a year of creations in review

This is a pretty big pic- click on it for a better view of the individual pieces.


On the very last day of 2008 my body decided to keep me sleeping in until 12:10 pm.... so in my bad winter habit of not being able to get out of bed in the morning (although today was especially pathetic) I've managed to miss the last morning of the year. oh well! Since i've already slept half the day away i decided in the spirit of non-production I'd spend another chunk of time going through my pictures to find my favorite creations of the year. Considering I didn't add that many new things to my site this year, I actually created quite a few things for the 3 festivals i vended. I was on a dress kick this year for the festivals. A goal for this coming year is to create separate galleries for each kind of item- so hopefully I'll eventually share all the cute dresses I stitched up this year that were sold at the festivals! This was the first year I took the time to photograph everything I made- in the previous years I ran out of time before festivals to photograph my stock, and there's been quite a few times I wanted to kick myself in the ass for not getting a picture of a certain creation before it was snatched up at the festival. But oh well, live and learn, this year I learned to better document all of my creations, that taking a few minutes per piece is worth it.

As for themes in my creations, this year seemed to be the sweeping leaves and the fly by night swallow appliques. Leaves are always my favorite applique so they're always showing up in the majority of my pieces. This year I created my favorite applique yet, the abstract peacock. I also managed to stitch up some cute kiddo clothes, with the jumper dress shown above featuring one of my other fav appliques, the elephant. I discovered my favorite fabric yet, 100% bamboo fleece, and fell in love with a few new eco fabrics such as stretch hemp jersey and soy terry (this one was an end of the year find, still waiting to dive into it!). And while going through my creations I realized that I didn't do much crocheting this year, but I have a feeling this winter may be a little more productive with crocheting.

Anyways, it's growing even later in the afternoon, I need to get showered and dressed, the dog is patiently waiting to go outside, and I have orders to pack and walk to the post office in the snow (oh it's snowing on this last day of the year too!). I hope everyone out there has a safe and happy new year's eve! Here's to health, happiness, and prosperity in the new year! Oh ok one more thing before I "start" my day- can you believe it's going to be 2009??? I grew up on the Jetson's and can remember thinking when I was little that the 2000s would be the space age like in the Jetson's- hehe, yep some technology has advanced and developed quite a bit, but all in all we're still pretty much the same.... well flying cars aren't standard, i don't yet have a robot maid, I still need to shower and dress myself, and we don't live in saucer houses in the sky....

who would have thought.....

photograph by twelve paws over on flickr


well atleast i would have never thought at this moment in time my free computer time would be consumed by cloth diapers. While we're excited and have already welcomed this little baby growing within me into our family, this pregnancy was not planned.... not prevented, but not planned either. After we got married we kind of went with the idea of fate deciding our future regarding children. And here I am just over a year later, 5 months pregnant and spending what seems like way too much time researching just one aspect of raising this baby- cloth diapering. I've made the decision to try to cloth diapers.... i honestly had never even pondered the thought of what kind of diapering I would use with my children until a few months ago. I know some women dream of the day when they have their first child, and all the ways they'll go about raising it. i wasn't one of them.

Luckily for me, the internet is so full of open arm resources on the subject- so many mamas sharing their trials and errors and what worked and what didn't. I've spent so many hours over the past couple weeks researching the subject that i'm feeling near expert on the subject for someone who has not yet actually used a cloth diaper. all the terms, abbreviations, types of systems, so much to learn. But I think i've settled on using the fitted diaper style for the newborn stage. And once the baby is born I'll go from there, once i really become the expert (i'm guessing that changing 12-18 diapers a day during the newborn stage makes you an expert pretty fast, hehe). Thanks to the lovely Julie for sharing all of her mama resources, I found this fitted pattern by Mama Bird for a fitted diaper that hopefully will do the trick for the tricky (or so i've read, haha!) breastfed newborn cloth diapering. Julie also so very kindly sent me a set of her own contoured diaper pattern, which I think will be a good and faster to sew option when things start to firm up in the messy #2 department. I chose to start off with the fitted style b/c of the leg and back elastics helping to prevent "blowouts" common to newborns (see all this new lingo i've learned!).

So I spent a few hours today starting my diaper sewing. I haven't really been in the mood to sew clothing lately, so I figured atleast this would make good use out of my time when I'm not working at the day job. Just based on what I have in my stash, I'm going with a 100% bamboo twill outer and a hemp/organic cotton fleece inner. I'm using the hemp fleece for the soaker too, and am still debating whether or not to throw in a layer of microterry (the synthetic kind found in the automotive section, from what i hear they can hold an enormous volume of liquid) in the very center of the soaker for added absorption. I got the outer layer and inner layer of the diaper cut out today- 24 of them. I was aiming for 30 newborn diapers but underestimated the shrinkage of my fabrics. I have about a quarter of the soakers cut out, but then i ran out of the washed hemp fleece- this stuff really shrinks in length. I lost almost a foot from a 3 yard cut just from shrinkage. The shrinkage in width was pretty minimal, but definitely there.

I find it odd that I'm so looking forward to finishing up the very first one, holding it up, doing the whole Ooooo and Ahhhhhh thing when i see this little tiny cloth diaper and imagining this little tiny baby fitting in it. I guess my motherly instinct and a bit of nesting is starting to develop :) Anyways, that's what I've been up to in sewing. I'll get back to everyone in 6 months on whether or not I was even close to prepared to cloth diaper, and if all the stuff i read actually pertains to this kiddo. Haha!

OH and I did do a little clothing sewing this week too.... January's challenge over at Gypsy Road is to make something for yourself.... I used this as the motivation to design and sew a new dress for myself. I had fun with it b/c I went down and dirty with the actual sewing- I made it out of hemp jersey and skipped the serging, just straight stitched it since the knit won't fray. I just need to change the neckline to something a little more flattering for me and I'll post some pics.

making a difference?

Today I finally "unlazied" myself and updated my site with several new items from my summer festival vending stock that I was too lazy to add to my site until now. And not only did I get myself to photograph, measure, and add all the new stuff to my site, I even dragged my ass out onto my frigid front porch to take some modeled outdoor photographs. Ideally I would have gone into the backyard for a better quality picture, but i was cold enough stepping outside that the front porch had to do. I used to always model any of the clothing I could fit into because I think it's good to show the item on a human to get a better idea of fit. I used to always photograph these modeled pics outside. But laziness and being tired of dealing with uncooperative weather had me skipping these pics this year. So now hopefully I'll get back into the habit.


I also photographed some older items being modeled from my last update. Personally I think showing a piece of clothing on a human makes a difference when buying online..... but that's just my opinion when shopping online for clothing, I wonder if it makes a difference with the majority of everyone else shopping online? I really like this detail shot of the Sweeping Leaves Bamboo Fleece top. Done with my new camera- oh man does this camera rock when it comes to self portraits (ie me modeling the clothing)- it has a timer option that takes the picture only when the camera sees your face. so no more setting the timer and running over in place to try to get there in time and fix myself before the camera clicks. it rocks!


So one of the downfalls of being too cold to go into my backyard to take the pics is my backdrop on my porch is pretty shitty. It's distracting. So I use my photoshop skills to try to make it better. This is the original, straight out of the camera.

The background is really distracting. In the 7 years I worked at a photography studio, I managed to learn lots of good tips on editing photographs. Who knew that job would come so much in handy in the future! At the studio I learned burn burn burn in photoshop. Burn down the edges and corners of the photograph to make the subject pop. And that's what I usually do when I get that in depth with editing. So that's what I did with this picture so try to draw the attention to the subject, burn down the background as seen in this picture below.


Except in this case I wasn't feeling satisfied with the results. Burning down the background usually can work wonders, but with this particular background it didn't. And that's when my brain clicked and thought Dodge dodge dodge. if burning down the background didn't work, then maybe lightening up the back ground would work. Well in the photo below I selected the background and lightened it in Levels, but Dodging would yield very similar results.... the method i chose I just found easier to make it an even lightness.

I'm pretty happy with the results considering with what I was dealing with. The subject definitely pops more than with the burning. Of course this method gives the picture a very distinct look- that it's obviously been altered. This obviously wouldn't work with most pictures, but for me it works in this case it's a product picture.


Anyways, I spent way too much time editing those photographs. I'd much rather have to do minimal editing, which requires a decent background. Unfortunately a decent outdoor background is very limited at my apartment. I would definitely have to venture out past my front porch.... into the cold.... cold.... cold backyard that is covered with 8 inches of snow. yep, I'll be making do with these porch shots for a while!

happy winter solstice!

Happy Winter Solstice! Here in Connecticut we're bringing in the first day of winter with lots of snow! It started on Friday- we got about 6 inches, the first official "snowstorm" of the year. Pat pulled a 16 hour day on Friday, plowing at his work. So it was just me and the Dukester. I snapped these pics about halfway through the snowstorm....

I love that tree picture! Duke loves the snow! We ended up going for a short walk with Michelle and Chi dog from downstairs, then we all hung out in the yard for about 2 hours, letting the dogs wrestle each other in the snow.

Yesterday I ran a few errands with pat as my chauffeur, had to get a few packages to the post office- I've made a few etsy sales over the past week, getting rid of all the black stretch bamboo fabric I ordered. When I realized I needed to set aside some time and patience to figure out the best way to sew with this fabric, I listed all of the black I had so I wasn't just sitting on a pile of money wasted. I'm thinking I'll dye up a good chunk of the natural I ordered and list it on etsy too, since the black sold so quickly for me. I'd have to charge several dollars more a yard to cover my labor and dye materials for the hand dyed fabric, but we'll see how that goes. I just feel bad about having so much yardage sitting around, since I know it will be awhile before I sit down with the fabric again to figure out the best method of sewing with such a stretchy fabric.

And today, the official first day of winter, we are getting more snow! we got another 2.5 inches today, for a total of about 8.5 inches on the ground now since friday. It's so beautiful out, what a great way to bring in the first day of winter! and maybe we'll have that storybook white christmas this year.

Pat's working overtime again today (couldn't have asked for better timing to be getting a big ol' paycheck from all the overtime he'll put in this weekend!) so I finished up some computer work for the day job, ate some shrimp cocktail (mmm my fav!) and homemade chili that my dad stopped by and surprised me with this afternoon, and hung outside with the dog for a little while for him to tire himself out in the snow. I woke up feeling the itch to update my site with all the leftover stock I have from the summer festivals. But I have to photograph everything and the sun is starting to set so I don't see that happening today.... maybe I'll work on that a bit tomorrow.

With the new year's just around the corner, I've been doing some thinking about the upcoming year. It's going to be a huge year of change for us.... with the thought of having to stay at home for at least a couple months at the end of spring, I've been rolling some ideas around in my head about my website. I've been wanting to redo it for awhile now, and am thinking of ways to bring in more income with my part time business for when the baby arrives. I know I'll most likely want to go back to work a day or two a week at the day job- that's just me, I can foresee the need to get out of the house and be with adults or else I'll go nutty. But in the few months when that won't be possible, it will be nice to be able to use my sewing and crafting skills to bring in the extra income we'll need to not have to really tighten our budget and stress money. I've relied on the income of my website for short periods of time in the past, and I know it's possible, I just need to focus and have a good plan for when the time comes.

anyways, hope everyone is staying warm!

Winter Solstice challenge- tis' the season!

I recently became part of the Etsy Teams group Gypsy Road. It's a brand spankin' new group, but the plan is to have a monthly challenge each month, with this month's being the Winter Solstice challenge. So I wanted to share what I've been creating to celebrate this winter solstice. This cute little tote and zipper pouch set is for our 5 year old niece. The tote is a mini tote, measuring only about 9"x12", perfect size for a youngster. My idea behind this set is turning it into an artist tote. I bought a bunch of sticker pads, doodle books, coloring books, papers, a little artist set with all kinds of markers and crayons to stuff into that little tote. I still have to pick up some funky pens and pencils, and maybe a few tasty lip balms to toss into the zipper pouch. As funny as it may sound, our niece is really hard to buy for, in my opinion- she's an only child and has more toys than you can imagine. I can't bring myself to buy her another cheesy plastic toy to add to her collection, plus I'm sure Grandma and her mom and dad have that all covered. She's learning to write right now and loves to color, so I'm hoping this artist tote set will bring her some fun. Plus it's not too childish looking, so maybe it will last for a few years.

This year that's the only gift I'm making, with the exception of giving my mom some of my homemade soaps and soy candles to add to her gift and the cookie tins I do up for the members of our immediate family. If I had to pick a theme for this year's presents, I think it would be Functionality. I mostly bought items that were needed, yet were a bit of a splurge compared to basic necessity.... haha, that's a vague one, don't know who's reading this so I don't want to get into specifics :)

We went to a local tree farm this past weekend and cut down our Christmas tree..... we just discovered this farm and I was really excited to have the option of a fresh tree this year (instead of purchasing from a roadside stand) both for the freshness factor and knowing that we were supporting a local farm instead of who knows at the road stand. We brought along the Dukester and all had a good time. It was hard trying to decide which one should come home with us, but we finally settled on this one. Haha, but it looked much smaller in the wild! When we got it into our house it nearly took up the entire hallway room (we have an odd hallway that is the size of a small room), whoops! We debated what to do and then decided this was the only spot in our house for our tree without having to do MAJOR furniture rearranging, so out came pat's saw and with a little pruning of the back side we managed to squeeze it back into the corner quite a bit. It still looks a bit big, but it's grown on us :)


On one of the design blogs I was reading, they mentioned doing up easy swags in place of traditional wreaths. I had collected these perfect pine cones a few years ago and they were just sitting patiently in a bag waiting to be put to use. I used some of the branches we trimmed from the bottom of our tree, and whipped up these simple but festive swags in just a few minutes. I'm giving this mini one to my mother in law for her front door to celebrate the winter solstice.

And this larger one I hung out on the front of our porch

Anyways, those are my winter solstice creations so far. Considering I really don't like winter, I do really love the holidays. Aside from being with the people we love, there's nothing better than walking into my warm house to the smell of fresh pine and all our ornaments dancing in the lights!

soap!

no catchy title today, let's get down to business.... the business of making soap! I've been making soap using the cold process method for about 4 years now. To me it is a really rewarding task. Who doesn't use soap (or some sort of cleanser) and who wouldn't love a high quality, natural soap.... way better than the cheap commercial soaps you buy in 12 packs at your local store. Why, you may ask? In a short version, commercial soaps use the hot process method in which the naturally occurring glycerin (excellent moisturizer, draws moisture to the skin) is removed and sold for a profit to lotion companies, often petroleum products are used along with all kinds of unnecessary chemicals. In the cold process method, the moisturizing glycerin is retained and (depending on the soaper) natural, recognizable ingredients are used.

There are a million different cold process soap devoted websites and books out there, so i'm not going to go into the how-to..... If you are interested in making soap I highly recommend spending a nice chunk of time researching and learning the how- for the simple reason that you are dealing with a dangerous chemical, lye. For anyone familiar with basic chemistry (yeah, you remember those chemistry labs in high school and college!) soapmaking is the process of an acid neutralizing a base, with the oils you use in the soap being the acid, and the lye being the base, neutralizing to create soap. And for everyone who has seen Fight Club, you know what lye can do. It is a very strong base that if it gets on your exposed skin, can burn a hole right through, especially if water/moisture is introduced. And no, don't splash water on it, because that will raise the temperature a couple hundred degrees. Jonesy forbid you get some on you (gloves, goggles are a must), you need to neutralize it with an acid, such as vinegar. Anyways, I'm getting offtrack with what I want to post, just know that if you are interested take the time to learn and take the proper precautions while making it, and you will be very happy :)

I wanted to share a recipe for anyone who wants to get into soap making but isn't ready to jump into using more exotic expensive oils (ie oils you can't find at the grocery store). This recipe uses vegetable shortening, which can be bought very cheaply at your local grocery store, significantly reducing the price compared to using more specialty oils such as jojoba, avocado, sweet almond oil, etc. that you may want to experiment with if you decide you love making soap.

This recipe is from the book Making Soaps and Scents by Catherine Bardey:

12 ounces coconut oil

12 ounces olive oil

20 ounces vegetable shortening

16 ounces water

6 ounces lye

I used this recipe for my very first two batches of soap, and I was glad it was relatively cheap (compared to the oils I use now) b/c one of those batches didn't work out due to a newbie mistake I made. Again, I'm not getting into the process of making it, there is tons of info out there. While doing a quick search for the method I use (reduced water) I came across this site AquaSapone that seems to be quite informative on making soap. Once you get the hang of cold process soap making you may want to try out the reduced water method, which significantly reduces the amount of time needed to cure your soap (what makes the bar of soap hard- when left to cure water evaporates out leaving a harder bar). I stumbled across this method just out of trial and error with recipes, but then realized it was an actual method, which is also explained very well in the above site.

Anyways, I just wanted to share a tidbit of info on soapmaking and that "cheaper" recipe for newbies to try out without sinking in too much money while getting the hang of things.

This batch that I made at the beginning of the week is all natural and scented with Lavender and Tea tree oil, and has a light sprinkling of dried lavender buds throughout.

I finally used the new soap mold I designed and Pat made for me.... it kicks ass! I just need to find the right cutting utensil now (it needs to be close to 2 feet long!) and it will create perfectly cut bars in minutes.... something I really struggled with my old "log" mold. And this mold was designed to hold twice as much soap as my old one! I have 30 bars of "big boy" bars- they're a whopping 5.5 oz to 6.5 oz big, compared to my usual 4 to 5 oz bars. I've seen these molds going for about $60 each, but with my carpenter husband and my plans I managed to have one for under $20, sweet! This batch needs to cure another week or so and I need to do some light trimming of a few bars, and then i'll be back to using my own soap, man it's been too long! .... sorry Dr. Bronner's, your soap rocks but there's no better soap than using soap you made yourself!

well crack my nuts and call me reminiscent

I had to run to the grocery store yesterday to pick up some missing ingredients from the lentil stew I was making.... in the bakery section I spotted a whole section devoted to nuts in their shells.... and once again I began to reminisce the days spent with my grandparents. Every Christmas my grandma would have an open house sort of celebration, and she always had an abundant supply of mixed nuts and nutcrackers scattered around the house on various tables. I used to love cracking open the nuts! And when I was much younger I could never figure out why we were allowed to eat these acorns, but not the ones out in the yard.... then as I got older i discovered those "acorns" in the mixed nuts weren't acorns at all, but similar looking hazelnuts. So to celebrate the memory of my grandparents this holiday season, i picked up a big bag of shelled mixed nuts and a nut cracker set :) One of my bros was over last night and we spent a good while hanging out at the kitchen table cracking nuts....


anyways, really i'm just taking a little break (ie procrastinating) from the computer work I've been doing for the day job. I'm close to putting in an 8 hour day of it.... only thanks to the jury duty i had today, bleh! But it wasn't bad, i was out by noon, and able to put a good 3 hours of work in while I awaited the whole jury selection process. This is good for me, I HATE day job computer work! Pat laughs at me whenever he's home and I'm doing day job computer work because the only way my mind can tolerate it and remain somewhat focused is if I verbalize everything I'm doing in funny voices, little made up songs, repeating phrases repeatedly, making funny noises..... oddly enough it's the way I remain focused..... thankfully i'm able to control it when in public, otherwise i'd be the loony lady that everyone avoids in the library.


Well i do have something crafty to share, but I really need to get back to work before the night comes to an end..... I finally made up some soap and have pics and processes to share, probably won't be tonight since I have work early in the morn tomorrow but maybe I'll make that tomorrow night's goal :) until then......

the cat's out

No, no, not those cats, they're indoor kitties :) I'm talking about that metaphorical cat that hangs out in the bag of untolds and secrets. And i'm letting him out of that bag- I'm pregnant! Our first bambino is due May 14th... I'm currently about 19 weeks along, and feeling great! Here's our first picture of the baby, at about 13 1/2 weeks..... yep, i have an alien growing in me.....

I just started showing right after Thanksgiving at about 18 weeks and snapped this first baby bump picture..... but really I wasn't quite sure if i was actually "showing"- I'm pretty convinced that was about 1/2 baby bump, 1/2 five days of Thanksgiving dinner and leftovers pigout.

And no that's not a dislodged twin back there, that's just my naturally voluptuous bum.

So i've been feeling really great so far. I've had a few cravings that stand out- cheeseburgers and lemons (not together). I swear I've eaten more cheeseburgers than I have in the past 5 years total. And lemons..... man all I want is a big ol' glass of fresh squeezed lemonade, and that's exactly what i've been having. We drew names on Pat's side of the family for christmas presents this year, with a $50 limit- we're supposed to supply a short lists of "wants" in that price range.... all I really want for Christmas is a 50 pound bag of lemons for squeezing and enough juicy cheeseburgers to make up whatever price difference there is :)

Just this past week I stopped being able to button my regular jeans.... I guess not too bad, made it 18 weeks without having to get new pants. I've still been doing my regular hikes with the dog and plan to throughout the rest of the pregnancy.... that's how i get my exercise. Although i'll be the first to admit I've been feeling a little lazier than usual.

Anyways, I felt it was time to share with my online friends :) I also posted my new-ish Flickr account link over on the sidebar.... I'm planning on using it more often now to document my creations, my growing belly, and life in general- kind of like a picture blog i guess.

flurry of chaos

This is what my sewing/work table looked like this morning as I hurriedly tagged and labeled 60 headbands and socks for Dava. Mass chaos at it's best in my sewing studio. Why oh why do I do this? If only I took 5 minutes to put away all the stuff I had to dig out to complete this order, I would have had more than a 6 inch space to fill out my tags and label my items! But I was running late (this is what happens when I wake up a half hour before I wanted to be somewhere, still having to tag and label 60 items, shower, take care of the animals, drive 20 minutes to get there, etc)

Last year I had the pleasure of making a connection at the Green Expo I vended- sales were slow that day but the vending coordinator happened to be Coleen, owner of the boutique Dava in Hamden, Connecticut. She really dug my stuff and offered me a consignment spot at the store. When she first offered and mentioned the consignment fee (40%) I was flattered and thanked her, but thought in my head that there was no way I could do a 40% consignment fee on my clothing. As it is I charge close to wholesale for my one of a kinds. But then she looked through my prices and noted that the prices would have to be much higher at her store. Cool! So I marked all my goods up 40% and gave it a try. I sent a handful of clothing items, a dozen or so fabric headbands, and 10 pairs of hand dyed hemp socks. I didn't expect much with the clothing since the prices were so high, but ended up selling 2 pieces. I sold half of the headbands and sold all of the hemp socks within a couple days of dropping them off. We decided that my clothing wasn't moving fast enough to continue consignment, but she begged me for a "million more pairs" of the hemp socks! I have to give full credit to my friend Justine for introducing me to these KICK ASS socks- they are without a doubt the best socks around. She sells a tie-dyed version in her shop.


Last year I did a combo of solid dyed and salt dyed socks for Dava. This year I decided to focus mostly on the salt dyed ones since that's what Coleen said sold first, and I love the outcome! Here's a closeup of two colors- Lilac and Better Blue Green from Dharma.

I love the color bursts you get from dyeing this method. All I do is soak the fabric in a soda ash solution for 15 minutes, making sure the fabric is completely saturated. Get some old salt shakers and fill them up 3/4 with salt. I then add about 1 teaspoon of dry fiber reactive dye to the salt (the amount will depend on how big of a salt shaker you're using and the affect you're wanting.... just try out a few different amounts, it's fun!). Take the fabric out of the soda ash solution, gently wring it out (i like to leave it pretty damp so the color seeps in better), and then start sprinkling away with the salt shaker dye! B/c the dye wasn't dissolved, all the colors that make up that particular color come bursting out on the fabric. The salt helps intensify the color and I've read that it draws the dye towards itself. Once I'm done I put the fabric into a plastic bag and let it sit overnight (~8-10 hours) or longer (up to 24). At first it may look like you have a muddy mess (especially if you used multiple colors throughout the fabric) but for me it always washes away and leaves me with well defined color bursts. I like to squish the fabric a little while sprinkling to spread the dye. So after leaving it to sit, wash it out and see the surprise! Fun! I dyed up about 25 pairs of these socks this year for Dava.


The other thing I sent this year was my fabric headbands. Back in September I was back and forth on doing the local harvest fest in my town. I couldn't decide if it would be worth my time, but decided to start stocking up just in case. I made about 25 of these headbands, then decided last minute I wasn't going to do the fair. So there they sat until today. I debated whether to put them on etsy but when I did a quick search I was disappointed at how low similar headbands were selling for (averaging $6-$8). It wasn't worth my time unless I sold them for atleast $12, which is how much I sell them for at festivals (I ain't no sweatshop laborer over here!), so I decided NAY on etsy. So you know how much they sell for at Dava? $20! and they sell! It always amazes me the differences in prices from market to market. I do well selling them at $12 at festivals but doubt they would sell well any higher. On etsy I doubt I would sell any seeing the average price is almost half of what I need to sell them at. At a little brick and mortar boutique, they sell for almost 2 times the price I sell them at (and she gets $17 for my hemp socks and said they flew out the door like hotcakes!)!


And speaking of being disappointed with prices on Etsy, I went on yesterday and noticed a crocheted Ipod cozy on the front page, going for $20. I was impressed at the price (I had never thought about how much I would charge to make one) and that she had sold a handful. It made me dig out the cozy I crocheted 2 years ago for my Ipod.....

and made me think that might be something I could add to my etsy shop for the winter, when I like to crochet in the evenings.... the perfect motivation item- crochets up much faster than a hat so I could potentially make a few each night and feel accomplished! I love making hats but just like sewing, sometimes I need to throw in those quick projects for the instant gratification accomplishment factor. I made mine out of wool, and lightly felted it (I would like to see how it would look more felted). So I did a quick search on Etsy to see how popular of an item these were, and there goes the disappointment...... it seemed like every other listing was $5 or $6 dollars. Most of them were just using acrylics, but still. Like I said before, I'm not a sweatshop laborer, I need to charge a decent wage for my time. I guess I don't know anything about these sellers, who knows, maybe they're record breaking speed crocheters. I know these cozies don't take that long to crochet up, but even then, are they taking their supplies into consideration (I know the buttons I like usually cost about 50 cents each), the time it's taking them to list the item, to photograph it, to edit the photographs, to ship the item? Sure, if I didn't take any of that into consideration I might be able to charge $6 for one, depending on how fast I was crocheting that night.

Whew, that was a bit of rant! haha! Anyways, it felt good bringing a big ol' box of goodies over to Dava for consignment.... I hope most of it finds new homes :) Tomorrow I'll be going through all my supplies that have been coming in the past few days, and getting some things restocked in my shop..... mmmmm I'm feeling the holiday flurry!