Handmade Holidays

I know its early, but I wanted to let everyone know that I will be having a handmade holiday season this year. I did so last year also making the women in my life handbags, and the men, fleece pullovers and PJ bottoms. My girls received nightgowns and American girl doll clothes and coats in addition to other gifts.

I have added some of my favorites from Etsy in a photo mini to the left. These Etsy artists are my favorites because their shops are unique and their products are original and beautifully made. I will change the list every Saturday to showcase a new crop.

This holiday season, check out Etsy for your gifts. Think of all the people you buy for, friends, family, teachers, bus drivers, coaches etc. Etsy has thousands of gift ideas in all price ranges and these are unique gifts that will be treasured more than the standard token gift.

Have a great weekend!

9/11

Today being the 7th anniversary of the most tragic day in my life, I send out my prayers and thoughts to everyone affected by the events of that day. I still remember every detail of that day like it was yesterday.

Please say a prayer that our children will be able to find a way to agree to disagree, and solve problems through words and peace instead of wars.

ramblings about ugly sewing projects

I posted a thread about this at Etsy but I thought it deserved a bit more ranting from me. Why is it that almost every craft magazine has the ugliest sewing projects? The knitting, felting, weaving, beading, ceramic ones are always really nice and up to date. The sewing ones are always tea cozy's, quilted table runners, sweatshirts made into something that my grandmother wouldn't wear, or clothes that would not have been fashionable even in the 60's or 70's!

With the exception of Threads which at times isn't that great, there really aren't any good sewing project magazines out there. Even just covering sewing is rare. There are hundreds of mags on quilting, knitting and jewelry making but only two or three on sewing and some of them aren't that good.

That being said I thought I show off my latest piece:

What do you get when you buy 'Handmade'

A fellow Etsian posted this and I thought it was great. To all those out there visiting craft fairs and looking at handmade items and wondering why you should pay the price they are asking, please keep this in mind.

What do you get when you buy Handmade?
You pay for:
The materials
The time taken to make the piece
The energy (power,heating, and other overheads)
The years the artist has taken to become a specialist in that field
The design of the piece
The talent that hand made artisit has to create the piece

also add that it will probably last longer than anything you would buy at Walmart, Target or any other retail store.

Fall decorating and new ideas

I love the fall! Being a natural redhead, it is my season because the colors work well with my coloring. I can't wait to get out my fall decorations and Halloween things. I am a bit crazed about Halloween. I love to decorate my home inside and out with cool Halloween things. I don't like tacky plastic things, but wooden signs, lifelike rats and crows and cool folk art are so great! I have a 6 foot fake pine tree that I decorate all year round with different ornaments for the different holidays and seasons. It looks so cute in my family room and makes a great conversation piece.

I had planned on getting out my stuff this weekend, but I got into a crafting mode and was sewing all day yesterday. I made a few new pieces that turned out great. Check them out on my Etsy shop if you want to.http://bstauffdesigns.etsy.com/. I have also been busy making some custom orders as well as marketing online and setting up another shop in dawanda http://bstauffdesigns.dawanda.com/. Dawanda is a European site that is similar to Etsy. I figured it couldn't hurt!

I also have someone passing along my shop to a friend of hers who owns a pricey boutique and is looking for handbags. She loved my things and wants to tell her friend about me. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Tropical storm Hannah gave us some much needed rain yesterday and today is much cooler and crystal clear! Now to just get in that crawl space and dig out the fall stuff....

Pets at Work

This is a typical morning in my studio with Bennett my cat and Buddy my yellow lab. As you can see they are hard at work helping me sew and create! My ironing board is constantly covered with black fur and I am thinking of taking up stock in lint rollers. This is the lesser of two evils though; the other being laying right on top of my latest project. How he escapes getting straight pins in his paws is beyond me.

Buddy is my 88lb baby who unfortunately lays right in the middle of the room. This is fine while I am working on the computer, but once I need to start cutting and sewing, moving around can get hazardous. I don't only mean hazardous because of the scissors and rotary cutter I am holding, but hazardous because of his gas problem. God forbid he eats anything other than his food, and the dog is a farting machine. In a small room, its a wonder I haven't passed out and hit my head on something. It really is bad and can actually bring tears to your eyes. But, we love him even though he is lucky he's good looking!

It's another beautiful but hot day here in eastern PA. Here is hoping Hannah will turn out to sea and not damage our beloved Outer Banks!

vintage aprons and being patient

Thank God the girls are back in school! I can finally get some things done without breaking up a fight.

I recently updated my photos in my etsy shop and I think they look better. A friend had told me to just take the pictures with a white background but that looked boring. The photos I changed are now in natural settings and I used eldest dd as model to give perspective which is good.

I got a request for a vintage apron but with a wider bottom so that the apron covers all of the hips. I am going to work on that today which should be fun. I wish more people were into aprons. I love them and they are such a cute fashion accessory. There are plenty of books out there, and magazine articles on this once popular staple, but I guess it depends on where you live.

I want to make some with sweetheart necklines and some ruffles for fun. I saw a shop that had some gorgeous aprons and the woman even has a retro kitchen in which she took photos from so it really added to the nostalgia of the pieces. She has a lot of sales so maybe I just have to be patient. We could use the money though!

I hate being patient. I have all these ideas and I know my stuff is great, but I hate waiting around for someone to discover it and buy it. Hopefully, blogging will help although I admit that I am such a newbie at this I don't know how people are going to be exposed to it.

But, on the off chance that someone, somewhere out there is reading this, check out my etsy shop at http://BStauffdesigns.etsy.com . Let me know what you think.

Have a great week everyone! Buy handmade!