, originally uploaded by gregw.

The indie mart yesterday was a ton of fun, I would certainly recommend it to any San Francisco residents as a lovely way to pass an afternoon. It was exciting to see a good number of shops I recognized as favorites from Etsy. I ended up walking away empty handed again (except for a couple of really delicious cupcakes), but this time it was because I had neglected to bring any cash. There were a few places I would have been happy to drop some dollars, including my new favorite, NousSavons. They have really lovely vintage inspired jewelry with whimsical names, like the above Parlor Lace earrings, which are made with vintage lace. The jury is still out on whether I will be submitting an app to participate in the next indie mart, but I will certainly keep you updated.
mel

Just a reminder that tomorrow is the last day of the Birthday Sale at roska handmade. That means you can still get free shipping on the great notebooks you see above, as well as many others in the shop. Check them out here.
Also, a sneak peek at a new bird notebook that I'll be listing in just a moment.

Pretty green and pink.
Sorry this post is so boring, but I am having a cruddy couple of days and am not really up to being an exciting blogger.  Maybe tomorrow.

mel

I'm getting a little scared. For the last couple days I've been feeling a little bit under the weather, just a little sore throat and stuffy nose, but nothing a good dose of ibuprofen couldn't fix. Then today I woke up feeling kind of like I had a cut in the back of my throat. Now, before this year that wouldn't have bothered me in the slightest, it happens to me sometimes and it goes away at the end of the day (or I end up with a little cold, no big deal). But a couple months ago I had strep throat, and it started with me feeling like I had a little cut in the back of my throat. So now I'm a little freaked out. I really don't want to get strep throat right now. I mean, Renegade is tomorrow, and my birthday is on Tuesday! Getting a bacterial infection doesn't really jive with my plans, y'know? I'm trying to just relax, I know stress doesn't help these things, and drink tons of fluids and use the power of positive thinking to keep sickness away. If anyone has any suggestions to keep me healthy, I would be really grateful to have them, thanks in advance!
For some positivity, I have a couple new books in the shop, the one pictured above with the great rabbit painting, as well as one made from an album of the Ballet Folklorico de Mexico. It's really cool, check out a detail

I just listed this Rosy Finches Notebook in the shop. Aren't they pretty? The birds pictured above actually are not rosy finches, those are red finches and gold finches. The rosy finches are on the back cover, and they are really pretty, so you should take a look at them. You can see them and other new (super cute) notebooks that are not yet in the shop on my flickr page.
mel

Clockwise from top left: rings, Supergirl, Orange Pretzel Watchdog - Brooch, mini books

Today I have a super special treat for you; a Q&A with the wonderful and amazing Heli of HeliS! If you are not familiar with her work, I'm sure after this you will be as enchanted as I am.

Please introduce yourself.
Hi my name is Heli. I live in Istanbul, Turkey with my turkish husband. Originally I am from Finland.

Your handpainted animal brooches and wall hangings really took Etsy by storm! Your new watchdog brooches seem poised to do the same. Where did you get the inspiration for these? Are you an animal lover?
Yes, I love animals! When I was child we always had a cat or dog. I would love to have a dog now but at the moment it is not possible, unfortunately. My friendly wild animals in my etsy shop were born ‘by accident’ last year. I casted plaster and had a little shapes but didn’t know what to do with them until in the beginning of the year when the first Polar bear showed his face.

You obviously have a love for the miniature. Have you always?
I don’t love miniature speacially, I am not a collector nor have obsession to tiny things. Actually I have been wondering why I make these tiny things? Maybe one reason for that is that they are easy to ship and it is fun to make them.

I recently read about you in the Storque article about European expats. How does living in Instanbul influence your work? How did you adjust to your new home? By the way, I think your story is so romantic!
Thanks! I don’t know how much Istanbul or Turkey has influence to my work, maybe not very much. I think I have more influence from Finland especially for my little book covers.

Can you tell us some of your favorite spots in Instanbul?
The islands in front of Istanbul are must in summer. So peaceful and natural places without cars with a touch of old days. As a Finnish who have used to live in quite small cities noisy and crowdy Istanbul is sometimes a pain and the most favorite places are the places with nature and silence and no other people around.


To what do you attribute your sucess on Etsy?
Originality, good pictures and regular listing and relisting. Making treasuries and being on treasuries is the most efficient thing to draw people in your shop if you are lucky enough to hit the front page in etsy I think. I am a member of European street team EST and we help eachother to promote our shops by making treasuries and it is always a big happy happening in our EST thread when a EST treasury hits the etsy frontpage.

Where else can we find your work?

I have a shop in DaWanda where I sell also handscreenprinted t-shirts and bags: http://en.dawanda.com/shop/HeliS

Anything else we should know about you or your shop?

I quit smoking over 4 months ago and I am so proud of myself! Yeah! :)

mel

I discovered this cool mosaic tool last week, and I've been having a bunch of fun with it. I used it to put together those two detail shots up there of a Surprise project I'm working on. I used it to make this cute montage of my cat Ava.

And this one of statues in Golden Gate Park.

Yep, fun stuff. That pretty much sums up my weekend. I have some cool stuff coming up for you this week, so stayed tuned.

Oh, also I was featured on this neat blog, Environmental Friendlies. The name is pretty self explanatory, it features products that are friendly to the earth. I am honored to have my books featured. You should check it out!

mel

Renegade Craft Fair, originally uploaded by DaveyWilson.

I'm getting really excited about the Renegade Craft Fair! This is the first year that there will be one in San Francisco, and it will also be the first time I've been to a craft fair since I was in kindergarten and my mom was selling her puffy painted tshirts in the Elks Lodge parking lot. I'm really looking forward to it. It's being held at Fort Mason, one of my very favorite places, on July 12th and 13th. I was looking at the vendor list a little while ago and it looks like there will be lots of awesome shops there. One of them is a recent etsy find of mine, honeylux, a letterpress company in Oakland. I love pretty much everything in the honeylux shop and am really tempted to buy it all up right now, but I'm thinking I'll wait until Renegade, it will be more fun to buy stuff there. Stuff like this

Twilight by honeylux

Yeah, I don't know if I'm going to be able to hold out for another week. If you're going to be at Renegade SF, I hope I'll see you there!

mel

81, originally uploaded by lucy rose.

I'm so tired today, I am almost too tired to blog. In fact, I had pretty much decided that I definitely wasn't going to blog, but it felt really unnatural. It's been about a month now I think that I have been blogging everyday. Before that it was incredibly sporadic. I'm not sure what happened, it was like a switch was flipped. Now I am a blog-a-holic. And so you have this post, in which I can think of very little to say because my poor brain is so fatigued, and yet I am compelled to write you a little something. So I'll just say two things, one is LucyPlayer, who's work was very recently shared on this blog, has started her own blog, lucyplayer.blogspot.com, so you should pay that a visit. Also, her shop is growing chockfull of amazing things, so you might want to stop by there as well.
And the second thing is just to remind all readers about my giveaway. Don't forget to leave a comment on the giveaway post!
mel

First, I have to share the present I bought for myself.

That's right, dudes, you get to choose! So, just leave a comment on this post at melroska.com, say something nice, and at the end of this patriotic week, I will randomly choose a winner!

Good luck!

mel

Many many piles of paper, just itching to be made into lovely little notebooks. Like the one at the top of this post, but not quite like it because that notebook is 5 by 7 inches, and all those pieces of cut paper are 4.25 by 5.5 inches. Also, the above notebook is currently up in my etsy shop, so it's got a one up on those other guys.

Besides cutting up bunches of paper, I had a really nice weekend, I got to go to tea which I haven't done in a long time and that was really nice. If you live in San Francisco and you haven't been to Lovejoy's Tearoom, you should call them up stat and make a reservation. It is one of the nicest things one can do in an afternoon.

Have a happy Monday!

mel

Nesting

Sky Phenomenon

mel

Okay, so the deal with the entry prior to this one is that I will now be posting entries from my blogspot blog here as well. I'm probably not going to take the time to put all my old entries over here, but if you want to look at them, they are at melroska.com
it's good to be back.

I have some new books listed in the shop, including the two seen here, the Herons Notebook and I Love Text Number 4. There will be more coming this weekend, in addition to some new original drawings that I am pretty excited about! At least, I hope they will be coming this weekend; it is starting to get pretty smoky here (there are all kinds of crazy fires burning in Northern California right now), so I'm not sure if I'll have sufficient light to get good pictures. But hey, that might be a great excuse to finally get the scanner up and running! Anyway, be sure to check the shop this weekend!

mel

Just wanted to remind everyone, you're supposed to be looking at my new shop where i am selling things and telling all your friends to look at it too.
roska.etsy.com
you won't regret it...or will you?
ha ha suckers.

All right, so, sorry to people who have already heard about this, y'all are like, yawn, but anyway, everyone should check out my new blog, the address is melroska.com, you should tell me what you think of it, and you should tell your friends about it. it is about me making stuff and then trying to sell it eventually. so. yes, it is awesome. well, kind of. yes, so that is all, really, because i am so tired from updating my blog.