Friday Finds: Comfortable and Cute

Yeah,  yeah. I know we're supposed to be shopping for gifts for other people right now but, even if you decide that one of these awesome skirts is perfect for someone's holiday gift, you are TOTALLY going to want one (or more) for yourself.  Embarrasingly, I now own four of them and have my eye on two more. And I bought one (guess which) for Cassandra for her birthday. :)

Ladies (and gentlemen who buy gifts for ladies), I present the Best.Skirt.Ever. from RecreativeCrafts.

Okay... the pictures don't really do them justice. I picked the top photo because it shows the "waistband" (which is just a wide piece of elastic). But, trust me when I tell you, once you put one of these on, you'll never want to wear anything else. Made from t-shirt material, with aforementioned elastic waistband, these comfy-cute skirts are hand silk-screened with original designs. And, they wash up beautifully. I get so many compliments when I wear them too!

I've worn my bare-legged with flip flops, with tights and boots, and over a pair of leggings. They come in XS to XL (I'm a solid size 12 and wear a large comfortably). If I had one modification, it would be to add a lining. When I wear them with tights, they tend to stick so I've been wearing a 1/2 slip with them. I may just grab some material from Joann Fabrics and pop a lining in them at some point.

The next time I have one on - probably tomorrow - I'll take a pic and update the post. :)

Happy shopping!

- Alex

Creative Update

Tomorrow is St. Nicholas Day, and as a rule, I try to fill my children's pots and pans (see a previous blog post on that) with fruit, a small amount of chocolate and something handmade. My plan was to make them some adorable knitted animal finger-puppets and a zippered pouch to store them. Yeah well, that was before I decided to knit my boys new holiday sweaters. Total knitting time-suck. This mama only has so many hours in the day she can devote to her pointy sticks. (More on these sweaters when they're finished!)

Sweaters in process.

Being the project-oriented gal that I am, I soon hatched a plan B. A simple sewing project. My boys are always trying to wear my "big people" aprons in the kitchen so I decided it was time they had some of their own. For a couple years now I have been eyeing the free child's apron pattern from Sew Liberated so I went with that design. Total smart move. Easy and turned out super-cute.

Aprons are the perfect opportunity for novelty fabric.

The two best features of this pattern is the elastic at the neck strap and the velcro at the hip for fastening the waist strap. Both of these features ensure that a child can put this on without assistance. I love that. All-in-all I think it took me about 3 hours to make both aprons. I will try to update this post with a picture of them modeled by little boys after they are gifted tomorrow.

I feel really, really at home doing applique. Who knew?

And of course, the quilt sewing goes on. I am on block 3 of the 6 applique blocks required to complete what I need to do in order to assemble the neverending quilt. Lucky for this project, it doesn't get too neglected during the holidays because it's not "sneaky sewing" (see above aprons that had to be sewn in the wee hours when little people were fast asleep). My sewing area is next to the playroom so I can sew while keeping an eye on the shenanigans that go on in that den of crazy.

When the holidays are over, my main thing is going to be getting this quilt finished. Because I have two other ones to start! Hopefully I've learned enough during this process to make the next two go faster. :)

–Cassandra

UPDATE: Some quick snapshots of the aprons this morning....pictures are a little blurry because the kids were so jumpy!

Hillcrest Handmade Bazaar

This weekend Mighty Distractible participated in the Hillcrest Handmade Bazaar, hosted by our amazing friends Gael and Ginny. They have a perfect house for this type of sale - lovely, open, and beautifully furnished. And, because they are both wonderfully creative people, they have a large group of wonderfully creative friends who could contribute. It was an honor to be in the company of such talented people.

Having only participated in a few of these kinds of events in the past, I was amazed by the turnout for this one and with how many sales we generated. Granted, some people sold significantly more than others (one woman is walking away with about $700!) but everyone sold something and we had a steady stream of people through the house all day Saturday. Sunday was a little lighter but we did have a couple of good rushes of folks and, actually, generated more credit card sales than on Saturday. It's also important to note that this was the first year that Gael and Ginny did this sale so it's not like there were people waiting for it to happen.

I thought I'd share some of the tactics we used so, if you participate in a similar kind of sale, you can try them and see if you can replicate our turnout. Obviously, we would need to do this a few more times to prove that these tactics are what contributed to our sucess (and not just that the weather was nice that day) but, logically, I think that this particular combo of things certainly helped a lot.

• Facebook Event - Gael created an event and each of us were tasked with inviting people from our Facebook friends list to the event. Cassandra created a flyer which we used as the avatar for the event and we could each copy that flyer and post it occassionally into our Facebook stream to remind people of the event.
• Pinterest Page - Ginny created a Pinterest page with photos of the items that were for sale. We posted a link to the Pinterest page on the Facebook Event and we were all tasked with "pushing" the Pinterest link out to our friends/followers on social media.
• Craig's List - Ginny posted the event on Craig's List
• Flyers/Postcards - Cassandra created a PDF of an 8.5x11 flyer that could be emailed to friends/family or printed and posted at our offices. She also made a 1/4 page "postcard" sized version that could be printed, cut out, and put on the counters of local shops. We each got electronic copies of these and were tasked with doing what we could with them.
• Yard Sign - Cassandra created a version of flyer for the a yard sign and Gael had it printed at Kinkos.
• Credit Cards - By using Square (you can get a credit card reader from PayPal too) we were able to take all credit cards - and all it cost us was 2.75% per transaction (no additional fees and the reader was free). When it was all said and done, 39% of our total sales went on cards. Plus, people are inclined to spend more if they can use a card.

Somewhere along the line, someone from Gael and Ginny's neighborhood learned about the sale and posted it on their neighborhood list-serve (email group). A number of neighbors walked over having seen it there.

I need to add that I believe that the mix and quality of available items really contributed to the success as well. The people who had greeting cards, jewelry, accessories, and ornaments did best with sales. I think this is obvious because these items are the most "gift-y".

As often happens with these kinds of events, I find a lot of inspiration and a lot of things to buy for myself. I'm a little embarrased to admit that I only purchased one gift for someone else. Very, very selfish.  Here are a few of the items I walked away with:

Gorgeous silk scarf, hand dyed with botanicals (for me)

The one item I bought for someone else. A pillow for my neice made by Gael.

I'm completely enamored of these beautiful paper ornaments which came with handmade boxes!

How's this for cool "yarn"? This is made from "spinning" fabric.

Overall, we had an amazing couple of days. I met some incredibly talented and good-hearted people and enjoyed the comraderie of a house full of "makers".  If you ever have a chance to do a sale like this, I encourage you to try some of the things we did to generate interest. It really worked for us!

- Alex

Friday Finds: Little Lamb, Have You Any Wool?

Anytime I can indoctrinate little people into my crafty world, it's a good day. So, when I saw this children's book by Isabel Minhos Martins (Author) and Yara Kono (Illustrator) at the library yesterday I snatched it up immediately. One little boy's conversation with a sheep. And I love the fact it's a boy who is knitting...let's break those gender stereotypes people!

Love this book!

It is charming and the kids really enjoyed it. If you're like me and want your children to understand where their everyday items (in this case wool) come from...this is a great opportunity for that.

–Cassandra

Handmade Holidays

I love handmade gifts. I love to make them - and to make them perfect for the person receiving the item. I love to give them because I'm very prideful of my work. And I love to receive them and see other people's work.

Last year's holiday scarf for my niece

In that spirit, we're going to feature a number of our tutorials in the Mighty Distractible sidebar during the holiday season. Hopefully, this will inspire you to make gifts for the people on your list. As Cassandra is fond of saying whenever we knit a gift, "Every stitch is knit with love".  Of course, she's usually saying it sarcastically while knitting something problematic but there is a smidge of truth to it regardless.

Also, today's post contains links to a number of my favorite holiday craft resources. I found some great ideas around the web and really wanted to share them.

Happy holiday season - regardless of which one you celebrate. :)

- Alex

Pinterest is always an amazing resource:

• Christmas Craft Ideas
• Hanukkah crafts
• Winter Solstice Crafts
• Gift Wrap Ideas

Meant as crafts for kids, this is a nice post of Winter Solstice craft ideas - The Crafty Crow

Everythingetsy.com is one of the best online link resources for crafters. Here are just two of my favorite posts:

• 101 Handmade Holiday Tutorials
• 101 Handmade Ornament Tutorials

And, of course, no one does it better than Martha!

• Christmas Crafts
• Christmas Gift Wrapping Ideas
• Hanukkah Crafts

Still Thankful

Over the past couple weeks there has been a lot of blogger talk about gratitude. Rightfully so. Thanksgiving is the time of year where we all take a moment to examine the bounty in our lives. I'm a little late to the game this year because, frankly, I've been too preoccupied to smell the roses.

But it's time. It would be a sin not to express gratefulness for all that I have and the opportunities that have gotten me to this place. These days I'm smitten by unexpected inspirations, children, friends, laughs, snuggly little birds, kind and generous husband, and what's on my needles and under my presser foot. Life is mysterious and wonderful.

–Cassandra

Recipe Repost! Dip It.

Here is a repost from last year with a link to an easy and delicious dip that is perfect for the holidays...

We had some holiday fun at Company X yesterday. The creative and marketing groups decided to have "Dip Day". A whole bunch of folks brought in different dips and we just sort of grazed (exactly like cattle) from 8-4:30. Yes, this is the sort of stuff we have to cling to...please don't judge the corporate drones.

Anyway, in my opinion, the best dip of the day was brought in by my friend Amy. She found it on Allrecipes.com and it was called "Festive Cracker Spread". Oh my! Cream Cheese, mayo, green olives, onions, red pepper...it is like a festive party in your mouth! Here is a link to the delightful dip.

Festive Cracker Spread photo courtesy of Allrecipes.com

So simple and easy. Great to bring along to parties this season.

On a side note, you know what is awesome about Allrecipes.com? You can put in the amount of people you need to feed and it will recalculate the ingredients so you can make the perfect amount. Lazy people like me love that.

I'm off to do some frantic last-minute holiday knitting of my own! Later!

–Cassandra