One Year Etsiversary, that's right, I said Etsiversary

these are Mini Cuties - this is a set of 4 that I have already listed in my shop

Today is my one year Etsiversary. One year ago today I joined Etsy and it has been amazing. I owe many thanks to the people who heart my shop, who have blogged my sweets, and have loved my sugary creations enough to purchase them. I also owe a special thanks to my friend Katherine who has not only generously shared a spot with me on her craft blog, but was the one who introduced me to Etsy.

to get an idea of the size of these cuties, this in one in my 4 year old's hand

In honor of this anniversary I am hosting a giveaway (my first ever). Each day next week, starting July 20th, I will debut a brand new pair of Mini Cuties. I hope you'll check in with me in each day to see what flavor I come up with next.

To be a part of this giveaway, just leave me a comment on this post and at the end of next week I will randomly pick a winner who will receive a set of 2 of their favorite Mini Cuties. Comments will be accepted starting from today, until the end of next Friday, the 24th. Thanks so much for making my first year on Etsy a great one!

Nona's Quilt

It feels so good to finish a quilt. I made this lap quilt as a "thank you" slash Mother's Day present for my mother-in-law, who came and spent a whole week with my kids so we could go on our cruise. I told my sister-in-law Jen about my plans for Louise's gift and she helped me find the pattern in one of her books late one night while we were visiting them in Kansas City. I need to find the instructions and type them here in case I ever want to make this one again. So, pattern will come later. Louise loves these small print reproduction fabrics and they always make me think of her. The kids loves having their Nona here and so did I! We're always so sad when she has to leave. This was my first attempt at machine-quilting- if you can call it that- I couldn't figure out the walking foot or the darning foot method on my Mom's sewing machine. (I need some serious help with that machine. I'm seriously worried I've ruined my mom's antique Bernina, commonly referred to as the '57 Chevy of sewing machines!) So I basically just pushed the quilt through my sewing machine with my regular foot. Kind of a mess, but I still like the way it looks.

Now, let's get down to the KNIT-ty gritty

Raise your hand if you think it's lame to give your Dad a knitted dishcloth for Father's Day? Yeah, me too. Don't worry, I sent him another perfectly respectable Father's Day present a couple weeks later. I choked. It happens.

So I really love to knit. I am crazy about it. What appears to be a scarf in the picture above is actually the start of a very big and cozy and blanket. I've been obsessed with the idea of a knitted blanket ever since Jena sold me on them at her house about four months ago. I found that pretty blue and thought it would be nice to do blocks of that brown and blue and alternate them to make a big blanket. Then I learned how to knit in a new color from my new favorite knitting book with a naughty title. And then I just started changing colors willy-nilly. So this blanket is going to be crazy and fun, and it's going to look like my first big project. And that is just fine with me!

And I was missing my best friend and worried about her because they just moved to a new town and their car broke down and their old house isn't selling and her husband's slavery to the hospital was reinstated just like my husband's, so I made her this dishcloth. That's bound to solve all her problems, right?

Secret Weapons Revealed- Red Vines and Diet Coke

I am going to start posting my craf-T endeavors on this blog again or so help me... I've got a fist full of red vines and some Diet Coke on standby. (After all it is only 7:30 in the morning.) Sheesh. How long has it been? Since I made that potholder for Ashley's birthday?

Yikes.

Well, I recently forgot my sister-in-law's birthday and hurriedly got to work on another potholder. I'm currently working on a matching dishcloth. I just love pink and red together.


I also made this cute little Mama owl. Next I want to make her a little baby owl.

Felt, have I told you lately that I love you? Have I told you that there's no one else above you?

I love fabric. Sometimes I long to buy loads of fabric that I see at specialty quilt shops, and make tons of cool projects with it. Tons of cool projects. because felt has no patterns or prints. it's boring right? Who loves to buy felt, just one row of solid colored bolts, when there is an entire store filled with the coolest fabric starting at $9.99/yd?

But then I remember I am creative, I am crafty, I can take a needle, a piece of thread, and some scraps of felt and create something cool. Felt is cool. I am cool. And felt? Have I told you lately that I love you?

Latest Creations

I haven't posted in awhile for a number of reasons.

1. No one else was posting and I thought people might be tiring of just me (I know you've been crocheting Katherine, show the world what you've made!).

2. Because of said lack of posts from other girls gone craf-t I was considering defecting to my own craft blog (really I was, I even had a super cool name picked out). Though I decided I wasn't mature enough to be responsible for my own blog.

3. I've been fairly lazy, what with trying to quit diet coke and all. It stinks. The quitting that is, not diet coke. Diet Coke is devine.


4. And lastly, Facebook. Why does facebook take up so much of my time?

So, here are a few things I've made lately. Strawberry Shortcakes, Donuts with rainbow sprinkles and M&M Cookies, a little bag to hold my DS, and a new twist on my Chocolate Covered Strawberries - strawberries dipped in white chocolate and drizzles with milk chocolate.

Maybe I'll start my own blog some day when I grow up and can handle the responsibility. Until then, it's just me and Katherine's craft blog, as long as she let's me stay here.

A Dozen (felt) Donuts

I have a lot of people that say things like "ooh, you should make - " and then go on to list off really fun tasty treats, that are however, impossible for me to make (my skills only go so far). But when the husband said "you should make a dozen donuts" I thought, yes, I can do that. So here are my dozen felt donuts. They were a lot of fun to make.















My favorite has to be the raspberry filled jelly donut dusted with powdered sugar.
















I have them listed as a set in my shop.

I HAVE MADE FIRE!

Ok, not really, fire, just felt cupcakes, though I'm sure my feelings of elation at creating the perfect cupcake would mirror the elation one would feel if they created fire whilst stranded on a deserted island.

It was a very long and arduous process for me to make these little cuppies. I have for awhile now, not been very fond of my tea party cupcakes, not just as far as making them goes, but also the fact that they looked more like a little fondant covered mini cake, rather than an actual cupcake. So one evening a month or so ago I got out my rusty, trusty muffin tin and began trying to figure out how to get the right size and shape.

It was a long battle, going from tyring to make an actual cupcake liner with a separate cupcake to go inside, or a liner with a sewn-in cupcake, or just the actual cupcake. The only thing I succeeded in doing was finally getting a chance to use my new pinking shears. I dropped the project out of frustration - nothing I did looked good/right.

Then, last week, I picked up one of the failed patterns I'd made - I traced, I cut, I stitched, and then like magic, or a spark of fire, I had created the perfect cupcake. Yes! A skill I'm sure would help me if I were ever to get stranded on an island.

Sweet Girlie Purse

A new purse for my shop. If anyone has any suggestions as to what I can name my little girl's purses I would love to hear them. I really like the pattern I came up with for my purse and want to stick with it (as I'm not really in the business of making purses) so I feel the need to name it.

For awhile I called them Prairie point purses, but then went back to Sweet Girlie Purse (which I'm not a fan of really) because I didn't think most people would realize that the little fabric triangles are called Prairie Points and then therefore not understand the correlation between the item and the title. I want them to have a cute name, but also one that says that these are little girls purses. Any suggestions would be welcome!

The Art of Crochet

Ever since my friend Ash came to visit in January and showed me how to crochet flowers, I've become obsessed with learning how to knit and crochet. My grandma helped my cousin Jennifer and I crochet potholders. She showed us this awesome method. I called her to tell her how I wished she could teach me again and she explained it over the phone. She said, "You won't believe what will happen, it's the coolest thing!" And she was right. Man, I never thought I'd get so excited about things like knitting and crocheting when I was younger. BUT I DO! I love them.

So here's what I did: I chained like 60 stitches. (I wanted it to be an over-sized potholder.) Then I single crocheted along that first row. Then I turned on the other side, chained off the stitch and then I skipped the first two stitches on the other side, and single-crocheted along that row. Let me say, I am so unqualified to give these instructions it's not even funny. So try it and see what happens. Don't be afraid to come back and tell me these instructions are useless. I promise, I can take it.

As for the flowers, I followed this pattern which also includes a video which I found very helpful. I'm finding this website to be a great resource.

When I called my Grandma she said that she'd love to teach me but that I should just learn the way she did, from one of those pamphlets you can buy in the craft section at Walmart. But you know what I've found even more helpful? Youtube videos. Here's the one that finally helped me figure out how to knit: The Knit Stitch.

Cream Pie Cookies

So I'm pretty much in love with this new creation of mine. I am desperately craving cream pie cookies now. I actually discovered how to make these while trying to make something else. I think they turned out fabulous - they're soft, and squishy (as I used 3 layers of batting instead of fiberfill) and I really want to eat one.

Orange Slices

Sometimes I drive myself crazy trying to create something new. Luckily these only took me one day to figure out. I made them to go with a set of bacon and eggs for my shop.

Stay tuned for my cream pie cookies I've got in the works - chocolate chip cream pie cookies, oatmeal cream pie cookies, chocolate cream pie cookies...

Happy Go Lucky

I made this little sign out of felt. Surprise, surprise. I totally forgot St. Patrick's Day this year. No special meal, no gold coins for the kiddos to find. I remembered in the middle of the day and we all had to have a wardrobe change to stop the pinching. Thankfully my kids didn't mind - me forgetting or the pinching.

Felt Raspberries

I spent most of this past weekend trying to make felt raspberries. It wasn't pretty. I started out searching the internet for felt raspberries just to look at them, see if I could figure out how they made them. No luck - there are very few examples of felt raspberries out there. Then began trial and error. Folks, I almost didn't make it through, my attempts were so horrid. Here are the 11 misses:
I'm not quite sure how I did it, but I figured it out. Here is the best looking felt raspberry I have ever seen (you can fact check that statement. Go ahead, google "felt raspberries." I dare you.
I liked them so much I had to make a fruit tart for my shop.

Peeps

I made Peeps. Who rocks the blanket stitch? Yeah, that's right, I do.

Have you ever visited the official Peeps website? You should, it's weird.

Machine Organizer

I made this for my mother-in-law for Valentine's Day. I had made a few of them for Christmas presents for some sewers I know and my mother-in-law requested one. They're actually pretty handy. You just sit your sewing machine on it and let the pockets hang over the edge of your table. I haven't once had to search and search for my seam ripper since I started using mine.















I also use one of the pockets to stuff the threads I trim off. My floors have never been cleaner.

This is from Simplicity pattern 3776. Pretty easy beginner stuff. There are five sewing accessory projects, one of which they call a Project Organizer that has handles and lots of pockets - I made them last summer and converted (by converted I mean I used shark and lizard fabric, not that I actually changed the pattern) them into travel bags for my boys. It's a good pattern, that 3776.

Sweet Pink Sampler

This is a new set I created for my shop. It's similar to my starter set, though has a few new items and some new twists to some of my classic sweets.
















Though I try to make my sweets somewhat neutral these are admittedly geared towards girls. I have a Little Chocolate Lover's Set in the works and I have a mind to make a set centered around my cherry topped cupcake (you can't stop me).

On a side note, my chocolate covered strawberries have been showcased on Etsy Stalker (http://www.etsystalker.com/). CuratorBeatrice is an Etsy fan (if you couldn't tell by her site's name) and creates groups of Etsy items (sort of like the items on Etsy's home page) centered around a theme. Check out her site to view her Valentine's Day favorites.

Doll Quilts

I found this fun tutorial on Crazy Mom Quilts for an adorable little doll quilt and pillow. It was fun to sew a quilt that didn't take me two months to complete, and this was my first time using just my regular old machine to quilt. I didn't bother with an invisible stitch for the binding, since I knew my children wouldn't care.

The first one I made for my daughter Sophie.
Then our friend Jack had a birthday and since he got a baby doll for Christmas, I thought he might like some boyish bedding for his doll. I can't imagine boy doll bedding is easy to find. :)


And then Franny saw Sophie's and just had to have one for herself. :) (Her's has an "F" on it, but it's upside down. Whoops.)
My girls seem pretty happy with the finished product:

Chocoalte covered strawberries

Here are my chocolate covered strawberries. I used 4 different pinks/reds and a light and dark brown for milk and dark chocolate. I think they are one of my favorite creations so far. And check out this:



I made them so that the chocolate cover can be taken on and off. They come packaged in a little white box tied with a ribbon. They are now in my shop along with a bunch of other new creations. Check it out!

Lunch Time!

Are these Dino Nuggies a staple at anyone else's house?

Despite my best efforts to diversify my 3-year-old's diet his answer to the question "What do you want for lunch?" (or dinner or snack for the that matter) is always "NUGGIES!"

This set includes 5 different types of dinosaur nuggets, a handful of baby carrots, a ranch dipping cup, and an apple juice cup.

I have yet to post this in my shop because for some reason Etsy hates any pics taken with my new camera (thanks Santa). Hopefully I get it worked out soon, I've been making some awesome stuff - look forward to my super cute chocolate covered strawberries!