Apples got the Blues

Apples got the Blues
Originally uploaded by misseskwittys.

Hello Readers. Hope all is well with you!! Are you starting to get into the holiday spirit? Time flies so fast once Halloween comes.

I just listed this new bagkeeper....all fruity and blue. Someone was talking to me about doing different color bags, so here is one! In person, this bag is stunning! Really! lol I love that fruit motif fabric that I scored (at a very expensive quilt shop I might add!)--I couldn't help it, the fabric just spoke to me. Anyways, it is really pretty and I think the bag turned out wonderful. If it is talking to you, it can be had at my Etsy shop.

We just found out that Etsy is almost ready to launch it's new, updated version! Yeah! Shopping will be easier, with a shopping cart, and I have perfect confidence that the brilliant minds behind Etsy will NOT disappoint. BUT that means that the site will be down next weekend. I just wanted to spread the word, in case someone goes to shop and finds the site down...don't panic! lol They said that they think they should have it up and running by Monday. I'm so excited!

Vintage Santa Beaded Ornament

Vintage Santa Beaded Ornament
Originally uploaded by misseskwittys.

Hello Readers. I'm doing a craft show...right now! LOL The show I am in this weekend is a drop-off your stuff show. A nice break from all the hauling and setting up and selling and tearing down and packing up and bringing home and unpacking! Whew, just typing it is exhausting! lol I don't mean to whine though really. I enjoy doing the shows. It is nice to get out in the public, and chat and laugh, and get the immediate feedback that the shows allow. Of course, not all feedback is good, but that can be used to make improvements that maybe you wouldn't think of yourself. I have shows booked now for the next 5 weekends. Wish me luck!

Here is one of my newest listings on Etsy. A very Victorian looking Santa, the image is taken off of a vintage postcard and transferred to fabric. I handstitched the image to a felt heart and then stitched it into a little heart shaped pillow, adding beads to each stitch. I really like the old fashion feeling that these colors impart...I did a little twist on the traditional colors. I used the regular bright red, but then used a sage green instead of the usual hunter green, and a cream color instead of the usual white. I sold all the ones from the first batch of these already, but have a new batch ready to go. LOL I went and rented a few new movies (I like to do all my hand stitching while "watching" movies!) and got the felt hearts all cut out and bought the beads I need. So Linds and I are going to sit and have a movie night and I'll see how many I can get done! Sound fun huh? Till next time then, take care everyone.

Ho-Ho-Homestyle Santa Ornament

Ho-Ho-Homestyle Santa Ornament
Originally uploaded by misseskwittys.

SEE! I told you Christmas is just around the corner, lol. Guess who is watching you, to see if you are naughty or nice! This little felt Santa is just so cute hanging on your tree, he is flat enough to enclose in a Christmas card (though you may have to remove the little bell on his hat first if it is going through the mail), and I like to use little ornament on top of gifts, they really add a cute WOW factor to your gift! This one is my own design and is completely hand stitched by little old me. I will be adding Christmas ornaments and gifts, probably every day, so keep checking in on the Etsy shop. I don't have time to put each one in my blog, so there is a lot there that you don't see here!! Thanks for stopping in...I better get back to work. Smiles!

Cranberry Woodland Angel

Cranberry Woodland Angel
Originally uploaded by misseskwittys.

Hello Readers. Well, I guess it is time. I've decided to start listing my Christmas items, gulp! I did a craft fair last weekend and my friend, who I share a booth with, sold a crapload of Christmas stuff....and I didn't even have mine with! Waahhhh. I guess that the organized and intelligent people start their Christmas shopping now so they can actually enjoy December and the season, lol. So! I'm going to start adding the Christmas ornaments and such little by little to my Etsy shop...pop in now and then and see what is new. Today I put up these little Woodland Angels. Isn't she cute?! My hubby is a tree guy (a professional squirrel I always say, lol) and he brought me home some nice pieces of birchbark that came from a tree he had to take down. I used some of it to make the wings on these little wooden angels. She has an acorn cap for a halo and is hand painted and sprayed with a coat of polyeurethane (prior to adding the wings and halo). She stands about 2-1/2" tall and has a string for hanging. I also made some that are sage green instead of this cranberry color. Stop in to the Etsy shop and have a peek!

...and the dish ran away with...another couple dishes!

...and the dish ran away with...another couple dishes!
Originally uploaded by misseskwittys.

Hello Readers. I was just over on the forums at Etsy and ran across an interesting topic there. They were discussing if and how a person's age might affect their crafts, both in the making of and the selling of. This brings up an interesting question for me, mainly because I am quite a bit older than the majority of sellers on Etsy (I'm old enough to be a Mom to most of them, but shhhhh! don't tell anyone! LOL). It seems the younger ones are worried that people won't have confidence in the quality of their work due to their youth, and the older ones worry that maybe they aren't really hip enough to appeal to the younger crowd. I have to admit that I DID worry about that when I first started looking into joining Etsy. I started looking around the site and found very few things similar to my own...I decided that was a GOOD thing, lol, and opened up my shop anyways. I didn't sell hardly anything the first few months and my insecurity really started to get to me. "Am I too old, are my items too boring, etc". Happily I learned about the need to advertise, the web is a big place and you have to make your presence known or you won't sell anything. Once I started that, things started to look up, it seems the people who like my style are able to find me, thankfully! Now that I have been on Etsy a while, I see that there are a lot more of us more "seasoned" people on there...you may have to look a little deeper, we are really not that obvious, but we are there! As for the younger crowd and the quality of their work, I have found that there are really a lot of very talented young people and they have amazing skill and talent, and a good business head on their shoulders.

Yeah, I love Etsy and the need to create is very strong in both the young and the old and everyone in between.

Strawberries and Green

Strawberries and Green
Originally uploaded by misseskwittys.

Hello Readers. I'm a little pooped out so this will be a short one. We had a craft fair this weekend AND the big roast beef dinner at the church, which our family always heads to the kitchen to help out with. This year we ended up with almost 700 people who attended the dinner! Sooooo, I'm gonna hit the hay early tonight. I wanted to share this new bagkeeper with you....I had someone suggest that I make one in blues and greens, so here it is. It can be found in my Etsy shop too if anyone is interested--swing in and have a look! I'm going to leave you with this wonderful little email that my Aunt Marcie sent--Enjoy!!

PECANS IN THE CEMETERY

On the outskirts of a small town, there was a big,
old pecan tree just inside the cemetery fence.

One day, two boys filled up a bucketful of nuts
and sat down by the tree, out of sight, and began
dividing the nuts.

"One for you, one for me. One for you, one for me,"
said one boy. Several dropped and rolled down
toward the fence.

Another boy came riding along the road on his
bicycle. As he passed, he thought he heard voices
from inside the cemetery. He slowed down to investigate.
Sure enough, he heard, "One for you, one for me.
One for you, one for me." He just knew what it was.
He jumped back on his bike and rode off.

Just around the bend he met an old man with a cane,
hobbling along. "Come here quick," said the boy,
"you won't believe what I heard! Satan and the Lord
are down at the cemetery dividing up the souls."

The man said, "Beat it kid, can't you see it's hard
for me to walk." When the boy insisted though, the
man hobbled slowly to the cemetery.

Standing by the fence they heard, "One for you, one
for me. One for you, one for me..."
The old man whispered, "Boy, you've been tellin' me
the truth. Let's see if we can see the Lord."

Shaking with fear, they peered through the fence,
yet were still unable to see anything. The old man
and the boy gripped the wrought iron bars of the fence
tighter and tighter as they tried to get a glimpse of the Lord.

At last they heard, "One for you, one for me. That's all.
Now let's go get those nuts by the fence and we'll be done."

They say the old man made it back to town a full 5 minutes
ahead of the kid on the bike.

Smile, God Loves You!!!

Mom's Diner Bagkeeper

Mom's Diner Bagkeeper
Originally uploaded by misseskwittys.

Hello Readers. Well, winter has hit us today! We had a thick snow coming down for a couple hours this afternoon and flurries for a good portion of the day. The ground is still too warm for it to stick, but it sure was coming down. AND it is cold...we had a wind chill of 9 degrees this morning and the temp was 29. Brrrrrr. A good day to stay inside and get some crafting done for sure.

I have my first craft show of the season this weekend. I am doing the usual "OMG I don't have enough stuff done" panic thing, LOL. Actually, I spent the morning washing and ironing the tablecloths and doilies that I use in my table display, and going through my boxes of completed crafts to decide what I will bring. Come to find out, I have plenty! As usual. Of course, I will be bringing some of the things I have listed in my Etsy shop, so if there is anything there that you have your eye on, you might want to go and get it as it may be gone. I am looking forward to it. I share a booth with a friend and we haven't seen each other since the last craft fair season...so it will be fun to catch up.

I just listed this new bagkeeper today...isn't it neat? I have had this idea about doing a "Mom's Diner" thing in a retro cafe looking motif for a long time, but I couldn't find a fabric or pattern for the center panel. It finally dawned on me to see if I could design my own using my graphics program...and here is the result. I purchased some of that special printable fabric and printed it out on that and sewed it to my project. I really love how it turned out! Swing by my Etsy shop and check it out...and make sure to see the other new things I have there. You know there are new things being added often, so don't be a stranger. Have a great day!

Stop hurtin' yourself

Stop hurtin' yourself
Originally uploaded by misseskwittys.

Hello Readers. Well, I finally got the design down on this! My newest design--the MicroMitt. A little potholder designed to use for taking things out of the microwave. I got sick and tired of my kids grabbing handfuls of napkins every time they needed to take stuff out of the microwave! This uses a batting specifically made for potholders, it has some kind of metal fabric between the batting layers, so your fingers won't get burned but the potholder isn't thick and bulky. AND I added little pockets on each end for your fingers and thumb. What do you think?

Black Cherries Card Wallet

Black Cherries Card Wallet
Originally uploaded by misseskwittys.

Hello Readers. I've been in a slump :-(. Does that happen to you? I keep going and trying to get started, but things aren't working right. I know! It will pass, but it gets so frustrating. Plus, I haven't sold anything for a couple days, and that is a bummer. There, I feel a little better just from whining about it! lol I did manage to get these little cherry wallets done, which are pretty cute-- I made 6 of them, and 3 of them turned out crooked!. See what I mean! lol OK, the cup is half FULL- 3 of them DIDN'T turn out crooked. I finally decided to just take the day off from crafting and go check out our new Michael's store. The old one closed and they relocated and opened a bigger, better store. I had my 40% off coupon and went shopping! Yah! I ended up buying a set of Christmas rubber stamps. I figured it was something that I should get a lot of use out of...and my daughter likes to stamp too. I am thinking that we will have a girl's night and make up our holiday gift tags, that should be fun. Well, thanks for letting me whine a bit, I do feel better. I think I will go and read some blogs, that usually tends to inspire me! I have some very talented blog friends!! Yeah! Bye.

Peacock belt or scarf

Peacock belt or scarf
Originally uploaded by misseskwittys.

Hello Readers. Well, I had an exciting day today. I came home from church today, grabbed myself a cup of coffee and headed to the comp to check my mail ...and, much to my surprise, I found a couple of messages congratulating me on getting one of my items on the Etsy homepage!! Yeah! So I logged on, and there is my item in all it's glory! LOL The person who picked the homepage items this time did a peacock theme...and one of the items was this belt that I knit out of a peacock blue and green ribbon yarn. My daughter was excited too because she is the one who modelled the belt for me. The exposure brought a bunch of lookers to my shop, and I did sell the belt and a couple of other items too, yeah!! AND it is going to a gal in England--my first overseas sale. Whew! Anyways, I just wanted to share my exciting news with you all. Good night!