valentine's day heart banner

Hi, all!  It's a rainy, icy morning here in my neck of the woods.  Always a fun thing when you're driving a rental car since your car is still in the shop 2.5 weeks later.  But I'm not bitter.

I've been taking somewhat of a break from knitting and crocheting.  I know, sad days.  I've been enjoying having a few weeks with a little more painting, video game playing, cross stitching, and a lot more reading.  It's been nice.  Obviously, I will be getting back to my shop soon - I could never give it up forever.  I just needed a break to experiment with other things I enjoy for a bit.

That said, I've been finishing up a couple custom orders and then started a crochet Valentine's Day banner:

As I shoved our Christmas decorations away two weeks ago and started dragging out winter stuff, I realized we don't have too many Valentine's Day things.  The house looks so empty and void of color in the winter, so I decided to correct that.

I'm working off of this simple heart pattern that whips up pretty fast and uses a bunch of stash yarns in different colors.  I'm almost done creating yellow hearts and plan on making some mint green ones next.  When they're done, I'm just going to crochet a long chain and hang the hearts from it with little clothes pins.  I think it'll be super cute and make our living room more cozy.  After that, I'll have to figure out something for the rest of this dreary season.

In other news, I keep saying I'll be responding to comments soon, and I actually mean it this time.  I'm not sure what happened, but I got a lot of email over the past couple weeks and need to catch up on everyone's comments and questions.  Sit tight and know that I'm working on helping you all out :D  And thanks for sticking with me despite not posting much lately.

new year crafting goals

Happy New Year!  And so begins another year of me posting to the blogosphere - which for my regular readers, you know I haven't really been posting too much in the past month or so.

But the good news is that I'm feeling better and plan to get back into this writing thing.  Plus, I no longer have school to worry about.  We all know what that means: more time for crafting!

With all the crafting I plan to do, I thought I'd compile a list of what I'll learn this year.  These are by no means resolutions; I've stopped believing in those.  Instead, I think it's more productive to set goals for yourself or try something new.  And that's what I'll be doing this year, starting with:

1. Learning to sew.  I've wanted to use my sewing machine year after year and just haven't been able to.  But now that I have a plan to rearrange my craft room and actually set up the machine, I may actually find the time and ambition.  It's time to make use of a Craftsy class and a book that Hubby bought me for Christmas last year.  And some YouTube tutorials, of course.
2. Using my pattern books.  My library keeps expanding.  It's obscene.  Yet I rarely dip into the patterns I already have, choosing to find new ones on Ravelry.  Meanwhile, years of impulse buying and pattern magazines have built up on two shelves of my bookcase.  So this year, I plan to make at least one pattern a month from one of my books.  If nothing else, it'll re-familiarize myself with why I bought the books in the first place.  And, I'll have new stuff to post PLUS be able to write a book review.  How's that for killing two birds with one stone?
3. Conquering entrelac. I have a Craftsy class to review and I'm so excited to start.  I love the look of entrelac and have wanted to create any project using this technique for such a long time.  Now that I have 20 more hours in my weeks, I'm going dive in head first.
4. Finishing the unfinished.  I have a lot of UFOs.  There, I said it.  After cleaning my craft room last month, I realized just how lazy I've become; I placed them each in a bag and sat them beside my crafting chair.  Let's just say there's not much room to move anymore.  I'm going to sit down, go through the projects, frog whatever I don't want, and finish what's left.  They need to go away.

And if none of these things keep me busy, then perhaps this year's big Christmas present will:

Yup, that's a dog, my Hubby's present to me.  We named him Fritzy, he's a schnoodle, and he's awesome.  He's adopted from a local shelter and is one of the friendliest puppies you'll ever meet.  I'm so glad for this new addition to our family and can't wait to introduce him to his mommy's craft obsession :)

What are your goals in the new year?  What do you plan on learning?

in progress - knitted santa christmas card holder

Hello, friends!  Welcome to another stressful day in the life of Jenn.

Yes, I know I'm complaining.  But my stupid migraine aura is still there - three weeks after it started - and it's really starting to get on my nerves. That said, I'm trying to ignore it and hope it goes away since nothing seems to help.  The solution is to sit back and relax, which is impossible to do right now.  Go figure.  This couldn't happen next summer or something?

While I wait for heck to apparently freeze over, I've been working on this knitted Santa card holder (click here to purchase the pattern):

And I love it!  I'm further along now than I was in the photo - the whole base is done, hat and all, so now I just need to add the beard and sew on the eyes and pom pom.

Overall, the pattern is very easy - it's essentially a long scarf made in sections and knitted together to create the card pockets.  The best part is that although it's easy, it still has enough difficulty to hold the attention of more experienced knitters.  For example, the loop stitch is fun to make and I had a ball making the nose.  I don't know why - it was just so wonky and funny to me.

I'm using Hobby Lobby "I Love This Yarn" doubled up to create the bulkier yarn needed for gauge.  It's thick enough to stand the abuse of putting cards in and taking them out at the end of each season, but softer than Red Heart Super Saver, which makes it nice for me to work with.  And using thick needles means it's a pretty quick knit (except it's been taking me forever due to all my health detours).

I can't wait to see what this looks like when all is said and done.  Shouldn't be much longer now.  Hubby and I had a bunch of "Dexter" episodes to catch up on, so I wove in a bunch of ends during our marathon this past weekend.  And when I wasn't working on this, I was trying to figure out a complicated beast of a knitted lace pattern that makes me frustrated.  It's awesome :)

That's pretty much it!  I've made a dent in my Christmas purchasing for the year, though I still have a bunch left to get or make.  I keep telling myself as I'll reward myself with a crafting weekend once my eye problem disappears - I've been waiting for that to happen since Thanksgiving.  On top of it all, the woman whose wheel tore my car apart is still evading the insurance company, which is delaying the entire process.  Call me disgruntled.  You know, the first Christmas in two years where I don't have school anymore PLUS a week off from work, I just wanted to enjoy the holiday season.  I know I'm ranting now, but jeez.  I'm beside myself.

More updates to come, so keep checking back :D

the one in which i overshare

So, where have I been for the past couple weeks?

Well, it kind of starts with this.  Behold my new car (the one on the right):

It's a 2012 Mini Cooper Countryman in cosmic blue with white mirror caps, roof, and racing stripes.  Can you tell I'm kind of in love with it?

It was a random decision.  After taking my 2007 Jeep Compass to get inspected and walking out with yet another $800 of repairs with another $600 on the way after winter PLUS a dying transmission after just 44,000 miles, I decided I'd had enough.  So I started looking at new cars and had settled on a Hyundai Tucson right before Hurricane Sandy hit.  After dealing with that aftermath (and hoping a tree would just take out the Jeep so I'd get some kind of insurance), I decided to take a look at one more car - the Mini.

Behold my car now:

Yes, that is tire treads on the hood of my car, a broken fog light and bumper, and a whole slew of other annoying problems.  After returning home from a friend's housewarming party over Thanksgiving weekend, a wheel shot off a car on the other side of the PA turnpike, torpedoed off the median, bounced, then took out the front of the car I had owned for just nine days at that point.

At the time, we didn't know where the wheel came from, so we just pulled over, reported it to the insurance company, and then notified the police that hey - there's a terrorist tire floating around on the turnpike.  By the time we returned home, we had learned there was another driver involved and blah blah blah - I started to feel better about the whole thing.  You know, aside from the fact it could have crashed through our windshield and killed us.

My car is finally scheduled to go into the shop after a bunch of problems with the other driver's insurance, but thankfully it will get repaired on New Year's Eve.  Thank God it's drivable, but I hate driving around with a brand new dented car having people judge me as if I were the negligent party.

Next on my list?  A three week migraine.  A couple weeks ago, I developed a flash in my eye.  After getting it checked out by two eye specialists, we ruled out anything serious with my eyes and it's not a brain issue.  After then seeing my GP, we decided I'm in the middle of a prolonged migraine cycle brought on by stress.  SHOCK! HORROR! I could go on and on about all of my stressful issues, but I won't - however, the car thing and the way it's been handled is one of them.  So now I'm on all sorts of fun drugs to get this flashing to go away.  It's too early to tell if it's working, but boy am I hyper.

Add to that extended work hours and projects, trying to get the house in shape for the holidays, finishing up my MBA (it's done - DONE!), my cat getting pink eye, and everything else you don't care to know, it doesn't surprise me that my body has given up.  I hope to have all the pieces put back together by Christmas so I can actually enjoy it for once, but if this is my life now, I can only imagine what will happen by then.

So as far as crafting goes, I've been struggling to do pretty much anything.  I'm finishing up my last order before the holidays and enjoying it because it's a Santa card holder.  It's been fun!  I even started one of my Christmas gifts last night.  But you can imagine that with an annoying flash blurring my vision in one eye, I haven't really had the motivation to do anything but nap.

There you have it.  Suffice it to say, I've been ripping my hair out.  I'm hoping to get back in the groove next week.  Hope all you fabulous readers are doing well, and thanks for listening to me vent :)

post craft show: results and lessons learned

Hello, fearless readers!  Before diving head first into my craft show recap, allow me to regale you with an obligatory "get out and vote" message.  Whoever your candidate is, make sure to get to the polls and vote for what you feel strongly about.  Stay educated and make a decision that feels right for you - and don't feel like you need to answer to anyone.

*steps off soapbox*

Anyway, onto the fun stuff: my craft show!


Overall, we did pretty well considering I tried a different strategy.  Basically, I've always been known to under-price myself.  When you're treating it like a hobby, that seems like an okay thing to do.  But recently, I've decided that this is going to be my career someday, and I've started fleshing out a 5-year plan (if nothing else comes from having an MBA, we have that).

When you start running a business, you realize that underpricing yourself hurts the industry - go ahead and ask me my opinion on Wal-Mart.  You're not helping your competitors, so you're not helping yourself.  You're just devaluing what it is you live to do - and that doesn't work for a good crafting economy.

That's why this year, I priced everything what they were worth.  And luckily for me, I still had sales.  Not as many as in previous years, but you know what - I can live with that.  My customers were super excited about their hats and know that they're getting a good quality item.  Oh, and let's not forget - I had a little extra cash to spend on the other vendors who had some fantastic items on display, too :)

But for next time, I really need to remember my audience.  People who buy from my etsy shop are a little different than people who go to these smaller, in-person browsing events.  For example, most of my customers online are adults buying hats for themselves, whereas people attending the craft shows are buying items for pre-teens or teenagers.  This matters due to sizing - if I make a hat or headband fit for a full-grown adult, it's not going to fit a pre-teen.  So that's something to keep in the back of my mind.

Things are back to normal now that Sandy is over and I've re-opened my shop - now it's just time to play catch-up with some custom orders placed last week, as well as another custom order from the craft show.  Lots of exciting things seem to be happening at the same time, and I can't wait for two weeks from now when I can officially concentrate more on the shop!