Life has gotten in the way.

Hey there all you wonderful people out in blogland!  I've missed you.  Last night we had our first backyard bonfire of the season.  It was wonderfully warm during the day, I went to the park with the kids twice and then had a great time with friends and wild children over in the evening.  We ate fantastically unhealthy food and way too many smore's.  It was so good to enjoy the outdoors with our friends.  I can't get enough of the dirty children running around staying up too late laughing hysterically with each other.  

But several weeks ago, one of my very close friends suffered a terrible tragedy.  She lost a much wanted little baby girl and we nearly lost her in the process.  She need about 3 people's worth of blood to get her through and ended up with a hysterectomy at the end of it all.  It was seriously  scary.  While she has physically recovered with an amazing quickness, all of our hearts are still heavy with loss. 

It's easy to see how words have escaped me during this time.  I hope to have more interesting tidbits and fantastic featured artists in the near future!  I certainly have enough of them running around in my head just waiting to be shared.  

So please give your loved ones, be they friends or family, a big squeeze and remember to appreciate them.  And if it works for you, send my friend some love in your own special way.  Thanks everyone.

Project Wonderful

Don't you just love that name?  I'm so excited to now offer free advertising here on my blog!  Even as the bids go up, they stay relatively low.  It's a great service for all involved.  I only know of them through the handmade movement although I'm sure others use the service.  If you are a blogger, project wonderful is a great way to support artists world wide.  As a reader it's a great way to see all the great work that's out there being offered.  As an artist and indie business owner, I love how easy and friendly the service is.  And I love that I can get my name out there one person at a time for pennies a day.  They work with paypal which makes it all seriously easy.  So be sure to check out the lovely things being advertised on the side of my blog!!

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.

SPRING!

It's coming, it's coming!  The birds are out and I adore listening to them.  I've been able to shoo the kids outside and bring my knitting with while I watch them play.  I've been eagerly searching for buds on trees and they're still a bit hard to find.  But they will come and I'll be so happy when things start greening up a bit around here.  

The warmer weather brings slower business in my neck of the woods.  And that's alright with me.  I think I'm really enjoying taking the slow road (not sure that I had the choice to take the fast road, but hey) in growing my business.  It's been fun to think of things to implement next fall or next year etc.  I found a fantastic cotton blend yarn that I'd love to work with more to offer some spring and summer friendly items at Blue Star Butterflies.  Here's a sneak peek!

I've also thoroughly enjoyed finally learning to knit this year and dreaming of all the future holds with the added possibilities it brings.  I'm doing a LOT of personal projects as I hone my craft before putting it out there for all of you.  So here are the latest two...  Of course I think the kids are particularly cute as well as the handcrafted pixie (or alien for my boy) hats!

2 More Days!

Hey party people, you've got two more days to enter in the huge handmade giveaway that Blue Star Butterflies is co-sponsoring on TryHandmade.Com!!  What are you waiting for?  Get yer booties over there and snag a chance to win some awesome handmade goodies.

Fun new hair!

New Blog Links

I have added a new list on the side of the blog.  Some of my favorite blogs!  Some of them are inspirational, some are indie business helpful, some are just great artists I love.  I hope you'll find something you like over there too!

Another featured artist coming later this week.  Check back soon!

Wordless Wednesday

Lauren Alexander

Crazy helpful!

As I have been wandering through blogland reading many, many amazing things, I came upon this fantastic post written by Infektia.  She gives a straight forward how-to for getting stats from Google about your blog!  Hallelujah.  I am certain that if I had not found her post, I would never have been able to figure this out on my own.  With her directions it was easy.  THANK YOU Infektia!  You can click here     or go here -->   http://www.infektia.net/how-to-track-your-blogger-statistics-with-google/  to read her helpful directions for Google Analytics.  You won't be sorry.  

Happy New Year Blogland!  2009 is going to be a GREAT year.