Bonjour!

This is Pierre. He started out as kind of a joke. Katie told me that I should make french toast and I asked her how I could make french toast look different from regular toast. This is what we came up with: When he was done, I decided to photograph him and put him in my Etsy shop. Since photography isn't my special skill, I decided that it would be fun to find pictures of French landmarks on-line and take pictures of him standing in front of them.

I had no idea at the time that he would become one of my biggest sellers in my Etsy shop. I have sold dozens of him and shipped him all over the country and to a couple of countries in Europe. Last week a cute lady ordered him from my Etsy shop and asked if I could have him arrive quickly because she was leaving on a vacation to France and wanted to take pictures of him in front of real French landmarks. I squealed with delight when I read this and asked her if she would mind sending a couple of her photos my way. She said she would be happy to. I really hope she does. I can't wait to see them!

In other news, I updated my sidebar with my 2011 show line-up. I will be really busy, but I am excited to try some new shows and see what happens!

My New Models

I haven't done much posting on my blog lately because I was working on a big project- making new models for my stuff. After 9 long months of some serious crafting, they were finally ready to make their debut. Meet Chloe Eva and Dominique Samantha. Here they are modeling the latest in baby fashion- hats with bear ears. All of the babies will be wearing them this season. Don't let your little one be the only one at the playgroup wearing one of those boring hats without ears.

Unless they are wearing this. Beanie hats are a classic- they never go out of style. The thing that makes mine unique is the cute scalloped edge around the bottom. You will see a lot of imitators out there; crappy hats that are mass produced in a factory in China by an 8-year-old. I see them at every show where I have a booth. Trust me, my handmade hats are far superior and you won't have to feel guilty about human rights violations every time your child wears their hat.

Stepping down off my soapbox. See how cute the tops of their little heads are? I spend hours a day just staring at my new little models, thinking about what a good job I did in making them cute.

Speaking of cute, I still plan to use my old model whenever possible. She gets paid in flower clippies for that fabulous head of hair.

Awww.... they're so cute when they are sleeping. Check out that huge ladybug rattle in front of them. It's really quite a small rattle, but the babies only weighed about five pounds each when this picture was taken so it looks big in comparison.

As you can see, Chloe and Dominique have been hard at work since the moment they were born. They even went with me to several farmer's markets and craft shows for some live modeling gigs. The only problem was, people we to busy admiring the babies to even look at the stuff that I was selling so I had to fire them. Now they stay at home with daddy whenever possible.

I am all geared up for the Christmas season. I have updated the list of shows were I will have a booth and will be adding several new listings to my Etsy shop. Stop by and take a look!!!

Scarfs

These are my latest babies.

I used to HATE making scarfs. I would hate to crochet 5, then flip, then crochet 5, then flip. It was so boring and repetitive. But, as I have been sitting at outdoor farmer's markets and freezing my cute little buns off since the weather has cooled down, I have been inspired to make something to keep myself warm. It started with this fabulous (and horrifically expensive) alpaca yarn that I bought at a specialty yarn store in Carmel, California. I only bought one skein (as I said, it was horrifically expensive) and it was too chunky to make a comfy hat out of, so I decided to branch out and make a scarf. I started it and then unraveled it about 10 times until I finally figured out a pattern that I liked. Then I added some fabulous buttons for decoration and VOILA! This is what I had:
I actually had fun making it once I figured out that I need to crochet lengthwise instead of across, and it really played into my love of chunky, colorful yarns and unique buttons. So, being who I am, I couldn't just stop at one. I immediately ran to the craft store and bought tons of fun yarns and buttons to make more.

They are the perfect extra layer for days that are just a little cool and add a little extra flair to jeans and a tee shirt.

I will be selling them at my next few shows. (I am keeping my fabulous alpaca one, of course!) If they do well there, I think I will list them in my Etsy shop, too. YAY, scarfs!