Brand New Embroidery Items

Okay, so it's been a while since the blog has been updated. Sorry about that. I've been taking some time to explore different ideas and designs, as well as focus on a few other crafty aspects. I'm very excited about a number of things, but it will have to wait until a little later. I'll write more about all this later in the week, but I wanted to share my newest item with you.




A close up of my newest finished work.




A finished pair of embroidered works.

As most of you already know, I really like nature and trees. I also really enjoy fabrics and embroidery. So these designs made perfect sense for something I'd create. My clutches can be little works of art in themselves, but I know sometimes people may be hesistant to use them for their actual purpose because they don't want to mess up the design. These embroidered hoops are perfect for hanging up on walls and bringing a little handmade look to any room in your place. I'm beginning a series of them and will have more listed in the upcoming days. That's the sneak peek for now. Check back later in the week for a full report and about what all we've been up to!

~Beth

Christmas Craft Shows

One of the best places to look for really great and unique gifts for anyone on your Christmas list is definitely at a craft show. If you're like me, (and if you're reading this, chances are you probably agree with this!) handmade items can be so much better than then generic "I need to give this person a gift, so I'll just grab this thing" type of present. If you're someone who doesn't give gifts to every person who you say hello to and instead only give to family and close friends, then why not really show those people how much you care about them with something handmade? I love making gifts for the people on my list. Although, there is always those people that you have to get something for that don't really appreciate the time or thought that goes into these gifts.

Anyhow, this past weekend, I was a vendor at a local Christmas craft show. I did this show last Decemeber and was pretty excited for this year's show. I always like doing local craft shows around where I live. You get to know a lot of the other crafty people who participate and even get to know some of the repeat customers. I like having people I know who may not be familiar with my crafts, get to see what I really do and how much time I put into it.

The show went very well and was a fun time getting to see everyone. The building the show was in used to be an old bank, so it looked really nice. However, the ceilings were very high and the heat wasn't really working, so it was quite cold. But aside, from that it was a good show. Kinsey and I were able to take a little time during the show to pick up a few things.

Here's some sauces we got for a local company. We ended up getting a mustard based barbecue sauce, a mild sauce, and a spicy sauce. It even came in this little carrying bag.




We also got some Christmas postcards, too. Not your usual happy holidays type of cards, huh? We ended up getting seven different cards.






This was the last show of the year for us, so it's kind of a nice feeling to have a little break. Now I can focus on getting on those gifts made!

~Beth

Thanksgiving Meal and December Already!

Happy December! It’s hard to believe it’s the last month of the year already! As I talked about in the last entry, Kinsey and I were going to make our own Thanksgiving dinner this year. Anyone who has ever had the experience of having to go to multiple Thanksgiving dinners in a single afternoon knows that it can be a little overwhelming. We’ve done that routine for the past three years, and we were anxious to begin our own traditions with the day. Our dinner turned out to be wonderful and very tasty. Here was our menu:

~Herb and Lemon Roasted Turkey Breast
~Cornbread Stuffing
~Sweet Potato Casserole
~Baked Corn
~Cranberry Orange Relish
~Homemade Rosemary Herb Biscuits
~Fruity Red Wine….(I’m not sure of the name offhand or if a fruity red wine would even be considered by wine enthusiasts to be suitable to drink with this meal, but it was quite good. And I’m not even a big fan of wine usually.)

Anyhow, everything turned out well. This was the first time we’ve ever roasted a turkey, (or actually really any large piece of meat….we’re not really big meat eaters.) and we’re thrilled with the finished golden brown bird. Here’s some pictures from our meal:







My favorite Thanksgiving side dishes are definitely the stuffing and cranberry relish. The relish should definitely not be from the can. I used to like the can molded sauce when I was younger, but of course there’s some tastes you outgrow pretty fast. Here’s my own recipe for the cranberry relish I made:

Cranberry Orange Relish (makes about 3 cups)


* 1 12 ounce bag of fresh cranberries
* 1 cup sugar
* 1 TBSP ground ginger
* small dash of ground cinnamon
* 1 navel orange; peeled and cut into chunks


1. Cook cranberries, sugar, ginger, and cinnamon in a medium pan over medium high heat. Stir occasionally until the cranberries begin to burst; about 6-8 minutes.
2. Add 1 cup of water and simmer until thickened; about 5 minutes.
3. Add orange pieces and stir. Keep on heat for another 1-2 minutes so flavors can mend together.
4. Remove from heat and let cool completely. Refrigerate until ready to eat.


This relish turned out really good and I would recommend making a double batch if you’re serving more than four people. Or if you’re serving two people crazy for cranberries.



This is the last day for the after Thanksgiving sales in our shop. Free shipping in the US! Buy two felt ornaments, get the third free! We will be adding a few new items this week, but more will come next week. We have a Christmas craft show this Saturday and are busy getting things ready for it!

~Beth

Thanksgiving and Holiday Sales!

It’s hard to believe we’re in the last few days of November. Of course this is fine with me, because Thanksgiving is definitely one of my favorite times of the year. I love the sights and smells of the day and anyone who knows me, knows I absolutely have an obsession with stuffing. Turkey is fine, but stuffing and cranberry relish is my main thing. This year will be a little different because Kinsey and I will be cooking dinner ourselves. We’re not having anyone over, so there’s no pressure about everything being perfect or getting done at the same time. We will be going over to our families a little later in the day to visit and such, but wanted to have our own little Thanksgiving for the first time. So we’re looking very much forward to it. We just picked up our turkey from the market today. We opted for just a small turkey breast, because it’s just the two of us and a whole turkey seemed like a bit too much. So we’re busy getting together everything we need.
Of course, Thanksgiving brings along thoughts of the upcoming Christmas season. Doesn’t it seem like everyone keeps pushing Christmas earlier and earlier every year? This year, many stores were decorating and putting their Christmas merchandise out before Halloween. Of course, this Friday is the BIG start to the Christmas shopping season frenzy. We have a few specials going on for this week:

Shipping:

We will be offering free shipping in our Etsy store from Wednesday (the 26th) through Monday (the 1st). This offer will only be good with shipping in the US only. We currently have a few sales on different items, so this is a great time to pick up some great handmade items at a really good price!




Buy Two Get One Free Ornament Sale:

Another special sale we will be having is with our felt ornaments. This offer will be good on all individual listings of ornaments. The ornaments typically cost $6 each, but if you buy two at this price, the third will be free. So you will get three for $12. This isn’t good with the ornaments listed in sets. This special will also be good from Wednesday (the 26th) through Monday (the 1st).

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

~Beth

New Ornaments and Clutches

Here's some of the new ornaments I've been working on.


Two Trees Set:



Campfire:


I really like the idea of decorating your Christmas tree in natural, handmade things. Objects like mushrooms, tree stumps and such are all things that can be found in the forest, so it's kind of like you're bringing even more of nature into your house with your trees. The campfire reminds me of nature, too. It's a crucial part of your summer camping trips. This ornaments would really be great on a tree that's decorated with some dried, pressed leaves and some small pinecones.

Another new clutch I just finished is this one:




It was inspired by driving by farmer fields in the summer. The lines and colors are really beautiful and anyone who appreciates
where your food comes would like the clutch.



Here's a close up of the field. If you look closely, you can see little heads of lettuce.

Hope you have a good weekend!

Beth

November already...you know what that means....

Can you believe it’s November already? October is probably my favorite month and it seemed to just fly by. It seems like once November hits, thoughts turn towards the holidays. Thanksgiving is within weeks and then of course, Christmas comes super fast after that. With that being said, I’ve started to work on special items for the holidays. First of course, being the felt ornaments I started to make late last year. My favorite new design is the birdcage one. Here’s some pictures of them:


Here's a close up of one:


And here's a group of the fronts, waiting to be all sewed up:
\

And here's a collection taking over my sewing machine:


I just listed a birdcage ornament and an apple ornament in our Etsy shop and will be adding others hopefully really soon. I'll also be making more of my tree stump and log ornaments, as well as some other new ones for this year. I also have been working on some new winter forest scenes for my clutches, which I'll be showing off soon. In the meantime, here's a perfect fall picture I took the other day:



Enjoy the day!

~Beth

From Sketchbook to Clutch

It should be no surprise to anyone that lately I've been drawing a lot of trees in my sketchbooks. I love the autumn season and how the trees change their color and their shape. I love seeing tall trees with just a few splashes of their colorful leaves still hanging tightly on. I thought I'd share some images from a recent page in my sketchbook to show how I take my ideas from that stage to the finished design.



This first page shows different kinds of trees I've been drawing. I often don't sketch in color. My favorite writing instrument is using a black or blue gel pen - my favorite being a G2. I usually use different pen strokes and cross hatching to show different colors or texture. The tree trees pictured are a pine variety, a maple, and an oak.


Here's a close up of my idea for a clutch with a pine tree. I want the main focus to be the tree, so not a whole lot of little detail will go into the rest of the clutch. I usually do decorative stitching or embroidery, but I like the simplicity of just the tree and grass. The dark area beneath the tree isn't a shadow, but instead will probably be dirt or leaves from other trees.



Here's the finished clutch. The "dirt" underneath the tree ended up being a burnt yellow hue and I added a small patch of brown and pink flower fabric to the one side. I'm really pleased with how the pine tree turned out and the shape that the needles took.

I have many more ideas for similar clutches in this style. I'm currently in the middle of a maple tree with red and orange leaves. I really like playing with the colors of autumn and incorporating these styles of trees into my clutches. I usually do just the botton trunks, so it's nice to change it up a little bit. Hope you've enjoy this look behing the scenes!

Beth