Finding & Finishing

Every day, I get an email from Etsy called 'Etsy Finds', which showcases items from the handmade and vintage shops on Etsy. Every day I look through it to see what's been featured, always with a small glimmer of hope that one of my items might just make it on there. It never happens.

But then, on a busy Sunday when I didn't even have time to look at the email, one of my items, the Swedish Dala horse, pictured above, makes it on to 'Etsy Finds'! Someone reserved it, along with some other stuff, and then I got two more emails asking to buy it. And 30 people had made it a favourite item. In my dopey way, I just thought 'Goodness me, those Swedish horses are popular nowadays!', and it was only when I saw the email that I realised why. (You can see the selection of finds here.)

Needless to say, my shop was not as well-stocked as I would have liked, so I haven't been inundated with other sales, but many thanks to Etsy for including my shop. Interesting that they go for the 'tasteful' end of my offerings, rather than the kitsch stuff, like this crazy cowboy! Maybe I should have put him on the Swedish horse...

I also discovered my Flickr photostream was getting some hits over the weekend, thanks to the picture of my hallway being included on Desire to Inspire, a rather lovely interiors blog. I'm starting to feel famous!

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Two blogging projects have come to my attention this week. They're both about making things, and chime in very well with what I've been thinking about lately.

(Don't be put off by this pic from an old Sindy annual, which features some of the worst craft ideas ever! Click on it to see a large view.)

First was from a Thrifty Mrs, who has launched her 52 Marvellous Makes Madness Challenge. The idea is to make something you enjoy making, each week for a year.

I had been thinking I should try to make my blogging more regular, and include things that I've made, and so the idea of a weekly 'make' sounds great. I'm not sure I can manage to make something for fun every week, so I might cheat a bit and show you some old projects.

And on the subject of old projects, I recently wrote a list of all the crafty projects I'd started and not finished. There were 18 I could think of, straight away. If I dared to look at the bottom of some bags and boxes, I know I'd find more. Sewing, crochet, art, - I start things and then move on to something new. I've sometimes tried to analyse why I do this, but quite honestly, I can't afford that much therapy! I decided recently that I should try to finish some, if only to get rid of those annoying bags of yarn/fabric/thread etc,

So it was perfect timing to find the next blogging project on Joys Quilts. It's called 'Finishing Stitches'. The idea is to get on and finish some unfinished projects that have been hanging around for too long. The deadline is the end of July, so I'd better get a move on.
Now where's my needle?