Meet "Sandy" and check out this cool skid-proof mat

A new addition to our family has been keeping me busy and away from knitting projects.  Meet "Sandy". She's our Australian Labradoodle and she's a cutie-patootie. We've had her for less than one week.  Sandy was born April 21, 2013.

Having a new puppy has inspired me to make some pet-related projects on the sewing machine.  Since I am busy, I'll just show you one project at a time. First, I made this very cool skid-proof "mat" for the dog dish area.  I actually saw this project on Facebook several weeks back. When Sandy's food dish was scooting all over the linoleum floor and she was getting frustrated, I knew this project would solve the problem.

Here is the link for the project tutorial:  LINK

I pretty much followed the instructions as indicated in the link noted above but I made my mat much longer.  I found the Duck Brand shelf liner at WalMart, used an old bath towel, and also found this dog-related fabric in the fabric section at WalMart.  I used 1/2 yard of fabric and I did not cut the fabric once I got it home. I just folded the fabric over twice on all four sides for a nice, sturdy thick hem.   To determine the width of the mat, I used the shelf liner as a guide.  That is, I just bought enough fabric so I would have a few inches on each side to fold in for a hem so there would be no raw edges.   

There were two cute dog-related fabrics at WalMart that I liked. I bought a 1/2 yard of another fabric. I don't think I need a second dog mat.  Maybe I have a friend who needs a pet mat?

Etsy

For a long time I have thought it would be fun to have a business of my own.  Often times I think about how great it would be to have a business where I could sell things I enjoy making.  I had no expectations of making a living but, if nothing else, making a little money could help buy supplies.  More yarn!

I finally opened a shop of my own on Etsy .  My shop is called Kimzkraftkorner and you can click HERE to check it out. You might have also noticed the orange Etsy button to the right on this screen. That will take you to my shop as well in the event you want to check it out.  I am pretty excited about the idea of having a place to try to sell things with very little risk and very little investment.  I am frugal; I don't mind making a little money but I don't want to spend or risk a ton of money to do it.  You can post an item on Etsy for $0.20 and the ad will not expire for 3 or 4 months.

After the shop had been open for just two days, I was so excited to have my first sale!  WooHoo!  The little blue and green miniature mittens sold to a buyer in New York.  I loved her story.  She said she was buying the mittens for her dad for Father's Day.  She said he had a pair of mittens on his rear view mirrow in his car for good luck but he had given the mittens to her.  She bought my mittens to replace the pair he had given away.

When I told my son I had my first sale on Etsy, he gave me a big "high five".  Then he asked me to make some mini-mittens for his car now that he is driving and has a car.  He picked these colors (can you tell he loves bright colors?). These colors sure remind me of the Minnesota Vikings Football Team colors, although that was not on purpose.

I've  been on a bit of a mini-mitten kick lately... I am sending this pair to a knitting friend in South Dakota... love these stripes!  This is Tofutsies yarn leftover from some socks I made awhile back.

Using leftover Berroco Boboli yarn, I am making more mini-mittens. The mittens are all varied sizes depending upon what yarn I am using. 

On my Etsy shop, I also have some ruffle scarves I made...

 

And some contoured "dog bone" shaped neck pillows...

And more mittens...

Of course, there is a bit of a learning curve with this type of business.  I underestimated shipping costs not taking into account I should mail things first class with tracking and delivery confirmation.  It's all a work in progress but I am having fun!

What's Knitting...

For the first week in June, I did not knit!  And I lived to tell about it. 

Sure, I packed knitting but never got around to it. We took a cruise to the Caribbean.  I've been posting about our cruise on my cooking blog called "kimscookingfrenzy".  If you would like to read more about our cruise experience, click HERE.