12 Days of Christmas

I'm a member of the EtsyKids street team. We're having a pretty cool event that I forgot to write about yesterday.

I'm giving away a yeti tee as part of the extravaganza.

November 28th – December 10th, join EtsyKids for 12 days of fabulous, festive fun and dreamy holiday prizes.

Here’s how to play:

Each day the EtsyKids blog will contain a post showing an image that’s hidden in an item listing on a few different EtsyKids team members’ shops, along with a clue on how to find it. When a contestant finds just one of the hidden images, they send an Etsy conversation to the day’s entry collector with a link to the listing where they found it. Once their conversation is received, they’ll be entered into a drawing for an amazing EtsyKids prize. Those who find images for all 12 days are entered into the grand prize drawing!

Participants may use one of two methods to find the images:

1. Begin by looking at each of the 7,000+ EtsyKids listings, or
2. Decipher the clue to the keyword to narrow down the listings to under 100.

The clues are word association to the keyword. After you think you have the keyword, enter that word and "etsykids team" into Etsy's search, and start looking!

Example: Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus...........nativity
Thus, you would enter "nativity etsykids team" to narrow down the listings to hunt through. The clues start out easy, and they get harder!

Please do not post the answers anywhere - all answers will be revealed at the end of the game.

If you don't jump into the game until after it's started, no problem! You can still enter that day's drawing, as well as the remaining days, then go back and find the previous days to enter the grand prize drawing.

The Etsykids blog will also let contestants know who to contact to enter, as well as the prize(s) that will be awarded that day. The number of prizes will increase each day and the winners will be selected at random.

***Contestants can enter once each day.

Within 24 hours of winning, the lucky winners will be contacted via Etsy Conversation, and MUST contact (via Etsy Conversation) the prize donor with their mailing address within 2 days of being contacted. If they fail to contact the prize donor within the given time, a new winner will be selected.

Small gift

I'm an avid reader of Small magazine and have been since issue #1 was all over the blogosphere some time ago. If you remember, Lemon Cadet had some pieces featured in a spread in a later issue.

I offered one of my rompers for those who participated in their giveaway, Small Gift. Check it out.

1st Annual Midwest Plushform Show

I consider myself very lucky to be a part of the first ever (and soon to be annual) Midwest Plushform show at Cleveland's Shoparooni art gallery and incredibly cute little store (perhaps you saw the owner's recent stint on Wife Swap).

I made this little silver cat character. I love him. I even made those fantastic green pants. I have never made a pair of pants before. I traced the plushform, made a pattern, and went to work. The first time I sewed them I didn't stitch them in the right order so I had to start over. This is the second try. They wouldn't make the cut in Project Runway but I think they rock.

So the deal is that all the proceeds of this auction go to Toys for Tots. There are some big name artists involved and some really amazing plush. I'm looking forward to bidding but I can't decide since there are so many cool ones to choose from.

decisions decisions

So I had to make an emergency trip to the store for baby prunes. The organic brand we like (next best to making our own baby food) doesn't have prunes. The organic Gerber prunes were packaged in #7 plastic. The other option was a conventionally grown product packaged in glass baby food jars.

What to do?

So far we have given the baby only breast milk or organic foods (except for Motrin that one time and weird gas drops another).

I went with the glass. I'm just hoping that Beech Nut washed their plums really well before they dried them. What would you do?

1, 2, 4, and 5 are the only kinds of plastic coming into contact with foods in our house. Why are so many toys (that she is gnawing on constantly) not labeled? Why does my breast pump funnel contain BPA and why did it take that company months to come out with a non-toxic bottle? My brother just got diagnosed with cancer. He is younger than me. I'm just scared.

I feel like I should go live in a damn hole in the ground sometimes -- oh, and then I'll have to worry about a Vitamin-D deficiency.

Handmade Arcade this weekend!!!

We are in a frenzy getting our stuff together for Handmade Arcade in Pittsburgh. It's only just over an hour away from us so it's the closest good show we do and we are determined to make the most of it.

Last year was awesome even though we were freezing (no heat) and dirty (in a warehouse). This year is already promising to be so much better as the location has been moved to the fabulous and historic Hunt Armory in Shadyside.

It's on 324 Emerson Street so plug it into your GPS and be there. Find us Saturday from 11 - 7 and Sunday from 11 - 5. There are also some Early Birdie Shopping passes available for Saturday morning so you can get there first and get dibs on the good stuff. I'm right in the middle in the aisle closest to ZipCar in booth 49.

Best of all, I have been working away on some really gorgeous long-sleeved onesies and toddler tees with beans in some cool new suits -- some even out of this crazy expensive Japanese fabric I bought in SoHo (had to have some retail therapy to make up for the loss at Vida's Market). It's fantastic.

Here's a little bit more info from their press release:

Handmade Arcade is the perfect opportunity to jump start your holiday shopping, decorate your home, or dress your fine self while supporting independent businesses and creative ingenuity.

Check out the more than 90 vendors that will be appearing at HA this year on our website vendor page: here. We’re also going to have yummy food vendors like Franktuary, Coca, My Goodies Bakery, and Dozen.

A.I.R. will be back for their second HA appearance with screenprinting demonstrations and “make-and-takes”. The Society for Contemporary Craft will present metal working demonstrations throughout both days of HA.

Handmade Arcade 2008 is Saturday, November 8 (11am-7pm) AND Sunday, November 9 (11am-5pm) at the Hunt Armory, 324 Emerson Street, in Pittsburgh’s Shadyside neighborhood. The location is just a short walk from a number of bus lines, including the 71C, 71D, and 500, so save some gas money and take the bus! There will also be several bike racks on site donated by BikePGH so we’re peddle friendly too!

An Endangered Species

Please help me find more yetis to slaughter for their fur. I have used the last of my stash and can't seem to find this fabric anywhere.

I originally bought it at JoAnn Fabrics. That's the last of it curing on my clothesline. It can be found in the "fun fleece" section of the store when it is in stock.

That's a detail of a claw on one of my handcrafted yetis. No real yetis were harmed in the writing of this post. But if you don't act now, I will only be able to make about 2 more of them.