Please note: This one was by request!

Dear Shayne,

Before you (or anyone else) is totally horrified that I would make this for a soon-to-be-mother-of-twins, I gotta tell you: she asked me for it.

People gasp when they see it, so I'll warn you that it's apparently shocking.

(But they do! See the pacifiers?!)

This is another one from Subversive Cross Stitch (I had previously made this one, remember?)

I modified this pattern by adding another pacifier (twins) and making them blue (boys). They were born this past Saturday and their mom (Hi, Dawn!) got this in the mail on Tuesday. I'm sure she's feeling this sentiment right now!

love,
kelly

My favorite Kaesea photo

Dear Shayne,

I think this is my favorite from the flower/kitty hat photo session. It has a sort of dreamy quality that I really enjoy.

I like how Kaesea seems so studious with the books behind him. Also, do you see the orange blur lurking in the background? That's sneaky Mr. Biscuit, coming up from behind. Heh.

(Click to make it bigger -- I think this one is best viewed larger.)

love,
kelly

This photo needs a caption

Dear Shayne,

Yes, the kitty photos continue. Let's do something fresh today: I think this photo needs a caption. Don't you?

What are Kaesea (left) and Biscuit (right) saying in this photo?


Everyone can play along: write your own caption in the comments!

Who knows? Maybe I'll send you some goodies if you really crack me up! (Psst: I will.)

love,
kelly

Kaesea's class picture

Dear Shayne,

The gratuitous kitty photos continue...

This one looks to me like Kaesea's yearbook photo. Hee hee:


(For the full effect, click to see that larger... his eyebrow whiskers are priceless!)

love,
kelly

Gratuitous kitty photos

Dear Shayne,

I know that photos of Kaesea wearing my crafts make you very happy, so while I am away and our blog is sort of quiet, I thought I would pre-publish a few gratuitous posts that are basically just photos of Kaesea wearing that little flower/kitty hat I made.

(Sorry to anyone not interested in kitty photos -- come back in a couple of weeks for the giveaway!)

I like this one because you can see his fluffy back toes in the background:


He looks so thoughtful in this one (he may be thinking, "How can I get out of this?")


(Click to make those photos larger for closer-up Kaesea Goodness.)

I'll post a few more over the next few days -- will that make you happy? I thought it would!

love,
kelly

Happy Blogiversary to us!

Dear Readers,

It was 2 years ago today that Shayne broke this blog wide open with a rather, erm... colorful account of her exploding glue incident.

A year ago right now, we were wishing Verdelle a Happy Birthday and Kelly was embarking upon the "less fun" scarf (vs. the "more fun" scarf [if you enjoy fun kitty photos, click that link to see Kaesea hamming it up]). That "less fun" scarf really must not be that fun, because she is still working on it. Wow.

We have enjoyed meeting all kinds of new people and sharing our crafts and crafty thoughts with all of you over the past 2 years. Thank you all so much for reading, for commenting, and generally supporting us. We love our readers!

We had big plans to have a reader-appreciation giveaway today, but Shayne's machine died a couple of weeks ago (she's finally got a new one, though -- yay!) (and it's PINK! Double yay!) and Kelly is traveling extensively for the next few weeks, soo... we're going to be very quiet around here while we get ourselves together.

However, we're going to have that giveaway the first full week of October -- and it'll be really good! (We promise!) Check back here on around October 6 for more details. There may be a post or two between now and then, but if there isn't, don't worry about us -- we're here, we're craftin', and we'll be back!

Love,
Shayne and Kelly

I need this yarn

Dear Shayne,

I was flipping through the Lion Brand catalog the other day and came to a screeching halt when I saw this yarn:


Whoa. Is that yarn orange and brown? I gotta see it in person, cause I think it is. I'm not a sock knitter, but for my beloved Cleveland Browns, I may have to buy this yarn and knit some up.

love,
kelly

PS -- Yarn photo taken from the Lion Brand site. The yarn's called Sock-Ease and the colorway is Red Hots.

Yarn giveaway at MVFF

Dear Shayne,

I've posted before (here and here -- remember the cute baby animals?) about Martha's Vineyard Fiber Farm. She's having another giveaway -- this time, it's $50 worth of yarn from her own shop!

It looks like all she has is wool in stock, so if you win, you can just give it to me. ;)

Or perhaps one of our other readers is not so wool-sensitive and would like to try and win some beautiful wool yarn? If so, go right here and enter! (Hurry -- the drawing is Wednesday at 7pm Eastern.)

love,
kelly

Crafts from the past: Knit flowers

Dear Shayne,

Since it's all flowers all the time around here right now, I thought I'd share a couple of knit flowers I have made in the past with you.

This first one is from a Knitty sweater pattern called Folly, which is covered in these flowers (scroll to the bottom to see the flower pattern). It's very sweet -- about an inch and a half across and it looks like a little rose:


The other one I learned to make in a class at the amazing yarn shop Article Pract. I made it out of the most incredible super soft angora-blend yarn -- far too extravagant for a flower, but it sure does feel wonderful:


I did a bad job of cropping these, because that looks the same size as the red one -- it's actually about twice the size (approx. 3 inches across).

I always meant to put these on pins, but never have. They've just been on my bulletin board all this time. Now that I've taken them down, perhaps I should complete the project. Hrmm...

love,
kelly

I'm not very good with glue

Dear Shayne,

I am almost ashamed to admit this, being an avid crafter and all, but... I'm not very good with glue. Whenever I use glue, it gets everywhere. All over me, my project, the office, etc. And glue + felt? Oh, disaster.

So why not try it, huh?

The project I attempted was from the book Nifty, Thrifty, and Kitschy Crafts, by Leah Kramer (Craft Superhero and founder of Craftster). I probably would not have bought this book because there is a baby doll head on the front that kind of creeps me out:


But I'm a big fan of Leah (I fully credit Craftster with my return to crafting after a long mostly craft-free period in my life) and I got to meet her in person when she was on her book tour, so I bought the book then. See how mine's autographed:

(She was really great!)

Since I'm on a flower making kick right now, I thought I would try out the felt flowers. There are patterns for 3 different flowers, but I was really attracted to the Zinnia:


Looks great there, doesn't it? Yeah. Mine is not so great:

(Ugh! Glue everywhere!)

Part of the problem, I will admit, was having the wrong kind of glue. My regular white glue had dried up (from lack of use -- have I mentioned I'm not very good with glue?) so I used some Goop. That's not really the right thing for felt, I know.

But I tried to go forward with it anyway. Then I realized I was failing and abandoned the project to get the right kind of glue (the classic: Aleene's Tacky Glue) but I'm still not happy with my results. As you can see, there are a lot of glue bits all over this thing.

The flower is also kind of bulky, which I'm not crazy about. See how thick it is:


She used a pom-pon, but I didn't have any, so I made a fabric covered button (I forgot how easy and fun those are to make! Whee!) but I think it kind of looks like a nose, which isn't great.

If I try this flower again, I'm definitely going to try sewing it. I'm just not good with glue. Why fight it?

love,
kelly

Sweet little fabric flower

Dear Shayne,

I hope you like flowers, because I'll be posting quite a few in upcoming months. I am wacky and have decided to try handcrafting my wedding bouquet, so I need to start practicing.

Here is one I whipped up last night just to try out the pattern. I think it came out great!


I made it using this fantastic tutorial from Wise Craft. She's a crafty goddess and also seems like a very sweet person, which is always a bonus. If you haven't checked out her blog, you really should.

She used a fabric covered button in the center, but I didn't have the energy to make one for my practice flower, so I used a regular ol' button. I still think it's cute, but I'll probably try a covered button on the next one.

Oh, and here is Kaesea wearing it as a hat. You know, for scale:


(Do I have an awesome kitty, or what?)

love,
kelly

Yay! I made something!

Dear Shayne,

I'm going to blame the heat for melting my brain lately... I have not been crafting much. However, I did manage to make something the other night after the sun went down. Wanna see? Of course you do!

I was inspired by this amazing photo from Flickr friend Little Chrince -- it's her her wedding bouquet. It's fantastic -- I love it!

Through Little Chrince, I found the amazing Etsy seller, Violonjello. (Seriously click on that link to see the lovely things she's making. Look at this beautiful bouquet. Wow.)

I'm almost embarrassed to show you what I have made, after linking to those two amazing artists, but here's my first attempt at a felt flower. I tried not to get too hung up on being perfect -- sometimes that homemade-y look is nice, right?


It's Browns colors (first game is today -- go, Browns!) but I'm not sure what will come of it. It's pretty big for a pin (over 3 inches wide) and I think I'd feel self-conscious wearing it in my hair. But I may try it anyway. This was basically a practice flower, so I'm not getting too hung up on what I do with it.

I used some really beautiful 70% wool felt that I have. It feels great -- so much nicer than acrylic "craft" felt. (I know you'd disagree, Miss Wool Allergy!)

The buttons are from my huge button jar -- I love how that orange button fit perfectly into the dimple on the brown button. You can see that better in this photo:


The back looks awful (messy, messy stitches) so I definitely have to work on that when I make the next one.

love,
kelly

More fantastic packaging: BooDilly's

Dear Shayne,

After raving about Woodmouse Loves Wood's awesome packaging yesterday, I realized that I never told you about the fantastic package I got when I ordered something from Esty seller BooDilly's.

Shame on me! Victoria is an awesome blogger and artist and I truly admire her work (you may remember her from when I won this awesome mini quilt -- remember that? Love that thing!)

I kind of tore into the package before taking photos, but this is what I ordered -- a vintage 200 year calendar:

I don't know why, but I just loved how it looks inside. My first thought was to use it to craft with, but I'm not sure I can tear into it -- how could I properly display such a gem? I may have to think more on it:


She wrapped up my purchase like a gift with a vintage sewing pattern and a ribbon (which I will totally re-use).

She also included a personal note that she tucked inside of an unused card -- so I can use the card again! (What a great idea -- I may have to start doing that myself. Love that.)

Plus, she put her business card in the sweetest little decoupaged envelope. Another item I can (and will!) use again.

Here's the sum of my loot (including, of course, the calendar I ordered):


In addition to BooDilly's, where she sells awesome vintage finds (check out this skull illustration... I am drooling over that!) she also has another shop where she sells her amazing art: The Silly BooDilly. Check it out -- it's so inspirational!

love,
kelly

I couldn't resist

Dear Shayne,

Remember this super cute skunk I told you about a couple of weeks ago? Well, Woodmouse Loves Wood had a sale last week and I couldn't help myself.

I bought him:

(Dude -- the sale is still going on and those suitcases you liked are on sale right here.) (Sorry!)

Bonus: Woodmouse Loves Wood is one of those awesome Etsy sellers who really goes the extra mile and sends you all kinds of sweet goodies when you order from her.

Look at this cute little muslin bag my skunk came in:


Plus, she also sent a little handwritten note and a plantable business card (plant the card and grow wildflowers!) Oh, yeah -- and a card with info on how my skunk was made and also ideas for what to do with the cute little muslin bag: potpourri sachet, a dry snack pouch, a nature walk "treasure bag," and when you are done, it's fully compostable!

It's all just so sweet:


I know I don't "need" that skunk, but... I kinda needed him.
Ya know what I mean?

love,
kelly

Crafty friends rock!

Dear Shayne,

I must admit, I haven't been too terribly crafty lately... must be the heat of summer or just general busy-ness. Fortunately, my good friend Dawn has stepped in to save the day -- she's just sent me something super crafty that I can show off to you right now!

It's this awesome vinyl Nancy Drew pouch:


It's fantastic! She did a great job, including lining the pouch with super-cute Nancy Drew fabric:


And can you see her little label in there? It's her Flickr ID, "You're Fabulous." Because she is totally fabulous!


Wow. All right. I need to get crafting around here so I can show off something I made myself!

love,
kelly