So snowy!!

So they just mentioned on the radio that, not including today's snow storm ... Chicago has already had 14 inches of snow and it's not even winter yet!! We have another foot coming today depending on if you're getting all snow, snow/sleet or snow/ice/rain. What a mess! I'm really glad I took the day off of work today. We had a big storm that hit right around 3 pm on Tuesday. My normal 25 minute commute took 1 hour and 45 minutes, which was nothing compared to some of the travel times out there. Ick.

So I'm thrilled to be at home today working on some top secret Christmas presents and hopefully working on a few store projects too. If all goes well I'll be out to lunch with a friend too. My hubby has his last final today (yay tax law???). So I'm looking forward to ordering Lou Malnati's and staying cozy with a movie tonight for sure. Sounds like a perfect day right??

Stay warm and safe in the crazy weather!

Until next time ...
The girl behind the lama
~LMM

Featured ETTeam Member: LindenAvenueDesigns

Only one more week until Christmas (who's freaking out??). I am happy to announce that this week's featured ETTeam member is LindenAvenueDesigns. Let's find out more about here shall we?

What’s the story behind your store, where did it all start?

When I first started making beads I knew that at some point I would like to sell them. I wasn’t really interested in doing craft fairs, etc., so I looked around for something that I could do online. I tried out that other “e” company, but I was turned off by the pricing and that I really couldn’t showcase like I wanted to without paying an arm and a leg. And, then I found Etsy and was so happy that in this venue I could list a lot more beads and actually have a little store. It has been a wonderful experience and I am still learning and growing everyday!

What can we find in your store?

In my store you can find handmade lampwork beads. They are in a variety of styles and colors and since I can’t really make up my mind about what I like to make, a buyer can always find something new in my store. And, as time goes by I will be adding jewelry that is made with my beads and silver.

Do you have any favorite items?

Oh, that is such a hard question to answer! One day I am just crazy about the chunky disks and then the next I’m loving what the high silver content glasses produce in the flame. I have one set that always amazes me called Elektra Gems. I make the beads in a variety of shapes, but it is the Elektra glass which is just amazing! The blues are so deep you can actually see shade when light shines down on the bead. I always have to explain when I list a set of these beads that I feel like I’m looking down from a plane and looking at a river as it cuts through the landscape. And, Elektra glass can also be iridescent too.

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=17634014

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=14810981

Where do you get ideas for your products?

I take rods of glass and line them up. Sometimes, they may not even be in the same color range, but it is amazing what you can see. They might remind you of a couch you used to have, or the roses outside, or the Grand Canyon, but whatever an idea usually starts and I usually do some test beads to see how the glass itself reacts with the other glasses. And, some of my most interesting ideas have come from jewelry designers who want me to make a specific type of bead but only have a general idea on the color. That has really provided me with some fascinating combos of glasses that I really love!

What has been your biggest store challenge?

I have to laugh because it still is my biggest challenge! My banner! I don’t have Photoshop so I have been unable to incorporate my name into the banner. I just have the picture I want to use and that is all. One of these days I will get together with another Etsian, a friend who also does beads and work on this hurdle! Otherwise the rest of the store has slowly come together and like everyone else has learned on the job.

Do you have any advice to other store owners, especially newbies?

The hardest part is getting people to know you are there on Etsy among all of the other people who do what you do. My advice is to keep making what you make and listing. And, join a team if you can. It helps to visit with other people who are in the business and get feedback. The best place is Etsy’s forums. There is a unending amount of information there already posted and if you get bogged down and just don’t know what to do there are helpful people ready to answer your questions.

Thanks so much for the interview MaryAnn! I hope you all enjoyed learning a little more about another Etsy seller and don't forget to check out LindenAvenueDesigns great selections of beads!

Happy Holidays!

The girl behind the lama

~LMM

An Almost New Years Reflection

I know that it isn't quite New Years yet, but this afternoon I found my self reflecting back on where I've been this year and how I got to be here ... blogging ... and selling crafts on Etsy.

Last year at this time I was just your normal average American girl. I had just bought our first home with my then fiance. I was pulling my hair out during a long and arduous kitchen remodel (so worth it!!!). I was knee deep with planning our wedding and sorting through what seemed like millions of pictures of flowers and cake. I wasn't doing too much in the crafting realm. Until that point I had lived in small apartments that got even smaller when I moved to Chicago. Quilting meant having to take the table cloth off of my sewing table, pull out the machine and all of my tools from storage spaces in craft boxes that also dubbed as end tables. God only knows where my knitting needles were and if I had any matching sets.

It was Christmas last year that I met my husband's cousin-in-law that sparked my crafting world back into life. She is a seller for Stampin' Up and brought her collection of cards home for the holidays. Now at about this time I was also sorting through millions of wedding invitations and getting very frustrated that nothing was exactly what I wanted. After looking through her cards I thought about how silly it was to pay someone to make invitations that weren't exactly what I wanted when I could just make them myself the way I wanted them (yes I'll admit I have control issues ...). Well, two weeks later I started going to card making classes at Archivers and the wedding invitations were under way! That snowballed into stationary sets as thank you gifts to bridal shower hosts and eventually into the bud vases favors.

Isn't it funny how seemingly small things in life can change the direction that you're traveling? All you need is the inspiration to get moving.

The rest is history. Now here I am ... married for 7 months ... living happily in our new home (which does have a fabulous kitchen) .... with all of my crafting supplies sometimes organized in my very own craft room ... dreaming about a day when I could have unlimited time to just sit down and make all of the things that are floating around in my head. In my dream world I would have a whole collection of hats and scarves, my own stationary line (hand stamped of course), a collection of mittens made from old sweaters (a project that I have started .... more details to come soon I hope), and maybe a fresh batch of cookies every couple of days.

I went to Close Knit, local knitting store the other day and they were also selling knitted items and I thought, "How cool would that be?? To see something that I made ... for sale in a store??"

So that's where I am today and I hope that next year at this time I can report back that my dream world is coming a little closer. I've had 12 sales in lama works since I opened September 1st and 103 people have marked my store as a favorite. Definitely a positive start right??

So here's to the dreamers in all of us!! Happy Holidays everyone!!

Until next time ...
The girl behind the lama
~LMM

Featured ETTeam Seller: BranchingStreams

I do apologize for the delay in posting this week's featured ETTeam member!! You know how crazy the holidays can get! My parents just got into town and it seems like anyone and everyone that needed to get a gait analysis in the lab I work in wants to do so before the end of the year so I've been pretty swamped.

On a bright note I've been swamped with a few orders this week too YAY!!!

So on that note ... this week's featured ETTeam member is BranchingStreams:

What’s the story behind your store, where did it all start?


My store was born out of a desire to contribute to my community and to worthy causes.


I started out selling on ebay and while I sold around a hundred paintings, listing fees ran my slim profits into the ground. I took a break from ebay for a year or two and concentrated on my art and showing locally. In 2004 after the Indian Ocean Tsunami I had a very strong desire to contribute to relief efforts and this charitable urge was strengthened in 2005 after hurricane Katrina. As a result of these and other similar events I searched for ways to offer myself and my efforts to a greater good. Some of these efforts were volunteering at a bereavement camp for children as well as participating in the prison outreach program my Zen temple runs. About half a year ago I decided to give selling items online again another try, this time vowing to donate a percentage to charity for each sale I made. In this way I felt justified in my efforts and I felt certain that my work mattered even if I was not turning a profit. I have spent a lot of time questioning the value and meaning of art, I think most artists have as well. I have come to believe that what is best about art is the way it connects us to something greater than ourselves. E. M. Forester wrote "To make us feel small in the right way is a function of art; men can only make us feel small in the wrong way." Being of service to another human being or to a deserving cause puts us in our proper scale. To see things as they truly are, living in our proper scale, is to affirm and embody our own essential humanity.

What can we find in your store?


My store features fine art, both abstract paintings as well as classical realist drawings. All items are originals though I do hope to start offering less expensive prints soon. For each sale 30% or more is donated to a charity, currently the UNC Lineberger Cancer Center is the charity I donate most to though others are featured on the site.


Do you have any favorite items?

My three latest paintings are my current favorites as they combine issues and styles I have been working on for over 10 years in my artwork. These paintings include the same pure abstract elements that many of my previous works have with a more representational, decorative style.


http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=17468825
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=16976728
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=17362417


Where do you get ideas for your products?


I draw inspiration from a large variety of sources some of which include wall paper, lace, and Japanese "katagami" (paper stencils used to dye kimonos) as well as the artwork of abstract expressionists like Rothko, Mondrian and Franz Klein.


What has been your biggest store challenge?


I am still quite new to Etsy and so have experienced a number of problems like the difficulty in getting good quality product photos. I also have not worked out a good price range, many of my items are quite expensive and I'd love to offer more modestly priced, quality works in the future.


Do you have any advice to other store owners, especially newbies?


Well as I said earlier, I am new to this myself, but I would suggest placing your purpose in something other than just selling work. I've found when I am able to approach an activity without a preconceived notion of what success might mean, I've been able to feel fulfilled in a deep and satisfying way. I'd also suggest becoming an active member of a few groups (I'm part of Etsy for charity and Etsy treasury team) because this helps your enthusiasm level as well as increasing your visibility in the online community.

What a great interview! I personally love charity work and dedicate as much time as I can to helping others in my community, so kudos to you Ed! Check out his store today to see all of his beautiful artwork! Don't forget to check out the other featured ETTeam artists listed on the right side of my blog.

Until next time ...
The girl behind the lama
~LMM

Featured ETTeam Member: Sagefox

As a proud member of the ETTeam I've decided to start featuring my fellow members and showcase their stores every Thursday. Our second installment is from Sagefox, who has some beautiful hand spun yarn if I do say so myself!

What’s the story behind your store, where did it all start?

I went to the PA Farm Show a few years ago..and it was love at first sight when I saw the angora rabbits. Next I fell in love with the alpacas on display. And then I watched the sheep to shawl competition and the rest is history LOL I came home and told my husband that I needed a sheep, a spinning wheel and a loom lol. A few weeks later I took a spinning class at the local fiber shop...and that summer the owner of the shop sold me a trio of fiber critters..an alpaca, a black rambouillet lamb and a baby angora goat. It's been over 2 years since they arrived and they bring me so much joy every day... the fiber, as it turns out, has only been icing on the cake :) I also raise english angora rabbits that keep me stocked up on luscious angora fiber.

What can we find in your store?

hand-dyed wool roving, handspun yarn, handwoven shawls, crocheted mittens/hats & other fiber gifts

Do you have any favorite items?

I think my favorite item to create is my handspun yarn with freshwater pearls plied into it. It's alot of fun to spin up and it also knits/crochets items that are truly one of a kind. My other favorite item in my shop right now is a hand-woven shawl named "Log Cabin". I love the earthy tones of the wool yarn and the fluff of the novelty accents.

Where do you get ideas for your products?

I love animals & nature..so usually I'll be thinking about somewhere we've visited or the latest critter that's past by and I'll start thinking about how the colors of a beach pebble or the stripes of a chipmunk could translate into a roving, yarn or shawl.

What has been your biggest store challenge?

Leaving the roving up for sale and not spinning it all up myself. Last week I went thru my entire inventory because I got a serious spinning bug lol.

Do you have any advice to other store owners, especially newbies?

RELAX! :D I hear so many people worrying about sales, prices, finding customers...and of course, everyone wants sales and wants to price fairly..but it shouldn't be a stressful process. Have fun, get your name out there and relax..if you do your best and offer your greatest work, the sales will come...and even if they don't..no amount of worrying will help! :D

So check out Sagefox and all of the other Etsy Treasury Team members next time you're hanging around Etsy.

Double digits!!

I passed the 10 sale mark today!! I actually jumped from 9 straight to 11, YAY! Things seem to be picking up now with the holidays. I'm not sure how, but I have had 6 sales in the last month, crazy! One sale was even a repeat customer who wanted additional scarves for her friends so that gives me faith that I'm putting out products that people really enjoy.

I was reading another blog post about that the other day (wish I remembered where..) that no matter how long you've been making and selling things there's always a little piece of you that freaks out and hopes the person on the receiving end doesn't think that your work is a piece of junk when they actually have it in front of them.

I know I'm still trying to find my way in the crafting field and can't seem to settle on a niche, but maybe I don't have to! If all I did was knit year round I think I'd really start to hate it. And so far I've sold 7 knitted items, 2 sets of cards, 1 set of bud vases, and 1 purse, so it seems like there is interest in a variety of my items. I definitely get a lot more hits on the knitted items, especially this time of year. They've also been the most popular hit to make it into treasuries too.

So we'll see where I go. I've got a few projects started. I managed to knit up 6 more dish cloths on the car ride home from Thanksgiving. I'm also working on drafting up my own version of recycled sweater mittens. I have pieces cut out and I'm hoping that I'll get lucky and they go together without a hitch. I'm working totally patternless on this one, just my own sketches. I'll try to get some pictures up tonight!

I do have a bunch of Christmas presents to get together in the remaining days before Christmas. Can I actually get it all done? If only my real job didn't get in the way of the fun things in life ... sigh ...

Until next time ...
The girl behind the lama
~LMM

How to be an engineer …

I got to work today and took a look at my puzzle of the day calendar. Puzzle of the day:

You have been presented with a tray bearing five bags that should each contain 100 gold coins, except you have been told that one of them contains only 99. You quickly arrange the bags to reveal the one that’s short. How?

My first instinct was to arrange the bags on the plate and balance the plate on a point, see which way the plate tips and you know which one is slightly lighter than the rest, thus containing one less coin. Perfect!

In my mind I was thinking that this is what engineering is all about. Problem solving. This seemed like an easy one to me, but to others I’m sure the answer was not quite as obvious. This got me thinking. Have I always been like this or was I taught to be a problem solver?? I’m sure in engineering school they taught us to look at problems in many different ways and that you won’t always be able to solve the problem the same way every time, but to some extent did I know that before I got there? Is that why I became an engineer, because I was good at problem solving? Chicken or egg??

It made me start to wonder about other professions. How do you decide what skill it is that you have that pushes you toward one profession or the other? Or do you decide you want to have a certain kind of job and you learn the skills necessary to be successful?

I guess it’s the same with crafting too. I can go into a fabric store and see a group of fabrics together and get an image in my head of what I could make out of it. Or I can see a pattern and know in my head what colors and types of fabrics I want to use. Have I always been good at that or did someone teach me how to be creative?

It gives you something to ponder for the day doesn’t it. How did you get to where you are?

Until next time ...

The girl behind the lama

~LMM

Thanksgiving Weekend Sale!!!

Everything in lama works is 20% off this weekend!!!! 

After purchasing your item please wait for me to send you a revised invoice to reflect the sale price before you pay for it in PayPal!

Sale ends Monday at 10 pm Central time.

Happy shopping :)

Until next time ....

The girl behind the lama

~LMM

********Free shipping in the US and Canada to all blog readers!  Just mention my blog in your notes to the seller***********

Featured ETTeam Member: Dividivadesign

As a proud member of the ETTeam I've decided to start featuring my fellow members and showcase their stores every Thursday. Our first installment is from Dividivadesign

Here is the story behind my store, where did it all start?

When I was round 20 I was a silver jewelry artist educated by a well known jewelry master in Sweden. Then I studied Ceramic art and after some years as full time CRAFT worker I opened a Crafts and Design gallery and made a lot of exhibitions with new Scandinavian design and Craft for many years. There where no time left for me to make my own thing. But since about 2 years I have started to make jewelry again, but now with a different taste. More colorful . More beads and pearls. When my oldest son saw my jewelry he showed me Etsy and then It all started.


What can we find in your store?

You can find unique handmade jewelry like Bracelets, Necklaces, Ear rings and Rings. mostly one of a kind. You can also find jewelry supplies as beads, specially unusual lampwork beads, and freshwater pearls in good quality.


Do you have any favorite items?

For the moment, Jewelry with combination of pearls and silver or gold plated spacer and jewelry with unusual lampwork beads.


Where do you get ideas for your products?

I get my inspiration from the colorful Caribbean I live in but also from the Scandinavian nature. I love that mix!


What has been your biggest store challenge?

As I am rather new it is to be seen and to find my buyers.


Do you have any advice to other store owners, especially newbies?

Be proud of your talent.

Make sure you check out all of the items in Dividivadesign's shop!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Before I head out for the weekend, I wanted to wish everyone a very happy and turkey filled Thanksgiving!! I will be traveling north to the frozen tundra of north central Wisconsin for Thanksgiving with my family. It should be a fun filled weekend of lounging in front of the fire, relaxing in the jacuzzi, cooking tons of great food and playing with my adorable 2 1/2 year old niece.

I'm hoping that the sub zero temperatures will inspire me to get a lot of knitting done so when I come back I have many more items to post in my shop! What's on the docket? I picked up some alpaca yarn to make my new cable knit hat design in a few different colors. One more pair of socks is on the way. I have some more cashmere yarn to make the newly popular scarflettes in new colors. I'm also bringing along a lot of cotton yarn to restock up on my dish cloths. I've been throwing some of those in as my free gift lately, so I'm actually running low! I think I'm going to pull out some chunky yarn for a few more ear flap hats too.

I know it's a lot to do, but it is a 5 1/2 hour car ride and when you live in the middle of the woods and it's way cold outside there isn't much to do other than hang around, chat and knit. I'll probably be challenging my husband to a few games of Rummy (and winning of course). I'll try to get some works in progress up while I'm up there.

Happy Thanksgiving!! Eat lots of turkey :)
Until the next time ...
The girl behind the lama
~LMM

2 Sales!!

2 Sales in one day?!!??!?!! I sold 2 of my brown scarflettes today! YAY! This scarf has been featured in a few treasuries from the Etsy Treasury Team of late so I'm wondering of the sales came from that.

Who knows, but I sure am happy about it! 3 sales in one week is huge for me! Let's hope it keeps on rolling through the holidays. Seems like I need to get some more knitting done and find some daylight hours to take pictures of the new items ...

Until next time,

The girl behind the lama

~LMM

Busy Weekend!

I forgot to blog about it, but I managed to survive my super busy week at work and successfully pulled off another Visiting Professor Lecturship and learned quite a bit about new happenings in the world of 3D motion analysis in the pediatric orthopedic world.

We celebrated the event with a fantastic dinner at Texas de Brazil, a new restraunt here in Chicago. What a cool place to eat! It's definitely a new twist on a buffet dinner. There is a more traditional buffet with salads, rice and beans, soup, cheeses, meats, bread, potatoes, you name it.

Behind the buffet was this incredible wall, 2 stories tall, full of wine. It's more of a room of wine, encased in glass. Up at the top?? A girl ... in a harness ... doing acrobatics around the wine room. Flipping around, dancing up and down the walls, moving across from one side to the other efortlessly. She may have been actually getting bottles of wine, but regardless, so incredibly cool!

Dinner itself is literally meat on a stick. Waiters walk around with big swords (yes they call them swords) of all sorts of grilled meat ... filet, chicken, lamb, pork. They literally bring the sword to your plate and slice a hunk off for you. So good! I highly recommend it to anyone near a chain.

So now hopefully I can get back to the buisness of the store. I started working on some Christmas cards this week (to be posted soon!). I also finished up another bambo skinny scarf and another pair of socks. Stay tuned for new project updates! Check the store for updates! And don't forget about free shipping to all my blog readers.

Until next time,

The girl behind the lama

~LMM

I'm such a nerd ...

So I'm sitting at work thinking about what projects I'd like to put on my list to work on (shhhh don't tell my boss!). It's been awhile since I've made any dish cloths, so I was thinking about new colors or sizes or new something. I feel like I've made cloths out of every color I could find in my local stores and to be honest, I get tired of buying the little skeins that only give me 2 maybe 3 cloths, so I'm trying to buy in bulk, so why not shop on the Internet??

Well, in my searching I came across this other fantastic blog post: Putting Cotton Through the Paces. Oh yes, it is an excellent scientific article on the shrinkage, absorbency, stain release, softness and durability of 5 different cotton yarns commonly used in making dish cloths (most of which I actually have at home right now ...). As a scientist, it was really a well thought out and clearly conveyed study that has answered many of the same questions that I have: yarn. ... I want to make something ... is one yarn really better than another???

I found it a pretty entertaining article, I hope you do too!

Until next time ...
The girl behind the lama
~LMM

Guess who had a sale?!?!?!?!? That's me!

How exciting it is to have a sale! It's been about a month since my last sale so I'm super thrilled! To be honest I think I'll get excited about every single sale that I make, regardless of how many I have :)

I have the great Etsy Treasury Team to thank for the sale too! They have been consistently pulling my items into their featured treasuries and someone saw my bag ... marked it as a favorite ... and was still thinking about it a few days later and just had to get the bag for her daughter!

I think this sale in particular is really special to me because the bags are where lama works all started. To be honest I really like to make the bags (when I have a few hours to dedicate to it) because it's much more creative for me. I don't really have a pattern to follow and my color choices are endless!

So I'm a pretty excited girl today, lets hope the sales continue!

Until next time ...

The girl behind the lama

~LMM

Kind of?

OK I cheated a bit, but that's what engineering is all about right, working with what you have.

So I took a basic blogger template .... found the html codes for the colors I wanted and just plugged them into the blogger color editor section. I stumbled on the fact that I could insert my own image into the title, so that helped things a lot.

I gave up on finding a lovely template online somewhere that I could edit to my own desires. It's way too hard to jump into someone else's code, and believe me ... I avoid writing code like the plague. Hate it more than anything.

So here's the new blog design to go with my new logos. Thanks to mycreativepaper for the new designs! Here are some samples ... what to do you think????

Business Card

Custom Order Tag

Stamp Design for my cards

Warning - blog under construction!

I am so excited to have completed my Etsy store makeover and have a whole new image for myself ... new banners, business cards, labels, tags ... the works. So now what to do with my blog.

I really want to incorporate my banner into my and the design elements into the page and have no idea what I'm doing.

So in light of that. I apologize if things go missing or my page looks like a mess. I'm experimenting and doing my engineering best to figure out what I'm doing without going crazy.

Stay tuned!!
~LMM

What's Cookin?

So what's cooking in my kitchen this week? Lots of yummy things! I'm switching things up this week and cooking a mix of Pilsbury and Taste of Home recipes. Here's what's on the menu for this week!

Ham and Cheese Pasta

Broccoli Sausage Simmer

Bread Bowl Beef Stew

White Bean and Pasta Soup

Beef Stroganoff

Enjoy and happy cooking!

Fun New Toy!

I've been slacking on the blog posts a lot lately. Things are rather busy in my neck of the woods these days. The lab I work in is hosting a conference on Friday, so I've been rather busy throwing together the last minute details for the speakers and all of the fun administrative work that comes along with having 100 physicians and therapists over for a visit.

But I did want write a post about a fabulous new toy I bought this weekend, an early Christmas present to me. I've been thinking about investing in a die cutting machine for awhile now and when I was at the Holiday Extravaganza party at Archivers this past weekend, they were having demos on a few models. Let me tell you, I fell totally in love with the Making Memories Slice!!

This baby weighs less than 2 pounds, is completely electronic and cordless. All of your die cut shapes are stored on a collection of SD cards. Each card costs $39.99 and contains at about 100 designs including least 1 or 2 font sets. That's not even my favorite part ... you can take any image or letter and cut it in just about any size from 1" to 4" in 1/2" increments! So not only am I getting a lot of dies for only $40 but I can cut them in any size I want - SOLD!

It's super easy to use and kind of fun to watch. There is a tiny razor that retracts in and out and revolves around a motor to draw your shapes (yes I'm an engineering geek). I've been having a great time with it and should have a few cards out this week with the new dies on them. I only have one SD card for the moment, but I'm sure more will be coming my way in time :)

So until the next time (hopefully not too long from now) ...

The girl behind the lama

~LMM

What's Cookin' in Laura's Kitchen??

So what am I cooking up in my kitchen this week? More Rachael Ray faves for sure. Here's what's on the menu this week:

Turkey Bacon Double Cheeseburgers

French White Burgundy Chicken Stew

Greek Goulash

Tacozagna

I hope you find something in that mix that you might make for yourself this week!

It was a bit of a lazy weekend here in Chicago. Cold and kind of raining, bordering on snowing. Dark and dreary for sure. I did get a few projects done and a few more started, and found a new toy at Archivers, by far one of my favorite scrapbooking store. They had their big Holiday Extravaganza today so I'm starting to get much more pumped up about the holidays.

Hope you all had a great weekend!!

Until next time,

The girl behind the lama ...

~lmm

Store Updates

The socks have made it into lama works! I've also changed a few of the pictures for my scarflettes. What do you think??

More projects to come this weekend. Don't forget about the Half Price Friday below!!

Another Friday ....

Another half day Friday is here! Before I get into that I wanted to show off another treasury I made it into this week, this time with one of my Batik bags!

Fantastic Creations from ETTeam

I'm just thrilled to be a part of this new team! I've definitely seen the number of views on my items spike up since I joined, but no sales yet. My next big task is to create a treasury of my own ... I wish getting in didn't require me to be online at 3 am ... or I wish the treasuries weren't blocked from my office computer :)

But on to Half Price Friday! What to offer this week? Well, because snow is sadly in Chicago's forecast for the weekend, I'm offering my Purple Passion Boucle Mittens for only $9.00 plus shipping this Friday only!

Soft and fuzzy purple boucle mittens with with fuzzy purple and light pink accents! Perfect for staying warm and stylish this winter.

This pair of mittens is sized as either a woman's small or child's large. Length from tip to end of cuff is 9.5 ". Distance from base of thumb to tip is 6". Circumference of mitt is about 8".

Additional sizes and matching hats are available upon request, just drop me a note!

So go ahead and purchase the mittens if you'd like them, but make sure you mention my blog in your order! I'll send you a revised invoice with the sale price.

Have a great weekend! Socks are complete! Pictures will be up on here as well as a post to Etsy this weekend!

Until next time ...
The girl behind the lama
~LMM

What's coming up?

I was shopping around Etsy the other day, yes I'll admit i was looking for inspiration for something new to make. What did I come up with?? Socks!! I haven't knitted a pair of socks in a few years and I just found my last missing sock needle , it's destiny!!

I was looking at sock yarn the other day and my hubby got so excited about the prospect of having hand knit socks.... He might get really mad if I tell you this, but last winter I was thinking of knitting something and socks again came up and he actually asked me to teach him how to knit so he could make some socks. We'll just leave it to say that he doesn't have either the fine dexterity or the patience to knit, so that was a quickly abandoned project.

So sock knitting it is. I have a pair in the works for Andrew, and some other yarn ready and waiting. I think I'm going to start selling custom socks, made exactly for your foot size, so keep an eye out ... I should be able to make the first post this weekend!

What else is coming up? I have another Etsy artist, mycreativepaper, working on some new banners, avitars and business cards for me. I'm trying to give my store an official image, something more than a picture of the favors at our wedding. So my first banner is ready!!

Hopefully a new blog design is in my future as well! I'm getting rather bored with the standard blogger template and I feel like I'm ready for something bigger than that. I've been struggling with this one lately. I haven't found any free templates that I like. I'm trying to convince myself that it would be OK to purchase one, but I just can't do it. By day I am a biomedical engineer, so and as much as I hate programming, with lots of patience and chocolate breaks I should be perfectly capable of writing my own, or at the very least, modifying one of the free ones to something that I actually like. It's really taken a lot of convincing but I think I can do it. We'll see how long it takes, but I'll keep you posted.

Oh and there may be some sewing this weekend. According to the poll, you guys would like to see some more purses in my store. Any thoughts on what you'd like to see? I'll have to see what I have in my stash and what other patterns I can come up with.

Thanks for reading! Don't forget to enter my giveaway for a chance to win some dish cloths!!

Until next time ...

The girl behind the lama

~LMM

New Feature - What's Cookin' in Laura's Kitchen??

I'm trying to get blogging on a consistent basis (at least a few times a week) so I'm trying to come up with scheduled blog posts, like Half Price Friday. I don't want everything I blog about to be related to my store, because I have a lot more going on than that.

So one other thing that I love is cooking. I'm a HUGE Rachael Ray fanatic. I have I think 8 of her cookbooks and it covers about 90% of the meals I make. I love the originality of the recipes. I love that for the most part they do really take only 30 minutes if you can multitask and seeing as I am always moving and on the go, having 3 pans simmering all at the same time is perfect for me. Her recipes have also made me try a lot of things that I normally wouldn't ... case in point ... last week we made grilled chicken sandwiches with mango chutney and melted brie. Not a typical meal, but it was just fantastic!

So on that note, I'd like to start a new series of blog posts called "What's Cookin' in Laura's Kitchen??". On a normal week, I do all of my PeaPod shopping on Friday or Saturday, which also means that I'm doing my meal planning then too. So I'm going to shoot for posting links to my meals each weekend for you to try out yourself!

As a note, I frequently change the recipes to match what I know I like or don't like. The recipes I include will have all of those changes. It will also be scaled to portions that I'm making, usually it's either just for 2, or for 2 plus intentional leftovers which usually cover lunch for 2-3 days.

This week is an abbreviated version ... but here's what's cookin':

Everything Lo Mein

Mozzarella Filled Meatballs with Bay and Onion Creamy Gravy and Garlic Spinach Mashed Potatoes

Orange Duck Breast with Green Salad

Chicken Dumpling and Noodle Soup

I have a few more to get up, maybe later this week.

Enjoy!
Until next time ...

The girl behind the lama

~LMM

I've Been Featured!!

I've been featured in not one, but two treasuries on Etsy today! YAY! I just joined two new teams this past weekend, ETTeam and EtsyKnitters, which has gotten lama works out there in the world a bit. Hopefully sales will pick up a bit! Check out the Treasuries:

Wild and Bright

ETT Stars and Stripes

Until Next Time,

The girl behind the lama

~LMM

The Giveaway is Here!!!

Today starts my giveaway on A Busy Mom on the Go's Blog!!

Enter now to win one of 2 sets of 3 dish cloths from my store!!!

I'll also give one free cloth to every order made during the giveaway, plus free shipping if you mention my blog!!

Thanks to all who voted in my poll! I had some snafoos with the felting adventure (which I may officially be giving up on) this weekend, so I didn't get as much made as I could have. I also had a really fun trip to Milwaukee for a friend's birthday and an audition for the Woman's Club of Evanston annual Benefit Show. I'm going to try to get a few more projects up before the giveaway ends so stay tuned!

Until next time ...
The girl behind the lama
~LMM

Half Price Halloween Friday!

Half Price Friday gets interesting this week ...In the spirit of Halloween I've decided to offer two products half price this week. That's right ... two!!!

The first product is a big one! Today and today only I will be offering my Orange Batik Purse for the very low price of $21 plus shipping!! This purse is constructed with 5 coordinating African batik fabrics using interfacing and buckram to give the bag shape and stiffness.

Dimensions: 12" w x 11" h x 5.5" d
Straps: 22" long x 1.25" wide
Three inner pockets, sized to hold cell phone, iPod and keys

This is a one of a kind bag so the first person to send me a note on Etsy telling me that they read my blog and want that bag gets it! If you come in second or third I'll offer you a 20% discount on my two other batik bags.

Also in the spirit of Halloween, today I will also offer my pumpkin baby hat for only $8 plus shipping, what a steal! Please let me know what size hat you'd like in your order.

Happy Halloween everyone!!!!

Until next time,
The girl behind the Lama
~LMM

Adventures in Felting

I'm all about trying new things. I have a very small attention span, especially when it comes to crafting. One week I love scrapbooking ... the next I love sewing ... then I feel the need to quilt ... back to card making. I may not have one thing that I'm an expert in, but I will have many things that i can do fairly well.

Which brings me to my latest adventure ... Adventures in Felting. Felting knitted items was always a mystery to me. Who hasn't accidentally "felted" a sweater or two?? I always had this notion in my head that it was hard to felt something, until I started reading a few books that said you could felt an item just by washing it. Brilliant!


I started with a basic purse ... easy enough right? Knit a rectangle ... it shrinks ... sew it together. Well this week (as the temperatures dropped here in Chicago ...) I decided that I wanted a really nice pair of felted mittens and a hat to match. I love floppy flapper hats. The ones that are usually fuzzy, with a ribbon along the base of the brim ... sold at the Gap by the millions. I had this great pattern to make my very own felted floppy hat.


I have never been so excited to do laundry before, let me tell you. What came out though ... resembled more of a beanie. Doesn't even come close to being my dreamed of hat .. way too small.


I also tried a mitten which was closer to the right size for sure, but I'm going to have to sell it as a girl's size large. I tried again last night, but it's just so had for me to decide how big the item needs to be pre-felting. I tried to count how many rows I had per inch after felting to calculate how many extra rows I needed to make the mitten fit. As demonstrated in the picture ... I now have one mitten that was maybe an inch and half too short to another mitten that is just huge!!



Help!!! I'd love to get some advice from all of you knitters on felting and how to best gauge sizing. Does anyone have any good patterns for felted mittens???

More to come!!
Until next time,
The girl behind the lama
~lmm
P.S. Don't forget to vote for new items in my store!!!

Let's Take a Vote

As mentioned in my previous post, I'm going to be a featured seller offering a giveaway of two sets of my dish cloths. In fact, she has already posted my store in the side bar of the site to advertise my upcoming contest.

I'm hoping that this will bring needed traffic (and hopefully customers) to my store, so I'm trying to get some feedback as to what you all think my store needs more of. I've got a poll posted on the right hand side of my blog. Please vote!! Feel free to vote for more than one item.

Thanks!!
~LMM

Featured Seller Giveaway

How fun! I was just contacted the other day about donating some of my dish cloths as part of a Christmas giveaway!! My contest will start on November 3rd on A Busy Mom on the Go's website. All you have to do is comment on your favorite items in my store to enter. That gives me a big push to have more items in my store by then, hopefully I'll get a few sales out of it!

Here's my question to you ... I have a variety of items in my store ... if you could pick one type of product you'd like to see more of (stationary ... hats ... scarves ... ) what would it be?? I'd love to get some feedback!

Until next time ....
The girl behind the lama
~LMM

Half Price Friday!

It's my favorite day of the week again!

This has been a big week in my crafting world. I've been knitting up a storm. I have to give a big THANK YOU!!!!! to my mom this week. I had a rough week of 6 year olds with serious behavior problems this week ... but when I came home yesterday I had this wonderful package from my mom ... new knitting needles!! Best set ever!



I've just started knitting some adorable scarflettes ... short scarves that button to keep your neck warm and cozy. These are knitted with a ruffled pattern to give them a more elegant look. Today I'd like to feature the Eco Friendly Bamboo Scarflette. I just started using bamboo yarn and it is so silky and soft! This scarflette can be yours in any of the colors in my post for just $10.50 plus shipping!



Send me a comment in etsy that you'd like to purchase today's half price Friday special and let me know what color you'd like. I'll create a custom post for your item!

Happy Friday!
The girl behind the lama
~LMM

What's it worth to you?

I'm a busy woman, and to be honest I like it that way. I always have to be doing something ... be it working or cooking or reading or quilting ... I just have a need to be doing something productive. I frequently tell my husband that I need a purpose in my day. Lazy is rarely a word used to describe any given day.

I was thinking about that today as I logged into PeaPod to do my weekly grocery shopping. PeaPod is an online grocery shopping service. You log in ... type in your grocery list ... make your selection ... pick your delivery time ... and you're done. The next day, the wonderful delivery man brings them right into your kitchen for you. Or even better, leaves them all at my door so they are waiting for me when I get home. All refrigerated items are stored in a cooler with dry ice. How much better does it get?

Every now and then I do have a twinge of guilt, because really ... grocery shopping is one of the easiest chores around. But then I got to thinking, why feel guilty???

It's one nice thing in life that is totally worth it to me. Here's why:
1. I don't have to fight with throngs of people at the store on Saturday morning, instead I can spend an extra hour with my cup of coffee and a book
2. I can still use coupons
3. Most of the time I have a PeaPod coupon code that negates the shipping charge
4. I get to sort every product by unit price so I'm getting the best deal
5. I'm not tempted to buy all of the things that aren't on my list but look so good
6. It forces me to meal plan for the week
7. I can add things to my saved list online throughout the week as I think of things
8. I don't have to fight a blizzard to get my food
9. It just makes me happy

So yes, lazy as it may seem ... my time and effort are so much better spent on other things. I think it's also decreased my stress levels (our grocery store is out of control some days). I've been actually following our grocery spending since June and since we started PeaPod in August, we've spent much less.

What's your time worth to you? What small luxuries in life to you take advantage of just because you can and because it makes you happy?

Until next time ...
The girl behind the lama
~LMM

Ah cheese!

I’m a Wisconsin girl through and through. I never miss a Packer game, with or without Brett (as long as the Chicago stations pick it up), I say “I know, eh?” [insert typical Wisconsin accent here] and I absolutely love cheese and think that fried cheese curds should be served everywhere.

My husband and I were eating dinner last night when it dawned on me that we were once again eating macaroni and cheese. Homemade … non of that boxed stuff. It got me thinking about all of the varieties of mac and cheese that I make, which may fool us into thinking we’re not eating the same meal all the time. Regular mac and cheese, Italian mac and cheese, broccoli mac and cheese, cauliflower and Gouda mac and cheese, and Mexican mac and cheese which is very different from the queso mac and cheese we had yesterday. The list goes on and on … each with different toss ins and varieties of cheese.

There are quite a few people that look at me like I’m a little crazy sometimes when I talk about all of the different meals that we have. I’m not your average 27 year old. I cook. A lot. I hardly ever cook the same meal twice. I make a lot of things from scratch (exhibit A … cheese sauce varieties and again the spaghetti sauce blog).

Anyway, those were just my random thoughts for the day. I’m a huge Rachel Ray fan and make 30 minute meals just about every day. I thought that in the spirit of my cheesy bliss, I’d share last night’s mac and cheese variety with you today. Any other recipes anyone would like me to post??

Queso Mac 'n Cheese
By Rachael Ray (with my own adaptations)

Ingredients:
½ pound short cut pasta of your choosing
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 lb 95% lean ground beef
1 medium onion chopped
2-3 garlic cloves chopped
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1 ½ cups skim milk
2 ½ cups shredded smoked cheddar cheese (must be smoked!!)

Cook pasta according to package directions, leaving it a bit short of done (pasta will continue to cook in oven).

Heat a large skillet (big enough to mix pasta into later) over medium heat with olive oil. Add in ground beef. Crumble and cook until no longer pink. Add in onions, garlic, chili powder, cumin, coriander and some salt and pepper to taste. Cook until onions are soft.

In a medium sauce pan melt butter over medium heat. Stir in flour and cook for a minute. Whisk in the milk making sure there are no lumps of flour. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook until thickened slightly, whisking occasionally. Stir in all but a small handful of the smoked cheddar cheese and season with salt and pepper if necessary.

Drain pasta and combine with meat. Stir in cheese sauce. Place pasta into a casserole dish, sprinkle with leftover cheese and place under the broiler for a few minutes until browned and bubbly.

Enjoy!
~LMM

Half Price Friday Again!

As promised, Half Price Friday is back for it's second installment. Today, in honor of Halloween, I am having a half price special on my pumpkin hat!


This hat is made of orange and green acrylic yarn and is available in Newborn, 6 month, 1 year, 2T and Adult sizes. It will be on sale today and today only for $8 (plus shipping) to all who read my blog!!! What a great deal!

Here's the link: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=15075668

Just send me a converstaion on Etsy that you'd like the hat and let me know what size you'd like and I'll create a custom listing for you and have your hat in the mail on Monday!

Happy Half Day Friday!!
LMM

It's the small things in life ...

I would not even hesitate to say that I am one of those people that gets a lot of joy out of the little things in life. The smallest things make me happier than a kid in a candy store. I get all teary when my husband comes home from work with a bouquet of flowers. I'm on cloud nine when I go to the fabric store or the scrapbooking store and I suddenly have millions of ideas for projects.

Over the summer I literally bounced up and down every time a plant my garden had a new fruit on it. Sunday ... game day ... don't even get my started on the Packers. While we're on the topic of Sunday ... I play the flute with our choir and the last few weeks we've been using a mass setting that we used in college and every time we play it I can hardly sit still because it's that music that brings back so many happy memories. Actually, we opened mass this past weekend with the song that we opened our wedding with just a few months ago, and yes ... I got all weepy then too.

And let's not forget the adventures in spaghetti sauce post ...

So what made my day yesterday? Two things. First it was the video of one of our patients from last week. By far the smallest, cutest, sweetest 5 year old I've ever met. She had one of those infectious giggles that just brightens your day. Then I came home from work to find a box with my name on it. What was in said box? Oh yes, it was 50 boxes for me to package my stationary in!!

Nerdy? Yes. So why was I so overjoyed? To me this was kind of the first big step for lama works. It's official packaging. It's not a box I made origami style out of card stock. It's not just a ribbon tied around something. It's an official box that I can decorate with an official logo and sell a product that looks like it belongs on a store shelf.



Now I just need to make 50 sets of stationary :) Check out my new post with the new packaging! http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=16220886

What's next on my list?? Finding labels that I can sew into my knitted products and deciding on my official logo.

Until next time ...
the girl behind the lama
lmm

P.S. 25% off of any stationary set with mention of this post!

New Feature - Happy Half Price Friday!

I may start work at 7 am Monday through Thursday, but it's all worth it when I finally get to Friday and only have to work from 8 until noon. Happy half day Friday indeed :)

In honor of my favorite day of the week, I'm starting a new promotion! Every Friday I will be featuring one item in my store for half price, available only to those of you that read my blog.

Today's featured item:

Set of 15 Daisy Note Cards

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=15300956

Just send me a conversation in Etsy that you saw my blog and would like to take advantage of today's Half Price Friday offer and I'll change the price and reserve the post for you.

Keep an eye out for new posts and features coming up soon! Don't forget to drop your Entrecard in my box for free advertisement of your blog!

Until next time ...

The girl behind the lama

~LMM

Knitting for Charity

I was looking around various forums in Etsy last night and I stumbled upon a great idea that I'm really excited about.

The Special Olympics World Winter Games are asking crafters who knit and crochet to make scarves for the athletes in the official colors of the games. They have a pattern provided, but you can make any pattern you like. They're also encouraging you to leave an encouraging note for your athlete to read when they get their scarf at the opening ceremonies.

Check it out: http://www.coatsandclark.com/Crafts/Crochet/Features/Special+Olympics.htm

It gives me warm fuzzy thoughts. Our disabled community and accessibility to all is something that I'm very passionate about so I love every opportunity I get to make a difference in the world. I think I'm going to go get some yarn today and get knitting!

Until next time ...
the girl behind the lama
LMM

Exploring my options

Being new to the Etsy world has my mind reeling with the possibilities. Could this turn into something big for me? How much would I love to quit my job and be crafty all the time? With not much to do at work these days, trust me ... my mind is always wandering to all of the projects I have at home that I'd love to work on.

For right now, I'm setting what I hope is a realistic goal for myself. Next year at this time, I'd really like to be at a point that I could sell my items at Cornucopia (http://www.wcofe.org/cornucopia/index.htm) , the Woman's Club of Evanston holiday craft fair.

In order to get to that point, I think I need to do a few things. I need to figure out what my store is all about. I have a diverse group of crafting interests and I think if I just made one kind of craft I'd lost interest pretty quickly. So maybe I need to come up with some kind of signature to my store ... color themes ... style themes ... something to make the store cohesive.

I also need to get my name out there and get a steady sale stream coming in. I made 3 sales in my first month, which is more than I thought I would get! I ended up selling one hat, 300 bud vases, and 2 dishcloths.

That brings me to advertising. I'd really like to get my blog out there for people to read. It gives me motivation to keep posting things and hopefully gets a lot of exposure to my store. I'm starting to get in contact with other bloggers to get either my blog or my store featured on their websites. Once I have a steady set of readers (and the time to set it up) I'm hoping to start doing contests on my blog too.

My daydreams are getting progressively bigger with each sale that I make :)

Check out my favorite blogs and stores on the left bar and don't forget to mention my blog if you're purchasing an item to receive free shipping (offer not valid on products shipped outside the United States)!!

Until next time ....
the girl behind the lama

Adventures in Spaghetti Sauce ...

Do you have those small things in life that always remind you of your childhood? I definitely do. I don't think I realized how much I missed them all until recently. Now that I'm settling into "normal" life ... post college, post grad school, post wedding simplicity... I'm really appreciating those moments of my youth.

One thing that defined every September of my childhood was canning. My Mom would can everything. One weekend it was peaches, another pears. We'd pick the beans from the garden, slice them through the bean frencher and freeze them. We'd harvest millions of tomatoes and make stewed tomatoes and spaghetti sauce. I really want those things to be passed on to my kids some day too! Those afternoons bonding with mom, squishing peaches out of the skin and mashing tomatoes through the food mill. I want that tradition to keep on living.

So my husband looked at me like I was crazy when I came home from our wonderful farmer's market with 25 lbs of tomatoes yesterday. Today was the test and I think I passed! Check out the pictures below and the recipe passed on from my Mom to me. Thanks Mom!!!

So 6 hours later I have 16 pints of wonderful spaghetti sauce that taste's just like Mom's! My kitchen is a bit of a mess but I think it's worth it. Here's my Mom's recipe to share with you (with a few edits of my own):

10 quarts of tomatoes (about 15 lbs)

4 onions, quartered
10 cloves of garlic

8 bay leaves
7 t salt
36 oz tomato paste
3 T sugar

8 T Little Italy Seasoning (from my favorite local spice shop http://www.thespicehouse.com/)

3 T garlic salt

Makes about 12 pints

Cut up and seed 10 quarts of tomatoes. Put tomatoes, onions, garlic, and bay leaves in tall pot. Simmer and stir frequently for an hour and a half to 2 hours until thick. Run entire mixture through a food mill into another large pot. Add tomato paste. Simmer for an hour, stir often. Add salt, sugar, and Little Italy Seasoning. Stir and taste. Put in jars up to ½ in from top, wipe, put seal on. Bring water to a boil in the meantime, put jars in and cover 1 in of water, boil for 10 minutes.

Sales!!

I had my first sale!!!


I'm a little late in posting it because I've been out of town for it seems like endless weddings and business trips, but I'm happy to report that I made my first sale! I was so surprised to have a custom order for my strawberry hat. She was using it for a photo shoot, and I must say that it looked pretty darn cute (photo courtesy of http://jennifersoosphotography.blogspot.com/2008/09/mias-1st-birthday.html).






I just had my second sale a few days ago too! It seems like the bud vases are the hot item in my store (note to self). They have more hits and people marking it as a favorite than any other item in my store. To date I've had 4 people contact me about orders for their weddings. I'm still working on designs for a few, but I had my first order for 300 vases over the weekend. 300!!! So needless to say, I've officially bought 3 Michael's Craft Stores out of white embossed card stock, but I think they're OK with that :)


Now the work begins!


Until next time this is ...

the girl behind the lama

Adventures with buckram

So where did my store start?


It all started with the batik purses. I found this cute purse pattern at the Quilting Connection (http://www.quiltingconnect.com/Quiltedpursesandtotebagpatterns.htm) a few months ago and I bought the Sara Satchel pattern. I just love to mix and match fabrics together and what easier way to do that than with batiks?



So to the store I went and I came back with all this material and this stuff called buckram which, by the way, I had never heard of in my life. One weekend later I had my first bag! I didn't like some of the measurements so I decided to kind of make it up as I went along. It did eventually go together and it was a functioning purse. It ended up being about 28" wide by 18" tall and 5 " deep. I had pockets on the inside and outside. Some i used a double layer of interfacing, some none at all. So some pockets were way too stiff, others definitely not stiff enough. It definitely wasn't anything to write home about, but it was cute. This only took the idea of possibly selling the bags and the discovery of etsy for me to start revamping the pattern to something I liked a lot better. Now my bag houses all of my small etsy projects I have for sale.



I'm always thinking about the big picture so I started to figure out how I could maximize my materials for the cost of the bag. First the bag got smaller so that I could use my fabric a bit more economically. A bag that was only 22 inches wide definitely made more sense than one that was 28 inches because now I could cut my pieces out of 1/2 yard of matierial instead of a yard. I also lost a few pockets on this version, they just didn't look right on the outside of the bag. Finally, I shortened the handles because, again, who wants to use two pieces of fabric when you could use just one? Things were starting go come together!


Then came the buckram adventures. I thought it would make much more sense to get the buckram that was 60" wide rather than the 20" because it was again cheaper. Bad idea. For two products that have the same name ... they were very, very different. The orginal 20" buckram that I used was very easy to work with. Stiff, but not too stiff. The 60" stuff was much stiffer, harder to work with and almost had a plastic feel to it. Absolutely horrible to sew with. I broke 4 needles on this stuff! Long story short, I gave up on my "economy" buckram and I ran back to Vogue before they closed to go back to my treasured 20".


In the end I tweaked the sizes to the smaller version and redesigned the pockets so they were more stable and held a cell phone and my new iPod perfectly. I will not be using the 60" buckrum any more. In the end, I think it came out pretty well! To date I have 3 for sale on my site. I think I'll hold off on making any more until a few get purchased, but you can bet I have ideas for other new bags already in the works!!

Finished product!!




Check out all of my bags:

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=14822937

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?ref=vl_other_1&listing_id=14822811


http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?ref=vl_other_1&listing_id=14822304

Until next time ... the girl behind the lama
~LMM