I just love the whimsy of their plush creations and felted bead necklaces. I am an instant fan!

I know you guys love a good contest and Jena over at Modish, besides being one of my favorite bloggers, is doing another great giveaway that I wanted to let you know about. Enter the May Modish Giveaway for your chance to win the prize pictured above, featuring such great goods as a silhouette print from Vol. 25, treetings recycled card set by Design for Mankind, a reversible corduroy tote from Shelia D, a protozoan ring from Starving Artist Bazaar, a beaded and embroidered brooch by Krista Raak and more! Over 30+ shops have donated goodies for the prize valued over $680.

You must enter by Friday, May 16th at 11:59 pm (PST) for your chance to win the random drawing. Read more about the details of entering the contest here. Good luck, I hope you win!

ENTER THE MAY MODISH GIVEAWAY HERE!

You can find Popina Swimwear designs online in the Popina shop, in Portland at the Popina Portland Swimwear Boutique and in reatail locations in the US.

Read more about Pamela and Popina Swimwear in my interview with Pamela for this week’s Indie Artist Fixx.

1. What’s the name of your business and what do create and sell?

The name of my business is Retro Swimwear by Popina Swim. I create retro, vintage inspired swimwear. My swimwear does a great job of covering all the right stuff and still having a great sense of style. I believe you don’t have to show it all to be sexy!

2. Tell us how you got started with your indie business.

I interned at a bikini shop when I was going to fashion school. Our shop did custom swimwear, I was responsible for the cutting one summer, I never thought I would use those skills I learned ever again! Twenty years later down the road, living in Portland, Oregon I had a trip to Cancun in November. I looked all over for a swimsuit that I liked and could not find one.

Then a bunch of things came together. The first job I had in Portland was working for a fabric company that sold swimwear fabric, a few years earlier I bought an industrial cover stitch machine on a whim from a friend, and my job at the time required me to learn pattern making. Growing up sewing, I was able to put all these pieces together to make what would become the Popina Boy Short, Retro Halter and Strappy Top for my trip. I got lots of compliments on my designs on that trip, and then the story that many entrepreneurs have, friends asked for suits, I then sold consignment for two years, then two years ago I opened my brick and mortar retail store - a whopping 250 sq ft. My Portland Swimwear Boutique expanded to triple its initial size earlier this year (I now have 910 sq ft) we now carry other outside swimwear brands, cover ups, flipflops and chemical free sun tan lotions.

3. What are your inspirations in your art and in life?

My main inspiration is nature and the outdoors, living in the Pacific Northwest there are a lot of amazing beautiful places to visit.

4. Are there any pearls of wisdom you’d like to share with newbie indie business owners?

Research your name before you start manufacturing a product. Trademark research is not too hard to do. Go to the US Patent and Trademark site and you can see if your potential name has been taken I did a blog entry on my web site on this process in a little more detail.

(more…)

Here’s one of the entries in Spruce up your Place: Indie Home Decor Challenge….it’s an inspiration board from Melissss of her dream indie bedroom. You can check it out larger here.

It includes the following indie goods:

Tree Hugger Wall Graphic: ellynelly.etsy.com
Apothecary End Table: BlackMtnFurniture.etsy.com
Coral Bed: deliafurniture.etsy.com
Plastic Fantastic Dresser: modernfront.etsy.com
Bird and Twig Floorcloth: bhstudio.etsy.com
Where Shabby Meets Chic Chandelier: RetroUnique.etsy.com
Vintage Quilt Top: lucyjean.etsy.com
Birds and Bows Pillow: Olive.etsy.com
Hello Beautiful mirror: biggirlco.etsy.com
Colorful Rice Paper Lantern: bijoucreek.etsy.com

Where’s your entry Spruce up your Place: Indie Home Decor Challenge?

The deets:

To enter: Send me images from your home of your completed indie & diy home decor projects or images of your mood/inspiration board of projects you are planning or dreaming of (not all of us currently are in a place to redecorate, but still dream about it, right?) You can email me your images or upload them to the Spruce up your Place Flickr group. Please include the names and links to any indie goods that you are featuring in your images. By entering you agree to allow your photos to be used on Indie Fixx.

Don’t know what a mood board is? See examples at flickr HERE and HERE.

The Spruce up your Place: Indie Home Decor Challenge will run from May 6th - June 18th.

The Prize: The prize is totally fabulous and includes the following donated indie goods:

1. DecoyLab - Animal Alphabet poster (blue/pink) and Cuckoo clock (blue)

2. INK&WIT - Winner’s choice of print, either Pommebirds or Elephants

3. Circa Ceramics - $100 girt certificate for anything in the shop, including custom orders

4. Buyolympia.com - $50 gift certificate

5. Skinny laMinx - Apron & 3 tea towels, winner’s choice design

6. Berkley Illustration - Winner’s choice of (2) 8 x 10’s

One winner will be chosen at the Challenge end to win the prize.

For today’s Tutorial Tuesday project, I’d like to share this great tutorial from iHanna (Hanna also has an Etsy shop) on how to make a “clothes line” inspiration board using an an old frame. I thought this is very timely for all of you who are putting your inspiration boards together for the Spruce up your Place: Indie Home Decor Challenge. For some more inspiration for making your own inspiration board, visit the Inspiration Boards blog.

From iHanna, How to Make a Clothesline Inspiration Board.

Directions:

1. I used a big vintage frame and re-painted the whole thing white. I love these big frames so much! I have a few with beautiful gold ornaments and those I won’t touch, but this one was rather ugly if you ask me, with several colors that was kind of worn out. So I used a white paint we had at home and painted all sides twice. What a change!

2. Then I took some kitchen string and stapled that to the backside with a staple gun. They run from one short end to the other, like a cloth line that you can hang your inspirations on. I like these lines with cloth pegs or paper clips, some hang them directly on the wall, but I wanted a frame for my inspiration to kind of give it a special place above my desk.

3. Read more

I am looking to get a new fabric bag for the spring and summer…I am currently using a wool felt bag and I just need something that is a lighter weight before it gets too hot.

Here are the ones that I have my eye on, but I can’t decide which one to get. Help me decide by voting in the poll below.

1. Seaside Bag from TabGoesLive
2. Porter Bag from Jenna Rose
3. Multitask Bag from My Little Bird
4. Market Bag from Moop
5. Shell Bag from Ninu
6. Petticoat Bag from Makool
7. Garden Love Bag from Flowie
8. Leah Bag from Princess Tina and available at Rare Device

more at twiigs.com…

Periodically, there will also be contests for donated goodies from the featured shops.

This month’s prize includes the following:

Coaster set and keychain from Tasty Jewelry

Toast and milk plushie from Dog Bone Art

$50 gift certificate from Simone Walsh

Je T’aime tote bag from Every Little Counts

Follow Me print from f2images

ENTER TO WIN HERE!

Remember we got a new kitty last month? Well, Mei from Jake & Micah read about our new kitty and wrote in asking if she could send a sample of her organic catnip fortune cookie toys for the girls. Of course, I said yes because I know that the girls would not turn down an opportunity for a new toy…even though there’s about 12 million of them strewn around our house.

Anyway, Mei sent the samples and the cats just loved them! Isabella especially loves hers and treats it like her baby, alternately between carrying it around with her to all her different sleeping spots, licking it and then attacking it. Sometimes, both of the girls play together chasing one of the cookies around the super-slidey kitchen floor. I’d say they are definitely a hit.

What I like about them is that the fortune cookie catnip toys are made with organic fabric and with 100% organic catnip from certified organic growers. Each cookie also has a real kitty fortune, like “Keep your eyes open for a sunny spot.” Giftsets that come packaged in a take-out box are available or you can choose a set of two in a variety of fabric patterns.

The maki and sushi roll toys are also so cute.

There are always more ways we can make our studios and work spaces a little more environmentally friendly. Looking around me, I thought I’d share a few of the little things I do that can make a big difference in the long run. Here are some ideas:

1. Use old, cut up t-shirts for rags, rather than using paper towels or buying new rags. You can either donate your own t-shirts that you don’t wear anymore to your art-making cause or go to your local Goodwill and pick up some cheap, used t-shirts. I also make sure I properly dispose of my used rags (check with your city to find out if there is a place to drop off hazardous waste. It is often associated with the city’s recycling facilities.)

2. Use coffee canisters as brush holders and other containers to hold odds and ends. If you’re feeling especially crafty, you can cover over the outsides with paper bits from your studio or from the recycling bin. Why not print on it with a potato stamp? Then cover it with an eco-friendly sealant like Safecoat Polyureseal, a low-VOC, low-odor, water-based clear gloss coating, for a lasting and attractive container!

3. Much of the furniture in my studio has come from garage sales, friends giving things away, things found in alleyways, flea markets…. this way, I’m not buying anything new, I’m saving money, and my furniture has some character to it!

4. Ask your grandparents! So many of the amazing things in my studio have come from my grandmother, who was also an artist and general maker of things– piles and piles of yarn, stacks of fabric, sheets of incredible watercolor paper….
Even if the products are not necessarily eco-friendly, it is most definitely an eco-friendly practice to REDUCE (the buying of new things), REUSE (use something that someone else doesn’t need anymore), and RECYCLE (someone’s old goods can become your new treasures.)

GREEN CHALLENGE:

Find a coffee canister or jar that you would like to decorate and use as a container to hold something. What about flowers? Paint brushes? A container to hold coins? The possibilities are endless. Post your photos of your creations to the Indie is the New Green flickr group!

About the contributor: Jessica Gonacha is an artist from Atlanta, Georgia who is endlessly creating. Her work includes paintings, drawings, illustrations, and paper goods and is vibrant, colorful, and charming. Her work can be found on her site, in her Etsy shop and in the Indie Fixx Shop. You can also read more about Jessica and her work on her blog.

Mama Bird print from Creative Thursday