I am truly in awe of those who can blog on a regular basis. You know, those people who update their space on a schedule and send E-Mail updates at LEAST once a week. So, if I wore a hat, it would be off to those amazing bloggers.



Then there are people like me, who start with high hopes and then get way-sided. The New Year began with the best of intentions, I was determined to make blogging a part of my day, everyday! I didn’t even make it through January and here it is the first week in March. With that said, I will TRY to play catch-up this week with what has been going on here in Virginia.
January and February the East Coast was blanketed with record snowfalls. New York, Washington DC, and North Carolina friends all reported that schools were closed and they were snowed in. I looked through my stack of untried patterns and my yarn stash, waiting for the snow to come. The most we got was a “dusting”. Enough to cover the ground in the morning and then gone by noon. So much for snow!






January I worked on a contest entry for the Second Annual Michael’s and Vanna White Contest. There are five categories, and they required the use of Vanna’a Choice Yarns. The entry pictures had to be mailed or e-mailed by February 1st. When I saw the contest ad I knew exactly what I wanted to enter. I read the rules and started on my project. I don’t want to say or show what I entered yet, I don’t want to jinx it. I will tell you that I should have read the entry instructions better. The entry instructions said that the item submitted could be from someone else’s pattern or an original design. Mine was an original design. Creating my entry was easy. I THOUGHT I had to submit the pattern with the pictures. So I wrote down the pattern which ended up taking more time than making the items. Not being good at deadlines I was thrilled to finish well ahead. Then as I was filling out the entry form I realized I did not have to send the pattern. I didn’t know weither to laugh or cry. So I chalked it up to experience and am glad to have a finished written pattern. So…..the contest winners will be announced at the end of MAY! (I know, that is a long time) Once that is announced I will post pictures.






February I worked on making a baby gift for my niece who is having a baby girl in June. We all waited to find out the sex of the baby, everyone hoping for a girl. I love the way she told us, giving us the name, instead of the sex. So, for the new baby in the family, Alexis, whose parents are big Disney fans, I made this crocheted Mickey Mouse. I have started on the Minnie Mouse and I am hoping to get it done before Alexis makes her welcome entry into the family.



Next I tackled one of the many patterns that I have in my stash. This was a pattern for an Amigurumi little girl dressed in a bunny outfit. I purchased the pattern from Owlishly. I love her designs. She has taken the basic girl or sometimes boy doll and created some awesome costumes for them. I bought the bunny pattern because I have two little nieces that I wanted to surprise with Easter Bunnies. I finished them in three days and packed them up, ready to mail out in my new special packaging. Then I looked at the calendar and realized that Easter is not until April. Way to early to send a package to two toddlers with the instructions, “Do Not Open Til Easter”. So, for once I am way ahead of my deadline. And on that happy note I’ll sign off until tomorrow.

Yesterday I told you about the “Monkeython” I had before Christmas. It involved making 22 monkeys in 24 days. Though my monkey pattern is usually pretty much standard, the clothes that I make for each monkey are custom and each comes with it’s own challenges. I needed two monkeys with Stanford College logos on white shirts. The shirts were the easy part, making the Stanford logo was the difficult part.


I had previously made a Virginia Tech monkey with a logo on a orange short sleeve shirt. For the logo I used ribbon that I found locally. Since I live in Virginia, the Virginia Hokies are BIG here. The ribbon had the Hokie logo that I cut and carefully hand sewed to the tiny T Shirt.

For the Stanford shirts I had no logo ribbon and there was not time to order any that I might find online. So, instead I thought if I could find the two JPG photo’s of the logos online, I could save them to my computer, size them down to fit the shirts, print them out, and then sew them on to the shirts. Here is where the challenge came. A paper printout just would not work. Any type of iron-on would not work because of the same size and the fact that the shirts are crocheted, not made of material. The solution came from a previous project I had worked on.

Pellon, interfacing, whatever you want to call it can be cut to printer paper size and it can be run through the printer. So, I took the JPG files, sized them down to the size I needed and printed 3 of each image (just in case of mistakes). Then I cut around the image and sewed them to the shirts. As I cut the thread on the last shirt I realized the possibilities are pretty endless. Personalized T shirts for my monkeys! Sometimes there are just more ideas than there is time to do them all.
As you can see, the Stanford monkeys turned out pretty good and made their way to California before Christmas.

So the New Year begins! 20010, I have to get used to writting that.
I am not a big fan of making New Year's Resolutions, mainly because they never seem to last. However, when I came here and saw that my last post was actually written before Halloween of last year I realized I need to do some serious change.
My son has a photography blog and between going to school, assignments and his studies he manages to post a new picture each day. I have been thinking about that all week and how I can apply the same discipline here. A project each day? A picture of something from my shop? Maybe a tutorial? All I can commit to right now is, who knows!
So since this is not a Leap Year, that doesn't happen until 2012, I will have 365 posts here. Hmmmmm that sorta smacks of a resolution.
For today, let me do a little catch-up on what has been going on with RoseTree Creations.
December, I undertook a Monkeython, as I like to call it. Between gifts and special orders I made 22 monkeys in 24 days. All of them dressed in specific outfits. It was a crazy time as I had to make two college T shirt clad monkeys and three architect monkeys. Since clothes for my monkeys are made without patterns, new designs and requests are always a challenge. Each challenge though, becomes a learning experience and later this month I will share some of the things I learned.
That's all I have for now, other than the hope that everyone has a GREAT new year! See you tomorrow!

Ok, I like Halloween. The kids Trick or Treating, and seeing them all dressed up in their little costumes, but as far crafting goes I have never really been big on it. So when I ran across this pattern in a new magazine that I subscribed to, it is unusual for me to drop what I am doing to make one.
Usually when I run across something that might be intersting to work on I store it away, either in my head or storeroom until I have time. But lately that "pile" has been getting bigger and bigger. More ideas than what I have time for. I don't know what inspired me to start right in on this scarecrow.
Maybe it was because:
1. I had EVERY color and brand yarn that it called for.
2. It has REALLY been Fall weather here, cold, wet and windy.
3. I thought he was really CUTE!
4. Though the pattern calls for him to be 14 inches tall I wanted to try and make him smaller.
5. I had just gotten the magazine subscription he was in "CROCHET TODAY".
6. It was better to sit and make something new than work on other things.

I guess it was a little of all and a lot of the last. I really enjoy working on new things.

One of the things that I NEED to do is go over to ArtFIre and work on my Blog. They have added a new feature where each shop can have a blog. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. I love ArtFire because they are always adding features for both buyers and sellers to make things easier. They listen to suggestions and respond quickly. My problem is, I have trouble keeping up with it all.
So when I saw that I could have a blog on ArtFire AND here, I had to think how to handle it. Should both be a repeat of each other? I decided No, I would continue on with this one and use the ArtFire Shop Blog as a way of profiling new items in the shop, telling the inspiration and story behind each piece and getting to know my buyers better.
So, one more thing to add to my list of things to do each week. It's a good thing I don't have a regular job. LOL!

eyes in place, I just had to add his nose and ears. Here he is looking almost finished, but still bodiless.
I wanted the deer to have a light patch that ran under his belly and rump and showed the tail. I started it on the chest and then had to stop until I got the body made. When I make animals I like for them to be as "realistic" as possible. If I remember correctly both male and femal reindeer have antlers, so I gave him antler buds. When it came time to do his feet and legs I gave him some brown hooves.  As a final touch I added a green scarf with a  gold jingle bells on each end. I think all and all it came together pretty nicely. Now if I tried to make an exact copy I could not do it. That is the beauty of working without patterns.  The same basic feel but each one is like we humans, different.

I don't know about anyone else, but I am foever looking at my shop and trying to make it better. Thanks to ArtFire, and their dedication to the sellers there, they are always coming up with new features to make things easier for us.
So, rather than be overwhelmed by tackling the whole shop I am working on a catergory at a time. This month it is going to be the Hedgehogs. So here is my list to be completed by month's end.
1. Reduce Hedggie price for the month by 20% (check)
2. Increase Hedggies so there are 20 different ones
3. Purchase gift boxes for each (check)
4. Create hang tags for each Hedggie, certifying that it is
handmade, and include it's name and date of birth

So, the picture above is of some of the yarn I ran across in my stash. It is unlike the other eyelash yarn. Both have sparkly strands mixed in with the yarn and will work up well as hedggies. Can't wait to get started on these tonight. I will post pictures as soon as I get them finished, and of course offer them in my shop.

It has been a Hedggie Horde Time! Between everything that has been going on in my "personal" life I have been able to finish a long over due special order for three Hedggies. Not being able to stop I made some more to add to the Hedggies I already have listed on my ArtFire shop ( http://rosetreecreations.artfire.com/) . Getting them all to sit still for this group shot was not easy but somehow they all managed to get in the picture. Thank goodness ArtFire has added a new global editing feature, because I decided to do a little tweaking to some of the listings. It has been two days and I am still adding and changing. I can see this will be an ongoing thing. Because once I get the listings finished for the hedggies, then I will have to start on the monkey listings, and then the Christmas listings. And O my Goodness, Christmas is getting here soon and I need to get busy adding more Christmas critters. I sold three earlier this week and have not even started on replacing them.

Don't get me wrong, I love creating the critters and having someone love them so much that they want to have them.....it is everything else that makes me crazy.

I gave up on Twitter, too much to figure out, as far as how to send..etc. Facebook, I put up the Artfire link and have gotten a few hits from that. This whole Blog thing is new to me. I have followers here but I feel like I am talking to myself. But I will keep talking. And I will try to do it more often.

I love Buttons! Not the kind that keep your clothes decent or the ones you wear to tell the world your opinion of things....No, I mean buttons to add to Blogs. I have received a few but adding them here? have put that on my backlog of things to do.

Instead, I wanted to come up with an award that I could share with fellow Amigurumi Artists who sell on ArtFire. A way of adding to their blogs that they enjoy creating with yarn and crochet hooks and provide a link to their ArtFire Shops.

I knew exactly how I wanted it to look and the hardest part (not REALLY) was making the Amigurumi piece to use. I love this little Wacky Bird and he just begged to be labeled "Too Stink'n Cute!" So, armed with a good picture I added the caption and got a working button to use. I figured out how to add it to my blog here. No great feat you say? It is for me, because this whole blogging thing is new to me, and adding things is unfamiliar ground. So, anyway, I got the button here, you can see it in the righthand sidebar.

Now is where I need help. I want to offer it, like I said to fellow Amigurumi artists. I am just not sure how to go about doing that. Anyone who can offer help doing this it would be greatly appreciated. Help me please. Leave a comment. Thanks.

FUTURE ARTFIRE MONKEY

WORKING ON MONKEYS

Last week I got a repeat order for another set of Bride and Groom Monkeys, so that is what I have been working on. This is the completed groom here. I have reminded the buyer that since they are handmade each is different, just like people. I don't think I could make two alike if I tried. They seem to each take on their own personality. Unlike the first Groom I made, this monkey is sporting a black bowtie to go with his black tux. For the new Bride Monkey I plan to add a bouquet and a garter on her leg.

I just read an article last night where a fellow crafter offered the advise of finding an item that you like, make it a thousand times until you are happy with it. The problem I have with that advise is that I could make the same style monkey 1000 times and each time it would be different and I would be happy with each.