Then You May Take Me to the Faire

A couple of weeks ago we went to the Maryland Renaissance Festival. I had to make Betsy--ahem, Princess Elizabeth--a costume, because dressing up is the best part! That, and gawking at the things other people dress up in. And eating meat on a stick.

And blowing bubbles with fairies. And flinging hatchets. And twirling with Elizabeth to bagpipe music.

I made her outfit in (literally) the hour before we left, and it was ridiculously easy. A velvety tank over a onesie, and a satiny elastic-waist skirt, all fabrics from my stash. And some plastic pearls that she's been loving lately. As long as you didn't look too closely at the finishing details, it looked good!

We were surprised by how many people stopped us to take pictures and comment on her dress. Perhaps because she was one of the few little girls there NOT in a Disney Princess Polyester Party Pak outfit?

And now it's another fun addition to her dress-up box.

Stuff Happening Today

The Artsy Danger Ladies Secret Mod Squad sale is on! Search for teamADL for lots of great stuff that's 20% off, today only!

Also, I'm in another treasury, this one of pretty blue and brown things for babies. I'll try to put up a screen shot later, but for now here's a link.

Still Pretty Cool

I don't know if anyone who reads this reads the Storque. Or if anyone reads this blog at all! (If you are not here, please raise your hand.)

The results for the Etsy Handmade Kids Contest are in, and while I didn't win, I'm darn proud of how I did. Out of the 40 finalists, my hat was number 16, in an apparently close race with #15, the Turkey Leg Baby Rattle by MayaBella,


and #17, the Elvin Adventure Hood from FairyTaleFibers.

That's some good company!

Upcoming Events

Two bits o' excitement here at Niknod:

The Artsy Danger Ladies Secret Mod Squad (an Etsy Team I'm a part of) is having a special, 20% off on the 20th of September! Buy anything in the shop on the 20th, but don't pay right away; I'll send you a revised invoice with the discount. Whee!

I'll have a booth at the Claude Moore Park Arts & Crafts show in Sterling, Virginia on Saturday, September 27. I'll have some new stuff there, as well as favorite items from my Etsy shop. I'll be there from 10-5, stop by if you're in town!

Chincoteague

We just returned from our annual family trip to Chincoteague and Assateague Islands. The seafood! The ice cream! The days on the beach!

Here's Betsy, making us a tasty lunch.


And here I am, paddling right up to the Assateague wild ponies.
Ah, the lovely, lovely days of vacation. Always an inspiration.

Voting Ends Tonight!

There are just a few hours to vote in the Etsy Handmade Kids Contest! Go now, if you haven't already--you could win just for voting!

As a special treat for you, I offer some outtakes from our finalist photo shoot. I made the original hat in February, and we've had at least 4 different photo shoots since then. Taking pictures of toddlers is, um, slightly challenging. The more we take the better we get, but it's still not easy!

A typical scene:
Betsy, a book, a toy, and me, putting the hat back on her head. Did I mention Betsy isn't particularly fond of hats?

A typical photograph:
My girl, 18 months old, at full speed.

A typical photo shoot activity:
Chasing rabbits. There were a lot of them in the yard that night. In fact, most of the pictures (including the ones I used) were of her pointing at rabbits.

And finally:
The end of the shoot. Betsy and me, going for a post-shoot stroll around the neighborhood. Note that I am holding the hat.

Special thanks to Matthew for taking pictures of us!

Shop Goals

There's a sticky note affixed to my computer with this list of shop goals:

Be in a treasury
Be in a front page treasury
100 hearts
100 sales
Be a featured artist

As of yesterday, I've accompished the first three!

Labor Day's Over, Now Back to Work!

Bah, humbug. Let's revel in the fun and creative things we did this weekend, shall we?

As usual, we spent lots of time in the kitchen. Betsy really, really wants to be involved at all times, which makes baking more challenging and time consuming, but more fun, too.

This weekend she and Matthew made pretzels.

And then we went to a farm to pick peaches

and blackberries

and apples.

Yum! Nothing tastes better than warm, just-picked blackberries. Or so we hear.

All right, enough daydreaming about weekends. Time to get back to work!