A First

I have never done a "craft" show before, and what I am doing the weekend really isn't a "craft" show, but rather my hubby's trade show.  Only this time, I get to take some of my wares, as the venue has some extra tables.  Another reason for attempting to sell my wares this weekend is the location of the show is the area.

I live in Oregon, and the trade show is in Eugene this weekend, which is home to University of Oregon and their team the Ducks.  If by chance you follow college teams, the Ducks is one of the nation's top favorite teams, especially so here in their home state.  The team fans also are some of the top spenders on anything made in Duck colors or fabric.  (FYI: both Oregon colleges, University of Oregon and Oregon State have their own team shops all around the state)

Moving on, as I am trying not to bore you.  I first started making items related to both colleges when to get my Etsy store off the ground.  I will say that I do sell more Ducks items rather than the Beavers, which is why I have more related Duck items than the other.  One of my best and biggest sellers is a baby fleece blanket with a crocheted edge around  it.

So, since we are going to be in the Ducks territory, I am taking some of these to see if I can sell them outside of my ETSY shop.  

When I got some success in selling the Oregon college blankets, I branched out some and started doing other specialties, such as camo related prints, NFL teams, Licensed fleece, and NBA teams.  If you are interested in seeing all of these different ones, then you can go to my ETSY shop by clicking here.  I will be taking all of these as well as the Ducks blankets just in case people have different likes and I might have it available.  I have been really busy this week getting my inventory beefed up, just in case I sell lots this weekend.

I'll be back on Monday to let you know how it went and how many I sold, if any.

Warmest...

Remember Those In Need This Christmas

My son called in somewhat of a panic, asking if I had any blankets that I could donate to a cause that his work was doing for the homeless this Christmas Season.  He lives in Portland, which is the "hot spot" for teenage runaways.  Many reasons for this, first the weather is milder than a lot of big cities, and our social outreach surpasses all other cities.

I said that the only blankets I had were baby sized, and would they be taking those for donations.  He checked, and of course they would!

For many years, I work up baby blanket done in fleece with a crocheted edging.  I first began making these type blankets through Project Linus, making and donating several hundred over the years.  I buy fleece when on sale (usually this time of the year) and got my scrap pieces of yarn at Goodwill.  Each blanket costs about $2.00 to make plus about an hour of my time.  I keep several in the car to work on, because I can get one done on a trip to Portland and back.  Then I moved on to giving more local such as  our police and sheriff departments (they have them in the trunk of their units so if they come upon a baby in any bad situation, they have something new and clean to wrap them in)  and I have to an intake center for abused babies and children (same thing, the staff has something soft and clean to give comfort to these little ones).

I always keep about 10 on hand for occasions like this that come up over the course of giving and holidays.  Here are a couple of the seven I sent with him,  for his office's charity event.

We always need to remember the poor and this is just a small part that I can do with my talents.  

Warmest...

Color Dilemma

Please note that this is not a plug for my shop, but just some of the background of what goes into some of the decisions I make when deciding what colors to use with the different types of prints in the fleece fabrics I have used.

One of my top sellers is the pink camo fleece from Mossy Oak.  Last night, I pulled out another piece of fleece I need to work on, and then had to decide which color pink I would be using for the crochet edging.  All of the variations would work, but this time I am going to choose the fourth one from the left.

The favorite pink I used for the first six blankets I used a skein that was in a bag of yarn I purchase from Goodwill about 2 years ago.  The yarn was purchased from the store "Ben Franklin", which was a store from many years ago, and is no longer in business.  I have been unable to find anymore of this color, not even close.  So, now having to move on, I am up at 11:00 pm deciding which color to use.

That's the dilemma.  Small one, but still a dilemma.

Warmest...