Reopening the Etsy shop for a limited time

I've temporarily opened my Etsy shop and have added a variety of items, mostly related to crafting. Here are just a few items:



I've also added some button stitch markers and twine dispensers. All purchases of knitting-related items come with a free stitch marker. Thanks for looking!

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Acorn Finds

There are some enablers out there, people that know my love for acorns, who send me links. I have also managed to find several on my own. I just keep bookmarking & wishlisting, because when finances improve, I'll be doing some shopping!

First, no $ involved: I've been wanting to do felted acorns for ages (I received one of the bags pictured at the link), but finding large enough acorn caps was an issue. John and I went acorn-hunting many times last fall, and found tiny, kind of pathetic, acorns. For a county named after the tree, Oakland county offered little by way of decent-sized acorns! Last week, on a walk down our new road, we found evidence of HUGE acorns. Obviously the nuts themselves would be no good for display, but the caps were in abundance. So now I have a supply of caps to work with the next time I get around to needle-felting.

On to the shopping (Etsy links will likely point to a sold item, but you can click on the seller and see what's available now):

1. Wide Silver Oak Ring


2. Candy Dish (she does them in chartreuse!)


3. Acorn MP3 Player (I have to say, I desperately want one of these!)


4. Steel Oak Leaf Key Chain


5. Steel Acorn Necklace


6. Steel Acorn Keyring (I have and love)


7. Wooden Spinning Top


8. Hand-carved Stamp


9. Candleabra*


10. Acorn tassles on knitted loafers


11. Rusted Acorn (scroll down the page)

*Same store also has doorknockers: style 1 and style 2.

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Oh, Yum.

Putting a pair of Christmas gifts to work.

Directions for the acorn pan:
3-egg, "cakey" version of Duncan Hines Family-style Brownies (chewy fudge).

Spray cups with no-stick spray. Add roughly 1 T. batter to each indentation.
Bake for 15-17 minutes at 325º.

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I Want This!

Thanks to naiadkitty for the link to this fabulous cakelet pan that I really must own!

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A Little Retail Therapy

I discovered Iron Oak Forge via the Just Acorns group on Flickr, and had to order the acorn key chain (his picture -- I only ordered this AM). My clunky car remote is going to ruin the aesthetic, but I don't care. This is so perfect for me!

If you're new to reading this blog, you may not have noticed my acorn obsession. It will become more apparent as time goes on (especially when I change the blog's header (planned)).

I also ordered a couple of items from Mamacita Beadworks that have been on my favorites list for several weeks (maybe longer).

My daily-wear necklace needs replacing. It's lovely, but it consists of pieces given to me by people that don't speak to me any longer. For the time being, it's a painful reminder of friendships lost, and it needs to go into a drawer.

There must be acorns, so one will be this "funky nut" from Mamacita. I like skeleton keys, and this itty-bitty one has just drawn me to it. John wears an antique skeleton key around his neck every day. It was part of my wench garb back in the day, and has a heart-shaped opening (he tells people it's the key to my heart, and it was hard to get, which is why it was so beat up). The little key I've ordered doesn't have the heart-shaped opening, but I told him about it, and he likes the idea of us each having a key around our necks.

These two pieces will join something else (not decided) on a new chain (not found) around my neck. I'll share pics when it's done. I need to find some seriously heavy-duty jump rings. Suggestions?

Jewelry in General
When it comes to jewelry, I am not a switcher. Meaning, I get one pair of earrings that I like and wear them until I lose one (currently, my lobes are nekkid). I wear one necklace. I have two rings: my wedding ring and the sterling wedding band my mom made for my dad. I own tons of jewelry, including several nice pieces that were my mom's, but even if I wore gold (all she wore), she was the tiniest little thing, and none of her rings fit. (Someday, I'm going to take some of it to the brilliant guys that made my wedding ring (using John's design) and have them make something for me.)

Oh! Firefly fans: Mamacita has a Firefly pendant. I'm thinking about making this the third item for my necklace, and hanging the other items from it, along with a colorful bead or two.

Acorn Fans
If you're even a little obsessed with acorns, I suggest checking out the Flickr group linked in the first paragraph. In addition, I have tagged all of my related images in Flickr with an acorn tag. Also, keep any eye on my Wishlist (in the sidebar). I keep it for myself, mainly, because Amazon now has this nifty feature - a button for your browser toolbar - where you can add things from anywhere. No more emailing links to myself! I've started marking nifty acorn things so I can find them later.

As soon as I'm able to gather up a nice selection of acorns and caps, I'm going to try my hand at needle-felting to make some acorns like these made by my Flickr & swap buddy Craftsty. (I have one of the pouches shown, with a small handful of very well-done needle-felted acorns.)

Other Shopping
On my way home from work last night, I stopped to mail some long overdue packages. (I still have one to go.) A couple of doors down from the PO is a nice Hallmark store, where, once upon a time, I paid a ridiculous sum of money for a small wooden bowl (one of the two pictured here). I popped in to see if they had any fun stuff for my Halloween goody bags (no) and spotted two of the larger bowls. I cautiously turned over one, and saw - to my astonishment - that the prices had been changed to something much more reasonable ($9.95) AND that they were 30% off that price. Of course I bought them both (oh yeah: I'm also totally obsessed with wooden bowls). I also hit their clearance area (80% off everything) and picked up some out-of-this-world stationary and a could of other things, for anywhere from 30¢ to $2. I love clearances!

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