What I've been up to.

Just some photo spam until I feel more verbose.

Yes the ever popular bath puff will be coming to my etsy shop as soon as I can get a "cover photo" .

I'm also working on Snow Candles and just for those of you curious the triangles will not be available as they aren't really good to burn. This is after I removed the charred "snow" from the tip!

The seasons and Etsy.

I've been thinking lately about how the seasons are apparent on my etsy shop. How if you look back through the pages you can tell what season the photos are taken in and how that affects the whole feel of the thing.

Fall for example was a good season when I could still take photos outside and get bits of plant life and fun.














This will be my second summer on Etsy and hopefully my first with an outside place to take photos so summer shots are few and far between. Most are of candles that haven't sold and still look good on that old Victorian windowsill at my former apartment. Still you can see a summer shower on the window and the trees outside in this one. I really don't know how summer looks on my shop!











This is one my few winter photos that is actually outside. The winter photos are almost all vintage and supply items or pendants on wood tables and near the end the dead twister rush in my room. Winter was really good for sophisticated items since it was clean and sedate but I had a hard time photographing some of my brighter items.

Spring has been really good to me so far. I have some fun exuberant items in my shop that really needed photo updates and nothing seems to capture it like spring. Nature bursting out from winter and going as fast as it can to live, breed and store up energy until winter comes again. I can barely take photos of vintage or supplies though I have them because every week something new blooms that I need to include in my shop pages. That said I do have a couple of items that just don't work in spring and would look better in a calmer season but that's where I have to get creative.

I've been thinking about it a lot lately and today on the front page a listing showed up that lead me to these:

Maybe I'm not the only one?

Yard and Craft Sale

This weekend (2nd and 3rd) I'll be participating in a group craft and yard sale in Pittsburgh on Whitney Avenue and Hay Street so come by and check it out. There should be face painting and games as well.

Come by to see the wares of http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5146291 and http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5832033

Just checking in

I admit I'm just swinging in to update on some of my recent activities and running away again. I've been making my very first paper beads from a book so tragically bad that I wouldn't even give it away for fear of spreading the suffering.
I've been working on wire wrapping and pendants in a big way while my yarn pile sits loved but untouched.
Candles of course have been on hold since the move but a few new vintage items have come into my life so I'm enjoying them before someone else snaps them up.
I'm going mad with growing season approaching and no where to plant anything. This generally leads to many pots and lots of crazyness but I hope to persevere.

Finally should I ever be checked into rehab for alcohol abuse...
Let's just keep this between us shall we?

Holiday Madness!

Just when I thought I could get back into my usual crafty groove I was descended upon by a wedding, and more custom orders than you can shake a rather large stick at. Thankfully several of those pay! I have some holiday shopping to make up for.
So what have I made?
Well:
12 coasters (in canary yellow no less)
1 cell cozy
3 scarves
10 dish rags
1 extra long glove
several cat toys
several, many and a multitude of chap stick cozies
a necklace
And some other stuff that I'm working on, forgot or simply is too far back to bother with.
I'll return later with real content I promise but I just thought I'd let you all know I wasn't dead!

Where did I go and Canary Yellow.

Well I started this blog, got you all excited and then dropped off the face of the earth! What the heck is wrong with me? Well I took a new job in a new city and had to pack up and move is what. I'm now Salvaged Expression of Harrisburg (ish) PA and I'll soon be selling Steelers beanies at discount to make room for all that Penn State stuff. At least that's the plan... :)

So far the new job is going well and I'm crashing with a relative until I can find an apartment that suits. Kind of hard while also planning a wedding which eats all available weekends. My relatives rock.

Further proof of this was received last night when my aunt came home from a crafty friends house with bags full of derelict yarn that her friend didn't want any more. I was a bit low in the yarn area (since most of mine is packed away) so naturally I was pretty excited. Heck it doesn't matter if I'm buried under yarn free supplies are always welcome!

So I spent last night sorting, balling and admiring my new yarn. Now some of this yarn is really quality stuff that I'm happy to get and happy to use. Still and yet, spending multiple hours making yarn balls does allow one to make some observations. One of mine is that every time I get a stash of unwanted yarn certain colors are BOUND to show up. White (often in small mismatched balls), red (of the bright Christmas/crayola variety), canary yellow and virtually no black! Now of course all of these colors have their uses but I admit I'm a bit stuck when it comes to canary yellow. It's honestly not a color I'm naturally attracted to so I'm often hard pressed to find a way to use it that I think looks good. So in a fit of crafty desperation I decided to turn to the wise people of Etsy to see what they thought was a good use for this color.

Did I mention they were wise?

Now this picture right here is why I tend to avoid using Etsy as inspiration since I was actually thinking of doing something like this already and now I'll have to wrestle with the whole idea and see if I can make mine different enough to be worth making. Still isn't it pretty!

Need I say more?

A little more web crawling and I think I'll be fine. :)

A shout out.

Before I got into my own rambling on my own life and crafts I have to make sure the little section of the world who frequents craft blogs knows about this soap.
The absinthe soap from LavaMeSoapCo on Etsy.
I got a bar of this soap as a gift from a friend a month or so ago and have been in love with it ever since. Admittedly at first the black licorice type smell put me off and my SO was so disturbed that I'd threaten to use it on him as punishment for bad behavior.
Once I got used to the idea however I came to think of the strong smell as being quite luxurious and of course rather authentic. Naturally, actually using the soap helped a lot! It has a rich lather and slightly astringent quality that makes you feel really clean. My SO even started using it on his face because he liked the lather so much. (I won't let him use it on his whole body or there wouldn't be any left for me)
So keep up the good work Lavame!