My new Hat Listings

I had an absolutely delightful Thanksgiving holiday. I had some relaxing and enjoyable days with my immediate family and the chaos of Thanksgiving day with the whole Lenox clan. I'll share pictures from the week later but I just wanted to share my new hat listings today. I got my niece Jess to do some modeling for me. She's turning into a real beauty and growing up so fast. She had fun being a super model for a few hours and did a great job I think.

These are the three hats that I have just listed in my Etsy shop. I've decided to build up my shop again as I had 2 sales the past few weeks without even trying including my most expensive scarf/hat set. Perhaps things are starting to turn around for online sales after all.The top hat is called Naturally Pink and was knit with an organic wool with environmentally friendly dyes. I used a chevron ribbed stitch which shows off the colors nicely and has lots of give. The black striped beanie is is called Silk Mountain and is from my favorite yarn brand, Noro. It is a wool, silk, mohair blend and is super soft and warm. And finally the Perfectly Purple Hat was knit with a wool handspun in lovely shades of purple, blue, and green.

She also modeled some scarves too but I haven't had time to edit or list any of them yet. I'll share when I can. It's too bad she doesn't live closer as it would be nice to have such a willing model close by.

Merry Christmas For Me!

Handmade Christmas For Me! by paigegeorge

So the big holiday shopping season is almost upon us. I've already gotten my big gift for the year. My Mom and Uncle got me the Canon Speedlite 430EX, an external flash for my camera, for my birthday/Christmas. I haven't had a chance to play with it much but I'm hoping to put it to use this week with the girls.





I was doing some looking for fun on my two favorite shopping sites since the network is down this week at work and no work is being done of any kind in our office today. I found the two cool widgets at the top of the page. These are books and stuff that I'd love to find in my stocking from amazon and the top one is a list compiled from etsy. I originally made a treasury of it you can find here. But I just discovered the site kaboodle and put together a wish list and made a widget which is easy to add to a site. I think this may become my preferred way of sharing items on my blog. Let me know if you have any troubles with seeing it or slow loading time.

So do you plan on venturing out for any Black Friday Shopping adventures? What are you hoping to find under your tree this year?

Happy Birthday Ani!

I finally feel as though I'm returning to the land of the living today. I have been on antibiotics for 4 days now but it was a seriously nasty infection in my ears and the start of bronchitis in my chest.

November is the month of birthdays around here with Ani's getting the highest priority. We had her friend birthday party on Saturday at the Painted Zebra. It's a paint your own pottery place so they could get creative and messy without the cleanup. I think the girls had a good time painting their trinket boxes. Ani painted an ice cream cone box and made it look like the ice cream was melting down the cone which I thought was very creative.

She's now 10 going on 21 which is troubling at times. Sometimes I catch myself talking to her like she's an adult. I can't remember what I had said but she actually told me one time, "Aunt Paige, sometimes I think that you forget that I'm only 9 years old." She is definitely becoming her own person now which is exciting to watch. She has her own dramatic flair just like her Aunt and I hope that she won't lose that spark as she grows.

This last shot if from her family party a few weeks ago with her Dad.

Mother/Daughter Weekend.

There was a whole lot of mother/daughter bonding going on this weekend. In fact, I would call it the theme of the event for me. I spent more alone time with my Mom than I have years. This was nice, except for the being sick as a dog on Sunday part. The craft show day was cold and windy which was good for my sales but it didn't help my cold much to say the least. I'm still coughing up a storm and just hoping to make it through the day at work.


I had a lot of support from family and friends at this event which made it extra special for me. It's going to be a very Lenox Knits Christmas at the Barnitz household this year for sure. They are the amazingly supportive neighbors and old family friends that bought many gifts to exchange this year.

Lisa and her daughter were going to have to miss the show on Saturday so they came over the night before to get a advance show all to themselves. They had a lot of fun playing in my tubs and frolicking in the knitwear. Kennedy is an absolute doll and she is an excellent model too. I plan on having her do some modeling for me the next time I'm home for my Etsy shop.
I also made a surprising number of stranger sales which was encouraging. I got lots of compliments from Mom's friends but the rest of my sales were to the hip, discerning shoppers of Rolla like this pair here. They were my last customers of the day and two of my favorites. They are future mother and daughter in laws and they had a lot of fun picking out their scarves. They had a nice camaraderie and they let me take a picture with their chosen scarves.




I think that I will probably do this event next year as well. It's a nice change of pace from the indie shows I do and it was a good day for sales to boot. I can almost fit all of my inventory into one tub which is a first in awhile. You can tell that I have had things priced to move this year for sure.

Rolla Holiday Bazaar!

I'm heading back down to the farm this afternoon for the Rolla Holiday Bazaar tomorrow from 9:00-4:00. Mom and I will be setting up my booth bright and early. It will be fun to have her there for the day. Kai is the only person I've ever had help me with a show before. Something tells me that Mom will do less texting and complaining but I could be wrong.

The above shots are from last weekend at the farm. We went down for the annual hunting cabin party. You can see the good ole blue grass band that Dad and my cousin Beth are dancing too in the panning shot. The top one is of my friend Tif riding Bob. We had a very relaxing weekend which I'm afraid won't be the case this time but hopefully it will be worth it.

My Veteran's Day Thoughts

Saying Happy Veteran's Day sounds a bit silly to me but I thought I would share my two family veteran's day pictures. The top shot is my grandfather on my mother's side, Jay Parscale, who fought in WWII. I don't know a lot about his story but I think he was also an Army cook. He is gone now but definitely not forgotten. This handsome young man is my Dad. He was an information specialist in the Marines in the very early days of the Vietnam War. He was sent out on his own for weeks at a time and sent back information via Morse code. He was also there for the buildup during the Cuban missile crisis. He often tells the story of how he was sent across the island during a hurricane to deliver a message and he had to crawl on his hands and knees holding on for dear life. I also know that there are lots of stories that he doesn't tell and wishes that he could forget.

As you may know I am the peace loving type and I dearly wish that there was no need for any young man or woman to go through what my Dad and Papaw had to experience. But until that day comes I'm very grateful that there are people willing to put themselves at great risk for our freedoms.

Bag It Up Giveaway with Lenox Knits!

It's been awhile since I've done a giveaway around here. I thought it was time to do some fall cleaning and chose 3 lightly used bags that I would like to pass onto to good homes. They are all handmade and still in very good condition. I will include a matching wire wrist cuff hand knit by me to each winner.
The bags are each approximately 9" x 12" which is a little small for my everyday bag but perfect for most normal people.

The orange flower purse was the first bag I ever purchased on Etsy in 2007. It was made by Blossom Arts who also works in polymer clay and made the button enclosure. I actually thought about taking the button off the purse and using it on something else but I couldn't bring myself to destroy her vision of the purse since it really is the perfect compliment to the design. I'm including a gold wire wrist cuff with orange and yellow beads.

Supastarr made the blue/tan flower purse in the middle of the top shot. I've bought screen printed tee shirts for Mike from her on several occasions. I'm including a silver wire wristcuff with blue seed beads and shell beads.

I cannot for the life of me remember when or where I got the blue batik quilted purse. I think it may have been at a craft show but it has no tags so I have no idea who the maker was. I'm including a silver wire wristcuff with gray seed beads and shell beads.
I'm keeping the rules really simple this time:

• For the first entry just let me know what you look for in a handmade bag and/or where you bought your last bag. Please include your e-mail address if there is not a link to it on your profile page.
• For an additional entry you may follow my blog with Google Friend Connect. If you already follow just let me know.
• For a third entry you can add my blog to your blog roll and leave a link.
• And finally you can earn another two entries for blogging about the contest. Please give a link to the blog post and leave two comments here.

As always please leave a comment for each entry.

There will be three winners chosen by random number generator on December 1, 2010. I'm opening it to the United States only this time to keep shipping cost down.

I don't really have time for all the promotional efforts that I normally do for my giveaways so your chances should be really good on this one. I'm looking forward to your responses and hoping that there are some other bag addicts out there that will get some good use out of these handmade creations.

Cinderella Project

Details about my giveaway should be coming tomorrow. I don't have the time and energy for a big production this time around but this one should still be fun.

I just wanted to ask you to take a few minutes to vote for a very worthwhile program for girls in need in the St. Louis area. The Cinderella Project collects donated prom dresses and also provides makeup and free alterations for the dresses. They are participating in the Pepsi Good Idea Program. If they are one of the top 10 vote getters then they will receive funding to buy much needed plus size gowns. As a big girl myself now I know how important choices are when it comes to clothes. These girls deserve to have as much fun picking out their dresses as their skinny counterparts.

If you have a facebook account it takes less than a minute to vote. You can vote everyday through Dec. 1 and you can also post it on your facebook page to ask more people to vote if you want to really be helpful.
Here is the details on what they will use the money for.
Overview: The Metro St. Louis Cinderella Project has collected over 4000 dresses from the public in the past two prom seasons. We collect an amazing selection of dresses in sizes 2-12, but as the sizes get larger, the selection of prom appropriate dresses decreases. The young women that are referred to our project are of all shapes and sizes. A lot of the girls we see are needing plus size dresses. Our inventory of dresses in sizes 14 + is limited. Our goal is to have an equal selection of prom appropriate dresses for the plus size girls as there are for the smaller size girls.

Bag It Up

So I finally made my purchase for my new winter bag. I actually went with one that was not part of my post yesterday. I ended up with the Skull Tote in Damask and Paisley by Moka Designs . I really love the rich red and browns and there are a total of 8 pockets and tons of room inside which is what sold me.

I'm sure I will be buying from the sellers in my post from yesterday in the future as I am such a purse slut. I am always shopping around and rarely go back to the same seller twice. Mike says I have a serious bag problem. When I told him I was shopping for my winter bag he asked if that meant I was going to get rid of some of my previous ones. He said "why don't you pass some of your other handmade bags on so that someone else can enjoy them?"

This really got me thinking and I have a giveaway planned that I will be announcing later this week. If you like handmade goodies you should definitely stay tuned for this one.

Big, Bold, and full of Crap

• 

  Recycled Embridered Tribal...

  MadeYouLook2

  $49.00 USD

• 

  Large Wool felted Peace Tr...

  PEACEandLOVE...

  $38.50 USD

• 

  Large - Reversible - Hobo ...

  retrofied

  $48.00 USD

• 

  Miyabags Shiny red--Embroi...

  miyabags

  $52.50 USD

• 

  The Melanie tote-Autumn le...

  SilkandPurpl...

  $50.00 USD

It's definitely time for a new handbag in my world. I've been carrying the same one for over 6 months which is almost unheard of for me. And on top of that it's not even handmade, gasp. I bought it in a moment of weakness at the mall on one of my first trips out of the house after my surgery. I've tried to get my monies worth by carrying it for longer than usual but it's time to let it go and get myself a handmade winter bag. I've gotten it narrowed down to 5 choices. If you want to see all the ones I have considered check out this treasury.

My requirements in a bag are such: It must be big. I carry a lot of crap around and must have something capable of fitting it all comfortably, preferably with lots of pockets to attempt to keep me organized. I need a long and sturdy strap. Too many handmade bags have little straps which just aren't practical in the real world. I prefer if they use upcycled materials as in the first two bags in my choices, but this is not a requirement.

I'm still really torn between a bold pattern like number 1 or 4 and something more earthy and natural like number 2 or 5. I guess it is the classic contrast in my life, between say Mondo's designs and Gretchens' to tie it in to my last post. Number 3 might be a good compromise I suppose and it is reversible which is nice.

So which bag would you pick? I'll tell you tomorrow which one I'm decided on. I know that the fate of the world does not depend on this but on a day like today when many of the decisions we are making in the polling booth are so important a frivolous choice seemed like a nice diversion.