Summer Days and Summer Nights

Wow! What a crazy start to summer! I did two events, a First Fridsy, that went FABULOUS, and another event, the West Park Arts Fest, which did not go particularly well, but was definitely a learning experience.

What did I learn, you ask?

That event managers and organizers sometimes tell lies to get vendors.

To make up for the disappointment that was last weekend, I am gearing up for another battery of events-

June 28th, 9am-1pm
Lansdowne Farmers Market
I will be bringing freshly mixed body products from my new Raw Spa, which you can check out at THE RAW SPA .

The current line of products is called “Jewel of the Nile”, and was inspired by many sleepless nights researching ancient Egyptian cosmetics and beauty aesthetics. See, I just KNEW I would be able to mix my anthropology major with my work!!! I will also have the butterfly and fish hair pins, the little lotii clips, and a few of the Matahari pieces.

July 4th, 11am- 10pm
Philadelphia First Friday, at 2nd & Church St.
Yep, this is going to be a loooooooong day. But in addition to fabulous freshly mixed lotions and potions, and the fun CREASE origami pieces, I will be bringing my awesome, fantastic, wonderful German cousin with me!! It’s her first time in America, and she will be staying with me for two months!! And of course being the great cousin that I am, I thought her first few days here should include a wicked long day in the Philadelphia heat, at what I think is the coolest event in town! Plus, I hear there will be fireworks, two blocks away at Penns Landing! (have I convinced you yet?)

July 12, 10am-4pm
First African Presbyterian Church Summer Market
This is going to be my first time at the FAPC Market, so I’m excited to see what other vendors will be there! Right now I am planning on mostly having the CREASE origami pieces, so lots of butterflies, fish and flowers!

I’m still looking in to more events to do around the area. So if you live around Philly or the Main Line, keep an eye out for us! I might even slide my fabulous blog followers a discount… ::hint HINT::

In addition to that, since there is no such thing as TOO BUSY, at least in my overly caffeinated opinion, I’m starting work on the samples for this fall’s Thing That Go BUMP!! collection. Yes, the collection that I promised last year, and then failed to finish. I am even planning to have a line of body products to go with it!!!

I’m trying to come up with some fun and funky Halloween products. I feel like all-natural, organic body products are frequently stodgey and boring. What do you guys think? What sorts of things do you think of when you imagine Halloween lotions and such? I’m game for any suggestions you can throw at me!

Well, that’s my looooooong over due update. I keep telling myself to keep the blog updated better… I mean, do I really need those four hours of sleep a night, anyway?

Knitting Thursday: The Red Velvet Cupcake Clutch

Ahh, how I love apocalyptic storms! For the past week, every single day, there seems to have been a disaster warning: Floods, tornadoes, twisters, hail, lightning storm, the Four Horsemen- you name it, and there’s been a warning for it. So the weather has been horrible, and since I run amok using SEPTA, I’ve pretty much been hiding out in the house. As if the weather and sudden lack of mobility weren’t bad enough, yesterday I snapped my only pair of glasses in half. I hot glued them back together, since with out them, I can only see three inches past my nose… But it’s only a temporary solution. SO this week, the stress has been high, the flood waters have been high, and Murphy’s Law has reigned supreme.

But enough about me! How many of you guys tried on the crochet pattern? ::waits patiently::

Well, that’s okay, because I tried it out, multiple times, with different yarn weights. I had trouble getting it to look like the picture, mostly because I had never crocheted before, but considering that I learned to crochet on this project, it’s not too terribly difficult, and it comes together faster than I thought.

This was the first one I made- I chose yarns that would match a dress sample I planned on shooting to put in my store. I knitted the entire thing with double strands, using medium weight 1.75 oz. yarn. SO I ended up with a REALLY chunky purse, that reminded me a whole lot of the red velvet cupcakes my boyfriend makes me on my birthday. Because it was so big and bulky and floppy, it doesn’t really hold it’s shape very well. So I’m going to line it with stabilized fabric, so it doesn’t stretch out when I use it. It only took about five hours… and two of those hours I spent cursing the skies because my yarn kept getting snarled and tangled.

This was the second one I made, using a fairly thick crochet yarn. It took a lot longer, since the yarn was finer, and I had some trouble with my ability to use a measuring tape, so it ended up being two inches short of how wide it was supposed to be. But I like how it ended up. There wasn’t any instructions for a wrist strap, but it wasn’t really that difficult to figure out. I just lined it with some scrap fabric from the dress, and am going to sew a little zipper to the top.

The great thing about this pattern is that it can be used effectively with many different yarn weights and yarn types to make different sized bags, without having to change the directions. Assume that a larger yarn will give you a larger bag and proceed from there!

For new readers, here is the link for the pattern: http://www.flickr.com/photos/96766844@N02/8905422138/

If you have any trouble viewing or copying it, just email me and I can email you a copy of it!

Happy crocheting! 🙂