Big News!

I am officially a work-at-home mom.

Yup, today is my last day of full-time work outside of the house. It was a difficult decision to make, and we mulled over it for quite some time, but it's the best decision for our family at this time. What will this mean for you, my customers, though?

1. On time blog posts- It will take a bit to get into the swing of things, but I'm hoping to get blog posts written either the night before, or to get up about an hour before my kids do, and get them done right away in the morning.

2. Faster creations- I will have more than just a couple hours in the evening to work on orders. I won't have to work on orders while feeling guilty for not spending time with my children, I will finally have time for both.

3. More local craft fairs and farmer's markets- I never really had time to work on a bulk amount of items, I had enough time to finish custom orders, but that was about it. So, you'll be seeing my face around the crafty world much more now if you live in Iowa!

4. Longer delivery times- I know, this probably makes no sense to you. Since I won't be driving into town every day for work, I won't be able to ship orders every day. Ship day will be every Saturday. If you are looking to order on a Friday and want to know how long you will have to wait before it ships- e-mail me. Depending on the size of the order, I may be able to crochet it up in one night and have it ready to ship by the following day.

In short, this is a wonderful decision for both my family and my business. I am incredibly excited to move forward {with all of you in tow of course!} and see what the future holds for my crochet creations!

Happy Friday!

 {Also, sorry about the lack of a follow-up post to my closet storage on Wednesday, you'll be seeing part two right here bright and early on Monday morning. I'll be writing from the comfort of my couch. See you then!}

Custom Toy Storage- Part 1

I had mentioned in one of my previous posts that I was thinking about extending this blog beyond just crochet, so I'm going to go ahead and try that out! Who knows if I'll change the blog name or not, I do have hundreds of business cards that have the "Cassidy's Crochet Creations" .blogspot.com jazz on there, so I'll probably leave it for now.

Our kids' toys have always been in the living room. Originally we had a big toy corner for them, complete with a toddler sized real wood/microsuede couch, bookshelves with bins of toys, an ottoman, etc. Then we got rid of the bookshelves and the ottoman and just kept the couch and added a toy cabinet, which I love. But the boy toy has always wanted the kids' toys to be in their rooms- not the living room. We recently (and by recently I mean Friday) made a deal that if I could buy wood to diy my own shelves, then the kids' toys would go in their rooms.

I knew that C's closet was the perfect place to put his toys, there was SO much unused space in there it was killing me!

If you know me, then you know that a trip to Lowe's is a pretty exciting trip for me. I decided to just buy some crates that I have been eyeing (from Michael's) and add a shelf for them to sit on. The actual shelving unit was incredibly easy to build. I just measured the width of the inside of the closet (50") and the length of the crates (12"). Then I drove flew to Lowe's to pick up my lumber. I bought two 1" x 2" x 4' pieces to act as the support for the shelf. I had one of the pieces cut into two 12" pieces, which left me with a bit of extra, I ended up tossing that. I also bought one 2" x 4" x 6' and had them cut it down to about 49.5", I wanted to make sure that I would be able to get it into the closet.

First I stuck C's laundry basket in there (knowing I wanted the shelf to be high enough for there to be room for the laundry basket underneath). Then I nailed one side of the un-cut 1" x 2" x 4', measured both sides of the closet, and nailed the other side in. I did the same with both of my 12" pieces to create a spot to lay the shelf down on. (Notice I'm saying nail, I think I need to add a drill to my Christmas list.)

Beautiful, right?!

If we weren't renting (which is why we have ugly brown baseboards with white splatter on them) then I would have painted the shelf white, but since we will probably only be here for a few more months, and I probably won't even bring the shelf with me, I decided to just leave it white. Not painting it means that I don't have to sand it. I HATE sanding. Want to know what is on my Christmas list this year?

Yup, an electric sander.

I'll be back tomorrow with photos of the crates I painted- ORANGE! -and a photo of the final product. I'll give you a hint, it involves chalkboard paint. Yup, I went there.

Happy Tuesday!

Cyber Monday Sale!

It's Cyber Monday!

Time for a kick-butt sale on all things crochet! All ready to ship items are 25% off, and all custom orders are 15% off. Order more than one item and get an additional 10% off! Orders must be placed and paid for between the hours of 12:01am- 11:59pm on 11/26/12 by e-mailing casscrochetcreations@yahoo.com with your order selection.

And now for the fun part, all of the following items are ready to ship!

Coffee Mug Cozies: $10 $7.50 shipped {each}

To-Go Coffee Cup Cozies: $8 $6 shipped {each}

Earwarmer Headbands: $15 $11.25 shipped {each}

0-3 Month Beanies: $15 $11.25 shipped {each}

Newborn Elf Hats: $25 $18.75 shipped {each}

If you don't see something here that you would like, shoot me an e-mail at casscrochetcreations@yahoo.com and we will get your custom order going. My custom orders have a turn-around of roughly 1- 3 business days, but I will be trying to work out custom orders quickly to get them shipped with the ready to ship items on Tuesday. Check out my Etsy shop for more custom order ideas including; infinity scarves, boot cuffs, neckwarmers, and my standard earflap hats.

Happy Cyber Monday!

Small Business Saturday!

Now that you have had your fun with all of the big box stores, don't forget to shop local today! This is what I currently have ready to ship (will ship Monday, 11/26/12 if ordered by Sunday, 11/25/12). Remember, shipping is always included in the listed price.

Coffee Mug Cozies: $10

To-Go Coffee Cup Cozies: $8

Earwarmer Headbands: $15

0-3 Month Hats: $15

Newborn Elf Hats: $25

If you don't see something here that you would like, shoot me an e-mail at casscrochetcreations@yahoo.com and we will get your custom order going. My custom orders have a turn-around of roughly 1- 3 business days, but I will be trying to work out custom orders quickly to get them shipped with the ready to ship items on Monday. Check out my Etsy shop for more custom order ideas including; infinity scarves, boot cuffs, neckwarmers, and my standard earflap hats.

Happy Small Business Saturday!

Happy Thanksgiving!

 HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

I know, this post is a day late, but yesterday was crazy crazy! We ended up at three different Thanksgivings, and with two children that is just A LOT. Sadly, I didn't take many pictures of the kiddos, so I really just have one (sort of) good one of baby A. And none of C. He just wasn't having it.

I say that it is a sort of good one of her because she's sporting a crazy bib, her leggings are way up by her knees and she has food not only in her hand, but also in her mouth. Those are not her teeth, ladies and gentlemen. Maybe I will attempt a duo photo of them at our last gathering on Sunday, though we know how those photos generally turn out...

Is her outfit not incredibly adorable though?! I bought her dress from JC Penney, I got it in the store, but it is shown online here. I love the brown buttons on the top and the pockets in the front. Does a nine month old need pockets? No, but what if I need a place to store her crackers? I also got her leggings at JC Penney, shown here. All I cared about was two things; that they fit and that they were brown. Mission accomplished. I crocheted her boots (That's a given, right? I mean, that's why you follow this here ol' blog anyhow, right?), and I love the pop of burnt orange to accent the cream and brown. Perfection at it's finest.

 

 

*Sigh*

I love boots. What am I going to do when I no longer have a sweet baby to put cute boots on? Do you think it's a legitimate reason to have another baby? "But doctor, I just needed to feed my baby boot addiction!" Would you go for it?

Happy Friday!

(But let's pretend it's still Thursday.)

Custom Order!

I recently had a custom order for a set of 3 earwarmer headbands. These headbands were a bit different, however, in that she wanted them to be 3 inches wide, instead of my typical 4 inches wide.

I love the earthy, neutral colors, and the black button really just finishes them off in such a different way than my typical wooden buttons do!

Happy Tuesday!

Custom Order!

I failed at blogging on Friday. I know, two Fridays in a row. Should I take that as a cue to just not blog on Fridays at all? It seems like the perfect day for a "day off" don'tcha think?

I recently had a customer request an infinity scarf. I have had one in the works that I am sending to Liz Ann Marcus tomorrow to be photographed professionally, but the one requested was much skinnier than the one I already had made up.

Super cute, right?!

 

I love the dark gray (technically called charcoal) color, with the specks of lighter color in it. It is incredibly gorgeous in person. Buy one to see for yourself!

Happy Monday!

Custom Order!

As I mentioned in yesterday's blog post, I also have a Minnie skirt completed! This custom order was incredibly fun, as it started out on my Facebook page. I posted a picture and wrote that the first person to guess my children's Halloween costumes would get 25% off of their next order.

 

Because she was the first one to guess correctly, she claimed the coupon! She decided to order a Minnie Mouse hat, skirt and shoes for her daughter's first birthday in February! (Fun fact: My daughter, A, was also born in February 2012! Just 14 minutes shy of being a leap baby.)

 

The awesome thing about the skirt is that those two buttons right next to the flap are working buttons, and when you open them up the skirt flaps up on one side to reveal another button for the diaper cover. It's just my way of making sure that you can adjust the size of the skirt to fit your baby!

 



 

I love how they turned out, and I hope that the customer does too! If you love them as much as I do, then feel free to check out my Etsy listing here. Looking for just the Minnie Mouse hat? Check that out here.

 

Happy Thursday!

 



Halloween 2012: Mickey & Minnie Mouse!

In previous years for Halloween I purchased pre-made costumes at the store-

A monkey in 2010...

 

 

Spongebob in 2011...

 

(Yup, that costume was made for a 6 year old, but the boy wanted to be Spongebob, so I made him Spongebob gosh darnet!)

 

This year, however, I really wanted to focus their costumes around something that I could crochet. I asked C what he wanted to be for Halloween, and his response was perfect- Mickey Mouse! How cute of an idea, they could be Mickey and Minnie!

 

They weren't much in a picture taking mood, which was a sad moment for me because I never did get one good one of them together. My OCD is still bothered by that.

 

 

Yup, that is my iPhone in his hand. Anything for a good picture, right mom-tographers?

 

I crocheted both of their hats and shoes, as well as the Mickey head on C's trick-or-treat bag in the first picture. I just purchased a $1 red tote from the craft section at Wal-Mart and hot glued the Mickey head on there (after crocheting it obviously).

You can purchase the Mickey hat in my store here (I can make the bottom red and add white buttons for his pants for those that like the hat, but don't plan to use it as a costume.), the Minnie hat here, and the entire Minnie set here. (More info on that Minnie skirt in tomorrow's post!) And don't forget, if you buy the set of Mickey and Minnie hats you get a 10% discount, just message me to set up a custom listing for you!

 

I'll leave you with this cutie.

 

 

Happy Wednesday!

 

 



Custom Order!

I showed you my new earwarmer headbands yesterday, but now I get to show you the custom order that started the earwarmer headbands! This customer goes to the University of Northern Iowa, which is her favorite school! While her roommates go to UNI with her (well, I assume they do, but if they don't then they sure travel a long way from the UNI campus all the way out to the Iowa and Iowa State campuses!), their preferences are the University of Iowa and Iowa State University. I thought it was such a fun idea to get to create headbands for each school all for the same order!

University of Northern Iowa

University of Iowa

Iowa State University

 

She loved the idea of having flowers on them (and so do I!), so I kept the colors going with the cute tiny buttons in the middle of the flowers! I love that they all match, can't you just imagine how cute they will look walking around with two of them getting beat up for wearing the wrong colors to UNI campus?! These are supposed to be Christmas gifts for the Iowa and Iowa State girls, but I hope that she'll post photos of them all modeling them together for me after Christmas, on my Facebook page!

I also added the earwarmer headbands to my Etsy shop, so you can check them out here! Remember, if you are looking to buy more than one then contact me first and I will either set you up a custom listing on Etsy or send you an invoice to your PayPal, I want to make sure that you get the 10% discount!

 

 

Happy Tuesday!



Introducing: Earwarmer Headbands!

Alright so I failed at blogging on Friday, sue me. Well, not really, but does it count as a valid excuse if I was busy at work all day and then went out for a date night with my favorite guy?

One of my customers contacted me about crocheting earwarmer headbands for the winter. I had never done so before, but I figured they seemed easy enough. I searched Google for a pattern I liked, and when I wasn't able to find one, I decided to make my own! These headbands are incredibly quick  to work up (they take about an hour start to finish), and are just too cute when they are done!

How gorgeous is my model, Rielle?

 

 

 

 

 

They can be crocheted in any color combo you can dream up, any ginormous head you need to fit and any embellishments you desire- for no added cost! My earwarmer headbands are a flat $15 each (shipping included, as always!), however, if you decide to purchase more than one you receive a 10% discount. The 10% discount can be used with any two different items, if you want to buy an earwarmer headband for yourself (come on, you deserve it!) and a hat for your child (you know you can't resist!), you still receive a 10% discount for buying more than one item from my shop.

These are a perfect Christmas gift or stocking stuffer! Order one in your best friend/girlfriend/boyfriend/child's school colors for a custom gift! I can even drop a hint to your hubby if you'd like ;)

Happy Monday!