Etsy 1 Year Anniversary Approaching Quickly

Wow. Time does fly when you are having fun! August 5th will mark my 1 year anniversary as an etsy seller and I just can't believe that I have been here a year.

Through this past year I have learned most of the ins and outs of etsy, completed all the necessary paperwork to become a ligitimate business, developed my craft to where I envisioned it and made enough money to keep it going without going in the red! But most importantly, I have made so many friends. Whether chatting in the forums, messaging within treasuries, or working with one of my team members, the etsy community is incredible.

Initially, I was so nervous to acutally open up a shop. I spent hours just looking at all the wonderful art and crafts on etsy as an unregistered user. Two weeks later, I took the plunge and believe it or not my first sale was 2 and a half weeks later. THANK YOU Deebs! http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5043222. I will never forget my first sale!

Etsy makes it so easy to become part of whole. I joined street teams and met so many talented and wonderful people. I currently belong to etsyhookers, FAM (Fabulous Artistic Moms), Etsy For Charity, and Indiepublic. All of which have wonderful team members that show so much support in all ways: professionally, artistically and personally.

But the real reason for this blog entry, is to let everyone know that I am very excited about being around for a year. So, I am offering a simple raffle to celebrate. The prize is this grape bowl that I am most proud of and is valued at $30. This bowl measures 5 inches high and is 5.5 inches wide.

How to enter? Just reply with a comment here in this blog and I will have my husband pick a winner out of a hat. Include your e-mail address and when the winner is picked, I will notify them via e-mail to get the mailing address. There is no need to have an etsy shop - everyone can enter!

Winner will recieve the bowl and it will be shipped to them free of charge. This is totally FREE. The winner will be drawn on August 4 - exactly 365 days from my opening.

Just my way of saying THANK YOU for helping me make it through the first year. And I intend to be around for many more!

Cheers!

Val

Felted Pins ~~ Fun for your jacket or your purse

Felted pins are fun to wear. Put them on your sweater, jacket or top. And they are really cute to pin on your purse for a bit of extra style.

These felted pins are made by crocheting wool yarn and putting it 'through the ringer' a few times in the washer. This process is actually called 'fulling', although many people refer to it as felting.

Once the base is make, the designs are needle felted. This is a process of taking wool roving and a barbed needle and stabbing the roving over and over into the base until the shapes form. Sometime, several hundred stabs are needed.

Custom Orders

I really love custom orders as they give me a chance to design things that I may not have thought of on my own.

I just finished this one and I don't think that I would have tried this if someone didn't ask. And I think it came out rather well!

Bowls

Here are a few of the felted bowls available in my esty shop.

Nesting bowls are great for keeping all your little items organized and still have a coordinated look. These sets are great for home or office and will hold everything for you, ranging from paperclips, buttons, candy and more.

Designer Bowls make beautiful display pieces. These are one of a kind bowls that are beautiful in any room of your home and are great for displaying just about anything, ranging from fruit to nuts.

Simplistic Bowls are perfect for decorating your home in the Adirondack or Rustic themes and look wonderful holding acorns, small pine cones or arranged with other rustic items.

These are all available for purchase at: http://valeriesgallery.etsy.com/.

Please feel free to contact me if you have a particular shape or color in mind.

Crochet vs Knit

Almost all of the items I make for sale start out crocheted. It really is funny, because crochet was never my strong craft. My main love is knitting, although you wouldn't know it from my shops!

Through the years I always had a couple crochet patterns that I liked to make - mainly baby blankets - and it always provided a nice diversion from the knitting projects that I had going.

But since discovering felting, I have found that crocheting felts better for me for the most part and I can get better shapes when I crochet. I have just about flip -flopped and now I long to pick up the knitting needles once in awhile. There is just something incredibly soothing about the click click of knitting needles rythmically sounding off.

Luckily, I found that clutches and coin purses come out much better when knit prior to the felt process. Now I have a well balanced work medium and can still stick to my vision of what my shop can offer. It is a wonderful feeling to be balanced!

Here are some felted clutches available for purchase from my esty shop http://valeriesgallery.etsy.com/

New Booties ~~

I learned of an incredible yarn website from one of my etsy hooker friends recently and I found they carry some really lucious colors in wool. I spent about an hour making my choices, met the requirement for free shipping and then waited impatiently for '3 whole days!" (Which I consider fast shipping, really).

First, I layed out all the yarn on my kitchen table and just admired it. I left it there for quite awhile and my husband really started getting worried that he may not ever sit down to eat again. Every time I would walk by, I would stop and soak in the colors. After I came to the conclusion that we had to eat once in awhile, I moved all the yarns to the living room. Two overstuffed chairs now became the thrones for my wonderful stash, where they remained for two days. By this time, my family was getting a bit tired of sitting on the floor, so finally, I reluctantly moved them to my baskets.

My first project is a sweet pair of booties made of this wonderful blue/green color, which is labeled Tidepool Heather. I just called them raindrops. I hope you like them...



If you use yarn for your craft, I highly recommend visiting Knit Picks - http://www.knitpicks.com/

You can also see these booties and several others in my etsy shop: http://valeriesgallery.etsy.com/

The Sights and Sounds of Summer

Today is the first full day of summer and living in Central New York state, that alone is cause for celebration. Mother Nature may not always realize that the calendar says it is summer around here and it has been documented that snow has fallen from the skies during this season here. But this morning is a perfect day and I couldn't resist taking some photos in my yard.

As I was walking around, the birds were happily singing to each other, the loons were calling and there was a woodpecker doing his thing nearby.

I am not what you would call a great gardner or green thumb. More often than not, what I plant typically dies. But I am lucky that there are some plants around here that the previous owner must have pampered and brought to fruition.

I am amazed at the roses, lilies, liliacs, violets, tulips, dafidols and iris that continue to bloom year after year. And I can't help but wonder about the life the lady of the home had over 100 years ago when our home was a working farm.

The cows belong to my neighbor across the road. They look like they are enjoying the beautiful day... I hope you enjoy the beginning of summer as well!

Post Script: I just had to add this picture of the rainbow that appeared in the evening. The perfect ending to a perfect day!