Finished and Delivered

The young woman who cleans and checks on my teeth every 3 months is having her first baby. I told her I would love to make a blanket and burp cloth set for her. She chose the fabrics. The print you see here is backed by a solid dark brown. I crocheted a shell stitch in pink and then edged the shells in dark brown. I am very pleased with how this project turned out. I hope the new little lady in their lives enjoys in too. She is due on the 17th of this month and I have been promised pictures!

Happy Day!

 

That's right folks. I am pleased to announce that 2 of my headbands are on their way to a new home and owner. I just love packing up my little creations and sending them off.

 

Sign courtesy of Vintage Suburbia

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You may be wondering which ones sold, if so, your curiosity will be satisfied by looking at the pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you are interested I have some other headbands for sale in my shop as well has some hand knit scarves for the coming fall and winter.

Technorati Tags: etsy,headbands,sold,scarves,hemstitched,knit,crochet

Silkfair

I saw a mention of a site called Silkfair a short time ago in the forums on Etsy. In looking it over I decided to give it a try. This is online selling is getting to be like going from craft show to craft show. I think I have a good sense of where I want to go with my stuff. I keep evaluating site after site and finding this or that about them that I don't like. I know if I want to make a part time income from my handcrafted goodies it probably can't all be done on one site. I have, at least for now, settled on three. I will right away that the first major consideration for any site is how it looks. Is is easy to figure out how to navigate. Do the products stand out or is it the page itself? Is it pleasing to the eye?

I have decided to end listing on blujay. I am sorry. I am sure there are people who are great fans of Blujay and I wish you all well. The set up for selling is nice and easy to use. I just think the way the pages and stores are laid out is just ugly. I wouldn't want to shop there with the way it looks.

This now leaves me with Etsy which I think for now and maybe well into the future is one of the best sites for handcrafted goods. My Etsy mini is on the left and you can use it to go to my shop there and look around.

One other site I will keep a presence on is Ecrater. I like the way to stores look and the features they offer for setting up a shop. I just found out that they now have widgets. My Ecrater widget is in the sidebar on the left. You can use it to check out my items and go to the store.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post the newest place you can find A Cozy Life's hand crafted things is SilkFair. I started with some bandannas today and a blog post. (Yes every seller gets their own blog.) This place is doing a lot right and it will be fun to see how it grows and grow with it I hope. They don't have any cool gadgets or badges for blogs yet but when they do I will proudly put it on the left with the others. Below are my first listings on Silk Fair. Tomorrow I plan to add some headbands.

So Honored

I discovered tonight that my headband "Points of Blue" was included in this beautiful treasury on etsy.com.

Many thanks to twolefthands for including my work.

Newest Headbands

My newest headbands to be listed have a soft rather delicate look to them. The first is named Calico and Lace. The earthy peachy, coral flowers are cooled down with touches of blue and green. I see this as wearable with a swirly skirt and peasant style blouse for a great look. The other headband I named Points of Blue. Of course with blue you would think of wearing it with anything denim from jeans to skirts and jumpers. I am sure you could come up with some great looks.

If these soft colors aren't your style keep an eye on the shop. I will soon be listing some tropical colors, some red and some bold black and white. I am lining them up so I can try to list something each day in my etsy shop. Any extras that I make will be listed on blujay or ecrater. The links to all these are to the left.

Thanks for taking the time to look. Comments are always appreciated and looked forward to.

Getting Caught Up

After a week in Kansas I am back home. Being away breaks the routines that are part of daily life. Silly things like what am I needing in the way of groceries? What do I need to replace and what else did Jim use up while I was gone?

Part of catching up was doing some hemstitching for Strawberrylane who has a shop on Etsy.

So cute and so useful! Watch for these burp cloths in her shop once she gets the edges crocheted on them.

If you are a crocheter and especially like to do thread crochet you need to know about hemstitching. I have a machine that will put holes in fabric so that it can easily be crocheted. You can see an example of what the machine does in the picture below.


Hemstitching is not just for flannel or baby things. I have used the machine to hemstitch fleece, quilts, tablerunners, pillowcases and more. You can look at the pictues at the top of this blog and see headbands and bandanas that use hemstiched fabric and a crocheted edge. I think it is a charming way to finish the edges of things and could be very nice way to accent collars, sleeves and hems on skirts as well.

One other new thing here are family links on the left. My son has started a blog about his family that is expecting an addition in early October. The other new link is to my daughter's Avon shop. Selling is new to her and she is excited by it. She is spending time learning all about the products available so that she can be helpful and answer any questions you might have. As a proud mother, if you like Avon products, I ask you to please consider following the link and shopping with my daughter.

For today and the rest of the week be safe, be happy, be well and be cozy.

Scarf Guy

Scarf Guy was among the earliest sellers on Etsy. I admire his craft for the classic designs and beautiful fibers her uses to create them. Take a look at some of the newest items in his shop-




In his own words from his Etsy profile-

I've been weaving for about 18 years. It started as relaxing hobby that would take me away from the high-tech high-stress world of computers and networks. Weaving has since become a passion. I retired in 2004 from the high-tech world to pursue handweaving full-time. There is nothing more fulfilling than to create something of beauty, something tangible, with your own hands. I use the finest natural fibers: merino wool, cashmere, silk, qiviut (muskox), camel, and yak. I take no short cuts in my work, every piece is individually hand threaded, handwoven, and hand hemstitched

Make sure and scroll down and to check the archives for the latest from the shops of other Etsians I have blogged. Look for their shop names as titles.