Too Cute For Words

Through some wonderful luck, I have had the pleasure of working with a few AMAZING photographers this year. I wanted to post a few of the pictures they have graciously given me permission to use, along with their information, in case anyone was looking for a great photographer!

ERAS PHOTOGRAPHY
Amanda does the most amazing work with the little ones! I'm just waiting for the extra $ to get my own kids photos done! You can find her here on Facebook or her website is here.






Stephanie Moon Photography
Stephanie does a lot of photo shoots with animals, and all I can say is WOW! You can tell by her photos that she loves the work she does and seems to have a knack for catching their personalities in print. Check her out here on Facebook or here at her website!

Welcome 2011

Another year has begun, and like most I've made my resolutions, both personal and professional. One of my plans is to revive my little blog and make a valid attempt to update more frequently. I must admit that my Facebook fan page has received most of my attention this past year but I have some big plans for the new year and will shout them from every corner! LOL

So first of all I want to thank all my wonderful customers. 2010 was a great year for me. I had more and more Etsy sales with each month and had several very successful craft shows. There were times when the volume of orders was a little overwhelming but so very very exciting!

I have so many new ideas in my head, I cannot wait to work them all out in yarn. Keep checking back for new designs to celebrate the upcoming holidays, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day and Easter!

Stay tuned....

Can you get it to me by.....?

Wow, I'm behind...again...but I have a good excuse! I HAVE BEEN SWAMPED! I have had more sales in the past 2 weeks then the 5 previous months!!!! I am so excited and exhausted :) Lots of late nights crocheting away to get my orders out in time. Normally I don't have to rush quite so much but I've had a lot of requests that the items make it in time for babies/toddlers halloween costumes. I'm just kind of amazed and in awe that all these littles will be running (riding?) around in an awesome little hat created by me :)

My Mickey Mouse hat seems to be a favorite in my shop right now, especially to the California crowd. I wonder, is it Disney World trips or some of my awesome CA pals spreading the word? :)

So I'm off for now, to make yet another monkey and mickey hat to try and get shipped this evening. My fingers are numb but I'm so happy!!!!!!!!

Toodles!

Facebook Fan Giveaway

SO SO SO CLOSE NOW!!!

I am 4 new fans away from that wonderful giveaway. If you know anyone with a head you should send them on over to 'like' my page. You don't have to have/know any kids, I do adult sizes as well :) I would love to have a winner this weekend!

Happy Saturday!!!

Old Hilliardfest and Other Updates!

Wow, I'm so sorry, I just realized I've been absent from my little blog world for over a month!

Shame Shame Shame! So I'm going to dedicate this post to the craft show and more to follow with other updates and such.

September 11, 2010 was my very first craft show. I spend a lot of time preparing, both to build my inventory and to figure out how I wanted my booth to look. I managed to get a decent inventory made, mostly hats but a few pairs of booties and headbands as well. My mom and dad were wonderful with helping haul all my stuff and helping me set up, Steve was extra wonderful because he stayed at home and got the kids up and dressed and fed which kept them out of the way :)

Sales were slow but I made make my booth fee plus some extra so I consider it to have been a success. Sales were slow for everyone, some didn't sell a single thing all day. People just didn't seem to be buying. A lot of people took business cards to hopefully some will come back to my online store.

We ended up packing up about an hour early because it started storming and the water came rolling across the parking lot. All in all a good day but boy was I tired for days afterwards! I have 2 more shows coming up and need to rebuild my inventory so yarn and hook here I come!

Here are some pictures from my booth setup!

Mom and Dad helping me get the tent and tables set up

My little checkout counter :)

My awesome hat stand!

I had the had in baskets according to size

My booth in whole. I loved the teal shears, you could see my from the other end of the parking lot!

Artist Shout Out

I think its very important in the 'handmade world' for fellow artists/sellers to support each other, as well as spread the word when they find something worth endorsing. I have been meaning to write this post for a long time and have been so busy preparing for the craft show that it keeps slipping my mind when I'm near a computer, so my apologies for taking so long!

Any one who knits, crochets, drinks wine or likes jewelry needs to check out Dee's work at Fyrestorm Creations. You can visit her blog here and her facebook page here, either one should take you to her website and Etsy store. Dee works with polymer clay to make the most adorable wine glass charms, stitch markers, bracelets, etc. I have no idea where she gets the patience because her works is amazingly detailed and teeny tiny details sometimes.

I have 2 sets of her crochet stitch markers. She has sets available (a TON of choices) and also offers a 'build your own set' option. I opted to build my sets each time simply because I would love to have every set she offers so I picked my favorites out and got one of each!


The 5 along the bottom are from my first set (minus a butterfly that is in a project right now) and I have to say that the little purple fairy is my favorite from that group. The top 6 are from my most recent set. This picture doesn't even come close to doing them justice, they are so very very cute in person.

I was also the VERY lucky winner of Dee's blog giveaway earlier this month. The winner got a bracelet of their choosing and I had chosen the cupcake bracelet...I think I was very hungry that day :) Again, so hard to pick because there are several I'd like to have.


This bracelet is so cute and my daughter is fascinated by the little cupcakes and tries to nibble on them whenever she can. I plan on getting her a matching one for her 2nd birthday :)

So there you go, my little blog shout out. Check out her work and see for yourself!

31 days

First order of business: I'm so close to reaching 100 fans on facebook and having my first giveaway. Don't forget to get your friends to take a look and join if they like, the more people that join and then send their friends the faster someone will be a WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER!

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It has just occurred to me that today is August 11th...I am exactly 1 month away from my first craft show! I am both very excited and very terrified. I am feeling a little less anxious about the amount of stock I'll have ready. I've passed my '50 item' goal and with a month left and the 2-3 items a day rate I've been going, I'll be close to 100 in no time. I have a lot of little details that need attended to however, printing of signage, sorting and putting price tags on all the stuff I've done recently, figure out a final layout for my booth, make my t-shirt with my awesome new logo on it :) the list goes on and on.

I did get my AMAZING banner in the mail last week though and should be seeing Mr. UPS man sometime today with my credit card machine. That's right folks, Warm Fuzzies by Cortney will take your plastic! lol I did a lot of debating about that one detail and ended up getting a great set up through propay.com with a very very nice low rate for Etsy sellers, and purchased a 'knuckle buster', aka tabletop old school credit card imprinter, from a company on eBay for less than $20. From most everything I've heard and read from other craft fair vendors, their sales double if they are able to accept credit/check cards and customers are 75% more likely to purchase more than one item for the same reason. I know I never have enough cash on hand at these kinds of things and would dent my pocketbook quite a bit more if that was an accepted method of payment at some shops.

My care instruction cards are here (free deal from kodak.com!) and I snagged some great little lined baskets in purple and teal from a Michael's clearance, not to mention an adorable vintage suitcase at Lazy Daze last month. My plan is to sort the hats my size, not style like I'd originally intended, so I have a basket each for NB-3 months, 3-6 months, 6-12 months, toddler, child and teen/adult. I have made the hangers for the ribbon lined clipped that I finished last month, those will hand from one of the supports. I've decided to try and hang a clothes line along one side (up high to avoid anyone hanging themselves but still able to be reachable) to hang the little headband and sets of booties I'm making, along with a misc. hat or two.

Such details, who knew? Really, when I signed up I thought to myself, 'I have the tables, what more could I need?' I've been swept away! I want to look professional and inviting though so, like most everything I do, I'm getting anal about details and have spent many afternoons planning with my mom on how to set everything up.

I will have almost my entire stock of yarn with me (under a table in a nice dust protected plastic clear tub) and was very lucky when I contacted Caron, the company that makes the yarn I dearly love, and they send me a very professional looking color chart with swatches of every yarn they make. Yay! I plan on taking custom orders and love that people will be able to see for themselves what the colors look like because believe you me, it can be quite a different shade from a picture.

So if you've made it this far, bravo! This was a very long and probably boring to you all post. I hadn't intended to be so detailed and rambly but my fingers took me along for the ride and I was helpless to stop them. My break is over though and I must continue toiling over this ball of red yarn that the cat knocked off the couch and across the floor when I wasn't looking!