Handmade Baby Love Giveaway

This summer has been flying by, and before we know it autumn will be right around the corner! Enter this fabulous giveaway for your chance to win any style of booties or any style of hat from the Handmade Baby Love shop.

Here's how to enter:

1. "Like" the Handmade Baby Love fan page on Facebook.
2. Post to your facebook about the giveaway, linking to my fan page. For example: "@HandmadeBabyLove is having a giveaway! You could win a pair of baby booties or a hat of your choice!"
3. Then comment on this giveaway post letting me know you've done these things, along with your first name and last initial and your email address so that you'll be able to claim your prize if you win.

One winner will be chosen on Sunday, August 7 at 10 p.m. Pacific Standard Time. ALL who enter will receive a 30% off coupon via Facebook Message.

http://facebook.com/handmadebabylove

http://handmadebabylove.com

Love you guys!
<3
Debbie

Five

(Beautiful print from VickieWadeFineArt)

1)      July. Today not only heralds in a new month, but also the beginning of a holiday weekend. I cannot believe it is July already! I feel like I just made my 2011 goals list a couple weeks ago (uh, goals? What goals?). Before I know it, it’s going to be Halloween, and then Thanksgiving, and then CHRISTMAS! Crazy! I’m not ready! Along with that reality slap, this holiday weekend also means a lot of people I know are on vacation, or about to go on vacation. Insert sad face here. I have reached the point of exhaustion that always makes me daydream about going away. San Diego! Laguna Beach! ….Flagstaff, even! I’m still plotting and devising… so we’ll see if I can swing it;-)

2)      Summer reading program. Cameron finished his first year of public school at the end of May, and with two and a half months of the “summer slide” ahead of us, I decided he needs something academic to do. I looked into several summer reading programs, and was sorely disappointed – read 10 books, get a free book; read 12 books, pick from a selection of bookmarks. Ten books? Twelve? What’s up with that? Now, Cameron’s got a literature major mama, and there’s no way I’d let him aim so low. Granted, he’s going into first grade, so it’s not like he’ll be reading chapter books, but still. Kids should be reading every day, not once in a while. So I set up a chart – every time he reads a book, he fills in a block and writes out the title. When he reaches 20, we’ll take a trip to Target and he’ll get to pick out a toy (which, I don’t know how your household works, but he really only gets toys for his birthday and Christmas). He was all too eager to start, and we are 5 books down so far. He shows so much improvement every time he finishes one. That’s my boy!

3)      Summer movies. I don’t think I’ve been to the movies in about two months. That’s pretty sad considering it’s one of my favorite things to do… but it costs money, and I’m penny-pinching right now. I wanted to see the Pirates movie, Transformers, Bad Teacher, Kung Fu Panda 2, Cars 2, Harry Potter… ugh – summer is such a tease! Have you been to the movies lately? Seen anything good?

4)      Work. Work has been really busy – and it goes back to #1… I am so burnt out right now. My fingers don’t want to do what my brain tells them! And I think I’m going to have to start making at least 8 items every day, so that I can stay in it when school starts up again. Here’s to perseverance!

5)      Sale. Speaking of work, if you haven’t checked out the Handmade Baby Love Facebook Page, you should – there’s a special Independence Day weekend sale going on!

Here’s to a fantastic July everyone!

Custom

I’ve been crazy busy lately doing a lot of custom work. Sometimes it just requires color changes to designs I have in the shop – which is always fun. I generally try and snap some pictures of these and post them as new listings, but that doesn’t always happen. For example, most recently I had a customer request a light purple/lavender color for the boots style, since the only purples I have available are dusty purple and eggplant. So I was more than happy to oblige!

I had a customer request boots in brown with a blueaccent, fashioned after these loafers, and that was cool. (I had a customer more recently ask for the boots in rose pink with brown trim, which came out so cute; I hate that I didn’t get a picture of them!)

What I find most adventurous and fun is when a customer asks for a design that I don’t have listed in the shop. It gives me the excuse to play with style and shape, and figure it out, and I love that. I usually first do a sketch of what I want with what measurements it needs to fulfill, and then I calculate the gauge of stitches, and go for it. Usually it takes about 3 tries for it to come out exactly how I want it. The tail hat (which is about to undergo another revision) and these cute leg warmers are the most recent examples.

Summer is definitely the time to work out new designs! With school out, I can actually be patient and take the time to work these things out. Come fall, it won’t be so easy… orders will pick up in a big way, I’ll be slogging through my last (finally, finally!) semester of school, and Cameron will be in first grade (love it!). So I’ll be cherishing summer while it lasts;-)

Origins

My crafting origins go back to my mom. Although I love crocheting, knitting, and cross-stitching, and she’s a painter and a writer and loves to work with stained glass, she taught me at a very young age that art was worthwhile, and creativity was something to latch on to.

I was eight or nine, and we were living in a three bedroom condominium in Virginia. Sandwiched between two floors, we could hear our upstairs neighbors moving their furniture around constantly (of course, the fact that they moved their furniture around so frequently didn’t bother my eight-year-old mind so much as the nuisance of thunder rumbling from our ceiling.) Living there was a far cry from the  two story house with an imagination-inducing backyard where we lived before this. It was just another shake of salt into my wounds following my parents’ divorce and the upheaval of my life.

(beautiful painting print from lloydgallery)

I remember walking into my mom’s bedroom where she had her drafting table. Seated before it, she had a huge sheet of filmy, fragile tracing paper draped at her fingertips, and beginning in one corner, she was writing line after line of words, filling up these huge floppy sheets of paper. They were stories about two children who went on adventures. I would find these sheets of tracing paper rolled up and stacked in the corner – like maps tucked away for future quests. The thought that these strings of words became imagination captured on paper, that you could ride these thought-created images into an alternate world, sent my mind reeling. I could use my own powers of creativity to escape, or build a new world. The thought of escapism was extremely appealing to me.

(beautiful print from ThisYearsGirl)

In school, creativity wasn’t really encouraged, so much as forcefully used as a tool to complete specific tasks and reach certain expectations. (My middle school did an “invention” unit where we all had to come up with useable creations and make a model and presentation of it. I’m sorry, but I’ve never invented anything in my life! If we were all inventors, this world would be a very different place.) It was my mom who showed me that creativity was a gift, not a torture device – a gift that could be snatched up anywhere, at any time, and used to create imaginary places on paper, or tangible objects you could hold in your hand.

Before I was born, my mom knitted and crocheted, and after she lapsed at these crafts, she kept her stash. It survived moves, and changed lives, and proved instrumental in my development as a crafter. I don’t know why or how I gravitated towards the art of crocheting. I was twelve, and I had always enjoyed crafts in one form or another, from painting Christmas ornaments to crafting lanyards and friendship bracelets. I was at a craft store, browsing their cross-stitch and yarn aisles while my mom picked out some art supplies, and I decided I was going to try my hand at crocheting. I picked up a book called The Harmony Guide to Crochet Stitches, took out my mom’s old yarn stash, and began making chains, single crochet stitches. Over and over and over again. Through trial and error and a lot of persistence I trouble-shooted why my strips of fabric were tapering off or getting wider and discovered why some stitches were looser or tighter than others. Soon I was making granny squares, and making purses for my friends. (Not that soon; I think it took me a couple of years before I really made anything worthwhile and felt comfortable giving anything as gifts.) I made a ripple blanket for my grandmother, a huge multi-colored squares blanket for my stepmom, and several kinds of blankets for my mom and sister.

(beautiful blanket from my shop!)

I think crocheting stayed with me through high school, my first year of college, working full-time, and having a baby, because it was so incredibly cathartic. I could sit in front of the TV and create something with my own two hands. I couldn’t wait to finish one project so that I could start the next.
 

Designing didn’t come into play at first. I was completely satisfied creating blankets and playing with color. I had tried creating a tank top when I was in high school using red string and single crochet stitches, but I never wore it. I also made several hats – a few I did wear, but most I didn’t. Living in Phoenix, hats aren’t generally a necessity, even during our coldest mornings, and I wasn’t known for wearing hats just because.

Ultimately, I feel that designing is extremely uplifting. When I’m crocheting or knitting one of my designs, not only am I creating a tangible object, but I created the idea of it, too. It’s like a piece of me in each stitch, and it is addicting and fulfilling all at the same time;-) I thank God every day for this gift, because I know that my inspiration comes from Him, and Handmade Baby Love wouldn’t be doing half as well as it is if I’d taken any other path.

Winner

Thank you so much to everyone who participated in the giveaway! You might not believe this, but I haven't done one since... 2009?! Holy cow! I think I'll do another come August or September, to kick start the fall season;-)

THE WINNER IS....
Katie
:-)

I've sent you an email with "Handmade Baby Love Winner" in the subject line.

Stay tuned everyone! Love you guys!

Milestone

Remember, there is a Handmade Baby Love Giveaway happening right now in the 5/19/11 post below. Check it out and enter if you haven’t already!

Cameron’s last day of kindergarten was on Thursday, and while they didn’t have a graduation ceremony (boy, the tears would have flowed!), I did feel a sense of change as I looked around his classroom during the end of year party. The tables were stacked on top of each other and pushed off to the side. The crayons, scissors, and glue sticks had been collected into large storage containers. The chair-back pouches that had been unique to each student were uniformly in a pile, now belonging to no one. Cameron and his classmates were buzzing with excitement and bubbling with laughter – looking forward to watching their special movie and eating special snacks; though perhaps not yet realizing why the day was so special. It’s amazing to look at all of his classmates and remember how little they were back in August, and how big they look now.

Cameron’s come such a long way since the beginning of the school year – from struggling with the concept of having to actually sit at his table, follow directions, and do the work given to him (at first he was giving his teacher a flat out “no”), to getting used to the idea of having homework everyday (which was still a pulling-teeth experience to the last). There were definitely some adjustments that had to be made. Now he is a full-fledged reader, he’s learned a lot of social lessons, and he can (almost) ride a bike. The entire school year flew by, and I just can’t believe it’s over! I have a first grader now ;-)

In other news, I’ve really tried to get my Facebook fan page going for Handmade Baby Love. That’s where you’ll find opportunities to score some coupons – up to 50% off! – as well as see customer photos and all that jazz. Be sure to “Like” it so you can keep in touch!

I’ve got two new bootie styles coming out hopefully next week, so keep an eye out for that. I’m really excited to be working with different closures and clasps for securing the booties on baby’s feet. Yay, summer productivity!

Handmade Baby Love Giveaway!

It’s time to have some fun! The winner of this giveaway will get to choose one free item of their choice from the Handmade Baby Love shop to be shipped to their location of choice for free. This includes any style booties or hat, but excludes blankets.

To enter, head over to the shop and check out the listings, then come back here and post a comment about your favorite item along with an email contact in case you win. If you choose not to provide contact info in your comment, make sure to come back when the winner is announced to see if it’s you!

For additional entries, you may do any of the following (and please post a separate comment for each entry; of course, if you've already done one of these, such as "Like" us on Facebook, that counts as an entry, simply post a comment about it):

1) Follow this blog

2) “Like” our Facebook page

3) Post on our Facebook page

4) Blog about the giveaway (include the link in your comment so I can see!)

5) Tweet about the giveaway (include the link in your comment so I can see!)

6) Share about the giveaway on your Facebook page (include the link in your comment so I can see!)

The winner will be chosen randomly out of the pool of entries on June 9, 2011.