Marseilles Dress SHABBY APPLE GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Click on the link below to view more about this giveaway of a gorgeous dress.

Marseilles Dress SHABBY APPLE GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

"Handpicked Item"

On Wednesday afternoon, one of my eco-friendly plarn bags was selected as a "handpicked item" and featured on the front page of Etsy for a few hours! They searched by the term "eco-friendly" and deemed my large size plarn bag worthy!

It was very, very exciting for me to see one of my own creations featured on the front page, even if it was only for a few hours. During that time I got nearly 300 hits on the bag! While I have yet to sell an item through Etsy, the extra attention on Wednesday put my shop in many new people's mind and so I'm optimistic that I have a sale soon.

Bags Are Posted!

I have officially posted my eco-friendly, repurposed plarn bags to my Etsy site! Check them out at truepennie.etsy.com.

If you see anything that you like, but would like it in a slightly different size, with a button, toggle, or pocket, please just let me know and I'm happy to custom make one for you at the same price. (Prices are determined by final size of the bag, excluding the handles.)

This weekend I'll be working on creating a lot more plarn, and hopefully I'll have enough of a colored bag to begin to work in colors other than Trader Joe's.

Keep an eye out for more bags!

The Results

Tessa and Ali: our first craft fair!

So while our first craft fair wasn't stellar, it was still okay. The biggest problem was just that the fair was really slow, so there simply wasn't the volume of people needed to make a ton of sales.

That being said, we did still make a few sales (four in total, bringing in $48), and that seemed to be about on par with what the other vendors at the fair were doing. While we wish that we had sold more, at least we sold something, and two items even went to people we didn't know! (Thanks so much to our friends who came out and bought items too! Ali and I really appreciate your support.)

The good news is that everyone said how great and professional our display was, and we got a lot of positive feedback on all the products. We also have a lot of the administrative work done, as well as having a decent amount of inventory now. The items will very soon be posted to Etsy, so hopefully that will start to take off.

The table

Eco-friendly bags

Pretty flowers

In the meantime Chris and I need to re-shoot the bags, as the original photos weren't fantastic, and Ali and I are going to continue plugging away at making flowers and bags.

Thanks!

First Craft Fair!!

Come and see the debut showing of Truepennie's crafts!

Spring Craft Fair
Saturday, May 2
9:30 - 2:30 p.m.
Christ Church Episcopal

750 Main Street

Waltham, MA 02451

http://www.christchurchwaltham.org/

Ali and I are so excited. We will have an assortment of beautiful organza flowers. They can be worn in your hair, on a jacket or even pinned to a bag. They make the perfect Mother's Day gift, or spring and summer time accessory for yourself!

We will also have for sale crocheted headbands and eco-friendly purses made of repurposed plastic grocery bags.

Hope to see you there!

Earth Hour!

Hi Friends,

Just a reminder:

Please help the global movement this Saturday, 3/28, and turn off your lights (and all your electronic equipment, gadgets and gizmos) for one hour from 8:30-9:30pm for Earth Hour.

Join me in doing something by candlelight for just an hour on Saturday and possibly help do something for global warming. Or at least send a message to all those politicians world-wide that we all care about global warming and that real action needs to be taken yesterday to combat it.

If you're not convinced or inspired, check out the video below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CRs-7lRlPo

Thanks friends. And while you're at it, buy locally and ride your bike.

Chocolate and Steel: *.*.*.*GIVEAWAY*.*.*.*

Chocolate and Steel: *.*.*.*GIVEAWAY*.*.*.*

Ali turned me on to this great blog and giveaway for a really pretty ring! All of her stuff is really nice, so check out the Chocolate and Steel blog and website!

Flowers!

Green with taupe flowers, varied colored beads
(I'm wearing the small one in my hair today for St. Patrick's Day!)

Burgundy flowers with brown-y lilac beads

Taupe flower with pink beads

After coming across an excellent how-to on Craftzine for making organza flowers (thanks so much, Tresa for this great how-to!), my friend Ali and I decided we love them and want to make lots and lots and lots of them. After a long and exciting trip to the beautifully new JoAnn's, we came home with an armload of shades of organza fabric, beads, and ribbons.

Our palate so far...
(I'm sure it will grow with the next fabric shopping trip!)

The rest of the afternoon and evening were spent figuring out a good general flower shape to cut out, practicing burning the edges without burning the actual shape too much, and then sewing beads into the center.

Little poppy-like flowers

We're planning on making lots of these, then turning them into hair clips, brooches, headbands, bracelets, and belts, as well as leaving some of the large one plain for filling a pretty bowl with in place of real flowers. The main source of inspiration for these is the craft fair in May (my first ever!!) which falls right before Mother's Day. Ali and I are hoping the between spring and buying something pretty for a mother or friend, we'll sell lots. (Fingers crossed.) If not, if you're friends of ours, you may be seeing these again as a birthday or Christmas present...

Now if only we could figure out how to make them smell as pretty as real flowers...

New Etsy Shop!

So I just opened up a shop on Etsy- Truepennie! (truepennie.etsy.com) While I haven't actually posted anything for sale yet, I'm in the process of getting everything else set up so things will be smoother later on. For now though, here are a few examples of items that I will be selling soon:

Example of "Farthing" (small size bag)

Example 2 of "Farthing"

Example of "Florin" (medium size bag)
(item sold- first one!-to a great motivator, Alison.--thanks!!)

While I've dreamed of owning my crafting business since I was very little, I had filed it away in the category of "dreams that more than likely will not happen" along with swimming with dolphins and being able to do the splits. So since this is happening now, maybe the others will too! I've recently begun practicing yoga on a regular basis after all...

I owe it all to my cousin, Stephanie, for providing me the motivation and initial encouragement to get this whole process started. I made the original plastic bag purse for Stephanie as a birthday/Christmas present, and because she loved it so much and showed it off to all her friends, she planted the seed that I may be able to actually make some money doing one of the things that I love best: crocheting. (The other things that I love best include dancing, cooking, and acting silly with good friends.)

Thanks Stephanie!

The Original Bag created for Steph