Recently I joined to HiP Etsy team. A great group of handmade artists who reside in the lovely Keystone state. I sign up for what is called a "blog carnival" and was asked to write a little something about being a proud Pennsylvanian. This gives me something to think about. I'll start from the fact that the entire time I lived in CA all I wanted to do was get back to the east coast. Now, I'm not sure if I was home sick for PA specifcally or was it the east coast. I don't know the answer to this yet because I haven't lived anywhere else on the east coast. I want to, that's for sure and when I do I'll let you know the outcome. I love CA and it's now my second home. But I'm an east coast girl born and bred and that's hard to forget.

My favorite things about PA would have to been first and foremost the weather and seasons (and I guess these would be things that make me proud too). Those bright clear blue skies with fluffy white cotton ball clouds. Crisp blustery days, when the leaves are dancing. Misty mornings when you catch the best photos. The still quietness just after it snows. When all the trees bloom in the spring - it's a sight for sore eyes. When the leaves turn in the Fall, it blows my mind every year. Wood smoke smell in the air in the Fall. Lighting bugs in the summer. That one day in every season when you can just sense that change is coming. These are just some of the things that draw me here and say Home.

Please check out these other Handmade in PA blogs. On each of these blogs, you can find out other great reasons to be PA Proud. You can also find out how to get a great deal in each of their shops - now through Monday, March 2nd!

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There's been a shop update

Finally is all I've got to say. Check it out. Oh this might as well be a thing-a-day. Probably my last one. It was a fun ride while it lasted. There is some talk about doing a thing-a-week with the Philly Etsy Team. We'll see...

thing a-day -- Day 24

So today I started my tomatoes. Yay! It begins! 36 tomatoes were planted, we'll see how many we get. I'll keep ya posted.

I had a little helper as you can see.

thing-a-day --- Day 23

A little techie thing-a-day. I work on our portfolio all day today. Here's our two pages in the portfolio. They're not finish.It's just a rough layout they still need all their text, as you can see. This is as creative as we got today.

thing a-day -- Day 22

So this is a little sneak peek. It's a gift for someone and I'm not sure how much see she tunes in so I don't want to get much away.

thing-a-day --- Day 20

Spiral

thing-a-day --- Day 19

A new Woolie was finished today. It's a not so Itsy Bitsy Spider with no name yet. But there is a possibility the this little guy will have it's own little movie. It's just a rumor right now though.

thing-a-day Day 18

Oh wow so another two days missed. Well Monday's excuse is that the camera was completely tied up all day and night with our little Elephant Dream movie. Of course I could have done a dig. collage. And yesterday I have absolutely no excuse, I just plain forgot. Sorry.

So anyway I made this little bathroom rug. It's made of scraps of fabric that magically appeared in the mail a week or so ago. My Mother-in-Law Carole had gone with a friend to a fabric shop in LA somewhere and cut a bunch samples and sent them over. The best part of it is I wouldn't of picked these fabrics to go together. I would have spent too much time thinking about what went well together, what matched the best. But instead the object of this project was to use (most of) the fabric in a rug whichever way it fit best. I'm really happy with the outcome.

thing-a-day --- Day 15

pomegranate

Bunsen

Sorry but this boy is the cutest boy...

thing-a-day --- Day 14

Missed a day again. Oh well, it was a busy day. I helped make crab raviolis and heart shaped sugar cookies but no pictures to prove it. But today was my Dad's birthday and we made tamales. I LOVE tamales but they are saved for special occasions (kind of like the raviolis) because they take so darn long to prepare. They're so fun to make with other people, sitting around the table with a bunch of people and a bunch of ingredients. So fun. Now, these are probably the worst pictures but it's all we got.

thing-a-day --- Day 12

Oh boy, getting it done early today. I was going to do an orange collage to go along with my last Red one (Ginger with an Attitude) but it turned out blue and I really like it. It's real simple, simpler then I wanted since by doing these I'm supposed to be exercising my Photoshop (or Gimp) skills and this was just too easy. But when it works, it works and you should stop. Right? They often have a mind of their own. Here ya go - Blue Butterfly...

Sew Good....

Oh thank you to the Etsy newsletter for opening up a whole new world for me by sending out the link to Burda Style an Open Source sewing pattern site. You have no idea much I have wanted something like this. Free patterns, really good patterns, forums, how-to's, blog everything about sewing clothing (and other stuff) patterns. Oh, I'm in heaven.

thing-a-day --- Day 11

Ok so I've had this shirt for a long time now and I just stopped wearing it. I haven't really ever liked the shirt, it's just never fit right. But I LOVE artist who's behind the design on the t-shirt that made me buy it in the first place even though I hated the way fit. I got in France - Tours . The artist is Beatrice Myself and I found her when I had no idea what an "indie artist" was. I don't know if she's still in the same place or what's happening with her and her work because I can't read French. But what I get from the pictures she's still doing awesome looking stuff. Anyway today I compusively decided it was time fix this little problem with these shirt that I really just don't like wearing. And I rather think I improved it and can't wait wear it now. Yay!

thing-a-day Day -- 10

Here we go another thing-a-day. Custom wedding hankies made from the brides Mother's dress for her bridesmaids (they still have to be embroidered). Very lovely, huh?

thing-a-day --- Day 9

Ok so I missed day 8. It looks like I'll be missing a day or two here and there. Some days just pass on by. You see, some days I start something or just work on something and not necessarily finish it. A work in Progress kind of thing. I'm thinking that doesn't exactly fit the thing-a-day qualifications. I may have to stretch it a little sometimes. Here's what was accomplished today. Or well many things were worked on - custom wedding hankies made from the brided Mother's wedding dress but this was the only thing that was actually finished. Tomorrow I'll be able to show off at least one hankie it may not be monogrammed but it'll be finished. And you have to know that mending and I don't really get along well. So this button was put off for about a week and I'm sure it took me all of 5 minutes to finish. Yep.

Just a quick little note

Just so everyone knows. I now have a quick little "follow this blog" button over on the right there under my "Etsy mini". So if anyone is interested in following this blog (getting updates without having check in) just go on over there and give it a click.

thing-a-day --- Day 7 (and 6 shhh...)

Oh well I missed day 6. What are ya gonna do, right? So I'm calling this one a combo 6 and 7. Because it was that good. Our dinner party was a rockin good time. I laughed until it hurt for about 6 hours straight. Raviolis, Cranium and killer chocolate cake!



Our built in bottle opener. Very convenient.

thing-a-day DAY 5!

Hey wow! I made it to day 5! Pretty good for someone who has a hard time keeping up the posts. So the thing I made today was Sweet Potato Raviolis for a little friendly dinner party tomorrow. Yum-O!

Woolies

Anyone who knows me and what I create knows that felties are my thing - little felted creatures is how they're described. And no worries I have not given up creating those little Hedgehogs that everyone loves. For a while now I have been wanting to expand my needle felted creatures and make them a little more one of a kind sculpture type stuff. This stewed around a while in my head as things usually do and then bam! there is was, I knew what they were going to be or at least where to start.
This specific Woolie is the second Woolie bird I created - Grey Bird. The first was a Meena Bird which I'll show off at some other time, this post was really for my thing-a-day but here I am on a tangent. Some others are Fatty Batty Owl and and a little sweet Elephant sadly with one name but! Is the star of an up and coming stop motion movie that we're making called "Elephants Dream". I can't wait to show that off! Woah. Anyway. I finally took some good product shots. And here we are - a Woolie Bird named Grey Bird.

Linus Stopmotion

So Linus likes to hang out in front of the green screen. This would be ok if he wasn't always in the shot.

thing-a-day --- day 3

Ha, I made it to day 3! Yay!

Red.

Today's collage is called Ginger with an Attitude!

thing-a-day --- Day 2

In my usual style I forgot to do day one. Sorry. Here's day two. A little digital collage. I'm actually working on a very intimidating quilt but since I only finish two rows I don't think it qualifies as a thing-a-day. May be I'll save it for when I get desperate.