Nicole Lee Designs

If you haven’t heard, there is a new and fun online magazine called DIY City Mag. They spotlight cities that have a strong DIY community, its resources and features cool indie designers and artists from the area.  The latest issue is on New Orleans, a city that has always been artist friendly, of all sorts of art genres; music, fine art, street performance, etc.  A little birdy (me!) wrote a wee article about the New Orleans Craft Mafia in this very issue. Yep, who would have thunk it!

So, sit back and have a good read about NOLA on DIY City Mag. Plan next years Mardi Gras trip around this issue and come back with something other than plastic beads! Unless its a lamp shade made from Mardi Gras beads, then that would ROCK!
The next issue will be all about Washington, DC, with a launch sometime right before the election. If you are an designer/artist in the area, they are looking for you! Contact them at diycitymag@gmail.com.

In the spirit of summertime fun, I am having a little sale over in my Etsy shop. Go check it out, you may find sometime you’ll love. Also just a FYI: my wrap skirts make great beach cover-ups and stylish enough wear from poolside to a nice dinner out paired with a nice shirt. Super versatile and easy to pack!

The past 4th of July was super fun …

Hot Air Ballons and Fire Works!
(yep, I took this cool pic!)

good BBQ and seeing some family I haven’t seen in years!

Downside to summer? The heat, Duh. 10 mosquito bites (+ 4 more yesterday!) and crazy gas prices.

It’s back to work time:

My new obsession is button rings. I have a huge stash of buttons acquired through the years and found something I can finally do with them. Some are vintage-y (I get from flea markets and antiques stores) and some are just doggone cute and make great rings.

You can find them in my shop on Etsy while I update my main website.

The RCM family is on the road again and at the Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn NY. Come check us out at the McCarren Park Pool, Booth #44! We have clothing for the whole family, home decor, accessories and more. And don’t forget to swing by and visit our familia Tasha and Maryellen (wo)manning their own Booth #162.

RCM rockin’ it out at both ends of the pool!!

Well maybe not my life, but certainly my small projects.

I’ve been drawn to making some crafts that are considerably smaller than what I usually make. Which brings about a whole different way to take a picture of them, so I DIY’ed a photo box. Using this tutorial and this photo box tutorial I got to work. I didn’t follow the tutorials exactly, but thats what DIY is all about.

Materials used:
1 box [this one was approximately 8″wide x 11″deep x 11″tall]
3 sheets of plain white 8″x11″ paper [used on top, and sides where box was cut out]
1 plain white sheet of poster board, cut to fit the width of box and kept long to create a seamless staging area.
White glue [elmers]
Duct tape, white [just on some outside places to keep the box flaps out of the way and I’m a over-taper]
Regular ole desk lamp [for better results follow the tutorial and use a 100 watt bulb, I’m impatient and didn’t have one]

test picture


results:the beginning of destashing of the odd but fancy buttons I have by turning them into button rings!! FYI: I horde buttons in addition to the fabric. Like peanut butter and jelly, they go together.

Summer In The Cities…

Its going to be a busy summer. The Richmond Craft Mafia has been lucky enough to get into a lot of shows with our group booth this year. The show line up for the summer so far is:

Strawberry Street Festival
Saturday, May 10th from 12 noon - 4:30 pm
Fox Model Elementary School
Richmond, VA

Art Star Craft Bazaar
Saturday, May 31st from 11 am - 7 pm
Sunday, June 1st from 11 am - 5 pm
Philadelphia, PA

Ice Atlanta
Saturday, June 7th from 11 am - 6 pm
Atlanta, Georgia

Renegade Craft Fair
Saturday - Sunday, June 14th - 15th
from 11 am - 7 pm
Brooklyn, NYC

Crafty Bastard
Saturday, June 28th from 10 am - 5 pm
Silver Spring, Maryland

The 3rd installment of Spring Bada-Bing was a great hit, despite the rain. (Whats with the rain and SBB? It always works out fine, but dang!) Anywho, people braved the weather and came out to support some of the awesomest (yes, thats a word) crafty peeps this side of the Mississippi. Planet Zero had terrific atmosphere for the show and our contact Carolyn was great. I wasn’t able to get my shop on like I would have liked, but I did manage to get what I had my eye on for awhile.

Owl by Boogie Babee, mini squid by Cleo Dee and pin by Molebaby Buttons.

Well, what happen?? No, I’m not growing alfalfa sprouts, they are suppose to be clovers of the four leaf variety!

This is about 10 days after the last picture. They have been looking really peaked for the past couple of days so I changed containers (out of the one it came in) and added more soil. Looks like the grow your own four-leaf clovers have gone the way of the sea monkeys.

Week one of growing lucky four leaf clovers. Not too shabby!

Today was a nice spring-ish day in the 60’s. I wish it would just be Spring already and start the warm up! I’ve been scrambling to make new clothing and stock up for the upcoming craft shows and markets. New top design!

(modeled by my friend, Beth of monkeyandme.etsy.com)

Lately, I also have been rediscovering my green thumb and adding plants to the puttering I do around the house.

I don’t pick anything fancy, I just go with what spot in the house I think needs a plant and I go find one that fits the space, mostly green leafy types.

I am also trying my hand at growing my own luck, DIY Four leaf clovers.

I’m a sucker for those little kits that are display at check out at the bookstores. Pocket ninja, mini Japanese rock garden, pocket voodoo doll etc. I’ll post pictures on how the clovers are growing. I hope they don’t go the way of the sea monkeys. Long story short, the bowl got knocked over and I remember crying as a 4 year old “save them!, save them! save the mo-unk-keys!” Oh the trauma!! … sea monkeys… at best it was a fish bowl of floating dust I watched for weeks! I did get my first pet (real pet! not dust) the very same day, a gold fish.