New ETC Monday Event!

In honor of the fifth Monday of June, Etsy Texas Crafters is having a $5 Monday Sale! Now that's a bargain!

At The Lavender Lizard, I have marked down many items, some as much as 50% off! To find out which items are marked down to $5, please check out my ETC $5 Monday Sale section. Also there are plenty of items that are always $5 or less, including lip balm holders, anything cups and eco-friendly scrubbies.



At The Lavender Ladybug, there is nothing priced higher than $5, so feel free to shop, shop, shop!

As an added bonus, if you purchase 3 or more items (whether on sale or not), I'll ship those to you FREE! (USPS First Class or First Class International only.) The listings can be from either of my shops to qualify.

To see the other $5 items, click on the photo of Armadillo Tex!

(Above and on the right side.)

Americana Gift Swap!

Etsy Texas Crafters, the best street team on Etsy, recently held a gift swap with an americana theme. I love gift swaps, so I signed up and was paired with Alyssa of simplysparkles. I looked at her profile and noticed she liked the color red and purses and bags. So I made a tote with a solid red bottom, a red-white-blue body, and red straps. It's perfect for the beach or library or even for the grocery store (no need for plastic bags here!)

I used one of the free patterns from Lily Sugar n Cream yarn, but changed the dimensions slightly, made the solid part of the bottom larger, and used a variegated yarn for the body with a solid bottom and straps. (The pattern called for either variegated or solid yarn, but not both together.) I hope she enjoys using it as much as I enjoyed making it! (I'm thinking of making more bags for The Lavender Lizard; please share your thoughts by leaving a comment! Thx!)

Alyssa, in turn, sent me these adorable earrings! One reason I really like them is that they are long and dangly, and super comfortable! Thanks, Alyssa!

Plus, they look great with my latest Tuesday Morning find, a nautical-inspired, americana-striped Sak bag:

Can you guess what I'll be wearing for the 4th of July??

More WIPs and an Update...

It's been a busy, crafty couple of weeks since the boys finished up their school year. They all painted birdhouses for my parents' 51st anniversary, which was on June 15. My parents live about 30 minutes away on 6 1/2 acres of land with tons of trees. We thought the birdhouses would be a great addition to their enjoyment of the property.

From left to right, DS4's barn birdhouse, DS3's double-decker birdhouse, DS2's colorful feeder, and DS1's castle birdhouse. (Truthfully, I painted the barn. DS4 was not interested in painting at all.)

I finished one of the 2 scarves I started last week. It turned out great! I will be listing it soon at The Lavender Lizard.

I was not happy with the way the second one was turning out, so 5 rows into it, I pulled it all apart. The reason: I love love love the yarn (Caron Spa -- a bamboo/microdenier acrylic blend) and the colors are scrumptious:

But the pattern I was making was not taking full advantage of the drapey, silky feel of the yarn. I have new ideas for the yarn though, and I hope to dive into them real soon.

And here's what I'm really, really, really trying to avoid:

The only things missing from this afghan are weaving in the ends (yuk!) and 3 rows of a border. I must force myself to finish this, and I'll probably devote Friday to this dreaded chore. Wish me luck!

WIPs and UFOs

My home is full of WIPs and UFOs. Before you get the wrong idea, WIPs are works in progress and UFOs are unfinished objects. Sounds like they are the same thing, but really UFOs are WIPs that have been tossed in a drawer and left untouched for a period of time. I admit I just looooove to start new projects, sometimes before the current ones are complete.

So to that end, I decided to finally finish some loooooong standing projects. I can't tell you how many years ago I started this cross-stitch sampler, but the magazine with the pattern on the cover is from 1988.

It sat unfinished for many, many, many years. I finally finished it recently, but I made a design change (gone are the teddies!). Now I just have to frame it! Yay!

I also finished Afghan 1 for los primos (the cousins). My mother asked me to make 7 afghans for her 1st cousins (children of her father's brother). Out of the 21(!) children born to my great-grandparents, only my grandfather and my great-uncle Nat lived to adulthood. Both of them died in 2001, and they are greatly missed by their children and grandchildren.

So Afghan 1 is finally ready:

Afghan 2 is almost complete (it looks finished here, but trust me, the side with all of the yarn ends looks horrible! If you know anything about me, you know I hate to work in the ends.):

I did manage to complete this great dinosaur skull shirt for DS3's birthday! It only took a couple of days to crochet, and a couple more days to sew it on the shirt. The pattern is by Regina Rioux Gonzalez and was published in the March/April 2009 issue of Crochet Today!

I have 2 more WIPs that I started yesterday (please don't ask why; I just don't know). Both are scarves -- one is made of cotton yarn, and the other is an acrylic/bamboo blend that I just couldn't resist. They will both be listed at The Lavender Lizard when they are completed (which, hopefully, is soon!).

My Favorite Place in Texas

I like to say that although I wasn't born in Texas, I got here as fast as I could. Truthfully, the only reason I was born elsewhere was because my father was in the Air Force. He and my mother were born and raised here, so Texas has always been home (although I claim Colorado as well -- shoot, it's just too pretty not to!).

So I've been to all parts of Texas, and they are as different as night and day. Texas is the only state I know of that has fertile river valleys, coastline, desert mountains, rolling hills, huge towering forests, high plains, big cities, quaint towns, and everything in between. I love the coast, especially Mustang Island and North Padre Island. I also love the forests of East Texas. But my number one favorite place in Texas is anywhere you find wildflowers.

How can you not love the bluebonnets that greet us each Spring!

Etsy Front Page and a New Product!

A couple of days ago, I received a message from Jennifer of JenniferABoston and The Crafty Dragonfly. She wanted to tell me that one of my items was on the Front Page of Etsy! Of course, I clicked over there as quickly as possible, but sadly, I missed it. (Thanks, Jennifer!)

Here's the featured item, a silk/bamboo wave patterned scarf (chosen because of its "eco" tag by Etsy Admin):

Great news -- the scarf received 9 new hearts and The Lavender Lizard received 6 new hearts! (Hearts are a way to mark favorite items or sellers.)

Over at The Lavender Ladybug, I received a request to crochet a tooth/molar motif. Here's what I came up with:

Marnie of AdornWithAAndM used the motifs to create a new product -- the Tooth Fairy Pillow Clip. I think they are adorable!

Marnie had previously requested chili peppers from me for her kitchen. The chili peppers inspired me to create paisley motifs (my favorite design element, ever), which I paired with small round dots:

I'm currently adding these in several colors at The Lavender Ladybug. As always, if you different idea for a motif or color, please contact me. I ♥ special orders!

Coming up next, crocheted borders for embellishing scrapbook pages! Stay tuned!

The Accidental Gardener and the Return of Boomer

I wish I spent more time gardening, as I really do enjoy it. But I've let the yard go and do it's own thing. Luckily, some things still bloom whether I pay attention to them or not.

Here's a lily that originally came from my parents' home in Dallas:

They have been uprooted and moved a couple of times, and I'm always happy to see them bloom each spring.

This is a blue plumbago that I thought I lost a couple of winters ago:


Now it's bigger than ever!

We used to have a wild rabbit that visited us nearly every day at dinner time 2 summers ago. We named him Boomer (short for Boomerang because he always came back). DS2 and DS3 were outside a couple of days ago looking for bugs (for an icky school project), and DS3 ran in to tell me that Boomer was back.

Well, there was a bunny in the backyard, and he does look like Boomer, but given his size (he could fit in the palm of my hand!) there's no way this is the original Boomer! Maybe he's Boomer's great grandson. Either way, he's adorable and he posed for me in the blue plumbago:

Welcome back, Boomer!