Bit of Whimsy Prims

I want to share another one of my favorite Etsy Shops.
Bit of Whimsy Prims. Sarah designs her dolls and
offers her patterns for sale. All of them are sweet!
She also has dolls for sale, if you aren't a sewer,
or haven't got the time. The Gnomes are just a few of the
dolls she has to offer. Love those, but my real favorites
are the monkeys, and the lambs, and the goats...oh heck,
I love them all. And I love her choices of color and fabrics.

Girl Gnome below:


Boy Gnome below:

Sarah even has a video on youtube you can watch.
www.youtube.com/BitofWhimsy
Her patterns are copyrighted and she asks that you
respect that when you buy a pattern.
So, I'm off to sew...cause I have a pattern or two for
Christmas to do.

A Christmas Annie

I've put up my beads for a while and dragged out my sewing
machine. I'm thinking of Christmas and using up my stash
of materials. I got this really cute pattern from an Etsy shop
called bowlsnannies . De is the designer and she makes the
sweetest dolls and offers the patterns for sale.
So I got the one below:

Cyndy Ann...
Isn't she just the sweetest thing? How can you not want one?
Another favorite of mine is this little one, My Annie:

I love her pink hair! It's so sweet. like cotton candy.
So, I have most of the stuff I need, except in all my HUGE stash
of yarn, can you believe that I have NOTHING that could
serve for hair? So I thought I would go to town and check out
the new yarn shop. Needle in a Haystack, keep it local like
I should. It's really a nice shop and the people are so helpful.
I found two patterns that I had to have. Felted slippers like the
flip flops you wear around the swimming pool.
(Remember... warm sunny days:0)
And a pattern for a sweet pair of baby booties.
And yes, I found the two perfect yarns for hair on the Annies.

These are the best colors. But I had a bit of sticker shock when I
paid for the two. Oh well, it's for the Annies....

Learning Curve

I am feeling kind of proud of myself . I have been adding
things to my blog page, and doing it without having to ask
anyone for help. I joined Twitter yesterday. Added my
a few of my favorite things from Etsy. I say this with pride
because I usually have to call my sister Bev or Heather for
some kind of help. I am not very savvy when it comes to my
computer. Now all I need to do is get my Etsy store going.
I know I'm procrastinating, THAT is the thing I do very well.
Speaking of new and Etsy, Humblebeads has a new series of
beads she's posted. They are just beautiful! The Lily and Lanterns
and Garden Lanterns. Go look at them, buy them all up quickly.
That way I won't feel like I'm missing anything. I told myself I wasn't
buying anything from the Internet for a whole week.
That means till next Monday...what was I thinking?I'll just go
make something nice and purty and stay off the puter!

Harvest Fun and Tailgate Parties

I've been playing with Humblebeads lately. These are a couple of

her new designs for beads. Love the Harvest set, it really goes well

with copper findings. The purple ones above are from her new

Branches series. Love the color purple! What I love the best about

Heather's beads are that they are so lightweight you hardly know you

have them on. Love, love, love...are you feeling it Heather?...lol?

Anyway that's why I always put rubber backs on mine when

I wear them. Speaking of Humblebeads, she's come up with some of

cutest new critters...a hedgehog, a squirrel and a purple martin bird.

I'm counting down the days before our Tailgate party(2). I have some

serious straightening and cleaning to do. The weather is looking

chilly so I think we'll be having it in the garage and the house. We

decided to not go to the haunted corn maze. $17 bucks a person

is kind of a lot of money to get the shit scared out of you.

Besides I have night blindness and seeing much in the dark is almost

impossible. I think I could really hurt myself or the people around me.

And being that I am usually the one that gets hurt, I don't feel bad

about us not going. So we are pulling out the decks of cards and

quarters...winning money, now that's something I'm kind of good at!

Critique these pictures please!

I spent all afternoon yesterday taking pictures for my

Etsy shop. For 5 items I took 60 pictures and only got a

few "fairly good" ones. These are about the best. What do

you think? I can take any criticism you want to throw at me.

Personally, I don't like the back ground, but I think the color

is good. Go ahead, let me have it ;^) Please?

Show and Tell

They're here! The rest of my Humblebead's order came today. I just
love this new Kiss design! But I'm kinda mad, cause now I see she
has the disk beads for these! Sheesh....is there a prize for the one
with the most Humblebead beads? Cause I'm probably the winner
if there is. Really Heather, I'm just pulling your leg about the being
mad part. Speaking of Humblebeads, this is the night for
Bead Art Originals trunk show TONIGHT starting at 7pm (EST)!
Read all about it here: http://beadartoriginals.blogspot.com.
Giving away door prizes during the open house. Stop by and see
what's going on.

I also got this beautiful set of lampwork beads from Robert and
Moon Stumpp from MixedMediaJewelry. It's such a large set of
beads for a very reasonable price. There are sets up for sale now
that they call Pendleton Beads, and they are all the colors of the
beautiful Pendleton blankets (my favorite catalog to look at).
Another series that I like too is named Curmudgeons. Its all about
color and these beads have it. I'm drawn to color like a moth to
a flame! Nice stuff. Now I'm off to get ready for the trunk show...

YART SALE!!

It's no big secret that I love Etsy. I spend too much time

just going through the gazillions of shops and things for

sale. Imagine my surprise when I found out they were having

their take on America's favorite summer pastime....the good

old yard sale.

YART SALE at ETSY!!!

SALE!!! Wednesday, June 11- Friday, June 20 ~

FIRST ANNUAL KICKOFF TO SUMMER YART SALE.

An Artistic Slant to a traditional Yard Sale.

10 day countdown to the first Day of Summer.

So far I see over 9000 items on sale.

So if you have any money left over from Milwaukee or

those wonderful stimulus checks (and want to do something

other than pay off bills) head on over and check it out

GUINEA PIG

Other things that I am up to. I bought this

sweetest pattern from Sarah at a Bit of WhimsyPrims.

I'm gonna make a couple of my own and see where it

takes me. I have always wanted to make my own

dolls and softies. So I'm putting my new machine and

all the quarters of materials I have into ON mode. I'll

show them when I get them done. I need a bigger work space.

I am running out of room. Even Andy the bug man said

to me today, "I see your craft room has run over into the den"

(I have a room he can't spray cause you can't get into it).

I asked him how much Geary paid him to say that! Smart A--!

Too tempting!

Counting down to the Bead and Button Show.

Beverly and I are leaving Thursday for WI., we

got our pennies in our pocket and the quarters

for the toll roads (which I think is a ridiculous

amount of money to have to pay).

But wouldn't you know it, Heather at Humblebeads

had to put her seashell collection of beads up on

her Etsy store. And the cutest birds, too. So I

treated myself to a before B and B buy. Speaking

of Heather she is coming to MI in July for a few weeks.

I am so excited. I do believe we will be doing the

Farmers Market at least once while she is here. I

don't know though...its gonna be tough sitting with

a famous bead artist and designer!!! But that's what

Aunts are for. (I will see ALL her designs that she

doesn't normally show us).

Hopefully I will get some good pictures while I'm there.

I'll post them when I get home. Along with a pile of

"treasures" that I found in Milwaukee.

I REFUSE!

I was going to take a picture and show how

cruel Mother Nature is being to us today, but

I decided the ole bitty can bite me! She is a

mean woman indeed!

So, instead I was reading my favorite blogs,

and I found that I am a winner of Tiddlywinks

Pink Kitty. How cool is that?

Scotty makes the sweetest critters, and she's

from Michigan. I have three of her creations,

I just love them. They totally look like her

children's drawings. Just plain sweet!

Thanks Scotty!

I Have This Thing For...

STORAGE BOXES!

The other night I was wandering through Etsy...

My all time favorite place to shop...Ebay who?

Anyway I found these cigar boxes. Now, next to buying

beads, or yarns, or other crafty related stuff. Storage

containers probably run next on my list. I know I'm not

alone, I've seen what other people have ;^)

Anyway, thebeadboxman has made the best

storage/display boxes I've seen in a while.

So I bought this one. Look at how he did the dividers...

Dan has a lot of great ones that he makes from cigar

boxes, not the cheap paper kind, but nice wooden ones.

He also does the inside of the boxes to store/display

lampwork beads.

So if you want something to store your treasure beads,

or collector stuff go check out the beadboxman.

What happened to most of February?

Wow, I can't believe I haven't put anything down for two
weeks. Must be because nothing changed, we've had snow,
snow and more snow. I've worked a little on getting my
Etsy shop going....2ndhandrose. Just got my avitar done,
(thank you sister Bevvie for all your help with that)
business cards were here, but printed wrong, so that's another
half a week coming. Then I just need to upload pictures and
I will be good to go! Some knitted scarves, hand knotted
double fleece blankets ( I have been hiding under one for days)
really warm and cosy.
In exactly two weeks I will be flying to Fort Lauderdale and
then cruising the ocean blue with the Bead Cruise 2008 girls.
I have been looking forward to that since I got off the boat
from the 2007 cruise!
I do have a project I am working on, it has a butterfly theme.
As soon as I get it finished I'll post that too. And something
called Tit Bits and Cotton Boobs, making prostetics for women
made from yarn.
Keep warm everyone! I feel Spring in the air!

TASTE OF TEXAS!

My box of goodies from the crafters in Texas came today!

Thanks to everyone and especially Milly, who put it n the

mail for me. So many great things, lots of shopping specials,

and samples...it was great! I see many hours roaming through

ETSY looking at every one's shops. There were soap samples

(Sassy Soaps n Such), a solid lotion sample

(Serenity Soapworks), a really creamy lip gloss that

tastes like banana - yummy-The Polly Wog Patch( Art Spot).

Paper products, pins, beads, I could go on and on...oh,

and a really nice pair of earrings (bijoujuju). I love crystals!

So, remember you Etsy shoppers and you who haven't

had the pleasure of shopping at Etsy...the first Monday

of the month is Texas Crafters First Monday Sale...

buy from a Texas crafter and your name gets put in a

drawing for a Taste of Texas goody box.

.

Sleepless in South Haven

Tomorrow is the Grand Reopening of my niece's
shop Humblebeads. I haven't seen these beads
before so I am hoping these are a few of the "new"
items she's listing. I know she had all kinds of ideas
in her head for beads when I saw her at Christmas.
So stop in and browse around. She has a drawing
for a $50.oo gift certificate, everyone who buys
something Saturday and Sunday will have their
name put in a drawing. If you join her newsletter,
she has a $25.00 gift certificate for a drawing. All
kinds of reasons to take a look. If you get tired of
looking at her new shop you can still see her stuff
at her ETSY Shop . I love the bird beads.

I myself am feeling lucky. I forgot to mention
that I am a winner of a drawing just this week.
I won a box from the Esty Texas Crafters
First Monday Sale....A Taste of Texas!
My name was drawn because I bought something
during the First Monday Sale. Love those Texans!!

My Pledge

Seeing how I probably won't get
too many things done myself.
I am gonna buy handmade this year.
Got a great craft show coming up
Christmas at Wings. There's the
Mistletoe Market in town. And then
there is always ETSY, with some
really great artists, NO Easy Beads,
Humblebeads, Earthenwood Studios,
and way too many more to list here.
You just have to check it out yourselves.

Van Gogh's Starry Night

Here's another design from Heather Powers that I made for myself this week. She calls it her Sundry bracelet and it is such an artsy piece. I got the beads from her on ESTY. It works up really fast and is a fun bracelet to wear. She also sells the kits if you want to make your own. I used matte seed beads, swarovski crystals, Bali spacers, pearls, amber and lapis chips and I had some special 6mm faceted lapis beads that I was saving for something special.

The little guys peeping out are from this ceramic leaf I bought one year at the art fair. Isn't it the cutest? I wish I could remember who the artist was so I can give her credit, but I can't.