Wow... an update

I dont even really know what to write about anymore in this thing. Let's see... the house sold and I am back in Ohio. Things have just been insane, and I dont feel like rehashing it all again. All that matters in my husband and I are back together in the same freaking place. I got a new camera, so why dont I show off some of my shots?

I am saving my pennies for a good macro lens for it. It has a decent enough macro function, but I want more. I havent been selling anything on line for a long while now, but I have been trying to destash when I have time over at tophatter, but I find I am buying more than I am selling (which is okay, I guess).
I recently found what appears to be a really fun knitting group and hubby and I have joined a local gaming group... so let's hope we can get some friends soon! Heck, I might even be marching with a person I met through Etsy and is local here.

Long Term Review of Brooksbot75 Skull Purse

I got an awesomely wicked handmade metal skull purse from Brooksbot75 a while ago. I was lucky enough to interview him for my other blog, fell head-over-heals in love with this purse... which I then saved up all my precious pennies to buy to replace my busted and thread bare 'crocheted' purse monstrosity I bought at Target for 10 bucks about a year before to fill the need for a purse. I figured a freaking metal purse would last longer! I got it a little after the first of the year.

It took a little bit of time to get my purse because I ordered it right during the x-mas rush... but I was in no hurry. Pursey (that's what I named him) came with the custom length chain so I could put the purse over my shoulder. I dont know why most purses these days have short straps so that you cannot use both your hands while shopping or have to stuff it in your armpit... again impeding use of your arms. I am one of those crazy people who want a purse securely slung across my body, but I still want to use both arms and hands without having to worry about my purse falling either to my elbow or onto the floor... go figure.

Pursey is lined, which is nice. It saves my keys, pocket book and cellphone from unnecessary wear and lessens the amount of sounds coming from my purse. My purse does squeak on occasion (from the movement of the chain... think school yard swings) but that is easily stopped by resting hand on top of his very touchable cranium. I know that I am constantly fingering his smooth metal surface and tracing his copper grommets! This 'chrome dome' makes a great drum to pass the time, too!

Pursey is heavy, but it almost all comes from the chain. The chain is steel, while the purse itself is lightweight aluminum. I plan on some day replacing the chain with a leather equivalent to lighten the load. This purse, as a bonus, could definitely be used as a self defense weapon if needed. (I need to level up so I can get WP Chain.... gamer geek humor there) Given that it is a metal skull, I would imagine that that would also be a theft deterrent.

Pursey is a bit small inside. I can only fit my small pocket book, basic cellphone and my keys in him. That is okay with me, I have always been drawn to small purses. The opening mechanism is simple, but I believed it has been redesigned a bit (I have the first version of this purse, and I believe Brooksbot75 is onto a second version) I still like it. It can open unexpectedly if you bump it just right, so be warned.

Random people comment about him all the time. I frequently get "Is that a purse?", "Cool skull!" and "Did you make that?" from all kinds of people. I have even had people ask to take pictures of my purse with their cellphones!

Overall Impression:
Pros: Awesome design, small, graphic, can be a weapon, eye-catching, decent price, handmade.
Cons: Can be a bit heavy with the steel chain, can open unexpectedly, small, watch out when around things that can scratch... like the paint jobs on cars.

A trip to the Odder Side!

I just started a new blog that will feature all the odd, strange, gross and crazy things and people I love on etsy! Take a second and check it out!
Celebrate Odd Etsy!

New Shop!

I am going to officially announce that I am opening a second shop that will focus on fiber goods of all kinds: Fuzzy Hearts Yarn! It will (eventually) have all my knitted and crocheted goods, handmade needles, hand spun yarns, stitch markers, destashes... and what ever else I think might fit. I hope I can keep two shops straight... because that is my biggest fear that kept me from opening two shops for a long time. I felt that my first shop was just too cluttered and it was time. I will slowly be adding stuff from my current shop into my new one as they expire and list new stuff directly to my new shop. My first item is a lovely hat, if anyone is interested!

WIP: Felt and beaded double sided headband done!

I had this idea a while back for a felt headband with leather straps for ties. I kicked it around in my head for about a month then decided to try it. In that month, the headband grew a skull and sported some bead embroider. Oh, and it also became double sided. This first one I finished is just a prototype for me to keep.



It took a lot of energy to make it, so I am unsure if I will make more for my shop. I might (and I will probably break out my sewing machine next time instead of doing all of the stitching by hand). I am not completely happy with the quality of some of the felt (hint, dont use craft felt unless it is the thick kind).



I like the way it came out. I haven't gotten dreads yet to test it out, but that is why I gave it braided leather straps: so I could wear it with either 'normal' hair or dreads. I also love that it has two sides. It is more versatile that way. I am definitely going to make templates out of card stock next time!

I am a writer!!!

I wrote a little article about future fashion in Viva La Mode magazine! And it is now out on the web for everyone to look at! The whole magazine is a great read... so check it out! I hope to have time to write an article or two for the next issue too!

Product Review: Glilttersniffer Eyeshadows

I didnt think I would have time to blog this month, but lo and behold... I have a few spare moments! Since I am going to be starting a new (and more grown up) job soon, I decided I needed to replace my ancient cosmetics I have had for years and years and years. I wanted to invest in some nice stuff, but also some more natural stuff. I had been skulking around glittersniffer's shop for a while, just waiting for an excuse to go hog wild. Well, one day she was having a huge sale, so I jumped on it! Glittersniffer is not only really well known on etsy, but she is also a member of DIYscene which I am a member of as well.

I went crazy and bought 15 new eyeshadows to experiment with. My list included the following:
Boss
Shwag
Money
Redrum
Nova
Liar
Fusion
Universe
Kristin
Raw cocoa
Playboy
Silk sheets
Roxie
24k
Blow
Kush
I tried to get a variety of colors so I could mix and match stuff to go with all my work outfits, and still have some fun if I ever decided to get dressed up or go out. Each pot (except for Boss) contains 5 grams of loose powder. This stuff is extremely potent and a little bit goes a LONG way. I have only had them for 2 days, but I just love them so far! They stay on great, and the depth of the color is wonderful. All I need to do now is invest in some good makeup brushes and eyeshadow base. Since I am not used to wearing makeup, I tend to forget and accidentally rub my eye... the base should help with that. I wish I could have bought every color! There are even some shades named after other etsy sellers!

Here is the very simple look I put together this morning. Nothing special, just some Boss blended with some Universe!



Overall Impression: I love this eyeshadow and I would recommend Glittersniffer to anyone. Her shadow is 100% pure minerals, plus she has some eyecreams that I need to get my hands on! They might seem a little pricy (at least to me... wet'n'wild used to be my thing) with 5 bucks for 5 grams, but it is worth every penny!!!

Orange and Black Striped Loom Knitted Shrug 1

Orange and Black Striped Loom Knitted Shrug 1
Originally uploaded by fuzzy_izmit

I finally got my first ever (for sale) loom knitted shrug all photographed and up on my etsy shop. I am really excited about the way it turned out. I hope to make some more soon, but I already have an other new item in the works already. It might take me a while to create, but I think it will be worth it.



My poor skinless mannequin had to be covered with one of my favorite sarongs to make her presentable. I hope to have something more permanent soon, but I have to wait until it gets hotter out so we can paint outside. She is made of foam, so I dont know what kind of paint I can use that wont make her melt. My lightest sarong makes a good background, but it was hard to find a good place in my apartment that I could put it and still be in the light. You cant see in my photo, but my mannequin is actually on top of a cat carpet/bed thing, and two plastic litter buckets... all stacked on each other!

Product Review: Custom Thank You Stamp from Owlbaby

One fine day while twittering, I happened across a glowing recommendation from one of my followers beaming about her wonderful handmade stamp from a fellow etsyian. I saw the example she linked and saw the price... and I figured a handmade "thank you" stamp would look great on my recipes! After look at Owlbaby's shop, I was sold by the quality!

I contacted Owlbaby, and she was more than happy to do a custom stamp for me. Communication was quick and clear... which is a great thing when collaborating on custom items (and one of the key components in my opinion). She showed me to a page full of every kind of font you could imagine and I picked out one called "Burton's Nightmare" which is modeled after The Nightmare Before Christmas font. I also included in my stamp my cat face logo. Once I figured out how to send a rough sketch of the layout (I forgot that etsy will only allow you to send certain formats), it only took about a week to get my brand new, totally handmade stamp in the mail! The only thing I forgot to ask about was price (stupid me, totally my fault) but her stamps are very affordable!



Overall Impression: Wonderful work for a wonderful price. My roughly (I havent measured it) 2x2 inch handmade stamp was only about 10 bucks, with my pick of logo and font! Owlbaby was a joy to work with, and very quick! If you need any stamps made, I would definitly recommend Owlbaby!

(Photos used with permission from Owlbaby)

Product Review: Custom Silver 8 gauge Earrings with Coral Drops from Lisa's Lovlies

I saved up all my etsy money to buy myself something really special, and I decided to go with a pair of custom earrings from Lisa's Lovlies! While I make jewelry myself, I dont made large gauge earrings. I have 8 gauge main holes and there arent many sellers on etsy who cater to those with stretched lobes. Lisa's Lovlies is one beautiful shop where you can get larger gauge earrings, along with normal sized jewelry.

I contacted Lisa and we quickly worked out exaclty what I wanted, which was a pair of sterling silver 1 inch diameter hoops with beautiful coral drops. She made them in a few days, and I had them at my door with in a week of finalizing the design. I was so giddy when I got them, I just had to get them in as soon as I got them! They are extremely solidly made and they have a great weight to them. I am so happy to have dangly earrings again! I wear them 24 hours a day, and they have been a dream!



Overall Impression: Lisa has excellent customer service and is very attentive. She is great to work with and works extremely fast. These earrings are well made and will last a long time. They are worth every penny for the wonderful quality!

Product Review: Custom Quilt from YankeeCrow

New Quilt!
Originally uploaded by fuzzy_izmit

Looking down the barrel at up to 5 different Christmas celebrations this year, my husband and I decided to shave one off by having ours on Thanksgiving. I was so excited when he opened his gift. It had been waiting for months to be unveiled! But I get ahead of myself...

I was wracking my brain trying to figure out what the heck to get my husband. I am a terrible gift giver... I feel I come up with terrible idea or get into a rut of the same thing for years and years. My husband is wonderful at giving me ideas, but I undoubtedly forget them as soon as something shiny comes across my field of view.

One fine day I happened to be in a chat room on etsy and YankeeCrow was in there. I saw her beautiful work and that got me to thinking. My grandmother gave us a wonderful quilt for our wedding and I know he really liked to sleep under it. Unfortunately, it got a little tear in it and we havent been able to get it fix yet (there is a local quilt place that just moved... so we have to take it there). I thought it would be great to give my something beautiful that we could pass down for years. I asked about the possibly of Yankeecrow creating a custom quilt... and the adventure began!

The first hurdle was the colors. My husband loves dark purple and dark green. Picking out the right shades of purple and green were paramount because he is a little bit picky about colors. This had to be the most tricky part of the whole process (for me anyway). Yankeecrow and I chatted about colors and patters. I was worried that it might be a little hard to convey my ideas over the internet... because all the quilts I normally see are very, how shall we say, foo foo girly cutesy things. Neither me, nor my husband, like foo foo girly cutesy things. I have to day, Yankeecrow listened to my every word and worked so hard to get everything perfect. She right away saw my vision of a masculine and simple but bold quilt. She has a great head for colors and concepts! We talked for days, and she continually updated me along the whole time. I am so happy to work with her, and I am glad to say I also gained a friend along the way. There were a few bumps in the road (like finding one of the fabrics was discontinued...) but everything progressed wonderfully.

When my quilt came in the mail, it was just beautiful! As you can see, I also got some matching pillow cases. I wanted to give it to my husband right then, but I knew I couldnt. I dropped a large chunk of change on this beauty and I just couldnt afford to get anything more.

I am so glad that we had Christmas early, so I could share it with everyone out there! I had to wait to write this review because I coudnt risk my husband finding out about it! I am so glad he loves it. He loves the colors and is sleeping under it right now!

Overall Impression: Yankeecrow did a wonderful job. She is a breeze to work with and has great ideas, along with working with input. She tries extremely hard to bring your dreams to fruition. I would definitely use her again if I ever need another gift to wow!

Third time is a charm!

Third time is a charm!
Originally uploaded by fuzzy_izmit

Well, there we go! I finally finally finally have a neck warmer! I know it is a bit hard to see, since it is black and I am wearing a black shirt and a black hoodie (can you tell what my favorite color is?) I can wait to turn out a few more (in different colors) and put them up on my etsy site. There are few little things I will do differently to tweak the pattern, but I really like it. I have worn it all day and it is really super comfy. All these neck, arm, and ear warmers are coming in handy as we have to keep the heat low to conserve on our energy bill. I sorta envy my cats, they have fur coats! My husband doesnt feel the chill because I am convinced he is half yeti.

Product Review: oh the horror... BRAIN bowl from Foldedpigs

I was so so so excited when my husband called me during work today. He told me that a box was waiting for me... a wonderful box from a wonderful seller named foldedpigs. This seller is one of the first sellers I ever hearted when I first started this crazy thing called Etsy. I have saved up my paypal pennies to finally... finally get a Brain Bowl. It is hard to snag one, because they go so quickly, but I did it! This will go perfect with my skull cookie jar and eyeball salt and pepper shakers!


Well, when I got home there was this wonderful box with a great graphic of an anatomic heart on it... well that gets extra brownie points in my book! I am a total science nerd and anatomy lover. The bowl was wrapped up really securely, and I bet you could just about dropkick it and it would still be fine. I am going to keep all the bubble wrap for when I move in the future (when ever that will be...)!


The bowl itself is just perfect. According to the listing, it is microwave and dishwasher safe, which is good because I plan on eatting all my soup out of this bowl from now on! The red color is extremely vibrant and it is much larger in person that it looks in the listing too! I am going to treasure this bowl for a very long long time!

Overall Impression: I have to say, I was biased from the beginning, but I really love this bowl! I love the design, the concept and the execution! I love my brain bowl!

Blogging Hiatus

I know I have been a little lax on blogging lately, but I have some good reasons. Not only has my research life sorta taken off, but I have been doing a lot of custom orders etc for customers. I just haven't had the time to blog! I just sent off a great hat for a trade that I really am kicking myself now for not taking a picture of. The color combo was really nice and I wanted to show it off! I hope to make another similar one to sell, so we will see how that works out. I have to take photos to put it up on etsy right?! I have also been putting more items on sale, and in particular PIF sales, lately. I have sold a couple of older items that way too, which is great. My arm warmers seem to be doing good, sale wise. I even have two more pairs to put up in my shop, but the sun has not been cooperagting with me to get good pictures. Arm warmers also take more time to make than the hats, it seems, so that is another reason I haven't listed more. Keep checking my shop, because I hope to get more stuff in it soon! Enjoy a picture of my latest PIF sold!

Full of Fun Loom Knitted Adult Santa Hat

Full of Fun Loom Knitted Adult Santa Hat
Originally uploaded by fuzzy_izmit

I finally did it! I made and listed a Santa hat similar to my husband's in my shop. I think I can make one more, but a baby size, out of the yarn I have left. I wonder if they will sell... I hope so! They are a lot of fun to make. I wish you could see it (I think it come across better in some of the photos in my listing) that the brim is not only very fluffy, but has a little bit of sparkle as well! These hats are just too cute! I was also thinking of making some in different colors, but I need the right yarn to go on sale. Figures, once I find that I really think Homespun works really well in this application, all the sales end. Pompoms are a new adventure too. I tried making them years and years ago, and they turned out horrible. I think that is because I got confused and made them wrong. Now they seem much easier and hold together. I even got a pompom maker to help with the process (so I wouldnt have to cut out tons of cardboard circles).

Pink and Black Punky Funky Monkey Baby Hat

Pink and Black Punky Funky Monkey Baby Hat
Originally uploaded by fuzzy_izmit

I have been making a ton of hats lately... and this is just one of them! I have had a lot of fun experimenting with different kinds of yarn and combination. So far I have just listed baby hats, but I plan on making some preemie hats and adult hats. In fact, I just started making an adult sized warm and fuzzy Santa hat. I made one for my husband and it turned out so cute he thought I should make some more and try to sell them! Check out my shop to see more...and I hope to be adding more as more come off my loom!

Etsy Addicts Anonymous Short by Buttonhead

This one is also cute! I know I need a group like this! Luckily I havent named anything Etsy yet!

Etsy toons

I know I haven't posted in a while, but I thought I would share some you tube toons etc. dealing with etsy. If you know of any more, please feel free to tell me about them! I love supporting etsy! Enjoy!

Fuzzy Izmit's First Ever Scavenger Hunt Begins!

Well, just like I promised, I am now releasing the scavenger hunt list today! If you havent read the rules, please do so here! (If you do not follow the rules, you will be disqualified.) Everything in this list has to deal with me in some way. Lets get this party started! Good Luck to everyone!

Find:
1. Something with a popsickle stick
2. Something creepy crawly
3. Something thats just creepy
4. a Snail
5. a Betta fish
6. Bacon
7. Something chemistry related
8. Chocolate
9. a Skull and cross bones
10. Something Hannibal Lector/Silence of the Lambs related
11. Something Sweeny Todd related
12. a Black Cat
13. Something made from a recycled drink container
14. Something black and red
15. Meat
16. a classy kitty
17. Frog
18. Something spiky
19. a Snake
20. Something goth
21. Something steampunk
22. Dice
23. Something Aquarius related
24. Something you would find in a mad scientists lab
25. Something made in Michigan

Thank you!

Fuzzy Izmit’s First Ever Etsy Scavenger Hunt! The Rules!

Welcome to Fuzzy Izmit’s First Ever Etsy Scavenger Hunt!

This idea for a contest actually came to me in the shower, but I hope it isn’t a wash… yeah, I know, that was horrible! But I assure you this contest will be fun! I want to release the rules first so that everyone is on the same page and can ask questions if they need too before I release the clue list. Feel free to ask your questions in the comment section of this blog entry. I am also going to give you an example. I hope to have the list created and published on my blog by next Saturday.

Rules:

This is a scavenger hunt for items on Etsy.com. Only items for sale on Etsy are valid to use. You cannot use items from your own shop if you have a shop. When the list is released, your entry needs to be posted as a comment on that blog entry with contact information (i.e. email address). Each item can only be used once. The first person to give a complete list will win $10.00 off any item(s) from my etsy shop (coupon does not cover shipping charges).

Example List (This is much simpler than the actual list will be):

1. Something Purple
2. Something Green

Example Entry

exampleentry@exampleemail.com

1. http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?ref=sr_list_8&listing_id=12368718

The color of the fabric is purple

2. http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?ref=sr_list_9&listing_id=12388206

A photograph of a green statue

Here are some things to avoid (i.e. they will get you disqualified).

1. Bad or no contact information
2. Links that do not work
3. Incomplete list
4. Missing/Incomplete/Shaky/Offensive/Adult descriptions. Adult themed items are okay to link, but make sure the descriptions are family friendly
5. Using items from your own shop or items that are not on Etsy.com
6. An item can only used once
7. The clue must relate to the item in the listing, not the background, seller etc.

I cant wait to think up the list! Happy hunting!