Finally!

I promised some people I would update when I got the pregnancy and infant loss awareness stuff together. Well, it finally happened. So far I have a bracelet and a necklace.







The bracelets will be $25, and the necklaces will be $30. Anyone interested can see more details and actually order them here. I can also do custom bracelets with Swarovski crystals in birth month colors and a butterfly charm and necklaces with birth month colors and a butterfly charm or a cute silver bead that says angel. I'm even working on a Breath of Hope version with black and crystal Swarovskis and a little gold bee charm. Definitely let me know if you're interested in any of these. Drop me an email at cawebster79@yahoo.com.







Yep--that's right. If you actually click the link I gave you above for the bracelets and necklaces, you will see that I finally jumped in over at etsy. I officially changed the name to Handcrafted by Crystal, and you can find it at www.crystalnale.etsy.com. Yay!! It will be a good little outlet for all the ideas I have rolling around in my head.

Speaking of which...I have another project to share. This one is a felted messenger style bag. This one took a while and a lot of yarn since it had to be so huge in order to shrink it down. I made up the pattern as I went along, and I really like how it turned out. I also broke out the felting needles that had been in my bag for months and worked out the design on the flap. I literally broke 2 needles in the process and decided I'd probably be better off investing in a felting tool with several needles on it. It was a good use for some little pieces of that black yarn I had left over.



I think my husband is hoping I will get all this stuff I've been working on out of my system soon. What can I say? I had been saving it up for so long. Now my problem is that I seriously need to reorganize my space, but I already whined about that--didn't I?

We're going on vacation next week, and I'm looking forward to it. I'm also looking forward to starting fresh with some new scheduling and structure. We've been just floating through for long enough, I think.

Finally... a little something.

OK. I'm trying to get my mind off of the fact that I'm bummed about missing out on the new Fontwerks goodies in the Free goodie Friday over at Scrap Supply. Someone was really fast and beat me to it. I must have these new papers. I don't care if I can't get anything else from CHA, I am in love with them.

Instead of sulking because they aren't available anywhere yet, I tried to take some pics of one of the items I finished for my Etsy shop. I'm hoping to stock up on items to list and then Crafted by Crystal will be open for business. OK, so the name might be a bit hokey, but it explains it all and identifies me and those are two major goals--especially for possible local business. Now I just have to find a way to get a better setup so I can get some great pics to post.



I knitted and felted this little bag a while before Christmas, and then it just sat there. I finally pulled it out this week, made a liner, and then added the flower (which is on a pin by the way) and the handles. It's measures about 6 inches x 10 inches x 4 inches not counting the handles. I love felted stuff because it's so fun to see the process. It ends up being a lot sturdier, too.

Anyway, I hope to be able to get my store up and running in the near future in spite of all the craziness we'll be diving into. We'll see if it happens. Hey! At least I decided on a name. That's a big step for me.

I think I'm almost there.

...almost ready to get back in the groove. I have some possible plans beginning in the spring that are spurring me on a little, but so much is up in the air as far as the near future. I can't really make concrete plans, so I just have some little goals.

I have a few knitting projects I'd like to get done in the next two weeks while we're waiting for the baby excitement to finally be here. I finished up a blanket that I had been working on forever, and I have to admit I'm frustrated with it. Apparently I got off a decrease probably around the time I added the new skein of yarn. It's not so obvious to some, but it glares back at me. It still needs some major blocking, too. We'll see what it's looking like after that. After I finished this one, I realized that I like the pattern for the one I made Jonathan a few years ago so much better, and it's really not that much harder to work.



Since I have to go to the doctor twice a week now, I sometimes take advantage of that opportunity to run in a few places sans 3-year-old. Our new Sam's club opened recently, and I have been slowly uploading pics one at a time to have printed, so I decided to do a test run this morning. I only sent about 6, but it was so nice to see how they came out. It was nice to be able to just walk in the door where the photo counter is the first thing and pick up my already-paid-for, matte prints--no going in and finding out the machine is down...again.

Some of the pics I sent in were several stitched onto a 4x6, so I'll see how that works out with the scrapping. I often want to use more than one pic, but I don't do well with several 4x6s and I can't really crop the ones I like down any. PSE has made the whole stitching process a lot easier, so I'm trying that route.

And then...I remembered that some cute frames I had seen at Target were marked down last week when I was there, but only like 30%. I decided I'd just run in today, and if they were marked down any more, I'd pick up a few. When I got there, the sign still said 50% off, but apparently they were in the process of marking them 75% off. Those little red tags are evil. I just couldn't resist or control myself. Hence the stack I now have to find a place to store until I decided what I'm going to do with them all. I mean, the most expensive one was a 12x12 shadow box for around $4. I love the freedom of shadow boxes! And who could resist the chalkboard frame. It even has a cute little holder for the chalk.



In addition to all of today's excitement, I have successfully spent all of my gift certificates for scrap stuff, taken advantage of some great deals, and cleaned out my paypal account. Needless to say, I should have tons of new inspiration from all my new goodies. I even rearranged some of my supplies and cleaned out a bit more. Since I actually have a stack of pics that have been printed, I really should be able to crank something out now. I think I'm almost there.

Long time...

...no post.

Here's hoping everyone hasn't given up on me. I seriously haven't done more than maybe 2 layouts in the last 6 months, and that was in June I think. So you see, I've been suffering from missing mojo and a messiness that threatens to take over my entire house. I'm getting to the point where I'm going through withdrawal. I must make something--and I have all these ideas rolling around in my head. I actually picked up some supplies to play around with a few of them, so I'm hoping I'll have more stuff to share soon. And if anyone can give me ideas about how to find 8 in x 10 in sheets of metal (something magnetic) or how I can have them cut, I'd be eternally grateful.

So here it is. These are the crafty projects I have managed to squeeze out in the last little while.

The first pic is my spiffy KI covered coupon organizer. I had this gaudy thing stuck in my "basket" (don't tell me you don't have a possibly to be altered or embellished one day basket in your craft space) for probably over a year, and I finally pulled it out to cover when I actually started clipping coupons again the other week.



The second pic is of a felted bag that I finished yesterday. It didn't turn out as well as I hoped due to some washing machine lint issues, but it was a pretty easy project. I worked on it mostly while watching movies and tv for a few days, and suddenly it was done. The yarn is Lopi I bought well over a year ago to make a felted bag, but I never found a pattern. The stripe is actually bright pink IRL. I found this pattern while searching the net one day, so that's what I ended up using. I think I will definitely use it again although I think it would be much easier if you switch to double pointed needles after you start the decrease. It just got too tight in there near the end, and I was using a shorter circular than the pattern says. I made some mistakes near the end, but I didn't sweat it since I the felting hid all that. I think the bag pictured with the pattern must have used a smaller # of stitches in the cast off for the handle because my holes are a lot bigger. That can obviously be easily fixed.



During my hiatus, I did come across all sorts of fun crafty blogs. I love to see what other people are doing. It gives me inspiration, and then I know I'm not so strange. If you know of any good blogs please leave me a comment. I think I'll put up a list of some of my favorites in a day or two.

They say you can tell a lot about a person...

...by what's on their MP3 player. Well, I don't know that you can tell a lot about me, but maybe about who I would like to be. Let's take a peek at what's on mine...

a mod podge of Caedmon's Call from various CDs
Derek Webb's solo stuff (mostly from She Must and Shall Go Free)
stuff from Sovereign Grace Ministries
Shane and Shane Psalms
some various Jars of Clay (love Redemption Songs)
stuff from Indelible Grace
a bit of Fernando Ortega

I only have 512 MB, so that's about it. The way I see it, my mind gets filled with all sorts of junk everyday. I NEED music that is uplifting and reminds me of the big bicture. So there you have it.


Still not much scrapping going on here. Right now we have yard sale stuff in the office/scrap room, so I can't really even get to my desk. Also, my energy has been zapped. Hopefull that will get better soon. Now we just have to figure out how to make room for a baby in our house. Yes, I said baby!

I have been taking my time with ideas for my shop and I'm still stuck on a name. I want something cute and catchy but flexible. I finally pulled out some yarn from my stash and got to work on the needles. I tried some different bootie patterns, but I ended up back with one I have used before for gifts. Here's a peek.



The yarn is a fluffy, wool/angora blend. Don't fret. There is a mate to this one, but I haven't sewed it together yet. I hate that part. Currently on the needles is this sweater in the same yarn.



I hope once we get the extra room cleared out and some more rearranging done (too much HGTV while we were out of town), I'll really be able to get started stocking the store. I have so many ideas, and I'm anxious to see how some of them turn out. Until then, I'll continue to brainstorm!