As I promised

Here are the goodies from my little black box!

You can view individual photos and my comments on them on my flickr pages.

I have now spent WAY more hours taking pics, uploading pics, commenting on pics than I should have.

Time to go off and play with my loot!

Finally!!!

S7300958
Originally uploaded by violetmoonfairy2002

I listed one of the new items I made to my Etsy shop! This is a neck warmer/cowl made from handspun Corriedale wool. Ohhh..it is so yummy I almost don't want to part with it. However, I have enough scarves, cowls etc. and I don't need one more.

Here is the listing in my shop with more photos:
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=16773479

I took advantage of being home during the day today and took pictures. I really need to buy decent lighting for my lightbox. Daylight is what works now, and I don't usual get to see much daylight when I am home. In addition to this I took pics of a hat, and two ruffley scarves. Done but not photographed are two sets of face scrubbies and a kool aid dyed mobius cowl. My first crochted items yay!!!

Tomorrow I will post photos of my Little Black box goodies! Stay tuned!

It's here!!!!

Yay! My Little Blace Box is here! Thankfully I was home when the mailman came so I didn't have to wait until after 5:00 to see if it came! I just ripped through it, now I'm going through and looking at and really appreciating everything. Photos and more later!

Productivity

Finally!!! For most of October I was in an unproductive mode so nothing was getting listed in my shop...now I'm spending so much time making things I'm not listing anything in my shop.

Oh...I got my first custom request! Someone saw Vlad on Vixen's blog and wanted a vampire candy corn dude too! Yay! Thanks to Mrs. B for running the Halloween giveaway and to Vixen for blogging about her adventures with Vlad.

I just love waiting for packages to come in the mail! My little black box should be delivered any second now. I think my head may explode from the built up ancipation! Also, I ordered some trial size creamy lemongrass facial soap with tea tree and rosemary oil from Yapps Cottage Decor. I am going to add them as freebies with the purchase a set of face scrubbies. Though, I think I am stealing one of the trial size bars for myself!

There I go with the rampant exclamation point usage again.

I'm home at the moment with a "sick" kid. I use the " " because while medically he is sick (ear infection in both ears and pink eye), he is not feeling sick at all. He is just as chipper and active as any other day. Thankfully, the pink eyes were evident last night. I'm so glad we found out today he was sick and not tomorrow. Since he hasn't had a fever(and hopefully won't get one :::knock on wood:::::), and I can get two doses of antibiotics and eye drops in him today, he is free to go to school tomorrow and do all the cool Halloween stuff! Oh man...missing Halloween would have been such a disappointment for him.

I brought work home with me so I could get something accomplished today...so off I go!

When when when?!?!?!

Will my little black box arrive? I was spoiled the first time I got one last month. I ordered it on a Friday, and I had it by Monday. Don't get me wrong..I'm not complaining it isn't here yet. I'm sure Kim is innundated with orders. Last month I was completely AMAZED I got it so soon after ordering. I'm like a kid at Christmas..I can't wait for it to get here!!!!

I've been trying to come up with ideas of samples to send in for the little black box. I want to have a good number of them done before I contact Kim about getting in one of the boxes. I really wanted a variety of samples to reflect the different things I do. My shop says "specializing in needle felted, knitted, and crocheted items". Thus, I wanted to send samples of each of those things. There would be one sample per LBB, you may get a crochet item, a needle felted item, or a knitted item.

Crocheted face scrubbies were an obvious choice. I'm working on some to list in my shop, so instead of making five (the number I put in a set of scrubbies), I'm making six and keeping the extra ones for the LBB.

At first I was struggling with what needle felted items to send. obviously it would have to be something small, cute, and useful. At this point I am thinking of some type of pin or hair accessory (clips, ponytail holders, etc).

Now I am stuck on knitted items. Again, it has to be something small, cute, and useful. I am not a super fast knitter, and am in awe of people who can churn out scarves. Hmm...I need to give this some thought. Whatever I send as a sample, I need to make to put in my shop as well.

Any ideas for a small useful knitted item??

I'm easily amused part II

Yes..oh yes I am easily amused. If you have never checked out the Cake Wrecks blog it is must!

Here is one post I read today that made me laugh out loud:

http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/2008/10/run-for-your-lives.html

So excited!

First, I ordered my Little Black Box today. Last time I ordered on a Friday and had it by Monday. I can't wait to see what is in there!

Second, it is almost Samhain. This is my time of year! I love the cool crisp air, and just the feel of the season. I am a Samhain girl!

Third, it is the week before Halloween. While it is cool to see how excited my son is to dress up and go trick or treating, that is not what excites me the most about this upcoming week. It is the horror movie bonanza that is going to start tonight! Tonight, tonight, it's coming tonight! Heee...I sound like the father from a Christmas Story when talking about when his major award will arrive.

Hmmm...completely random and unrelated thoughts: I use exclamation points, " ", and ( ), entirely too much when I write. Also, I think bonanza is becoming a favorite word. I've used it twice today, and I seem to recall using it a lot lately.

It's almost time.....

...for October's Little Black Box They go on sale on tomorrow!! I can't wait to order one again. I meant to do a blog review of my LBB items last month, but I never got to it. I did post pics and comments for last month's box on my Flickr page.

If you were thinking of getting a LBB (or sending samples to be in one), but weren't sure of the type of things to expect, this should give you an idea what might be in the box. I paid ....I think it was 25ish dollars including shipping for the box, and got about 18 - 19 cool treasures! It's very exciting to open the box because you just don't know what you are going to find. Also, you can go to The Little Black Box website, click on who's in the box and you will see the vendors who have sent in samples, complete with links to their shops.

I can't wait to order, and show off the great handmade things I got!

Shophandmade.com

The old addage "don't put all your eggs in one basket" keeps coming to my mind. I listed some of my stitch markers on shophandmade.com about a month ago, but really haven't done any promoting of the site. I see ads for them all the time on MySpace.

I don't want to put all my eggs in one basket, but I don't want to spread myself too thin either. I mean let's face it I've neglected my Etsy shop over the last month or two. So I guess I've just neglected my shophandmade.com shop more!

If you are looking for handmade, remember Etsy isn't the only game in town. You can also try Shophandmade.com, Handmadefuzion.com(I'll promote them even though they rejected me!), Lollishops(not open yet). I know there are other's out there, I'm just can't remember what they are at the moment.

Vlad's happy home

As I posted in the past, one of my little friends , Vlad, was part of a Halloween blog giveaway. He was featured on October 7th , and shipped off to the lucky winner on October 8th.

Today, after looking at the latest giveaway items I saw that Vlad's new companion, Vixen, had posted a blog about Vlad's adventures with her. You can find her post about Vlad at Vixen's Den. I'm so happy he found a home with someone who loves him! Also, be sure to check out Vixen's etsy shop . She makes really cute aprons!

I really didn't feel like blogging today. But I couldn't resist when I read Vlad's adventures. I was going to be blog lazy because I've caught a cold and I'm feeling kind of blah. I've been taking Cold-EEze, and I think I feel a little better today than yesterday. Definitely a bit less rundown than I did anyway. When I was at the store yesterday I also bought a ton of OJ, and oranges to help things along.

I'm trying to knock this thing out so I can go visit my mom again at the hospital/rehab facility. Uh....not REHAB rehab....physical rehab. She had hip replacement surgery on Friday. I saw her on Saturday (I felt fine and had no idea this cold was going to hit) . She was just not herself. Which I suppose is to be expected. She was very grumpy (for her), she said everything she ate tasted horrible (expect bananas), and she looked kind of pale. I think she is also worried about the fact that she can't flex her foot on the leg she had the hip replacement done. The doctor kind of indicated to her that she should be able to do that. My sister told me that Mom's blood pressure went very low Saturday evening, and they gave her a pint of blood. As of last night the report was she looks better, and her blood pressure is back up in the normal range. However, she still has no appetite and nothing tastes good. They finally got her out of bed at about 2:30 Saturday afternoon. Her doctor was pitching a fit Saturday morning that she was still in bed. He told the nurses she should have been out of bed on Friday afternoon! I'm going to give her a call in a little bit to find out how she is feeling today.

Oh...and on Saturday I also had my first Chuck E Cheese experience. I'd been fighting it for a long time. AJ keeps asking me to go and I always say "someday". Well...since he has his reward chart at school he gets to pick a special activity for the week if he meets his goal. His choice last week was the movies, if one was playing the he wanted to see. His back-up choice (in case of no movies to see) was Chuck E Cheese. I prayed hard that a kid's movie would be out that he wanted to see. No such luck! It wasn't as bad as I thought. Mostly because the one we went to doesn't have a huge climbing apparatus, and no ball pit! Ball pits gross me out. We got $10 worth of tokens (40), and played lots of games. I didn't think we were ever going to get through those 40 tokens! For the 149 tickets we got from playing the games he got: two bath fizzies, a rubbery blue ant, an orange plastic spider, and a plastic top. $10 worth of tokens for 25 cents worth of crap! He was really happy with what he got though. When I told my sister I thought I'd never get rid of all the tokens she said "well you could have saved them for next time". To which I said "well that means I'd have to go back!". I'm sure I will have to go again eventually, I just didn't want to have the tokens there burning a hole in AJ's pocket!

ok...so I'm easily amused

Here are two little things I found immensely funny that I saw on the internet in the last couple of days.

First, I was looking at a crochet site and saw a scarf. I wanted to see if I identified the stitch correctly, so I went click on the "download pattern" link. This is what was written in parenthesis after the "download" link:

(this will download a pdf of the copyrighted pattern, NOT the actual item shown)

I'm still looking for the site to download the actual scarf, though I'm afraid the yarn may muck up my hard drive.

The next gem I found today when looking at the myspace page of someone who sent me a message. I usually get a chuckle out of these messages and pages, and this one didn't let me down!

"I would love to meet a woman that will be my best friend and my wife, a life partner that will be compactible with me."

I literally had to put my hand over my mouth to keep from busting out laughing in the middle of the office.

I'm guilty....

...of blog neglect :(

I've been teaching myself to crochet, and as with any new craft I pick up, I've become obsessed. I have several new things to list in my shop, but need to take pics. I knitted two scarves, a neckwarmer made from handspun corriedale wool, and a hat. I need a model for these (except the hat I need to buy a head for that..LOL) I was going to enlist my niece one day, for an outdoor photo shoot, but she left before I could take the pics.

I tend to be a bit of a yarn snob and like to work only with natural fibers (maybe a small bit of added man made). However, I realize that not all people can wear wool, and cotton doesn't exude warm wintery goodness to me. So one of my scarves, and the hat are made from acrylic, an interesting looking and soft acrylic, but acrylic none-the-less.

Hopefully, now that mercury is no longer in retrograde I can get out of this slump I've been in and get cranking.

Handmade for charity

I got this message about a benefit dinner for a friend of a friend:

"Hi everyone.On December 7, 2008 my family along with the American Diabetes Association (ADA) will be hosting a Pasta Night in my mother's name.My mother battled diabetes for 28 years and passed away from it on Sept 15, 2008.100% of the proceeds will go to ADA.We are looking for donations to this event. Any donation, be it monetary, food, or gifts and gift certificates for raffles will be appreciated.All who donate will be listed with their kind donation in our program."

I immediately e-mailed the friend who sent this to me, and told her I would like to put together a basket for the raffle. This idea is still in the planning stage. I am waiting to hear back about a due date for the items. Obviously, if they need something in the next couple of weeks I don't think it is feasible, if I have a month or so I could swing it.

The basket will be a bath and body/pamper yourself theme. My plan is to knit up some cotton wash cloths and smaller face scrubbies. I also want to include some other handmade B&B items from other etsians. Some of the handmade things I would like to include in the basket are:

Soap
Wooden soap "dish"
Lotion
Bath Salts
Bath bomb
Lip balm
candle
Sprays (I've seen some aromatherapy body sprays on etsy)
Oh..and some candy!

I was thinking that I would get a sampling of these items from a number of different etsians. That way the basket would be filled with a variety of offerings from etsians, rather than a slew of items from one or two shops. I was going to request additional business card be sent with the products so I could put them with each product, and keep one for myself (I like to keep the cards of people I have dealt with so I can remember who I have "done business" with and will frequent their shops again). Making this basket seems like a win-win situation, first and foremost it is for a good cause. Second, if even on a smaller scale it gets the name of Etsians out there to people who might otherwise never have heard of us.

Not sure how to write this section, since I'm not good at asking for help. I am planning on buying the items myself. However, I am far from independently wealthy and was hoping some people might be willing to donate a small item or two. I figure the more attractive and full I can make the basket, the more money it will garner in the raffle.

As I indicated before, none of this is a go yet since I don't know when they would need the basket. I'm just putting the feelers out there for anyone willing to help out. So if you would like to donate something please email me at: lisa@knitsandnotions.com . I can't check that mail from my office so if you need a quick response please convo me at knitsandnotions.etsy.com .

If you have any questions or would like verification of the event , I have info on the location so you could check on it if you would like.

Thanks so much for your help!

Slacker

That's what I feel like I have been when it comes to my Etsy. I'm still caught in my funk of not being able to complete anything. Well......that isn't exactly accurate. I have finished a neck warmer from my own handspun yarn, and two "curlie Q" skarves, the felted bag I have been working is almost done and just needs some handles (and needs to be felted), I also started a needle felted pin last night. So far it is just a white circle, I'm trying to figure out what to put on it. I was going to take pics of my scarves/neckwarmer this past weekend, but my model ran out on me! Ok..the less dramatic answer is my niece had to go home and do homework.

The days pass, and the holidays are getting closer and closer, but I'm not getting more and more stock in the store. I can't wait until Mercury is no longer in retrograde. I swear I have been majorly feeling the effects of it. October 15th can't get here soon enough.

I'm hoping that is all it is, though I'm sure my slump also has to do with stress from my son's issues at school. He has long had "classic" ADD signs. Based on the fact that his dad had ADD (as a child and an adult), I'm pretty much 100% sure AJ has it too. I haven't taken him to the doctor to get a definitive answer yet, because I don't want medication to be in the realm of consideration at this point. I'm working on changing over our diets to more natural/organic, cutting out articial colors as much as possible, cutting down on sugar, etc. I also found an herbal supplement geared to kids (and adults) that is supposed to help with ADD symptoms. We are also working with reward charts at home and school.

My son's main issues are impulse control, or lack thereof, and a little hyperactivity. The lack of impulse control is worse than the hyperness. My concern at this point has to do with social issues - other kids tend to "step back " from him and not make close friendships with him. I'm hoping the diet change, supplements and behavior mod. at home and school help.

As much as I don't want to put him on medication, if the above actions do not alleviate his symptoms I will consider medication as a last resort. If it is a difference between being unmedicated and seriously struggling(and possibly failing) socially and academically, or on medication and making friends, being someone the other kids want to be around, and doing well academically, I think I might have to give medication a shot, which would be a REALLY hard decision for me. I'm trying not to have to cross that bridge, and trying to keep positive thoughts that we won't have to cross that bridge.

Blog Giveaway

Well not mine but Mrs. B of "Confessions of a Pagan Soccer Mom" has started her 31 Days of Halloween giveaway. From now (well October 1st actually...sorry I'm late), Mrs. B is giving away 1 - 3 handmade items each day donated by lots of talented crafters and artisans.



The drawings are done randomly every night, so you will know by the next day if you won anything. You can enter every day. One winning item per person per day limit! So cool! Today my "Vlad the Vampire Candy Corn" is one of the giveaways.

To enter just follow the directions on the blog post of the item you want to try and win. For some it is as easy as posting a comment, other entries may be more involved. Each post give the instructions for entering that giveaway. Please make sure if you are entering by posting a comment that you leave your email address if you don't have a blog.