I Love This Pin Cushion!

This is quite possibly the most adorable pin cushion ever.  

He was carefully needle felted by Judy Johnson of Bay Colony Designs.

Things We Love: kitschavan

It's always a delight to see what people make with the craft supplies we sell.  In this case, kitschavan, in England, has taken simple bottle brush trees and turned them into individual works of art that are a feast for the eyes and sure to delight Christmas lovers everywhere.  She's been bold but discerning in her color choices and layered the trees with tinsel cording and glass balls and then anchored them in great figural ceramic bases that lend themselves perfectly to her trees.  Even Santa and Mrs.Claus would approve!

Do stop by her shop and take a look at her artful creations here: kitschavan

TocameMika: Absolutely fascinating!

It's no secret -- we love seeing our supplies in use.  So imagine our delight and amazement to see this gorgeous fascinator created by Mika of Madrid, Spain.  Dramatic, elegant, and with the most beautiful greens and reds together, this piece took our breath away!

Specializing in fascinators and headbands, you'll find a wide range of colors and shapes in Mika's Etsy shop TocameMika.  Thank you Mika, we love your work!

Free Banners & Avatars for Christmas in July on Etsy

Here is a large group of free banners and avatars for you to use for the upcoming Christmas in July Sale on etsy.

Just click on the image you like to enlarge it to the correct size, then drag it on to your desktop. Banners are sized at 760 px by 100 px and avatars are 75 px by 75 px.

The above banner can be semi-customized with your own text using basic photo editing software.


Here's another pair, one ready to go, the other ready for you to customize.



Here's a more contemporary pair with avatars in several color choices.






We're looking forward to the sale and will be posting more details about how we'll be participating as it gets closer.

A Weekend Tending to the Plants

Cool weather made for an ideal couple of days to spend gardening, and most of Saturday and Sunday were spent in the flower beds pruning, clipping, digging, planting and separating.

My lawn chairs even got a fresh coat of paint -- bright red and a creamy yellow to match the fiery colors that have replaced the irises and other bulbs.

Time not spent in the yard was devoted to adding items to and rearranging our etsy shop, plus a bit of website work and even some sewing. Phew! I'm exhausted! How was your weekend?

And be sure to visit Mary over at Little Red House for more mosaics.

Saturday Embroidery Project

A few days ago Geninne blogged a free embroidery pattern: a line drawing of one of her darling birds. I couldn't resist transferring him to a vintage style cotton tea towel and getting to work.

I tried to choose colors to go with the side stripes without being too matchy-matchy.

You can find Geninne's pattern here on her blog. You can find the tea towel here.

Rebecca's Wedding Bouquet

We love seeing the beautiful creations our customers make with supplies from our shop and were completely blown away by how Rebecca used these flowers. She created her wedding bouquet using various sizes and shades of paper flowers and an elegant silver holder -- absolutely stunning!

She incorporated white star flowers, lemon yellow and aqua forget me nots, yellow marigolds and two kinds of yellow roses. Here's a closer look:

You can find all these paper blossoms and more in our etsy shop.


Thank you for sharing Rebecca and congratulations on your special day!

Mosaic Monday: Springtime Crafting

The calendar may still say winter, but we're getting in the mood for spring and busy filling our Etsy shop with all manner of colorful supplies. From hand made paper roses and forget me not flowers to spun cotton mushrooms from Germany and fancy ribbon trims in satins and velvets, we hope you'll find something that either sparks your creativity or fits right in with a project already underway.

To see more mosaics please visit Mary over at Little Red House.

New Trims, Ribbons and Velvet Ric Rac

This week we're busily adding more trims to our shop -- velvet ribbon, miniature pom poms, and, as pictured above, velvet ric rac! So far, the new colors of pom pom trims are listed, as are the new hues of velvet ribbon. The velvet ric rac however, will be listed tomorrow afternoon (except for this lovely navy, which can be found here). Stay tuned!

The Incredible Bulb & New Etsy Shop Additions

This assortment of blues includes the prettiest blue and white Delft iris.

Planting bulbs in autumn has been a yearly tradition my mom and I have kept for as long as I can remember -- something excitedly discussed and planned for weeks in advance and looked forward to with near-uncontrollable anticipation. This time of year means frequent trips to Home Depot and local garden centers as we hunt for new varieties of daffodils, narcissus and Dutch irises. I think our record is planting something close to like 1,000 bulbs. This year we've come across new (to us) colors of Dutch iris to add to our gardens and have added a few to our etsy shop, too, for fellow bulb fans. Also new to our etsy shop this week are some velvet ribbon trims and delicate miniature pom pom trims in a TON of colors.

Plush velvet ribbon in Royal Blue.

We love this pretty Monet-esque mix of yellows and purples.

This beauty is called "Carmen."

Bright violet velvet ribbon trim does it's best iris impersonation.

"Rosario" boasts a beautiful lilac-hued blossom.

Miniature pom pom trim in Buttercream.