You Can Take It With You

You can take it with you and be stylish in a one-of-a-kind handbag!  I love making purses, although I don’t do it too often.  A sneak peek:

Been stitching and experimenting on some new bag designs for a craft fair coming up this Sunday.  I’ve known about this event since the summertime – do you think I’ve been sewing since then?  Not so.  It’s hard for me to sit still and make one thing from start to finish so my creating has been sporadic and full of interruptions.

Won’t have a big inventory, but what I have will definitely be unique.  If you’ll be in southern NH this coming Sunday, December 5th, be sure to stop by!

Blog Carnival – Creative Inspiration

Etsybloggers Carnival for this week will be Hosted by PatchFirstShop (sometime Monday she’ll have a list of everyone’s links & answers).

Talk about your inspirations!!
1) What item are you working on?? What is your inspiration for this piece??
2) What is always inspiring you for your shops, your works, or anything in your life?

1) Right now I’m working on purses, totes & handbags that will be sold at an upcoming craft fair.  I’m inspired to make these by the piles of fabrics I have lying everywhere & I like making these unique accessories.  Combining only what I have & not running out to purchase any new supplies is a challenge.  Pictures of those in a week or so!

2) My brain never stops thinking of new ideas & I can’t honestly say it’s one thing that inspires me.  A color or a phrase might give me the spark for a new idea.  My thinking really isn’t linear at all – an example: Back in ‘08, I learned to crochet and made some cute donuts with a pattern from the Lion Brand website:

While I’m making these, I’m thinking about the yarn I have stashed and decide jelly donuts should be next on the to-do list and make a bunch of sugar frosted ones, modifying the pattern a little and adding some needle-felting:

Next, having a ton of embroidery floss and loving the challenge of miniatures, I decide to make a bunch of mini-donuts…. after a few days of them lying on my worktable, I crochet them into a bracelet simply because I’m determined to make jewelry out of the things that I like:

This cute elephant was inspired by the color of the roving I created him with:

My series of key necklaces were inspired by wanting to create crochet shapes without a pattern and the Tiffany necklaces I kept seeing advertisements for:

 

 

It’s hard to define what inspires me – I’m more likely to say: There’s nothing that doesn’t inspire me.

Quick & Easy Crochet Gift Bags

Thanks to the how-to & pattern at CreativeJewishMom, I whipped up a couple of crochet gift bags the other evening.  I left out the decorative edging, and used bright primary colors for two little boys:

I’m glad I found a use for those single balls of bright colors!  These pouches were quick and easy to do.  I added a shoelace for a closure, sewing the knots together so little hands have trouble trying to undo them.  I also sewed the lacing to the bag at the center of the pouch, hoping they stay intact.  When I was done, I used the remaining yarn to make a little catch-all for someone’s desk:

Will fill with some treats, wrap and mail out next week.  This was such a satisfying project – the yarn was chunky & felt so nice in my hands. 

Do you have any quick & easy projects that make you happy?

Crochet Robot

I was surprised (but happy) to see a crochet robot in the first spot of “Giving 101” in this month’s issue of Elle magazine. 

It was encouraging to me that handcrafted items were appreciated enough to be featured here.

Once Upon a Pie

Saturday we had another successful Once Upon a Pie event for the library.  Pies were baked, sampled by judges, slices were sold and the winning pies (shown below) were auctioned off to the highest bidder.  It was a fun and delicious event.

 

Miracles of Hanukkah Sale

These donuts have no calories, I promise.  Celebrate Chanukah guilt-free.(Well, calorie-wise at least.  I can’t promise elimination of all guilt.)

The EtsyChai team is having a sale, you can read about it here, at the blog.  The sale runs from November 1st – 22nd, 2010.  Participating shops are offering discounts, free shipping, free gifts, or any combination.  Check it out and have a no-stress holiday, having artisan created, handmade items delivered right to your home.

Tea Bag Wisdom

I’ll have to keep this in mind.

More Falling Leaves Pins – Is Selling Online a Good Choice?

It’s only been one day and I’m having doubts about my decision to list these pins online at my shop.

I have a local venue to sell at, but would have to adjust pricing to make up for the store commission.  Not wanting to make these priced too high, I’m listing them online (finishing up with the last two this afternoon, seen below).  

Is Etsy too saturated for anyone to notice these?  Am I missing out on potential sales?  I’m not sure.

Tiny Autumn Leave Brooches

Wool felt pins inspired by the falling leaves of autumn.

These are available at my online shop today.  In the evening I’ll be listing some different colors and square shaped pins, too.  Enjoy!

October Featured EtsyBlogger – Splendid Little Stars

Yes, yes, I know it’s November already… but I couldn’t neglect posting about the EtsyBloggers October Featured member – Splendid Little Stars. 

Margaret has a great blog – I’ve been reading it forever… each week I stop by to see what she’s photographed, or what she’s doing.   This past week there was something really unique that I liked, you’ll just have to go take a look for yourself!

She’s another one of these dynamo women who have two Etsy shops, one – Splendid Little Stars and I love, love the tie-dyed kid’s clothes in there.  I especially wanted to share this long-sleeve t-shirt that I thought was really unique: 

Margaret has been making and selling clothing and jewelry for over 20 years and she must really enjoy it, because I think it shows in her work.

Her second shop, Sparkly Park is stocked with jewelry and these precious hair ties: I love creative descriptions, too – here’s what the listing for these had to say:

“These wonderful accessories for BOTH your wrist and hair will add
bounce to your step,
joy to your being,
delight to your days!”

So cute!

Over and over again I find myself drawn to the same people’s blogs because they’re so charming and I really like to see what they’re doing.  It’s hard some days to tear myself away from the computer!

Artful Thursday – A Fall Brooch

A little project for Thursday.

Yummy wool felt from Joggles.com*.  Cut and punch out some seasonal shapes:

A little embroidery with metallic floss:

Some more embroidery and stitching front and back together, adding a little filler to the center:

Add a pin back:

A row of single crochet finishes this cutie off:

I’ve been thinking about making this for about a week – wanted to make a couple with different holiday motifs in the center, sort of like fabric cameos.  But different.  Look for this one and others in my shop over the next few days.

Happy Artful Thursday!

*Affiliate Link.

Knitting Do-Over

Goal: Undulating Waves Scarf, picture here, pattern link on Ravelry.

After too many hours:

Couldn’t take the concentration of it.  Thought the beads looked too large and didn’t flatter the yarn.  I like my knitting to be more mindless and relaxing.  Unwound it and removed hundreds of beads from the yarn.

Scarf attempt number two, something’s not looking too good:

Disappointed again.  Now tonight I’m back to the beginning… wondering what to do with this yarn.  Fingering Weight, Koigu Painter’s Palette Merino: 

Any suggestions?  I’m frustrated because I bought the yarn and beads specifically for the first project and thought the second project would be a good backup – I was planning on making that pattern next anyway.  I have one more scarf pattern to try with this.  I hope “Third time’s the charm”.