Flower Pattern Earrings

These are my first few pairs of flower earrings which I made after Kerry taught me this new pattern.  The orange were my first pair.  I like the blue and white the best which Kerry says is a color combo that always sells well.  More to come soon. 

Maria's Order

The past week or so I have been working on an order for Maria at the Hat Co.  It was actually the biggest order that I have ever done: almost 50 hats!  The picture below is what my couch, no, my entire house, looked like last week. 

And here is the finished order:

That is 6 berets with pompoms, 6 with crocheted bows, 6 baggy beanies (berenies), 6 beanies, 6 striped earflap hats, 6 mixed animal hats adult, 8 mixed animal hats child, 2 kids crocheted bow, and 3 heart earflap hats.

A Visit From My Bead Guru

Recently I had a special visit from my good friend Kerry.  I love her so much!  She lives in Ecuador and has a coffee and chocolate shop featuring her beautiful beaded jewelry.  And she's having a baby!  We had so much fun beading on the beach and enjoying Santa Cruz.

Oooo! Dreamy bead case.  Look at that hair clip; it is so awesome!

Modeling one of my hats with brim and flower.

Kerry's parche - this literally means patch and is the word artisans in parts of Latin America use for their display.

This was one of my favorite pairs.  I tried to duplicate it with my first pair but they were not to be imitated.  Kerry has been making lots of this flower style and I am excited to make up a rack.  I think they will sell well because young girls and women who don't want to wear very flashy, dangly earrings can wear these. 

The calamar!  She has so many great pairs.

Great colors, lovely!

Kerry's sister Lauren made the amazing pair she is wearing.  They are made with bronze beads, moonstone chips, gold-lined seed beads and other amazing things.  I miss you Kerry!  Thanks for that great salad!  Can I send you the coconut cream?  Loving you, Anne

Heart Handwarmers

Erica, you read my mind!  Here is how I spruced up some plain black handwarmers that I had from last season:

New Fall Handwarmers

Now that we are getting some colder weather I am getting out the hand warmers again. These are some new ones.  The brown ones are men's/size large; the turquoise sparklies are a wool cotton blend.  They are both made with salvaged yarn I got from The Fabrica.

Heart Hats

I am putting hearts on everything lately...

Watch for the handwarmers...XOXO

Mexican Yarn Shop

No, I am not in Mexico; these pictures are from a little while ago.  But they are so pretty.  If you didn't know I'm obsessed with yarn!

You Gotta Check This!

http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/news-agata-olek-%E2%80%93-crocheted-body?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+environmentalgraffiti+%28Environmental+Graffiti%29&utm_content=Yahoo%21+Mail

My dear friend Ardelle, from Puerto Rico, sent me this link. I am blown away by of this artist's crochet pieces.  I especially like this camo style she has and maybe I will try to use that pattern on some forthcoming hats.  I don't think I will be doing any full suits though.  She has amazing patience!! 

Headbands and Urban Snoutfitters

Did I ever mention that I actually got the oppotunity to sell at the Urban Outfitters downtown?  Here are some of the pics from that:

That is my awesome friend Deerbuck who makes amazing feather earrings.  She is wearing one.

Finally, the headbands.  And cuffs too!  Some of the headbands have feathers attatched.  Also, some have these cool vintage wood things that I took off of a belt.  Click on the picture to see it bigger. My favorite is the green pineapple and also the red sparkly.

Cutie Hat with Ribbon

I love embellishing the hats with adornments like sequins and ribbons.  I also like the scalloped edge.

Abalone Shell Necklace

I am so glad that I took some pictures of this necklace because it sold right away!  I almost wanted to keep it for myself it was so beautiful.  The pictures really cannot capture the colors in this piece of abalone shell.  It reflects greens and pinks and blue.

That other necklace came out really nice too. It is made with a big coconut piece with smaller seeds and coconut dangling from it and acai seeds and raw coco disks making up the chain.  Those light-colored beads are young coconuts I think. 

A different day, a different sarong. Here is a picture from when I first started the necklaces.  Yarn is light and makes a good pillow when traveling but seeds and shells are heavy to carry around to the beach and stuff. 

Red Pet

Here is a funny thing that I found in a free box.  It was just a shopping bag full of red yarn.  I'm not quite sure what to do with it yet. I'm not looking forward to untangling it all so maybe it will be a modern art piece.  Or, a red yarn monster!!

Doesn't it look like Clifford the big red dog in this pic?!

Kitties and Bunnies and Frogs

The Kresge Co-op

Today I had a wonderful day.  I went downtown to The Fabrica, a "community textile arts and salvage workshop."  It is basically a co-op where people can work together on projects and use the sewing machines and materials and take classes.  I bought a whole trash bag full of beautiful yarn for $20!  I got great colors and lots of wool, cotton, some recycled yarn, florecents, etc. This place is so cool!  I am excited to perhaps host a class on hat making.  Check it out:  http://thefabrica.wordpress.com/ 

Then I met Marcelo to do some slackling in the park and that was fun.  Here is his friend Alex modeling a bear hat with Marcelo on the line in the background:

Next I went to one of my favorite places in Santa Cruz, The Kresge Co-op.  The Kresge Co-op is a food co-op where I have sold my hats on consignment for many years now.  I love the people, the food, the vibes.  It is great because they only take 10% commission which is very reasonable.  I always get a toasted bagel with earthbalance, nutritional yeast, and hot sauce. Very Santa Cruz.  Here are some of my friends, Elle and Max:

And here are the hats, along with some other artists' work:

I finished the day off with a bikeride down to Natural Bridges beach where there is a butterfly peserve for migrating monarchs and watched a nice sunset. 

Fun Times at the Boardwalk

So, of course after one of my recent posts where I said the Boardwalk was winding down for the season, I went this past weekend and had great sales.  Here are some of the cool people I met:

This is Robin.  She bought 5 hats!  Check out the cool bubbly texture on this one.

This is Alva from Oakland.  She requested this neat necklace with a flower on it.  Crochetted Jewelry!

This is Emily, from Santa Cruz.  Another smiling customer!  She got this awesome coconut and acai necklace and also some pairs of earrings.

New Pink Shell-Stitch Headband

I love how this headband has a lacy look to it.  Hope to make more soon.  I found this vintage pattern in this cool little book that my mom gave me:

That is Marcelo's camera cozy with the booklet.  And the yarn for the headband also came from Hallie.  Yay! 

Thank You Hallie! XOXO

My friend Hallie gave me some yarn that she was getting rid of the other day.  It came all the way from L.A. to my door.  Yarn donations make my day!  It is like a little treasure for me.  Hallie was volunteering with me at the Arboretum and we had great times with the succulents so I included some of my collection in the picture.  Love you girl. 

The navy blue one is vintage cotton and the black I believe to be wool.  Too bad the colors are alittle washed-out in this picture.

Living Art

Today was my last day working at the Arboretum.  I had a great time there and now I am feeling happy about change.  I started this succelent wreath months ago when my mom was visiting and finally finished it the other day.  A group of volunteers work to make them to sell in the gift shop.  My boss let me keep mine.  It is made by pinning succelent cuttings with hair pins to a peatmoss and wire wreath base.  It then grows in.

The leader of the volunteer groups' wreath was featured in Sunset magazine.  Succulents are very chicy lately. I couldn't find anything that impressive online but here is one thing: http://www.sunset.com/garden/backyard-projects/diy-vertical-succulent-garden-project-00400000063442/