Back Problems aka Bag Solutions

A little story about my inspiration to make light-weight bags :)

Soooo, maybe not a lot of you guys know this, but I have major back/shoulder problems. It started while I was still working for the fashion company due to stress and just got worse and worse... Till I had to go on pain killers and do lots of physio therapy to solve it. It sounds overly dramatic now, but at the time it was a big issue for me. I think a lot of people go through these things and let me tell you it sucks :P.

It is still a minor issue for me now. Normally, when I go out with Erik he is sweet enough to carry by bags for me even if it is a bright pink faux-Balenciaga, but he isn't always with me. When that happens normally I just have to grin and bear it with a bag that really hurts my shoulders. You might argue that I should not carry a bag at all, but erm hello people accessories=life.

Yes, my loving husband actually carries this around for me.

Any way - recently I began to make my own bags. I wanted something cute that I could carry around without a crazy amount of extra weight. I tired a few things, but they all looked shit and way too 'oh look I am a crafter!' (really not my thing.)

But then I came across this pattern and I am super happy with it!

Sometimes I still get some pain in my shoulder, but now /at least/ it isn't coming from my bag. I am really motivated to keep on making these bags and selling them in my store, not just for people with shoulder back problems like me, but also people who just want cute things :D.

xxxx

GIVEAWAY... yeah that got your attention....

But first... Time for an update. It has been far too long and far too late for me to do this. I find that verbal diarrhea on my facebook page is so much easier, then like putting thoughts into stuff... you know?

Lol okay all excuses aside, things have been going really well. A few weeks back Erik (hubby) linked my site to Reddit and I got some custom orders. It was so awesome! Then more order came in, etc.etc.etc. It was amazing XD.

What was not so amazing was the fact that I bought the entire city of Leiden out of light grey yarn! I tried pre-ordering, but apparently after the month of February grey yarn is not produced anymore (it is a conspiracy!) Sweet lord please tell me why the yarn industry considers 'grey' a seasonal colour? It is not, I worked in fashion, I know this. Where is your constant colour card?!?

Conspiracy!  

Honestly, I have never so many yarn stores in Leiden and I didn't know my greed for yarn till I biked to all of them. For all of you in Leiden, here are some links to the yarnstores / haberdasheries that sell yarn: ´N Steekje Los (this is my favourite I love the lady who runs it, she makes you feel so comfortable every time you go in- even if it is just to pet her yarn collection), Plastic Huis - Boduurshop  (2nd favourite for lovely man who works there and all the crochet/knitting accessroies), Ribbles (the ladies are snooty- good yarn though), Holland Stoffenhuis, Mol en de Groot, Snijders Textile, not to mention the super cheap yarn at the Zeeman or Wibra!

Besides for all of that, I have decided to start pattern writing seriously and also teaching crochet lessons. I sort of need to get out of the house and I think teaching courses will help me meet new people. Once I have the course outlined and the location I will let you all know.

Pattern making? Well yes, one thing I learned from doing the market, is everyone likes my stuff (yes ego), but no one wants to pay for it - they want to make it themselves! Aaaaannnnd therefore I am going to work on patterns for these beauties:

If you love these scarfs and don't want to spend time slaving away crocheting them - they are on sale now at my store!

Well that is all for now... oh yeah.




TLDR - I want free stuff! 

I am giving away this adorable little monster with a bow tie for free! His name is Rick, he has a bit of an ego, but if your bow tie was that cool you would too right?

All you have to do is comment below withsomethingrealnicesoyouwillhaveabetterchanceatwinning and give me your email so I can contact you if you win! If you don't feel comfortable putting your email in the comment box, you can PM it to me via my facebook.

The winner will be drawn on 16 April 2013. All entries are valid till that date!

Till then! xxxxx

Busy XD

Hey guys!

So since my last post, I have been pretty darn busy. It seems like I found my niche and now I am getting a nice amount of orders, which makes me happy. I am so sorry it has been so long since a post and you guys will have to wait a bit longer actually :P. In the mean time, please appreciate the pic spam below:

Update: The Market, The Store, The Life :P

So, I promised a proper update and here it is!

First off, I finally opened up my Etsy store! I am super proud of it and you should all check it out by clicking the widget at the top left of my blog! Also, if you love me (or don’t) and feel like shamelessly promoting my adorable amigurumi to your friends and family – love you long time.

Now for an update on the market – welllll it was a mixed experience for me. The weather was horrible, but I have my mom and my Floor (girlfriend) to keep me company, so in that way it was super nice. Plus, there was the nicest man in the stall next to use who looked like a mix between Santa and Indiana Jones let us use his tarp as cover from the rain, so that was epic.

However, I really didn’t sell that much at all. In fact no one did :S. Some people were saying it is down to the financial crisis and others were saying it was because of the weather, I am just not sure.
It was really a shame, because this was by far the largest handmade market I had been to in Holland. There were amazing stores there with amigurumi, baby stuff, fudge, fresh bread, hats, clothes, really whatever you could thinks of! Dutch weather y u no go away?

There was one beautiful, lovely customer who loved my stuff as much as my ego does and she bought my fox shawl right at the end of the market. It is hard to describe her, but she had cat eye eyeliner and red lipstick - was totally hip and fashionable and the kind of girl that you would hate if you could - but she is too cute and sweet to do so – and deserves this run-on sentence. Plus, she had a really adorable kid with her and so it really brightened my otherwise cold rainy day. SO lady if you are reading this, thank you!

But honestly I am not complaining. For all that whining the day was really fun and I got to meet some amazing people. Also, it was motivation for me to get my Etsy store up /the next day/ because I told so many people it would be -_-.

The most interest I had was in my fox shawl, which I understand cause it is fluffy and nice. So, that is what I am going to focus on next week – coming soon to my store: a fox, a racoon and a ferret! 

What am I going to do this week you ask? I am going to sit on my butt and do nothing because I think I have earned it. After working from 9am-2am every day for the past week, it is time for a break. I need to level my GW2 character:

And I need to play Mass Effect (all of it) again! I have been using the music for my RP chronicle and now I have nostalgia. Femshep will rise again! And I don’t care about the promise I made to myself before about not falling in love with Garrus again. I am going to do it. I don’t care. Our love spans multiple characters and the universe ending again and again. Yes, our love is that serious. Like Rick Astley serious.

I leave you with this:

And this:

Etsy!!!

Hey guys!

MY ETSY STORE IS UPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!

I can't wait to see what you think! Please, check it out now and let me know!

EpicxCloth on Etsy

xxxxxxx

All the unsold products from the market today will be going on Etsy tomorrow. Watch out for the link ^^

Seasonal Shmeesonal

I want to let everyone know there will be a January give-away on my blog to celebrate my birthday. Watch this space and ask friends to check it too if they want free stuff!

So, I am not going to say bah humbug... cause I love Christmas. I love Christmas so much it took me till the age of 9 or something to realize that there was no Santa (and that was just because my dad forgot to throw away packing of toys my mom set up and they got into an argument about it.) Any way, what I am going to say is what is with all the seasonal products?

Okay, admittedly everything I am seeing on my blog roll is awesome. I love the little ornaments and mangers scenes... I want ALL OF IT - going back to my Christmas craziness and how much I love it.. but seriously, it is too much stuff. I know as a responsible store owner, I should start pumping out the Christmas stuff too, but I can't bring myself to do it.

I have made a few ornaments... but they are zombie apocalypse tree ornaments. Work in progress, need more braiiiins:

And a few other sets as well, but something cannot bring me to the spirit of Christmas crafting. In fact, every time I see another picture of a random Santaball it pushes me further away from crafting any of the stuff... It does make me want to annoy my husband and take out the tree early though.

Conclusion: Like many things in life, maybe Christmas crafting is not about you (the maker) but about the cheer you bring to others when they see your red/green interposition! Yay, Kodak moment!

Maybe hearing about scaring stories will make me more in the Christmas-crafting mood. So:

Question: When did you first hear there was no Santa/Sinterklaas? How old were you and any funny stories?