All artwork and content © 2010 mischiefmaker

All artwork and content © 2010 mischiefmaker
Please do not use images without our consent



Showing posts with label Etsy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Etsy. Show all posts

Friday, December 11, 2015

New voodoo doll holiday ornaments available!

Howdy!
Well, it's been far too long since I've written. Lots of things going on.
For one, I have been working on getting some voodoo doll holiday ornaments done. I was able to make 5 between holiday gift crafting and commissions. Here they are:




So cute! I need to make some for my Christmas tree.
Unfortunately, I probably won't have much time to make anything new for awhile. I will soon be on "maternity leave" because I am having another little mischief maker, due in February. Between a newborn and a three (almost four) year old, I won't have much time for working.
I am 32 weeks as I write this:

I am working on making an Alice in Wonderland theme (with an emphasis on the Mad Hatter) for the nursery. Here's what I have so far:
I think the white rabbit needs a pocket watch.
I have been playing around with different doll patterns so that I can eventually develop my own. Hopefully it won't be too long. So, stay tuned!
If I don't get the chance to write much, happy holidays everyone!
-mischiefmaker

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Awesome Etsy sellers worth checking out

Unfortunately my husband's grandma recently passed away. Although it was sad, it was also nice to have (almost) everyone together in one place. While we were celebrating her life with his huge family (over 30 cousins and many aunts and uncles) I was in awe of what a wonderful family these two people, Grandma Rita and Grandpa Paul, have created.
In the 15 years that I have been with Jesse, I have noticed one interesting thing; his family is crazy talented. No really. TALENTED. There are artists in his family (including him), musicians, aerial dancers, etc. The list goes on.
I am pretty proud that my son shares their DNA.
There are a few who of them, like me, who are trying to make a living being their own bosses and have opened up shops on Etsy.com selling their handmade goods.
I thought I would take the time to promote them and their awesomeness.
First we have Rose who started Fetching Fashions, a collection of unique and colorful dog collars, cat collars and leashes. She designs the textiles herself and can make them in a variety of sizes. They are high quality and made to last.
 
Small Owl Dog Collar

Pink Polka Dot Leash
We bought a couple for our dog Gus and cat Sally.

She is currently running a free shipping Halloween special until November 2nd if you use the coupon code HALLOWEEN2014.
Next we have Rikki's Tropicals run by Natasha. She creates beautiful live plant art using orchids and bromeliads (air plants).
Large Glass Hanging Orb Terrarium
The plants are mounted on a variety of natural materials, hand-blown glass orb, ceramic pots and many other things.
Live Air Plant Wreath
Air Plant Necklace
3 Ceramic Air Plant Vases
We have one of her beautiful creations in a shell in our sun room that we got from her and we love it!
With the holiday season coming up, these would make great gifts for the animal/plant lover in your life. Or yourself!
Check out these lovely ladies' shops and give them some love.
Thanks!

Thursday, January 2, 2014

Crochet Zombie Doll Pattern in the shop now! Woohoo!!

Finally! I have done it! My crochet zombie doll pattern is finally available in my shop! Get yours today!

Wow, that was a lot of exclamation points. I better stop now before I pop a blood vessel or something. I am super excited, though, because I am extremely motivated to work on more patterns and that zombie pattern has been weighing heavily on my mind.
And my son won't take a nap today. I hear him in his room saying "hi!" and "rawrawrawrawr..." It's very distracting.
Anyway, don't forget to sign up for my giveaway here. Come on, you know you want it!

Win me!
I only have one comment so far. ONE. As much as I would love for her to win because she is a dear friend of mine, I was hoping for a chance to use a random number generator.
Don't disappoint me, my lovelies!
Hope you all had a very happy new year!
-Cori

Monday, February 25, 2013

New pattern and an announcement!

Hello!
How are things?
Well, I have a new pattern available. Meet the Gentleman Specter:
He is a dapper fellow with his top hat and scarf. Or you could give him a dunce cap, a cowboy hat, or you could give him a bow and make him a her. He'll be adorable no matter what!
I also have a monster pattern available:
I think I forgot to post about him. This guy here in the picture lives with us. These monsters are great for keeping babies company (as long as you don't use buttons or anything else that could be dangerous for little ones).

Anyway, now for my announcement:
I'm going to try to develop a very detailed zombie pattern to sell!!! Yay!

I've gotten enough requests for it that I've decided to try to write a pattern for it. I didn't want to do it before because I've made up some of the stitches and it's a bit more advanced that the beginner crocheter would have difficulty and I was worried that people would have a hard time understanding it. But, I'll try and just add plenty of pictures :)
But be forewarned - it's not for the faint of heart! Do not attempt unless you are experienced!
(As always, these patterns are for personal use only. Do not sell anything you make using my patterns)
That also means that I will be able to make a pattern for this guy too:
Yay Pumpkinheads!!
I have a lot more sketches in my notebook to make patterns for, so keep checking back for more!
I've gotten a good start on Sam's monster nursery thanks to Rebecca Danger so I'll have to post some pictures when I get more taken, but here's a sneak peek:
Sorry, it's nightime so the lighting isn't the greatest.
I'm planning on making a monster theme for Sam's first birthday (holy-crap-he-is-almost-one!!) so all of these monsters will come in handy. Since he is so young and doesn't know what is going on anyway, I want to keep his first birthday simple and am only going to have our immediate family there. Then when he's older we can do a fun all-of-Sam's-friends-attending birthday party. I hope I don't offend anyone, I just really want to keep things simple for this one. And I don't want to freak him out (my husband's family is HUGE and he knows a lot of people. A LOT). But I'll try to take lots of pictures!
Here's a sample of the party invite I made:
Then I'll add the info at the bottom. Monsters are cute.
Alrighty, I better get to bed. I've been staying up way too late. Hope you have a great week!
-Cori


Thursday, January 3, 2013

New Pattern!

I have finally finished my second pattern for sale: Crochet Voodoo Doll Pin Cushion
Woo hoo!! I am currently planning on trying to make more patterns to sell. I would love to sell the zombie pattern, but unfortunately I feel it would be too difficult to explain since I made up a lot of the stitches and have to alter it as I go.
So, I offer the voodoo doll pin cushion pattern.
I have also added this guy to the shop:
He is my model for the pin cushion pattern.
I think I need to make more girl voodoo dolls, they sell really fast. Huh, I don't seem to have any pictures of them either...
Random side note, I need to find a baby shopping cart cover. Any suggestions? I have been checking Etsy, but those are kind of on the pricey side. Any help is very much appreciated :)
By the way, if anyone is an Evil Dead fan, you have to check out this trailer for it. My brother sent me the link and, as he so delicately put it, "I think I just soiled myself watching this...must...see...in...theater......"
Anyway, I better go to bed. I need to stop staying up so late. Goodnight!

Monday, January 10, 2011

Secrets and new goals

I have no followers yet. *sad face* So I'm basically just babbling to myself. Nothing new there. Maybe it's because I don't have anything interesting so say? I should probably do something about that.
For no reason whatsoever, here is a random photo of me as a little girl:
Anyway, I've been counting down the days until I am officially done with my "real job," though it is hard considering I don't know exactly when I'll be done. The latest I'll be here is May 17th, so I guess I can start there and hope for a sooner end.
I'm done. My mind has officially checked out. The guys who have been the "best bosses in the world" are no longer my bosses. Some corporate clones wandering in and out of the office all day long are my new bosses. I miss Pat walking past my desk and asking me how I am doing with genuine sincerity. I miss Bob's infectious laugh. I miss working for "real" people, not these faceless corporate tools who don't even bother to learn my name but instead call me "Courtney."
I'm finally ready to move on.
This has been an extremely emotional time for me. I had thought I finally found a secure job that I could stay at for as long as I needed to get my own business going (despite my continuous complaining). I was making the most money I have ever made and I had insurance. I was making more than my husband, which was new to me. Of course, considering the fact that he hasn't had a raise in, what? Six years? It really shouldn't be that hard to believe.
I made a mistake. I got too comfortable. I know better than that.
When things start going good for me, I cautiously wait for the bad to come. It's not that I'm a pessimist, it's just been my experience in the past. Balance. Can't have the good without the bad.
But for some reason, I thought it would stay good this time.
When our President announced that they were going to sell our company and that we would be laid off, it didn't really hit me at first.
But now my awesome bosses are gone. I just want to go home.
I had gotten pretty down after finding this all out. I didn't know what I was going to do. I'll spare you the details, but I think I was pretty good about hiding my freak out. Or at least good at hiding how severely depressed I had gotten.
But I should have known, the guys (my bosses, from here on out known as "the guys") wouldn't leave us completely high and dry; they made sure to get us some severance before they made the deal.
After going through numerous emotions and the huge bout of feeling sorry for myself, I decided that no knight in shining armor was going to come knocking at my door and offer take care of me, or just show up and give me a check for a million dollars for knowing how to crochet. I decided that this is my opportunity to try to do what I always wanted to do. Have a career creating stuff and never again have to work for anyone else.
Yeah, we'll see.

I've been doing some soul searching. I've been asking myself difficult questions. I've been getting to know me.
One of the scariest things I have ever experienced was realizing that I am the only one taking care of myself now. I rely solely on me. Could I trust myself?
I guess it's time to grow up and make sure I don't let myself down.
I've been fighting with myself my entire life. I've been trying to make myself into this person that I thought I was suppose to be instead of just letting me be. I'm trying to not do that anymore.
I have always been a solitary person. Sure, there are days when I crave the company of others and dearly miss my friends and family, but for the most part I am as happy as a clam just being in my own world working on my projects. If I don't get time to myself, I turn evil. Literally.

Photo by my lovely friend Amanda Arthur
I'm going to give myself more of what I need. I'm going to work hard and accomplish my goals. I'm going to have confidence in myself that I can make it, because really that's the only way I will. I will never succeed if I have no faith in myself.
I've studying and researching this subject from people who were actually able to quit their day jobs and work for themselves. It takes a lot of hard work and you have to work constantly. You have to start out small. You have to sacrifice a lot. But creating is the only thing that I've ever been really good at. And I love it.
Therefore, I will set goals for myself and rewards for seeing them through. I will unfortunately have to disappear sometimes, so I truly apologize for that, dear friends. Please forgive me? (People who know me well enough know I never stray too far)
But I will make my dream come true. I have to, because I don't know what else I'm going to do.

Goals:
  1. Continue the try to break down the "Wall of Jess" (as in "try to get husband to communicate more")
  2. Finish painting and organizing house, starting with the office (because that is where I'll be working. Duh.) so I can concentrate and actually find things
  3. Finish commissions and take a break from them for awhile
  4. Get new product made for Etsy store
I think that's a nice and simple list for now. No point in overwhelming myself just yet.
So, dear friends, if you see me slacking on these goals, please give me a swift kick in the behind and tell me to get back to work. I need to keep motivated ;)
Life is hard. And scary. I might as well make the best of it.
Thank you so much for sticking with me as I ramble on about my crap. I don't know if anyone is really reading this, but it just feels good to get it out there.
Time to get my act together. Wish me luck!

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Mmm...braaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiins...I mean...scarves!

I've been living in a daze for a couple of months now. I feel like a zombie. It's partly due to lack of sleep. My kitties enjoy wrestling with each other when Jess and I are trying to sleep at night.
I think another reason is stress. I have less than a year to prepare for this wedding and I have so much still to do. I have decided to stuff the flowers with fiberfill to give them more of a shape and it is taking awhile to get it down the stems evenly. That's going to make the flower-making process take even longer. But I did this to myself so I can't complain.
I would really like to start on my Etsy shop if I had the time. I have a couple of scarves made already but probably need to make a few more things before I can start selling.
This is a scarf that I designed myself:

And here's the garden scarf I made from Debbie Stoller's "Stitch 'N Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker" book (http://www.amazon.com/Stitch-Bitch-Crochet-Happy-Hooker/dp/0761139850) :
Now I just need to design a banner for my store and get matching business and thank you cards made.
I found the best website EVER: www.ravelry.com. It is perfect for people like me who crochet and/or knit. I even met a woman from Arvada and she invited me to one of their knitting circle groups. They meet at a yarn shop in Arvada that for some reason I never knew existed.
Ravelry has all sorts of groups that you can join; everything from Harry Potter fan club to a horror group to a Tom Waits fan club to a crafty brewer club. Very fun.
I must say, my work days this week have just flown by because I spend most of my time browsing these groups. Um...I mean working. Yeah. I'm not goofing off at work, never!
Anyway, nothing else exciting going on right now. Except that I keep finding really cool patterns on ravelry that I want to make (and some spiffy Christmas/Birthday presents) but I can't justify working on anything else until I can get a large number of flowers, pygmy puffs, and creepy cute crochet creatures done. And then there's that shawl thingy I want to make.
Sorry this is a bit boring. Maybe when I'm more awake, I can come up with something a little more clever to say.
Until then, I'm going to be a flower making machine.
Goodnight