For the month of March, I will be donating all shipping costs from orders in my shop directly to the Red Cross, in hopes of sending a little bit of relief to Haiti and now Chile.  Two such devastating events in such a short amount of time is just heartbreaking, and need for help and aid can't be higher.  The news of the earthquake in Chile—a country where my brother spent two years as an LDS missionary, so I feel a special tie there—has really moved me to want to help, in whatever little way I can.  I worry, too, that with all the donations that have been poured into Haitian Relief, that people are going to be reacting more slowly to this second, even more terrible disaster.

I decided then, to donate the shipping costs from purchases in my shop straight to the Red Cross.  This is more than 10% cost in most places, as books are heavier and require more shipping than many items, but it's something I feel like I have to do—and I'm happy to!

CinderLisaDesign

The minute I saw this spindle, I went nutty over it. It's from Dragoncraft, and it's called Cinderella's Spindle—can you see why I had to have it? The pictures on the listing are much better, but basically it's a laceweight spindle with a clear resin whorl that has sparkly glitter all throughout it. It's kind of love!


I hadn't had it for more than an hour (probably much less, I don't quite remember now) before I was spinning up the yummy bit of fiber that the seller sent along with it, and after plying, this is what I ended up with:


Yummy, delicious little bit of yarn, probably my favorite that I've spun so far. Squishy and soft and lovely!

Some of the other stuff I've been up to, too... I spun these bluey-white-y singles ages ago.... but took my good own time plying it. Now that it's done, I couldn't love it more. It has blues and whites and purples and is very thick/thin... and really not long enough to do a thing with, but I don't care! I love it.


I think I've decided to call it "Glacier" or something along those lines. Definitely reminds me of a glacial field!

Now that I have a spindle at my disposal again (the one I learned on is still in California - don't ask me how, I don't want to talk about it. haha) I can't help but want to spin up everything in sight, and so I've grabbed at this Jela's Fiber that was sent to me a while ago...


I actually won this fiber from the PhatFiber blog! It's called Carnival Clouds, and is super white Superwash Merino with multicolored Angelina scattered all through it. My original plan was to spin it up as thin as possible and then ply it with something else, but the quarter of it I've done on the new spindle is so pretty I think I might (gasp!) leave it as a single.... and hope and pray that I've come far enough in spinning that it'll hold together. hahaha


It's really hard to show in a picture how pretty and soft this little skeinlet is. Only a quarter of the fiber, and it's spun up to 127+ yards of something between laceweight and light fingering. The Angelina just flickers all through it in red and blue and silver and purple and green and I love it! When I'm done with the rest of the fiber, I should have enough to knit maybe a small shawl with, and I am all kinds of delighted with that!

So that's where my spinning is right now. Ah, I love too many crafts.

Forget Thanksgiving and Turkey - the thing to look out for this weekend is the Support Stacie "I'll be HomeMADE for Christmas" Auction November 28th & 29th.

You can read all about it here, but basically, there are going to be a TON of homemade yummies—everything from cookies to jewelry to scarves!—up for auction to help out with a wonderful cause. You can read all about who Stacie is and what her story is right here, but the gist of it is, she's a wife and a mother and a good friend of mine who's battling cancer, without the aid of healthcare. Support Stacie was formed to help take a little of the burden off of those sky-high medical bills.

And if you haven't guessed yet, I'm participating. Oh heck yes I am. I've donated a small handful of items. I would have liked to have done more, but life has its ways of intervening with our plans. Here's a look at what I've put up, though.


First up - a crocheted coffee cup cozy. Or whatever it is you drink (I certainly don't drink coffee!)

Secondly -


A set of confetti-cake heart ornaments. These were so fun to make! I'm also offering to make a pair for up to five people with a flat donation of $10 or more.

And yes, I donated a couple of journals. :)


The first is a teal-green with a corset-like closure and beige and blue pages, 220 back and forth.


The second one is navy and pink (and I mean PINK) and is hand-embroidered. This one has 360 pages, back and forth.

I'm also planning on donating 15% of the proceeds from my shop to Support Stacie from now until Christmas if "Support Stacie" is in the message to seller.

Head over and give a glance at all the auctions up, though! There are some great fandom ones, too, from action figures to Doctor Who-inspired jewelry! Lots and lots of scarves up for auction, too, so go homemade for Christmas!

Okay, a lot has been going on in my life lately (big, sadly life-changing stuff) which is why I've been so neglecting this blog. Apologies! I've been taking some mental-health days, I guess you could say. I haven't stopped crafting, though! I'll show you some updates of what I've been doing in the next day or two. But first! Some picks. :)


You may not know this, but I am a giggler. This She's Crafty necklace by chocolateandsteel makes me giggle. And want to wear it. Sort of all the time. >.>

Next up is a lovely fiber batt called Dragon Fly (!) by TheCritterRanch.


Prettyful, isn't it? I love blues and greens, and sparkly fiber will ALWAYS catch my eye. TheCritterRanch is also a PhatFiber friend, so she's kind of awesome by definition. ;)

My last little pick this week is this Lavender Bag by freestylefibre.


So cute! I love to see upcycled-y little bits of fabric (especially fabric!) turned into something fabulous, and this definitely fits that description! She has a few of these different bags at her shop, plus some yummy yarn, too!

So that's it for this week - sorry so short, I'm still running in circles a little bit, but I promise to make a couple of real-ish posts this week. Keep an eye out for them! ;)

Okay, I'm going to be busy the next few weeks. Busy with a capital "B." This is mostly because I'm starting NanoWrimo in November (I'm tiemeinbows on that board, if you want to look me up!) and so I'm doing some extra work beforehand to not get too behind while I'm trudging over 1667 words a day!

But enough about me, let's get to some of the pretties I've been spotting on Etsy this week! My pics this week just happen to fall into two categories—bags and fiber. Why? I don't know. That's just the way I roll.

First up is ElephunksTrunk's Green Zippered Pouch:


I just.... luff this fabric. I'd go so far as to say I *heart* it. The polka dots inside are just twice the fun. I'm a sucker for things like this. I can't tell you how many coin purses I own...

Next we have the Waterway Wensleydale from glblf's shop.


I've never spun with Wensleydale before, but it just looks so soft I want to reach into my monitor and grab it up in handfulls of fluff. I love the blues and greens, too. Yum. Bookmarking that shop, for sure!

And okay... I have a weakness for SHINY, too.


Especially when the shiny is mixed in with super rich dark colors like this Kiss Kiss Bang Bang batt from CorgiHillFarm. Talk about lush. This batt is merino, silk and firestar, and just gorgeous in all it's purple-y plummy goodness!

Last up... what do you do when you've spun up all your pretty pretty fiber? Well then you use your yarn and you knit something with it, of course (or crochet... of course!). And what do you need when you're doing that? How about a nifty project bag from lewZILLA?


This is (if you couldn't guess) her Gryffindor Inspired Box Bag—and that right there is enough to make me squee like the fangirl I am. But look! Pretty fabric, and a tiny little pocket to hold your stitch markers, too! Lew has all kinds of other goodies, too, so be sure to check out her whole shop!

Firstly this week, I wanted to highlight TattooDreams' Area 51 UFO Alien Box. For those of you who have forgotten (or never knew in the first place) I was/am/will ever be a HUGE fan of the 1999 WB TV show Roswell, and so when I stumble on something like this, the silly fangirl in me gets a kick out of it.


Besides that, though, it's just a beautifully-put-together little box. She has a lot of gorgeous, less-silly boxes, also. This one makes me happy, though! The feet and the handle at top, perfect!

Next up we have Summer Glory Color-Changing Cotton from WollesYarnCreations:


So pretty! I want to jump into this yarn and splash around a bit, it'd be like diving into the sunset!

And not too far away on the color scheme:


Dreaming of Autumn sock yarn by Stricken Smitten. Talk about delicious-looking yarn. It looks good in a bowl—I want to drink it up. I am developing quite a fondness for sock yarn, despite my ongoing hesitation to commit to making a sock (even my Mingus project by Cookie A. is turning into wrist-warmers as we speak). I looooooove this pink. I want to marry it. Can't get enough of it.

And lastly, but certainly not leastly:


This is the Vampire Diary by repaper. Heeheehee. I haven't read the books, but I've been sucked into the TV show since it started (who could resist Ian Somerhalder back on TV?) and I just about flipped when I saw this book. It's repaper's entry into the Bookbindingteam's 2009 Halloween Challenge, and I think it's fantastic. You can find the other entries here. :)

Believe me, I know. I've disappeared off the face of the blogosphere for a little while. And why? Well mainly because my camera broke and thus I was depressed and unable to upload photos. This shouldn't have stopped my Wednesday Wants, but it did. Actually, embarrassingly, my laptop died for a while there, too. But now I am back to being technologically functional!

I've been busy this week doing updates on my shop, since finally getting my camera back (it took ages, unfortunately) I've been able to update some of the things I'd been working on in the meantime. Here's my favorite:


This is my White on Red Button Journal. I was sorting through my buttons a while back and decided I really needed to make a journal with an assortment of white and clear buttons on the cover, and voila! I machine-stitched two pieces of bright red felt together, but then I decided to do a hand sewn running stitch all the way around the edge, just to make it really POP. The funnest by far was sewing the buttons on, though. I basically just grabbed a handful, blind, and dropped them on the cover, not fixing their positions any more than to spread them out a bit and turn them upside up. It's a little bit of a departure from my usual style, but I love, love, love it!

Check out my other new listings at the shop!

I also wanted to share with you a sneak peek at one of the two journals I'll be donating to the "I'll be Homemade for Christmas!" Auction for Support Stacie in November.


I know that looks almost like it's black, but it's really a dark navy blue, and the pages and thread used for the embroidery are the exact same color of WOW PINK. I mean, this is seriously pink stuff. Not for the faint of heart. ;)

I'll be working up one more journal for the auction, and hopefully doing some knits, too. Gotta love homemade stuff being bid on for a great cause!