Happy St. Patrick's Day!

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, I made some green velvet cupcakes last night. I love the way they turned out. Not especially pretty, mind you, but they are GREEN! I sent one with Lil' Kay in his lunch box this morning and half a dozen to day care with Sally. The kids are both wearing their green t-shirts today, and I'm sporting my green sweater. When you've got an Irish last name, you've gotta represent!

Granny a Day Project

I came across this idea on a couple of other blogs (Adaiha and CraftyMinx) and I couldn't resist giving it a shot. My plan is to crochet a granny square everyday for the next year. Chances are it will eventually turn into a granny square every two or three days, but at least I'll be making them. And, there's a good chance that I'll actually make enough to complete an entire blanket.

Every one of my squares is going to be different. I have zero attention span for making the same thing over and over again. Even in my shop, you'll rarely see more than two or three items made from the exact same fabric. I've got to mix it up or I lose interest pretty quickly. The nice thing about the granny squares is that they are small projects, so it doesn't take long to finish each one and feel like I've accomplished something. I'm all about the instant gratification!

When I'm finished, I'll have to attach them all together, and I'm not really looking foward to that, but I'm picturing this fabulous patchwork style blanket where each square is unique and fun to look at on its own. Kind of like my grandma's patchwork quilts. I always loved looking at each individual piece of those to see the varieties of fabric used.

So, wish my luck! These are my first four squares. I have more to show you over the next few days (hopefully, the next year!). I'm on day 10, and still on track!

Times are Changing

For the past three or four years, I have been a proud supporter and promoter of buying and selling handmade on Etsy. Etsy gave me the motivation and means to sell my own creations to the world at large, and I loved it! Unfortunately, the Etsy that I started with is not the same Etsy as it exists today. I no longer feel that Etsy’s goal is to provide a means for small artists and crafters to market their work to a larger marketplace.

Etsy has been making some changes over the past few months that many sellers do not feel are in our best interests. We came to Etsy so that we would have a way of selling our handmade products. We were more than happy to pay our 20 cent listing fees and give Etsy a cut of the final sales price, because we believed in the vision and integrity of the site. We believed that they were truly interested in furthering the cause of handmade and the individual artisan and craftsperson.

Etsy appears to be intent on transforming itself to a social networking site, rather than focusing on ecommerce. I didn’t come to Etsy to join “teams” and create “circles”. I came to Etsy to sell my products. For years, I have watched sellers clamber for tools that will help us grow our businesses. I have seen them beg Etsy to spend money on outside advertising to entice new buyers to our shops. Over and over I have watched as Etsy spent time and resources adding “fluff” to the site, but never really providing sellers with truly useful upgrades. The recent changes do not help me promote my business on Etsy or reach new customers. If anything, they lead people OUT of my shop. I don’t think it’s out of line to suggest that some of the changes border upon the invasion of customers’ privacy.

In light of this, I will be moving the vast majority of my goods to my new shop at ArtFire. I have been won over by the professionalism that I have seen from the owners/founders of ArtFire and the way they respond to their sellers’ questions and suggestions. I am impressed by the seller tools they provide and the effort they make to help sellers sell!

ArtFire isn’t the only handmade venue out there, and I really encourage you to go out and explore the other options! You may find a new place to sell and a new place to buy. Coasting Along, another former Etsian, has taken the time to create a fabulous chart that compares the various handmade venue options that are out there. Look it over and see what works for you. And come visit me over on ArtFire!

A New Stash

I've discovered a new little passion - pre-1980s craft books! One of my favorite places to find them is a shop called Book ReViews in the city where I work. It's a used bookstore whose proceeds all go to local charities. They've got a nice little section of craft related books that I stop in to browse now and then. I mostly look for sewing and crochet books, but now and then something a little funkier might catch my eye!

My most recent trip turned up the three books you see above. The first two were published in 1980 and 1978, respectively, and are full of sewing projects. I love these types of books because although the projects seem kitschy at first glance, some modern fabric and few little tweaks bring them right up to date. Besides, retro is in, right? The third book was published in 1972. It's full of art projects for kids. I love the layout of this book. It's spiral bound and each page is a card with a different project on it. I figure they will make good rainy day projects someday!

I think the main reason I love these books so much is because they remind me of my childhood. My mom had a collection of craft books that I would pore over as a girl. I found so many projects I wanted to create, but of course, didn't have the supplies or skills necessary. As an adult, I can come up with the materials for those projects and give them a try! (It's one of my favorite parts of being a grown-up!)

Now that I have this new little hobby, I can hardly wait for garage sale and auction season to come. I've got new prey!

Something for me!

scarf 005, originally uploaded by BeckyKay Designs.

My crochet skills are definitely improving and that makes me very happy! I am currently working on this scarf for myself. I love the yarn; I love the pattern; I love the way it's turning out!

It's a fairly dense stitch so it's making a nice thick scarf that I think is going to be snuggly warm to wear. I bought the yarn on clearance at Hobby Lobby months ago and decided to break it out for this project. Love the way it is making its own stripes!

Here's the pattern if you want to make one of your own!

Back in the game

I took the last year off from crafting for profit. Sally was born last September, sales were down, and I was TIRED! Then my sister who is my craft show partner announced that she is having a baby in November. So, it made sense for us to sit out this fall's craft show season.

But, after attending a handful of craft shows this fall, I am starting to feel the bug again! And I've started creating. My latest is the Book Corset that you see above. It's a fabric book cover that can be adjusted to fit books of various thicknesses. I've always been hesitant to buy book covers, because I didn't understand how they could possibly fit a number of different books. After some measuring, I discovered that most trade paper books have a pretty standard size for height and width. It's the thickness that varies.

It was actually my very smart husband who suggested using lacing to tighten and loosen the spine of the cover. We worked together on the prototype which had to be stitched and ripped and re-stitched several times, but finally got it right! I'm very excited about this, and plan to also make corsets for mass market paperbacks.

So, come visit my shop! I'm starting to fill it back up with goodness!

The Famous Schmidt Cookbook

My dad comes from a family of nine kids. I have lots and lots of aunts, uncles and cousins! I have first cousins who are closer in age to my parents than to me. I have first cousins once removed that are closer to my age than my kids' age. (And, yes, I'm using that first cousin once removed thing correctly. I looked it up.)

Back in 1986, my aunt collected recipes from all our family members and combined them all into a cookbook. The original Schmidt Cookbook is full of all our favorites. There are little remembrances and quotes interspersed amongst the recipes, and handrawn artwork on the section dividers. This book was so popular, that even people who aren't Schmidts have copies of it.

However, after 20 plus years of constant use, those yellow cookbooks were starting to look a little ratty, and an original family of nine kids can do a heck of a lot of multiplying over 20 years! There began to be dreams of a new cookbook.

Putting together a cookbook is a big task! Or at least it was back in 1986. Fortunately, I found a company that does all the designing and layout for you. You just check the happy little boxes on the order form! So, for the new Schmidt Cookbook I used Morris Press Cookbooks. It completely simplified the entire process and they are very nice people to work with!

All I had to do was collect the new recipes and type them into their system. It was time consuming, but not hard. And, since everyone's old keepsake books were falling apart, I agreed to put all the recipes from the first book into the new one, so we could preserve our first book.




And, this is what we ended up with! Such a pretty book, although not as unique as the version a couple of my cousins and I first envisioned. We wanted it to have an outhouse on the cover. My husband wanted me to call it various versions of "Tastes Like Schmidt", but I lost my nerve.

The most important thing is that all of our family recipes are again preserved. There are 409 of them (recipes, not books). I know, because I typed each of them myself!

We "unveiled" the new book at the Schmidt Reunion in July. Everyone was thrilled with it, although a few were disappointed that I didn't go with Roger's more colorful title.

There are still copies left over, so let me know if you want your own! They're $6.50 a piece. That's only 2 cents per recipe!