Where Did April Go?

“Make Something Cool Every Day in April” – what a motivator, I definitely worked toward a project every single day.  I just wish I had completed more!

I learned a lot from making these birds.  At first I sewed ten of these with the plans to do 2 at a time, 5 for B&M shop, 5 for Etsy shop.  Well, that didn’t work out well.  A pink fabric I’ve been working with stretched in odd ways and a linen one frayed at the seams.  I had to learn engineering and balance to get the legs to hold up these little guys, too.  I’m pleased with the results and will make more for sure with all my new-found knowledge.

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I follow Dave of Rings & Things on Twitter and really, really love his posts- they’re always informative, inspirational & he takes time for people.  When he pointed out some bead caps, I had an idea for them, and he blogged about it – I just LOVE getting creative ideas and multi-purposing.  Go check out the post and his blog and see what I’m talking about.

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What an honor to have my Love Letter included in this great Treasury, and especially with my favorite color, red:

Tamaragarvey - E.T. Shop of the Week

Quirky, whimsical, what’s not to like about this week’s Etsy Twitter shop, tamaragarvey?

I love the cute creatures in this print, they are adorable. Or maybe I’m just liking the color blue today (see previous post).

I didn’t even know she’d be the shop-of-the-week and included her print, The Woods Have Eyes, in a Treasury I got last week. It was a perfect fit!

Etsy Twitter Team: Shop of the Week: Tamara Garvey: "Special for the Week: Put “EtsyTwitter” into the “Messages for the Seller” box and await a revised invoice with a 15% discount off any of her items! (If you forget, just send her a convo.)"

Use What You Have

A pile of buttons, but none the color blue that I need.   So, I got to work making lemonade out of lemons and:

• threw them into a glass bowl,
• covered them with blue food coloring and a splash of water,
• cleaned up the blue that landed all over my counter,
• covered it tightly with plastic wrap*
• put it in the microwave for 2 minutes.
• Rinsed and wala!  Blue buttons. 

I think the saturation and scratches that show up are probably due to age, I have no idea how long these buttons have been in the bag or what they’re made of (picked them up from a grandma at a yard sale).  But the variegation adds some interest to these and I think they’ll come in handy in future projects.  Turns out they’re not the color I’m looking to work with the birds I’m making, so will set them aside for now.

*which I would never do with food, but plastic buttons are “okay”.

My Workspace & WIP

Just a peek:

Etsy Bloggers Street Team Blog Carnival topic: “Describe your dream studio (or if you already have one, give details!).”

Well, the truth is, having a room with a door that shuts is all I really need.  I don’t have to clean up after myself too often, there’s a desk inside with my computer, another one for my sewing and a folding table for more wips.  It’s a mess.  But it’s all mine!  It doesn’t look much different than [tiny picture] here.  Sure, sure, more [organized] closets would be great, but I have shelves in the hallway, a few boxes of fabric in the attic – I can’t complain.  "The best things in life aren't things." -Art Buchwald

 

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Dabbled’s Make Something Cool Every Day in April - Works in Progress – unfinished birds – these are taking much longer than expected to complete - 

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Handmadeology is having an “Etsy Worthy Photo Contest”.  There are some magnificent pictures over there – I entered my Pink Percussion Cuff Bracelet – go check it out and vote for your favorite.

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I’ve been looking at Blythe dolls online.  Not sure if what I want is the doll, or all the cute clothes that folks make for her on Etsy.  Or to make my own clothes for her.  So, if you have a suggestion, or know of where I can get a Blythe (not the petite) that won’t break my bank, please leave a message! 

Etsy Day – Every Day!

Etsy Twitter Team Treasury – viewable through Friday, April 24th at 10:34pm:

I was lucky to grab this treasury and when I saw the eyes on the first item I chose, the cat, then I knew that’s how I would focus my picks.

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Friday, April 24th, 2009 is Etsy Day!* If you haven’t signed up over at at Etsy.com – why not? What are you waiting for?  Not a big shopper? When you sign up, at least you can make note of your favorites in case someone else wants to shop for you!  I have my relatives that live far away do that, so I know what they really want on holidays, birthdays and special occasions.

Etsy Day  Originally uploaded by schugirl08
*This promotion is sponsored by individual Etsy shop owners, not the Etsy company.

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Etsy Bloggers are one of the groups that I’m part of and it’s been so much fun discovering other crafty people out there in the Etsyverse.  Two Zany Zebras is the Featured Etsy Blogger and I have to say, I was cracking up at her story about The most miserable egg hunt ever.  Is that mean of me? Maybe it was the fact that there were 8 wrappers, not just 1 or 2…. well, you’ll just have to read it yourself and see.

 

 

At her shop  you’ll find the home of the “Zarkles” and some cute  monsters – lots of whimsical creatures, all huggable & wearable!

Go take a look & enjoy Etsy, every day!

Etsy Twitter Team Shop of the Week: Rhodes Annals Designs

Etsy Twitter Team: Shop of the Week: Rhodes Annals Designs(Trying out the Create a Link feature on Blogger.)

Rhodes Annals Designs has some great items, and my favorites are definitely her crochet pouches.  This “duck egg blue” really struck a chord with me for springtime:

Claire has a special this week: “Put ‘Twitter Rocks’ into Messages for the Seller box and await a revised invoice with a 10% discount off the item price.”  You can also read more about her at the Etsy Twitter Team blog.

Catching up

My poor neglected blog.  I’d gotten used to posting often and this week have been so busy…

What have I been doing?

Some of this: 

Crocheting flowers to use in some upcoming jewelry projects.

And some of this:

So glad those pepper seeds finally sprouted!!!

Been Twittering about these things:

The Bread Art Project – $1 goes to Feeding America for every [virtual] piece of bread art you create.

The Tip Junkie has my blog post about Drying Herbs featured on Teach Me Thursday!  I’m honored.

Excited to read about Etsy in Wired magazine.  (One of these days I hope to post about a shop update! I have a couple of sewing projects in the works and some u.f.o.s to complete, just no pictures yet.)

Do you twitter?

Doing anything special for Earth Day?  I thought I was the only one excited about planting seeds, but I’ve been giving away the packets I made for the Earth Share project (that I blogged about a few days ago) and people have been giving me great feedback when receiving them!  I hope there will be beautiful flowers sprouting up in many gardens this summer.

L'élephantRose – E.T. Shop of the Week

There’s something about this headband, over at the shop of the week, lelephantrose, that keeps drawing me back.  The yellow just pops out at me and it says “Spring!”

I love this in the description, too: “Dare to be bold! Adorn yourself accordingly.”

Over at the Etsy Twitter Team Blog there’s a special offer mentioned in her interview: “Free shipping on any US domestic orders and 50% off international shipping on orders placed this week. Use code “ETT” in message to seller to redeem.” 

I hope you enjoy my weekly blog posts and favorite picks of each Etsy Twitter Team shop of the week.  I’m starting to get nervous, though – I haven’t updated my shop in a long time and it will be by turn soon!

Earth Day - Green Share

“Green Share is an effort, an idea conceived by the members of the EcoEtsy Team. It is hope - it is our promise to spread the green within our own communities all over the world.”

“At its most basic, Green Share is this:  The passing on and sharing of a gift of seeds and a starter planter that is given freely to classrooms, local businesses, neighbors, friends and family. ….  Many EcoEtsy members are participating in Green Share, but anyone can participate really!”

I’ve been an EcoEtsy member for a while because I feel it’s important to be aware of our environment.  99% of my Etsy sales get shipped out in recycled packaging and whenever possible I try to reuse and recreate from raw materials.  (See my latest bird project in the last post? All recycled fabrics!)

 

I’ve put together my packets – cut out seed packet envelopes from recycled garden catalogs, added peat pellets to start them growing and a spoonful of cosmos seeds.  Topped them all off with a sticker on the front and another one on the back with directions.  This week I will be delivering them to folks around town – sharing some spring-time hope to people at town hall, the library, maybe a teacher or two.  Next year I hope to continue this with seeds that I harvest from my own garden!  If you find this page from getting one of these packets, please be sure to leave a comment below.  I hope everyone enjoys their flowers this summer.

Little Birds

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Birds in progress. Well, actually this one’s done – I just have a design question if anyone’s ever made anything like this. The legs are one piece of wire inserted through the bottom piece of denim – so basically there is a bar holding up the bird from the inside. Like a swing. Hence the 3rd picture with it lying on it’s side. If anyone has suggestions how to stabilize the bird better, but still keep the design simple, I would appreciate it. I thought of inserting each leg as it’s own wire, or maybe pushing more wire into the body and bending it flat against the inside stomach (like in an “S” or “N” shape). Well, maybe just typing this out – I’ve solved the problem & now I just have to make another one and see what happens next!

I have bunches of coordinating fabrics picked up to make more of these little guys, just would like to tweak the pattern a bit more so the legs will hold up without swinging.

Sewing completely relaxes me, especially as I bring to 'life' something I've made up in my head. It's also a great feeling of confirmation lately to have been reading all sorts of news articles online about the 'health benefits of knitting/sewing/crafting'. (I knew it was good for me all along.)

Crochet & Crocus

I think I have some work to do on my crocheting.  When I saw this pattern at the mutts shop, I had to get it.  This is my first “mutt”, definitely the first of many.  Also part of the “Make Something Cool Every Day in April” Challenge, hosted by Dabbled. 

I don’t really work sequentially, so “every day” doesn’t work well for me.  One day I’ll make parts, then start a new project or two, another day… maybe a week later… go back to the original project and finish it up.  Then it might be days before I photograph it and upload.  Anyone else work like this?

My yard is making something cool, flowers!  New England winters last soooo long…Still snow on the ground, but this was a welcome surprise while I was out raking the other afternoon:

Welcome Spring!

I’m glad these came up, I planted them after the ground had frozen and spent quite a bit of time hacking at the hard soil to make some room for these bulbs. 

Curious Mess – E.T. Shop of the Week

The shop of the week, curiousmess, has some very unique items, my favorite being this decorative fabric bowl:

Not only that, she has fiber art as well as wood art over there, too.  The fabric bowl is definitely a favorite for me because it’s so unique & look at that beautiful photography!

Very interesting interview with Starla at the Etsy Twitter Team Blog & don’t miss out: “Free shipping worldwide April 6th - 12th. Just mention “EtsyTwitter” in your message to seller and shipping will be refunded.”

Stop by her shop and take a look around, you won’t be disappointed!

Springtime Bunnies, part II

Springtime Bunnies, part I

 

I’ve been chosen, at the Zakka Life blog, to be the Facebook Fan this week!  I am honored.  Zakka Life has some of the cutest and most clever projects and it’s one of my regular reads.

Latest project:

Inspiration: Springtime! & Mrs. Schneider. (Story accompanying bunny here.)

Creation:

5” tall.

I wanted to take this picture last night, so created a light box for indoor pictures, using this template.   I only had one lamp with a daylight bulb, will get a couple of others for future use.  I’m pretty pleased with the way things came out.  Finding the white balance button on my camera made a big difference on how things looked, too – much less editing afterwards to get the colors corrected.

Here you can see how I created this bunny. On the left-hand side I started with a wool crochet bunny.  Next I threw it in a hot wash to agitate and shrink, then out to dry.  The third picture is the naked bunny.  I ended up doing lots of needle-felting, too because I found holes here and there – I started out thinking it was going to be an easy project to complete and it didn’t exactly turn out that way.

Contradictions

My original title for this post was “Vexed” but I’m trying not to have a negative overview of things, it’s just not good for me.

The bunnies I’ve been crocheting with wool were cute pre-felting… not so cute after… (pictures coming soon).

Fleshing out ideas directly on [short supply of] nice fabric…not such a great idea. I hate the thought of making things over again though … but I keep holding onto the illusion that as I make a new project it will come out perfect the first time. Yeah, I’ll have pictures of these soon,too.

I’m happy to have read this, but upset & embarrassed that I’m a month late:

I received a “Spreader of Love” award from the Rings & Things blog. Dave, on Twitter was one of the first to show me how people really listen out there! When I announced a new blog post at twitter, he posted a lovely comment & I truly appreciate it. And… on twitter he connects to the most interesting links and information that are truly unique. Link to the Design Gallery for the pen project is here (not affiliated,just think it’s really great).

My five awards go to folks who’ve commented on my blog or at twitter, or both!:

♥ Jacqueline of So Cute it Hurts

♥ Rustic Diva Designs and RP Gardens

♥ FatDaddySweets

♥ firebirdhouse

♥ Odd Dotty Dollmaker, blog

A link back to “rules” are here.

And… just one more contradiction. I’ve enjoyed the “Letter of the Week” theme, especially reading what’s going on at the Craftside blog. But – I just can’t keep up with it. I need to focus on what I truly want to do (not coming up with weekly project just to participate. When the stars aligned like on “I”, it was great, but mostly I’ve been fishing for matches & that’s not real productive.)

Want to use this robot? Pasting this text into your blog post should work for a big size:<a href="http://tamdoll.blogspot.com/2009/04/contradictions.html" target="_blank"><img border="0" alt="Tamdolls Spreader of Love Award" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_wc3-XBkXdU4/SdPDICT-DVI/AAAAAAAACYA/bZQnEV6Knzk/image32%5B1%5D.png" /></a>

For a sidebar - Pasting this text into your blog post should work for a small size:<a href="http://tamdoll.blogspot.com/2009/04/contradictions.html" target="_blank"><img border="0" alt="Tamdolls Spreader of Love Award" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_wc3-XBkXdU4/SdPDICT-DVI/AAAAAAAACYA/bZQnEV6Knzk/s144/image32%5B1%5D.png" />

If you want it to link to a different location, swap out the www.locationyouwant.co