Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Pet Peeve: Linky Party Abusers

If you look at my sidebar on my blog you will see a short list of blogs that I regularly link up with. I love these bloggers and really, really, truly appreciate their hard work. 


I know they take a lot of time to be super organized and show up every day to work on their blogs to present quality content for their followers. And they host linky parties to share the love and give us all a chance share what inspires us. And a lot of them get paid for their hard work through advertisements. That is a good thing. They deserve to be paid for what they do. 


So when I go to their linky parties to browse I sometimes spend a long time hopping from one blog to another. I love discovering new blogs and adding them to my reading list. I DON'T love when I click on a link and find that someone has decided to use the link to promote their store or item for sale. I consider that just plain abuse. 


I am a paid crafter, and I have an etsy store and a website where I sell my goods. I advertise and promote those sales on the sidebar of my own blog. But I would never, ever go and link up to someone's blog to outright advertise an item for sale. Because that is not right. If you want to advertise on the blog you should pay for that, not expect that you can insert your ad on a free linky and infringe on the host's hard work of building a base of loyal followers. 


I know your item is cute and handmade and you want to promote your new business. But that is just rude. 


Maybe I am just being nit-picky, but this really ticks me off. Rant over.

Monday, February 27, 2012

Fiesta Kitchen Projects



We are getting settled in our new tiny house, and I like it. I wasn't so sure I would, but so far I am able to focus on the positive and the house is so cute, such a contrast to what I felt was dragging me down over the past couple of years in Colorado. I am sure I will never get over missing Colorado and certain things about the big brown house of gloom, like having 1500 square feet of sewing space. That is sort of incomparable! Oh well, I think quality is more important than quantity anyway, so my tiny downsized sewing room is already becoming a pleasant little retreat.


But when we left we simply didn't have room in the truck for that 1500 square feet of fabric, or Mr. Rainbow Creek's 3 car garage full of tools and whatnot. So he left a week and a half ago on a return trip to sort it out and retrieve a 2nd load. And I just couldn't stand all this time on my hands with nothing to sew and ventured off to WalMart looking for some cheap fabrics just to play around with. I scored a handful of charm packs on a clearance rack, and decided to check out the bedding section for a cheap sheet to use for a coordinate. I didn't have a particular plan in mind, just something to sew and maybe brighten up the kitchen a little. 


I love this One Hour Table Runner project and made a few of them for the holidays. But, of course, I can't do anything without making it more complicated so I had to turn it into an 8 hour table runner. I love the Disappearing 9 Patch block, so simple and it gives you so many possibilities for how to lay it out. 


I also like to add a sashing strip and an extra half block on each end to frame the center and make the pointed ends. It is really pretty easy and adds a little complexity to the design I think. If you didn't know the tricks of this easy peasy runner you would think it was a lot more work than it is. 
 I love the bright patterns with my Fiesta Ware accessories. 
Isn't that bird fabric just so cute? I mixed 2 different charm packs for the runner and I think the colors worked pretty well for my Fiesta theme. 
 Then I got some inspiration from The Polka Dot Cottage and decided to convert to cloth napkins!
 I absolutely love this. I cut up the leftover sheets and a couple of remnants that I had picked up and hemmed them to make this basket full of napkins. So, Goodbye to wasting money on paper napkins and filling up the trash heap! 
And it just seem so much more fun to have a nice colorful cloth napkin with your everyday meals. I made a dozen to start with, and that should get us by because we do a load of laundry every few days anyways. But I figure I will add another dozen when I have some fabric remnants. They are so easy to make. I don't know why I never thought of that sooner.

Then I found this linen stripe remnant and had to add a couple of ruffles to make a cute towel to hang in my new kitchen. Every kitchen needs a little bit of ruffles, right?
That's it for the kitchen for now. Not too bad for $16 worth of fabric! 

I have another fun project to show you soon. I just need to get it shipped off to my Pay It Forward recipient first, so as not to ruin the surprise. 

Love turquoise? Go check out the Turquoise Lovin' Party at Sweet Little Gal's

There is a party going on at Six Sisters Stuff!
 
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