My bloggy carnival is over and a winner has been drawn, The Angel Forever
If our winner should fail to answer my email another will be drawn.
A big thank you to everyone who entered!
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Monday, April 21, 2008
Bloggy Carnival Giveaway time
It's Bloggy Carnival time!
I participated last quarter as just a reader, but this time I'm sponsoring too! My prize is a set of my napkins. This set of four nice brown with blue batik. My specialty is kids napkins, but of course many of you may not have children so I'm offering a more generic set.
To enter, go to my shop WeeBeaks and look around. Then leave a comment here on this post telling me your favorite item and why. If you don't like anything tell me what you would LIKE to see and why. That is your entry. The winner will be drawn Friday evening at approximately 9 p.m. pacific. Good luck.
A few rules:
One entry per person please. I reserve the right to delete entries as needed (duplicates, etc).
The prize:
I participated last quarter as just a reader, but this time I'm sponsoring too! My prize is a set of my napkins. This set of four nice brown with blue batik. My specialty is kids napkins, but of course many of you may not have children so I'm offering a more generic set.
To enter, go to my shop WeeBeaks and look around. Then leave a comment here on this post telling me your favorite item and why. If you don't like anything tell me what you would LIKE to see and why. That is your entry. The winner will be drawn Friday evening at approximately 9 p.m. pacific. Good luck.
A few rules:
One entry per person please. I reserve the right to delete entries as needed (duplicates, etc).
The prize:
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Lily in her new dress
This photo was mainly taken to show her new dress, for which I was a pattern tester. I really liked how the photo came out though so thought I would post it on the blog. She is getting so big!
Butterflies are bye bye
We lost our last butterfly last Friday. Their lives are brief unfortunately. As I had mentioned, Zach did not want to release them but rather care for them in their enclosure. As we were down to the last two we convinced him Thursday night to release them. We took them out to the garden and gently put them on one of our roses. We got to see them drink and stay there for a while, observing, before they left. The next morning Zach found one on the ground by the rose. I looked out and he was sitting quietly holding it and touching it's wings. We found a cardboard box for burial, and he put some of his "treasuries" in with it, i.e., giving it a proper Egyptian burial as he has been reading about the Egyptian kings recently. He gave up some of his stick on jewels for the jewels for the afterlife for this little butterfly.
I'm so glad we decided to do the butterflies part of science this year. I think Zach really got a lot out of it, and it will be a very nice memory for him for a long time to come. In a year or two we will probably do it again, and maybe more as each child reaches that level in our curriculum to study the lifecycle of butterflies. It really does solidify the book learning to raise them and watch them.
I'm so glad we decided to do the butterflies part of science this year. I think Zach really got a lot out of it, and it will be a very nice memory for him for a long time to come. In a year or two we will probably do it again, and maybe more as each child reaches that level in our curriculum to study the lifecycle of butterflies. It really does solidify the book learning to raise them and watch them.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
I made the front page!!!
No, not the newspaper. That probably wouldn't be a good thing as natural disasters and car accidents and stuff end up on the front page. Not a good thing at all.
I got to be on the front page of Etsy! Or rather one of my bibs did. :)
For those of you not as familiar with Etsy, there are things called treasuries, which are basically just collections of items for sale (not your items, other people's work that you admire) that look nice together or have a theme or are just favorites of yours. You can put your treasury in the collection of everyone else's grouping in the big thing called a Treasury. Then people can look at your collection your made of pretty items other people have made. In any case, I got to be in one person's treasury he made.
The front page of Etsy, i.e., the thing you seen when you type in www.etsy.com on your browser, features a rotating treasury. The treasury my bib was in got to be on the front page today! I was so excited. Here is a screen shot for posterity. LOL
My little bib unfortunately did not sell during its time of exposure on the front page. However, over 1000 people clicked on it and looked at it!
I got to be on the front page of Etsy! Or rather one of my bibs did. :)
For those of you not as familiar with Etsy, there are things called treasuries, which are basically just collections of items for sale (not your items, other people's work that you admire) that look nice together or have a theme or are just favorites of yours. You can put your treasury in the collection of everyone else's grouping in the big thing called a Treasury. Then people can look at your collection your made of pretty items other people have made. In any case, I got to be in one person's treasury he made.
The front page of Etsy, i.e., the thing you seen when you type in www.etsy.com on your browser, features a rotating treasury. The treasury my bib was in got to be on the front page today! I was so excited. Here is a screen shot for posterity. LOL
My little bib unfortunately did not sell during its time of exposure on the front page. However, over 1000 people clicked on it and looked at it!
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Our butterflies are butterflies
I hope to get a good picture later in the day, but I had to update that our butterflies came out of their shells last week. We now have 5 beautiful Painted Ladies to watch, feed and enjoy. Zach does not want to release them into the yard, so we will care for them for their brief lifespan (couple weeks usually). He enjoys looking at them.
Monday, April 07, 2008
New item in my store
I have a couple new sets of napkins in my store this week, an "Old MacDonald" theme set with farm animals and a "Here Fishy Fishy" theme set with fish and boats in a simple style. Stop by and take a look! As always, my sets are double-layer, with a novelty print and a solid color backing.
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
A few of my favorite things
So you of course have been hearing about MY items for Etsy and are probably sick of that. Today I'm going to show you a few items I have marked favorites in my Etsy area, meaning they are things other people have made that I really like and am considering buying. Maybe you will like them too, and hopefully those shops will gain some exposure. Etsy is growing, which is good, but it is hard to get exposure with so many shops.
So, here they are, some of my favorites!
So, here they are, some of my favorites!
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
A bag!
So what did I do this morning? I made a bag! Noah slept really late today, and Zach has a bad cold so was mellower than usual. I posted mine on my shop at Etsy, but honestly it's easy to make your own if you sew:
1. Start with a pair of old jeans. Mine came from a yard sale for this project, provided by my mother-in-law.
2. Choose the part of the pants you want to use. I used the bottom of one leg. It was a large size pair, so that was big enough to make the size of bag I wanted. Make sure you choose a big enough part.
3. Lay out what part you want where. I chose to use the bottom cuff as the top of my bag, but I could have chosen that as the bottom of my bag, etc. I wanted to keep the frayed/distressed look of the bottom cuff and pocket, so those became the top. Generally, you don't want to complete the sewing yet.
4. Embelish! I carefully took off the back pocket and sewed it to the front as a pocket. I added some baby rickrack and a butterfly applique. This is easier with as many seams open as possible. In my example, the bottom of the bag was still open at this point.
5. Choose and add handles before or after step #5. My handles are from some material from the leg of the pants. Make sure you get these along the grainline if at all possible. Handles cut on the bias or crossgrain will have a tendency to stretch. I took strips and folded them then topstitched. I then sewed these to the bag.
6. I closed off the bottom of the bag at this point as my last step. Since I had a raw edge where I cut it from the rest of the pant leg, sewed it with a double stitch (because it was the bottom and holding weight) and then serged to keep the edges from fraying. Denim really frays badly. Another good open in a bag bottom without lining is a french seam, but this fabric was too thick to make that a good option for me.
7. Enjoy your new bag!
Here's mine:
1. Start with a pair of old jeans. Mine came from a yard sale for this project, provided by my mother-in-law.
2. Choose the part of the pants you want to use. I used the bottom of one leg. It was a large size pair, so that was big enough to make the size of bag I wanted. Make sure you choose a big enough part.
3. Lay out what part you want where. I chose to use the bottom cuff as the top of my bag, but I could have chosen that as the bottom of my bag, etc. I wanted to keep the frayed/distressed look of the bottom cuff and pocket, so those became the top. Generally, you don't want to complete the sewing yet.
4. Embelish! I carefully took off the back pocket and sewed it to the front as a pocket. I added some baby rickrack and a butterfly applique. This is easier with as many seams open as possible. In my example, the bottom of the bag was still open at this point.
5. Choose and add handles before or after step #5. My handles are from some material from the leg of the pants. Make sure you get these along the grainline if at all possible. Handles cut on the bias or crossgrain will have a tendency to stretch. I took strips and folded them then topstitched. I then sewed these to the bag.
6. I closed off the bottom of the bag at this point as my last step. Since I had a raw edge where I cut it from the rest of the pant leg, sewed it with a double stitch (because it was the bottom and holding weight) and then serged to keep the edges from fraying. Denim really frays badly. Another good open in a bag bottom without lining is a french seam, but this fabric was too thick to make that a good option for me.
7. Enjoy your new bag!
Here's mine:
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