I Heart Stop Motion - Matt The Electrician

Matt The Electrician is a musician in Austin.  Wondering how he got the name Matt The Electrician?  You can read his story here.  I really like his music.  I even backed his Kickstarter campaign to fund his latest record. 

During that campaign Matt debuted a video for his song All I Know and I was so happy to see that it was a really cute crafty stop motion!  Even better news?  I found out his wife is one of the founders of Future Craft Collective and she helped him make this video!  Future Craft Collective is an organization that aims to build family connections through crafting and creativity. 

Okay, back to the stop motion.  :-)

All I Know from Matt the Electrician on Vimeo.

What do you think?   Want to hear some more?  

Dancing Penguins

I  have spent the last few days making a bunch of these little cuties for a fun event I'm participating in this month.  I'll have more info about that very soon.

While I was sewing them I was reminded of one of my favorite scenes from Mary Poppins.

Wouldn't it be fun if the penguin plushies could dance like that, too? :-)

I Heart Stop Motion - Against the Grain

I found a new stop motion animation today!  This one is a music video for a song called Against the Grain from Hudson. 

Hudson - Against The Grain from Dropbear on Vimeo.

I love this video because it's so colorful and a little bit crafty.  :-)

I'm spending my weekend making lots of plushies for a fun event I'm participating in in February.  More info to come soon! 

What are you up to this weekend? 

Music Monday - Welcome to the Workin' Week

I had a four day weekend for the holiday show and then the next week I had a four day weekend for my sister's visit.  This was a four day weekend because of Thanksgiving.  I haven't worked a full week almost all month!  It's been so nice!  Today is the first day of my first regular week since the beginning of the month.  I am not thrilled with waking up at 5:00 and going to work again.  :(  Oh well.  Guess it had to happen eventually.  Luckily we have some more days off for Christmas so December won't be too bad.

In honor of Monday I would like to welcome you to the workin' week with a little Elvis Costello.

Music Monday - Float On

The holiday show is over so it's time to get back to my regular blog schedule.  That means it's Music Monday time!

Today I picked Float On by Modest Mouse. I have been listening to this song a lot lately.  It seems to be a theme song for me when things aren't going so well. 

I have been doing a lot of thinking about what I want to do with my life.  I just feel like things aren't going at all like I would like them to.  I turned 30 this week (EEKS!!!).  I always thought by the time I was 30 I would  know what I wanted to be when I grew up.  Well, I'm now a "grown up" and I have no clue.  In a perfect world I would have a successful business selling things I make but I know that takes time and will not support me completely for a very long time if ever.  So, now I have to do some soul searching and figure things out.  Do I go back to school?  Do I stay where I am?  If I go back to school, what do I study??  I have applied for jobs and can't even get an interview anywhere.  I feel trapped in a job I don't like, and while it's not terrible, it seems even worse knowing that I'm stuck there. 

When I get down like this I turn to music to cheer me up.  And this is one of the songs I like to listen to.

 I promise I won't have tons of posts venting about this stuff.  I just needed to get it out of my system.  I'll be back tomorrow with a new Etsy treasury!  :-)

Music Monday - Brett Dennen

It's Monday.  So far this has been a very rough start to a week that needs to go smoothly.  I still have a ton of work to do for the craft show this weekend and then my sister is coming the following weekend so I'm pretty stressed out.  I wish I could keep up with everything and still have blog posts regularly but I just can't seem to keep up these days.  I have lots of things I want to write about but I'm too tired by the time I get done with everything else.  So, hopefully next week when this show is over I'll get back to normal a little bit.  For now, I have a music monday posts with a great song from Brett Dennen.  I hope you like it!  :-)

"Comeback Kid (That's My Dog)" Official Music Video from Brett Dennen on Vimeo.

You Make Beautiful Things

Happy Monday!  I mean...happy monday?  Yeah, I think this is going to be a good Monday.  :-)

A few weeks ago some friends told me about Gungor and I wanted to share this song with you.  It's called Beautiful Things.

Music Monday - Bob Schneider

Today's music monday is another Austin favorite of mine, Bob Schneider.  He has a newish record out (it came out in April) and the latest song to be played on the radio from it is Honeypot.

I would have posted the actual video but they don't allow embedding.  Grr...argh!

I love the chorus.

Got a heart lost in kindness
A mind that's mostly mindless
I can hold you up for air
I won't let you down I swear

I have burnt down my past
I'm lost, I'm built to last
I'm built to break, but that's okay

I first heard this song at a show last November and it became one of my favorites.  I bought the recording of the show and listened over and over again.  I was so happy to hear it on the radio recently.  But, there really is something about hearing a song live.  It's always so much better.  I really miss getting out to shows.  It's my favorite thing to do but I never really get to go.  Hopefully soon I'll have time to go have some fun.  :-)

 Are there any songs you have been listening to a lot lately?  I love new music suggestions.

Have a great Monday! 

Mahna Mahna

Sometimes when I'm sad I like to watch this video. It always makes me smile. :-)

Are there any videos you like to watch to help cheer you up when you're sad?

In Your Eyes - Cloud Illusions

Are you ready for the September theme of In Your Eyes?  I think this one is going to give us some really amazing pictures.

I have used this song in a post here before but I decided to use it again.  :-)

The theme for this month is clouds!  I love taking pictures of the sky.  It's so beautiful!  I especially love taking sunrise and sunset pictures.  They never come out quite as beautiful as real life but it's still pretty.  

I love the colors during sunrise and sunset.

It's so beautiful when the sun peaks out from behind the clouds.

To participate in this project all you have to do is take a picture of clouds and email it to me with a site to link back to you (i.e. your blog, flickr, online shop...whatever you want people to see) at dreamingincraft@gmail.com by Tuesday, September 27th.  I will post the pictures on Friday, September 30th.  Easy peasy.  Have fun!  I can't wait to see your pictures!

Music Monday - Feist

As I mentioned before, the new album from Feist coming out on October 3rd.  She is posting sneak peeks of the album on her website up until the release date.  The last album was so good...not a bad song on it...so I am very excited to hear the new one.  

I was a little sad to see that she will only play one Texas show in Dallas but that seems to be the trend for artists these days.  Oh well.  At least I can enjoy the album when it comes out...over and over and over again.  :-)

Feist has released this single for radio.  Enjoy!

Have a great Monday!

Will It Go Round In Circles?

This is just a friendly reminder that the deadline to email me pictures for In Your Eyes is Monday, August 29th.  I have received awesome pictures from two people so far.  I love how different they are.

All you need to do to participate is take pictures of circles and email them to me at dreamingincraft@gmail.com by Monday, August 29th with a link to whatever site of  yours you want me to link back to.  You deserve to get credit for your pretty pictures!  :-)

I'm on a mission to take some new circle pictures this weekend.  I haven't been able to go out just to take pictures in forever!  I'm so excited!

Have a great day!  

Music Monday - Dahebegebees

I have been planning to post this for Music Monday for weeks and I keep forgetting.  Today I would like to play you some great music from Dahebegebees. 

2 Tears by DaHeBeGeBeeS from Laughing Eagle Productions on Vimeo.

This is a great Austin band that I just learned about last month when I went to see Jack Burton Trio play.  They put on such a great show!  Go see them if you can.

Okay, I'm off to catch up on my sewing.  I'm still way behind on my Atown order.  I planned to get some work done on my lunch break but genius me brought everything I needed for my sewing project...except the needles!  Oh well.  I got to listen to some great music instead.  I heard a new song from Feist!  I can't wait for her new album!  :-)

BYE!!!

Music Monday - Jonathan Larson

It's no secret if you know me that I love musicals...and that my very favorite musical is Rent.  Since Rent is open again off Broadway (I wish I could go!) Broadwayworld.com wrote a piece about Jonathan Larson and Rent in celebration of its return.  The best part of it is that they posted recordings of Jonathan and other artists singing his beautiful songs. 

These are just a few.  To see them all (and you should) you can find the article here.

Let's start with Jonathan singing One Song Glory from Rent.  This is one of my favorite songs from the show. 

This is the recording from the original cast recording.

Here is Jonathan singing La Vie Boheme.

And the original cast again.

It's interesting to hear the things that ended up changing in the final product.

Okay, I'm off to watch Rent and make some plushies for Atown!   I hope you enjoyed my little geek out music monday!  :-)

In Your Eyes - Circles

It's August!  I'm pretending that I'm not stressed about getting all of my craft work done even though I'm kind of totally freaking out.  ;-) 

Right now none of that matters because it's time for the In Your Eyes theme for August!

This month's theme is...circles!  Just take a picture of anything that is a circle and email it to me at dreamingincraft@gmail.com.  The deadline to submit your pictures is Monday, August 29th and the blog post will be up on Wednesday August 31st.  Easy peasy.

Okay, time to take some pictures!  I can't wait to see what you come up with this time!  :-)

Music Monday - The Guild

Hello!  I don't know about you but I had a really rough Monday.  I'm glad to know that it's behind me and now I can focus on fun craft projects.  I have so many new things to show you!  But first, tomorrow is the premiere of season five of The Guild!  Do you watch it?  If you don't, you should.  It's the best!

This is a funny music video they made for the show.

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The deadline for submitting pictures to the In Your Eyes photography project is this Friday.  You can email your pictures to me at dreamingincraft@gmail.com.  I have gotten a lot of really great pictures already.  I'm so excited! 

Music Monday - Patty Griffin

Hi!  How was your Monday?  Mine was so strange!  I can't think of another word to describe it.  Tons of weird stuff happened all day.  Work was...I don't even know.  Just weird!  I'm not even going to waste time talking about it.  Then my phone decided to stop working so I skipped my fitness class to go get it fixed.  By the time it was too late to go to class my phone started working fine again.  Then my internet at home went out.  The list just goes on and on.

Luckily I made it through the day and somehow managed to stay pretty positive through all most of it.  ;-)  I thought it would be fitting to have a music monday song about a heavenly day to try to cancel out the not so heavenly day I had.

This is Patty Griffin singing Heavenly Day.

Happy Monday!

Patty Griffin - Heavenly Day from Artists Den on Vimeo.

p.s.  Have you entered the Dreaming in Craft Giveaway yet?  You have until Saturday.  :-)

Try To Remember

Hello!  This post is just a quick reminder about the In Your Eyes photography project.  The deadline to email your pictures to me is Friday, July 29th.  The pictures will be up here on the blog and on the flickr page on Sunday, July 31st.  Email pictures to dreamingincraft@gmail.com.  Remember...the theme for this month is The Rainbow Connection.  Take pictures of your favorite color or colors. 

Here's a picture to help get you inspired.

This is Shawn Colvin singing Try to Remember from the musical The Fantasticks.  It's such a beautiful song and I love the way she sang it. This is a recording from a show that was on Bravo in 2002 called Broadway's Best.  Did you see it?  ;-)

Enjoy!

Music Monday - Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears

It's a little late but I do have a music monday post for you.  It's going to be short and sweet because I have a new plushie idea I want to work on tonight, too!  :-)

Here's a song by Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears.  I'll write a real post about them soon.

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Quick reminder:  The first post for the In Your Eyes group photography project will be posted on Thursday.  Today was technically the deadline but since I was super busy this weekend I didn't get to remind you guys about it so I'm extending the deadline to Wednesday.  I will write the post Wednesday night so try to get it to me as soon as possible. The theme for this month is home so your pictures should be something about your town that makes it home to you.  I'll try to post more reminders throughout the month in July so hopefully more people will remember and participate. 

See you tomorrow for Treasury Tuesday!  :-)

Music Monday - The Goblin King??

Yes, The Goblin King!  Today's music Monday is all about Labyrinth!  This has been one of my favorite movies since I was a kid.  I finally gave in a few years ago and bought the dvd so I could watch it whenever I want.  A friend of mine borrowed it since she had never seen it (shocking!!) and today she brought it back to me.  So, of course that means that this song was playing in my head all day!  :-)

This is the best video I could find.  It's not great.

Don't you love it? 

I couldn't have a post about Labyrinth without one of my favorite characters.  The little worm is the cutest!!

I think I'm going to have to write some more posts about my favorite movies.  This is fun!  I already have a bunch of ideas!  

What were some of your favorite movies as a kid?