3 posts tagged “etsy”
Long time, no blog. It's not my fault, I swear. There was Thanksgiving, and directly afterwards a death in the boyfriend's family which kept me far from home for an extra week. Then a press trip, then a craft fair (yes, that one up there), then home again to try to catch up... Seriously, I'm a treasure trove of valid excuses.
The good news is that I'm about to head back to Pennsylvania for the holidays on Sunday, meaning that I'll have next to nothing to do for a solid week except reading, writing, and crafting. I'm almost all caught up on day job deadlines, and I'm really looking forward to setting time aside for non-commercial crafting -- just making things for friends, family and myself without considering all the details of trying to sell them. I love sharing my creations with the Etsy world, but at the end of the day, I'm in it for creativity's sake, and a little business holiday will do both me and the store some good. :)
That's not to say I'm closing down the store, though! All the goodies in my shop will be coming with me to Pennsylvania (and then to Tucson, AZ, for a week with my dad and his family after Christmas), so keep those orders coming! The holidays have really picked up for me in terms of sales, which I fully attribute to the great karma I received for sending my Etsy favorites to anyone who asked me for gift ideas this year.
As for me, I fulfilled my Buy Handmade pledge by finding something independently designed and crafted for everyone on my list this year. Some of my gifts are from the town of Fes in Morocco, where 52 percent of the population is a professional craftsperson (I know!). And the rest were found last weekend at the Atomic Holiday Bazaar in Sarasota, FL, which I was lucky enough to be a part of. From Lollibomb to Dragonfly Crafts to Beanblossom, all my favorite crafters were there, and I found some new favorites too, like Lucas Bags. How can you resist an upholstered hippo?
I pretty much get that look on my face every time I look at my new hippo.
I was feeling all accomplished and crafty when I woke up this morning, until I got an email from my friend Cassie, alerting me to the vastly superior stylings of Mr. Crochet:
For my part, I finished another shrug last night. Because of the limited amount of Goa I had on hand, it ended up being a size x-small -- it's a bit snug on me, but would look perfect on someone a bit more petite.
I know I promised more songs and dress updates for this week, but I got all caught up in day job deadlines and apartment paperwork. The good news: deadlines met, apartment officially secured! Starting October 15, this will be the new Ciara Loves You HQ:
1450 Meridian Ave, two blocks from Lincoln Road, three from Espanola Way, with a dishwasher and cute interior features like a faux fireplace and vaulted ceilings. Much of my free time this week has been spent browsing the Ikea website and dreaming up all the little ways I'll make this place my own. So excited!
I've been slacking on the dress, but yesterday I made up for it by putting together some cute new cat toys for Halloween. I'm sure you've all see the original Kitty Monster -- but are you ready for spoooooky kitty monsters?
Just like the original, these little ghouls are made of felt and stuffed with catnip, plus they're all dressed up for trick-or-treating in Frankenstein and Ghostie costumes. But if yarn's more your thing, I've also rolled out these Witchy Kitty catnip toys in the shape of witch's hats:
The crocheted hat is loose enough to let the catnip slowly fall out over time as your cat bats, chews and tears it to pieces. Plus, the loose ribbons (secured to the hat) will keep kittens busy for hours -- trust me, Papi's been obsessed with his test prototype since I gave it to him days ago. So cute!
Today I'm hoping to make some serious headway on the dress -- I ran into an issue with the straps (the same design that looked great on paper looked awful on my dressmaker's bust), but I think I've come up with an even more creative and pretty solution. I'll of course still be listening to my "little black dress" soundtrack. Here are a few more songs from that list:
Stay tuned for photos of my progress on the dress, and of course more songs!
