Take time to visit Cheryl of The Stitchen Chicken – she did a feature about my Etsy shop! She is beginning a series on Etsy shop owners, and I am honored to be the first feature.
It can take as much effort getting traffic to an Etsy shop as making the products, so I greatly appreciate Cheryl’s PR. Word-of-mouth, adding new products, and blogging about my shop have been good for me so far. I’ve got a few new products for Spring, so stay tuned! Thank you Cheryl!
We spent the first half of Saturday cleaning the house and catching up on laundry. To make these chores fun in some small way, I decided to wear my newly designated cleaning shoes.
I know, it’s barely 30 degrees around here and our yard is still covered in piles of snow. But I am ready for Spring, so I am wearing flip-flops around the house!
I made carrot cake cupcakes from a recipe in the Women’s Health magazine. Yum-O! I would highly recommend this recipe!
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1-1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup lightly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
2 large eggs
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 pound grated carrots
1/2 cup golden raisins (only on my cupcakes – Dave doesn’t like raisins)
4 oz. light cream cheese
1 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup chopped walnuts (only on my cupcakes – Dave doesn’t like nuts in his food)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix flours, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt. Set aside.
Beat brown sugar and oil, adding one egg at a time. Stir in yogurt, carrots and raisins.
Mix into flour mixture.
Spoon batter into muffin cups 2/3 full. Baking 20 minutes. Cool on wire racks.
Whip cream cheese and sugar. I added a splash of milk too. Spread over cupcakes.
*****
Enough with the weekend domesticity and chores! I was happy to find some time and energy to work on a couple sewing projects, including new products for my shop, so I’ll be back in a couple days to share those with you. Hope you enjoyed the weekend too!
I haven’t bought anything from Etsy since Christmas, until recently. I ordered these felt treats from Sweet Things by lisajhoney a couple weeks ago.
We love donuts around here, so I thought it would be fun to have a glass plate of donuts in the center of our table.
I also love truffles, but they aren’t so good to have around the house after losing 15 pounds. These are the next best thing. Anyone want to join me for a cup of coffee (or tea) and donut or truffle?
My mission this weekend was to complete a custom order I received from one of my sister’s friends. Wahoo, another custom order for my shop!
One of my sister’s friends in China requested two zippered bags to carry her techie gadgets. She requested patchwork in cheerful fabrics similar to my zippered bags and laptop bags, so I selected these fun fabrics in various pinks and reds.
Since she wanted cheerful, I used this fabric for the lining. These charming birds and the whimsy connecting them remind me of spring and happy days.
She needed a zippered bag to carry her MP3 player and headphones.
She needed another zippered bag to carry her DVD player.
Using the measurements she gave me of her DVD player and MP3 player, I drew templates onto cardboard to gauge the size and fit. I am getting hooked on sketching patterns and templates to work my way through a custom order or new project idea.
I added handles to both bags with the option to disconnect them if she wants to carry them inside her tote bag. I think (hope) they will both work fine for her needs.
Mission completed, which makes me happy this Monday! I’m always honored when someone asks me to make a custom patchwork project for them. I am so in love the bright, girlie colors of these bags, so I hope my new customer likes them as much as I do!
I am excited to show you a couple new products I just added to my shop. I hope you don’t mind.
I made these stylish shopping totes, which are a little more girly and a little less patchwork-y that my other products. You may notice more of my non-quilt sewing projects are headed in that direction this year.
I made them using fabrics from Sandi Henderson’s Farmers Market collection. I always thought that line was so whimsical and charmy and cheerful!
They have flat bottoms, making them sturdy enough to carry heavier items, like books or a laptop or produce from the grocery store.
They measure 13 inches wide by 14 inches tall, and they are lined with heavy fusible interfacing to make them more sturdy.
They have an inside pocket big enough to hold coupons or recipe cards for shopping or a charger cord if you’re carrying your laptop.
I made another shopping tote to add to the mix, with fabrics from Tanya Whelan’s Ava Rose collection. What a wonderfully girly collection that was! This shopping tote isn’t lined with any interfacing, so it can be folded up and tucked into your purse for spontaneous shopping.
The outside is a rose fabric with polka dots on the bottom. But wait, turn it inside out, and you get a polka dot bag with a rosey bottom.
It measures the same size as the totes above – big enough to fit a magazine or some goodies you pick up at the craft supply store.
I only made one in each color, so get ’em while they’re hot! Tell all your friends, especially the non-sewing ones.
Stay tuned for a couple more new products coming…
To keep up with the Makes Me Happy Monday blogging theme started by Paula, I am happy that I had such a productive weekend.
I finished my Darla quilt and pillow.
I finished quilting my Mod Girls quilt, and just need to sew on the binding before I can share full pictures of it. I stippled all 58 inches by 78 inches with my little Husqvarna machine, and it was an exhausting couple of hours, so I’m happy it’s almost done!
My boss and several other people at work are out of the office this week for a conference. Know what that means? A quiet week where I can get all those work projects done that I’ve been procrastinating. You know me, I’m the queen of procrastination. Happy Monday!
I was honored to receive a custom order request back in December from my friend Paula. She wanted a zippered bag in a reddish colorway from my shop to give to her BFF. For you fabric enthusiasts, I used some Deer Valley fabrics by Joel Dewberry, some Good Folks fabrics by Anna Maria Horner, and a solid by Amy Butler.
Here’s the front side:
Here’s the back side, which is different from the front side:
For this one, I added a bigger inside pocket:
What a privilege to make a gift for someone’s BFF! Thanks, Paula. (I’m glad to hear she loved it!)
These bags are so handy to carry your sewing notions to the quilting meeting or to the couch, to carry your wallet and cell phone out for dinner or shopping, to use as a traveling makeup bag, or to carry your camera on a hiking trip. I made another one in case there’s another taker out there!
I don’t have a lot of gifts to buy because we give couples’ gifts on Dave’s side of the family, and we exchange names on my side of the family. We have a relatively new tradition with friends where we just go out for dinner instead of buying stuff for each other. But I did a little shopping on etsy anyway.
I bought these fabulous handmade pewter ornaments from Bee Hive Kitchenware. I loved each one of them so I just bought the whole set.
I also bought one of these felted balls from Flapjack and Pippin for no reason. I just loved it. It can be used as a pincushion, practical, yes. But it can also just sit in the corner of my drab desk at work and cheer things up a little bit.
I bookmarked a few other fun, whimsical handmade items on etsy that I might order before the holidays, just for the fun of it!
I love reading about the featured sellers on Etsy. (see the bottom of their home page) I get so excited for them, that they are “featured!”
Recently, Evelyn Fields was featured with her adorable reusable eco bags. There are a lot of reusable eco bags on Etsy, but I liked her style. Aren’t they adorable? They are made from unbleached cotton muslin and have velcro tape across the top to keep it closed.
I noticed that Evelyn just recently posted a pdf pattern on how to make these yourself. I think they would make great gifts for the upcoming holiday season. You could customize them to the likes of your recipients by changing up the applique or the fabric.
I saw another pattern to make these reusable eco bags on the Reprodepot blog, where they used the unbleached cotton muslin as the lining and a cute fabric for the outside.
I loved this cute applique, so I couldn’t resist buying a set, which included a napkin, a sandwich bag, and a snack bag. I am going to feel so stylish when I unpack my lunch at work!
