Etsy Favorites

As I mentioned last week, my Etsy shop is now up and running and hubs smartly reminded me that I should put a permanent link to it here (look right. Well, "right" right now. Later, when I've written more posts and this one moves down the line, "right" will actually be "on the right side of the page just under the banner." So I guess you should just look under the banner). I thought I would highlight some of my favorite items that I really want someone to buy and love. But if no one does so, I'll just love them myself.


TIIIINY sweater. Made from rough sock wool, this is the kind of thing wardrobe dresses actors in whenever they make one of those charming big-city-folks-go-to-the-midwest-waistland-and-hilarity-ensues movies. SO WHAT IF WE SAY "oh, yah" SOMETIMES? You know what the worst irony is? That someone from MN simply can't say "Minnesota" without sounding irrefutably Minnesotan.


It's a strange thing; I almost never wear bracelets, but I really like making them. I think this one would look good on anyone.


I got this idea from someone at a recent craft show. So, yeah, I stole it. But mine look very different and mostly I just wanted to see if I could successfully felt a sweater and cut it up for pins. Turns out I can.


This is the most symmetrical dreamcatcher I've made and I really like the colors. Plus, I like that most of the beads on it are some sort of Brasilian seed. So maybe my dreamcatchers stray from tradition, but the modernist part of me likes meshing cultures because it's kind of symbolic and the postmodernist part of me just doesn't care.


I tell myself that every artist has to draw 100 really bad things for every one that turns out great and that we just don't know it because you only ever see the good stuff. My best stuff is by no means good in any technical way, but I like to think they are whimsical or cute or quirky or at least they don't make your eyes bleed.

MORE NEW ITEMS COMING SOON!

All-Bernard Christmas Disco Extravaganza!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

I don't know what happened to Penny's mouth.

Cozy and Soft and Secret

Can't say what it is, or who it's for, but here's a sneak peak before the finally assembly....


Mmmmmmm, snuggly.

One of these days, Alice.....

I will win a giveaway contest. Someday. This one is from Her Sunday Dress. Fun stuff!

KABLOW! The etsy shop is ready!

There are 54 items for sale in my etsy shop! Beaded jewelry, minipics, felted flower pins, knitted ornaments........and I'm willing to bargain on some stuff - especially shipping if I know you or we can meet for a hand-off.

Here it is:
Egret Effects on Etsy!

Merry holiday shopping to all!

TWO FOR ONE: fails post

Waaa waaahhhhhh.


I know this doesn't really LOOK like a fail (except for the unreasonably short tassels, but I'll probably fix those so LEAVE ME ALONE!), but, as you may or may not recall, it's the item I've been planning to donate to the Red Scarf Project - the deadline for which was December 15th. Well, it's December 17th and the box is sitting in the car all ready to ship. It's not in Sterling, VA. where it should be so it can be dispersed yet somewhere else in the country to a college kid who has exited the foster system. So, um, I guess this will donated next year.

Also, you may or may not recall, I've been working on some boots for Penny because she is small and fragile and at the same time very energetic. After many hours of knitting, cutting, sewing, and assembling here's what I got:


Times four, of course. And actually, this isn't the finished product - the finished ones are lined with burgundy felt, have a velcro closure, and have a leather pad on the bottom. So yesterday we put them to the test! Me in my coat, cowl, hat, mittens, and boots and Penny in her sweater (which, by the way, matches my hat, thank you very much) and her brand new snow shoes! Sure, she was weirded out at first, but the excitement of a walk totally overrode the misgivings as soon as we stepped outside.

But they aren't long enough! They kept falling off, so I was forced to stuff them in my pocket and move along. Sure enough, three short blocks later Penny pretty much shut down and refused to walk, so then I was the loser carrying a dog.

ETSY shop to open soon!

Wow, been a while (pronounce the "h"!).

I'M OPENING AN ETSY SHOP!



My sister and I did the Dodge Nature Preschool Bazaar for the second year early this month. It was fun (which is as far away from last year's experience as you can get, what with the nervous breakdown and all) - but we didn't sell very much. I think most of the sellers were hoping to make more than they did - except for maybe Samantha, the 11-year-old girl at the table next to me. She was an amazing saleswoman and this was her first craft show and she was so so excited. Plus, she had made all kinds of cute things that pandered to the preschool market. Bookmarks and gift tags - not so much. Who's got the communications degree??

Crap.

Anyways, some people encouraged me to start an etsy shop so I'm doing it. You can look at it, but there aren't any items posted yet. STAY TUNED.

Red Scarf WIP

This is a project I'm working on so a college student who has aged out of the foster care system will get a care package next Valentine's Day. If you want to do it, your scarf has to be in by December 15th, so get crackin!

Sorry, I don't know what's wrong with the photo, but you can click here.

When I vacation, I go to St. Louis

Sigh. No beach or cabana boys or 85 degree days. But drinks! Oh my, there were drinks. Hubs and I drove to St. Louis, MO for a wedding on the 14th and decided to make a long weekend of it with our pals, John and John. They were both in the wedding along with yet another John. We are so Catholic.


The four of us spent nine hours in the car together - both ways. Wow. Since we got there two full days before the wedding, we spent some time wandering the same streets that Nelly might have traveled in his youth, touring the Cardinals' Busch Stadium, bowling, finding out what St. Louis-style pizza is, tasting beer at the Budweiser brewery, and of course...


going to the top of the Gateway to the West arch. Amazingly, there is a whole museum underground, where I'm pretty sure you could survive nuclear holocaust. Riding to the top was probably my favorite part of our non-wedding activities. Five people (me, hubs, John, John, and the groom) climb into a tiny pod which jiggles its way up the inside of the arch with nothing more outside the miniscule door windows than a dim view of the bunker-like walls and winding stairs. Imagine Dr. Evil and Mr. Bigglesworth escaping earth in their pod within the Big Boy statue and you know what I'm taking about.


Two things St. Louis (link to map of interest) has in common with Minneapolis: it sometimes smells when you're near the river and they have an ADM mill. Things that are different: they have a park bigger than Central Park, they have Hobby Lobby, they have less traffic, and they have more historical buildings. But we have more lakes, parks, trees, paths, and general awesomeness. Just saying.


There is a handy system of highways between St. Paul and St. Louis, aptly named "The Avenue of the Saints." But because it was the original name of St. Paul, I'm going to start referring to it as Pig's Eye. So St. Louis and Pig's Eye have one major thing in common: THE STREETS MAKE NO SENSE. In Pig's Eye, we like to joke, it's because the town was put together by drunk Irishmen. I have no explanation for St. Louis, but at least they do have some cool street names.


As you can imagine, I did a lot of knitting during our 18 hours of driving, but I can't share because they are gifts. I can share this lovely photo. It's the very last picture from our vacation and it was taken near Hannibal, Iowa, in the parking lot of the Country Kitchen we stopped at for lunch.

Wristy-cuff; half-fail

I had a wee bit of this Patons Kroy Socks Stripes yarn in mulberry (which I don't think they carry anymore) left after making some tiny sweater/stocking ornaments and Penny's doggie boots (more on those later). This was supposed to be a little scarf for Penny to match the boots, but I ran out of yarn so it morphed into a wristy-cuff with a double button.