New Venues

Finally through with Christmas, retail has been dismal. We have spent alot of time joining various market venues online and are really excited about them. We have been on etsy for some time now and have recently joined lollishops, artfire, and 1000markets. They are recent startups so time will tell. I am especially thrilled by 1000markets www.1000markets.com , in particular the 'market' we are in,The Village www.1000markets.com/groups/village . The whole site is beautifully laid out and easy to navigate. About the photo, this is our shop here in Minnesota. Needless to say this was taken in July. Nice to look at now while it is -20 degrees outside.

Dogdaisychains: Carrots and Peas

Dogdaisychains: Carrots and Peas

getting ready for christmas

when running a shop you have to start thinking about christmas much earlier than i'm comfortable with. i enjoy making the wool pincushions so much that i've taken the concept, made it smaller and able to hang and i have ornaments! the added benefit is they work up faster, too. i'll be spending many days this month working on these and exploring other projects for the holidays. my partner has started a blog on his leather work which can be viewed at http://www.manitobaleather.blogspot.com/. check it out!

this is my first written entry on this blog. my partner and i own a gift shop and in these rather challenging times have opened a etsy shop-www.manitobagifts.etsy.com for our handmade items. i do needlework- mostly embroidery, applique, and crochet- and jim does leather work. the previous posts show some of the items i make. i admire many other blogs that show the process of creation in all forms of needlework and crafts and hope to add to this with this blog. by the way the close up used on our banner is from this pillow.

Purple Eggplant Pincushion

Purple Eggplant Pincushion

Hand Embroidered Purse with Neat Button Closure

Special project for a customer

Pillow Circles

Circles on Pillow