Sugar, Spice and all Things Nice - Etsy Treasury

My beautiful baby niece, Gabby, is in the hospital. She has a severe case of RSV, respiratory syncytial virus. Today is her 5th day in the PICU, pediatric intensive-care unit. She is still hooked up to a ventilator and heavily sedated. It is so heartbreaking to see her like this. I'm not a crier, but this past week I have shed a lot of tears.

Her condition is, very slowly, improving. There isn't much you can do besides wait, hope and pray during times like this. Her nurses have been fantastic and my whole family has gathered to watch over and support Gabby and my sister.

My thoughts and my heart are with my niece right now. In honor of her and all the things she loves, I have made her an Etsy Treasury. I imagined her happy smiling face with every item I placed in it. It made me smile too.

Please check out Gabby's, Sugar, Spice and all Things Nice Treasury on Etsy and leave her a get well message. Thank you to everyone who has been thinking and praying for her and our family over the past week. 

Get well soon Gabby, Auntie loves you!

Visit Gabby's, Sugar, Spice and all Things Nice, Treasury on Etsy - http://etsy.me/gVUX3t

Handmade Rose Rings and Hairpins

Handcrafted Pink Rose Bobby Pin

These handmade roses are seriously cute! There is a satisfaction that comes from handmade jewelry that you don't get from mass produced items. Most the time you see flower jewelry like rings, earrings and hairpins for sale on Etsy the crafter simply bought the flower and glued it onto the metal base. But not these beauties! Keri Aragon of String Bean Studios and I handcrafted these perfect little roses ourselves. We are very proud of the end result. I seriously think you need one for your finger or hair!

Silver Ring with Silver Rose

Silver Ring with Pink Rose

Keep a look out for more of these gorgeous creations from Keri and I. We are making the roses in more colors and more styles. There are even earrings to match!

Our handmade rose jewelry is available for sale in the String Bean Studios Etsy store- http://etsy.me/hZI1sH

"Choose Your Own" Earrings Winners!

Thank you to everyone who participated, commented and shared about my "Choose Your Own' Earrings Giveaway! Just because you didn't win doesn't mean that you can't own a pair of my handmade earrings. For today, March 3rd 2011, only you can get 15% off anything in the Upcycled by Ash Etsy store by using the coupon code - MARCH3

The lucky winners of the "Choose Your Own" Earrings Giveaway are... Kim Trick, Susie Wiener and Kat Emerick. Winners have been notified by email.

Shop Upcycled by Ash on Etsy  

http://www.etsy.com/shop/upcycledbyash

Spring Has Sprung!

Spring is coming and I am soooo excited about it. I made this beautiful Etsy Treasury to celebrate. Have look and let me know what you think! Help me get my Treasury on the Etsy front page by following this link and leaving a comment- http://etsy.me/hIFGmV THANKS!!!

Making an Asian Inspired Quilt

I'm making an Asian inspired quilt. I swore I would never, ever, not in a million years make a quilt. Well... I lied. Although technically I haven't lied yet, the quilt isn't done.

color squares

I really don't know how this happened. OK, that isn't true, I know whose fault it is. Keri Aragon, from String Bean Studios, she is to blame! All I said was that I needed to raise some money and the next thing I knew I was rummaging through my fabric and cutting out squares.

Keri use to make quilts with her grandma. They sold for a pretty penny, which sounds pretty good to me since I am suddenly in the market for a new car and scrambling to figure out how I am going to afford to move in April.

This is a major work in progress. I'm pretty excited about it though. I managed to find a lot of freecycle fabrics that fit together for the project. The majority of the quilt will have to be made from new materials though.

Of course after I got started I couldn't help thinking about all the denim jeans friends have sent me to Upcycle. Now that might make a pretty cool and almost entirely upcycled quilt! I have to focus on one project at a time or I start to go crazy, right now I think I have about four going. Wait no, make that five.

playing with the layout

"Choose Your Own" Earrings Giveaway!

I've decided to do an earring giveaway this week. Do you like gold, silver or brass? Would you like purple, green, red, blue??? I've got my favorites but now it is your turn to tell me about yours.

Three lucky winners will be able to pick any pair of earring from my Etsy store to call their very own (one each). Be sure to check back throughout the week, I have a bunch of new earrings to post. I'm sure that you'll find something that you will just love.

Guys don't get left out. Girlfriends, wives, moms and grandma's all love just because gifts!

To enter, please do two of the following:

• Leave a comment on this blog post with the link to your favorite pair of earrings from my Etsy shop - http://www.etsy.com/shop/upcycledbyash
• Share the link to my store or your favorite item on Facebook. Make sure to leave a message here letting me know you shared.
• "Like" Upcycled by Ash on Facebook - http://on.fb.me/ey53fA
• Share this giveaway on twitter, make sure to include @upcycledbyash in the tweet so I can see that you shared.
• Subscribe to the Upcycled by Ash Blog (see the widget/links in the side bar).

This giveaway will run from Feburary 23rd 2011 through midnight on March 2nd 2011. The winners will be informed via facebook, twitter or email and announced on the blog on March 3rd 2011. Be sure to comment with a way to contact you should you win.

 

V-day Goodies

Life has been a scramble lately but I did manage to get some designs done for Valentines Day. If you haven't seen them yet you can find them all on my Etsy- http://etsy.me/i0wq3C

Here is a little sample of my "Love" creations. I was super excited to find that I had so many perfect materials to upcycle and freecycle this little collection. 

100% upcycled love

100% Freecycled

freecycled and upcycled

Find it all on Etsy- http://etsy.me/i0wq3C

Lymtastic Winner!!!

The winner of my handmade Lymetastic clutch is...

Laura Usher

I have to admit I was going to be very surprised if you didn't win. It was really obvious through all your promoting of the giveaway and commenting on my posts that you wanted this prize. I'm glad that you won.

I'll get your address and send it out to you this week. Be sure to snap a pic of it when you take it out and send it to me!!!

Laura, the clutch and I at the TTC Gala

Lymetastic Giveaway

YAY a giveaway. I feel like it has been forever since I did a giveaway. This month's giveaway item is the fantastic clutch I made for the Turn the Corner Gala. It was a big hit, everyone loved it. Now it can be yours!!!

About the clutch... The outer fabric is a silky, shiny black. The fabric flowers are handmade. The sequined ribbon adds a lot of fun to the design. The inner lining is a green paisley print. The clutch closes with a magnetic snap. Large enough for your phone and the essentials!

Dates
Entries will be recorded from Monday January 17th through Sunday January 23rd. The winner will be announced on Monday January 24th.

How to Enter 

1. On the blog- Every comment left on this blog between now and the 24th will count as one entry. You may enter as many times as you like.
2. On the blog- Follow the blog for an extra entry (see sidebar).
3. Twitter- Tweet about this giveaway to your followers, be sure to include @upcycledbyash in the tweet so I know you tweeted. 
4. Facebook- "like" the Upcycled by Ash FB Page and leave a comment on the wall.
5. Facebook- Post about the giveaway on Facebook. Be sure to include @Upcycled by Ash in the post so I know you did it.

You may enter every day and as many time as you like. The more you comment and post, the more likely you are to win! All entries will be recorded and assigned a number, I will use an online random number generator to determine the winner.

There are buttons at the bottom of this post right above the comments to automatically post on your twitter and facebook profiles. USE THEM!

Grrr, shiny material is so hard to photograph!

Check out these Lymetastic chicks!

Upcycled Packaging

Upcycled boxes, pouches and envelopes!

When I started making jewelry I had to buy boxes to ship the items in so that they wouldn't be damaged. This drove me crazy, what a waste! I hated the idea of buying little boxes, I still do.

I was totally inspired when I received an order I place with my friend Molly at Seeking Serendipity. She makes her own boxes out of paper! It was so beautiful, way nicer than the crappy little cardboard ones I was buying.

I pulled out all my scrapbooking paper and started learning how to fold my own boxes, envelopes and pouches. I never really got into the whole scrapbooking thing but I sure did collect a ton of the beautiful paper from the scrapbooking section of Micheal's. I did do some book making, that was cool, but very time consuming.

I'm thrilled to now have the perfect project for all that paper and upcycled options for shipping my items.

Lyme Time

Flower Lyme Bracelet

I spent some time over the past few weeks working on mew designs for Lyme awareness jewelry. I got a bunch of new freecycle green beads and went to town!

Everything here is available for purchase at my Etsy store- http://www.etsy.com/shop/upcycledbyash
The original Knotted Lyme Awareness bracelet is also still available. Lymenaide has the rubber awareness wristbands too. No excuse for not being stylishly Lyme this year!

4 strand Lyme Awareness Bracelet

Lyme Awareness Garden Ring

There are more pictures and items posted in my Etsy store! A portion of all Lyme Green items I sell goes to Lymenaide as a donation for Lyme disease awareness projects.

Back in the Sewing of Things

Ready for Spring!!!

I sat behind my sewing machine again! It's been a while, I've been busy with life and Lyme. Actually I have sewn a few things that I didn't post. And, there is one annoying upcycled project that is giving me grief, it keeps breaking my needles!!!

Anyway today I made a dress! I even took all my measurements and followed the pattern. Then I totally altered it when just as I suspected, the damn thing was huge. It's better now and I have made notes for my next attempt. There is still one design flaw to work out. There is way too much fabric in the back of the dress. Seriously who wants to look like they are wearing a mu-mu from the back!!!

I love the fabric I got form Joann's with the gift card from my friend Candice. Too bad I ran out, I really need a belt! My favorite belt is great with jeans but way too big for this dress. Hmmm, to buy or to make... Maybe I will find one thriftshoping with Keri this week.

I am determined to get back on the sewing wagon from this point on. I actually have a goal for this year to learn to sew clothing confidently. I plan to focus on one thing a month, January is dresses. I think February will be skirts. I need to make sure I have my wardrobe ready for this spring!