Thursday, April 28, 2011

Smart Packaging

I recently - and by recently I mean a month or two ago - purchased some yarn from a local seller on Etsy.  Her shop is called Yarn Chef, and here theme is fantastic!

First of all, she sells exactly what you'd expect: yarn. Katy, the chef herself, has a slogan too - Cooking up beautiful color.  Why the odd mixture of food and yarn?  For that, you should really read her bio, but I'll sum it up:  She loved food, went to culinary school, worked in the culinary arts.  Then she had a kid, and needed to change her career.  She learned to knit, and now combines the two in this most clever way!

Not only is the product beautiful and fun to work with, I can't get over her packaging! Here's what I found when I opened the little tyvek (waterproof!) envelope:

The yarn was wrapped in tissue paper, and slipped inside a clear plastic bag.

She included the packing slip, a sample of some other yarn, with instructions for a knitting stitch printed on the back, and a hand-written thank you.  This is something I like to do as well.  I think that real-person contact is important to people buying goods on Etsy, home of the handmade!





Look at how beautiful the label on the yarn is!  Everything has her logo on it - including the sticker used to hold the tissue paper closed.



Here's the sample and thank you.

And what's on the back?  Instructions for a grafting stitch!











Now, check this out.  I love this.  How does she pull her theme together and bring the Yarn Chef full circle?  She includes a recipe card!














I haven't tried it yet, but it sounds delicious.  The card is so elegant and beautiful!  And every bit of it could be done at home, with clearly professional results.

Thanks for the inspiration, Katy!  I've got some work to do.  :)

Check out Katy's shop on Etsy.
Read more of her story here.

Free Pattern Month!

So, I'm sorry I've been MIA for a while.  I'll have something fun for you in just a minute.  Well, this is fun too, it's just not mine.

Grossgrain is doing free pattern month!  I just found out about it today, and it's already day 4.  Anyway, go here, and enjoy!

Friday, April 15, 2011

Excitement!

I have only a brief update for you:

The house buying thing is going well so far.
So is the wedding planning.
The arting, gardening, etc, has all kind of been put on hold.  But once we get in the house and I have a space where I can leave my stuff out, watch out!

I'm so excitement!  Yes, excitement, not just excited!

So it's off to the south for the weekend to relax, and take care of business.  Who knew you could do both?

Monday, April 4, 2011

Mascara Love

The solution to the natural makeup problem: tarte - high performance naturals.

Their mascara was recommended to me by my makeup guru friend Val, and I finally broke down and bought it.  I didn't even realize that they used natural ingredients, were cruelty free, and were everything I was looking for.

I got the Clinically-Proven Natural mascara. Granted, I've only worn it twice, but so far, it

  • Doesn't crumble
  • Doesn't make my eyes itchy, even with contacts.
  • Doesn't clump
  • Makes my lashes look long
  • Curls lashes!  Amazing!
This one isn't waterproof, but I don't really care for that anyway.  
Needless to say, this is one I'm going to stick with.