Stuck

I belong to the Blogfire guild associated with Artfire.com. Every couple weeks or so we all, well a few of us, post on a topic or theme. Those posts get gathered together in a list that is posted on the guild blog.

This week the topic is "Reflections". The blog carnival will be published tomorrow on the guild blog. I wanted to do a post about mirrors which was obvious or mandalas which I don't think are really reflections but instead are rotations around a center point but look cool or reflections captured in photography because my secret self wants to be a talented outdoor photographer. All of them seemed wonderful and there was lots to choose from. If you search them on Artfire you will quickly see what I mean.

The choices were overwhelming and as I searched I kept hearing this song in my head. Yeah that happens to me sometimes, what about you? Thanks to our leader AliciaMae it has been that way for about a week as I struggled to come up with a post. Finally I realized that I would share the song so it can stick with you too.

When you are done with Diana Ross then you can do your own shopping and maybe start right here.

Mirrors or Mandalas or Reflection
Have fun!

Easter Eggs for Grownups

With the coming Easter weekend I wanted to show some of you the options you have that go beyond hard boiled or plastic encased candy. These items take the egg shape and turn it into art.

This first example is from the appropriately name studio The Egg Man. He does all types of images carved into several types of eggs. I encourage you to go take a look.

The next one to show you is made of wood. The inspiration behind the design is earth, water and sky and each of those are represented by a cutout that is part of the egg design. You can find this egg and much more beautiful scroll saw work in the shop ZZBobs Creative Woodworking.

What would Easter be without a bit of lovely color in your surroundings? Much like the earth waking up from the gray of winter, Easter and springtime mean a return of a world with colors in it. These decoupaged wood eggs in Japanese Yuzen papers would bring some color inside your home. The eggs as well as so much more can be found in Catnip Studios.

All of these items are from shops found on Artfire. This post is part of a blog carnival hosted by the BlogFire Guild. The guild's mission is to spread the word about the amazingly talented artists, artisans and crafters who have shops on Artfire. You will find the blog carnival hosted on the guild blog on Friday April 2nd. I encourage you to check it out.

May you find something wonderful.

Awaiting the Storm

As I sit here waiting for the brunt of the coming storm that the forecasters predict will break records it occurred to me that having something soft and scrumptious to curl up in would be wonderful. The backyard is full of puddles and the worst of the rain and wind is yet to come.

I have some scrappy afghans of my own but if you find yourself often in the same situation and don't knit or crochet I thought I would show you some of the best I think artisans on ArtFire have currently for sale in their shops.

From the shop Craftshoot-

This next one in a stunning red is from Elleellee.

Now really how could you not feel cozy wrapped in this lovely color from

Thunder Mountain?

I will tell you that not only do I admire the workmanship in these pieces but I certainly appreciate the difficulty of photographing a blanket and making it look good. I think these talented needleworkers have managed both. Don't you?



This post is part of the BlogFire Guild biweekly blog carnival. You can read more posts showcasing the outstanding knitting and crocheting found on Artfire by going to the guild blog on Friday, January 22nd.

Why Artfire?

UPDATE WRITTEN AUGUST 10 2013

I left Artfire almost 2 years ago now. The attitudes and feeling on the site changed so much I just did not want to be a part of the site anymore. I have a presence on Etsy again and while not perfect I know what to expect.

I started selling at craft fairs nearly 30 years ago. I remember the first one I sold at. I wasn't there but it was exciting anyway. My neighbor's mother was part of a church bazaar in another state and the two of us made some things to send to her. After that I started looking for shows around where I was living. Let's just say the holiday season was a very busy one for me for many years in San Diego and the in the Salt Lake City area. Actually because most of what I was doing was thread crochet Christmas ornaments I really got busy about May or June to have enough things made for the shows.

With the coming of the internet I was so excited. Ecommerce was a way out of all the lugging of displays around, packing and unpacking products and weekends away from home. I knew it would happen and I started watching. The first internet craft malls seemed too complicated and expensive and then I stumbled on a blog mention of a place called Etsy in 2005 which was right after startup. I was over the moon excited. As a concept it is still a great place but not, I have come to realize, necessarily for a more traditional crafter like me. This post isn't about that debate though. I have closed my shop on Etsy with no hard feelings because I was looking for a better fit for me at a cost structure I could sustain as a long term dedicated hobbyist.

I did go with the "don't put your eggs all in one basket" approach for awhile. Actually a couple years worth of wasting time doing a little here and a little there. I have had accounts on Shop Handmade, Ecrater, Blujay, Mintd, Lovli and Silkfair as well as the big orange E never quite finding a good fit and realizing something very important about my own way of doing things. Being in so many places even if not all at once was too distracting and everything was only half done and poorly at that. My baskets only had a couple eggs in each and what I really needed was a full, well done basket somewhere.

Along came ArtFire and I liked what I saw. I read about the background of John Jacobs, the founder, and discovered a background of understanding for crafters and the struggles to sell their goods. I hope that I have found a place to fill a basket of my goods and find folks who would like to have them.

Finally, the term handmade as a trend is on the decline. But arts and crafts, artisans, the creative entrepreneur are so much bigger than a trend. We intentionally created artfire not to be a flash in the pan trend based business. Craft shows, art fairs, and the sale of handmade goods is a strong and long-time market. My posting of the google trend is to demonstrate that the handmade trend (the resurgence of handmade as a fashion trend based concept) may not be the buoy that some think in the marketplace. There is a deeper, more longstanding, more traditional market here that is not focused on the fashion trend only. I think that makes for a more stable and long-term marketplace.

I found the above quote in the ArtFire Forums today. The discussion this is part of is generating a lot of interest as the community sorts its way through how they feel about the evolving site. For me if the focus stays on the last two sentences I am staying here and hoping that what happens for me is good. I try to make traditional, useful things that help make life cozy. As I said before I have been doing it for nearly 30 years and I don't know how and don't want to stop.

If you are a crafter, artisan or artist and this sounds like a place for you I would be honored if you would use my referral link if you sign up for an account.

Old and Continuing Favorite Craft

When looking for a new project to keep me busy there is one technique I have gone to over and over. I have sold many thread crochet items at craft fairs through the years including things like snowflakes, angels, doilies, edged hemstitched baby and home things. I have sold some of this type of work to people that know how to crochet but don't want to work with fine threads. These customers certainly had a true appreciation on the craft and I thank them for that.

Thread crochet using fine threads and very small hooks has always fascinated me. Just the very idea of taking a piece of thread and a small silver hook to create a decorative piece of lace gives me a sense of competence and pride and the larger and more complex, the more I like it.

All three of the pieces I am showing you today use the pineapple design as the main feature. The top picture is a bit of a doily that lives on my coffee table. The middle picture is of a very large doily I made many years ago. I use it as a cover for the top and back of a chair.

The work you see above was not made by me but I rescued it. I found it in a pile of other things at an antique fair. The work is not perfect but pretty. It is made of eight large blocks and is big enough to cover the back of my couch. It would make a beautiful tablecloth but I don't want anything to happen to it.

Summertime

To me the best part of summer is the long evenings. The light fades gently and the heat of the day begins to fade. The activities that keep you busy during the day slow down. The perfect way to spend the warm end of day for me would be on a big front porch with a cool drink watching fireflies come out and children playing. Of course I don't live in a place where that happens but maybe I will some day. When I do I will need one of these beautiful fans to help cool me off. One of them is handmade and the other vintage and both are available on Artfire.

The fan above is from the shop Vintage Intent.

I remember getting fans like this when I was a kid.
The paper always seemed to tear after a few uses.
It is amazing to me that it is all in one piece.

The fan below is from Southern Charm Soap Company.
I love the colors in this piece.
The tassel with the charms is a lovely way to complete the fan.

My Month, My Flower

Do you think it is a coincidence that my birthday is in June and my favorite flower is the rose? I like simple daisies too but nothing to me is prettier than a rose, any type, any color.

A few years ago my birthday, roses and a trip to Portland all pleasantly came together when Jim and I got to visit Portland, Oregon during the rose festival. I always fall in love with cities with rivers and Portland certainly fits that. Two other trips and places I really enjoyed were Missoula, Montana and Nashville, Tennessee.

Enough of this let me show you some of the roses from the gardens of Portland. The photographer here was my husband. Although we did many things during our visit the rainy afternoon at the rose gardens was one of my favorite parts of the trip.

Beautiful, aren't they?

Life gets better.......

Life does get better for Cinderella and that is why it is one of my favorite fairy tales. I am not silly enough to wish for a prince and a castle but when you are married to a great guy it feels like the fairy tale anyway no matter where you live.

From Wikipedia I learned-

Cinderella (French: Cendrillon, German: Aschenputtel, Spanish: Cenicienta, Italian: Cenerentola, Portuguese:Cinderela), is a well-known classic folk tale embodying a myth-element of unjust oppression/triumphant reward. Thousands of variants are known throughout the world.[1] The title character[2] is a young woman living in unfortunate circumstances which suddenly change to remarkable fortune. The word "cinderella" has, by analogy, come to mean one whose attributes are unrecognised, or one who unexpectedly achieves recognition or success after a period of obscurity and neglect. The still-popular story of Cinderella continues to influence popular culture internationally, lending plot elements, allusions, and tropes to a wide variety of media.

In another way many of us who sell our heartfelt, handcrafted creations are hoping for a Cinderella moment. That would be when your work is recognized and appreciated in a big way. Our feelings are fragile and we patiently work and wait for the day when it all happens and our work is suddenly known and sought after.


I hope it comes my way soon because it is getting hard to work in these glass slippers, :}

Poinsettias of Course!

Art by Irina Akimova

For me the first flower that comes to mind when I think of winter are poinsettias. I love the delicacy of the pointed petals and leaves. The colors they come in are beautiful too and go from a creamy white to deep red.

PV Creations

As a child I don't remember ever seeing them until we moved to California from Kansas when I was about 8. The house we lived in had one on the backyard. This was not some potted plant to set out and look pretty. It was a 6 or 7 foot tall bush! I remember as a kid breaking off small branches to see the milky sap that came out.

Clinging Images

I buy one or two potted ones every year hoping to keep them going until the next Christmas but I don't have much luck. If any one has any tip for growing these lovely flowers please leave me a comment.

If you like the visuals I used for this post the pictures are linked to the shops I found them in. Just click!

Take A Break

When I want to clear my mind or take a break between tasks there are a couple things I like to do. First of all I am a reader. It is very rare for me not to have 3 or 4 books from the library usually lined up to be read. Second I like to do puzzles. I enjoy many kinds of puzzles from jigsaw ones laid out on the dining room table to software like Zuma and Tetris. My favorite puzzles for some time now have been Sudoku. Sometimes I want to breeze through easy ones and at other times I really want to challenge my thinking skills with something more difficult.

I wanted to share with you where I get my puzzles. Some time ago I discovered the site krazydad.com. The puzzles are printable and donations are accepted. It is has lots of sudoku puzzles, mazes, a puzzle form called slitherlink and more.

This is quite an interesting site with puzzles, a blog, screensavers and a bio of the creator. There is even a fun little tool in his freebies section where you can make your own kaleidoscope.
Here is one I made from a scarf I have available in my shop on Etsy. Take the time to check out this site. I don't think you will be disappointed and you might even find more ways to relax.

My World is Blue

It used to be that I had a lot of blue accents in my home. It is a calming color and I love it. I also owned two blue minivans in the past and was told by one daughter that if I bought another blue car and especially a minvan she would disown me. Over the past several years my home has changed to have a lot of green and red in it and for now that is ok. The last car we bought is a platinum sage Santa Fe and I love it.

When it comes to crafting however, I find myself working on blue over and over. It seems to be the color that draws my eye first when choosing fabrics or yarn. Most of my headbands currently in the shop are blue. I do have plans for adding browns and greens into the mix but for now if you love blue like I do consider these headbands for yourself.

When making a headband I hemstitch a two inch wide double layer of fabric. The hemstitching puts holes in the piece so that I can do a crocheted edge and crocheting with thread is one of my favorite things to do. What I like about this headband design is that you can custom fit it just for you with the ties. If you really need to get your hair out of your way you can use the tie ends to make a ponytail as well.


Many times you see this kind of work on flannel for baby blankets and burp cloths. I enjoy this technique for things other than baby items. In the coming months you will see it in my shop on things like table runners, place mats and circles and ovals of different sizes. As usual for me there will be lots of blue but other colors as well. I promise.

This post will be part of the September 15th Etsybloggers blog carnival. You will find it hosted on Storybeader's blog with a list of all participants on that day.

School Day Priorities

I remember getting my children ready for school each year. I think I enjoyed looking at and choosing supplies for the coming year more than they did. Pens, pencils, paper and notebooks were replaced yearly. Sometimes we got a couple years use out of a backpack or book bag before a new one was insisted upon.

Of course for most elementary aged kids the most important parts of the day are recesses. The chance to get out, stretch your legs, socialize and get ready for whatever comes next. The most important of those breaks was at lunch time when you had time to eat and play longer. I remember many times shopping for the perfect lunch boxes because in their younger years I packed lunches every school day morning.

As is usual for me for this topic I went window shopping on Etsy and found a great shop for lunch bags. Sandra Kay Creations has lunch bags for kids and adults. Each bag comes with 2 cloth napkins that coordinate with the bag. So whether it is off to elementary school, junior high, high school or college you could find the perfect bag for the lunch break that gets you through your day.
This post is part of the EtsyBloggers Team Carnival. It will be published on August 18th, 2008 and hosted by Lazy T Crochet.

This Monday

The EtsyBloggers are a busy bunch of bloggy goodness on Mondays. I wanted to share with you what is going on today. First of all there is the regularly posted Mini Monday feature on the team blog. This week we are showing off the talents of Simply Sentimental.

The other event today is the publishing of the biweekly blog carnival. This is a gathering of writing about one of two chosen topics and always makes for some great reading. The carnival published today is hosted by Spotted Cow Soaps. The topics are book reviews or grilling recipes. You will find lots of stuff to make your mouth water or your mind wander. Take a look!

Cool Fruity Goodness

Mini Bee's Knees provided your visual for my post today. The reason I chose it is for the pineapple which is my most loved smoothie flavor.

My favorite way to cool off which is something we need to do around here from April to October is to make smoothies. They are cold and I hope relatively nutritious and I have them many times when it is hot for a meal at breakfast or lunch.

My favorite smoothie uses about a cup of crushed ice, a small container of light vanilla yogurt, about a cup of pineapple-orange juice and frozen pineapple chunks. It all goes in the blender to make thick icy goodness that tastes so good. This makes a very big smoothie and you can share it and have a wonderful drink to go along with any breakfast or light lunch.

You don't need to stop there however. I alway start my smoothies with crushed ice and vanilla yogurt. The combinations of fruit and juice after that can be anything you like. For fruit you can use fresh bananas or frozen strawberries, mango, peaches, raspberries, blackberries or mixed of any of them. I think I use about 1/2 of fruit but I don't really measure. For juice I like to use orange or pineapple but I have used white grape, cranberry or anything blended with cranberry or any of the Welch's Orchard blends.

Have fun creating your own combinations!
Leave a comment and let me know what you come up with.

Minis are the Best!

I just love the Etsy mini and use it all the time as some of you may know. It is an easy way for me to put a couple current products on out EtsyBloggers team blog to say "Happy Birthday" to someone. For a more indepth article like our regular weekly Mini Monday featured artists I like to use the mini along with a couple pictures from the artists shop and some profile information to give a good idea of who our amazing members are.

I have two minis on this blog. One of them is in the sidebar and shows items in my shop. The other one is all the way down at the bottom and is a gallery of sorts of some of my favorites. These are things that make me say wow! I change and add to them all the time. I call it window shopping.

When I was the teams featured blogger for the month of May I used a mini here in posts to thank those who took the time to post about my blog and shop on their blogs. I know this is not the most read blog on the internets but I do hope that it did some good for their shops.

What I really love about this widget is the versatility. The pictures can be thumbnail or gallery size. You can do your own shop or someone elses. You can adjust the size of the grid from 1 by 1 to about 5 by 5 pictures. What it shows is always current and all clickable without having to set up any of the links on your own.

Want to see again what this little thing looks like? How about taking a look the store for our blog carnival host this week Storybeader.

Here is a peek at her favorite things-

See what I mean about versatility? A couple clicks, a number replaced and you have an instant mini shop front! I just love this thing!

Molly and Success

I would like to introduce you to Molly. I didn't actually name her but the company that made her did. She is a big part of my plan to move forward in my shops and display my things in better and more appealing ways. I have found it very difficult to photograph scarves and shawls and I believe she will be the answer since laying them flat is not so great looking and, to me, having someone wear them says used in my mind. Doesn't she look great in her mini wrap? I haven't named the wrap by the way and if you have any ideas I would love to hear them. Just leave a comment.

As some readers may have figured out I do some paid posting and have ads for sale here on my blog. These reason for doing these things is to bring in a little cash to use for supplies and things like Molly. I am not getting rich from these things but it helps my crafting pay for itself. My goal for this fall and holiday season is for the sale of my handcrafted things to start paying for itself so I can cut back on some of those things and concentrate on crafting more exclusively although I have discovered some things I never would have known about without doing paid posts.

Another measure of success that would please me and Jim both is if I could be making enough to contribute a regular amount to the family budget. I do hope to get there within the next year. I do best with deadlines and service to customers would create those. Being busy enough with my shops that when I got up each day there were things that had to get done would be wonderful. As it is now it is way too easy for me to procrastinate. Sometimes I am my own worst enemy.

This post is part of the EtsyBloggers Street Team blog carnival. I have links in the left sidebar that will take you to the June 23rd carnival when it is published as well as the current carnival and archives.

Every Blooming Thing

I think of this afghan as Flowers for Emma. As soon as I send a picture and make sure it meets her approval it will be on its way. This young lady wanted a new blanket because she has worn out her baby one and wanted a new blanket fit for a person of 6 and one that she could enjoy for many years to come. I found out that she likes pink and flowers. I think I have given her both in this design.

This afghan is made up of flowers trimmed with v-stitch borders and final borders of v-stitch all around the edge. It is laid out in a pattern of 5 blocks by 7 blocks. That makes for 35 flowers in the blanket that all have pink in them but no two are exactly alike. I am pleased with the way this turned out and being able to get it from my mind into the finished product so well. I hope she likes it.

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In other blooming news take a look at what came to my door today! I have heard of Edible Arrangements before and have been in one of their stores. This gift was sent for Mother's Day from my daughters and their families. I am saving it in the fridge to show my husband when he gets home tonight. Well not all of it, the grapes had to go to fit better. They were so sweet!

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This post is part of the EtsyBloggers "Spring Bloom" blog carnival. The carnival will be published on May 12th. You can get links to it from the blog carnival widget on the left for this carnival as well as those in the archives if you are looking for some great reading.

My Favorite Poet

When I was just out of high school I discovered I liked the poetry of Rod McKuen. I bought several of his books back then. The line I remember from one particular poem was "Now I have the time, where are you?" Sad to say I don't have them any more. Through many moves in my life they we donated or given away as I thinned out my things getting ready to pack. I had moved on from thinking the deep thoughts of youth to marriage and children.

In thinking about this weeks topic of poetry for the EtsyBloggers Blog Carnival and knowing I have never written a poem worth sharing in my life I thought about sharing something of his instead. On a website dedicated to this man and his poetry I found a poem of his that calls to me again. It is called Age Is Better. If you are 40 or more I think you may enjoy it as well as I did. If you are younger than that take the time to explore the ideas and see that living long is worth it. A line from this poem sums up how I feel about my own birthdays which don't bother me at all. It is, "Age is proof you got from there to here."

Please follow the link to the poem and come back here and comment on it. I would love to hear from you.

This post is a part of a weekly event of the EtsyBloggers. This week our host is Create A Thought and by going to that blog you will see the links to all the other contributors to this carnival. You can find out more using the links for the carnival archives and current issue in the sidebar on the left.

Ten Bulls

This week the theme for the EtsyBloggers Carnival is bull. I love to use these themes to discover new artists or explore ideas I may never have found or thought about on my own. Many times when stumped on what to write for my carnival entry I turn to Etsy and go window shopping. It worked for this theme very well I believe.

I found a self published book by the artist Maria Lewis. This artist uses her own photography to illustrate the classic Zen story of Ten Bulls. Each bull in the story is following a step on the path to enlightenment. The steps begin with a search for a path to follow and end at the tenth by entering the world to spread enlightenment through all your contacts. The story and interpretations can be found in many places but none of them are as beautifully done as what the artist, Maria Lewis has done in this book.

Memory Bouquet

The theme for this post was created and will be hosted in a blog carnival by Stormy Designs. The inspiration behind the theme is the song Pieces of April sung by Three Dog Night. I really was having a hard time figuring out what to write for this carnival until I looked up the lyrics to the song. Quite a few family events happened in April and after reading the lyrics I decided to share them with you in a memory bouquet.

So, here are my pieces of April some happy and some sad.

The 13th of this month was my mother in law's birthday. She had eight children and my husband was number four of that group. In the time between meeting my husband in 1975 and her death in 1997 three of those eight died. All three were younger than 25. I can not imagine her pain.

The 23rd I am pretty sure was the birthday of my mother's second husband. This is the man my children and my nieces and nephews called Grandpa Al. He died in 1998 and all the kids miss him. He had no children of his own but seemed to enjoy the five of us that he got when he married my mother at least most of the time. He supported my brothers through college and they are both engineers now because of that help.

The 30th has two events. It was the wedding anniversary of my mother and Al. They got married in 1983. This is also the day my grandson Hunter was born in 2003.

There is one other major thing that I have as part of my bouquet. This is kind of like the greenery or baby's breath that is put in bouquets to surround all the other flowers and make them look good. This month marks 25 years of sobriety for my husband. I am so proud of him. Who knows where we would be if he didn't make and keep the commitment to not drink. I am so thankful he has the strength to do this for himself, us and our family.

There you have it - my pieces of April that make up my memory bouquet.

For more information about the EtsyBloggers Street Team and out blog carnivals you can find the team blog here.