Featured on Re-Nest!

I was thrilled to be featured on Re-Nest today! Re-Nest is Apartment Therapy's green living site. Some photos of my felted wool accessories and plush animals were featured and my last felted wool cactus pincushion is now sold! (I'll be making some more cacti and listing them in the shop next week!)

If you're not familiar with Apartment Therapy, it's a great site with a mission of "Helping people make their homes more beautiful, organized and healthy by connecting them to a wealth of resources, ideas and community online." You'll find great ideas for your kitchen, your kids and the latest in home tech. You can even take an online home tour. And they feature a round-up of favorite Etsy shops!

Argyle Love!

Verveinteriors has included my Argyle Plush Cat in this wonderful Eco Argyle Treasury on Etsy!

You can click here to go directly to the Treasury.

And be sure to check out Verveinterior on Etsy for beautiful handpainted floorcloths and art!

Autumn Inspiration

Celebrate Autumn! I live in the Midwest and it's the time of year for Fall Festivals and hayrides, football games and bonfires. Take a trip to the apple orchard, pick out your pumpkins fresh from the pumpkin patch and enjoy some hot apple cider.

Or, just take a walk in the woods through the crisp Autumn air and enjoy the beautiful warm colors of fall!

Where do you live and what's your favorite Autumn celebration?

Featured from the Etsy Bloggers Team : : DesignsbyVanessa

The Featured Blogger, from the Etsy Bloggers Team, for the month of September is DesignsbyVanessa! Vanessa has a self described "obsession for all things birdie!" Her lovely Etsy shop features jewelry and cards, all with a bird theme. Here are a few of my favorites from her shop.

The Darling Swallow Necklace features a lovely amazonite quartz faceted oval bead. I love the color of this stone!

These Pretty Birdie Cards come as a set of three.

And these sweet Song Sparrow Earrings feature
rondelles of rose glass with the antiqued brass sparrow birds. Be sure to check out DesignsbyVanessa on Etsy for more beautiful bird items!

And of course, being a member of the Etsy Bloggers Team, Vanessa has a lovely blog of her own. Her blog features some fun How-Tos, giveaways and interviews with other Etsy artists. Follow DesignsbyVanessa.blogspot.com and don't miss out on any of the fun!

Haute Handbags!

I just received my Autumn 2009 issue of Haute Handbags in the mail and my work is featured! It's fun to see published photos of my handbags!

I had submitted one of my Flower Basket Handbags and a matching zippered pouch and was excited when I found out my work had been selected.

Haute Handbags is a Stampington Publication. Stampington publishes titles such as Sew Somerset, Stuffed, and GreenCraft, and they all feature the work of artists and crafters including photos and step-by-step instructions. The Autumn issue will be available October 1. You can find them at bookstores, craft stores and online. And I'll have the featured handbag set for sale in my shop in October!

Harvest Inspired Etsy Finds

It's Harvest Time. Fall officially begins this week. The leaves are starting to change colors, it's time for pumpkins and squashes and a trip to the apple orchard. Here are a few of my new Etsy favorites found using the search word "Harvest".

The Great Pumpkin earrings by Dkjewels

Harvest Come, print by Marmee Craft


Felted candy corn by Missyandme

Apothecary organic emulsifiying scrub from Gloilocksandbody

and these cute Pumpkin Harvest mini greeting cards by Shesbattydesigns

Christmas Ornament Swap!

Have you ever participated in a "shop swap" or "blog swap"? Audrey, of Audrey's Country Crafts invited me to participate in a Christmas Ornament Swap.

Even though it's still 3.5 months before Christmas, I love Christmas and I'm already making Christmas ornaments for the shop, so I couldn't resist signing up for the swap. I thought you might like to join in the fun!

It's easy to sign up - just go to Audrey's blog, here's the link - Audrey's Country Crafts, click on the graphic on her blog and fill out the simple form. The deadline to sign up is October 15th and anyone can join!

My Work Space

Here is a "behind the scenes" look at my work space. I don’t actually have a real studio space to work in. My husband and I both work out of our home, (he has a small home design and construction business) so we have to try to stay organized in order to not have our work take over the house! We do have one room set aside as an office, with desks, bookshelves, computer space, files etc. And I have a small table set up in a bedroom with my sewing machine. It's right by the window so I have a nice view of the backyard.

This small walk-in closet is dedicated to my craft supplies. This is my latest stash of wool sweaters, felted and stacked by color, waiting to be cut up and turned into something new. There are shelves of other fabrics and small drawers filled with zippers, thread, beads and ribbon.

A couple of days a week I take over our antique dining room table to cut out new designs for my handbags, plush animals and accessories.

I’ve found it helps me stay organized and keep track of the proper supplies for each project if I spend a day or two a week just cutting out wool and lining fabric, and getting all my pieces pressed and ready to sew.

I would love to have a studio space or room to myself, to be able to spread out my sewing and come and go as I please. But having a smaller space forces me to be more organized and much less messy! And for me that is a good thing.

It's fun to have a look into other crafter's work spaces! Folkartbykerry shares creative spaces of other artists on her blog Etsy Studios.

Wildflower Study

I took my camera with me when I went for a walk this evening after dinner. I didn't know if I would see anything I would want to photograph, but I stuck my little camera in my pocket just in case. I'm lucky to have a park adjacent to my neighborhood, complete with walking/biking trails, lots of playground equipment and a picnic shelter by a small lake. In a section of the park, next to a stand of trees, in a naturally low area, the parks people placed a native wildflower/prairie planting. At first glance it might just look like a lot of tall "weeds". And for the most part, other park goers ignore the tall grasses, hurrying past while listening to music, talking with friends or family and walking their dogs. But after getting up close and looking among the tall grasses I found any amazing variety of wildflowers! I was so glad I had my camera.

There are lots of cattails, wild asters and goldenrod.

And lots of vibrant colors and interesting spikey seed pods hiding among the tall grasses.

I was pleasantly surprised at all the wonderful native plants. I guess we all need to remember to try to take a little extra time to appreciate the beauty all around us!

Sneak Peak at New Fall Handbags!

Here's a little preview of what I've been working on this week. I've combined some woven wool fabrics, upcycled from thrifted clothing, with felted sweater wool for some pretty new fall handbags.

I really like the combination of textures from the sweater wool and wool fabric. And it was fairly easy to sew the different pieces together with my sewing machine.

I'm hoping to get a little more sewing done over the weekend and I will start listing my new handbags in the shop next week.

In the meantime, I hope you all have a great weekend!