‘Tis the Season to be Orange

HuayruroPeru is always on the ball with making Treasuries, click and visit!:

Makes me think of Vitamin C with all the sniffles around me, too.

Teams!

I stopped doing many weekly blog posts about team members because I felt that was all I was doing.  And I was busy.  Not making stuff, but just busy. I’m still involved in teams, but just in different ways.  For instance, I love the Etsy Twitter Team and my Tweet Deck is usually running in the background of my pc while I’m working at home.  Follow me on Twitter if you like.

This week’s E.T.T. Shop of the Week is Cape Cod Jewels and Things.  I thought her creative use of jewels and puzzle pieces was really creative.  There’s a great interview with her at the team blog.  And her shop is really charming, filled with all sorts of beautiful creations.   Spooky Halloween sale going on now, too!  Here’s one of my faves:

 

I also love to blog and the Etsy Bloggers Team is a perfect fit!  Since one of my recent posts was for a “Blog Carnival” – you can read what other etsy bloggers have written about in the same category by checking out A Keeper’s Jackpot blog.
Next week there will be a post here about my participation with the EtsyChai Team and an upcoming promotion for the holidays.

Oh, and just one more.  The EcoEtsy Street Team is one I’m not very active in, but finally, one of my nominations was put up on their blog! 

How involved do you get with your Etsy Teams? 

Project Storage

It’s one thing to have yarn or fabric stashed around the house in piles, boxes, footstools, under beds, closets, (well… you get the picture), and it’s another thing when you have to find what you need to work on a project.

Last week I got overwhelmed – so much yarn lying around, copies of patterns I’d seen online or Ravelry that I wanted to make and lists of who/what/when I wanted to make them for.  At least my needles were organized & easy to find!  (read this post if you hadn’t seen how I did that.)

The point is, as I was looking for bags to store projects in, I found these sheet/comforter-set bags stashed in the closet.  These are fantastic.  Zippered all around.  And clear!  Very important, because for me – out of sight is out of mind.  And, inside, a little pocket  where the picture of the original product used to be – perfect for storing patterns and needles.  One of the bags even has a handle.  I matched up patterns with yarn and stacked them up in the bags.  Now I’m ready to go with projects to throw in the car, and I don’t have to worry about yarn spilling out and getting dirty.

Do you take projects to go with you?  I never leave the house without something to do in case I’m kept waiting.

Almost Midnight

(In my part of the world, it’s almost midnight.  I love that readers can be anywhere at anytime though!)  I almost forgot to put up my blog post for the EtsyBloggers Carnival!  The question I’ve chosen to answer is all about… Halloween!  “What are you doing to celebrate this year?”

I’ll be doing a couple of things this year.  First of all I was invited to a Halloween party & want to dress as Medusa.  I had a plan for my hair and a few snake embellishments… but the dress was driving me crazy!  I saw a costume in the shop but it was $45 and I really didn’t want to wear one of those plasticky things.  So… I ran to the consignment shop, got a 10 minute parking spot outside, saw a grey dress in XL and bought it quickly:

It’s a long top and a long skirt & I’m sure someone’s mom looked great in it at their wedding.  And for $25 I have a silk outfit with thousands of beads to play with that’s going to be super comfortable!  I’m going to [try to] take off the sleeves and maybe use some of the sleeve liner fabric to tie/gather under the bust to add some shaping to the outfit.  I may gather the top of the removed sleeves and wear them lower on the arms, too.  I’ll add snakes to my hair and around my hand, maybe upper-arms, too.  Heavy grey eyeshadow, maybe face-paint?  Not sure about that one.  Of course, I’ll probably work on this last-minute sometime during the week and post pictures after the party.

 

The other thing I’ve been working on are some Halloween cuffs.  I seriously have to add crafting to my daily planner & put holidays on my to-do list months in advance.  I’m pretty lax about this, but really, can’t get the motive to work on winter holidays in the summer-time!  Maybe one of these years I will… For now, I finished a handful of cuffs and delivered them to my favorite local shop, Apotheca:

and this one taken out of my Etsy shop:

For now I packed away my Halloween supplies and will try to remember to work on these things next August.  And fyi: drilling tiny holes in Scrabble tiles is tricky!  I broke a few bits and a few “B”’s – and there aren’t too many of those in each game box!

I can’t wait to read the rest of the blog carnival and see what other folks have planned.  Have any Halloween plans?  Or.. how far ahead do you do your holiday crafting?

Multi-tasking

I think that’s what all moms do, right?  A part-time job here, another there.  Volunteering.  Taking care of the kids.  Hobbies.  Reading books.  Helping with homework.  Blogging.  Keeping the house clean.  Shopping, cooking, cleaning.  Make stuff for etsy shop.  Blog for my group.  Make gifts.  Make lists.  Cutting coupons.  Scheduling.  Tweet.  Go to the gym.  Answer the phone.  Sewing, knitting, laundry, planning, driving, arranging, blah, blah blah.  Not complaining, just a fact.  So much more can be added here!  Was typing in something at my goodreads account and thought, oh, I should blog soon.

Well, here’s my latest blog post.  I started keeping my “to-read” list on goodreads after my last computer crash.  (I had had a file on the pc to keep track of interesting titles and lost it, was so annoyed.)  This is different for me than a shop wish list, easier to keep track of books that I want to read and books that I’ve already read.  Re-read a book this year and didn’t even realize it till 1/2-way through.  Ever do that? 

 

Well, if you read sci-fi/fantasy/vampire books, I’d love to see your recommendations, become a friend on goodreads if you like.  (I try to escape reality when I read for leisure, can you tell?)

Giant Pumpkin Regatta

Once again, the NH Giant Pumpkin Growers Association have descended on our small town and their 2009 weigh-off was held yesterday.  These guys were big.

What do you do with a giant pumpkin?  Here, we hollow them out and decorate them:

Then, normally sane adults climb inside, add a motor and race them up and down the river:

More pictures at the flickr group.

Ephemeral Entrelac

Not in substance, but in existence.

Not enough yarn to make a long scarf.  Too scratchy to make it into a closely-worn cowl.  Unraveled to begin anew… as what??? 

One skein Colinette Skye (Aran weight/10ply wool) yarn with size 8 needles.  Taking suggestions.

Clearing my desk!

Used up most of my recycled sari silk on this new basket: I ran out of this yarn just as I approached the top… well, actually I have one skein left but the colors are completely different, so I’m glad I found that soft suede yarn to finish it with.  That [twig-studded recycled] yarn really does a job on your fingers.  Gave it to my daughter and she promptly filled it with her own yarn to keep her projects in it.

And baby sweater #3 of the fall… So pleased with this one and the yarn is super-soft.  Thank goodness my friends keep having babies, it’s been fun making these tiny projects.

Now I’m off to whip up some Halloween goodies!

Making the Best of Things

I’m working on a tiny project that I don’t want to put up  here just yet.  I don’t want to spoil someone’s surprise if they happen to follow my blog.  I think I’m done with making baby sweaters for a while (unless anyone has any more news to share?????)

 

Working on another Crocheted Stash Basket from the Purl Bee with this recycled sari silk yarn. I’ve had it for a while, got it on eBay (in 2008 I think) and it’s not my favorite.  The colors are great, but when worked up it’s very, very heavy.  And there are lots of twigs in it.  The thick/thin quality of it doesn’t bother me, but at first I thought I had been ripped off.  Since then, I’ve read other people’s reports about it and it seems to be standard for this type of yarn – the twigs and scratchiness of it.  So… I finally have a pattern for something non-wearable that I can use it for.  Should have it done this weekend to photograph.

When something doesn’t turn out as planned, what do you do with it?

A Confession

I read comics.  There it is. 

Today was 24 Hour Comics Day, so I stopped by Double Midnight Comics to see what was going on and to see what’s new.  I read about Umbrella Academy & wanted to check it out… they didn’t have any so I’ll have to return in a few weeks.  I don’t visit the store too often (twice a year?) since it can get pricey… (not as expensive as yarn, I know..)  I also wanted to see what Emily the Strange was all about, but couldn’t find anything about that.

Who’s in the picture?  That’s Dan Larson, local artist and author of Stick-Man, after a night of drawing.  Click the links, go visit and see for yourself.

Did you read comics when you were younger?  Do you still?  Which ones?  Any other confessions you want to make?… I promise, only folks that read the blog comments will ever know….

Finally Friday!

I don’t have my camera at the moment, so instead of w.i.p.’s here’s some of my Flickr favorites:  How much do you like Flickr?  Pretty addicting place for lots of eye-candy.

Check out the latest post at EtsyChai if you’re interested in reading about the latest Jewish holiday and what Etsy sellers have in store for the coming months.

More to laugh about – over at CraftFail, 11 out of 11 folks who commented thought my bead-fail was an edible creation!  I sent them off to Care, who has an amazingly creative blog, Obsessively Stitching, you should check it out!

And here’s a piece I almost forgot about! 

Is it too late to work on Halloween projects?  I think I’ll have some free time this weekend, and expect to get started on a bunch of new things.  Whether I finish any of them is a whole different story.

What are you going to do this weekend?  I hope your days are filled with lots of fun activities!