Blue Star Butterflies in the Local Paper!

A local paper, The St. Croix Valley Press, sought me out to do an interview.  It was so fun and exciting to be contacted.  They did a search online for artists and creative types in this general area.  This area being Eastern Minnesota / Western Wisconsin.  The gorgeous St. Croix river is the dividing line between the two.  I am so honored to be featured in the local paper and was pleasantly surprised to be contacted by someone who read the article the day it ran.  She is a costume and ball gown designer and needed to make a lace edging on an amazing gown she was working but had not had much luck trying to figure it out on her own.  She was so relieved to find me in the paper and we got together that weekend for a bit of a lesson and a plan to make her dress come to life.  What a wonderful opportunity!  I hope to get to see more of her work again soon.

Please take a peek at the interview here.  There were pictures included in the article that was printed, but they're not on the website.  I didn't know what day the article ran, until the woman contacted me about a crochet lesson!  So, I don't have a copy for a keepsake which is a bummer, but I suppose I'll be alright.  Thanks for checking out my interview and getting to know a little more about me and Blue Star Butterflies.

Testing, Testing.

I'm trying out a new blog layout.  I really wanted the 3 column layout, I love the way they look and I think it's easier to navigate.  I love the look of this, but the placement of the words in the header is less than great.  I am super tech un-savvy, so this is all a serious challenge for me.  Not to mention, trying to learn techie stuff with my kids running around poking each other with dinosaurs and fairies, screaming and whining at each other!    

I also finally found the cute Twitter buttons, thanks to Lori from Risky Beads who I've told you about before.  I really would like to throw one on my page, but I totally don't get it!  LOL  Maybe it's because it's Friday the 13th, maybe it's because of the gloomy weather we've had all week, or maybe it's just my mommy brain.  I was hoping to figure it out and come tell you all about it and how to get one of your own. But I can't, WAH.  What I can do is share the link so if you are smarter than I am you can get one for yourself.  And if you are in a good mood, maybe you'll tell me how to do it too!   They also have a nice assortment of  Twitter backgrounds for you to choose from.  In other news I am teaching myself a new craft so that I will have more diversity of product for my  Blue Star Butterflies shops on Artfire  and Etsy  I tried to learn to knit several years back, but I was so much better at crochet that I couldn't hang in there.  I quit half way through a scarf and never looked back.  But I have always liked the way that knit looks.  Now that I have started this little indie business of mine I wanted to expand.  And I live in Minnesota which provides me with a long winter, just begging a person to learn a new craft while cooped up indoors.  I am really happy that I listened to my heart and ditched the scarf because I just wasn't into it.  I decided to go for a hat and it was totally worth it!  It was fun and interesting.  I started over several times, so I'm a pro at casting on now.  I won't say it's a great hat, but it ain't bad and I'm not embarrassed to wear it- rock on!  This is the pattern I used.  I even made my hubby at hat and it turned out very well.  I'm super pleased that my years of yarn work have lent themselves to picking up this new craft.  I have a few more personal projects in mind, like a hat for myself that I'm currently working on with some gorgeous hand painted alpaca yarn in a super fun design.

Not bad, eh!  And I want to make a wide scarf/shawl.  By that time I think I will be doing well enough to start creating things for Blue Star Butterflies!  Yipee.