Craftaluma!

So I've been a neglectful, frenzied mess trying to get ready for my first official craft show. It's called Craftaluma and it's happening next Sunday in Petaluma, CA (which is about 15 miles north of San Fransisco). If you're in the area you should come on down and say hello!

Etsy Picks: In the Garden

I am so inspired these days by my tenacious little veggie garden. We have the absolute worst clay soil out here but some how these mini plants are able to break through the caked surface.









So I decided that this week, in the first of many 'Etsy Picks,' I'd feature some fabulous, original garden themed stuff. All these items can be found for sale on Etsy.










Add some cool to your window herb garden with these hand stamped silver plant markers from Nina Gibson Designs.

And at only $7.00 a piece they're an affordable, environmentally friendly (not to mention a gagillion times hipper) alternative to plastic.







Check out this awesome utility apron from Nurtured Threads. It has tons of pockets and a little holster that I think would be perfect for holdling my trowel.

Get dirty and look good doing it for $30.00.





Pull up a lawn chair after a hard day's work in the garden, invite some friends over and roast some veggie kabobs over this very cool pedestal fire pit. Perfect.

John Tunger, $500.00












And last, but definitely not least, restore your dry over-worked hands to their pre-shovel glory with Farmer's Hand Salve from Sugarwood Naturals.


This would make a great gift for any gardener in your life for only $6.50.





Hope you enjoyed my Etsy Picks for this week! Make sure you check out all the great shops I featured today. And don't forget to leave a comment! I'll be back next week with more fun stuff. Have a great weekend!

Seriously Delinquent Blogger.

That's me! I haven't updated my blog since before my Mexico vacation....and that was a while ago. Oops. Lots of new stuff in my Etsy shop. So check it out if you get a chance. Here's a little glimpse at what I've been up to, knitting faux bling chains. It's my new thing.

Also, the garden is going well, stay tuned for some fantastic videos. Oh, and I'll try to post some of my Mexico pics. The trip was ridiculously fantastic!

Ties, Ties, Ties

So my latest obsession has been knitting men's (or women's) neckties. I got started on this after doing a custom order for Charles of Etsy's Accounting Department. And now they're my new favorite thing to make.


<-------this one is brand new and I'm calling it the 'Used Car Salesman' :) It's made with wool tweed and mohair.













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This one is made with recycled cotton and has a striped rib pattern. Definitely on the classier side.











<------And here my current work in progress. Man, I forgot how effing long it takes to knit something up on #3 needles! Its already been like 5 days!




It's a really awesome pattern that I hijacked and altered from one I found on the internet. The ties are knit on the bias so it greats these really awesome diagonal strips as you can see in the photos.

I'm thinking of opening another shop on Etsy that sells only knit ties....What do you think???

Magical Gem Sweater Parade!

A mythic goddess of astronomical proportions has recently come to my attention. She is known as Leslie Hall aka The Rescuer of Gem Sweater Magic. She is my new hero, my idol, my God! If you're looking for me I'll be the one in the corner lip syncing Mid-West rap songs in a gold lame` jumpsuit.


SPOILER ALERT....I might just have to create a Gem-inspired treasury...

Front Page Fabulousness!

I made it to the front page today! And man am I excited. I woke up on the wrong side of the bed, in a total funk. But man, there is nothing to take you out of a funk better than seeing your smiling face on the front page of Etsy! If you get there fast enough you might still be able to check it out!

www.etsy.com

FIBERTASTIC!

So I went to the fiber festival yesterday in downtown Sacramento and yes, it was fibertastic! Saw some beautiful work out there and connected up with some of the very lovely ladies of the Sacramento Craft Mafia (I'm hoping one day they'll let me in!). I thought I would share with you some of the fabulous stuff I saw!

Here's a photo from RoxyCraft a fantastic crochet artist who mostly sells patterns but when put up to it for the Fiber Fest came up with some fantastic plushies to sell....you simply must check out her website. Her patterns definitely don't suck. Ah, makes me want to learn to crochet!




Here's one of my favorite items from the Handmade Parade . Also notable where some adorable handmade teddy bears sewn from vintage upholstery fabric like the one seen in the corner of the photo. To see more of them click here.








And then there were alpacas!!! Yes indeed, these beautiful animals graced us with their presence and even let us pet their soft, luxurious fur (though not on the head as I found out when Milo, the black alpaca in the foreground nipped at me!). Yes, they were quite the spectacle in downtown Sacramento, stopping traffic and causing pedestrians to stop and stare. But I think they liked the attention.


All-in-all it was a great trip and I managed to score some fantastic yarn which I'll talk about more I'm sure as I start to knit it up. It was so great connecting with local artists as I generally feel so isolated out here in the sticks. Now I know I'm not! YAY Fibertastic!