Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Newly Listed Bowls




I revamped a bowl I have had listed for awhile now. The shamrock bowl was missing something so I decided to rename it, add more (including a 4 leaf clover) and add steams to the leaves to make them pop. I am really excited about the result! So "I'm looking over a 4 leaf clover..."
I also listed the second of my Grape Bowls and a new small blue (I like to call it Colorado Sky Blue) 3 Stars Bowl

Monday, September 29, 2008

And the Winner is...

Congrats to Joy! I used a random number picker I found on the good old interweb because my usual picker is already in bed. Thanks again to all who entered! I will have another featured seller/giveaway next Tuesday.

Sunday, September 28, 2008

5 years and Going Strong



Yesterday My dear husband and I celebrated our 5th year in the land of marriage. No fancy dinner. We went hiking with some good friends. Before we turned around to come down the mountain, a bottle of champagne appeared and we all had a nip to the occasion. I would have to say that it was the best anniversary celebration we have had thus far. I Love You my dear husband! Thanks for 5 great years.
I am including a picture of us and of the set of beer cozies. You see a couple of weeks ago it was brought to my attention that I had never made cozies for my very own beer drinking husband!
They are color coded so you can grab them on the fly. Maroon: can Green: bottle Blue: tall boy. Possibly the best gift I ever gave him. I would recommend gifting them to your honey (if he is the beer drinking sort) you will not be disappointed.

Just a Reminder

I will be drawing the winner of the giveaway tomorrow!! If you haven't entered take a minute to check out Amy's store: BeanPickleSprout, and comment here.

Friday, September 26, 2008

Mariah's Ipod Cozy





My very close friend Mariah celebrated her 30th Birthday on Wednesday. She is an amazing photographer and one of the most compassionate and gentle souls I have ever known. I feel so blessed to have her in my life and now that I think about it her gift this year seems so small compared to all that I would like to give to her.
I knit Mariah a cozy for her Ipod 4 or 5 years ago out of a wonderful lime green cotton and she literally used it until it fell apart. She gave it to me when I saw her a couple of weeks ago and asked me to make her a new one preferably felted and here is what I came up with.
I love making these! Should probably start selling them. Anyone interested?

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Featured Etsy Seller: Beanpicklesprout




Today's feature is about Amy over at Beanpicklesprout. She is also a resident of Colorado Springs and when I first found her on Etsy I think I scared her a little with my excitement to meet up sometime in person but I just knew we would be fast friends. It was true! Here is a excerpt of her Etsy bio:

I am married to my best friend. I have three small children who I love and learn from every day. Many people ask how I came up with a store name of "BeanPickleSprout." To answer that question Bean is my 6 year old son, Pickle is my 4 year old daughter and Sprout is my one year old son. I am not sure how they all ended up being nicknamed after veggies but it sure worked out for me!


I create in much of my free time, basketball season and football season are my favorite times. My husband watches the game while I sew and neither of us feel neglected :) I have a thousand ideas run through my head every day so hopefully in time I can create them all for you to see.

I love Amy's designs and her craftsmanship goes above and beyond. It is very important for her to send her creations out in the world knowing they are made with solid construction. I am hoping to have a whole collection of her potholders soon and I have been gifting her bibs and burpcloths out left and right.

The Giveaway:
Amy is donating a potholder or baby bib of the winner's choosing. How do you win it? Go on over to Beanpicklesprout and look around. Then comment here about something you like in her store. I will draw a winner on Monday September 29th.

Pouches Continued...



I am excited to announce that due to a communication error, the wonderful Celery Green Pouch that I blogged about a couple of days ago is now for sale in my Etsy store! I will be creating a much larger purse in a similar color for Jacey sometime in the near future instead. I have included a couple of extra pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Saturday, September 20, 2008

New Custom Pouches








Hello! Just wanted to drop by and post pictures of 2 custom pouches I finished today.
The first commission is for Jacey who also has a rockin' pair of Rollerderby Legwarmers coming her way soon. Her Niece is a wonderful babysitter and overall great helper (not to mention an all around cool teenager) and Jacey asked me to make her this as a thank you.
The second pouch was commissioned by Val and is for her sister-in-law who is going through Chemo for breast cancer. I have some thoughtful friends don't I? Thanks Jacey and Val!

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Hi



I wanted to apologize! I made all sorts of promises of items posted AND I planned on featuring Beanpicklesprout on Tuesday and here it is Thursday already. So next Tues (September 23rd) I will be featuring Amy for sure. There will be a giveaway of one of her wonderful kitchen accessories so please do check in! I have included a little taste of what she makes over there so you know what to come back for on Tuesday~
Cheers!
Gretchen

Monday, September 15, 2008

Fingerless Gloves

So... I started these fingerless gloves for my husband knit out of a wonderful black wool/silk blend last fall intending to gift them to him for Christmas. He received ONE. I finally picked up the 1/2 knit second glove this last weekend and knocked it out in a couple of hours. It only needed the thumb attached and the palm worked. I am patting myself on the back because I finally got over the 2nd glove syndrome however they are too big which brings up my issues with making gauge swatches: another touchy topic. Once I figure out how to shrink them down a bit I will post pictures. I would felt them but the % of wool isn't enough. For now I will revel in my finishing them. Next up are Jacey's rockin' red rollerderby legwarmers and Jenny's sexy yet sensible elbow length fingerless gloves.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

New bowls





As promised I added 2 bowls to my shop today. Both are fall inspired. The scrub oak is full of Acorns and when we visited my good friend Erin at the farm she lives on outside of Durango the Blue Jays were dropping them on our heads...weird story but it made me want to post this Acorn Bowl. The second is my Bowl of Grapes which is actually the first of 2. They were fun to make and gave me an even better understanding of needle-felting. This is also my first entry for the September Etsyfast challenge of Fall Harvest.
By the way, if anyone has a better name for the color of the grape bowl besides maroon I would love to hear it.
Cheers!

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

The Germ goes to....

Melanie from Whimsical Creations!
Congrats and thanks to everyone that entered. Seamus pulled Melanie's name out of his Train Engineer Hat this morning.

Monday, September 8, 2008

I'm Baaaack!

Not a whole lot of time to blog today but I wanted to stop in and say hello!
I will be drawing a germ winner tomorrow so if you are interested, please leave a note on the blog post about Miss Kitty.

Our trip was a whirlwind tour of Southwestern Colorado and I am picking up the pieces and wading through masses of laundry. Watch out in the next couple of days though. I have some sweet new bowls that are going in my shop.

Also, this is the time to start talking to me about custom orders for the holidays!

Cheers and so glad to be back!