knit wit *hehe*

yarn tote
Originally uploaded by joleenieweenie.

Isn't this the cutest tote bag!? It's a "beach bag" I bought at Target today that I think will be perfect for my knitting & crocheting projects! There is a smaller green compartment in the middle so I can have three seperate projects in tote!

Those are two scarves I am working on. The "pear green" one of the right is the same type of yarn I just used to make a "cabana blue" scarf the other day. You can see that "raspberry" and "grape" are waiting! :D These will make those perfectly fun & funky summer scarves I was mentioning before!

In other good news, www.lovejoleen.com is now mine (*scary voice* all mine!..hehehe) and the website and shop are officially underway! Also, I have a new email (in addition to the old)... joleen@lovejoleen.com.

new product

The last couple of days I have been working on many new products for "love, joleen". The website and shop should be getting underway shortly. I am trying to fullfill consignment "orders" while still creating some goodies exclusive to "love, joleen". Along with these fun polka dot felt brooches I have been creating fun and funky scarves, lightweight and perfect for summer nights. I was told about a great printing company (thanks, Sarah!) for postcards. Plans for greeting cards, stationary, and postcards are in the works! As soon as my Xyron 510 arrives I will get to play with making stickers and magnets too! Yay!

business buy

I "won" this on eBay last week. I can't wait for it to arrive! :D

Happy Easter

Look at these new fun products from Peeps! Mmmm, mmmm! Alex bought me the decorating kit and my mom the choco peep! What fun! :D Here are some fun facts about Peeps! The original Peeps were made by hand through a pastry tube!! (Pictured below.) Check it out.

Happy Easter, Everyone!

cheater, cheater!

"crowded"

I feel like such a bum. I haven't participated in Illustration Friday in a few weeks because I have been so busy with projects, preparing for our trip, and actually being on vacation. I missed out on "Ancient" and "Fragile" and I had good plans for those themes! :D This last week's theme was "Bloom" and I just couldn't see missing that. Unfortunately I didn't bring anything with me to illustrate with while vacationing so you get to see watercolor paintings I did a couple of months ago (that I love!). :) I am also including this week's "Crowded" because I know I won't have a chance to later this week. It is an illustration I did with a sharpie marker a couple of weeks ago. Click to enlarge. Enjoy! :D

"Bloom"

being productive

This vacation has been so nice and relaxing but also productive. I made the above brooches while in Kansas City as well as the brightly colored hand crocheted scarf on the bottom right. I made another fun scarf (not pictured) that Kellee fell in love with and is keeping. I will have to get a picture of that one before we leave Topeka. The neutral scarf on the bottom left hand side was crocheted yesterday for my Aunt Laura's birthday. Right now I am working on knitting a scarf for Kellee. I will get pictures of that one later, too.

Goings On

We're in Topeka now, at Alex's mom's house. I still have to post pictures of my birthday! :D Those are still to come. Sunday was mine and Alex's first anniversary! We stayed at The Woodward, which was where we stayed our wedding night. We had a couple's massage in the library that night which was awesome! Last year we stayed in The Master and this year in The Chisholm. It was such a beautiful room and it had a whirpool tub in it which was nice! It doesn't quite look like the picture on the web. :D Elizabeth is so hospitable! I would recommend this bed and breakfast to anyone!

Yesterday we went shopping for goodies and spring clothing. Kind of funny since today it snowed here!! :D

It's been really nice visiting with family here and relaxing! We've spent a lot of time chattin' it up in front of the tube. I've also made quite a bit of progress on fulfilling consignment "orders". I've made 10 felt flower brooches and about 10 fabric yoyo brooches. I have also made two scarflettes with handspun yarn bought from My Paper Crane. Speaking of yarn, I just purchased these three smaller skeins from her yesterday:

Lots more to talk about when I have a chance. For now, I will leave you with some of my favorite crafty blogs to enjoy!
♥ my paper crane
♥ one good bumblebee
♥ tania
♥ wee wonderfuls
♥ sweet peas
♥ the small object

Drive to Kansas

We made it here safe and sound! It was an absoultely beautiful drive and the weather is great here! We drove from California, through Nevada, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado, to Kansas. Everywhere we have been is cold but the air was crisp and the conditions during the drive were good. You can view a slideshow of our drive here. Below are a few of my favorite photographs!

♥ Utah ♥ Colorado ♥ Kansas ♥

♥ happy birthday to me ♥

Happy Birthday to me! Happy St. Patrick's Day to you! :D Today is a *busy* day! I have errands (bank, post office, etc.) and I still have to pack and get everything together for our trip to Kansas. We're going to my parent's house for birthday dessert with the family! :D Then we'll be on our way (we're driving) tonight. We have checked the weather and since we're not expecting snow we've decided to drive the Colorado way. I think it should be beautiful. :) I am already having such a wonderful birthday! They have seriously gotten better over the years. I think it has a lot to do with where I am in my life. I am happier now than I have ever been. Alex and I have so many great things going for us, we're working on the not-so-good things, and have many dreams! I think we'll have a most excellent future. Sunday is our first wedding anniversary! Can you believe it's been a year since our wonderfully unique and beautiful wedding?

I know you'll all miss me. :D I will be back the 26th! I am sure I'll be able to write while there!

Hugs and Love ♥

should have stayed in bed

Ever have one of those days when you think you may have been better off staying in bed? Yeah. That was me yesterday. It started off well. I got up early enough to take a shower in the morning. I got to wear a new, super cute, brown tie cardigan and a fabulous felted flower brooch made for me by Keina for the first time! I even wore a bit of makeup. Haha.

Then disaster hit and my day turned sour. I was packed up and ready to go to work and I couldn't find my keys. These babies are hard to miss with a bright pink leather keychain on 'em! Finally I found them and I ran out the door, locked it, and turned around to see.. no car. I scanned the parking lot (much less cars than the norm) and no Betty. I quickly did the run through..did I park somewhere else last night? No. Omg. Omg. Was it..*gasp* stolen? Who would want my car?! No..no.. It was towed. The apartments have been posting signs lately saying cars would be towed without current permits so Saturday Alex went and got the current pass for my car. I put it on the dashboard and didn't think twice about it. Monday, when driving to work, it was sliding about and I have to assume it slid off. The towing company took a photo of my dashboard for the leasing office and yep, no permit. So frustrating but really no one's fault. Alex was at work so I had to take a taxi to get my car. It took me an hour to get up the nerve to take that taxi ride.. $200 ($170 for my car & $30 for the taxi ride) later and I was finally (4.5 hours later) on my way to work.

Then, the entrance to the toll road that I normally take was closed! lol. Other than that no glitches until later that night. On my way home my check engine light came on and didn't turn off. Ugh!! Anyone wanna buy me a new car? Haha.

My sweet husband is so awesome (and impatient..lol) and wanted to cheer me up so he gave me my birthday present 27 hours early. ;) I got a fabulously pink mini iPod! :D He also got me a $25 iTunes gift card so I could download 25 songs. While he was setting it up for me I made a little felt cozie for it. It's a snug fit because I didn't measure it properly but I think it's cute. :D (will post pics later!)

leave a comment ;)

I just realized yesterday (thanks, Aim) that I had set my blog to only allow comments from fellow bloggers! So, now that is changed and any of you can leave me a comment. Just click on the link at the bottom of the post in which you want to comment and tell me what you think! :D

Busy Day! :D

Today was a busy but fun and crafty day! I made the twenty-five flower brooch/hair clip kits for the Sampler.

I made a lot of headway on a consignment project of making 100 or so invitations for a ground breaking ceremony for a surgery center. I bought most of the supplies last night and today I cut everything out and starting putting them together. I need to finish adhering the skeleton leaves to the tops and to purchase the cardstock to print the actual invitations on and the envelopes.

Lastly, I made my first three fabric yo-yo's. I've been seeing these a lot lately on things and I think they're so cute! :D I didn't know how to make them and Google helped me find these instructions. Uh-oh, I think I'm addicted! ;)

Contribution to April's Sampler

Today I put together 25 kits for April's Sampler. These kits will only be available there and come with everything needed to make a felty flower. Some come with hair clips and others pin backings. They also come with thread, a button, and directions! :D

(Photo curtesy of The Sampler.)

pictures, as promised

Here are some of the super fun goodies I found today at Target except for the mini oragami paper pack which was bought at Pearl's. I think the Peeps! doll is my favorite! It is *so* cute and super soft!! I can't post everything I bought today at Target (too bad! ;) ) because I don't want my operation haremail buddy to see! I will say I wanted to keep everything I bought her! Hehe!

Yay for happy mail today! :D I got this **adorable** felt owl bag today from Carol in Brazil! :D

Thank you so much, Carol! I absolutely love this and will treasure it always! I hope we can trade goodies again in the future! *hugs*

a day of goodness

Today was full of goodness. We started with the release of my debt to Wells Fargo which is pure goodness! Today was a day of cleaning, organizing, and laundry and although none of them fun, it always feels good to have accomplished something. We went shopping tonight for Easter and birthday goodness! Alex laughed at me for buying my own Hello Kitty birthday party stuff but so what! :) I've wanted to have a Hello Kitty party for a few years now! :D I also bought my (TBD) operation haremail (hosted by polka dot mittens) buddy lots of goodies while we were at Target. I will take pictures of the goodies I got myself later. ;) For now, let me leave you with the exciting goodness I came home too:

The first appearance of my felty brooches online! You can purchase them now at pixelgirlshop.com!

one down...

$1,273.74 one time payment to pay off an $800 WF credit card that I am sure has been paid at least 5 fold in the last 4 years. :/ *sigh* At least that's done! Now to tackle wedding debt (not much left) and student loans.. yay! (sarcasm)

casting on

I found a great help for casting on and it's actually working! :D
http://www.dnt-inc.com/barhtmls/knit/dblco.html

simple drawings

Here are the simple drawings that I drew yesterday:

Twisted Bead Flower Ring

I love this ring made today on Crafters Coast to Coast on HGTV!

Updates for today: I've created three more crocheted floral broaches. I must say, practice with these is helping quite a bit. The last one actually resembles a flower! ;) I've also created a few simple drawings inspired by Katey and Kim. I just think these are so sweet! Photos of everything to be posted later.

In business news I've been accepted for consignment at two more online shops: Junk In Our Trunk and funky utopia!

a day of firsts

This morning I put together packages to go out to consignment shops and friends. I sent my first packages of product out today to two consignment shops. Tonight, I took my first knitting class! I was taught to cast on and off, the knit stitch, purl stitch, and drop stitch. I raced home because I was starving! I made dinner tonight (close enough to a first..haha)- eggs and bacon. Sad, I know. So after dinner I decided to work on my first knitting project- a scarf, naturally. I forgot how to cast on!! OMG. I don't have the patience to try with the pictures in the book again so it was set aside for the evening. I decided to crochet a floral broach. It didn't exactly come out like the picture. Figures. I just cannot read a pattern.

vintage floral broaches

vintage floral broaches
Originally uploaded by joleenieweenie.

I am so tired! I wanted to post really quick before I hit the hay. (What a weird saying.) Today my broaches were accepted for consignment on femminastyle.com and pixelgirlshop.com. I see great things ahead for "love, joleen" goodies. Here are some broaches I made tonight. These were created using vintage fabric (thank you ebay!), vintage buttons, and acrylic felt and are exclusive to pixelgirlshop.com.

Product Packaging

Yay! This is the image Brian created for me! :D Thank you so much for creating such fabulously me product packaging. :) (Sorry the image is so pixleated.. I shrunk the original image.) I recieved the pin backings and tags/business cards last night. Today I cut and punched the cards and attached the product. :) I am getting my first package together tonight to be shipped to Kim at veryblue.com this week. I will let you know just as soon as her store opens and you can purchase my goodies!

What a cutie! :D

My sister, Aimee, and her new, sweet, (and currently unnamed) puppy! :D He is eight weeks old; part Toy Chiuhaua and part Miniature Pincher. :D She got him today as an early birthday gift! I can't wait to meet him! He's a total cutie!

pretties

Aren't these BEAUTIFUL? :D Thank you Grams and Papa for the early birthday gift! I had so much fun today with my mom and grandma! We met up at the mall for some shopping and lunch before my grandma goes back to Atlanta. I showed her this set at Ben Bridge Jewelers because I just love this rose gold and she bought it for me. :D I can't stop looking at myself in the mirror! Haha. :) I showed Alex a matching ring and he thought that was pretty funny. ;) I do like this one too. :D It's a fun shape and 1/2 the price of the first one. I also got my wedding and engagement rings polished today. I'm embarrased to say for the first time in (almost) a year. Wow.

I got the new Platinum Edition, 2 Disc Special Edition of Bambi, too!! :D (Thanks Grams and Papa!) I am so happy to add this to my ever growing Disney movie collection. :D Go here for some fun facts and trivia about the original release of Bambi in 1942. One interesting fact is "The movie lost money at the box office for the first run, but began to recoup its considerable cost (over $2,000,000) during the 1947 re-release." I am so glad they were persistant with this great classic!

On another note, I've been knit-happy lately. I've now purchased the "premiere" and "music" (Spring/Summer 2005) issues of knit.1 magazine, a spinoff of Vogue Knitting.

I also purchsed these adorable books of images and patterns of knits for toddlers/children (and one other, not pictured). Such cute stuff!

Okay, so is this pathetic or what? Being that I can't knit! Hahaha...

I have decided to take a class, though, because I just can't teach myself from a book. I'm more of a visual type.