Bringing out the Crafter in Me

I'm a crafter at heart. Well, really I'm an old lady at heart. Give me a blanket to cover up with and something to sew and I'm golden. I love the feeling of accomplishment when I take several pieces of regular fabric and turn it into something beautiful like a baby quilt or my newest hobby, fabric flowers.

Last year I experimented a little with the website Etsy. I had been an avid reader of the Weddingbee blog and many of the brides to be would brag about their finds on Etsy. In case you're not familiar with it, Etsy is basically like an internet shopping mall full of items that are handcrafted by each store owner. You can find pretty much anything and everything that you could think of there, and have the satisfaction of knowing that someone put their heart and passion for creating such things into each item in their shop.

After taking some time away from the site (as a seller, but definitely not a buyer lol), I came back a few weeks ago to revamp my spot and take a gander at selling something a little different than before: my fabric flowers

These are two of my girls, all named, all different personalities and all waiting to find that perfect home with someone. They look great as embellishments on pillows or purses, hung on walls for your very own flower garden, or attached to a dowel rod wrapped in green to create a bouquet for any room that never dies :)

Because I'd pretty much taken over the kitchen table as my own for the past few months, I was finally convinced by the boy that a good use for my birthday money was purchasing a craft table. He had seemingly gotten tired of having to move the sewing machine every time we sat down for a meal. After being kind enough to help me put the thing together, we moved it into our sunroom which has now been dubbed "The Shana Cave"

It's got great natural lighting through the two huge windows and in about a month, I'll be rockin' some brand new tile on the floor as part of a general house renovation project. It's exciting times.

So if you want to see a few more of my creations (and more awesome handcrafted items on the website) check out http://justshana16.etsy.com/ and then browse around to your heart's content. And while you're around, check out christiecottage's BNS in the Promotions Forum. I've been involved for only a little less than a week but can vouch that there's great stuff in each of those shops listed and they're all great people :)