Arg!

Looks like I missed a Front Page treasury featuring my little nautical coffee sleeve. Thank you, Etsy!

And how awesome is this craft cult widget? Love it.

Surprise

Photo from "Etsy Front Pager's" Flickr.

Well, this was a pleasant surprise this week! So happy to see the little cherry plaid coffee sleeve on the front page of Etsy. Thank you, SewnSunday, for including me in your treasury!

I spy a quilt

This cute little "I Spy" quilt was lovingly hand quilted by my mom, Darcia. Every square features a different novelty fabric with animals, objects, and other items so that little ones can pick them out in a game of "I Spy".

My mom usually makes these and other quilts for her charity organization, Amaranth, that primarily raises money for diabetes research. I will doing my part to help by posting this cute quilt in my etsy shop. All proceeds will go right back to Amaranth and Diabetes research, so please stop by and check it out.

There are lots of fun things to spy! We have care bears, ducks, clouds, babies, grapes, Eyeore, stars, worms, cowboy boots and hats, cherries, little girls, monkeys, ballerinas, smiley faces, fish, gingerbread men, teddy bears, cows, Curious George, alligators, lambs, cupcakes, pie, frogs, Sylvester the cat, light houses, turtles, bears playing golf, bunnies, puppies, kittens, chickens, crabs, the moon, Clifford the Big Red Dog, cars and traffic lights, apples, penguins, and bats.

Click on the photo below or here for a detailed close-up of the quilt blocks.

And thank you! 

An Etsy Christmas

My family had an unexpected handmade Etsy christmas this year. I mean, I sell on etsy, so obviously I bought a bunch of stuff from there and from craft fairs, but I didn't expect that my family would actually buy from etsy as well. Change can be hard.

The Amazon universal Wish List button made a big difference. This button allows you to add items from any other store or website to your Amazon wish list. It's great because we always make our Christmas lists on Amazon, but I always end up wanting other items as well.

Here's a run down of our handmade holiday.

I started off buying some christmas cards at the Handmade Cavalcade craft fair from MShoelace: "Holiday Eggnog" (which prompted us to try eggnog for the first time... and I loved it!)

At my own Brooklyn Lyceum Craft Fair I bought two adorable prints from Kristiana Parn: "Going Together" & "Feeding Birds".

I received these lovely items on christmas day...

Sunshiney slipper socks from KaitiJo even though I forgot to add my shoe size. Sorry!

Japanese tree fabric from Karaku. So cute!

I bought these presents for others...

Unfortunately, I didn't get pictures of a couple of items: A reversible travel dog bowl from Meegun and a bracelet & necklace from Metalicious, but they were great and well received.

Camera Mug with handle from Urban Soule

Two screen printed T-shirts from Michael Phipps: "SNIP" & "Instruments of War"

What a great christmas! I hope this will prompt an even greater handmade turnout next year.

Thank you!

It has been a busy couple of months leading up to the Brooklyn Lyceum Craft Market last week and Christmas in general. Thanks to everyone who came out to the craft fair and everyone who has supported my little shop! It's amazing to think that people actually want to buy and use something that you have created. It makes me so happy.

It was my first time selling at a craft fair and it was awesome. There were lots of people attending, even when it was snowing one day and raining the next.

As an added bonus for my taste buds, the Brooklyn Lyceum sold delicious coffee, warm chocolate chip cookies, and some very tasty beer. It was a great weekend and I would definitely do it again.

There was also some amazing surprises and support from Etsy as well. On Cyber Monday I was featured in the Etsy Storque for free shipping. This lead to lots of views and a bunch of unexpected sales as I was trying to stock up for the craft fair.

And then suddenly this week, I found my russian doll coffee sleeve in the Etsy "Environmentally Friendly" Gift Guide. I was so surprised and elated. I couldn't believe it! Etsy rotates the gift guides on the front page and I happened to get this shot of it (my coffee sleeve is in the upper left hand corner).

I am so grateful to Etsy and to everyone who I met at the craft fair! It's been an exciting month.

Thank you so much!!