Cyber Monday Sale!!

Just wanted to let you all know that we are having a sale in both shops starting right now until tomorrow night for Cyber Monday. We are offering 15% off everything in our shops!! Use the coupon code: CYBERMONDAY2010 at the checkout to receive 15% off of each item you purchase!! Sale ends tomorrow night so hurry!!

www.thecrafterscove.etsy.com - great gifts for teachers and coworkers!!

www.thepintsizecove.etsy.com - great stocking stuffers!!

Have a wonderful evening and happy shopping!!!

~Shannon & Rene

Giveaway!!!

Very excited to announce that our two shops, The Crafter's Cove & The Pint Size Cove, are being featured today until tomorrow night at 11:59pm! Make sure you go there and check it out because we are giving away a free tote bag!! Go to the link to find out all of the details and be sure to follow her blog too!!!

http://alittlelilac.blogspot.com/

Here is the bag you could win!!

What....it's October!?!

Time just seems to be flying by. I can't believe Halloween is just around the corner and I hate to say that snow is just behind that. Not sure that I'm ready to see white again just yet. Fall isn't nearly long enough! I will say thought that Christmas music does wonders for our sewing. We had it playing in mom's sewing room the other day and we actually got some things done.

My life is finally starting to fall back into place. My sewing room has become my friend once again. It was definetly my enemy for the first month or so after my son was born but we have recently found each other again. My son is getting used to the noise of the sewing machine and I actually think that it puts him to sleep.....some days. Others I think he knows I really am in the mood to sew and I swear, the second my foot hits the presser foot, he cries! That is where my daughter comes in. She is in love with her little brother. If he cries she is right there to sing him Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and give him his pacifier. She looks forward to playing in the sewing room now and if I let her watch a movie it's even easier to convince her to go down there so mommy can sew :)

Mom's life is getting a bit easier during the day as well. Her two big girls are now in half day kindergarten four days a week so when they are gone and the two little ones are napping she can sneak into her her sewing room and work to!! We have been tag teaming some of our things where I will start the project and she will, for example, hand sew all of them shut. That is something she can do while sitting down and watching the kids without having to go into the other room. Lucky for me because that is one thing I hate doing so we make a good team!!

This craft show is really starting to sneak up on us!! We have just over a month to get our rears in gear and have all of our projects done. Luckily, we have started revamping our shops and some of the things we decided to not sell on there anymore will go to the craft show. We are trying to focus our shops on similar items and giving them more of a theme than having a few "mutt" shops as I like to call them. It's a slow process of narrowing down our product but in the end I think it will be great.

Hope you are all enjoying this beautiful fall season and we will chat again soon.

~Shannon

New Arrivals

So I know it's been a while since we wrote on our blog, we have been busy doing crafts for a show in November, making wool pumpkins for the website, and Shannon finally delivering her new baby boy! Today Joey is already two weeks old and she has no desire to craft at the moment which leaves me to create for the time being. I will be trying to get a number of things done as she gets a schedule down with the baby. His big sister is adjusting as well so everyone has been a little out of sorts lately. We will try and post the pumpkins in the next week or so onto the website for purchase. I am camera stupid and don't know how to put pictures on yet. My camera doesn't even have a memory stick....It's a dinosaur!!! Will have to invest in a new one soon. My husband has the good camera! It's amazing how time flies and fall will be just around the corner. We have had numerous tornado warnings in the last week and have facebooked from the basement shelter.....we are a little tired of it and the heat has been unbearable and heat and menopause just don't mix so I haven't even taken the daycare kids outside. Next week it will be cooler and more sane in my household if they can go out and play during the day. I try and craft when they sleep and now the two 5 year olds will be going to kindergarten in September. It will be nice for them. And I can still craft with the smaller kids. We didn't get as many projects done this summer as we were hoping, but maybe once Shannon's schedule with the baby gets settled and I get kids off to school we will have better luck.....We need a few SNOW days to be cooped up!!!!!! We craft well on those kind of days. I did turn the air colder in the house and played Christmas music to get into the mood of winter crafts and it did work for awhile but everyone thought I was crazy....I guess I am but that's another blog....have a great weekend and we'll talk soon.

Rene and Shannon

Lovely Minnesota Weather.....

So Mom and I thought we would spend a nice Saturday night crafting at her house since we have been creating a lot of new things and we wanted to get some of the new things on to our stores and we had a slight change of plans......Tornado Warning! We are now sitting under the stairs with my dad, my daughter, my niece & nephew and our 3 dogs. Not quite the way we wanted to spend our evening but it's almost over so hopefully we can come out soon.

We will update with another blog with our new items soon if we aren't in the land of Oz visiting Dorothy :)

Shannon & Rene

Christmas in July

Even though the temps outside are in the 80's & 90's we are setting our minds for the 20's & 30's. Our sewing room looks like the holidays exploded in here but we must prepare early for the holiday season. To help with inspiration there has even been a note or two of Christmas music played. We are at the moment working on Halloween Fabric Coaster sets and have already sold one to my sister without even finishing them!! We have several sets available in our shop but we are playing with mixed sets for the holidays which are turning out super cute!!

Another new item that we have available now in our shop is crocheted double layered potholders in a set of two. One solid and a coordinating multi-colored one. The coaster sets and potholder sets are a perfect gift for a housewarming party, hostess gift and don't forget your coworkers and teachers!!

Here are just a few samples of what is available now in our shop and be sure to check back as we have many new prints and colors coming soon!!

Thoughts of Fall and Christmas

Well I don't like to think of snow when it is 90 degrees out and neither does my daughter, but I have been getting crafts together for Christmas presents! My thought is to do winter crafts in the summer and summer crafts in the winter so you can stay ahead of yourself.....sometimes it works and sometimes not! I always seem to be rushed. We are waiting the arrival of my daughters baby in about 5 weeks and I am still learning how to deal with the two sites we have....I am technically challenged! But I am on Facebook now so I am getting there. The ideas are flowing for new projects, but time is a factor and there is never enough of it. I have been doing alot of crocheting because it is a no think craft. Some of my other things are taking longer than I want, but hopefully I will be motivated. The weather has been wonderful and the daycare kids have spent alot of time in the pool and outside. I always have my sketchbook handy for ideas as I sit with my feet in the pool. My sewing machine has been wondering where I have been. Although I did fix a few snugglies and one doll for the kids. They seem to be interested in sewing, but I don't know if I am ready to teach 3 five year olds how to do it. I did buy my 5 year old granddaughter a sewing machine so I may have to teach her how to use it. I am serger challenged right now so I haven't touched that for awhile. I know Shannon is trying to get her projects done for thepintsizecove site before jr. arrives. She will not have any time to craft once he gets here. Bring on the caffine so I can keep the juices flowing. Check our sites for new items for your co-workers, neighbors, friends and who ever else you buy for during the holidays....even a maillady would enjoy a nice mug, coaster set and a envelope of hot chocolate in the mailbox for Christmas! Mine do! For now we will keep plugging away and have a wonderful weekend.

Rene and Shannon

Introducing the launch of our second store!!

We have been quite busy lately. Mom and I decided to open up a second Etsy store and have one for our adult items and open a new one for our child and baby items. We have been working hard to get the second one up and running and it has been open for just over a month. The hard work has paid off as we finally got our first sale!! Mom has been wearing the creative hat lately and is coming up with some adorable children's crocheted hats!! Be sure to check them out!

Here is the link to our second shop:

http://www.thepintsizecove.etsy.com

We are still working on transferring our children's items over to the other shop but make sure you check in with both sites for new items!!!

We have also been working on making our items for the fall craft show in November. Still a ways out but it is a pretty busy show and gets lots of traffic through there so we want to make sure we have plenty of inventory.

In other news, Mom is just finishing up a quilt for a charity project which is wonderful. Two more blocks and it will be ready to put together. We will post a picture when it is finished, it's beautiful. We are also counting the weeks down to the new member of the family joining us soon. My son is due in 7 weeks so we are trying to get as much done as possible until that time comes.

We will check in again soon. Please make sure you check out the new shop and don't forget about The Crafter's Cove shop too :)

~Shannon

4 new listings today!!

New today: A Rene original!!

4 different seasons of decorative pillows newly listed today on our site. They are all hand sewn on the front with cotton fabric, wool, buttons and embroidery floss. The perfect addition to your home decor!

The warm weather is starting to have a good effect on us and our creative minds. We are currently working on sweet talking my dad into buying us this travel trailer to put out in the yard to use as our crafting get-away!! We would gut most of the stuff out of it and add in shelves and storage for all of our fabric, craft projects and much more. We have already talked about taking the bed out of the back bedroom and making that the cutting/ironing room. We think it sounds fantastic so once we can convince him that it is we may be able to get it :) We'll keep you posted on that.

Another new thing we are working on adding to our site is a Gift With Purchase. We have a lot of scrap fabric that needs to be used up but isn't quite big enough to make a lot. Mom had a great idea for what to use it for and once they are available as a free gift we will let you know!!

The days around here are pretty crazy with daycare and now playing outside but lots of fun. My daughter enjoys coming over to my mom's house to play with the other 5 kids as she gets tired of just playing with me all the time.

We'll update soon on new things to our site and our plans to move to a "new location."

~Shannon

New Coordinating Set

These are our two new listings for today. They are a coordinating set listed individually made from wool, doily pieces and old buttons. They are both hand sewn on the front. We have had several other new listings in the past week so be sure to go to our website and check them out!!!

~Shannon & Rene

Finally in the sewing room...

This is our new listing for today. It is an earth tone floral lap quilt. My mom and I are finally back working in the sewing room. She is currently working on a hand sewn flower pillow that is beautiful. It will be listed in a few days when she is finished.

Our next goal is to straighten up our sewing rooms and take photos of them to show you all where we work to create our things. It may be a while but we will get them up as soon as we have the time to clean them up :)

Hope your weather is as nice as ours....mid 50's!! We will update you again soon with some new things coming to our shop.

~Shannon

Inspiration!

Well the weather is finally nice today...60's today. It is inspiring me to make spring and summer items for the garden. I have plans on some windchimes and garden feeders. The garage is cleaned out so now I can use the work bench to CREATE! Silverware, frying pan lids and wood are some of the items I hope to use. These things have worked well in my garden to jazz it up. So I need to get to work. I had a nice collage going the other day but when I cleaned the sewing room it all came off the table and scattered....now back to designing it again and gluing as I go instead of leaving it lay on the table, so hopefully we will have a few things to post in the next week. The ideas are coming more and more with the nice weather. I'll let you know how it goes.

Rene

What a difference a month makes!

So exactly a month ago today I posted a blog about how snowy it was here, I believe it was Valentine's Day, and also posted a snowy picture with it of my yard. Well today, a month later, we have absolutely no snow in our yard and it got to 65 degrees and was beautiful!!! My husband and I went out in the yard and played t-ball with our daughter and made chalk drawings in the driveway. I hope this is a sign of warm weather to come! If it is nice like this again tomorrow we plan to vacuum and dust out both of our vehicles since the lovely winter has brought lots of sand and dirt into them.

Went over to mom's house today and brought her back her sandbox for the kids and she was outside getting that up and running with the other grandkids. I know she is looking forward to bringing them outside to play tomorrow when they come over for daycare. We are both loving this nice change in weather. I think today was also the first day that it hasn't rained in about a week.

Sending you all nice warm weather too where ever you may be!!!

~Shannon

Another sunny day, another new listing

Another beautiful day here in MN. It got just above 40 degrees and it felt wonderful!! My daughter and I walked out to get the mail and we ran into the neighbor kids we haven't seen all winter. She was very excited so I let her play outside for over a half an hour drawing chalk in the driveway. It did us both good to get some fresh air! I spent the whole morning cleaning the house. I figured since I crafted yesterday I should clean today so when I got into the mood I ran with it. I think I did a little too much though cause my back hurts :P

Today our new listing is a brown flowered composition journal. It has a dark brown stripped paper on the inside and a brown ribbon accent on the front and back binding. These journals are perfect for keeping your thoughts, writing notes or even giving them to your children to draw and write in as their own special book. My niece and nephew each have one of these and love them!!

Busy weekend ahead that starts tomorrow.....Not sure if I'll get a new listing on or not, maybe mom will be on and try one on her own :) You can do it mom!!!

Bye for now....

~Shannon

Three New Listings!

We have finally gotten back on our roll of crafting and listed these three new items tonight. The first one is a newborn baby blanket and hat set in purple. We have several other colors listed on our site and a few more colors still to come.

The second listing is for a plaid table runner or could also be used for a small quilt. It measures 31x31 and has a maroon backing.

The third listing is for a pink baby girl composition journal. I also have the identical pattern for that journal in blue for a baby boy. I just have to finish up a few things on it and it will be ready to list in the next few days.

The weather is changing here and the snow is finally starting to melt!! There are grassy patches coming into view and spring is definetly on it's way!! It got to 42 degrees today and sunny and is making me get into the crafting mood. Warmer weather always motivates me to either clean or craft :) Since I crafted today does that mean I have to clean tomorrow???

Stay tuned for more blogs from my mom and I. Yes, my mom is blogging now :)

~Shannon & Rene

Old Momma's can learn new tricks!

So, I finally got a laptop this weekend so that Shannon can give me training sessions on this blog and the crafters cove website. I will be handling things once she has the baby in August. It will take me that long to figure things out. I did manage to finish one afghan and another table runner that we will be posting soon. One of these days I will get things going at a better speed. Daycare is finally under control and I'm getting used to being home after working all those years and driving 90 miles a day to work......woot-woot! My car even likes it. My creative brain is starting to kick in and once spring comes I will be doing more. Thanks to Shannon for all the work she has done getting everything set up because without her I would be screwed as I am technology challenged. Give me fabric and thread and I'm fine!!!!!!

Rene

The perfect craft weekend that wasn't....

So for about a month or so my mom and I have been planning this awesome craft weekend for Saturday through Monday while my husband and my dad went out of town together. We planned on my daughter and I sleeping over at her house and crafting from morning til late at night and creating so many things that we would have tons of new listings coming up. Well That is how the weekend started.......

So after dropping off my dad and husband at the airport I rushed back home to my parent's house to get the weekend started. I started a new creation that we are trying out and then we decided to go to Walmart to get a few supplies. We didn't get much done that night but we had plenty of time the next day so we decided to go to sleep and get up early and start.

The next morning we got up and set up some projects. I had to run home quick to feed our guinea pig and I thought I would grab my camera so that we could get some new items listed right away. Well I fed Linny, the guinea pig, and I ran downstairs to grab the camera and SQUISH!!! My foot was soaked! The carpet was almost standing water splashing with each step and I didn't know where it came from. I opened up the door to the under the stair storage and the entire hallway and everything in it was drenched in water. I called my mom to come and help me clean up the water and move the stuff out of storage. Since I am pregnant I can't lift the heavy bins that were under there so all I can say is thank goodness for my mom!!

While I was waiting for her to come over the phone rings. I answer it to find my mother-in-law on the other end. She was calling to tell me that she fell the night before outside while walking her dog and broke her wrist and couldn't take care of him for a while and needed me to come down to pick him up. I felt really bad at what had happened so I told her I would call her after my water was cleaned up.

Two and a half hours later, the water was cleaned up and there were fans going to dry up the carpet the rest of the way. When that was finished we started the two hour drive to go pick up the dog. By the end of the day when we got back home it was almost 7pm and we still needed to have dinner. So the three of us had something to eat, played with my daughter for a bit and retired to bed early as we were exhausted from the day of events.

So the weekend ended with myself finishing nothing and my mom finishing one quilt. With everything that happened we still made it fun and tried to make the best of our spending time together. I guess we will just try this again another weekend. :)

~Shannon & Rene

Two New Items!!!

So to make up for not having a new listing in the last few days we decided to list two today!! This is one of our new items featured in our shop. It is for a double crocheted soft baby blanket with a matching newborn size hat. The blankets will vary a bit in size but are approx 30x30. The sets are listed for $30.00.

We will be listing more colors soon. There will be pink, white, purple, yellow, green and blue sets available. Any of the gender neutral sets will not have a flower added to them but you can request that one be added if you would like. A list of flower colors is available in the white set listing. A photo of each flower will also be added to that listing soon.

If you like this set but would like it in a color that we currently do not offer please contact us and we will see what other colors are available in the store.

Please check back soon for the other sets that we will be listing shortly!!

~Shannon & Rene

Winter Wonderland

What better day to stay inside and craft! This picture is what I woke up to yesterday morning. It was so calm and peaceful outside it made me want to stay inside and craft. So...that is just what I did. I admit I didn't get as many things made as I had hoped but I did accomplish a few things.

Tomorrow I will be listing a new addition to our site. We are working on crocheted baby hat and blanket sets. The first one is finished and will go up some time tomorrow morning. If you like it but would like to have one in another color, please just ask. We are working on several colors right now for girls, boys and some that are gender neutral.

Check back tomorrow and I will have our new listing posted here :)

~Shannon & Rene

We take custom orders!!

Just listed a custom order for a blue baby blanket. We had a customer buy one of our baby hats a few days ago and we were asked if we could make her a matching blanket. We didn't think of it at the time the hats were made to make them into sets but that is now going to be one of our new things in our shop.

We are both currently crocheting baby blankets to match all of our baby hats and going to be selling sets. If you see a set in our store that you like but isn't the correct colors, please let us know and we can make one to meet your needs.

Also, if there is anything else on our site that you like but again the size or colors don't match, please just send us a note and we will make one custom just for you.

We are always looking for suggestions of things to make as well so if there is anything you would like to see us make in our shop, let us know!! :)

~Shannon & Rene

Today's new listing!

Well so far so good on our plan to list a new item each day. We are on day three and doing well!! I think that it helps that there is a blizzard outside today keeping me in and making me craft and be creative. By morning tomorrow we may have 6-10 inches of snow which will make tomorrow another great day for crafting!!

My mom and I are going strong on the creative front and we have come up with a plan to make our one new listing a day stay successful. Since we live about a minute away from each other, we have decided to meet up at one of our houses one day a week and make things together. We will stay until we have made enough items for one a day listings for the next week.

We did that this past weekend and we found that we work way better together than trying to each work in our own sewing rooms alone. I find that we motivate each other when we are in the same room. That way, we can also give the other ideas and pointers on what we are working on. For instance I was creating our new fabric bulletin boards (like the one above) and I was struggling with what to do for the hanger. My mom saw that I have some left over fabric sitting on the table and instead of adding it to the never ending scrap pile, she took it to her sewing machine and made the tied hanger. It was a brilliant idea and we were able to use all of the fabric and not have any waste.

Be sure to check back tomorrow for our next new listing!!

~Shannon & Rene

Just in time for Valentine's Day

Just listed this morning! A set of machine quilted heart pillows. This set is 10x10 and is the perfect decor for any room. You can display them for Valentine's Day or add them to your child's room for a fun decoration. Buy them as a gift or buy one for you and one for a friend.

We are finally getting into the crafting groove and have lots of new items coming soon that we are very excited about. A new listing each day would be awesome but atleast every other day is our goal. Please check our shop often because we are coming up with some wonderful new things.

Hope you all have a wonderful day and enjoy the Super Bowl if you are watching it!!!

~Shannon & Rene

Our New Item

Newly listed today!! We are adding a new "Home" section to our shop and are going to start creating some home decor items. This is a 10x10 bulletin board that is the perfect size for your teenager's locker at school or for your office wall or cubicle.

We have two more designs that we will be listing in the next day or so. Be sure to come back to our shop and check them out. We are really working on creating new things for our shop that we don't already offer.

Also, if you like this item but it isn't quite the color or fabric pattern that you are looking for then please let us know, we can make a custom one just for you!!

We worked hard today so that we can kick back tomorrow and watch the Superbowl with our family and friends.

Will update you soon on our other new creations!!

~Shannon & Rene

Our First Post!

Welcome to our blog! To tell you a little bit about us, we are a mother daughter team from MN who love to craft and create. What one of us doesn't know how to make the other one does. We enjoy sewing, stamping, painting, scrapbooking, knitting, crocheting, you name it. Our shop isn't geared towards one specific type of item for two reasons. First, we love to do so many different things that we could never choose just one. And second, we like our shop to appeal to many different people.

My mom and I have both recently left our jobs out of the home and will now have more time to spend creating and making new items. I am a stay at home mom and my mother is going to be opening a daycare out of her home starting on Monday. Our plan is to get together several days a week and brainstorm about new ideas. Our goal is to list new items 2-3 times a week.

Please check out our shop and let us know what you think! We have been doing well so far but would always like to do better. If there is anything you see on our shop that you like but not necessarily the right color or size, please contact us and let us know. We will be able to do a custom order for you!!

Well I suppose I should get creating while my daughter is still asleep. It's the perfect day to stay inside and craft as it is -14 degrees outside! We will post again soon and let you know what we are working on.

Shannon & Rene