Fall Flowers

October 1! Where did the time go? Since it's hovering in the low 40's in the morning this week, the first frost isn't far away. Sadly, this will mean the end of my favorite garden annual. I like to plant things carefully in the spring and then totally neglect them as they grow wild all summer. I do water, occasionally, especially when I notice the plants laying flat on the ground, wilted and suffering. Zinnias are very cooperative with my method. I start them from seed in the spring and transplant them in May. I usually do 2 flats of them in several sizes and colors and I plant them just about anywhere there is lots of sun

By mid summer they start to bloom and on the first day of school in August, they look lush and awesome. The blooms last a very long time and they really do not mind drought or hard clay soil. Unfortunately, these blooms can't take frost, so I'll probably enjoy them for only a few more weeks.

I also put in some gerbera daisies in a pot that was looking neglected. I first enjoyed these blossoms in my wedding flowers. I think these were on the table arrangements, but I got married a long time ago. I've never grown them, but they seem to have survived nicely even though I haven't watered them in awhile either.

My husband and I also learned that we aren't such good vegetable gardeners. The garden got a white mold all over the squash plants. I know it is an easy milk-water solution to treat this, but we got to it too late. We'll try again next year. Seeds are not a big investment, and it was fun to watch early in the summer. Chocolate zucchini bread is the most delicious quick bread ever.

I hope your gardens are looking beautiful for this last gasp of the growing season!

Craft Social

Last Friday I went to Craft Social in Chicago. (Actually, it was in Evanston, but nevermind...) There were many crafts to choose from including Embellished Dinner Napkins, Advanced Paper Airplanes, Fabric Coil Bowls, Paper Greeting Cards, and many more. The cost was only $5 and it was really fun!



Since I haven't been stitching, I chose a craft that was familiar to me: Felt and Button Flowers. These are really funky and our teacher had a box of lovely vintage glittery things to use as embellishments.



We noted that the felt was sort of floppy and flimsey, so I stitched together two layers for stability.

I don't like to make a big thing about men crafting because I think that men are just as creative as women, but here is a man spotted next to me learning to stitch. His creation has a superhero medallion look to it.

The stitcher next to me used velvet ribbon as one of her layers. It looked very sophisticated, but I didn't get a picture!

It was fun! I hope they have another Craft Social really soon! I could teach embroidered felt mascots!

Flowers in Shop Update

I love having an Etsy shop and It's taking much less time for me to photograph and list items than it did at first. The thing is that they recommend that you try to list things regularly, hopefully everyday to keep your shop visible in searches. I find that I can only really do it in fits and spurts and then my listing goes quiet for awhile. I just can't make crafting for the shop my full time activity.

Don't worry! I'm always ready to ship as soon as an order comes in! It's just the crafting that I can't fully maintain at a constant level.





These are the flowers pins I listed for today, even though in most of the world, it is the off season for wool items. I have several more to list tomorrow too, but I am at least going to try to spread it out over a couple of days. I used my recently dyed wool yarn to make these. I want to keep my shop more fully stocked with offerings. That will be my summer goal!

More Flowers

I added some of my Felted Crochet Flowers to my Etsy Shop.



I also added one of my Monkey Totes:

There is sort of a trick to listing on Etsy. You have to tag everything carefully or items seem to get lost in the masses of listings. I have to get involved in the forums over there to get the skinny on successful selling. There is even a whole board dedicated to it over at Craftster. Obviously the key is self promotion. I think I have to work on that, as all my blogger connections are crafty like me. In the meantime, I checked out the prices for overseas shipments and my things are light so it isn't that much more expensive. Crochet flowers available worldwide!