What do Violet, Princeton, the Green Hornet, and Dog Ears have in Common?

They were all part of the custom orders I completed this month.

Here is a collection I made for a little girl name Violet expected to arrive in April.  There is a set for her arrival and a set for her when it gets cold in the winter.  The hat is a variation of my Penny hat, one of my first creations!  The cowboy boots I've made before but never listed in my shop--that will have to go on my to do list.  I customized them by doing her initial in a lasso style font.

  Here's another custom baby shower gift.  This time for a little guy who's mom works at Princeton.  Too bad I didn't have a tiger to model it on. This is the first time I made a letter of the alphabet that wasn't embroidered or just a chain.

A friend's brother is OBSESSED with the Green Hornet; he even has the car to prove it.  His sister ordered these snoods for him and his wife.  (the flower is much prettier and less blurry in person.  It came out that way every time :/) The boy is based on Green Hornet colors and the girl's snood was made to coordinate.  

And finally, one more custom snood.  A customer contacted me through Etsy to see if I could make a snood with ears like her chihuahua, Bijou.  How did I do?

Abby Cadabby and Cookie Monster Custom Hats

I was recently asked if I could make hats for a friend's children when they go to Sesame Place in the winter.  Because I generally believe I can do anything when it comes to crocheting, I said yes.  This is one where I really had no idea what I was in for!  Before I go on, here is a picture of the finished projects.  Abby is for a 2 year old girl and Cookie Monster is for a 6 month old boy.  

 I did a little research on the internet before I began and sent a few links to my patron.  We discussed features she liked of each and I made my own pattern.  After shopping for the perfect colors to use, I started working on the bases and went from there.  

Abby was a lot more work than I anticipated.  She requires several pieces and LOTs of color!
She includes a nose, blue eyes with blue "eye-shadow" and hand stitched eyelashes, ears, daisy hair ties, and of course the hair!  The colors I found for her hair are awesome, really the picture doesn't do it justice.  They are Shimmer yarn by Red Heart and they have colored sparkles that run throughout, perfect for a fairy!  I had to learn how to wig a crochet hat.  This free tutorial download was quite helpful, though not perfectly specified or aligned to how I made this hat, but with some common sense and experimentation, I was able to adapt it.  Then Abby got her hair done!  This was the first time I cut hair on a hat!!  

Cookie Monster was a lot easier, though he had his fair share of parts: googly eyes, mouth, and who could leave off some chocolate chip cookies with bites taken out of them!

These hats are not yet available for purchase in my shop, but I would gladly take a custom order.   I will be listing them after my next photoshoot.  

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss and some odds and ends...

The last few months have been jam packed with holidays, end of semester and start of new semester craziness, and sickness that brought my entire extended family to their knees, including me (I haven't been seriously ill since 2009!).

I've had a few recent commissions that I wanted to share.  Here's the first twin set I created which happens to coincide with Dr. Suess's birthday.  These went to some very special babies in New Hampshire.

And here is a newborn version of my Girly Penguin Earflap hat that headed up to Massachusetts on Monday.

 Here is the hat for the hippest baby on the block.  If there are any teenagers in your life, you'll recognize that these are my spin on Beats headphones which are quite the status symbol!  One of my students commission and helped me design this hat for her cousin!  Oh, and its not my dyslexia kicking in, the "b" is upside down because these were made for a little guy named Patrick, so we swapped the "b" for a "p" to personalize them.

  Lastly (which I failed to notice until today due to the crazy month I had in February), Kate Nesi has some of my work featured on a little guy in her blog.

First Two Etsy Sales!

To my great pleasure and suprise The Sutton has become quite the hit. After creating it at the request of Sutton's mama, two orders were placed for it in color variations.

Here is my very first order!  The Sutton in Purple and Yellow for the Vikings now belongs to Joey in Minnesota.  She got a bonus headband with flower! 

 

 

And here's Carter rocking the Orange and Navy in the pumpkin patch!  I think I need to add this photo to Etsy! 



 

 It look's like we're in business!!