Its Craft Fair Time Again!

There's one day in the life of Blake's Beanies that is the culmination of a year's work.  That day is this Saturday.  The Clarkston High School Band Craft Fair. 

All year long, I crochet.  This is not breaking news.  We all know this.  But why?  Because I can't sit still while I watch TV? Yes.  Because I am addicted to crocheting?  Yes.  But also because I know that if I waited until September to start getting ready for the crap fair, I'd be screwed.  

This week is called "Hell Week".  I just learned this term this week while talking to my sis-in-law when she was explaining the term for the week before a Civic Theatre production.  I thought it was very fitting to my situation as well.  

There's just sooo much that goes into these fairs.  I can't just show up the morning of, with a table and a box of hats.  Well I could, but my craft table has since turned into the camping cook table and is absurdly greasy dirty.  And I have done this in years past.  When I started doing fairs over 10 years ago, I would show up hungover and completely unprepared.  I also used to do around 3-4 a year, but then realized that I would practically sell out on the first one and then not have enough time to get my inventory back up in time for the next one.  So now, I only do one.  And loyalty wins, so the Clarkston High School Marching Band Craft fair is the one I always choose.  

Branding was always something I wanted and needed and thanks to my bff Jenny, I have business cards, stickers, price tags and bags!  Plus two giant posters.  She's pretty awesome. 

Booth design was another part I knew I needed to work on.  That and not being hungover the day of. 

I would say for the past few years I finally was able get all the pieces together and feel good about how everything, including my product looks.  Felt great!  But I know there's always room for improvement, so this year, I decided to create a mockup of my 10x10 booth square in my living room.  Perfect timing really, due to the fact that Hottie Hubs is out of town all week, because I've made a giant crocheted mess, yarnbomb really, of my living room.  What I found out, is that I have a ton of inventory.  Way more than I thought.  Since I did the yarnbomb bike and stairs at work this September, I was afraid my inventory was going to be smaller than previous years. Wrong. 

Now if I can just stay away from the beer on Friday night, I'll be set. 

Oh, I almost forgot!  I'm selling my Mom's awesome stash of Vintage Children's Books.  Including Dick and Jane!  Next to the books, a basket-o-beardies.

Sneak peek of the main table

The other side of the table

The pile of beards

P.S. Thanks Ruthie Prasil for lending me your amazing cute fabric banners.  They go perfectly with my branding designs! 

In need of some crochet help

I never thought I'd say this, but I need help. Crochet help.

Any takers?  Its going to be quite an easy project, but a large one.  I need help crocheting rectangles for an upcoming project.   If you are interested, please email me, or leave a comment!!!

We can even crochet together while watching reality TV and drinking wine!!! I have the yarn already, I just need an extra set of hands (preferably that know how to crochet already)!!!

Two Beiber Brushes and a NKOTB pillowcase

Am I the only one who received 2 Justin Beiber singing toothbrushes for my (30th) birthday?

Pretty sure I was. Lucky for Rodney me they were different, which means different colors and 4 different two-minute songs. Lucky for Rodney me I haven't used them yet because I'm still using the one my dentist gave me.  

I'm also pretty sure I'm the only one (if not, please fess up) with the rest of this list.

-Driven off with the drive thru banking cylinder.
-Uses the windshield wiper fluid level as a gauge for changing the oil (not the best idea, I realize this)
-Gets called Brooke or Blair or Blaze or Blaine once a day (possibly more)
-Calls leggings "leggins"
-Carries the family dog around like the family toddler
-Sleeps on a NKOTB pillowcase (well sometimes Hottie Hubs does, so I guess I'm not the only one)
-Knows the Royal Ranger code and was never a Royal Ranger
-Has an arsenal of over 100 beanies/beardies/fingerless gloves
-Could eat an entire smorgasbord of breakfast items the millisecond my eyes open each morning. (except biscuits and gravy as explained in next bullet)
-HATES gravy. Especially country gravy.  Chunky, peppery, sausage-y substance??? NAST-TAY. 
-Watches "Hey Dude" on my lunch breaks. C'mon little doggie
-Falls up the stairs wearing a Snuggie (however I'm sure I'm not the only one)
-Uses the Snuggie sleeve as an eye mask at night. 
-Dropped a cell phone in a port-o-potty hole 
-Used a rest stop bathroom barefoot. Oh wait. That wasn't me. That was Britney Spears.  
-Impulse purchased a Spongebob Squarepants Sno-Cone Maker.
-Still own Moon Shoes. As seen in the super awesome picture from this post.
-Believes in a right-handed world conspiracy. 
-Thought the Knitting Factory was just as the title says.  And I did remember thinking it was weird but cool that G Love and Special Sauce was playing there. But we went, and it was amazing. Minus all the knitters I thought would be there sitting on couches enjoying the show. Boy did I look strange crocheting in the mosh pit. 
-Stretched my earholes to now regret that decision. <insert my mother's voice saying "I told you so"> They grew back, well for the most part. The left one is still a little big, but nothing the elderly women can't compete with after decades of wearing heavy dangly earrings. 

Going back to the NKOTB fetish I still got goin on....I recently ran into a long sleeve NKOTB shirt at Forever 31 21 and it got me goin on my childhood love.  So I bought some plastic NKOTB earrings off of ebay and have added a NKOTB pandora station to my mix.  So funny how I remember the words to all of the songs, not just the famous ones. 

"Listen up everybody if you wanna take a chance, Just get on the floor and do the new kids dance!" 

Cah-ray-zee Cro-shay-zee

Does your memory only remember the good things? And forget the bad times/memories? Mine does. I remember my brother and I getting along like peaches and cream growing up. My other siblings and parents will tell you that was not the case.  We were, according to them, constantly bickering and fighting.  But somehow I've managed to forget all those bad times he made me feel like an annoying little sis.  

My brain has also apparently forgotten how insanely busy I was last year at this time.  I mean, I remember crocheting up until December 24th for people's Christmas orders, but I don't remember having to sacrifice so much of my time.  The past two nights, I've woken up in the middle of the night to crochet.  Last night, I woke up at 3am and crocheted until 5am and then went back to bed.  Thank goodness for Roku, because nothing is on bunny ears TV at that hour. *Side note: I may have watched Elf too many times last Christmas season, because this year, I don't really feel the need to watch it 20 times (or even once through) between Thanksgiving and New Years. Sad.

As of today, all my out of town orders are done (except for the etsy order that came in at 6am this morning).  Now, I just have 17 beards to make between now and Friday.  A co-worker ordered 10, and she's going to give one to each family member....so awesome!  The big seller has been the beards, but I've also sold quite a few pairs of fingerless gloves.  One pair, I sent to CT on December 8th using USPS and the buyer emailed me Sunday to let me know she JUST received them, and that the package was ripped open and all that made it was one DIRTY glove. Awesome. (But she did say the one glove looked lovely) Oh, and that she needed another pair by Friday. Have you BEEN to the post office or UPS store this week? I spent my entire hour lunch break there yesterday, and paid double the price of the fingerless gloves to ensure they make it to CT by Friday. 

I told myself this year's goal was to have a cut off date for orders, and to not still be crocheting on December 24th.  I'm guessing I'll make that goal by a whopping 2 days. The main reason I cannot say no? I love the idea of my stuff being given as presents, and being worn around proudly.  That and I'm a yes woman.  

I don't want to complain about getting orders and being busy because I love crocheting, and the money is going into a savings account for a very important reason.  But I've sacrificed a few things that I'm not proud of.  I've been so busy (crocheting before and after work until bedtime) that I haven't had the chance to spend time with friends, and specifically my parents.  They recently let me know how much they've missed me and it broke my heart.  I would do anything to be able to hang out with them. After all, I am their baby.  But I've stretched myself a little thin lately and really needed their reminder to pull me back in.  

I told Hottie Hubs last night that I will be taking a month off of crocheting in January.  But thats like Santa saying he's going to take all of December off.  The cold months in the year are when I get all my orders.  I don't get beard requests in July.  So I probably won't be taking January off, but I'm not going to be crocheting at 3am, this I know for shore.

I will leave this post with our Christmas card.  Since I work at NW Media Productions, I have access to an amazing photographer, Patrick Brown-Hayes and an amazing graphic designer (and one of my bffs) Jenny Purington. Put that together with the cutest most amazing dog in the world, and the outcome is this: 

*Picture was cropped quickly, so its not showing like the real card, but just know Jenny did an amazing and perfect job :)

Beardie Fever

Have you seen these?

Lady Beards

 

 Man Beards

If you're a friend of mine and not some blogstalker (which is o.k. too) you probably have.

I call them beardies, I spose because it sounds like (blake's) beanies and because I'm a dork.

I've sold them to people in Vermont, Texas, New York, Utah, Ohio, California, Louisiana, Deleware, Kansas, Florida,  Seattle, Pullman, to name a few places.  Crazy thinking about all these people putting something I crocheted on their faces.

The latest beardie craze happened over the weekend.  If you saw my FB posts, then you already know.  I have an order for 50 OR MORE.   And she wanted around 1/2 of those mailed to her this week, so all beardie buyers can wear them for a football game on Friday.  Its a fundraiser for the high school she teaches at, and the mascot has an orange beard, as shown here:

It's super awesome because it means lots of exposure and mulah for muah.  But what it also means is that I'm crocheting instead of sleeping, cooking, cleaning, bathing, blinking, etc.  Well, I guess the I don't normally bathe on Saturdays anyways, so thats nothing new. jk. kinda.

On top of that, my etsy store is on FY-AH.  I started my etsy page in December of 2011, so I didn't realize how much business to expect for the fall season.  Man,  people plan ahead!!! Either that or its a lot colder in other parts of the US right now because so far this week, I've had 7 orders for hats, fingerless gloves and beardies. 

Plus, I've got my in town peeps ordering stuff too!!!  (you guys are priority right now fyi)

Obviously, I LOVE CROCHETING.  And every year I'm helluz busy.  But this year tops it.  I've stocked up for my November 17th craft fair, but now I'm selling the stuff I have in stock, so I'm now restocking my stock.   I'm loving all the orders I've received and I see myself crocheting until I grow old and can no longer operate my robotic fingers. 

Thanks to EVERYONE who is sportin a Blake's Beanie, Beardie, Headband, or fingerless gloves, pretend eating my crocheted food,  or has just purchased one and is waiting (hopefully patiently) for one.   

Also, thanks to ROKU for allowing Netflix and Hulu+ to be streaming Teen Mom, Parenthood, Breaking Bad, Walking Dead, Workaholics, and many many movies. 

If YOU would like a beardie, or anything else crochet related, email me at blakesbeanies@gmail.com, or visit my etsy shop!  And if you've already purchased something of mine, I would LOVE a picture of you wearing the beard or hat!!!

Seahawk Knuckles!!!

As many of you already know, we are Seahawk fans.  It started a few years ago (for me) when we went to a Seattle Seahawks pre-season game.  It was against the Oakland Raiders and it was the end of August.  The weather was perfect, the beer was flowin and we were with our great friend Leigh.  I was really feelin the Seahawk Spirit and wanted to share it with EVERYONE,  so I was going around giving complete strangers "Seahawk Knuckles".  If I came across a rowdy Raiders fan, I would feel them out and either say Seahawks or Raiders Knuckles (I didn't want to get shot in downtown Seattle in front of my husband) because I wanted everyone to feel my same excitement for the game.  We won, so the knuckles continued long after the game was over.  And the "knuckles" stuck.  Now a couple years later we've stepped up our loyalty and own actual Seahawks gear.  Well, that and the crocheted bracelets I made. 

TRUE SEAHAWK KNUCKLES

Two years ago I wanted to buy a custom women's fit (key words) jersey that has the #12 on front/back and the word KNUCKLES on the back. But they were like 80 bucks.  I wasn't that hardcore of a fan yet, so I decided it could wait another year.  Then last year, same dilemma.  Just wasn't sure if it was worth it.  Then this year rolled around and I advised hottie hubs that for my 30th bday I wanted the custom jersey.  (He went sky diving on his 30th, so I thought the price of the jersey was of no concern)

THE jersey I want. Minus the 18 and Rice.

New Nike jerseys. Gross!

Only problem was, the NFL changed jerseys.  The now have Nike instead of Reebok, and simply put, they're just not as cool.  1. They look like soccer jerseys.  2. The numbers are too cartoon like. 3. They say Seahawks in tiny print on the shoulder, and 4. Where's the Seahawk logo? 

HH (hottie hubs) said he was going to order me the Nike one that was now $150, but wanted to check with me first before doing so because of the drastic changes.

So what's a cheap fan to do??? Thats right, visit a website from China that offers exactly what I want.  A women's fit custom Knuckles 12 jersey.  It was $80 and the Reebok version.  Perfect right?

When it arrived, we had to go to the post office to pick it up since the package wouldn't fit in my mailbox and it was an international package.  Coincidentally the day was June 6th, HH's bday.  (our birthdays are a week apart)  When I opened the package, I noticed right away it wasn't women's fit.  Thats ok, maybe they swapped it with a size small in the men's jersey to appease me.  Nope.  It was size 48 MENS. 

In their defense, it did have #12 on it, and it did say KNUCKLES on the back.  So they were 2/3s correct in the order.  We held it up and it actually looked too big even for the hubs.  But it wasn't.  It fit him just right.  How awesome for him, right?  I mean it was his birthday.  But he already owns a Seahawks jersey!  And this was supposed to be MY birthday present! 

Yesterday was the Seahawks vs Cowboys game in Seattle and the 12th man was ever present.  We kicked the Cowboy's assless chaps right off em. Hottie Hubs wore his custom jersey and his crocheted bracelet, and I wore my longsleeve Seahawks shirt with my new Seahawk earrings I recieved for my bday from the Hottie. (He also bought me Seahawk socks, that I renamed Sawks and a Seahawk beach towel....cuuuute!!!)

So, should I spend the $150 and get what I want?  I'm still trying to find a website (not from China) that has leftover Reebok women's fit jersey's that can be customized.  IT HAS TO SAY KNUCKLES WITH THE #12.

Crap Room turned Craft Room

Post Originally Written Sept 4th:

We had big Labor Day weekend plans.....and then the j.o.b. got in the way. Hate it when that happens!  However, it may have been God's way of telling us to STAY HOME and GET WORK DONE, SON.

So, that's what we did. We had a big day planned for Saturday. Costco, Home Depot, (Bed, Bath and Beyond if we had time). I showed hubs the Martha Stewart 3x3 shelving unit that I wanted, and stated I needed 2, possibly 3.  We bought two, got home and quickly put them together. Teamwork!!! Have I mentioned the nerdy song we wrote about teamwork?  I'll sing it for ya sometime if you haven't heard it already.

Our house is pretty big, and that allows me and my hubby to each have our own room, separate from the one we share of course. This is awesome, because I have a lot of my own crap. I'm a borderline hoarder (teetering on the messier side of the border), keeping tons of stuff from my childhood that I cannot throw/give away.  Cleaning my room wouldn't have taken that long, except I kept finding stuff that brought up crazy-back-in-the-day memories.  For example, I found a 14 page letter I wrote Rodney when I was entering my Sr. year of high school. (ahhh high school love) Seems silly, however it detailed exactly how/when we first got together. Excerpts from the letter:

"The first time I saw you: Band Camp '96"   (not makin this shiz up, people)


"Then I asked you, 'Do you want to go to the movies sometime?' My heart was pounding. I'm sure you could hear it. You said, 'Sure that'd be cool' "


"We went to Coeur d' Alene a couple of times. Farting in the can, watching Bloomsday, falling asleep in front of Whose Line Is It Anyways. Kissing under the moonlight, as my mom would say."


After strolling down memory lane, I got back to work clearing out my room to make room for my awesome shelves.  I had hoarded a crib from my sister (What? Its nice, and I was hoping one day to use it!!!) that in reality didn't need to be fully set up and in the corner of the room as if we were bringing a baby home tomorrow. So I broke that down, and hid it in my basement.  Got the room pert'near empty, and then moved those suckers in. As I was filling the cubes with my precious yarn I heard my hubby from the next room yell to me, "I really want to come see what it looks like!" He was really excited for me to have my room all neat and tidy and able to show off when people come over instead of insinuating there's a hideous beast we're shielding from society.
TA DA.

Behold the power of Martha.

Hanging the official Blake's Beanies sign

(For some reason I only took an after pic with my ghetto fab phone, so I'll have to update this post later when I take a pic with my ghetto fab camera.)

Sunday we went golfing with one of my bffs Shauna and her bf Eric. It was the perfect day. I didn't even pit out.

Me n' Hottie Hubs 

Armpit Eric

Crazy Shauna and Crazy Blake

Monday it was back to the newly labeled craft room for more organizing.  When I had had about enough, I stopped and started a Breaking Bad marathon while crocheting and making a giant pasta salad and pork ribs.
And that ladies and gentleman was my Labor Day weekend. I'm sad to see it gone, but happy to hear my husband say, "oh wow" every. single.time. he walks past my OPEN door'd craft room.



*Side note: We had our 2 year anniversary of adopting Lola Rae this weekend.  It was 2 Labor Days ago that we met and fell in love with her.  I highly suggest visiting a shelter before buying a puppy or dog. 

Blake's Beanies Giveaway!!!

****UPDATE**** We have a winner!!!

Congrats to: Chantelle Boyd!!!!

I'll be getting a hold of you for your order details! 

Thanks to everyone that entered!

 

Who wouldn't want a Blake's Beanie when its 100 degrees out?!?!?!

Feels like a perfect time to give one away!

Giveaways used to confuse me...in a not-so-interested-in-doing-them sort of way.  I mean, I get the concept but I just never really got into them on my blake's beanies Facbook page.  I see all sorts of pages doing them constantly just to get people to their page, but I wasn't really having a problem with getting strangers to my site.  Don't get me wrong, you can never have enough strangers/creepers visiting your business page. However, I was busy enough with the orders I already had to fill my "after work, before chores" time.

Here's my awesome banner from my Etsy shop.  Thanks to Jenny Purington.

So here's the thing.  I've got a lot in inventory right now, because I'm gearin up for the 2012 craft fair season (which actually only consists of 1 craft fair because I usually don't like sitting there sell out).  When I look into my craft room, I see all my hats tucked away like abandoned stuffed animals waiting to be played with. Right now, there's probably around 90-100 hats waiting for a noggin to warm/style/accessorize. That may seem like a lot of hats, but trust me, its not. I need about twice as many as that for the fair, because God made every single person's head a different size. And I'm not blaming God. I'm just stating the obvious.

Blah blah blah Blake. Get to the freakin giveaway already.

The winner will recieve one free Blake's Beanie (doi).  You can either have the version with the buttons on each side, or the version with the flower on the side.  I really like this style of hat.  It looks good on everyone!  These pics are not the actually hats you will win, but just the style. The winner will get to choose colors and size (newborn to chad m. large man head). I've got a pretty crazy yarn stash right now, so most likely I will have the color scheme you ask for.  If not? Well, work with me, its free.

My poor styro-head Phoebe. She's smelled better days.

But at least someone tried to fix that by fingernailing a smile onto her.

Thanks to whomever did that....not.

These are just a few that I found to show the flowers.

I have many many more color combos.

Oh. Like this one.

I promise I made more than fuschia colored flowers

My cute sis-in-law Michele modeling on a perfect fall afternoon.

 (Factoid: She had my niece Roselynn in her belly)

Sheesh. I almost forgot to mention HOW to win. I've had 4 blonde moments already today, and I'm not talkin about the beer my cousin Pete makes, although it really would have the same results. I'm gonna make this easy on you folks. You can either email me your entry at blakesbeanies@gmail.com, comment on this blog post, or comment on either my FB blog post, or my blakesbeanies FB blog post. One entry/person, so don't bother overachieving.  I will probably just write everyone that enters on a piece of paper and have my dog Lola sniff out the winner. Seems pretty fair. totally joking. I'll have my neighbor's dog Pepper pick.

Stitch and (Bitch) Talk Nicely About Our Lives

I've posted this topic on FB, and gotten quite the postive response, but never followed through with actually planning a "Stitch and Bitch" event.  These things go on around the country y'all! Didya know THAT? I'm not clever enough to make up my own slogan, so any credit you gave me can be given to Debbie Stroller.  She's the author of the actual Stitch and Bitch books, which include patterns for knerds knitters. 

I've aquired what I believe is carpal tunnel from knitting, so I've all but completely stopped :(. But I still crochet like a mo-fo, and have just started sewing (doi, you obviously know this).  Last night, my crocheting p.i.c. Megan excitedly told me she is getting a sewing machine!!!  We are only now 7 sewing mates away from a Project Runway competition.  I can just imagine models strutting down the runway showcasing my oven mits and napkins. 

SOOO, back to the idea of getting together to drink craft. I was thinking maybe once a month we come together and maybe one person can bring an easy project to do, and teach the rest of us.  OR, we could just get together and work on whatever project we've got goin on. For example, I would love to teach how to make that braided scarf I posted about earlier.  It literally requires 4 straight stitches.  And I didn't even have to cut material!  I know a few people already that are interested:  Jenny (who is highly advanced at sewing I might add), Megan, Carly (although she stated she's more interested in the bitching and less into stitching), Katie, and Rodney's interested too. HA. joking.

Anyone seriously interested in crocheting/sewing/bitching? There will be alcohol involved, so lets not get our expectations too high on the final outcome of the projects.  I mean I'm not going to be going around with a whistle and pouring tequila down your throats/shaking your head around, but a beer or glass of wine can only strengthen our creativity, right? 

Leave a comment if you are interested, and the first par-tay can be at my house.  If you don't have a sewing machine, I can let you use mine (after a drivers ed type course).  If you don't have crochet hooks, I can also let you use mine (as I have MANY).   I've got some shitty yarn I can probably let go of too, but if you want the nice stuff, you might need to supply your own :)