Sunday Afternoon Housewife

Contact Me:

Please feel free to contact me any time! I would love to hear from you about topic you’d like me to write about, an upcoming fair you’d like me to attend, a comment about my jewelry, if you want to place a special order, need some advice, or if you just want to say hello! Email me at:  mellenlatta@gmail.com

Who is Sunday Afternoon Housewife?

Sunday Afternoon Housewife is a handmade artist who creates Scrabble Tile pendants, glass tile pendants, silk screened tees, and much randomness. She also regularly posts about crafting, running a craft business, and taking a craft business on road. She also posts occasional recipes, sassy product reviews, and general tips for living a craft filled life.

Bio:

Martha Latta was born to hippie parents in the early winter of 1981. She was raised in north central Indiana on a diet of Ramen noodles, tuna helper, and potato wedges with nacho cheese, later converting to a vegetarian diet at the age of 14. She always loved art class and was encouraged by her parents to create things at will. In her younger years, after the fun of the lemonade stand waned, she had a business selling friendship bracelets on a card table at the end of her driveway.

This venture didn’t really pan out, and having a hard time finding what might treat her best, Martha experimented with wood burning, leather work, beading, paper making, photography, embroidery, and sewing all before graduating high school. It was also in high school that Martha met her future husband and owner of Standard Recording Company, Mark Latta. While they don’t always agree on the details of their meeting, that’s about the only disagreement they’ve ever had. They married in the fall of 2003, moved to Indianapolis the next summer, and have lived happily ever after.

After graduating college with a degree in General Studies, Martha Latta began using the Sunday Afternoon Housewife moniker in late 2004 as the title of her kitschy, home-printed zine that focused on local music, gross old gelatin recipes, crafting, and housekeeping. This was only the first of many incarnations of Sunday Afternoon Housewife. Sometime late in the summer of 2006, Martha formed an all-female band, also named Sunday Afternoon Housewife. The four ladies in the band played a three song set while dressed in aprons and sang songs about doing dishes, Martha Stewart, and for the finale, they rocked the crowd with one sweet Boomtown Rats cover. The band played the one show, of which, thankfully, no record, photo, or video exists, and then dissolved.

The following summer, Martha set up at her first craft fair in Indianapolis. She sold crochet toys, knit and crochet washcloths, bars of natural soap, and felt iPod cozies sewn together on her 1960′s Singer Sewing Machine. Of course she called this new venture none other than Sunday Afternoon Housewife.

After a brief interlude,  Martha began crafting for fun instead of business. She sent over 100 heart-felt crafty packages to total strangers and received many fantastic packages in return. One day Martha opened up one of these glorious swap packages and found a two part epoxy resin kit. One might say, “The rest is history!” She began creating many different resin creations, starting with beads and settling on her wildly popular Scrabble Tile Pendants. Her line has expanded to include metal and resin pendants, rings, and earrings, and her desire to create new and kitschy jewelry has remained constant. While some two things may be alike, she’s constantly trying to stretch the boundaries of her craft.

Martha now lives in a fabulous 110 year old home on the Neat East Side of Indianapolis with her husband, a fat cat, a wild, crinkle-eared cat, an old dog, and a dog that looks like Martin Van Buren. She now subsists on a diet of organic vegetables, peanut butter noodles, white rice, and vodka-club sodas. She’s a proficient gardener, celebrated cook, almost full time crafter and blogger, and, of course, a Sunday Afternoon Housewife.