Category: Blog

Soooo how about that time change!? I forgot how dark it gets now and all the photos I took today were super blurry. OOPS. I finally got this amazing tee from fASHLINdotcom on Etsy. It’s been in my Etsy faves for a while, and I finally went for it. I messaged Ashlin about sizing and found out she is also a really cool chick! Score! In case you were curious about sizing, I’m wearing a large (almost thought I had to get an XL cuz sometimes the cute tees for the girls are tiny!). I usually buy larges in juniors or American Apparel because I don’t like my armpits to feel squished, but I actually could have probably gotten this tee in a medium. Better slightly too big than slightly too small, that’s my (not very clever or interesting) motto!

We’re back from Hello Kitty Con, and I will blog about that as soon as my buddy gives me all her photos (oh! I have them now, but I need to sort through!), but I wanted all you guys in the Bay Area to remember to come visit my booth at Renegade Craft Fair this weekend!! It’s at Fort Mason on Saturday and Sunday, 11am – 6pm. I’m at booth #147 right next to my trusty booth-neighbor Quiet Tiger in #148.  I’ll have tons of stuff to get you ready for the holidays! See you there! Click to enlarge.

Yummy You! now has superjuicy Turkey Hats, fresh out of the roasting pan, and at a special holiday price! Dress to impress! Be the hostess with the roastest!

Hello Kitty Con 2014 is here! I am in LA, meeting up with my friend Candace from Super Good For You to check out the con for the first two days. I really didn’t have time to plan an outfit or make anything super interesting to wear, but I figured I’d whip up some cute shoe clips for my boots! I wanted them to be kinda square but kinda puffy, too, so that’s how I decided to work in joined rounds to make more of a 3d bow! The joined rnds with the turn in direction also help keep that seam in check. I was going to put a little stuffing in them to make them poofier, BUT, I totally just plain FORGOT, and I just went with it because I had to go to sleep to wake up for my plane. If you are not really into the whole shoe-bow thang, you can always use this in your hair, or strung as a cool statement necklace, or as an embellishment to your sweater, dress, purse, or murse! I have yet to walk in the bows, so I’ll see if they are too big and if they just fly off my boots! (Sorry for the really crappy photos!!!!! I’ll try to take better ones at home!)

I’m in LA for the weekend for a superkawaii pastel wedding, so I decided to give my new nail stickers a whirl!!! I bought a bunch of different sets from JSUtopia, and this is my first attempt at applying them. It’s actually really easy and essentially peel n stick n seal with clear polish. While I enjoy an evening of doodling on my nails myself, it was a real time save to just stick some art on! I also picked up some puppies and kitties and woodland creatures, but I really have my eye on the burger set now!

A few days ago, Morgan, one of my customers, asked where I bought my dresses on Etsy, so I wrote her a list of places I’d bought dresses before or had favorites from. I have some other favorite pieces from various shops, but this is a list of places that I visit A LOT and just love in general. I’m probably forgetting some, but here’s a good start! I’m Your Present Lynn’s Rags Miss Alphabet Pretty Snake Luminia Rusty Cuts Nicole Carey Let me know if you have favorite Etsy shops with cute dresses!

Dear Diary, I have a Snack Confession: I LOVE PUMPKIN PIE POP TARTS. I didn’t want to. I really didn’t . I know that Pop Tarts are really bad for you. They’re like cardboard and plastic injected with fat and covered in sugar.  BUT. I. LOVE. THEM. This is my second box. I’ve been buying them at Target. That they are limited edition makes me want to buy them more. Upon the rare occasion that I actually purchase Pop Tarts, I always opt for the non-frosted kind, so I was afraid that the Pumpkin Pie version would be too sweet for me, but it’s not. It’s perfect. Marry me, Pumpkin Pie Pop Tarts. There seems to be this joke on the internet about who exactly likes the Pumpkin Spice Latte and all the season’s pumpkin spice whatchamahoozits, and if there’s any truth to that joke, then I guess my spirit animal is a white girl in Uggs listening to Lorde, eating Pumpkin Pie Pop Tarts.

My crochet book is back in my Etsy shop while my new supply lasts!  I just received them today. When I hauled in two superheavy boxes, I was like, “What did I buy??! I don’t remember buying anything heavy!?” And I got scared, cuz, shopaholic amnesia brain damage. BUT, then I looked at the return address label, and saw that it was my book distributor! As some of my newer blog readers may have noticed, my book has been difficult to find, or really expensive. This is due to the fact that my book sold out of its print run and will not be re-printed by my publisher, as they are no longer publishing craft books. My plan is to get the rights back to re-print/re-pub it, but that can take some time. I read on my latest royalty statement that my publisher actually had more books back in stock (this happens when stores return books), so I asked if I could buy them all for you guys and put them on Etsy! So if you’ve been looking for my book in the U.S., here’s your chance to get it! (Sorry for the long rambly story, but I don’t think I ever blogged about it before, and I thought some of you might want to know what the situation was with the book.) Also, it’s my plan to start writing Book #2 in November after I’m finished with Renegade Craft Fair, so…. hold on tight!

Hi! It’s the 15th of the month, so it’s time to launch a new blog sponsor giveaway! Thanks so much to my generous sponsors for offering us these wonderful goodies! PLEASE NOTE, we are changing things up a bit this month and trying something new. We have THIRTEEN awesome prizes for October, and I will be drawing THREE winners. The FIRST winner can choose his/her favorite 6 prizes. The SECOND winner can choose his/her favorite 4 prizes. And the THIRD winner will win the remaining 3 prizes. I am open to feedback on how you all feel about this, but an initial Facebook survey seemed to tell me that you guys like to share, which is great! 🙂

Anyone still doing their Halloween crocheting?  I thought I’d round up some of Halloweeny crochet patterns in a single post! Candy Bar Clutch – free Ghostly Candy Container made with a Yoplait yogurt container – free Candy Corn Kitty Hat Bee & Puppycat plush, bee necklace, and shoe bows – free Happy Heart & Rib Cage Tshirt – free Mermaid Seashells – free Pumpkin Hair clip – free and video

YAY FINALLY!!! I’m happy to announce that we finally have a shop for the Tissue Box Bakery!! Let’s try to beat our donation amount from last year! Send me a cozy or purchase a cozy! Go to the TBB site for all the info!

It’s that time again! Renegade Craft Fair Holiday in San Francisco! But it’s only a month away! Before Thanksgiving! Get all your holiday shopping done SUPER DUPER EARLY!!! It’s November 8-9, 11am – 6pm, at Fort Mason. I’m already slaving away at some new designs for you guys, but I only have a month, so I’m gonna go dive back into my yarn!

Thanks so much to the folks who came out to visit at Crafty Bastards in Washington DC last weekend! It was my first time vending at this fair, and I’d have to say that it lives up to its reputation for being really busy and really amazing. The event itself is run really well, and we got free snacks and drinks, and even got to put in a sandwich order for lunch. Kind of amazing!! The fair was also in the parking lot of Union Market which housed a ton of great food, not to mention all the food trucks that were outside, too.

Ok, we all know that I am NOT a good food/baking blogger, so my photos are of baked goods that are THREE days old. But the food still tastes good! Picture above are pumpkin pecan Mexican wedding cookies. My buddy Elysse (who has a new blog called The Vegan Sweet Beat!) came over on Saturday night for pizza, baking, and rom com (we watched Walk of Shame…. I give it a “meh” although A+++ for big giant hair). We used this recipe from Cookie and Kate. Our cookies did have more powdered sugar on them before, but, you know… THREE DAYS. The recipe calls for whole wheat flour, and we used Earth Balance instead of butter or coconut oil. I LOVE ME SOME PUMPKIN BAKED GOODS (but not the PSL or any pumpkin spice drink…), and these cookies were super yummy! They did not end up quite as dry and crumbly as the Mexican wedding cookies I am accustomed to, but Kate mentioned this would be the case when you sub out the real butter. Regardless: YUM. Elysse toasted the pecans, and my kitchen smelled AMAZE. Elysse also suggested we bake a back-up in case the pumpkin pecan cookies turned out weird. Well, actually, the brownies turned out to be weird!!! (We still ate them.) It was the first time I baked or tasted a brownie with black beans in it. I have always been really curious about them, but Elysse thought this recipe was not the best, and the brownies came out SUPER DUPER DENSE. It was almost like eating …. firm chocolate jello, or I guess, fudge. However, they were better the next day, and even better the day after that, etc etc, so I think that having some time to dry out did them some good. Anyway, I have no idea what recipe we used, but Elysse says she has a better recipe, so if I get around to make those, I will link you! Here’s us on Saturday night getting our PB on. I’m looking serious/dubious about putting on the peanut butter the right way, and Elysse is triumphantly zig-zagging through it all with a knife. I have pumpkin puree left over, so, per Elysse’s suggestion, I am going to try making a pumpkin spice smoothie next!

Hi! It’s the 15th of the month, so it’s time to launch a new blog sponsor giveaway! This is the most prizes we have ever had! Thanks so much to my generous sponsors for offering us these wonderful goodies! One lucky winner will receive:

  I haven’t done my nails in a little while, but on Friday, Manda came over, and we went on a 5 mile walk around Lake Merced, and then painted our nails and watched Coyote Ugly! I saw some mushroom nail stickers on Etsy and was inspired to try painting some toadstools on my own. Obvs, I am not the greatest nail artist in the world!! But what I did for the toadstool nails was paint the base color first (the light aqua), and then I used white acrylic paint and a tiny paint brush to paint out all the mushrooms and grass. The white background helps the colors pop on top. Then, I painted in the red toadstool tops with acrylic paint, and also some light green grass. After that layer dried (acrylic paint dries pretty quickly), I dotted on the mushroom spots and then gave the grass some dark green glitter polish to make it pop. Then the whole thing got a top coat of Seche Vite. I really like how they turned out!!! I have magical forest fingers!    

So again the whole reason I’m making time to clean up is to take photos for a crafty-space magazine. A lot of my stuff is in plastic bins, but those bins are not like…. cute or anything. They’re just cheap and easy to get. So I decided that curtains would be the way to go. HOWEVER, I do not sew (yet!) so that was a big road block for me. Enter: Fabric Fuse!  (This is not a sponsored post, but that is an Amazon affiliate link). It’s a double-sided tape for hemming fabric. I thought it was pretty amazing, but I could feel the eyes of all my seamstress/designer friends rolling at me. I also bought some tape that you iron-on, but the fabric I picked is some kind of weird synthetic, so I didn’t feel confident about ironing it. This Fabric Fuse has some not-s0-great reviews on Amazon, so I have no idea how long my hems will hold up, but of now, it’s pretty great! It’s not like I’m wearing my curtains around town all day long, so I think they will be fine. (P.S. I WOULD wear them, but the fabric is kinda itchy on the skin….. Yes, I was dancing around in my curtains at 2 a.m. to try them out.) I hemmed the top and the sides and just trimmed the bottom raw.  The curtains are held up with velcro. I used hot glue to glue one side of the velcro to my table, and then used hot fabric glue to get the velcro onto the curtain. Nothing has fallen down as of this moment! I was also excited to re-purpose my EAT CAKE pompom garland that I made especially for my Michaels promo video. I love how everything came together! But even with the velcro tabs, this is probably not a super practical option for me everyday, since I open the drawers behind the curtain A LOT. They hold all my office supplies and some craft supplies as well.  Plus the EAT CAKE garland is totally in the way. But at least I have a cute option now if I ever need to snap a photo for something! I still have a big work table that needs a curtain, but I ran out of fabric. I originally bought some other less crazy fabrics, but the fringey cowgirl fabric was actually the most fun and looked the least like I was hanging bedsheets. It reminds me of party decorations!!! It’s a LOT of pink to have in my room, but I guess I don’t mind pink… Here’s the yarn wall. I LOVE NOT HAVING BOXES IN MY ROOM. But are there boxes in the hallway and the living room. YES. But at least I know now what I’m getting rid of. Update soon for yarn and knickknackery sales! Sorry for the gross iPhone photos. I need to edit the good ones! Going to do that now!

I’ve been totally working on picking up my space and sorting through all the boxes. It feels really good to do this, although, it’s hard to get other work done as well! I’ve been getting obsessed with creating cute little nooks and crannies, and I really want to paint everything, like my shipping-label printer, but I have to remember to just snap some dang photos for this magazine already!!! EEEP!!! Anyhoo! My group giveaway is launching in 5 days, and it’s not too late for you bloggers and indie biz owners to pick up a medium-sized ad if you’d also like to participate in the giveaway. (You can also grab a large ad, but that spot won’t open up until Sept. 26 since there is only one large spot each month!).

Hey, Aussie babes!! Pick up the September issue of Homespun Magazine to see my lil Radish Scarf in their “Best of the Best from Pinterest” highlights along with lots of other fun, spring projects!

Here’s the situation. I do NOT like clutter, and clutter makes me very anxious, but also taking the time to find places for all the clutter gives me more anxiety, so I end up with a craft room like this most of the time. (Also this is just one wall, but this is probably the worst of it.) I hate the look of paper bags and cardboard boxes, but I think I’m running out of shelf space. Where does everyone else keep their button-maker!? Don’t say “the garage,” because that’s another place I don’t want to talk about. Anyway, when I get contacted by a magazine or blog to send photos of my work space (like now), I FREAK OUT!!!! FFFFFREEEAAK OUTTTT!!!! It’s an excellent opportunity to make myself get rid of boxes and cull out the yarn I don’t use and etc etc etc but it just makes my heart race and my blood pressure go up. I am not one of those people/bloggers who lives in a picture-perfect home everyday. I don’t know if those people really exist in reality, but they seem to exist that way in their blogs, and I have extreme envy of that, but will probably never reach that level of refinement! So this is what I’m doing today. Trying to make this hole picture-perfect! And trying really hard not to take a short-cut and just shove everything into aforementioned garage…which is what I have done before….!!! I think I really want a rolling panel of baskets that I can put more yarn in (the yarn that’s in those cardboard boxes, among other things), and just wheel it in and out of the way. Is that dangerous thinking, rather than getting rid of stuff?

Two weekends ago, Hairy, Manda, Renee and I drove north to the redwoods to go hiking. The neat thing about hiking on the California coast is that you can see big tall redwood trees and also go to the ocean. I uploaded a video/vlog to my YouTube channel, which you can check out here:   Most of Saturday was spent driving up there, so we ended up just checking out the ocean before dinner. I saw this log on the beach and had to Costanza on it. Then I insisted that Renee and Manda pose saucily on the same log. You will not ever be catching Hairy posing on any log, but we did ask him to take photos of the 3 of us, just being… us. Anyway, after wandering around the beach and watching the waves and the tide come in, we started to drive back to 0ur hotel, and found some neat wildlife on the way! We pulled over to check out this herd of elk chillin’ in a meadow. We would also later have a very close encounter with a big ol’ daddy elk near the beach, and he was just munchin’ away on some grass and didn’t seem to mind us very much at all. We decided to drive away from the elk meadow when we discovered we were under heavy banana slug attack (you have to watch the YouTube video if you want to see the banana slug tshirt that Renee made me buy). The next day, we had a big ol’ breakfast and then went on a short hike and then a long hike. In one of the groves, we saw an old “save the trees” photo with a bunch of serious people holding hands around a tree, so we attempted to re-create this ourselves. Pretty much what you’re learning here is that the trees need to be saved FROM US. Our second hike involved a waterfall, and I don’t think I got very many photos of it, just video, but here are Manda and Hairy looking very adventurous. After this hike, we drove to a different beach, where we saw two sea lions pretty close to the shore, ducking in and out of the water. It was really cute! I unfortunately could never time my video correctly to catch one for you guys! There are some other hiking stories that I talk about in my video that I didn’t get photos of to post here, like the other animal encounter we had, and why we eat kipper snacks on long hikes!

Hi guys! Some of you have been writing to me and asking if everthing is ok after last night’s earthquake, and one of you suggested that I maybe just write a quick blog entry :). All is good! Nothing even fell over. It wasn’t the strongest earthquake I’ve ever experienced, but it was definitely longer than the average rumble. This one was a 6.0 (I think? I didn’t check again today) out of Napa, which is a little bit north of us here in San Francisco. The dogs were a bit scared apparently, but everything is 100% a-ok! Love you guys! I’ve been working on a fun re-cap of our trip to the Redwoods last weekend, and I’m also going to launch a new giveaway this week (hopefully) for a handful of crocheted baby Groots, because I don’t intend to sell finished ones, and a lot of you keep asking if I will be, but I do not have permission or a license to do so. Stay tuned!

Cindy, from A Little Geeky, who is one of my blog sponsors this month, sent me this really cute cheeseburger apron to show you guys! She designed the yummy burger print and sewed up this lil half apron nice and sturdy. It has 3 big pockets, and as you can see, I can fit my iPad Mini in it to run my credit cards at craft fairs! I can also stick pens in there, or, you know, a real corn dog for when I get snacky. These are really handy for craft fair of flea market vendors, cuz table-space can be limited and get squishy, and you don’t have a lot of room to spread out all your doodads and gizmos! Now you can just have everything on you, and it’s super convenient! It ties in the back with grosgrain ribbon. I snapped a photo of that, but it turned out super blurry! Sorry!! We are currently offering a matryoshka apron in our August blog sponsor giveaway, but the apron also comes in lots of different prints, so you should check out her shop, too! (p.s. this sweatshirt is by Lazy Oaf from a few years ago. I don’t wear it because it makes me too hot, and it also fits me really weird ((why did I buy a small?!!??))  but I just can’t let go of it yet! It would be a pretty simple hoodie DIY tho, so, I should get on that…)

Hi! It’s the 16th of the month, so it’s time to launch a new blog sponsor giveaway! I know I usually launch these on the 15th, but let’s blame my friend Renee who is staying with me, and we ended up going to lunch and hanging out in Japantown and then running other errands all day/night! Thanks so much to my generous sponsors for offering us these wonderful goodies! One lucky winner will receive: