Light Box

I've been working on getting better pictures for my Etsy site. Other than getting an actual baby to model my items I've come up with creating a light box. It makes the photos look more professional and clean. All you have to do is find a medium sized box. Then, cut the top flaps off or at least one of them to create the opening you will photograph from. Then, cut the centers of 3 sides of the box, creating windows for light to enter. Cover these 'windows with parchment paper or tissue paper, anything transparent. Then get a piece of poster board in white and most likely black as well. cut the poster board to fit your box and hang it from the bottom of the box i.e. the backdrop of your light box. Here is my finished product:



Hope you can start noticing a difference in my shop pictures soon (once we finally get some sun) and that this mini tutorial helps you as well!

Baby Mitts

So I started this project awhile ago and this week I picked up the needles to finally complete it. I was knitting along with my contrast color and ran out of yarn, arg. So Now I've knit up another mitt in light blue and navy blue and I've started its pair as well. I made sure to choose a large ball of yarn for the contrasting color this time, and I have 2 balls of the main color no worries! Here is the sad pair of unfinished mitts:


And here is the first of the new pair of mitts I'm doing:


I love these guys because they 1)keep baby's hands out of their mouth 2)keep baby from accidentally scratching themselves with their tiny tiny fingernails and 3)are super fun looking and warm! I'll post the pair when I finish.

I Scored Another Treasury!

Gotta love hovering around your computer, refreshing every 5 seconds, waiting for a Treasury to be available :) I scored my second treasury today, you can look at it here: TREASURY
Or just enjoy this pic of it:



Enjoy!

Helpful Etsy Links

For all you Etsyians out there, I've compiled a few of what I consider to be very helpful links to help you with your store. Here they are:

Buttons to advertise prominent placement on Etsy: BUTTONS

Free banner generator: BANNERS

Advertise your blog: ADS

Etsy Wiki for all your info to navigate/ participate on Etsy: WIKI

Etsy Admin compiled list of resources: HELP

Create a newsletter for your shop: NEWSLETTER

Find out if your stuff has made it into any Treasuries: TREASURY

Find out who hearts your store and when, along with other info: STATS

Google Analytics to also track statistics of your site: GOOGLE

Hope these links help you further your handmade agenda!

Safari Baby Booties!

I finally produced something (besides hemmed up pants for Christine) from my new sewing machine! I bought this pattern awhile back and I've made several single booties with different fabrics, as can be seen in previous blog posts. Now that I have a quality sewing machine I felt it was worthwhile to make an actual set of booties haha. This set is made from burlap style fabric as the liner and sole of the bootie, and a giraffe printed fabric for the outer shoe. The set in the pictures are size 0-3 months, adorable!



They're completely reversible and have no exposed seams!


Find them here on my Etsy store: BOOTIES

Cabled Baby Mitts

I've been working on new things to put in my store and I figured I needed some mittens. The store name is Ten and Ten... as in fingers and toes and I don't have any booties or mittens! So I am focusing on these items this month. I found a pattern that I sort of liked for mittens. I tried out the pattern during some football on Saturday and I didn't like the result. The cuff wasn't tight enough to hod the mitten on a child's arm and the decrease and bind off looked messy. On Sunday I altered the pattern a little to use smaller needles for the cuff and I used a gather instead of a bind off. I still wasn't happy with this result, but I was not giving up! On Monday I completely strayed from the pattern. I used smaller needles for the cuff, decreased all the way around instead of at 2 points, and did the bind off on the inside instead of the outside. So happy with the results! Here is a picture of the progression of my experiment with mittens:


Here is a close-up the final product:


If you want a set, check them out at my Etsy store: Mitts

New Sewing Machine!

For Christmas my parents bought me a nice new Singer sewing machine. I ordered it on Black Friday, but it had to be special ordered. I got a call that it had come in while I was home for Christmas. I picked it up on my way home from the airport on Sunday! Woot! New sewing machine! Now I can really start trying patterns and making more than just costumes (although those are so much fun). Here's a quick pic of where I have the sewing machine set up for now. It's a mess pretty much everywhere but I'm excited to start using it!