new treasuries

I haven't made a new treasury in weeks. Until today, that is. I just made two to ring in the New Year, and you can see them (and all of my other treasuries) here.

starstruck

I met Sissy Spacek today. She is tiny, gorgeous, and super sweet. That is all.

crochet headphones?!

Just had to make a quick post about these crochet headphones. They look so cozy... I want some!

mad dash done

Whew! This month has been insane, to say the least. I started a new job (still can't blog about the company, but this time I'm in management) that is way more time consuming/demanding than my last, but also has benefits and can actually pay my bills. Woohoo! On top of that, MBG has exploded, and Christmas is happening in two days. I just finished the last little bit of shopping that I had to do tonight, and I can't wait to exchange gifts with everyone over the weekend. Overall, I would have to say that December has been fun and 2010 is definitely ending on a high note. :) :) :)

I'm proud to report that I received 30 orders this month, and knitted 25 scarves, 11 pairs of mittens, 4 pairs of baby booties, and 2 hats, in addition to some other random small items that will probably make an appearance in the shop soon. My hands and arms are tired, and I couldn't be happier. The picture below was taken on my phone at 2:30 AM on December 20th, and it's just a snapshot of the last handful of Christmas orders that went out that day. It's interesting to see that this picture is totally lacking color - it actually makes me smile to see that my customers are drawn to the same earthtones that I find so appealing in knits...

blue christmas

Did I mention that blue is my favorite color? Visit this treasury here.

the sound of water makes me sleepy

Late night stumbling on the internet ... and I wish I were about to crawl into this bed. My fascination with the ocean is still going strong, and I would be in heaven here. Isn't it beautiful?

*victory dance*

I got a new and much better job today, and my store hit (and passed) 100 sales this morning! It's time to celebrate...

black friday/cyber monday

MBGdesigns is having a Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale! I've been working on putting this sale together for a couple of weeks now, and I even worked it out so that my sale is being promoted on the papernstitch blog. November 26-29, customers can enjoy free shipping on all orders and reduced prices on select items. AND, facebook fans and papernstitch readers are being treated to even deeper discounts! Head on over to papernstitch or become a facebook fan here to get the details/coupon codes. Happy shopping!

exciting things are happening...

I'm starting to get excited about all of the attention my store has been grabbing recently. When I was in college, I didn't spend much time on it other than knitting whenever I could, and I was just grateful for the extra money here and there. Now that I'm working (and my work doesn't follow me home like a pile of art projects and textbooks), I have more time to put into networking and promoting my store. The best part? It's paying off. November has been a great month, and my hopes are high for December and the early months of the new year. I'm even keeping my fingers crossed for summer sales volume...

MBGdesigns has become extremely popular in treasuries recently, and I was featured in my first Etsy Finds email today. I took some screenshots to illustrate, of course. ;)

supakitch & koralie

This video makes me miss art school, which is a feeling I didn't think I'd experience this soon after graduating. And now I really want to paint by numbers on my walls...

old listings ... revised

I've been meaning to update a couple of listings in the store with new photographs for awhile now, and I finally got around to it this morning. The brick wall in some of the photos I added to the shop in September was really driving me crazy. Turns out, orange-toned bricks are not a flattering backdrop for me. Ha, who knew? Anyway, some of the new photos for my Cowl of Many Colors No. 3 and Fingerless Mittens in Oatmeal are below. On a side note, I'm growing my hair out! It's driving me crazy, but I'm trying to hang in there...

preview!

Finally got around to photographing a few new items that will be popping up in the store over the weekend ...

treasury

Visit here.

mbg on facebook

I finally took the plunge and made a facebook page for MBGdesigns over the weekend. I found that my personal page was becoming too bogged down with store updates and links to treasuries, so I wanted a separate place to post those things. It has a good handful of fans so far, and I'm happy to know that I'm only bugging people with updates because they want them, not just because they're my fb friends. Feel free to visit and "like" the MBG facebook page here.

pie chart money!

Ha, this is a strange post for me, but anyway ... found these brilliant coin designs by Mac Funamizu and I thought they were just way too cool not to share. I would love to see these come to life one day. Check them out:

neutral love

Just a quick post about my latest treasury ...

machine assisted knits!

I've been kind of keeping it under wraps until I had time to figure out how to use it, but now I'm ready to talk about the knitting machine(!) that I got for my birthday. It's a fairly simple one, but it's capable of making really large items (even blankets!) and creating all kinds of beautiful, complicated stitches. For now, I am mostly interested in making the same kinds of simple items I already love to knit by hand, but with much greater speed. I absolutely love, love, love the machine, and I just posted the first two machine-assisted knit items in my store today.


These Long and Lean Scarves are super long, versatile, and unisex. I asked Banks to help out with the modeling again this time, because he has been getting such a great response from the women on Etsy, and I wanted to make sure these items were pictured on a man and a woman. I'm beyond happy with the pictures, and I'm thrilled at the small amount of time it took to create these beauties. Check them out!

feelin' the love

Over the last two days, I have been included in 17 Etsy treasuries. I'm overwhelmed with gratitude, and I am posting a few of my favorites below. Believe me, it was hard to choose such a small handful! Please see these and other similar treasuries here.

treasury and the front page

I just made this beautiful new treasury today. Please visit and comment!


I was so excited to see that I made the front page of Etsy today! I was included in this beautiful treasury that was (not surprisingly) selected for the front page this afternoon, and the scarf featured has already sold. Yay!

felts

I've been working on some really small items recently, mainly because I'm trying to get the hang of felting wool. The items below are my first experiments with boiling wool to turn it into felt, and I have decided to go ahead and add them to the shop as small gift items. I would definitely say that these are all still highly experimental, but I think they're fun, and I'm definitely addicted to boiling wool these days (even though it makes my kitchen smell like a barn)...

features

It seems as though I've only had time for quick posts about features recently, but I promise to get around to adding lengthier posts about some new things I'm working on in the near future (maybe even later this afternoon)...

For now though, I think it's important to mention these lovely treasury and blog features:

Stephanie mentioned me on Grains of Earth last weekend.

I'm touched to be in this treasury for the cure. Visit and comment here.

See this friendly etsian's gift guide here.

See these great aviation-inspired items here.

On a side note, I love Etsy's new, wider layout for the listing pages. The pictures are bigger, and everything else looks clean and fresh. Check it out in my shop today!

featured

So honored to be featured again in this beautiful treasury by Raceytay.

featured

Yay! My Men's Long Ribbed Wool Scarf - which happens to be my favorite of the new items that I just listed - was featured in this treasury by Nido.di.gazza.