Mommy Turtle.

     Mommy turtle made me very sad last night.  I will not go into detail about it but I feel as though I have lost my sister.  Our so called "Twin/Sister Powers" never warned me of this.  My SISTER told our mutual best friend last night that she needs to choose between being friends with me, or being friends with her.  The gruesome details of the email that she sent are not to be mentioned but the way my sister put it, made it seem as though she were making the ultimatum about her worst enemy that Shaunney was having to choose from, not her sister.  There were things she said about me that I WOULDN'T say about my worst enemy!  She is my sister.  At least I thought she was.

      I have never been so hurt in my life by her.  Growing up she would always be the one who would "steal" my friends so I just learned to accept the fact that I could either NOT bring them home to meet her or know they would like her more and they would become HER friends.  It was a way of life in my family.  To this day I have very few good friends.  The ONE good friend I have is Shaunney who I don't really consider my friend, she is more like family.  Like a long lost sister.  I met her thru my sister but I would have met her thru my husband too so that's not a big issue.  Shaunney is 2 years or so younger than I am, and 5 years younger than my sister, but when we met Shaunney and I just clicked and have been close ever since.

     Our children have grown up together, she has been in BOTH of our weddings as a bridesmaid.  SECOND in line for both of us behind the Maid of Honor which was each other.  To me she isn't a choice of being friends with anymore, I will love her as FAMILY no matter what happens.  I told her that too.  I am never going to make her choose.  I completely understand if she feels like she needs to be loyal to my sister because she was her friend first.  I am not that type of person.  I am not even the type of person to bring this up to my sister.

     I am still going to make her the hat's and the turtles for her birthday.  That is why I started this by calling it "Mommy Turtle."  I am still going to celebrate with her, and love her like a good sister does.  I don't understand why she hates me so much.  I don't know what I did to make her so disappointed in me.  Maybe someday she will tell me, but at this point I don't even want to know.   She is my sister, and I love her no matter what.

What to do, what to do??? Make a Crochet Turtle I guess!!!!

  
 I am running out of ideas of what to make that is new and exciting.  This has never really been an issue for me but all of a sudden I have no idea what to try to make next.  I am thinking maybe a purse or shoulder bag.

     I have a bunch of this brown, pink and green bulky "Loops & Threads" Charisma yarn that I need to do something with but it is way too bulky for a hat or glove set, and the colors aren't that pretty together if they were to be used for something like that.  I started out with a pattern for a hat with it at one point and the brown is so prominent that it looked funny.

     I should just start over and try this new idea I've been mulling over about doing a shoulder strap purse with either a button or zipper to close it on top.  I guess we'll just have to see where it leads to.  I've never done more than just a pouch when it comes to bags before, but when I went to try and make the ear flap hats, I was totally intimidated about it at first and it turned out really good.  This shouldn't be that different.  I'll just have t play around with it until it works.  And this time, write down my pattern.

    I ended up having to make up a second pattern  for the ear flaps because the first one I made I forgot to write down the pattern as I went along and then couldn't remember which stitches I had used.  Love it when I do that!!!  Not!  I have a baby booties pattern that I did that with too!  It was the cutest pattern and everyone loved them, I sold a TON of them the winter of 2009 but can't for the life of me remember the WHOLE pattern.  C-est la vie!  I will remember or come up with some other better newer one someday.  I have very few babies that even wear booties anymore around me.  My two children are 4 and 6 and haven't worn booties for years.  That's one reason why I started making hats instead.

     I finally made that little turtle that I had purchased the pattern for from Tophatter.  The $5 credit they gave me was great because I only ended up paying $1 for the pattern and it's really cute.  It is something I am DEFINITELY going to modify when I make more of them, but it turned out okay.  That is one reason I don't like using a pattern that someone else wrote.  I don't mean to be a snob but there are a lot of people out there who don't know what they are doing when they write the patterns, so they don't make sense, or in this case, the pattern lays funny.  The designer didn't use enough chains at the beginning of the rows so the part where it comes together it cinches up and looks awkward.  Minor adjustments will make it a super great pattern, and now that I have made an animal I can pretty much figure out any other design if I want to.  That is the joy and benefit of having as much experience as I do, thankfully.  I know how to make it work the way I want it to NEXT time. 

     I am going to make a whole family of Turtles for my sister.  When her son was born, she said his upper lip reminded her of a baby turtle, so we nicknamed him Turtle and ever since my sister has had an obsession with turtles.  I couldn't agree more with her about her love for turtles, I absolutely LOVE FROGS!  She got a beautiful turtle tattoo on her back that is incredible and I have my tattoo of my poison dart frog on my foot.  My sister is my best friend.  I admire her and love her more than she will ever know.  Have you ever heard of what people like to call "Twin Power?"  Even though my sister and I are not twins, we have a connection between us that sometimes scares the absolute crap outta me.  It doesn't matter if we don't speak to each other on anything except over the internet for months at a time  because it's like satellite radar when one of us is needs the other it's like we just know.  I have gotten up in the middle of the night just to check my internet and she had sent me a message that she needed to talk to me minutes before.  It happens all the time, she'll call me outta the blue when I'm in the worst mood of my life just to tell me a joke and make me feel better because she could just feel that I needed her.  We don't even know why, obviously, but it's the most comforting feeling in the world.

     I remember one time years ago I woke up from a dead sleep and called her while she was on a camping trip to tell her to be careful.  I don't remember exactly what ended up happening but someone got hurt that night, and I was just glad that it wasn't her.  Anyway, getting back to the "family of turtles" I'm making her.

     Her birthday is on April 10th.  I don't have any money to buy her something and this is a BENCHMARK birthday so I want it to be SUPER special.  I have a set of new hats that I am making her and my niece Temperance out of my Lime Green Yarn.  My gorgeous sister and niece have the most beautiful red hair that looks amazing with that lime green color.  (For me, when I wear it, I look like a washed out sick person because of my skin tone.)  I have been meaning to make them a matching set of hats, which she doesn't wear the slouchy's because she says she "can't" wear them, and have finally decided on the pattern I think I want.  She has the perfect face for my beanie's and I have a KILLER ribbon I'm going to put in them.  Light green leopard print!  It's amazing!  I can't wait.  However: along with the hats I wanted to make her something that she could keep forever.  With her love of turtles, and my new found pattern, I decided that it would be a perfect gift.  So far I have made the little girl turtle, but now am working on the little boy, the Mommy and the Daddy.  I want to make them all different but have a part all be the same to help represent their unity as a family.  Let me know if you have any suggestions about the colors. 

I'm trying out a Facebook Auction. Come check it out! Auction ends 3/31/2012 at midnight.

 After my fiasco with Tophatter Auctions I started asking questions to other members of the site to see how they are getting their things scheduled and then eventually sold.  One amazingly wonderful member told me about how she does more than just the Tophatter auctions she holds her own on her Facebook Fan page which are way more successful and you don't have to pay the fees that they REQUIRE with Tophatter.  I have spent almost DOUBLE what I made off of the two items I sold on that site just trying to get my stuff into their stupid auctions and then all I got was 15 seconds of exposure before they closed the lot and it was over.  I'm sorry but I'm BEYOND pissed off at that stupid site.  If I had it my way I would put them out of business.  You don't treat people the way they treated me and get away with it.  I am however leaving this up to karma because it is not worth ANYMORE of my time or energy to even think about them.  I'm DONE with Tophatter auctions, and if you are smart you would stay away from them all together.

Ok so enough about that.  My auction is running right now thru the end of the month.  Each item has a starting price listed in the description of the picture if you click on it.  Bidding is done thru the comments on each picture and the highest bidder is the winner of each hat at midnight the 31st.  There are two options of paying, one is if you are a personal friend you can pay cash and I don't charge the $4 shipping because I can hand deliver it or you can pay thru PayPal via Etsy.com and that will give me your mailing address.  (I will still be paying the etsy fee's for that option but I'm totally okay with it because THEY ARE LEGITIMATE!!!)  All the items will then be shipped via USPS with delivery confirmations on Monday morning the 2nd of April so you can have your item before Easter.  I am hoping to be able to post about this being a super good way to drive business to your etsy site when it's all said and done because I know I am not the only one who is struggling to get views to my shop and anything that will help drive business there will in turn keep people coming back again and again. 

Etsy has been such an amazing site when it comes to supporting us small business owners and artists.  They also have an AMAZING network of people to work with who are amazing artists themselves.  I have met more down to earth and just plain GREAT people working with them than I ever have working with other sites.  That is one of the reason's why I am trying so hard to support more people going there and becoming part of the Etsy Community.  Come check out the auction and if you get a moment, check out my Shop too.

Go to Auction!

Thanks for reading!

Cheers!

Mrz Jaques

True Beauty Lies within the Yarn!

I can truly never say enough wonderful things about this yarn.  Lyons Brand Homespun is the ultimate when it comes to luxury and softness!  Over and over again I have my friends tell me that these hats are the softest they have ever felt.  I have heard from others who have used it in their projects that it is extremely difficult and they don't like using it because of how hard it is, but I have found that it is NOT difficult to use if you have a little EXTRA patience.  In my life I have to have a lot of patience in order to get most things to work out the way I want them so this was an easy task for me.  I also find that when using a larger crochet hook, it works best because the smaller you go the harder it is to get a hold of the whole piece of yarn.

I got started using this yarn because my mom had bought two skeins of a color that I would have NEVER bought but she wanted me to make her a pair of my fingerless gloves for her birthday.  She had originally bought it because she wanted to make a scarf out of it, but she said that she couldn't figure out how to work with the yarn.  I am never intimidated by yarn, it is my passion and my obsession so to me it was a challenge and one I wanted to conquer.  It was really surprising to me that the yarn was not as difficult to use as she had  made it seem.

Now it has become my favorite to use whenever I want to make a new hat or anything really because you can get it in pretty much any solid color you want and then they have these mixed colors that are simply spectacular.  I love going into the store and looking at them because I never really know what I'm going to end up with.  They are so amazing with the finished product.  I remember my husband came home on Christmas Eve and I needed to make two sets of my hats and fingerless gloves for his Aunt Stephanie and his Cousin Ashely who were going to be over in like 4 hours.  I was super stressed because I had no idea what colors they would want so I sent my wonderful husband to the yarn store.

I trust his judgement completely because he is WAY more fashionable than I am, which is sad, I know.  He grew up with his mother being an AT HOME hair dresser with her very own salon downstairs.  Needless to say he has always known his way around fashion.  So, long story short, he comes home with two skeins of these colors that I am thinking, NO WAY!!!  One is super BRIGHT pink, and I mean NEON!!  And the other is this funky looking purple brown color that was really strange looking and not pretty.  Two colors I would NEVER have bought at the store myself, but whatever, I didn't have time to go back and get different ones, and he knows his aunt and cousin, which I don't very well.

The bright pink was for Ashley, and it didn't turn out as bright as I had thought.  It ended up having purple's and oranges, and even shades of burgundy in it that made it absolutely amazing as a finished product.  Ashley was so in love with it she wore it all night long, and still wears it all the time.

The other color was for Stephanie, who is a very petite Italian woman who is just a wonderful human being all together.  The yarn was called Cotton Candy, and it really looked just like that when it was put together into the hat and gloves.  It swirled from a soft pink, into a cream color, into a rosy wine color, into cream again and then into a deep purple.  The blending of the cream into the purple and the wine color was what gave the skein that brown color, but when it was actually made into something, there was absolutely NO BROWN what-so-ever.

In the case of this beautiful creation, the yarn gave just the slightest dark blue and light blue hints along with the white it is blended with, so I had no idea that it would go across the entire spectrum of cool blue hues.  If you look at the picture of it from the back you can see how it just blends so beautifully into each next color.  One word to describe it would be SPECTACULAR.

In this day and age, you have to find things that keep you guessing (and obsessing in my case) otherwise it gets boring and redundant.  I find myself on the verge of stopping this whole thing of trying to sell my stuff because I have had absolutely nothing sell and less and less views each day this month.  My creative juices feel like they are all tapped out, and if it weren't for my friends, like Tanesssa, who gave me an amazing idea for a hat yesterday, I fear I wouldn't be trying anything new and would just go back to making stuff for my family.  I know that there are people out there who appreciate hand made things.  I myself wish I could afford to buy more stuff that was handmade, but right now my  budget is strictly for my bills and food.

This was supposed to help supplement my income that I make working full time, but alas, it is just a hobby and one that I love.  I don't mind.  I will continue to make things, continue to blog about them and maybe someday business will pick back up again.  Time is the only thing that will tell.

That's all for me today,

Cheers!

Mrz Jaques

I'm gonna give them one more try but I swear if it doesn't sell I'm never going back to Tophatter again!!!

I don't even know where to begin.  My frustrations with this site are thru the roof right now.  As much as I love getting ANY type of exposure where my stuff gets to be seen and at least looked at is great but what happened this morning was ridiculous!  So in my first post about this I mentioned that I was told that if you get to an auction on time you can list an item that day for that "fair" and sell it hopefully, which I did this morning at the 9am accessories auction.  My daughter didn't have school so I was able to get there and log in at 8am which is when they opened the auction room and list this Zebra Print Cell phone Pouch with Red Satin Lining.  

I have sold one of these from my Etsy shop and personally know the lady who bought it now, and she loves it.  She uses it everyday and tells me about how much she loves it every time I see her.  It is one of my pride and joys to be honest and I haven't really tried to make many more of them because of how unique they are, but I decided that since I already have another one just sitting around it might as well get sold.  

Long story short, I get it listed and it goes into the auction but I get all of about 15 seconds of it up on the block before the item is closed and no one bought or even bid on it. They don't even tell you that there is a same day listing fee of $1 that you have to pay no matter if the item sells or not, that I am now responsible for.  Not that bad but I can't keep paying $1 every auction and not have the item sell.  I don't make enough money for that, and to me $1 for 15 seconds of exposure is FLAT OUT ROBBERY!  

You aren't allowed to have a "shop" with their site, you can only showcase the items that they let you list and schedule.  The items you have in your list are only for you to see until you can get it on a schedule.  I've just about had it with Tophatter.  

I was reading in one of the team discussion threads about this that it seems they are attracting more sellers than buyers, hoping to turn us sellers INTO buyers with their credits and what not, but as much as I want to be able to support my fellow artists, I don't have the money right now.  Once I get more money being made from this little adventure I can put more out there but it's not in my budget right now and I saw that a lot of us who were at the auction today were saying the same thing.  We were all sellers!!!

Out of the items that went up for sale, I think maybe half of them actually sold, and they sold for WAY cheaper than their retail prices from what I was seeing.  It's a good deal for people who are looking for great deals on amazing handmade stuff, but as a sellers point of view it is really devastating.  

I'm just going to focus on making a bunch new stuff for the Pic-a-dilly in April and try to keep my head up.  This time of year I've been told is hard for everyone so it's just something I need to buck up and deal with.  I love making my hats and other things, it's not like I'm going to stop just because they aren't selling off the shelves.  This is my first attempt at selling anything so I knew in the first place it was going to take some time.  

I'm off to make a new hat, not sure what, but I'm sure it will be spectacular!  

Lots of Love and wishes of beautiful creations!

Mrz Jaques

P.S.  Don't forget to check out my shop and like me on Facebook!

Cheers!

www.etsy.com/shop/mrzjaquescrochetedit

www.facebook.com/mrzjaquescrochetedit

Tophatter Update! They let me schedule my 2nd hat finally!!!

I don't know if it has anything to do with the fact that I posted the blog I did yesterday but when I logged on to Tophatter this morning, even though it was after 8am PST they had a slot open for me to list my hat on March 19th at 5pm.  To me it is so silly when everything I have tried for the past 2 weeks didn't work but then I write a blog post that gets like 50 hits and the very next day I am able to schedule my item for an auction.  Coincidence?  Maybe.  I just hope that it sells because I really need to make a sale or two this month to cover all the costs that I have been putting out. 

People think that yarn isn't expensive but it really is.  Good quality yarn can be extremely expensive but it is worth it when you can get your hands on it.  Lately I have been relying on donations and whatnot to fund my yarn collection, and it is running scarce.  I am so happy to see one of my favorite sites doing a yarn give away. 

If you haven't heard of them before you should check them out,  www.HookedonCrochet.com which is a free email newsletter sent out by www.AllFreeCrochet.com.  I have found some amazing techniques and patterns that I would have never thought of before.  I am not one to TAKE someones design that they have posted for free and use the whole pattern.  I am weird I guess because I am really REALLY BIG on not wanting to COPY anyone's work unless I paid for the pattern and they get the credit for designing it, so I will always change things, and make it my own.  I find that a lot of the patterns need a little help anyway in getting them to make sense and work correctly so my years of experience come in handy in those cases. 

I mostly signed up for the site's emails because they run contests for yarn give aways, and this month they are giving away Bernat Mosaic's and I WANT IT really bad!  I don't know how many times I have been at Michael's and just sat and felt how amazingly soft and luxurious this yarn is but couldn't bring myself to pay the $7/skein it costs when it's only about 100 yards in each skein.  WAY out of my budget if you ask me.  I couldn't sell anything I made out of it because I'd have to charge like $40 for a hat which is too much in my opinion.  I know that there are people out there selling them for that, but I can't justify it to myself.  I want my hats to be affordable as well as fashionable.  So I always look for good sales, or promotions where they are giving it away. 

I won't use poor quality materials.  Some people would argue with me and say that Red Heart Supersaver Yarn isn't of good quality but I will tell you that I have always used Red Heart Supersaver and ALWAYS will because it is durable, washable, and you can find it in almost any color you want.  It may NOT be the softest yarn, but if you want something that you can SEE the details of your work in, this is the perfect yarn.  Yes it is acrylic but it's not itchy unless you don't keep up on the maintenance and shave it periodically.  (Shaving a sweater or hat made out of ANY yarn is necessary after a period of time if you want it to remain looking nice and not like a fuzzy, frizzy mess.)

I feel really scatter brained today for some reason.  I had started this as a post to update you all on my tophatter situation, which is hopefully going to get better soon, and it has progressed into talking about the quality of yarn I use.  It always amazes me how a tangent can take me on a path that I never would have even thought of in the beginning of when I started typing.  Anyway, if you get a chance to check out the Auction on the 19th at 5pm check out my hat.  Or if you just can't wait, you can always come and check out my stuff on my Etsy page.

www.etsy.com/shop/mrzjaquescrochetedit

And don't forget to "like" me on Facebook

www.facebook.com/mrzjaquescrochetedit

Wishing you all the best and happy hooking!

Mrz Jaques

Tophatter Frustrations!!!! Am I the only one???

Many of you know that I recently joined and started selling my stuff on a site called Tophatter.

TopHatter Auctions

They are a live auction site where you can list your goods and then schedule and attend their daily auctions to sell your stuff.  Or so they say when you sign up.  What they didn't tell me at first was that I would only be able to schedule one item at a time for sale.  That part is not that big of a deal, it's not like I have a TON of stuff to list.  Plus if it all sold, I would have to completely re-do my Etsy site, (not that it would be a bad thing to have to do that) but they also don't tell you that they don't have a lot of "open" slots for their auctions, so it is really hard to even get a chance to schedule something. 

Of course, they will immediately let you schedule your first item, I'm sure they have PLENTY of slots open for "new" members, but once you sell something, good luck trying to get another item scheduled. I sold my Light Purple Open Weave Slouchy Beanie with Sparkly Bow on Feb 29th, 2012 and haven't been able to schedule anything since.  I have been trying to schedule my Light Blue Homespun Open Weave Slouchy pictured below with absolutely no luck.

I have been trying for 2 weeks now.  I finally tried "chatting" with the auction staff today and a very UNHELPFUL lady named Aimee just told me that they have limited slots and if you want to check on a new slot you MUST be signed into your lot at 8am PST everyday morning to even get a chance, and even then the slots are first come first serve and very limited.

The totally awful part about that is I have to get my daughter on the bus for school at 8am PST everyday.  I'm never gonna get a chance to list another item.  The only good piece of advice she gave me was that some auctions go "outdoors" after and then you can schedule an item that day for that auction if you are currently attending it and catch one of the slots.

So I'm gonna try that today because I have to wait for Comcast to come and check out my whole internet connection again.  Something happened with the wind and snow from Monday and Tuesday and it is making me have to blog from my phone.  This sucks!  Believe me,  for a post that would usually take me less than 5 minutes to compose it has now taken me the better part of an hour.  The joys of technology!

I just don't know what to do, I haven't sold a single hat this month, and I'm starting to get really sad.  I have had a lot of compliments about how nice my work is, but no one wants to buy my stuff.  I don't get it.  I can't let myself get down in the dumps about it because then my creativity gets put on hold and it turns into a vicious circle that I can't break free of.  I have to keep myself busy and trying new things.  I bought a pattern from the Tophatter site, it's an Ammigamuri Turtle that is so cute.  I've never tried to make animals before but this pattern seemed really fun and my sister is OBSESSED with them and her birthday is on the 10th of April which is coming up.  I know she would love it if I surprised her with a cute stuffed turtle in her favorite colors.  She has two kids who would go nuts over it.  I might have to make two come to think of it.  :)

Plus I found my HUGE bag of yarn that I bought at Michael's when they were having their yarn sale and found some really pretty colors that I could make things out of.  Not sure what yet, but I'll just have to see where my hook takes me.  You see that is why I love this art form so much.  I have no idea what I'm going to make half the time, I just grab my hook and start going, but by the time it's finished I am always happy with what it turns out to be, and in the off chance I'm not happy with it, I can always take it out and start over with something different.  That's the beauty of it.  It always turns out to be what YOU wanted it to be, nothing more, nothing less, as long as you put in the work.

That's all for me this morning, I have a ton of things to do around the house before the Comcast guy gets to come and track dirt all through it.  FUN!



Wishes of Love and Crafty Creations Always,


Mrz Jaques

www.etsy.com/mrzjaquescrochetedit

www.facebook.com/mrzjaquescrochetedit