Crystal Madrilejos

Design & Creative

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A few things…

Just a few things for today, which I have a feeling will turn into a big update. First off, it’s Halloween time again, which is also birthday time for me. Here is a picture of pumpkin I carved a couple years ago. I hadn’t carved a pumpkin in years it seems. I thought it turned out cool:

Secondly, we have a new addition to our home. I had been working on him for a little while now. Slowly but surely, and now he’s done.

The pattern is from a Japanese craft book that I bought online. I altered some of it because, even though I used the pattern for the head directly out of the book (I can’t read Japanese mind you) it was a totally funky shape.

I also altered the pants because I couldn’t figure out for the life of me how suspenders were supposed to stay up if dude has no shoulders. The pants ended up too big so I had to improvise a drawstring number so his pants stayed on his extremely long torso. He’s made out of almost all vintage bedding, except for the head and the handkerchief pattern. I had some serious problems with the fiberfill I used to stuff him. I’ve searched and searched for answers, but I couldn’t figure out why so many little fibers were sticking out through the fabric. It was driving me batty!! It’s possible that I just got not great quality fiberfill, it could be that my fabric is too thin…who know?! I’m trying not to stress it too much and i’ll just try to be more aware of it earlier on in the process next time around. I should take a cue from this guy and just chill out by the plants.

Lastly, the release date for the Toby Goodshank line is within our sights. We pretty much just have to pick a day, print out some labels, tie up some loose ends and we’re good. I’m guessing it’ll be in the next couple weeks. So make sure to check back.

Hope you all are well.
Fondly,
Crystal


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Today is a slow day…

I forgot to bring my camera to work today so I can’t upload the photos that I took this weekend of the stuff that we did.

1. It turns out yes, have some. has a side gig that involves 2 things I love! Buying stuff and vintage clothing. I mentioned a couple posts back that I had an appointment with a vintage store owner in Brooklyn to sell some clothing that we picked up last time we were in Ohio. This meeting was sort of a gauge to see if this whole venture would even be worth it and fortunately the meeting went pretty well. I know little about fashion, but I’m learning. I do know about what I like and what I think looks good, so I at least have that going for me. Between what we sold to the vintage store, both Beacon’s Closet, and Buffalo Exchange we made a good chunk of change that will at least pay for our monthly trips home, with some to spare!

2. We finished another run of lamb prints for Toby Goodshank and a run of a different print. We have two more prints to run and some labels for the dolls. We’re making headway and I plan on making some little announcements for the online release date sometime in the near future.

3. One side of the Medicine Man CD cases is printed, but we ran into some problems with this one. The cases are glossy which we weren’t really prepared for, but they still look great. We had quite an assembly line going. Doing 100 prints at home isn’t necessarily difficult, but the main obstacle is trying to find enough places for these things to dry! We were surrounded!

I’ll do another post later with photos.

Fondly,
Crystal

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One Step Forward…

A Toby Goodshank Line update! Haven’t had one of those in awhile. Things are still moving along as slow as ever, but I did manage to finish one (rough) stuffed Mandor. I totally over-estimated my sewing skills, but they are sort of charming in their handmade sort of way. The tags have yet to be printed, and there is another Mandor doll almost done. He’s not as good looking as the first one, but they are pretty similar.

Also, one run of limited edition prints are almost completely done. Here are some shots of the prints, which I hope to get signed and numbered.

What prompted this burst of productivity? you ask, well we’ve signed up to silkscreen 100 cd covers for local NYC musician The Medicine Man, which have to be done by the end of the month. The Toby prints have been sitting in our screens for a little while now, and now we need the screens to print the cds so we’ve sort of been forced to forge ahead with the supplies we have instead of buying new screens. I’m hoping to set a deadline for the Toby stuff relatively soon. I’m shooting for the beginning of September, but i’ll keep you posted.

We’re heading to Ohio for the weekend to visit the families. While we’re there we’ll be hitting up the thrift stores for more wares to sell on Etsy (which is going pretty slow lately….sigh..) but also i’ll be on the lookout for some vintage clothing. There is an amazing vintage clothing shop near where we live in Brooklyn called Olive’s Very Vintage. I stopped in the other day and spoke with the lovely and beautiful owner/buyer Jen, and asked if she needed anyone to travel to the midwest and buy stuff for her store. She was very nice and made a list of things I should keep my eye out for.

This is something i’ve always wanted to do. We go back to Ohio ALL THE TIME and I always find so many awesome things that
1.) don’t fit me
2.) are super cute but not my style
3.) I can’t justify buying because I have way too many clothes and shoes and way too small apartment (and closet) and between Andrew and I, our clothing cannot be contained.
Selling the clothing on Etsy or Ebay is always an option, but there is just something too wonderful about going into an actual vintage clothing store and looking at the stuff in person.

Wish me luck!

Fondly,
Crystal

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Mix Tape

Everyone at one point or another receives a mix tape or makes a mix tape for a friend or significant other. A few years ago, I decided to make a mix cd for my friend Brian F. for his birthday. I know this is a few years late, but it’s probably one of my favorite things that I’ve ever made. I was browsing through my iphoto and came across these pictures of said mix cd, that I’m sure I was planning on posting at some point. So finally here they are.

The brown thing with the initials is a case that I sewed to hold both slim-line cd cases. It’s made of felt with a vintage rick-rack stripe across the top. I embroidered his initals with yellow floss. I can’t remember what stitch I used, but I imagine it was something pretty basic since, as you can see, my embroidery skills are not top notch.

The covers for the cds are collages I made from old school workbooks that I found in my parents attic. Super seventies. I wish I had an image of the playlist because I can’t remember it off hand. If I remember correctly, it was all local NYC musician friends. Here are closer up detail shots.

Fondly,
Crystal

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Summer Daze

Summer is in full effect. Today is a scorcher with a predicted high of 90 degrees! Holy hell! The heat has forced me to wear the flip flops today, which i’m not a huge fan of. My feet aren’t super duper busted, but I still don’t like to look at them if I can help it. With the onset of summer comes the onset of the not-wanting-to-do-anything-but-lounge-and-be-outside-whenever possible mindset, and not-in-front-of-the-computer-if-I-can-help-it mode. I’m not going to outright say this is the reason for not posting in so long, but I may allude to that.

Anyway, Etsy stuff is selling. A little slower than I had expected, but a few items have gone since we last updated. The nested bowls were sold to a very lovely lady in Texas. She said they were very special to her and she was so happy when she received them. As for our own stuff, Andrew made another duffel. After much cursing and sweating, I made a little lined zipper pouch.

One Mandor is done, but i’m not really happy with him. His arms came out too skinny and he looks generally, rough! I sewed most of that one on the machine, but it’s really hard to control when you’re working with such small pieces. I don’t know why I was avoiding hand sewing like the plague, but the one i’m workin on now has been mostly hand sewn. Now i’m also realizing that I probably should be using different material. Back to square one, dang.

Andrew started making these bracelet thingies too. I’ll post pictures when I get a chance.

Fondly,
Crystal

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Etsy Update

Finally! All the new goods have been posted to our Etsy shop. Check them out. There are a lot of great things that I wish we could keep, unfortunately our apartment is about 2 feet by 2 feet. So the next best thing is knowing that someone else is putting them to good use.

As for the Toby Goodshank line. Dang, it’s taking long. But here is a sneak peek of one of the bags that will be sold in the Toby Goodshank line, if you weren’t already stoked enough:

the fabric pattern was designed and drawn by Toby and we silkscreened the fabric. also, the bag itself was designed and sewn here at yes, have some. I know I keep saying this, but keep your eyes out for these. I promise, the wait will be well worth it.

Fondly,
Crystal

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While I’m Waiting

It’s Wednesday night around 11:00pm and I am, unfortunately, still at the office. I’m extremely tired and waiting and waiting and waiting, as per usual. I decided i’d just share this little gem that never ceases to amaze me. The other weekend, we photographed items for our Etsy shop. We have a small apartment and the only suitable place, with enough space and lighting, is our kitchen table. However, it’s bright green and to fix this we place two pieces of matte board on the table. One flat and one up against the wall as a backdrop. Most of our stuff thus far has been small enough that this set-up works fine. But this last round we had to photograph a shawl that was pretty big when laid out. I figured, get some stuff around the edges and i’ll just Photoshop it out. No problem, right? Wrong. I work on a computer all day and I like to think that my Photoshop skills are not too shabby. However, I set out to fix this:

I won’t even show you the mess I made of it. I was, of course, at work when I was doing this. Working in publishing, naturally we have an in-house retoucher so I hit him up for advice. I sent the image to him over IM and asked him how it would be easiest. I shit you not, literally 10 minutes later he sends me this:

Voila! as they say in France. Jeez.

Fondly,
Crystal

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Update

We finally took pictures this weekend of the stuff we got in Ohio; as well as the other stuff we’d been planning on photographing for the past few weeks. There should be a massive update to our Etsy shop sometime this week with lots of vintage stuff, not so much handmade stuff.

Our stuff has been slow going mainly because of my work schedule and us being away. But another huge factor was the fact that our apartment looked like a war zone and our work area was buried. Right before we left for Ohio, we were in the middle of moving all our craft stuff into a new storage cabinet that we bought from Build It Green (everyone should check this place out and volunteer if you can!) and we finally finished organizing it this weekend. Too much stuff and so little space.

Alas, all was not lost to cleaning this weekend! Andrew made a couple duffel bags and I’m pretty much done with two doll prototypes and I started a final of one of them last night. We’re waiting to post for sale any of the Toby Goodshank stuff until it’s all done, but we may give you a peek at what we’ve been working on so you can get excited for when they do finally go on sale. We have yet to set a final, final date of release until we can get our schedules under control.

I know I talk a lot about our apartment. Mainly because I spend most of my time there (other than in the office) and both Andrew and I are pretty specific about what makes us feel at home and comfortable. In order for me to be productive I need good lighting; Andrew needs everything to have a place. So I thought I’d share the evolution of our apartment a la Sneak Peek over at the Design*Sponge blog. If you’ve never read her blog I highly recommend it.

Fondly,
Crystal

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Working On It

Sorry for the no-post as of late. Things have been hectic on all fronts. We’re still moving along with the Toby Goodshank line, but we’ve been having difficulties with our silkscreen process and it’s been a lot of trial and error. Of course, we chose probably the most difficult things to silkscreen first, but things are definitely in the works. Crystal has been busy with her day-job and was out of commission for a few days for a shoot in L.A., but this weekend we’ll be full steam ahead. Hopefully, at least one of the doll prototypes will be completely done and another one will be in the works.

On a more productive note, the yes, have some. Etsy shop has been selling some items. Most of our vintage housewares have been sold and a couple totes as well. We will be in Ohio most of next week for vacation and family time, so we’ll be stocking up on more stuff. There are still more things, mostly vintage bags and some clothes, that need to be photographed and posted. Maybe this weekend. So, if you’re in the market for a vintage purse or a crocheted shawl, keep your eyes peeled.

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Etsy Update and Other News

We’ve added new items to our Etsy shop. We now have a vintage section that, so far, features vintage housewares. There is also a new basket bag up that Crystal made a couple months ago. If you have interest in such things, you should check them out. We still have more vintage items to photograph, which will probably happen sometime this week. Maybe even next weekend. Check back for updates.

Last night we finally had our meeting with Toby Goodshank and the wheels have been set into motion for our next project. You can read more about this project a few posts back. There had been some setbacks, but yes, have some: Toby Goodshank (this is the tentative name for the project) is finally happening. We have yet to decide on the release date, but we’re hoping for sometime in May. Our meeting seemed ambitious and we’re hoping that everything comes together without a hitch. Toby is an unbelievably productive artist, so we don’t imagine the slacking will be on his part!