A Heart Felt Thank You!

Right now I would like to extend a Heart Felt Thank You! to all those who have helped to promote my little shop by blogging about it, adding my items to an Etsy Treasury, or simply telling friends where to find me.

I know the Lord works His Will in mysterious ways, and that he has brought each of you into my life, and through you, has given me an answer to prayer.

Recently I sold a set of hand carved stamps to a woman on Etsy. She had liked a little Owl stamp set I had made and contacted me about making her a set with an Owl and branch and such for use in her business. Since it was for a business I wanted to make something that no one else would have. My other owl stamps had been sold several times and I wanted hers to be unique. Well, after she received her stamps she sent me a request to blog about her purchase and my little shop. I was thrilled and said yes, sure she could write about my shop.

She sent me a link to her post, and what she had written really touched my heart. I was thanking God throughout my reading of her post, and when I read that she was a Christian my joy increased.

Her name is Kim and she has a beautiful blog and you can find the post about my stamps here

And she owns a wonderful Etsy Shoppe called Oh Sweet Joy where she makes lovely fashions, accessories, gifts and home decor items (just to name a few). She has also been featured in Child Style Magazine.

Heather Holbrook of Craft Gossip recently featured my new Marie Antoinette Art Doll Accessories stamp set on her blog. Check it out here

Kristen featured my shoppe as the MICHIGAN ETSY SHOP OF THE DAY on her blog. Check it out here

Jade, one of my customers, sent me a link to her blog to check out the art she creates using my stamps. You can see her creations here

Margaret listed my shop in her Friday Finds. Check out her blog here. You can also check out her Etsy shop Konstant Kaos where she makes "Cool clothes for Groovy Kids"

Nikki featured my Llama Stamp in an Etsy Treasury. She also has a wonderful shop called My 7 Kids where she sells reclaimed yarns from sweaters and other items that have been hand dyed for new use. Check out her Shop Announcements for links to all her other shops as well!

Sant' Angelo Designs is a shop selling ecclectic collage and assemblage art and they featured one of my stamps in an Etsy Treasury.

Sarah from Rozzy Tozz on Etsy featured my Route 66 stamp in an Etsy Treasury. Check out her shop. She handcrafts jewelry and other beaded goods!

Marielle Macville featured my hand designed note cards in an Etsy Treasury. Marielle creates and sells Ceramic Sculpture Artifacts on Etsy. Check out her shop here.

I would also like to say Thank You to Indie Owl Creations on Etsy. She makes bottle cap jewelry, altered domino jewelry, decoupage items, and much more. I made her a custom mini stamp of her little owl logo and she liked it so much she referred one of her friends from Tate & Tilly to me for some custom logo stamps. Since then I have sold several of these sets. Here is the one I made for Tate & Tilly.

Please be sure to check out all the shoppes listed above and share some LOVE!

Those of you who have been following the blog for a while may know that in the beginning I started this blog and My Etsy Shoppe after losing my job due to office closure and staff reduction. When I was told I was being permanently laid off, it was like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders. As much as I was terrified of not having a job, I wasn't unhappy to be told I couldn't work this particular job anymore. My full time job was long days, weekends, phone calls during off hours, and ultimately it was too much time away from my daughter who desperately needed me then. Back then what came FIRST in my life was My Job, as a single parent I had justified the necessity to put my job before anything, and anyone else!

Things have certainly changed since then. The Lord has always been a part of my life. I was saved when I was a teenager, but that is about as far as my conversion went. I knew their was a God and I accepted Him as my Savior, but beyond that action, I did not think about Him unless I was facing some major obstacle that I didn't think could be handled on my own.

Well, even though I continually neglected Him, the Lord kept calling me, and finally convicted me so strongly that I knew without a doubt what I needed to do. I surrendered, wholly and completely to His Will......and I have never looked back. The Lord has FIRST PLACE in my life, through thick or thin, better or worse, and believe me, even through the trials of everyday life I am still filled with such joy it is almost incomprehensible.

I recently started attending a Church in Kalamazoo called Green Meadow Bible Baptist Church, and I attended the Women's Bible Study for the first time last night. During the study one of the women mentioned a verse that talks about the thoughts the Lord has for us being greater in number than the sand. Well, I came across that very passage this morning during my personal study, and even now, it affects me so deeply I want to weep for the joy it brings to my soul to know the depths of God's love for us. It is Psalm 139:17 &18, but I am going to start with verse 14, and I would certainly encourage you to read the whole chapter as it is really a testament to God's presence in our lives.

Psalm 139:14-18 (KJV)

v14 - I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made:

marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.

v15 - My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in

secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.

v16 - Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in

thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were

fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.

v17 - How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! How

great is the sum of them!

v18 - If I should count them, they are more in number than the

sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.

and then

Psalm 139:23 & 24 (KJV)

v23 - Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:

v24 - And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

He is everywhere at once, and knows everything, nothing can be hid from him, and still, knowing all there is to know about us, even those things in our past or present that we may not want anyone to know about, he knows them already and loves us. Verses 17 and 18 just grip my heart and bring me to my knees. What is even more profound is that I know I am not worthy of His love. No matter how hard I try, nothing I do could make me worthy of Him, but by accepting the Lord Jesus Christ's sacrifice on the cross for my sins I have been saved, redeemed by the shedding of his blood, to live and spend eternity with Him.

Galatians 2:20 (KJV)

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me:

and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God,

who loved me and gave himself for me.

The Lord has changed my life in the last 2 years, and as I study his word and continue to submit to His Will in all things he has blessed me in more ways than I could have ever imagined.

I know for a certainty, that the Lord led me to start my business. I know that He wants me to be home with my family, I know that he wants me to be obedient to His Will and a good steward of all the things He has provided for me, including the gifts and talents he has given me. And I know that He will bless the work of my hands and that if I am diligent my efforts will bear fruit.

I am thankful to God for all His provision.

Every day I sell an item, I thank Him.

Every day I don't sell anything, I thank Him.

Every day when I wake up my first thoughts are of Him.

and Every night when I go to sleep my last thoughts are of Him.

Raspberry Tweed

Here is a little bit of eye candy for the yarnies and fiber addicts (myself included), who frequent the blog and to the new visitors out there WELCOME! and enjoy :)

First off I must share the Antique Skein Winder I scored for $15 when I went to a local antique shop with my Grandma, Aunt and Cousin. I found this wedged behind a couple of old shovels and a wooden crate. At first glance I wasn't sure if it was what I thought it was, but when I heard it was only $15 on sale that day, I bought it on the spot. I used it already, to wind up the skein of Raspberry Tweed I finished spinning this weekend.

This is a skein I just listed on my Etsy today! I spun it up and plied it all on my top whorl drop spindle made by spinsanity on Etsy. It was spun from an Angora Merino batt I purchased from Wiley Woolies at the Fiber Fest at Cornwells Turkeyville this past fall. It is 294 yds of a heavy worsted / light bulky weight yarn weighing in at 5.4 oz / 150 grams. I am in a little personal competition with my cousin who fills her spindle to such capacity I have yet to surpass her in total yardage of a single skein. I thought for sure I would do it with this skein, but her last skein was 295 yds! I missed it by 1 yd! She also told me that she found some extra fiber after plying her skein and if she had been able to add that in she was sure she could have hit 300 yds in a single skein. WOW! Her success with spinning keeps me striving to excel in my own abilities. Someday I would like to own a wheel to make spinning faster, but there is a real sense of satisfaction knowing that this HUGE skein of yarn was spun up on a humble little stick and whorl!

Now that spring is here, I am pulling out all kinds of roving and fiber that has been stored away during my winter knitting phase. The Holidays really wiped me out with all the knitting they required. Now I can get back to a relaxed pace of spinning, knitting and sewing. Currently what is keeping me busy is spinning and knitting, sewing only falls in here and there when I get a free moment from everything else.

So currently, almost all of my spindles have fiber on them. I am spinning up some more flax. I have 4 ozs of flax fiber that I spun just a small amount of last summer, I navajo plied it, and then it sat around in a tiny skein (I think about 90 yds) for this past year while I was a gloomy gus, disappointed with how much it resembled a bunch of sticks in color and texture. Well, I finally pulled it out and decided I was going to knit something with it and see if it would really soften up like I have read and been told, that it would. Surprise Surprise! I am knitting a napkin, yes.....a napkin in a basic stockinette with a garter stitch border this yarn has gotten softer and softer the more I knit with it. I can only imagine how much softer it may get once the napkin is done and I launder it a few times. So I have been encouraged by this little bit of knitting to spin up the rest of the flax and maybe make something a little bigger than a napkin with the finished yarn.

I am also spinning a bit of australian merino wool that I Hand dyed when I was visiting with my cousin a few weeks ago. You can see her hand dyed rovings on her blog at Holly Marie Knits. Here is just one of mine currently on the spindle. We have just been practicing our dyeing with some Wilton Icing Dyes, but I plan to purchase some Greener Shades Dyes for my next batch of fiber dyeing coming up in a couple of weeks.

And....I am just starting to spin a burgundy batch of Merino/Alpaca fiber I purchased from Jehovah Jireh Farm at last years fiber event at Cornwells Turkeyville in Marshall Michigan. My grandmother wants a wimple like the one I knit for my cousin and so I thought this would make a nice yarn for it if I spin it up lace weight. The pattern Ice Queen from Knitty.com

Well, I'd love to stay and chat a while more, but with all the photos this post has taken me longer than I anticipated. The new women's bible study with the ladies from my church starts tonight and I need to get a move on or I will be late! More updates to come later this week........(including some video of fiber dying and a knitting tutorial for one of my patterns)