I'm baaaaaaaack!

Hello! I have been MIA! Not just on this blog but in my real life! I just got back from a 6 week stint in the black mountains. I was working at a summer camp up there an honestly it's one of the most beautiful places. But now I'm back! Back to work....back to paying bills...

What was really exciting this summer was that while I was there and sold a few things. For the first time in my life I had 4 orders going on at the same which is great. But I'm still trying to figure out how to balance it all. All in all it's pretty exciting!

What's in the works now? I'm finishing up some custom orders and then photographing them to see of they would sell and then hopefully start making some new stuff. I have a great idea for a cloche and maybe peacocks...Can't wait to show you all!

Contest Winner!

First let me apologize for my extreme tardiness! I am working at a summer camp in North Carolina and we only recently got wireless! This camp is a real fan of simplicity which I am normally a fan of, but can make things a wee bit difficult. I am happy to announce... Katarzyna! I will contact you soon! Thanks everyone for playing!

Reduce, Reuse, Save Money CONTEST!!!!

   It's no secret that this economy sucks and that many of us are struggling just to get by. I work at a school who only pays the staff once a month. This is not a hardship, but I have had to learn how to live on a budget real quick. And technically I am still learning...and learning... and learning...but I digress. What I realized is that I spent so so so much money on yarn every month, 90% of which I was not using and ended up in a box or bag in my room, or living room or my brothers room.
    So I got smarter about my money and have decided to only spend money on yarn that comes directly from sales or custom orders. You think I'm crazy, I know but I have two large tubs and several boxes of yarn and a few bags who are threatening to walk out on me if I don't use them. They're serious this time (they have a union).
   For the month of June I am only going to uses the yarn I have to create new items. I'm hoping I will make many things for my shop but who knows, I might come up with some fab gifts for Christmas, either way it's a win-win-win situation.

   My challenge to you this month is to do they same. Post pictures of the things you are working on that saves resources and most importantly saves you money! It doesn't have to be crochet or even yarn related. You could make grocery shopping bags out of old t-shirts, musical instruments out of recyclables, anything! When you figure out what this is follow this blog and post a picture or a link to a picture showing me all the fantastic things you are making! Every post/project in an entry. The winner will receive my wildly popular WILD THINGS HAT! 

http://www.etsy.com/listing/62884796/wild-things-hat

   This hat is not just for kids, and can be made in just about any color combo you like. So this is free for you. All you have to do is post some picture.

   To prove I am doing the same here are some booties I made this week and a bundle of yarn that will soon become a hat:

All right! On your mark, get set, save money!

I've run out of space!

I have run out of space. I would show you pictures of my room but frankly I would be embarrassed and you would probably think alot less of me. I live with my parent in their house. Yes I am a college graduate living with her parent but I graduated in a recession and don't have a full time job yet. So I live with my parents while I save up money to get my own place. But my biggest issue is I have run out of space and I have no idea what I should be doing to get more organized. I LOVE ikea but let's be honest I don't have the time or budget to buy and build their lovely lovely products. So I am reaching out to you all in the blogosphere. Please post your pictures or links of great ways to get organized!

Vanna's Contest

Sooo here are the pictures I took for the Vanna's  Choice yarn contest: I made a laptop sleeve!

Salt Cookie Christmas Tree Ornaments

 I teach in the pre-school class at my meeting(I'm Quaker) and this year at the Holiday Baazar we're going to make and sell salt cookie Christmas Tree Ornaments. This is a great activity for kids, families, friends everyone who love to get crafty. I got this from  http://crafts.kaboose.com/saltdoughgifttoppers.html

What you'll need:

• ½ cup salt
• 1 cup flour
• ½ cup water
• Rolling pin
• Cookie sheet
• Toothpick
• Miniature cookie cutters: star and Christmas tree
• Acrylic paints: green, yellow, and various colors of your choice for tree ornaments
• Glitter glue or glitter paint
• ribbon

How to make it:

1. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F.
2. Mix together, salt, flour, and water until dough is formed.
3. Knead the dough on a floured surface until the mixture is elastic and smooth. If dough is too sticky, sprinkle with flour, continue to do so until stickiness is gone. Do not add too much flour, this will dry out the dough and will cause it to crack before you get a chance to bake it.
4. Roll out the dough to about ¼” thick with a rolling pin that has been dusted with flour.
5. Use cookie cutters to cut out as many trees and stars as you want.
6. Use a toothpick to make a hole toward the top of the shape. Poke the toothpick into the shape, then holding toothpick straight up and down, make a circular motion as if you were stirring something. Keep circling until the hole is the size you want.
7. Place all shapes onto an ungreased cookie sheet and place into the preheated oven.
8. Bake for 2 hours.
9. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.
10. Paint the trees green and the stars yellow.
11. Use the handle end of the paint brush to dot on ornaments by dipping into paint then dotting onto ornament.
12. When paint is dry, use glitter glue (we used green) or glitter paint (we used gold) to put a sparkling cover coat on your ornaments.
13. When dry, thread ribbon through hole and tie in a knot in the back.
14. Tie onto package.

Tips:

• If your toppers are large enough, you can make two holes in each so that you can thread ribbon through like a button, only showing a small amount of ribbon on the front.
• These make adorable pins to wear to school. Just don’t make a hole. Glue a pin back to the back of the completed ornament instead.
• Uncooked salt dough doesn’t keep well, so only make enough dough for the ornaments you are going to make. If you are only making a few toppers, halve the ingredients above. The listed amounts will make enough ornaments for a classroom of 20.

This Christmas...

The day after Thanksgiving I got up at 3am to visit my local Target with a friend. I figured I had never done the Black Friday thing before, why not this year? I am a hypocrite and maybe a poser because the day before I made my status "buy handmade and local this Friday! Stick it to the big business' and help the little guys!" But we go and it's just awful. I looked around the store and could find nothing that I wanted to give
 my family. It's all the same! 
   Now I've been on Etsy for a little over a year now. While I haven't sold much, I realized that there are 
some incredible Artisans on Etsy. Like these fantastic shoes http://www.etsy.com/listing/53597636/studio-jellyfish-comic-heels-in-yellow byStudiojellyfish. I adore them! You can find anything and everything. Or if you like to see and touch 
what you're buying first hand, shop local, support your local small businesses. I decided to make presents for 
my family this year and I shopped at 2 different yarn stores to get what I needed. Yes it can be more expensive 
but you're helping the little guys make it through these tough economic times too.
  The point of this long shpeal is this: I want to start a campaign to revamp Christmas. And I've even worked 
out a slogan! "Personalize it, Don't Commercialize it". So the next few week I will encourage you to do just that. 
For phase one of my campaign, I will bring you tips for homemade decorations, ornaments, great places to shop 
local around Atlanta and great items from Etsy. Of course for those new tech gadgets you'll need to go to you 
local giant chain...but why not by a nice casing and personalize it? http://www.etsy.com/listing/62788956/sale-peacock-water-resistant-padded?ref=sr_gallery_2&ga_search_query=ipod+cover&ga_search_type=handmade&ga_page=&order=&includes[0]=tags&includes[1]=title&filter[0]=handmade 


Signing off until tomorrow! Happy handmade shopping!