I'm In a Treasury!

My green needle felted flower pin is currently featured in an Etsy Treasury called Glorious Green chosen by Epicurus (who has lovely yarns--check them out).


(I really wish I could get a screenshot of the entire page--if anyone knows of a way to take a free screenshot of an entire webpage on a Mac, I'd love to know.) Being in a Treasury is so exciting. It's wonderful to know that someone liked something you made well enough to choose it.

The Treasury was chosen from EtsyFAST and CCCOE members. They are Street Teams on Etsy--Etsy Fiber Arts Street Team (in which I am a member) and California Crafters Club of Etsy (which I am not). I recently joined EtsyFAST and they seem like a really nice group of people. In my revising of shipping on my listings, I am also adding the tag "EtsyFAST" so that people who are looking for that type of thing can find me. (Lucky for me, I already added it to the flower pin that was included in the Treasury.)

So Many Beads...

I just mailed out a custom order of felted beads. Ninety beads. I have never made this many at once before. The big ones were a bit more difficult to make than I was expecting so that took me a little while, but I got them done pretty quickly.


And it was my very first international order. Much easier than I expected--although I do have to go to the post office and I don't for domestic shipping.

I have begun adding international shipping to my Etsy listings--finally. (And I am adjusting the US shipping prices at the same time. That way the shipping price will actually pay for the shipping.) I'm not done adding it to my entire shop, but I should get it sometime this weekend--unless something comes up. I expect I'll now get hundreds of orders from all over the world, since I'm certain that not having international shipping was the only thing holding me back.

And I put up a banner in my shop today. It's not the best banner ever, but it looks pretty good--and apparently it's really important to have a banner. I can see how it would make you look more like a real shop. So now I look more professional, I guess.

Yarns

I have been working on a huge custom order of felted beads so I have no time to post. But I thought I'd at least give you a picture of some of the yarns I've dyed recently.


They are all sock yarns except for the blue and brown, which is lace weight merino and already for sale in my Etsy shop. Three of the others are superwash and nylon and the red, yellow and orange is merino. The yellow, green, cream and purple is also for sale in my shop. And the others will be in the shop soon.

The MICE Craft Extravaganza and a Crafter I Discovered There

The MICE Craft Extravaganza was Saturday. I thought that they did a wonderful job with it. And it seemed like a great time was being had by all. I don't know how they managed to fit that many crafters into the Main Art Theatre without it seeming insanely crowded, but they managed. It was quite busy the whole time we were there--if that was the way it was all day, they must have had a pretty good turnout. (I hope people liked my keychain promos.)

I didn't intend to really shop at the show (because I'm spending all my money on my Etsy shop), but I did end up buying one card from an Etsian who was new to me: Carol Lee Designs. She has a line of greeting cards called Hate Mail, which are incredibly funny--and a little bit mean. I adore them. You have to be the right kind of person to appreciate these cards, but if you are, I'm sure you will find one you have to buy. I bought this one for my sister. And I'm positive I will be purchasing more in the future. She also has some gorgeous cards and stationary that are less mean for those of you who like that kind of thing.

What I've Been Working On

I recently restarted crocheting a baby blanket I'm making for a friend who's pregnant. It's a round ripple made from this pattern (with a few changes). Why did I have to restart it, you ask? I had finished the blanket and was beginning to weave in the ends when I realized that I had been adding an extra stitch every round. It was insanely misshapen. So I had to frog the entire thing. But I have gotten quite a bit of it redone so I'm feeling slightly better about the whole thing.



I've also been working on a couple of custom orders (for my mom and for Chris's mom) of crocheted cotton baby hats.


The one with the purple band is exactly like the ones I have in my Etsy shop and the one with the yellow band has a picot edging (which I can do on other hats if you want one). I also have some bigger ones for them, but there's only so much room in my "light box."

Yarn to Dye

So I got another very large box of yarn from Knit Picks in the mail yesterday. This time it's all yarn to dye, however. I got some different weights, so it's not all sock yarn now.


I wanted to expand my dyeing since I love doing it so much and I think it may be my best bet for selling on Etsy. I started dyeing it pretty much immediately. (No pictures yet, though.) And I've already had a dye issue--with my new black dye. I've been avoiding black dye since I thought it would be hard to use and (amazingly) it is. Did you know that black dye dyes brown if you don't get enough on the yarn? Grr argh. So I'll have to try to fix that one. But other than that, it is going swimmingly.

Shipping and More Tatting Practice

As you may or may not know, as of today, new shipping rules have gone into effect at the USPS. So I am working on changing my shipping in my Etsy shop to reflect the higher prices. I still haven't quite figured it out so I haven't changed any of my listings as of now. (I also want to add international shipping prices at the same time since it will take quite a while to change all of my listings. And I'm not quite sure of the pricing on that right now either--or what countries I want to list in each listing.) These shipping changes are even more confusing than I originally thought they were. I am pretty sure I won't be able to ship my items as large envelopes any more because they are too thick and I am completely befuddled by the non-machinable surcharge. Ugh. And my SO works at the Post Office, but since he's a mail carrier and not a clerk, he knows nothing at all that's useful to me right now. So hopefully I will have that done soon.

More tatting practice last night... I have now learned how to tat a split ring and chains.


(I don't have a picture of the chains because they aren't really much different than rings, so I didn't practice them much.) I love split rings--I think I could make jewelry that I like out of just them. Once I get a little better at it, that is.

More Promos

I just finished more promos to go in swag bags at the Michigan Indie Crafters of Etsy Craft Extravaganza, which is at the Main Art Theatre (Chris, my SO, used to work there when we lived in Royal Oak) in Royal Oak on May 19th.


The show is being organized and run by Danielle of PreciousPups and Heidi of DesignChic, both of who seem to be really nice people (and make cool stuff). It sounds like it's going to be a great show, so you should definitely check it out if you are in the area. I won't be a vendor, but I will be going to meet people and maybe buy some stuff.

I've also been doing some more tatting--gotta keep on practicing. (Besides, I'm getting fast enough that it's actually fun to do it now.)


I've been having a bit of trouble with the thread I'm using--it seems very splitty and I don't know if that's me or the thread. I haven't been working on a pattern like I intended because all the free beginner patterns seem to be for really large things (like doilies) and I don't know that I'm ready to devote that kind of time to something I don't really want to make. So I will keep practicing little things until I get good enough to attempt something I actually want to do. I just don't have any use for a doily--I'm not really a doily person. I'll probably make tatted jewelry when I finally get the hang of this.

Apparently I've Been Tagged

This is all completely new to me, but I've been tagged by Beadiful Things. I probably don't want to do these all the time (so don't get any ideas), but this one seemed fun and not too difficult.

The rules:

* Write 7 random facts/habits about yourself on your blog

* Choose another 7 people to get tagged and list their names (then make sure you go to those people's blogs to let them know they're "it").

1. I (well, we--my SO, Chris, and I) own over 2,000 books. It's actually probably closer to 3,000, but I didn't want to overestimate.

2. I had seven sets of drainage tubes put in my ears before I was 11 and at 11, had skin grafted over a hole in my eardrum. This was after many perforated eardrums that healed on their own--this one just didn't want to. (I thought of this one because I currently have a hole in my eardrum that I'm hoping will heal on its own because I have no health insurance.)

3. I have a minor obsession with Joss Whedon (creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly/Serenity) and everything that he does. And I am lying about it being minor.

4. I do not have, nor do I intend to have, any children. But I rock at being the wacky aunt.

5. I am a total Mac geek. We currently use two different Macs and have several other assorted Apple computers (including an Apple IIe, which will be used as soon as we get a spot to set it up) in storage. And I have an iPod.

6. I used to be a bit of a headbanger when I was a teenager. I have seen Poison (who were my favorite) nine times in concert--as well as many other hair bands from the late 80s.

7. I have a 14 year old cat named Scamp. (And, yes, I used this one so that I had an excuse to post this picture.)


Wow, that was much harder than I thought it would be. I'm not tagging anyone else since I don't know any other bloggers--I hope I'm not breaking some sort of cardinal rule.

Saturday Night Special (Sale!)

I'm participating in the Saturday Night Specials at Etsy tonight. I'm offering 15% off everything in my shop until 3:00 am EST tomorrow. (Just mention SNS in the comments at checkout and wait for a revised invoice.) This is my 4th or 5th time doing this and I haven't made a sale yet--maybe tonight is the night. One can only hope. The yarn I put on sale the other day didn't even last 24 hours, so I guess you never know.

It really apppears that I have tons of sales in my Etsy shop. That's really not accurate, so no one get upset when I don't have many more. It's just an odd coincidence that so many seem to have happened all at once. I may participate in the SNS a few more times, but if I don't make any sales, I'm probably going to stop. It's kind of disappointing.

My Treasury got a lot of nice comments before it was gone forever. I'm really glad I did it. It was nice to see how many other Tom Robbins fans there are on Etsy. Yay Tom Robbins!

Sale In My Etsy Shop

Well, it's not exactly a store wide sale, but I put two of my handpainted yarns on sale for $10 (from $13) because they will be expiring in a couple of weeks and I don't plan to renew them. They were very early ones, dyed with food coloring and Kool Aid and since I'm using "real" dye now, I would just as soon let them go. I think they're just as pretty as the new ones though (and I'm still a bit amazed at the colors I got on the blue/green/purple one)--it's just me being a bit silly, I guess.



If you buy them both and mention this blog post in the comments, I'll even give you free shipping as well. What a deal, eh?

Etsy Treasury

I just made my very first Treasury on Etsy.


The theme was Tom Robbins--all of the items relate somehow to one of his books. I never even tried to do a Treasury before, but once I got the idea, I had to do it. Even if it meant staying up way to late to snag one. It was super fun, though. I may change out some of the items later for my alternates, which are also fun. It's funny--I thought that being in a Treasury must be way more exciting than making one, but I'm not so sure now.

And an explanation of the Treasury for those who don't have any idea what I'm talking about... They are basically lists of favorites made by Etsians. Often people choose to do them in themes such as Tom Robbins or green or birds. They are up for 2-3 days and then gone forever. They are also what the admins use for the front page. I think mine may be a bit too eclectic looking for the front page--not that I would ever expect that.

Check it out soon if you want to see it in all its glory (and be able to get a closer look at the items on it). It will be gone in around two days.

More Tatting

I've been practicing tatting today--learning to make picots.


I think I'm doing much better, although it may not look that way. (I really hope it doesn't look as grubby in the picture as it does in reality--I had no idea I was so dirty. Maybe I should stop using white thread.) It's much easier and smoother for me to make the double stitch now. The picots aren't exactly even, but I'm getting it, I think. Up next in the tatting front will be a pattern so I can learn how to follow one before I start disregarding them altogether. I'm quite enjoying tatting now that I've stopped wanting to throw it across the room.