Wednesday's Featured Etsy Artist!

My Weekly Featured Etsy artist for this week is Kristi from KitchenStitchen (http://kitchenstitchen.etsy.com).

When I came across Kristi’s shop, I knew I had to feature her because I immediately fell in love with her kitchen towels and potholders. She uses really beautiful, fun, and modern fabric. Kristi says "I am currently selling hand sewn potholders and embellished waffle weave towels. I plan to expand to other kitchen type linens. I'm currently working on making casserole carriers to add next. I also have a design concept in my head for placemats."

Kristi grew up with a mom and grandma who sewed and who taught her most of her sewing skills. She has been selling her bags on etsy since mid 2007 in her other store, SunnyKristi.

Here’s a little something about Kristi’s design process: "First, I try to make sure that I am creating a unique design in relation to other sellers with similar products. Then I make it my goal to produce the highest caliber product possible. I use basic designs and materials that I find most functional, durable and comfortable. I'm not out to just make beautiful products, I want to make highly functional beautiful products. I shop around for the best quality materials I can find and then the really enjoyable part is shopping for the designer fabrics. I try to stay within color schemes that I believe and my friends tell me are in real people's kitchens. Finally, I make test products and discover tools and techiniques needed to get exactly the look I want."

Kristi is from Grayslake, Illinois on the north side of Chicago. She enjoys sewing for her two children and also making paper crafts. You can follow Kristi and her creative life on her blog: http://sunnypondhome.blogspot.com.

Thanks Kristi!! Your shop is beautiful!

Knit 4 Pearl 8

My Butterfly necklace from Pink Pear Designs has been featured in this beautiful, romantic treasury by Sherry at Espritdart. Thanks Sherry!

You can still view her treasury here.

Espritdart sells paper art and mixed media creations. I love this fly to Paris tag: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=20066302

View Sherry's treasury and give it some clicks :)

Work room floor

I had several requests to see my work room floor up close, so I thought I'd share it with you.

Basically, first we painted the entire concrete floor a cream color using a special floor paint. Then, I used a rock stencil that I bought at Michael's to make the rock pattern. I used several different colors of paint and layered them on top of each other to try and get a natural looking effect. Then, my son, who was 4 1/2 at the time, helped me to paint the "flowers". They are suppose to look like they're growing in between the rocks.

The third picture is where we signed the floor. He wrote his N upside down. LOL

After we finished painting it, we sealed it with some kind of floor sealer recommended by the guy at Benjamin Moore where our crappy builder had bought our paint. I didn't particularly care for any of their paint or paint products (or employees who knew nothing about paint) so please don't take this as a Benjamin Moore recommendation.

The floor sealer we used has not been a good one. Anytime I put something like a big plastic storage box on the floor and leave it there for a while, the sealer starts pealing off under it. I'm sure at some point it will start to look so bad I'll have to redo it - or if we ever move.

The reason we went this route is mostly because I HATE carpet. Really, really hate it. Plus, I knew that if we put carpet down, I would mess it up with paint (I painted a lot at the time). I thought about vinyl tile but it just seemed like a waste of money. So I chose to paint it instead.

It's very cold on bare feet but I always wear house shoes or regular shoes anyway. We have all wood or tile in our house - no carpet - so I'm used to wearing shoes or at least socks.

So there you go. You can kind of tell the flowers that my son painted. They're big and splotchy. But that's what makes them so sweet. :)

My Weekly Featured Etsy Artist!

My first ever, weekly, featured etsy artist is (drum roll!!!!!) Jaime at Scrapbooking Made Simple (http://sjrr4.etsy.com/).

I first found Jaime's shop using the "shop local" feature on etsy. I was really just wondering around, looking to see if there were many other etsians in my area. (Jaime lives in Longview, Texas which is only about 1 hour away from where I live in Tyler.)

She has the most adorable paper bag scrapbook albums in her shop. So I bought one that was done with beautiful bright papers to give to my in laws for Christmas in 2007. Jaime customized it for us with fishing quotes, grandparent quotes, and a special title on the front. I have to say, out of the 18 years I have known my Mother in law, that was the only present I have ever given her that she actually liked! And the album was sooooo well made, very neat and tidy yet whimsical and fun!

Jamie carries many more things in her shop now. She still has the paperbag albums, but she also carries magnet sets, altered tin refrigerator scrapbooks, custom glass tile photo pendants and much, much more!

Jaime got started selling her scrapbooks in November of 2006 when she was encouraged by a friend to sell her items in the friends booth at a local craft fair. She took 10 albums and sold them all! She says she gets her inspiration from the paper. "I am always on the look out for fun, different papers. After I find the papers, I decide on coordinating cardstock (solid colors) and I'm set. From there, it's like an assembly line as I cut papers to size, round corners and then assemble it all together. Sometimes I add stickers or 3D embellishments, depending on the scrapbook. For the magnets, I use the scraps from my scrapbooks. For the photo pendants, as well as photo magnets, it's all about the pictures I am sent in by the buyer. I have the pleasure of cropping them and turning them into precious necklaces or magnets."

Jaime of Scrapbooking Made Simple is a SAHM of 2 boys and one sweet hubby :).

Check out Jaime's shop - I know you'll find something you like!!!

Thanks Jaime!!

Love Deep in the Heart of Texas

ETC Team member, Deathlycute, has created a treasury featuring other team members with a Valentine's theme. She was kind enough to feature my "Mystery of my Heart" necklace from Pink Pear Designs. Thanks so much Michelle!

You can still check out her treasury by clicking here. Deathlycute's shop is loaded with cool things including this sweet Valentine's cuff bracelet - http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=40314

Check out her shop and give her Treasury some Texas Love!

My Clean Workroom

Well, during the Christmas break, I accidentally started cleaning up my workroom. I think I was just moving things around and then one thing lead to another and when I was finished, it was all clean. I even set up a "shipping center" in our game room where I also have my little tiny desk and printer.

Notice how I've never gotten around to painting the walls or putting up any kind of window treatments. The walls are still white. But look at my cool floor. It's just painted concrete but when we moved into the house 5 1/2 years ago, my son helped me paint it. He was 4 at the time. We stenciled "rocks" on the concrete and then painted flowers between the rocks. you can't see the flowers in the pictures but they're there. My son called them Truffala Trees (sp?) after the trees in The Lorax by Dr. Seuss.

The blanket on the floor is for our dog. He likes to watch me work. The artwork is courtesy of my son over the years.

So, there it is - my special work space. "Mom's room".

Etsy Texas Crafters has Secrets!!

It's the third Monday of the month and time for ETC has Secrets! First, find the picture of Armadillo Tex in one of my listings in either Handmade Whimzy or Pink Pear Designs. Second, purchase the item. Third, I will send you the free gift mentioned in the listing along with your purchase! Everyone loves a free gift with purchase!!

The free gift from Pink Pear Designs is a pair of my "Old Button" earrings. The free gift at Handmade Whimzy is a set of my mini ribbon bookmark trios.

The easiest way to find all the secret items is to go to etsy.com, type in "teametsytx" and "etcsecrets" in the search box and wait for all the great items to appear. Of course, we've labeled a few extras as secrets just to make it a little tougher :)

Happy Shopping! And remember, it only lasts until midnight on Monday, January 19th!

New feature on my blog

I've been thinking about what I could do to make my blog more interesting. Since I started the blog to promote my etsy shops, I thought maybe I should start promoting other etsy shops as well.

I've been trying to do this for shops who feature me in one of their treasuries but now I'm thinking that I need to branch out more. So my goal is to feature one etsy seller a week. Hopefully, I'll be able to keep up with that. LOL

So watch for the first feature shop - coming soon! I'd like to do my features on Wednesdays. So I've decided on someone to feature and I'm going to contact them and see what they think about it.

Don't forget to check back next Wednesday to see how it's going!

And, check out my latest listing at Pink Pear Designs!

Blushing Bride Antiqued Brass Filigree ring:

OK - now it's green.

Now it's green. I wonder what color it will be tomorrow.
Happy Wednesday!

New Template - again!

If you come to my blog on a regular basis, have you noticed that I keep changing the colors/template of the blog?
Well, that's because I can't decide what I like. They should have more free choices. LOL
What do you think about this pink one?

I just don't know.

Something new

My newest item at Pink Pear Designs. Simply Blue. Click here to view.

Hey, that rhymes! LOL

Flying Beauties!!

Polka Dot Candle has included my Butterfly necklace from Pink Pear Designs in her lovely flying treasury! Thanks so much Polka Dot!!!

Polka Dot has some wonderful candles in her shops with great colors and scents (great prices too!!) These are my favorites : http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=19156368
They are pear spice tea lights. I love those cinnamony, autumny, spicey kind of smells all year. I love the green and white colors of these candles too! You can never have too much color in your life.

First Big Sale of 2009!!!!

It's time once again for the Etsy Texas Crafter First Monday SALE!

My shop, Handmade Whimzy, has a special sale section where everything is 50% off the list price!! Wow - you can't beat that!

Pink Pear Designs is offering the usual Free shipping and gift wrapping to US and Canada.

Please check out our etsy forum thread for more great shops with great sales!:
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5982142

We have everything from Swifferesque cleaning pads to dryer sachets to children's clothing to photography to jewelry to you name it, we've got it!

Happy New Year everyone!!!! (alittle late)

I hope everyone has a blessed new year and may it go slow (since I seem to be getting older with every second).

I managed to stay awake until midnight so I could drink alittle bubbly with the hubby. He said it was the first time I had stayed awake in the 17 years we've been married. Oh well.