Sweet!

Life is sweet, but it's even sweeter when a creative mind turns life's little treats into accessories that can be carried around everywhere. In our search for some sweet wearables we found two Etsy shops we'd like to share with the world.

Sou Zou Creations
This Japanese shop is known for its mind blowing floating rings. They have a very large inventory that changes frequently. If you find something you like it would be wise to buy it ASAP.

 

 

 

 

The Mouse Market

This lovely shop calls itself a "one-stop shop for all things tiny and tasty". All miniature foods are handmade by a talented woman that's part pastry chef and part graphic designer.

Caught on Tape

Remember VHS?

Don't feel bad if you don't. It seems that the media format born in the late 70's is well on its way to be wiped out of the collective memory. Yet, the stuff is all around us.

Open an old closet, go to a garage sale or visit a thrift shop and you're bound to find a dusty pile of old movies.

In this era of growing environmental awareness, what should we do with tons of obsolete synthetic material that refuses to rot? Get creative!

After reading this article by Diane Gilleland and this one by Cathy Callahan, we were inspired and decided to add our own twist to VHS upcycling. Since then, we've been creating hair accessories using old VHS tapes and ribbon. The pictures included in this post show some

of our creations.

Tarantino Fever

Not so long ago, fellow blogger and crafter extraordinaire MissTat compared some of our pink jewelry to the work of Tarina Tarantino. Needless to say, we were flattered.

At first we didn't know who she was, but after some research we fell in love with her success story. Out of all her pieces, a cute bracelet featuring a felt ice cream cone caught our eye. We were inspired! The picture below shows her bracelet next to our crochet version.

side to side comparison of Tarantino's bracelet and our own

Swap it baby!

I joined swap-bot a couple weeks ago and I've discovered that it can be addictive. My latest creations include an altered matchbox and a whimsy jar. Where are the pictures?

They don't exist, yet.

I simply can't carry my camera everywhere. I would like to do it, but I'm too clumsy. Thus, I've chosen to ensure its survival by leaving it behind when I go face the world.

Now I'm sitting tight waiting for pictures taken by the recipients of my packages. Sad, I know. I might end up buying a cheap camera to overcome this issue.

Kawaii desu ne!

The image below is a quick preview of our latest creations: Bow shaped rings and hair clips with a candy center. There's more to come!

Kawaii

image via scene styles

Let's clarify:
-Kawaii is not synonym for Hello Kitty.
-Kawaii is not exclusively Sanrio (or any other brand).
-Kawaii is not restricted to a particular set of characters.

What is it then? It is a Japanese word that's often translated as "cute", but can also mean pretty, lovely, adorable, charming, dear or darling.

If you're interested in learning about the cultural ramifications of this term, you can start here.

So, why are we talking about this? Because we're working on a line of hair accessories and jewelry inspired by kawaii fashion and wanted the rest of the world to have a better understanding of our inspiration.

Pretty in Pink

Remember that Knitting Nancy we bought? It's been put to good use! The first item that made us proud was the necklace shown on the left; later we came up with a matching bracelet and earrings.