Youtique: A Handmade Holiday Craft Show

My next craft show is Youtique: A Handmade Holiday--tomorrow at Wayne State University from 2 - 9 PM. (Not 3 - 9 PM as stated in the ad above.) Hope to see you there!

Free Shipping in My Etsy Shop

I decided to give out a code for free shipping at my next two craft shows in case for some reason, someone wants to order later. That way they can still get the price they would have gotten at the show. (I wish I'd thought of doing this at my last show.) And while I'm at it, I decided to extend the coupon to my blog readers and Facebook fans.

Here are the details:
Use coupon code FSGRWIN2011 for free domestic shipping in my Etsy shop until 1/1/12. (Contact me for international shipping and I'll give you a discount.) Feel free to share the code with whoever you like.

(Maybe use the code on one of my new cowls?)

Say Yes to Michigan!

Just made this Michigan-themed Treasury on Etsy.

Craft Show Season

I am currently in the process of getting ready for three craft shows which take place three weekends in a row starting November 26th. And I'm a little panicked, to tell you the truth. I have never done three craft shows in quick succession like this (and one of them is a two-day show.) I do think I'm doing pretty well getting ready, but I imagine I'll be a bit stressed until December 12th, when all of them are over.

The first show is the Flint Handmade Holiday Craft Market which will be on November 26th at the Flint Masonic Temple. The list of vendors has been posted on the Flint Handmade blog just in case you want to start making your shopping list. There is also a Facebook event page with all of the info in case you prefer that.

The second show is Youtique: A Handmade Holiday on December 3rd at the Old Main building on Wayne State's campus. It takes place during Noel night, which is a fabulous event you also might like to attend. Youtique also has a Facebook event page.

And my third and final show for the year is DIYpsi's winter show which will be December 10th and 11th at the Corner Brewery in Ypsilanti.

Nerd Wars

So I've been participating in Nerd Wars on Ravelry. I'm a member of Team Enterprise since I'm a big Next Generation nerd. (How many people have I just alienated, I wonder?) I thought I'd share my projects from the last round--which ended at the end of June.

This is my felted Ferengi Rules of Acquisition wallet. The style is very similar to something I have been working on for my Etsy shop.

The Boldly Go baby hat. I used a pattern (somewhat modified) that I've used several time before for the hat itself and a different pattern for the stars. It was made from seconds of my Intrinsic yarn.

These are my Silly Starfleet Kah-nigits--combining my love of Star Trek with my love of Monty Python. I can't help but giggle a bit whenever I look at them. They were made using the pattern I used for my regular knights a while back.

I charted this lightning bolt myself--after getting my husband to make me a chart that I accidentally faced in the wrong direction. Whoops.

And this is my Borg Kitty. The kitty was made using this pattern and the Borg additions were made up as I crocheted them. I wish the picture had come out better, but black yarn is so difficult to photograph well and I'm not a very good photographer.

More Canning--Strawberries

Last week, I went strawberry picking with my sister-in-law and my nephew. I hadn't been to pick strawberries since I was a kid, but I still managed to pick almost 17 pounds of berries pretty darn quickly. (pretty darn quickly = slightly longer than the amount of time a 5-year-old will happily pick strawberries) So all week I made things with strawberries.

In the above picture:

Spreadable Fieldberries from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving: This did not quite set up properly, but is definitely thicker than syrup.

Strawberry Lemonade Concentrate (also from Ball): I used my juicer to juice the lemons and I think it made the concentrate a bit clumpy (for lack of a better word) but it's still good. (Delicious with sparkling water.)

Strawberry Vanilla Jam from Food in Jars: This is pretty much syrup. I haven't actually opened a jar, but I don't have high hopes for it being very jammy. I also found it to be a little too sweet for my tastes.

This was my first canning of strawberries in any form and my first jam. While I didn't get a good set on either kind of jam, I'm still happy with my first attempt and will definitely try again. Maybe raspberries.

Rhubarb!

We have a new rhubarb plant in our garden this year (a transplant from my parents), but, since we just planted it, my dad didn't think we should pick any this year. This advice was quite upsetting to me since I have about 10 different things I want to can with it. Luckily, our neighbors brought us a giant bundle of rhubarb last week.

While it wasn't enough for all of the things I was hoping to make, it was plenty for this Victorian Barbecue Sauce.

The recipe is in the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving if anyone is interested in making it. I highly recommend it. Yum.

Another Treasury by Yours Truly

Apparently I am starting to love making Treasuries. I was looking at my favorites today and noticed how many of them featured words, so I decided to make a Treasury of things with words on (which was my original title until I thought of a better one.) Then I poked around Etsy for far too long finding items to finish it up. I don't think it looks quite as good as my last Treasury, but it was more fun for me to make. (Click the link underneath if you want to look at anything more closely.)

"Words are all we have." - Samuel Beckett

Yarn Name Change

The name of my Superwash Merino Sock yarn is now Intrinsic. I never liked the name of the yarn and only used it because I couldn't think of a better one--one that wasn't just a basic description of the yarn. Now I have. And I have names for several other lines which I will hopefully be getting to very soon. (Another fingering weight one is just about ready. I just want to dye a few more skeins before I announce it.)




In other yarn news, I have several new colorways in the works. Be on the lookout for those very soon. If it cools off a bit (and I finish getting my garden planted), I should have a dye day or two this week, so get ready.

"Country" Living

We have been having trouble getting our entire backyard mowed since it's been super rainy and when it wasn't, we were out of town. (Also we live on two acres and most of that seems to be grass.) So we have this patch that is pretty tall. Yesterday, when Chris was mowing, he noticed something hidden in the grass.



A tiny fawn.

We looked it up and apparently a fawn has almost no scent, so the mother will leave it in a safe place all day in order to not attract predators to it with her scent. And I guess our backyard looked like a safe place. At least until the mowing. Now it seems that the lawn near the driveway appears safer since that's where the fawn is today.

Good Day Sunshine Treasury

Last night, out of nowhere, I decided to make my second ever Treasury on Etsy. (The first was about 4 years ago.) It started with two sunny items in my Etsy favorites and ended with this.

Things I'm Loving Right Now

So I thought I'd start occasionally posting links to things I love. I commonly spend too much time browsing Etsy and other sites and often find things that I'd like to share. Here goes...


I bought this Ministry of Silly Walks mobile from Salty and Sweet for my husband for his birthday earlier this month. He loves it and I am thrilled that I get to keep it in my house.


This stoneware planter by Virginia Wyoming would look gorgeous in my dining room. (I'm kind of a sucker for this color so expect to see more of it in future posts.)


This vintage lamp from Modern Relics is gorgeous. I also want probably about half of the other things in the shop.


I could use this amazing quilted pouch by Hip to Piece Squares for so many things. If I only had enough pouches and other useful items for putting things in, I'm sure I could get organized. Really.


I love this linocut print from The Big Harumph. I know exactly where I would hang it if I bought it too--right between two closets in my guest/craft room.

Dandelion Love

My yard last week--before the evil lawnmower went to work.

New Logo

On Saturday, I spent way more time than I should have needed (pretty much most of the day) working on a logo for my shop. I just wanted something very simple that I could put on tags and business cards. And simple is what I got--since I can't really draw and I don't know how to work Photoshop Elements beyond a very basic degree. I don't really know how I feel about it. I would love some opinions.

Now on to making new cards and tags. Hopefully before the Youtique show on April 16th, but I'm making no promises.

Youtique: Spring Into Handmade

I just found out that I am going to be a vendor at Youtique on April 16th at D'Amato's restaurant in Royal Oak. The show is being planned by Michigan Artisans and the Handmade Gift Guide. Should be a fun show--they will have appetizers, a cash bar and a silent auction. Now I probably need to get to work.

Remember This?

Do you remember this wrap? (I was horrified to see that I posted that a year and a half ago--I really need to speed up my process.)


Since I never really ended up with one that I loved, I've decided to improve upon it. And, instead of making them for sale, I'm going to write up a pattern and sell that. I have been intending to branch out into pattern sales for quite a while now and I've promised myself that this year I will finally do it. I make up patterns all the time for myself and to make items to sell in the shop so it seems like a logical step to write them up for sale. I believe I have the wrap design the way I want it, so I'm now writing a pattern from my notes. After I have that done, I'll make one more to see if the pattern seems correct to me and then it's on to testing. Hopefully I'll have it ready for sale this spring. Now I just need to think of a name for the pattern. (And as you can probably see by my boring post titles, I'm not very good at that sort of thing.)

Some Gifts I've Made Recently

I made some fun gifts for children I know for Christmas and of course could not be bothered to take any pictures of them before giving them away. So I have a couple of shots taken by parents of the recipients that I hope they don't mind me posting here.

First, for my nephews, Zachary and Gavin, I made these cork knights and ninjas (links are to patterns).


Each of the boys had three knights and a ninja (because what army is complete without a ninja?) in different colors. This is one set with both of the ninjas--the other knights were busy at the time. I'm going to make more of these because I love them so much.

I also made some play silks for my almost-nephew, Wyatt. They were fun to make, but time consuming because I had to keep redyeing to get them as bright as I wanted. Or almost as bright, anyway. (They look more subdued in the picture than in reality.)


He's wearing one of the play silks and most of the rest are hanging on the play stand behind him. His mom and grandfather made the gorgeous play stand, by the way.

And finally, for my nephew Zachary's birthday, I made a sock doll. And I actually managed to take a picture of this one before I gave it to him. I'm not much of a sewer, although I do have a sewing machine which is still in the box (I've promised myself to start to learn to use it this year.) so this was a little more outside my normal crafts.


It's all handsewn (so I didn't have to get the sewing machine out yet) and I used a tutorial from the book Stray Sock Sewing by Daniel. I found the tutorial and book a little hard to follow for a beginner, but I think that was more a problem with the translation than the book. Also I've discovered I'm a much worse embroiderer than I am a handsewer, so he got a button face instead of the embroidered one I was planning. I guess that's something else I need to learn.

Books Read in 2010

As I'm still keeping track of all of the books I read, I thought I'd share last year's list. Some of these are re-reads and I've marked those with an [RR].

1. The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
2. The Invisibles: Say You Want a Revolution - Grant Morrison
3. Planet of the Damned - Harry Harrison
4. Gibbon’s Decline and Fall - Sheri S. Tepper [RR]
5. The Butterfly Revolution - William Butler
6. The BFG - Roald Dahl
7. The World Inside - Robert Silverberg
8. The Maltese Falcon - Dashiell Hammett
9. Escape to Earth - Ivan Howard (ed.)
10. All the Myriad Ways - Larry Niven
11. The Zombie Survival Guide - Max Brooks
12. New Dimensions 1 - Robert Silverberg (ed.)
13. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
14. Spindrift - Allen Steele
15. On Our Way To the Future - Terry Carr (ed.)
16. Doorway Into Time - Sam Moskowitz (ed.)
17. The Tesseract - Alex Garland
18. House of Stairs - William Sleator
19. Millennium - Ben Bova
20. Toward Infinity - Damon Knight (ed.)
21. The Bicentennial Man - Isaac Asimov
22. Over Sea, Under Stone - Susan Cooper
23. A Time of Changes - Robert Silverberg
24. Damnation Alley - Roger Zelazny
25. 7 Steps to Midnight - Richard Matheson
26. A Dusk of Demons - John Christopher
27. The Revenants - Sheri S. Tepper
28. The Phoenix and the Carpet - E. Nesbit
29. A Scanner Darkly - Philip K. Dick
30. The Awakening - Kate Chopin
31. The Wounded Planet - Roger Elwood and Virginia Kidd (ed.)
32. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
33. Lovelock - Orson Scott Card and Kathryn H. Kidd [RR]
34. Lemony Snickett: The Unauthorized Autobiography - Lemony Snickett
35. Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood [RR]
36. The Book of Lost Things - John Connolly
37. Engine Summer - John Crowley
38. Good Omens - Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett [RR]
39. The Unsleep - Diana and Meir Gillon
40. The Egypt Game - Zilpha Keatley Snyder
41. Beloved - Toni Morrison [RR]
42. Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro
43. Millennial Women - Virginia Kidd (ed.)
44. Fragile Things - Neil Gaiman
45. The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
46. Full Dark, No Stars - Stephen King
47. The Eyre Affair - Jasper Fforde
48. The House With a Clock in Its Walls - John Bellairs

I think my favorites for the year (out of new reads) were Pride and Prejudice, The Book of Lost Things, Never Let Me Go and The Hunger Games--all of which I adored--although there were quite a few books I really enjoyed. I'm not really sure how I managed to go this long without reading Jane Austen as she's exactly my style. And if I'd realized Kazuo Ishiguro had written a science fiction book, I would have read it right when it was released because I loved The Remains of the Day so much and sci fi is my favorite genre.

Long Delayed Crocheted Play Food Part 2

Well, I never said how soon I'd post the second of my posts on the play food I made for Wyatt's 2nd birthday. (His 3rd birthday will be here in about three weeks, but at least I beat that.) Please accept my humble apologies for being so slow and lazy about blogging. If I don't start to do better, I think I may have to give it up as a lost cause. I do have things to share, though, so I guess I can try a little harder.

Now on to the food...


Tiny cupcakes made with this pattern. I probably didn't follow the pattern exactly (because I usually don't) but I didn't make any notes on the project on Ravelry, so I don't imagine I changed it too much.


Red velvet cake that I made up after seeing another pattern similar to it at some point in the past.


These strawberries were made with this pattern, although I made the tops completely different. I don't remember if I thought my way looked better or if it was just easier.


A lemon and lime made with this pattern and yarn that I already had. I would not have picked these colors, but I decided before I started that I didn't want to buy any yarn for this project.


And the pear, which I love (not quite as much as the radishes from the last post, though.) It just came out so pear-y. I used this pattern and modified it quite a bit, but didn't take any notes so I have no idea what I did. I'm sure I'll be mad at myself for that one the next time I decide to make a pear.