Giveaway: "Denim" Purse

To celebrate Thanksgiving Day this week (and the kickoff of the Christmas season), I'm holding my second giveaway! This time around, I'm giving away this groovy purse:


You have one week to win it -- this giveaway ends on November 30th.

I've crocheted the outside of this bag from fuzzy denim-colored yarn that's a mix of acrylic/mohair/polyester. It has a nice ribbed pattern, and I've lined the bag with actual denim. The top flap fastens with a loop around a bright red- and pink-striped plastic button that says "Be happy" in purple letters.

This bag is 9" tall, 9" wide, and 2" thick. The strap is 2" wide and 39" long. That gives you plenty of room to carry around your stuff, but isn't so big and bulky it'll get in your way all the time.

How can you win this bag, worth $30? There are three ways:

+ 1. Leave a comment here listing your favorite item from my store, www.huggermugger.etsy.com , and either your email address or your blog so I can contact you if you win.

+ 2. Follow my blog. Leave a comment here letting me know you're a follower, plus either your email address or your blog so I can contact you if you win.

+ 3. Post about this on your own blog. Leave a comment here with a link to your blog post, plus either your email address or your blog so I can contact you if you win.

This means you can be entered up to three times!

Enter by midnight on November 30th! I'll draw the winner on December 1st, announce who it is here, and contact them to get their mailing address.

Sound good? I hope so. Be Happy!

A Tale of Two Curtains

It's been six months since my first foray into making curtains, and I have to say I think my second attempt was much more successful!

We'd had these curtains in Daniel's room since we moved here -- they're just beach blankets that I hemmed on one end so a curtain rod could slide through. I made them a decade ago, and while they were better than nothing, I really wanted something more fun for his room.

Well, our local Wal-Mart is getting rid of their fabric section, like so many other Wal-Marts. They're selling off their current fabric at 50% of the regular price, so I bought a few yards of some different fabrics. One of them was an ultra-cute Veggie Tales pattern, and as soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted to make curtains for Daniel's room out of it. They had just enough left on the bolt, thank goodness.

So last week, I sewed up one curtain. I just put a plain white cotton fabric on the back, nothing fancy. But I didn't have time to sew them both, so for almost a whole week, Daniel's room looked like this.

But yesterday I finally sewed up the other curtain and hung it in his room. They make his whole room glow a little bit green, and he loves this fabric so much, he kept trying to pull the curtains right down, so I had to use some leftovers to make him a little bitty blanket to play with (which he now puts over his stuffed animals so they can "take naps").

If you don't know what these Veggie Tales are all about, visit BigIdea.com to learn more. They're computer-animated half-hour shows that tell Bible stories and teach lessons and morals, but in a really fun way. I got into them in college, where a bunch of my friends loved them, and we've got quite a few on VHS and DVD. Daniel loves watching the Silly Songs on YouTube (where Big Idea has their own official channel), and I even got him their greatest hits CD to listen to in the car. We don't let him watch "real" TV or many movies, but Veggie Tales are A-OK by us! (In moderation, of course.) They're the least-annoying kids' edutainment I've ever seen, too. Can't beat that!

"Christy"

I picked up Christy: The Complete Series on dvd a few weeks ago, but didn't get a chance to start watching any of it until today. I put on the pilot episode as soon as the boyo was down for his nap, and pulled out some craft projects to work on while I watched.

I'd forgotton how good this series is! And how much I like Dr. Neil MacNeill (Stewart Finlay-McLennan). And how, the first time I saw Sarah Michelle Gellar on TV, she reminded me of Kellie Martin. I'd watched most of this series when it was on TV 15 years ago, and while my little brother wasn't much of a fan, Mom and I dug it.

Sadly, the pilot lasted longer than Daniel's nap, so I'll have to finish it tomorrow. But I did finish pinning together some little reversible purses I'm experimenting with. Now I just need to find time to pin them together. Two of them are made from this lovely springtime fabric, and I can't wait to see how they turn out!

$25 in 45

While driving to meet a friend for lunch on Saturday, I discovered a Jo-Ann Fabrics. So I simply had to stop in on my way home and scope it out. Forty-five minutes later, I got back in my car, $25 poorer. But look at the awesome stuff I got!

They had some nice sales on yarn, and I got these wool/synthetic skeins for less than $2 each --they're made in Italy and amazingly soft. I might try to knit something with the blue yarn if I ever finish the scarf I'm attempting to make for Daniel. The russet yarn... I'm so making myself something from it, I just adore it. If there had been more than one skein of it, I would have gotten more. I'll have to go back and see if they restock it! As for the orange... dunno yet. I'll think of something!

I also got these fabric quarters for 99 cents each! I've got an idea for a new product for Huggermugger, and this fabric will be perfect for it. More on that new idea as it coalesces.

Yay -- another craft store not too far away! Me happy.

And in other news, Jenn of TheOldOakTree featured me on her blog, 365 Days of Etsy! I haven't had a sale since November, so maybe this exposure will help business pick up a little.

It's Curtains for You!

No, actually, it's curtains for my bathroom. Well, not really curtains, more of a, um, valance thingie? We've lived here for over a year now, and I'm only just getting around to making curtains. This is my first attempt at making them, and I think they turned out fairly well, though I realized after I hung them up that I should have ironed them first. Sigh.

Our bathroom has a Coca-Cola theme (see the shower curtain hooks to the left?) because I collect Coke things and am also somewhat addicted to drinking it :-) I've had this fabric for years, since before we were married, and now I've finally found a way to use some of it. Our bathroom is rather boring, so this adds at least some interest to it.