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Mother's Day Promo Code in my Etsy Shop

Hey All!

I am offering 12% off at checkout for items in my Etsy Shop, My Life in Stitches.  I have crochet coasters, dish cloths, ornaments and crochet covered beach stones to offer.

Etsy Online labs

I've been a member of Etsy since 2008.  Etsy is a fabulous resource to find all sorts of neat things people are selling.  I love browsing the vintage items and I drool over some of the clothing and accessories - so many creative people in this world!  I love that it is INTERNATIONAL as well.

For my self, I dabbled a bit here and a bit there.  I listed items, I sold items and I purchased from other Etsy sellers.  This is the year I decided to get serious about it.  My decision is partly based on economic and financial reasons

{also reads as I AM UNEMPLOYED!}

The other part is, I just felt the need to explore my creative side.  Now, I don't know where this journey will take me, all I know is that I am enjoying the ride right now. 


Anyhoo....I participated in an online Etsy Lab today, Etsy Success: Developing a Successful Product Line.  Etsy has so many tools and resources to help the online seller.  I learned a few new things today and even had an opportunity to submit my shop, My Life in Stitches for a critique, my shop appears at 19:14 of the video.

More Works In Progress

I finally got around to trying my hand at embroidery.  I am an avid cross stitcher, however, I felt it was time to expand my horizons and explore.  I like anything that has to do with the sea, {Okay, I'll call it NAUTICAL}  I've always liked the Cape Cod Girls Sea Shanty, and took creative liberty with renaming it Gloucester Girls - since I'm from Gloucester!  The next step is to stitch some Codfish Bones and a Mermaid with maybe a crab or two.  Then I will tea stain it - that will also be a first for me.  STAY TUNED!

Works in Progress

 

Along the coast of Massachusetts, we are still experiencing some beautiful weather days.  I packed up my gear and headed to my "other" studio - outside down at the beach, where I get to enjoy this view:

The infamous Greasy Pole of Gloucester.

Life is good!

Time for Tarn, An Earth Day Post

I worked for QVC for almost 12 years.  They were a fun company to work for and I had the tee shirts to prove it!  I had so many and with the recent move we made from SC to MA{downsized!} I was struggling to find room for them.  Enter Pinterest - I LOVE PINTEREST - anyways, on Pinterest I found ideas to help give tee shirts a new life since I really had no reason to wear these tee shirts again.

Before I could begin making the fun things I found, I had to go from this pile of tee shirts

To this pretty basket of Tarn balls.

Here's how I did it:

check out the video on You Tube too! 

• Works best on tee shirt without a side seam
• Begin by laying the shirt out flat and cutting off the bottom seam and the top below any logo. If there's no graphic on the front of the shirt, cut it just below the arm holes.
• You can leave the shirt in two layers as if you were getting ready to fold it, {I like to fold mine in half leaving the inch or so at the fold since I use a rotary cutter} with the closed edges at the top and bottom of your cutting surface and the open edges on the sides.
• Cut the T-shirt into strips the width of your choice. {I like to make it one inch strips}  I wouldn't go narrower than half an inch, though, or the yarn can become less stable.
• The key point about this step is DO NOT cut all the way across the T-shirt; leave about an inch or so at theside along the closed edge uncut.
• When the cutting is done you'll have something that looks like a hula skirt or the fringe from Jon Bon Jovi's jacket, but with the top edge closed.
• The next process is to make a slant cut from strip 1 to strip 2, strip 2 to strip 3 and so on in order to create a continuous strip for the whole T-shirt.
• Roll it all up into a ball and make something new out of something old!

A Stitch in the Weather



My bag of cross stitch goodies.



A BEAUTIFUL DAY!

This was a day not to be spent inside.  There is another change in the weather in Massachusetts and it is a change for the good.


I'm working on some original cross stitch patterns and the beach seemed the best spot to be.  I grabbed my little cross stitch project bag, my iPad so I could listen to A Game of Thorns, my chair and headed to the beach.


Stay tuned for when I roll out my original patterns for cross stitch in my Etsy shop.


The view from my seat of
Gloucester Harbor. 
I was sitting against the wall of the
old Clarence Birdseye building