Inky Paws

Owl Spotlight #5: Suenosdejmi

Jamie from Suenosdejmi has been crocheting for longer than she can remember; her grandmother and mom taught her when she was little.  She's being doing it here and there ever since, but started to crochet almost daily a few years ago.  Right when she ran out of people to give scarves to, she discovered Etsy.

Jamie has a degree in Cross-Cultural Sociology and a secondary major in Spanish.  She has always been interested in the Spanish language and spent three months in Spain last year.  She had time to explore her love of photography there, and has since opened up another shop with her friend where they sell prints of photos from their travels.

If I could pick anything from Jamie's store, I would have a hard time deciding...  But I would probably pick the Woodstock Tam hat. (That is, if it hadn't already been sold!)  I loved the colors in that hat!

Owl Spotlight #4: Bumblebirch

Sarah of Bumblebirch Designs is originally from the wine country of Northern California but is now living happily in the Pacific Northwest.  She says she's been a crafty girl since she was little, and she can't remember a time when she didn't spend part of the day making something with her hands!

She has an education in architecture, but says that her favorite part was the graphic design, "which is probably why I'd rather make stationary and stitch markers and dye yarn in fabulous colors rather than build buildings."

Sarah is always in search of practical, beautiful things and enjoys knitting, nature, books, and tea.

If I could have one thing from Sarah's shop, it would definitely be the Bumblebirch Yarn Club.  I mean, come on, it's got all my favorite things!  Hand-dyed yarn, unique loose-leaf teas, plus a surprise...  To me, yarn + tea + a surprise = happiness!

Owl Spotlight #3: Zemphira

Sara from Zemphira Creations says that she is pretty much self-taught.  "I mean, come on," she said, "my mom used to STAPLE my try-its onto my brownie sash."  Her mom first bought her a sewing machine when she was 12, and she was out gathering leaves and ironing them into wax-paper books as soon as she was old enough to plug in the iron.

Sara says she loves to make lots of different things, and that her creative instincts jump around - from rubber stamp art to sewing to mixed media.

Although it's not represented in her shop, Sara loves doing beadwork.  She learned from a native Alaskan who is her crafting soul-mate.

The owls in her shop are my favorite, but Sara also sells lots of other awesome things that you should check out!  Besides, in her own words, ""whoo" doesn't need a fancy coffee cuff holder?!"

Owl Spotlight #2: WeiOpenSecret

Wei is a graphic designer and crafter from the Michigan area.  She started by making things for herself, then expanded to making jewelry for family, and then friends and co-workers.  She says, "when I started taking orders from friends of co-workers, I realized it was time to do more."  And so Wei's Open Secret was born.

Wei has a variety of awesome things in her shop - from luggage tags to jewelry to bookmarks.  She has created these cute little characters (owls, cats, bunnies) and put them on her different items.  Personally, my favorite of those is her owl!  

Owl Spotlight #1: Squarejane

Squarejane makes custom sewn goods, art dolls, play stuffies, purses, knits and paintings to share whimsy with the world.  She says, "making things keeps me sane... or at least sane enough to make more things."

These are some of those things!

She started knitting, crocheting and sewing as a child and has 30 years of experience with those mediums. Painting has been a good friend of hers now for about 20 years.

Personally, I think that poop costume is awesome.  I mean, seriously, who hasn't ever wanted to dress up as poop before?  

OWL Spotlight

So did you know that there is a feature on Etsy.com that lets sellers make "teams"?  It's pretty cool, and a good way to get to know like-minded people!  Well, I'm in a team, called the Owls.  (Stands for Off-the-wall-ladies.)  It's an awesome group, with lots of talented sellers.  I've decided to have a little feature on here until the end of November, showing you some of those sellers and their fantastic items!  

The first post for this feature will be posted today.  Hooray!

The Fall Festival

So, I'm going downtown today to volunteer for the Camp Fire USA booth at the Fall Festival.  The weather is looking very autumn-y!

 

(I am NOT joking.)

EDIT: Well, that didn't really work out.  The snow is so laden with water that it's been weighing down trees, so branches were broken off everywhere.  Some onto power lines, which might be why the power downtown was completely out.  All the booths were gone - no one was even attempting to set up.  I have this strange feeling that I should be going to get a Christmas tree soon, which was not helped by the fact that we saw a sign advertising a Christmas bazaar coming up.  (Seriously, this early?)  Have we just time traveled to December??????