book PAD that no home is complete without and there was a lamp that someone had made out of an old birdcage. Inspiration hit me...

I thought I'll make my birdcage into a hanging basket for a plant instead, and that is just what I did!

Luckily, my parents had this old rickety bird cage in their garage from some parakeet I had many moons ago. Thanks God I have had a tetanus shot recently one stab with this cage and lock jaw would have set in for sure!

And so I had my cage now I needed the other stuff...

I used a plant already in a hanging basket and basically just switched houses on it. I am not sure what kind of plant this is, but is seems to be in the succulent family and has little flowers. What I was looking for was

A) something that vined

B) something with thin branches that could fit through the wires of the bird cage.

I also got a coco husk liner to set the plant in so dirt wouldn't fall out through the open sides.

Here is where it got a little tricky...

Well first of all I immediately threw away the tacky basket that poor plant had been subjected to. I then sat the plant inside the coco husk liner. You might need to add a little dirt, but I didn't. I then sat the whole thing inside a plastic bag so the plant would not get as damaged as I shoved up into the cage.

I took the bottom off of the bird cage and gently began to squeeze the plant up into the cage.

Once the plant was all smooshed in, I slid the bottom back on the cage. I then cut away at the plastic bag and pulled it out.

At first the poor plant looked a little squished, but never fear that is what wire clippers are for. I took out a few wires of the bird cage just so the plant could come out a bit.

I then sat and fingered out the vines of the plant so that it was coming out all over the birdcage.

Presto! I had my new hanging basket in a bird cage!

Remember again that all container plants need to be fed and hanging baskets in particular are going to need more water.

You can hang this from a tree or on your apartment balcony. I sat mine as the centerpiece on my patio table.

I still keep an eye peeled for cute bird cages when I am out and about. 5 years later there is a different plant inside the cage, but it still hangs in my yard. These days I don't do much gardening I leave that my husband Chris. Read all about the landscaping he did in our front yard here and the loquat cobbler he made from the tree he planted here.

I'll keep you posted on whether or not I find this infamous Miracle Gro ad. What cute things have you seen used as planters? Inquiring minds want to know.

Baubles and Blogs

Whoa you need to shake a tail feather if you want to take advantage of our super duper, holy macramé are you serious, secretaries day sale going on at Naughty Secretary Club. Today is the very last day that you can enter the word SECRETARY into the voucher field and receive 30% off your order. That’s right, I said 30% we upped the ante for the last 3 days of the sale because we are crazy like that! Not only that we have been keeping good to our word and adding new goodies all week long. This weekend we added a whole new section called Les Classiques.

Les Classiques are a new section for Naughty Secretary Club I have been thinking about for quite some time. I love collecting vintage costume jewelry and sometimes the pieces are just too pretty or fantastical for me to tear up and make into pieces of revamped vintage jewelry. That being the case I decided to add a new section to the website where I bringing you straight up vintage costume jewelry. Naughty Secretary Club has not tweaked, tricked out or transformed these pieces in any way shape or form. Some of the pieces are quite collectible and signed Napier and Miriam Haskell. Right now we just have Les Classiques Necklaces but eventually we will have earrings, rings, bracelets even purses and belts. Oh wait until you see the vintage copper Native American belt I just got for the store! We are quite smitten on the new section and hope that you are too. We love going to the antique mall and flea market and sifting through everything so that you don’t have to.

It’s the weekend and that means time for baubles and beads. This week we are spicing things up with pictures from the new Les Classiques section of course! Don’t forget at the end there are 5 random links that we thought you might enjoy!

About.com Jewelry Making
Are your wire loops perfect? Why not? What the heck is wrong with you!?

Art Bead Scene
Economy Gone Bad? Read ABS Editor Cindy Gimbrone's series Beading on a Budget to keep you beading in style!

Earthenwood Studio Chronicles
Melanie's Studio Tour continues with a look at the skeletons in her craft closet, and in a new magazine!

Jewelry & Beading
Cyndi has been working on her wire skills, and she's collected her favorite sites for learning the basics!

Katie's Beading Blog
Katie presents an easy wedding jewelry set this week. Check it out!

Make It Mine Magazine
Spread the word: Make It Mine's on MySpace.

Naughty Secretary Club
Jen has a fun DIY project showing you how to make a Tom Binns style No Time Watch in no time at all.

PearlEsq.
Contest! Contest! Keep Robin busy while she recovers from her knee surgery and send Bandanna Technique Cards-You may win a full set of Ranger's new Adirondack(r) Pigment Ink Stamp Pads and Re-inkers! Bandanna on, Sister (or Brother)!

Savvy Crafter
Candie shares a project for Ornament Thursday that she crafted with her mom.

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!
Jean explains why she is so proud of her wabi sabi compliment (concerning a ring she made) by the great Eni Oken, wire worker extraordinaire

The Impatient Blogger
Madge takes matters in her own hands and collages an imperfect and quirky new bio photo. Just because.

So below are the just for the fun of it links that I thought might tickle your fancy!

VICKIE HOWELL - check out her post called Craft Gossip and not just because she mentions my sale and book.

BLURB - I could have just skipped looking for a publisher and had my book made by blurb. Maybe one day I will turn my blog into a book, that's an option on Blurb too.

FIFI - I really do heart Fifi after visiting the website. An adorable bunny drawn with all the latest couture duds.

THE BOSS OF YOU - Well wasn't that nice of them to mention the blog post I wrote on Social Networking. This blog and book looks like it is chocked full of good information.

LUC KEIFFER - I am in love with his barbed wire jewelry that I spotted on Design Carousel (they also supplied the pictures). His resin zipper jewelry had caught my eye before, but when my eyes met with barbed wire in pink it was true love.

T-Shirts with built in necklaces, Naughty Secretary Club is making accessorizing just that much easier.

Is it sad that I have had Naughty Secretary Club T-shirts since 2006 and have just never gotten them on my website? Not just one T-shirt, I have 3 different styles to choose from: green with pink, aqua with red and black with blue. I had the bright idea of putting a Naughty Secretary Club like necklace onto a T-shirt and I hired a graphic designer to make my dreams come true, had these babies printed up locally on some American Apparel Classic Girl T-shirts and presto magic. Lately I keep seeing more and more T-shirts on the internet with the silk screened necklace effect and I thought I better get off my toosh and get these babies on the website. Plus I use one for a project in my book The Naughty Secretary Club: The Working Girls Guide to Handmade Jewelry.

So here is the world premiere of the Naughty Secretary Club Necklace T-Shirt. Below is a picture of me in an aqua version of the T-shirt standing in front of my dream car at SXSW 2007 and another of me with the lovely ladies of Handmade Nation at the Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn 2006.





So there are lots of other fabulous necklace T-shirts out there to be had. I of course whipped up a little list of a few of my favorites. There are even some out there for dudes and wee ones so the whole family can rock the look.



I am totally smitten on shiny gold silk screen on black T-shirts. Karma Loop has several different T-shirts with faux necklaces but these two by Robot called The Bling Kills and The Flava are my favorites.



More shiny gold goodness with an Egyptian flare can be found in the hemp T-shirts of Funk Divine.



Feathers seem to be quite the popular theme with the necklace T-shirt look. I think it has something to do with the whole South West thing going on right now. Peep these tops by Avalove and Urban Outfitters.



Maharishi has a different angle on the silk screened necklace with their red and blue dress. Another Necklace T-shirt from Karma Loop. My pals Dave and Maggie over at Loyalty and Blood rocked out this white T-shirt with a tree ring like necklace.



If your dude is afraid to wear a necklace (even though all the hipsters seem to be doing it) perhaps he might wear a T-shirt with a necklace from Urban Outfitters. I have to say they look cool in theory, but truthfully I might love Chris a little less if he came home wearing a shirt with a necklace. I have a strong aversion to my men in jewelry, Chris only wears a wedding band not even a watch. BUT ANYWAY the look does not bother me on other dudes.



Keep the tots on trend with these oh so cute onsies from Rockabye Baby.

So there you have it. T-shirts where the necklaces are already built in really makes accessorizing that much easier. Extra adornments like bracelets and rings are optional. Clearly you don’t need another necklace and a pair of earrings is could easily take things over the top, though lord knows I have done it. If you happen to score yourself a Naughty Secretary Club T-shirt I would LOVE to see a picture of you sporting it out on the town.

Naughty Secretary Club in Seventeen Magazine

Seventeen Magazine is mighty good to me and I heart them for it. It seems like every issue they are rocking some Naughty Secretary Club jewelry and this issue is no different! Naughty Secretary Club Necklaces make three different appearances in the May 2008 issue with Amanda Bynes on the cover. Thanks again to Emma for scanning and sending the pictures to me so I could prove it!

First up we find a lovely little model sporting the brand spanking new Feilds of Lavender Revamped Vintage Necklace.



I finally got all my vintage enameled bird necklaces on Naughty Secretary Club and just in time! Look for the Partridge Bow on Top and Bird Call Necklace in the issue.




I'm keeping my promise of adding new goodies all week. I just added Couture Cocteau, Hearts and Sparrows and Plumage Necklace. Also don’t forget the old standby Rusty Woodpecker.




The Administrative Assistants Week sale is going along swimmingly. Thanks to Pepto Girl and Modish for blogging about the sale. Peep their blogs and see: Bold and the Beautiful Necklace, Cha Cha Bracelet, Lovely Lavender Ring and Black Hearts Club Earrings. If you hear about anyone else mentioning the sale let me know. The 25% off discount lasts until Saturday. Don’t forget to enter the word SECRETARY in the voucher field when you check out.




Oh and it's not too late to come take my charm bracelet class at Craft-o-Rama tonight. If you live here in Austin stop by 3100 S. Congress Ave at 6:30 this evening for a good time! I'm bringing a boat load of bracelets and charms for us to whip up some fun with. Check back with Craft-o-Rama for some summer classes on jewelry and running a small crafty business!

The Naughty Secretary Club: The Working Girls Guide to Handmade Jewelry

Today is like a national holiday around my house only rivaled by Christmas and Easter. Today my friends is Secretaries Day! Hooray! Whoo-hoo! As someone who was an administrative assistant for several years and took the name of their company from this occupation I hold it very dear to my heart. I thought today was as good a day as any to formally introduce you to my new jewelry book… The Naughty Secretary Club: The Working Girls Guide to Handmade Jewelry.



The book comes out this August, but you can already pre-order it on Amazon and Target. I’m so so excited and I really hope everyone loves it. The book is being released by North Light who puts out some of the bestest books in the whole wide crafty world if your asking me. Books like Plush You, Altered Curiosities, Collage Discovery Workshop, Mr. Funky’s Super Crochet Wonderful, The Secrets of Rusty Things, Collage Unleashed, Anticraft and more. Plus they are the cool company behind the fun new website My Craftivity.

I buy lots of jewelry books and tried to write one like I would want to buy. Lots of color and tack-a-liscious awesomeness. There are tons of fun jewelry projects using all kinds of kitschy goodness like tin typewriters, rulers, doll house furniture, resin, eye glasses, garden gnomes, paper – you name it! For a jewelry book I think I only used actual beads once or twice, of course they were big fat polka dotted beads or ones that I made. There are over 25 how-to projects, plus I went a little crazy with the variations. That means for several of the projects there are tons of different spins on the theme. I’m one of those people that when I buy a book I want tons and tons of pictures for inspiration so I insisted on the same for the The Naughty Secretary Club: The Working Girls Guide to Handmade Jewelry.



Here is a baby sneaky peaky of a project called Phoning Flo. My sister Hope Perkins did a wonderful selection of illustrated secretaries that I use for projects throughout the book. Of course there is a page in there where you can photocopy them and use them in your projects too!



This book has not even hit the shelves yet and I am already planning out book number two! I can't decide if it should be more jewelry or if I should branch out into home decor or other accessories. Hmmmm... I'll keep you posted.

If you feel like treating yourself to a little something special to celebrate Administrative Professionals Day stop by Amazon and pre-order yourself a copy or perhaps add it to your Amazon wish list. Speaking of treating yourself don’t forget the 25% off sale at Naughty Secretary Club!

As promised I am adding new goodies every single day. Just last night I added new Nostalgic Notions Bracelets, Revamped Vintage Necklaces and More. Feast your eyes on just a few of the latest editions.





Thank you to everyone who has been helping me spread the word about the super sale! Shout outs to Collage Contessa and Margot Potter. The sale and some bling got featured on fun blogs like Cuteable, Average Jane Crafter and Funky Finds. Who-hoo. Let me know if you see the sale mentioned anywhere else.





To cap things off I leave you with a fun video. Of course it is from 9 to 5 because is there a movie more poignant for today? Plus it is just not Administrative Professionals day until you have heard Dolly Parton sing the theme song. Enjoy clips from a film that I have found countless bits of inspiration from. Look for lots of references in The Naughty Secretary Club: The Working Girls Guide to Handmade Jewelry.