Crafty Carolinagirl

Drusilla's new placemat

Drusilla is all over the blog this week! She has been so good since I covered the lamp cord so I got to working on her pretty pink and summery placemat. I am having lots of company next week and thought it would be nice to have it finished for their visit!

Here it is! It turned out almost perfect. Can you see my boo boo? It is on the bottom left hand corner. I made it a little too long, so I tucked it under and single crocheted around the sides to keep it under. Oh well. You live and learn.

Drusilla likes it and that is all that matters. She puts her feet on it while she eats. I think it is because it is really soft! I used white Red Heart yarn and pink Caron's Simply Soft yarn with a size K hook. I like the bigger loops on this one. It made it an easy project too.

My goal is to make a few matching throw rugs for the kitchen with this same yarn. I am going to have to make a trip to my AC Moore before I tackle them though. No more yarn! 

**Don't forget to check out the Iowa Flood Relief Auction benefitting the evacuated animals. You can check out all of the great items up for auction here, and swing by and see mine here. So far it has 1 bid, yea! I have my bid in too for an autographed CD from Ann Wilson of Heart! The auction is open until July 2.**

Iowa Relief Auction for Evacuated Animals

By now I am sure you have all heard about the flood in Iowa. Well, lovely Brooke, who grew up in Cedar Rapids, set up an Iowa Relief Fund Online Auction today, June 25 through July 2 benefiting the evacuated animals of the flood. 

I answered her call and donated a brand new item from my Crafts by Alice shop, the Dinah bracelet. 

This bracelet is handmade with black faceted beads, silver plated findings with a lobster clasp, and a black cat clay charm. It measures approximately 8.5 inches long. 

The Dinah bracelet is not available in the shop yet, but if you'd like to get it before it is available and support a great cause visit my listing here. The starting bid is $5, but I would love to see it go for much more than that. 

I'll be heading over to the auction this weekend too, and maybe bidding on an item or two!

Fun felt items

Here are a few new felt items I have just finished up for Crafts by Alice:

Double Popsicle Set (orange and banana)

Large Popsicle Set (grape and strawberry)

Wonderland Lollipop Set (cotton candy, blue raspberry, and orange)

I think I am going to focus most of my time on felt food. I have so many new items I want to make and I'd like to have them finished in time for the holidays.

I am also working on a few new Pop Culture Icon Dolls, but I have no idea when I am going to get them done. I'll try to take some WIP pictures of them and post them soon.

Somebody deserves a time out!

Drusilla is just the sweetest and kindest cat. She is also very well behaved, most of the time! I don't know what strange obsession she has with cords, especially my iPod headphones, but this is the tenth pair she has eaten through.

Maybe she just wants to listen to some music. After all, she does love Fleetwood Mac, Duran Duran, and the Bee Gees. No joke! Her tail actually sways to the beat of their music.

So while I was counting my quarters for yet another pair of headphones, I got to thinking. What could I do to deter her from making my home cords her late night snack? Why not make some sort of cover so she won't be tempted to take a nibble on the cord. Brilliant! 

I thought I was the most clever person on this planet. Yeah, apparently I am not! There are cord covers all over the internet. Oh well. I guess I'll have to make my millions elsewhere.

Though the cord covers are everywhere, their tutorials are not. So, I improvised and came up with a crocheted version of my own:

I know it looks like a long, crocheted snake. Well, that is pretty much what it is. This one is for my living room lamp. Drusilla likes to wrap herself around the cord and nibble on it. 

I didn't keep track of exactly what I did, but I can give you an idea of how I made it:

Drusilla's Cord Cover

Materials Needed: 

Yarn to match room colors (I used Red Heart tan), hook size H

Directions: 

ch 14 loosely or enough to wrap around the plug (you will have to slip the cover over the end of the plug, so don't make it too tight) and join with a slip stitch.

Do Not join, work in a continuous round. You can mark with a stitch marker the end of each round, but it is not necessary.

round 1 - sc in each stitch (14 or however many you ch).

round 2+ - sc in each sc around until desired length and fasten off.

slip cord cover over cord and you are good to go!

As you can see Drusilla is still fascinated by the cord, but she no longer gets wrapped around it. FYI, I don't know if I would push the cover all the way up to the plug. I wouldn't want it to turn into a fire hazard :)

Thoughtful Friday 1

 

"Beautiful soup, so rich and green

Waiting in a hot tureen!

Who for such dainties would not stoop?

Soup of the evening, beautiful soup!

Beautiful soup! Who cares for fish

Game, or any other dish?

Who would not give all else for two

Pennyworth of beautiful soup?"

~ Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

 

This was inspired by my week long battle with a nasty cold and laryngitis. If you want to play along with Thoughtful Fridays, just visit the link under "Join In" or visit Bella Dia.

Fun Owl Cosy & Earrings

One of my favorite blogs, LucyKate crafts, has some of the cutest free tutorials. I have yet to try the Toadstool tutorial, but I did try the newest one, owl egg cosy. The tutorials are super easy and the finished crafts turn out super cute.

Over the weekend I finished my latest one:

Pinky the Owl!

This week little Pinky will be flying south, all the way to South Florida. I thought she could be used as a finger puppet instead of an egg cosy.

I was also hard at work making some items for my Material Girl 80s store. Here are a few of the finished products:

In and Out of Love earrings

Janey Glenn earrings

My "In and Out of Love" earrings were inspired by the Bon Jovi song, and my "Janey Glenn" earrings were inspired by the final dance scene in the movie Girls Just Want to Have Fun.

I am going to try and take the next couple of weeks to focus on finishing up the WIPs I have been putting off. I figure if I can get those out of the way, I can start thinking about my Christmas presents. Well you know, it is almost July!

Plus, I have several Pop Culture Icon Dolls that are in the beginning stages (my TV cast as well as a few characters from the movies). I'd love to get some of them put in my store as well. 

I have lots to keep me busy :)

Crafty + No Air = Giving

Whew, I have been in the giving mood ever since my air went out last week. I realize that I will eventually get my air back on (yes, the air is still not working), and that I am thankful for. Even without my air I know that I have so much to be thankful for, so it is time that I put my crafty talent to good use and give something back.

Over the last few weeks, I have been asked by several organizations to donate some of my Crafts by Alice items for their yearly fundraisers. I have such a hard time saying no, especially to animal shelters, so they are all getting something. 

Half are getting a felt cookie platter 

and the other half a few puffy hearts.

Here are the organizations I am helping out:

Ceridian Silent Auction: Benefiting the Susan G Komen Foundation (June 12) shipped

The Tenth Life: a no kill cat shelter (June 25) 

It's Meow or Never Animal Rescue and Sanctuary (July 7) shipped

Cocker Spaniel Rescue of New England (July 25)

The dates next to them are for me! I have a hard time keeping track of when everything needs to be sent. 

And. . . I still haven't sent out my Pay It Forward gifts yet! If you signed up and are wondering where your gift is don't worry, I am working on them and will have them out by the end of the summer. I know what I'll be doing this weekend. . . crafting in front of the fan!!!

Intro to Etsy

Have I told you how much I love Etsy? Yes, several dozen times. Since I've been writing about it, I've heard from some of you that you have no idea what Etsy is or you have heard about it but are not too familiar with the site. So, I figured I would start a new category just for Etsy. 

In this new category, I will try to write a post at least twice a month with info about the site and/or showcasing really cool artists and their items. Also, if you have any specific questions about anything Etsy related, email me or leave me a comment and I will answer it in a future post. 

First thing is first, what is Etsy?

According to Etsy's mission statement:

"Etsy is an online marketplace for buying & selling all things handmade. Our mission is to enable people to make a living making things, and to reconnect makers with buyers. Our vision is to build a new economy and present a better choice: Buy, Sell, and Live Handmade.". 

That pretty much sums it up. Though most of the stores do sell handmade items, some also sell craft supplies and/or vintage items. Because of these stores, Etsy has changed their search options to include handmade and vintage stores. We'll discuss searching in a later post.

Etsy first began in 2005, and now hosts over 100,000 stores from the United States to New Zealand. It also just reached 1 million registered users (both sellers and buyers). I think that is a pretty big crafting community!

So, now that we've discussed what Etsy is, what can you do on Etsy?

You can do a whole lot of things, but we are going to focus today on the easiest and most essential one: registering.

Registering on Etsy

Anyone can buy anything on Etsy. You don't have to be a crafter or run your own store, you just have to register an Etsy account and you are good to go. A few things you might want to think about when registering on Etsy for the first time:

1. Pick your username wisely - This is good to remember if you are even remotely thinking of opening up a store in the future. Once you pick your name, that is what you will be known by throughout Etsy. Etsy has a great article on choosing a name. You can read about it here.
2. Don't be discouraged if someone already has your username - When I opened up my new store, Material Girl 80s, I originally wanted to be called "Material Girl". Unfortunately, there were several "Material Girl" stores already registered. I got a little creative and put the "80s" on the end and now have my username. You might want to stay away from similar store names all together. If you do, I would search under usernames and see if anyone has a similar name to the one you want to use.
3. Set up a separate email for your username - I did this first, before registering since you do need an email address to set up your Etsy account. You can use Hotmail, Yahoo, etc. to set up an email that is just used for your Etsy transactions. This isn't necessary, but I find it very useful. 
4. Don't wait until the last minute to register - Say you need to buy a Father's Day present and you have decided you want something handmade. Don't wait until Sunday morning to register. Etsy needs to collect all of your information and send you a confirmation email before you can buy anything. This might have become quicker than when I registered, but my first username took overnight before I was emailed my confirmation.
5. Questions - There are other items that need to be filled in when registering (password, address, method of payment), but they are all pretty self explanatory. If you have any questions with registering, read the "General Faq" section on Etsy for some more info.

You are now on your way to becoming a member of the Etsy community. Take some time to search around the site. There is so much to look at it will feel a little overwhelming, but no worries. In the next post we'll take a look at the Etsy first page and discuss all of its components.

Deck Project - Step 5

So, it turns out that there is no Step 5 for my deck project, Yeah!!! I thought I would have to seal the deck after painting it, but the paint I bought had a sealer in it. It does pay to spend a little more money on good paint!

Instead of forgetting completely about Step 5, I thought I would give a recap and a break down of what it cost me to redo my deck. You can keep this in mind if you decide to work on your own deck.

 

Step 1 - Cleaning the Deck

• $16.00  (deck cleaner)
• $4.00  (Clorox bleach) 
• $13.00 (deck sprayer)

Total $33.00 

Step 2 - Spackling the Deck

• $5.00 (putty knife)  
• $11.00 (wood putty) 

Total $16.00 

 

Step 3 - Sanding the Deck

• $7.00 (sanding blocks)
• $33.00 (handheld sander) 
• $6.00 (sanding squares) 

Total $46.00

Step 4 - Painting the Deck

• $87.00 (Sherwin Williams paint)
• $13.00 (paint rollers and tray) 
• $15.00 (paint roller extender) 

Total $115.00 

Deck project total: $210.00

I can't tell you how happy I am to have this project finished, especially now that it is 105 degrees! I hope my project journal helped you, and if you decide to redo your deck please let me know. I'd love to hear how your deck turns out.

Burning Up

I think this Madonna song is going to be my anthem for the next several days. I too will be burning up, literally. My air conditioner is on the fritz again and I just found out it can't be fixed until Tuesday, TUESDAY!!! Of course, here in the Carolinas, we will be 99 degrees today, Saturday, and Sunday and 98 degrees on Monday. Why do air conditioners always break on the hottest days of the year?

Ugh! So, while Drusilla and I are trying to keep cool (poor little girl is sprawled out on her back with her legs apart strategically placed directly under the fan) here are a few "cool" recipes you might want to try this weekend.

Kraft Foods Southwest Chicken Salad

BHG Iced Tea

Kraft Food Lemon-Lime Layered Dessert

I know I'll be giving them a try. And who knows, maybe the last one will inspire me change my tune from "Burning Up" to "Frozen"!