So much talent out there!

I received all of these wonderful things recently in swaps with fellow artists, all found on Etsy. The "nurse robot" is by the talented Mike of youneekusername on Etsy. He also sent me another old tin bandaid can filled with the wonderful nuts, bolts, widgets and whatchamacallits you see above. We've been swapping ephemera now for awhile and find we both like old tins, Alice in Wonderland, a little bit of goth/skeletons, etc. Mike sent me a great You Tube video recently that I can totally relate to about freelancing. Check out Mike's robots on Etsy.

The dress on canvas is called Flavia's Dress by the talented Constanza of peregrineblue on Etsy and Flickr. And she's having a fabulous de-stash sale on Etsy in her Boubelina2 shop. Love, love, love her stuff. And love Constanza--met her in person at ZNE Convenzione in 2008. We were in ZNE Artists and Poets together. I absolutely love the dress and wish you could see all the textures and patterns in person. It is outstanding, along with the other goodies I got from Constanza here.

The canvas "Soar" at top is by Julie King also on Etsy. I happened on to her work and asked her if she might be willing to consider a trade. She liked one of my bracelets, and I received this wonderful original. Note the close-up of the neat texture with tissue paper. And such a great message, too! Check out her originals and prints in her shop.

I've also completely updated my own Etsy shop. All of my jewelry can now be found in a brick and mortar store in Ellicott City, Maryland called The Vintage Shoppes. And some of my various handmade creations in crochet, paper clay, papercrafts and altered art/mixed media are in my on-line shop. Check it out at the link in this paragraph and see a mini version at right.

American Teen is a Smash! Filmed at my kids' high in school in Warsaw, Indiana

(Note: to play trailer, first hit the 'stop' button on my playlist at bottom, to 'stop the music.')

This is pretty surreal to see, and I am sure even more surreal for the kids who are in it, and their parents. My son, who will be a senior this fall, grew up with all these kids- went to the baby sitter with one of the stars, dated extensively one of the others. I worked as PR Director for this school system for five years, so I'm pretty partial to it for a lot of reasons. It is just incredibly exciting that this documentary won the Sundance Film Festival documentary award, and having opened nationwide July 25, the film is getting rave reviews. It IS the next "Breakfast Club." I saw comments on YouTube when I grabbed this trailer that speculated this was all acting or "fake." Well, I can guarantee you, dear reader, it is all unscripted. We, as parents, received letters and permission slips about it, and at the time, which was about two years ago, never dreamed anything would come of it except a "scientific study" of teenagers. It is still that, for sure, but it is much more. You simply must see it! Nanette Burstein is the genius behind this.