Word on the street January 7th

Happy 2013 crafty readers and ready crafters! Welcome to the first post of the new year! We have so much good stuff in store for you this year; hold on to your yarn because here we go!

Liz has been working for the past several weeks (months?) on flowers for her wedding.  This process includes, but is not limited to, the following: cutting felt pieces, hand-stitching or hot-gluing pieces together, adding buttons, and attaching flowers to sticks (ahem, stems) with wire.  It’s slow going, but Liz already has quite a few flowers made at the moment, in various styles:

White with blue flowers -  based on a design that Liz saw on Pinterest from Martha Stewart website

And a variety of blue flowers with white buttons in the middle 

Close-up of one of the designs

And here is a gratuitous picture of the holiday tree that Liz put up and decorated this year, because even though she doesn’t celebrate any religious holidays, Liz has an affinity for tradition and twinkly lights:

Liz found the top-heavy tree topper at a local antiques store for 4 bucks! 

Sam has been doing a lot of crafting at her cousin Jess’ house. Jess bought a house last spring and there’s a beautiful craft room with this table Sam’s uncle made which is perfect for quilting and knitting. The mitten with the string that’s sitting on the table is a gift for Sam’s niece Evelyn. The mittens will be connected by an I-cord so that Evelyn can’t rip a mitten off and lose it. While Sam and her cousins were quilting and knitting peacefully on top of the table, this is what was going on intermittently under it:

These are Jess and Nat’s dogs Khay and Chauncy who love nothing more than to fight loudly right under the craft table. Their second and third favorite things to do are breathe in your face while you knit and get stuck in yarn. Crafting with animals: always an adventure. Sam did manage to get these sweet little bunnies knitted in time for her friend Heidi’s baby shower: 

Erica has been working hard and knitting her fingers to the bone to finish the huge house cover. And it’s finally done! It covers a queen-sized bed, and is comfy and warm. Erica fell asleep a few times knitting it because it was so nice and cozy! Presley decided to model the finished product, which makes him look like he’s swimming in a sea of knit afghan. 

Other projects Erica worked on over the holidays included travelling all over the state, trying to keep her apartment clean, and rolled paper roses.

 

She hasn’t decided what she’s going to do with them just yet, but they turned out really cute, thanks to the tutorial here. Erica decided 2013 is the year of finishing knitting projects, and has started a knitting project for her husband that she bought the yarn for three years ago when they started dating. The flip top glove/mittens, are turning out well, and knitting up very quickly! (Sorry for the blurry pictures, K and Erica were in a car)

The second mitten is about half-done, so Kevin will be able to wear them before the cold weather goes away--which here in Michigan, that could be next week or in three months!

And that’s what’s keeping us busy! What are you working on for the new year?

Happy Holidaze

Hello, dear readers!  We have all been so busy crafting, eating, and visiting with friends and family lately and are taking a hiatus from blogging until the New Year.  We hope you've been having fun celebrating whatever you celebrate, or celebrating nothing at all!  Most of all, we really hope that you appreciate twinkly lights; there are some good ones out there. 

See you in 2013.  Be safe, be good, be crafty.

 

Giving Thanks!

Truth time: we were going to post this last week as a Thanksgiving post. But when you tell the three of us that we get time off of work and a large meal we tend to get...distracted. And hungry. But mostly lazy. But then we thought: just because it’s not Thanksgiving doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be thankful! In fact, you should be thankful year round! So the first thing we’re all thankful for is the ability to justify our laziness. And just know, if posts are a little less frequent during the holidays, it’s because we’re having a great time with friends and family!

Sam is thankful for friends and family most of all. She has the greatest group of people in her life (obviously her two crafty partners rank pretty high on that list) and couldn’t be happier about it. For example, this little cranberry-covered lady:

It’s blurry because she’s almost two and VERY VERY BUSY

Sam’s niece Evelyn was a huge fan of cranberries at Thanksgiving. She was also a fan of running, laughing, and somersaults. Not such a fan of napping or sitting quietly, but who can blame her. It’s true what they say, kids make holidays way more fun. And loud.

It’s not just people that make things cozy and fun. Sam is also grateful for her little kitty friends like Ms. Harper here who decided to make herself comfortable on this blanket that’s not quite finished.


Sam could go on and on about things she’s grateful for (cold weather, a good job, a snuggly bed, stacks of books on the nightstand, coffee, tea, wine) because there’s just so much in this world to be thankful for.

Thinking about the past year and reflecting on grateful moment, Liz has felt a surge of thankfulness for the people in her life that have stepped in at the right times to help her - be it with a personal struggle, a craft, a work issue, or any assortment of things.  She is grateful to experienced friends and family who offered sound medical advice and support during a tough time, to the boss who was more like a friend, listening to Liz when she  just needed to let off some steam, to the Fiance who makes tea for her and agreed to book honeymoon travel arrangements because that stuff overwhelms Liz like no other, etc.  

Thank you to everyone who also just made the good times even better - sisters whose humor makes movie marathons so much fun, friends who get you out on the dance floor, and kids who can diffuse tense times by just being awesome little people.

Lastly, Liz wants to thank awesome artists and crafters who make awesome inspiring works like these:

Ceramics by Janelle Songer - every piece is beautiful, and they look even better in person.  Liz has seen her work at a few different venues and is continually impressed.



Holy crow!  Spray painting a wreath and adding a few small details is such a simple idea that yields a very pretty result.  Thanks, Sweet Daisy!



And this rug.  Can you believe it’s a latch hook rug?  Liz would love to design some patterns for a custom latch hook rug someday.  Liz is constantly impressed by the gals at A Beautiful Mess.

Not to start on a negative note, but Erica is NOT thankful for pictures that won’t upload no matter what computer she is on, and snow. Mostly snow. She is of the belief that it should only snow on the grass. But that’s neither here nor there.

Erica IS thankful for her new job that she is starting on Monday, December 3rd, but will miss things like this, hiding in staff cabinets.

Pictured here: Nic Cage, haunting your dreams
She will also miss working with some of the best people in the library biz, and all of her family-away-from-home figures that have adopted her over the years.

She’s thankful for friends, family, and two stupid cats.

Kitty slumber party!

She’s also thankful for her husband--which is still an odd word she’s slowly adding to her vocabulary.  As for other things, she’s thankful for a warm bed, a place to craft (even though she’s been very busy lately), food in her belly, and technology that allows her to talk to friends near and far.

Locust Street Crafts is thankful for the friends who come to our craft sales to visit, bring water and snacks, and buy our products that we make with love. We are so thankful that we have this blog to keep everyone updated with our crafty happenings, and we are very excited to see what’s ahead for our little crafty collective!

Happy Holidays everyone! What are you thankful for?

Fall Frolic

This past Saturday, Erica and Sam set up the LSC shop at the Fall Frolic sale in Mount Pleasant. Liz couldn't be there in person, but she was certainly there in spirit. It was Erica's first craft sale as a Sadie (Sadie Sadie married lady) and she couldn't have been happier:

Not that Kevin's not enough reason to be happy, but that smile is also due in part to being inside. This was the first inside sale we have done and boy oh boy is it nice not to have to worry about getting a sunburn, or windburn, or rained on or your product blowing off the table in a gust of wind. It was glorious!

We had a great time, lots of traffic, lots of special visitors (like Sam's adorable niece in the top photo), and one of our most favorite craft sale neighbors of all time. Check out her product at www.scentsyouremember.com. It's good stuff! And her enthusiastic and cheerful attitude made for an extra fun day. Thank you to Laura Rivard for the delicious snacks and Cornerstone Church for putting on a great sale! 

Congratulations Erica Bizznarskismith!

Samantha and Liz are happy to dedicate this post to their darling B.  Erica got hitched this past Saturday and everyone had a great time dancing, drinking, chatting, and taking photobooth pictures:

LSC #smithnarski 4eva

Not to mention an encounter with a true knight in shining armor (hey, they do exist!):

Erica looked truly beautiful in her sparkly wedding gown and did a bang-up job on the crafty bouquets and boutonnieres - yes, that’s how you actually spell that word, we looked it up. 

And thanks again to Lindsay, the maid of honor who gave a great speech, wherein she Rick Rolled Erica and cracked everyone up. 

We love you so much, B!  We raise our glasses to you and wish you a long and happy marriage.  Or do we mean...mawwiage?