Friday, April 29, 2011

Royal Wedding Hats

Last night during the wee hours as I slept, our DVR was silently taping ABC's coverage of the royal wedding. There is a lot of paperwork to be done today and watching the wedding coverage is the perfect multitasking adjunct to it.

It is worth the watch if only for the hats. At about an hour into the recording, I thought I might have to rewind and start again from the beginning because there are sooooo many fascinating hats! Only the British can wear them with so much panache.

Featured for this morning's blog are a few hats from Etsy sellers from around the globe. One might have seen any of them in the crowd at Westminster Abbey. Leave a comment saying which of these fascinating hats you favor.

Vintage Style Wedding Headpiece by JustineBradleyHill, Leeds UK


Beautiful Handmade Hat/Fascinator by designsbyannalisa, London, UK

Pillbox Cocktail Hat by ArturoRios, Los Angeles, USA

Portrait of a Lady made to order by EstelleAnnabel, Melborne, Australia

Cleo by behatty, Weigendorf, Germany

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Scarf Central

I've made a bunch of scarves lately. Here is an early peak at a couple from my fall line. I'm going to be using a lot of my own handspun yarn this year.


This is the finished hairpin lace scarf you may have seen in this post from February.  The next scarf is a textural number that combines handspun yarn with a thin manufactured yarn. I love combining different types of yarns, especially big fat ones and little skinny ones.



For spring and summer, there are more "Flirty" scarves coming to the store very soon. Here is a sampling. I love making these scarves and experimenting with various fiber and texture combinations. The elongated crochet stitch really shows off yarns and threads.





Monday, April 25, 2011

Hold Your Brains In and Keep on Going

The last thing you want to do is spend more time in front of a computer when for months you've been racking up overtime hours doing exactly that.  You have regularly sat in the same spot all day, intently focused for hours on end, and often forgetting to take breaks.

The routine after you get home goes something like this:
1.  Walk in the door and after dropping your belongings wherever they may fall, stare out the window for a while until you remember your name.
2.  Place a hand on each side of your head, palms just above each ear and fingertips interlaced across the top of your head.
3.  Press and hold your skull so that your brains don't come exploding out of your head to texture the walls with all the tedium and data you've crammed in there.
4.  Get some food and relax in front of the TV.
5.  Work on a project while you watch some more television.
6.  Fall into bed only to awaken in the middle of the night. Spend a few hours trying to get back to sleep and then oversleep when it's time to get up for work.
7.  Rush to the office to park your unexercised, growing butt in its chair in front of the computer again.

Above all, when your day job is consuming all your mental resources, you do not want to be at your own computer at home. Not to add merchandise to your Etsy store, not to write for your blog, not to read the blogs of others, not even to tweet, and often, not even to read your personal email.

Night work in the TV room.

You know the old saying "You've got to make hay while the sun shines"? Figuratively that's what a struggling artist sometimes does when a chance to make good money comes along, even though the job content may have nothing to do with your heart's desire.

What this old adage doesn't tell you is that making haying in the hot sun all day is F-ing back-breaking work! Sitting at a computer all day doesn't break your back, of course. It may screw up your aura, though. (That could be the topic of whole 'nother blog post.)

I'll make good use of the money I've earned, but I sure have missed blogging during the past month. The next post will show some of the twenty scarves that were whipped up at night, another tutorial is in the works, and next week there will be an interview feature of a talented young jewelry designer. Be sure to stop back soon!