I had to take the pictures while he was sleeping because it’s the only time he sits still long enough to get a clear shot.

Fellow Etsyian, Loopy4ewe is participating in the 60km Weekend to End Breast Cancer Walk next June, and she is attempting to raise $2000 to participate. Once she let the other Etsy sellers know what she was up to, they responded en masse by donating tons of items they have made – large and small and mostly pink – and listing them for her, all proceeds to go toward her walk.  She didn’t even ask for donations, but she didn’t have to.

I added my little bit by adding the most popular item I sell, the Scripted Box, stained in Antique Pink in honour of the cause. I sanded it down a bit it looks cute and vintage-y – like a little Parisian treasure. All of the money I raise from the sale of this item will go to Loopy and hopefully get her close to her goal.

Here is a list of some of the other Etsy sellers who have listed or donated items as well:

KritterKnitter

StuffbySteph

PaisleyBaby

NancyWallisDesign

HarvestMoonPaper

UxCritter

Loscann

Adornyourself

StringMeAlong

MyHandboundBooks

Gillian’sBeads

How can you help? Easy, buy something from someone on this list!

Any suggestions on stain colours?

What I need from you, dear reader, is advice on what colour to stain him.

Did I mention how much I REALLY want to go to school at Hogwarts, even though I am 30 years old and it… um… doesn’t exist?

This was going to be a “Currently Working On” post, but I guess I am not working on it anymore. I wish I had at least not finished all the etching before it broke. The fact that I was done the piece makes it that much more painful.

I really need to get a flex shaft since I did that with my clunky old Dremel and now my forearm is numb. I plan on adding more branches to the other sides, once I get the feeling back. I swear I’ll get all these etching pieces I’ve been working on in the shop soon…

I started doodling on this candle holder with my Dremel last night and this is the first of two candle holders I made during my break from woodburning. The pictures aren’t that good because Adam had his “more-expensive-than-anything-else-we-own-so-be-careful-when-you-use-it” camera with him since he was using it at the Much Music Video Awards last night.

My crochet experience has been ongoing, but not extensive, so I thought I’d share my progress here to inspire me to get off my butt and learn more. So far I have only made blankets (and one scarf for Dad) for two reasons. The first reason is that blankets are simple and give you plenty of time to learn the basics. The second reason for sticking to afghans is that I really, really like blankets. I collect them and can’t think of a thing I would like to make more with a crochet hook.

So the only way to get better at crochet if I am only going to make blankets is to make more interesting blankets. I have recently started 4 new blankets (I need to have a few to work on at a time in case I get bored, and I get bored easily) with fancy new stitches learned from Donna Kooler’s book of Afghan patterns (although she didn’t make any of the afghan pattens in the book, so I am not sure why it’s HER afghan book). The pattens include ripple shown above (pretty easy and I actually already knew this one), basket-weave, front-post raised row, and drop-hook (where you skip down and crochet through two rows). I’m going to make that beautiful blanket on the cover, eventually. I’ll keep you posted as I go….

If you missed it, the “before” is here…

And you’re next, strange-little-cupboard that I found ….