Toe Tag invites continue to creep out etsy!!

Click for treasury goodness


ChloesRuffleButt over at etsy has featured my Toe Tag Invites in her kick-ass treasury! Check it out, then check out her shop!!

Instead of "real" work, I jammed out to this all afternoon!

So, I've said before that I'm planning a wedding. This means that I am easily distracted by all things wedding!

Check out this great blog! The Flash Dance
These guys are like the answer to my prayers right now. Great DJ, amazing photography and all around good people.

Take a listen to his mixes and see if you aren't inspired to bust out and dance around your house...clicky!

Everybody needs some blog love!

My Toe Tag Invites were just featured in another blog!
Woo hoo!!!

Check out Pixie Treasures and spread the blog love!
She tracked down some awesome Halloween finds on etsy.

She's definitely on my list of etsy party people, so check out her shop Aglimpseofreality!

Don't forget to visit Koi Kouture while your there :)

Ch...ch..ch...ch...changes.....

After checking out Fall Into Pink's blog, I realized that there were better things on the Koi Kouture Blog horizon. She has given me the 3 Column Format gospel as well as lots of insight into making this blog a bit better. Me, being someone who can't leave well enough alone, was inspired to overhaul my blog.

So, you may notice things looking a little wonky for a few days while I figure out what I'd like to do. Of course, since I am not a website-y person, this will take me longer than most ;)

If you notice me doing anything stupid, shoot me an email and help a girl out!

Hopefully the blog survives my mettling...I have the uncanny ability to completely erase hours of work with one swift clicky.

See ya on the other side...

Fishy Finds...

I'm always on the lookout for new koi designs to add to Koi Kouture's offerings (stay tuned for our current line-up to be added to the Koi Kouture store any day). I love searching around etsy for fun new creations by amazing independant artists.
Check out what I found today while shopping working...


How cool is this fold out card by foldoutcards! It's a whole pond scene in a card. These cards a really tiny too! I'm a sucker for miniture things.



I want to cuddle this pillow by DeCoccoDesign . Handmade felted wool...what more can I say? Love.



Such a nice change of pace from the kinda boring classic koi art we normally see. These three little prints by staceyfirth. They even have names (of course they do).
Say hello to Amber, Ruby and Tangerine!



I'm loving these adorable
Koi Thank You cards
from Badsister.
Super cute!
I love the glassine envelopes with the blue koi label.



Ok, now I want to remodel a bathroom. Mosaicsinconcrete may have won the Koi Crazy award of the day. This is some serious koi love :)

So we made a little vino...

Last September we started a little wine project at a local company, Grape Expectations. We picked out what type of grapes we wanted to use and their proportion and then came in now and again to stem the grapes, press the grapes, transfer into barrels, and all the other fun stuff involved with making wine. Actually, the best part was indulging in wine and appetizers every time we showed up for our very official "wine appointments". It was a perfect excuse to plan mini parties mid-week, which was right up my ally! When it was all said and done, our portion of the barrel yielded about 65 bottles of wine!

Of course, my favorite part of this whole thing was getting to create the labels for our bottles. Well, let me correct that last statement....I'm sure my favorite part will be drinking the wine, but it's not really ready until Christmas. I'm hoping that it will be a very merry Christmas indeed :)

With all the wine in the house I felt line a wino, and I was about ready to stick each bottle in a paper bag and roll like the real winos roll. Instead I came up with an idea for making lots lof cheap wine very special. So, left with 65 unlabled bottles, my new gocco machine, and a 40% off coupon at Michaels, I started down the path of making my own wine labels. From that came "Brown Paper Bag" wine.

I started with cutting rectangles out of brown packing paper...


Created a gocco screen with my design with a carbon pen. The labels say
Brown
Paper
Bag
Wine
2008
Future Fauskes Vineyards
Once the screen was made, I inked it up!


Placed a brown paper rectangle down and pressed...

and viola...Brown Paper Bag Wine labels!


After I crinkled the labels up, I ran them through a sticker machine so that they would stick to the bottles...

And then it was time to label our bottles...

Overall, lots of effort, but totally worth it. Only my second attempt at gocco, but can I just say this....I soooooo heart gocco!