Manly Movies + Inspiration =

Monday night the family all settled down in the living room to watch The Bourne Identity.
Last night we all settled down for the sequel. It was late when it ended, but nobody had anywhere to be today so we stayed put and watched the Ultimatum as well.

Best man-movies ever.
Really. I prefer chick-flick type stuff, but if I'm going to watch a "guy movie," give me some Bourne. Or Mission Impossible. I can do that, too.

Anyway, I'd kind of lost my habit of crocheting while movie-watching. Inspiration left me, so I quit. However, inspiration bit me last night and those two action packed movies left me with this:

Adorable, right? Obviously, the inspiration had nothing to do with what I was watching.
It has 3 pieces - the hat, the bow part (which is just a small rectangle), and the ...uh... part that goes around the bow (which is just a tiny rectangle, plus a loop and a button). This is so that you can :
A) not wear the bow
B) wear the bow buttoned to the side, or
C) wear the bow buttoned to the side & cinch up the edge of the hat to give it a differentish shapeI really hadn't been planning on making it for myself, but... it's so perfectly, exactly what I envisioned in my mind that I don't think I could part with it. Plus, it's yellow. Need I say more?

Unrelated except for the crochet factor is this little owl mask. He's been lying around in my "finished projects" bin for... ever, and today I pulled him out, did a mini photo shoot and listed him on Etsy.
I'm rather fond of him, but I seem to recall my little sister asking "why did you make an alien head?" when I finished him. :|

I also added photos to existing inadequate listings, and I'll be adding a pair of elbow-length gloves to the shop later tonight.

Aaaand, that's about it. I don't really have anything else to add. So, I'm gonna go eat some lunch or something practical like that. lol
Happy Wednesday, friends. :)

Caiti

Ten Days of Listings

What started as a plan to post an item a day for 7 days turned into 10 new items in my shop!
I skipped Sundays.
Here's how it went down:

Thursday, January 7th


Friday, January 8th



Saturday, January 9th


Monday, January 11th


Tuesday, January 12th


Wednesday, January 13th


Thursday, January 14th


Friday, January 15th
January 15th

Saturday, January 16th


Monday, January 18th

Thanks to good lighting on the 14th, I was able to take pictures of all the scarves I already had, subsequently allowing me to continue listing things without having to make anything new. ;-)

YAY!

Thoughts for 2010

So, the new year came in with fun times at the Looneys' house. Coffee, Apples to Apples, fireworks, and the best friends ever.

Upon inspection of my cards, I realized I had an excellent description of the perfect boyfriend.

Upon inspection of her cards, Katie realized she had an excellent description of a typical girlfriend. In case you can't read them: Complicated, Fantastic, Naive, and Phony.

We girls have a mantra for the new year. A little rhyming nugget of inspiration, if you will:

-God will send men in 2010-

I know you're so impressed, aren't you? lol So, I guess we can't dictate what God's going to do, but we can have some active faith going on, right? And it makes us laugh, and laughing is good. :)

Furthermore, my blogworld friend Jess inspired me to make an inspiration board.

I have made a small list in my head of things I would like to do this year. I made a small cork board tonight that I am going to add my resolutions, goals, and inspirations to. I encourage you to make one for yourself as well. Organize your goals and resolutions into an artistic visual piece...put it on the wall in a place you will look at every day. I have mine placed to the left of me as I sit at my desk.

Now to procure a corkboard. Or maybe I'll improvise with an unused poster frame I have. Oh, and lest I forget - some goals to fill it would be nice, too.
Let's see...

• A book a month - plus review/synopsis
• Write random kind notes
• Save a couple thousand dollars
• Read my Bible
• Consistently practice the guitar
  
• Maybe learn some French
  
• Drink more water

What else? I need an Etsy goal. None of those are really "whoa! noteworthy!", but I'm trying to keep it realistic and doable, but something I'll have reason to be proud of at the end of the year.

Ideas, people?

In the meantime, keep an eye out on my shop. I'm going to try to add a new item every day this week! I've already got 3 things finished, so watch for them!

Here's some new things you might not have seen.

Nothing like a good, stripey beanie!


What do you plan on doing this year?
-Caitlin

Re: hats, adjectives, and audiobooks

Wow. My blogging skillz are dying!

**dramatic noooooooo**

At least I'm here though, right?

Just thought I'd drop by and show off some more new stuff in my Etsy shop. Told you I'd jump on that ball, didn't I? ;-)

So, here's the new lemongrass beanie. I can seriously whip up one of these in a few minutes. Minutes, I tell you! Did I ever mention that I love instant gratification?
Perhaps now I need to work on my flower-makin' skillz, because it does look a little plain, doesn't it? But I think it could be a good boy hat, too, and boys don't like flowers.

I also just so happen to be very proud of this "eggplant" beret. I hated purple up until sometime last year. Now I love it. (all purples not included. for example: Barney purple. yuck. Also not a fan of pastel purple.)
I haven't done a good literary post in a while. Maybe that's what I should do next.
I listened to Tess of the D'urbervilles last month. You know why? Because it was the only other audiobook in the library narrated by Davina Porter. I seriously love that lady's narration. The book was fantastically devastatingly, depressingly romantically beautiful.
I'm pretty big on the "ly" adjectives. ;-)
Cumulative adjectives, too.

I'm moving on past Davina Porter, though. I plan to listen to Big Fish this week. It's narrated by some guy. I don't remember his name.

And in case you're wondering what's with the audio books instead of lovely, real-life pages, I shall tell you why. It's because it's awfully hard to read and crochet at the same time. Really, I prefer to read pages than listen to someone else narrate, but when I do so much crocheting the books get neglected.

Sooo... If you'll excuse me, I believe I'll be off to notify the DOR that my business has changed locations.

goodbye!

Crochet Update

It's been a good week, Etsy-wise. And otherwise, actually. But since I can't think of anything to say about the otherwise part, this post shall focus on Etsy happenings.

Sales are up this week! woot!

I didn't think the green vest I love so very much would ever sell, but I was wrong.

Chaucee
at TaylorHouse Designs ordered some custom gloves in navy with mustard trim. They turned out really cute!

One order this week was placed by a name I recognized. Hooray for return customers!! She ordered some blue slippers and black gloves. Turns out, she placed a custom order before, and I never got back with her about it. That's embarrassing. But she still came back! Yay!



In other crochet news, you finally get to see the "fantastically pretty hat" I mentioned in a previous post.


You don't have to think it's awesome, but I'm still thrilled with it.
Since I made it up as I went, I don't have a pattern. Sad! I guess I should try to decode it sometime. However, making it up as I go is fun sometimes, so I did it again.

People keep asking if I've found a new job now that we've moved. I haven't. Just so happens, I haven't been looking. Honestly, I don't plan to. Not yet, anyways. My plan for now is to really focus on my Etsy shop. Make new things, list more frequently, ...I dunno. Try to make my presence a little more known. And I'm looking forward to it. Pouring more concentrated effort into making my little shop work will be fun!

As for this very present moment, I think I need to see if there's any chocolate ice cream left. All of a sudden I feel like rambling, and this post is long enough already. =D

Have a happy week!
Caitlin

Happy Bullets

• We're moving this weekend!
• I own three boxes packed full of books!
• I get to keep my job!
• Today was the first day of school!
• I just now found the new, cool earrings I thought I'd lost!
• Yesterday I finished a fantastically pretty hat.
• I wore my pretty hat to work today, and I looove it.
• My French press and I are getting reacquainted.
• The hairs on my head are now long enough to wear up in a clip!
• God is so good. All the time.

What are you happy about this week?

Driver's Ivy Scally Flat?

Hello! This is a crochet story.
If that doesn't interest you, you may leave now.
(but it does have cool pictures. ;-) I promise.)



So, apparently there are a lot of names for this particular style of hat. I've heard driver's cap, golf cap, ivy cap, scally cap, flat cap... If there are any technical differences between the hat structures, I stand unawares.

At any rate, I've always wanted to make one. I browsed for a pattern a couple times, but didn't really find anything, so I moved on. Then I watched this music video the other day. (Need To Breathe - Washed by the Water) I just kept going "duuude! Their hats are awesome!" through the whole video. Then I decided that I Really Must Make One.

So you know what I did? I did what any sane person would do.
I whipped out Laura's trusty laptop (oh, wait. I already had it cuz I was watching the music video. nevermind.), and started looking for crochet patterns. All of the ones that claimed to be what I wanted were floppy, beret-like things with brims poking off one edge. Of course, that's fine and good if it's what you're going for, but that's not what I was going for. For hours upon end, I searched for a pattern. For hours upon end, I was met with nothing.

Being the brilliant person that I am, I exclaimed, "if I could just find a template of the shapes I'd need - like from a sewing pattern or something - then I could figure out how to crochet them and put them together!" So, I began a search for a template. Or any sort of sewing pattern for a flat cap. Yeah, um... all I got was the medieval muffin sort of flat cap. And one person on Etsy had a pattern. Good for her. But I really didn't want to pay that much for a sewing pattern when what I wanted was a crochet pattern anyways. (It just occurred to me that I'm really dragging this story out.)

When I went shopping and found ZERO cap patterns at the store, I gave up. Looking for patterns, that is. I went home determined to create one without a pattern. Hey, that's how I make almost everything else, right?

Sooo, I pulled out a nice little conductor-y type hat of my own to help me estimate the size my cap would need to be. Then I drew a nice little shape for how the top of my cap should look. Then I found a nice little skein of wine colored wool and got to work. The sides and the brim were a lot harder to figure out than the top. The brim was just a big ol' pain, actually.

Two Star Trek episodes, one Janette Oke movie, and at least 6+ hours of non-television aided work later, I have my SUPER AMAZING CAP!!



I say, folks, I am so insanely proud of this thing.
And that stupid brim gave me fits.
It's a little big on me, and the pattern definitely needs tweaking (that is, if I can reinterpret the chicken-scratch I furiously scribbled as I worked), but I'm very happy with it. It looks just like it was supposed to!!

P.S. Isn't my brother Nick a fantastic model?

P.P.S. I know you were all just dying to find out what the new thing in my Etsy shop was. (that was said with just a smidgen of sarcasm, in case you mis-read it silently to yourself.)








Beautiful red fingerless gloves. Now you know.

Turn Away

Disclaimer:
If you're not in the mood for a sunshiney, Caitlinesque post, now's the time to turn away because some "I could just hug the world" happiness is coming up.

I would like to start off by saying I'm starving, and all I've had today is coffee and a donut. Which has me a little excited but tired at the same time.

Next, I would like to say that choir practice this morning was da bomb. (allow me to channel my inner Randy Jackson for a moment.) There were still a couple rough spots, but we're gonna "blow it out da water" when the time comes. All for the glory of God, of course.

Also, I'm rather happy in general because my bestest-friend-in-the-whole-wide-world-for-as-long-as-I-can-remember is... **ahem**... in a relationship.

Or, to use a sometimes controversial/debatable term:
Courting.
**insert wide eyed gasp!**
And I'm, like, YAY!! Thrilled! (Yes, I sound stupid.)
So. Congratulations to my dear friend Katey and her nice fellow, Terry!
I think he's very lucky indeed.
Dunno what I'd do without my Katey. I know I've mentioned her quite a few times on this blog, and if you ever talk to me "in real life", I've probably mentioned her then too.
She's my anchor friend.
Other people come and go - that's just how life is - but Katey's always been there. And I guess I'll quit praising her so openly on my blog because that might make her uncomfortable.
( I know you're reading this. Hope you're ok with it. I'll take it down if you force me, but I thought everyone should know how great you are. lol)
See what a good friend I am?
Umm... Where was I? ...
Oh right. I've only met Terry a few times but I think he's great too. He makes a fantastic Earl Grey Latte.
May God bless their relationship and use it to bring them closer to Him!
So, yeah. I'm very happy for them, and looking forward to seeing how life is going to continue to surprise me...
:D

However, I would like to say that this has been FREAKY as well as cool.
Because, ... HELLO... this was supposed to happen in the future.
Who told the future it was time to show up?!
Rhetorical questions. Love em.

Tonight I'm going to hang out with more of my awesome friends and go eat horribly unhealthy, delicious food at the Varsity. Then we're going to the Atlanta Passion Play.
I love hot dogs.

The weather is terrible but I'm feeling so cheeryfull that it really doesn't matter.

I also got an email from my dear friend, Rae, who's getting married. It was pictures of her wedding dress and a status update on our bridesmaid dresses.
YAY!

Last night I succesfully reproduced this hat. Which I've been trying to do for ages.
And it already sold.
That's happy too!

Now I'm going to chillax, watch a movie with my family, and try to keep my feet warm.
Have a happy Saturday, dears.
<3
Caitlin

Keepin' em and Breakin' em

Records!
I'm learning how to keep records. yay! I spent a couple hours today downloading CSV files (thank you, Etsy, for keeping track of my sales so I don't have to, and compiling the info into neat little files I can load into Excel!), fixin' up my spreadsheets, adding up receipts, totaling profits, and making sure things are in order. GO ME! When tax season comes next year, figuring out my Etsy stuff should be a breeze. Or let's hope so anyways.

As for breaking them, I've never had this many items in my shop at once.
31 as of right now.
Record broken. (not that I've actually been counting... )

Today I listed a couple of new beanies.

Oh, and I finished those black elfin slippers. And wrote the pattern down so I can make more.

And I guess that wraps up today's update. Just wanted to share my little triumphs of the day.
:)
Happy Wednesday!
Caitlin

Last Weekend

Time for
...**drumroll**...
A picture post!

Obviously we didn't go to Six Flags on Saturday because of the weather.
They didn't open anways. :)
I had a wonderful productive weekend at home, making 9 hats and 2 pairs of slippers.
Behold! The fruits of my labor!

These are way cooler in person. Nine excellent, buttery soft cotton beanies.
Well, 8 beanies and one hat that was supposed to be a beanie, and turned out floppy instead.
Perfect for the upcoming spring and summer weather.
You know how I mentioned wanting to make a hat to wear to six flags? This is it.
Now I have to pick which one I want to keep.

I think I want the super amazing most colorful stripey one.
(the fifth picture)
:D

These aren't the slippers I made, but I've had them forever and finally got them listed:

Elfin Slippers!

I'm going to sit down with them tonight and give them a good lookin' over so I can figure out how I did that. Somebody in France wants a black pair, and I don't remember how I made them.

Now I thought perhaps you might like to see some of the pictures from Sunday.

Pine Needles

Dogwood Tree

Archway

Hungry Birds

Frozen Daffodil

Lovely, eh?
If you'd like to see the rest, try this link.

So! I think that's enough pictures for now.
Goodbye!