I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream!

Sometimes, you just have to have some ice cream. The cute little pint sized containers are great for this, especially if you like one kind of ice cream and the people you share your home with like other kinds. The pints also just scream to be eaten straight out of--why bother to dirty a bowl with such a small amount of ice cream, right? But those suckers get COLD if you hold them for too long.

Enter the ice cream cozy. It helps to keep your hand warm while you're eating your ice cream, and it also helps to keep the ice cream itself insulated, so that it melts a little less. Plus, they come in a whole lot of different colors, so everyone in your home who likes ice cream can have their own personal ice cream cozy.

Of course, you don't have to eat ALL of the ice cream in one sitting, but these ice cream cozies still work if you're only having part of the pint. Because again, who wants to dirty a bowl when you don't have to?

Absolute success!

The EtsyRain Holiday Craft show was an absolute success for me. I was selling arm warmers so quickly on Saturday that I couldn't even keep them on my arms! Literally! A woman liked the pair that I was wearing (which I had originally made for myself), and asked if she could buy them, in addition to the other pairs she had picked out. Who am I to say no to such a request? I can always make myself another pair or two. :)

I also sold a LOT of my eyeball cat toys. People were really amused by my jar of eyeballs (I displayed them in plastic jar that once held Parmesan cheese and a baby food jar), and I think the price point for them was perfect. My jar was almost empty at the end of Saturday, so I restocked on Sunday in between making more arm warmers (including two custom orders for vendors nearby).

On top of all of my sales, my shop is looking a little thin in places this morning, since I sent my ice cream cozies, coffee cozies, and remaining cat toys to the Black Door Studio in Everett for their holiday open house on the 28th and 29th.

So I'll be spending my bus commutes for the foreseeable future working on items to restock my shop! I've still got two more shows to do this winter!

Not what I expected...

I made the trek to Telegraph Ave. today, and I don't know if I was just there too early, or what, but it really wasn't what I expected. For those of you in Seattle, imagine the Ave, but with a bunch of chain stores instead of small stores. That's pretty much what Telegraph was like. I was so disappointed.

However, I did finish up the research today, which leaves a bit of work in the morning tomorrow before I begin the trek that will take me home. And then I get to run around like a madwoman to get ready for this weekend. I think to say that I have overbooked my weekend is an understatement. But that seems to be the way of things lately. And as long as I get sleep, it's all good.

Also for those in the Seattle area, don't forget about I Heart Rummage on Sunday, February 1st, at Chop Suey. I'll be there with crocheted roses, cupcakes, and ice cream cozies, for those who would prefer to ignore Valentine's Day. :)

More geekiness

So we've been cruising through the Doctor Who DVDs, and as I was busily crocheting while watching last night, I had a fabulous idea strike me. I rummaged through my incredible stash of yarn, and discovered that said idea was almost 100% a go. Why is that I ALWAYS am missing one color of yarn that I NEED? (Anyone know if Jo Ann's is open on turkey day?)

A couple of years ago, my friend John commissioned me to make him a Doctor Who scarf. For those of you unfamiliar with this object, it is approximately 12 inches wide, 12 FEET long, and involves 7 colors of yarn. I made it for him. I cursed a lot. But I got it done. I sadly have no good pictures of this creation, as it was the money I made from this commission that went towards my new digital camera, and DEAR GOD did the one before that suck. Suffice it to say, it was quite the undertaking.

And I've occasionally pondered making another, and then I've remembered what I'd need to charge for it, and how much of my life it would consume, and then moved on. But my brain flash last night has made it possible to once again make something like that scarf, only a much quicker version.

I'm making Doctor Who ice cream and coffee scarves... :)

Technically, they're the same cozies I've been making, just in those specific 7 colors. I'm thinking of doing a Doctor Who fan pack, that involves a Dalek and one of each cozy, but that's getting a tiny bit ahead of myself. I still need to find the gold/yellow yarn in cotton, which is proving trickier than I'd hoped. But I will figure it out, one way or another, even if it involves doing one stripe in acrylic. :)

And yes, this absolutely proves nothing more than the fact that I'm a big geek. But I'm okay with that. :)

Happy Earth Day!

Interestingly enough, I remember celebrating Earth Day as a teenager, probably in the late 80s or early 90s, when Earth Day was just becoming popular again (or at least I was becoming more conscious of it). I distinctly remember making a recycling bin for paper for my bedroom when I was about 16 or so. I filled it up with paper, and then asked my parents where to take it to recycle it. They had no idea.

Now it's a whole lot easier to recycle. In fact, our apartment building has a single dumpster, but two large dumpsters and a smaller bin for recycling, and another small bin for yard waste (and leftover pizza, we've been told).

At any rate, in honor of Earth Day, I'm running a sale in my Etsy shop. All of the ice cream cozies and coffee cozies are buy one, get one half price! I read a statistic that says that if you drink coffee five days a week for the whole year, and use the cardboard sleeves that the coffee shops provide, that's approximately 6-7 POUNDS of garbage that goes into the landfill each year. (I suspect this is because most people don't remove their cardboard sleeves from their cups when they trash them.) With all the folks drinking coffee in Seattle, that's a LOT of garbage.

Text link now for when the mini changes

So if you've been eyeballing a couple of these, now is the time to buy! :)