piddleloop.com

Stitch Marker Love

♥ Comments (5) ♥

I wanted to showcase some more etsy love. The etsy love i have for several people who dress up our bags. You know we’ve been making these things for 2 years now and one of the little creative details is that i like to give you a stitch marker with your bag. One that can be thrown inside once you get it to keep handly whenever you may need one.


So i tend to buy from 3 people exclusive to etsy.


They are always kind (too kind) enough to include cards and usually extra stitch markers along with what i order for the bags.
Recent pile from Kimberly over at dragonlady designs


Recent pile from Aija over at Zero


So awhile back robyn asked what the heck do her stitch markers look like when you send them out? so without further wait i present to you....the little details that dress up our bags.
a whack of bags

my last marker sample from Robyn from graphicdesignchick


one of Aija’s markers from Zero


and one of kimberly’s markers from dragon lady designs

i am currently working on returning the love of promos to all of these people.


The button maker lives up at nat’s, so i can only make them on weekends. I also handcut and stamp our cards so this takes me awhile, but the piddleloop sewing team will be sending each and all of these three promos as well.


They are not only great people, but have great quality workwomanship. When you need a little something extra for a SP or a package i urge you to throw 5$ at one of these people!

Posted by Jennifer on 07/05 at 11:23 AM ♥ Comments (5)

Spreading the Etsy love

♥ Comments (10) ♥

There’s some people out there calling for some etsy love to be spread around. I will certainly do that! I’m just dropping in to say check out etsy.com for loads of awesome gift ideas. There is so much talent out there. Our shop is there, and in turn i buy a load of stuff from here. So without further waiting…

First up my favorite thing to find for other people. CARDS! We all know my love for the chicken butts over at youngandwithit But i found out a person who i’ve known online for quite some time...was selling her illustrations! Enter Designs By Cam. Cam draws these and prints them out for you, but look out she’s getting a gocco! Her cards are large and very pretty. They feature her hand drawn designs and if there’s something you see in her sold gallery she will get it to you in a jiffy. I really love to include handmade cards in my swap packages. Thanks for perking up my packages Cam. Please check out her shop. And if you live in the chicago area come september, when renegade craft fair strikes, her stuff will be in our booth! yay!

Next up a few items that came all the way from Israel. Three Green Apples is a sewing queen. She has great graphic stuff. I also collect Monorkuro Boo Pigs, if i can find them, which isn’t easy. So when i saw she had fabric featureing them. I snapped up a few items.

two keyfobs and a 7 x 6 zippered pouch


love them.

Now for your YARN pleasure: how about Lovesticks She has stripey yarns. And i bought this little set for fun cause my favorite color is orange. She dyed up the heel/toe yarn to match for me. Her yan is very soft and very pretty. Knits up great...and STRIPEY.

I also found a set of cute dpn holders from Lunastrixe Her shop called 3 owls knitting has some cute practical things.
I picked up some dog dpn holders...love them!

Those are some of my purchases, but don’t forget i purchase from dragonladydesigns and Zero to dress up your pouches. Kimberly and Aija are ALWAYS pleasant and add extra markers as samples in with what i buy for your pouches. I do this basically only to advertise other crafters. So please do not ignore their business cards! Check them out.

I leave you with my sewing from the weekend. I finished all of these and am working on a pile of dpn sock needle wallets. Just want to get rid of the small bits f fabric i have left on my sewing table.
the pouches all lined up




and a little peek at something i have to get ready to send out tomorrow. I hope this friend will like this present i’ve been working hard on!

i’m driving to chicago tomorrow for our annual sit on the blanket, sweat to death, and eat eli’s cheesecake, for the fireworks. So i’ll see y’all after the holiday. Also wishing all of my canadian readers a belated happy canada day.

Edited to add: holy crap. Did you guys see that. Eli’s cheesecake wants me to eat them so bad they left 2 comments. BUT NO COUPON. :(
Anyways, i’ll be heading to the taste of chicago and the fireworks now. y’all have an awesome holiday.

Posted by Jennifer on 07/02 at 01:31 PM ♥ Comments (10)

Catch Up Post (or big ass photo post number 857394793545739)

♥ Comments (10) ♥

Did y’all see Wendy in the comments thanked everyone for their birthday wishes! She’s getting to be an old woman now, and thank you Lesa for correcting me...it was the summer solstace..note to self don’t make posts at 2am anymore.

Ok so what the hell have i been up to you say? Well loads of things. As of late though i haven’t been feeling well and i think today i had a hallucination due to taking huge amounts of excedrin for 4 days straight. I SWEAR i saw a Large 1/2 nekkid old man riding a lawnmower up the street. He stopped at the now vaccant house across the street, got off and kicked some trash. Then bent down to pick it up and his shorts almost came off! eeegads. He got back on his mower and went off back down the cul de sac. When i told this to Nat tonight he seems to think it was all the excedrin. I dunno i’ll report back if i see the man againa nd this time find my camera.
ANYWAYS.

I have been up to a ton of stuff like going to the printer’s row bookfair in chicago every June.
Hey who’s that hott boy wearing brown at the McSweeny’s booth?


Oh right it’s nat who has cut off ALL his hair!


We went to see David Honeyboy Edwards play his set at the bluesfestival






We took a short mini-vacation and went to the Indianapolis Zoo
Where i saw these guys


and this guy


and my mom fed a giraffe


and i saw this lazy male


we pet sharks at their new oceans exhibit and went intot he dolphin dome which is cool as hell. we also went to the children’s museum and had a good time. We’ve been meeting up for knitting meetings a little more now that everyone is more free in the summertime. We had an intresting man approach our table with this tatoo


than he showed us what it was for


which cracked us up to no end.
i took a picture of kayt’s sock, lesa, and Jessica as a rock star all in the background


and kayt


and erin’s hands NOT in a knitting fury of blur

Let’s see what else have i been up to? i entered a contest over at liquidgirl knitting ages ago and won! yay! look at what teresa sent to me! some cherry tree hill sock yarn


some markers and a button


and some more cute buttons

and last but not least (the best for last!) I managed to convince a cool girl named Hannah (Hi HANNAH!) way over there in the U.K. to swap tea with me. I’ve beenw anting to try some really good black REAL british tea. And her packaged reached me before i could even get 1/2 of what i wanted to send to her. So here’s the proof i packed it all up and sent it out last wednesday, i sent her extra yarn to make up for my tardyness in getting her package together. I’m just not fast, but i do think i can deliver.


now look at what hannah sent along!


and the YARN alpaca that is orange and so soft and th emost charming little tea infuser

Now dear friends...excedrin hallucinations and all i think i am caught up. *whew* now back to lolcats.

Posted by Jennifer on 06/25 at 11:05 PM ♥ Comments (10)

oh man

♥ Comments (8) ♥

I ended up at this crazy site somehow. I’ve managed to avoid it until now. And this stupid thing (not the whole site just this one image) has been cracking me up for like 1/2 the night. Much like the silly birthday card i picked out for our dear friend Lesa’s birthday. Did you look at her blog? there’s a PURL street sign on it right now. Go look, seriously. Ok i SWEAR i should do a real post tomorrow. or not.

Posted by Jennifer on 06/21 at 11:16 PM ♥ Comments (8)

My Sisturd

♥ Comments (6) ♥

Turns OLD today. Today is not only the vernal equinox, but my sister’s birthday. Happy birthday Wimby!



I wanted the photo of my sister extracting DNA last week, but alas she hasn’t unloaded her memory stick over here yet. that will have to wait for another day, instead you get her, my nephew, and i think a Komo dragon in the background. Go figure my sister LOVES giant lizards. So there’s the silent 1/2 of your Piddleloop Sewing Team. (her name is not really wimby either, it’s wendy!)

Posted by Jennifer on 06/21 at 02:41 PM ♥ Comments (6)

Photo Scavenger Hunt Entry

♥ Comments (9) ♥

Ok. I have a million things to post and show you, but it will have to wait. I’ve got a busy weekend ahead. I get to see Helvetica the movie, and see the smoking popes...typography and my favorite 90’s band all in one weekend. woo! So here’s my entry in Erin’s contest.  To make this harder on myself i tried to shoot as much as possible with my duaflex II. But it’s impossible to have with me at all times since it is big and clunky. But to make it more challenging for me, i did about 90% of it with it. I also sized most of these 500 pixels by 500 pixles so they are low res, but larger than usual for fun. So must. win.prizes.

Knitter in Public
Katy in Andersonville May 2007



Ice Cream Truck
South Loop May 2007



Sock

Andersonville May 2007



Library Card
Still Life in 2A May 2007



Ball of Green Yarn
Limeade in Merino June 2007



Bicyclist
Zoom May 2007



Street Sign
Michigan Ave June 2007



Flower
Pansys in the Loop June 2007



A public work of art
Right Lion Art Institute of Chicago entrance (favorite lion) May 2007



your relfection in an unexpected place
self portrait in floor of Indianapolis Children’s museum, Chiluly Ceiling of glass exhibit, June 2007



Somone in a Catalog pose
Joy South Loop, May 2007



Funny sign
Gambling, Vegas Freemont Street, Horsehoe Casino July 2004

So there’s some visual stuff to send you into the weekend. I hope you have a good one. If i owe you an email, and there’s plenty of you that i do. I am working on it. I just got back from our mini vacation and such. 

Posted by Jennifer on 06/14 at 11:56 PM ♥ Comments (9)

big ass photo post number 98539745937485763845

♥ Comments (9) ♥

So you say you wanna big ass photo post? no? too bad you get one anyways. if you don’t like looking at random photos then you may want to skip this blog.
So i said last weekend i took a lot of pictures, here’s some of what we did…
First because Nell keeps making me thirsty, flashing her cold ones over there..i thought i’d show you what is good over in apt 2A
Shiner Bock and Red Vines mmmm Nat has been very happy because Shiner came to chicago in April. It’s his favorite beer. It’s really pretty good. The land of yee-haw has some good stuff down there!


On sunday we went down to the Union arts for a ladyfest benefit craft fair, and to see Lauren. Lauren is so rad. You must check out her stuff on etsy. She made me the awesome type nerd etched glass, Nat got one with a moustache!




Her boyfriend was there too. Robert makes stained glass that is here (buy the one i want and i will fight you)


joy bought a sock doggie


also mark your calenders NAT SMILED and lauren got it on camera. DISCLAIMER I STOLE THESE TWO PHOTOS AND COLOR CORRECTED THEM FROM HERE THESE TWO PHOTOS ARE TAKEN BY LAUREN


and this one is one of my favorites she took..look at the three of us? Nat and Joy are frowning..what am i doing? just HOW many cameras do i NEED? look at me..this cracks me up


also this was held in an old church and the star of the show was this neon jesus complete with red neon blood...fantastic!


and this pretty glass


Joy lives in printer’s row- i took a picture from her street- see that triangleish building on the right? that is the cook county PRISION, bet you didn’t know that. someone once told me why there are 90 degree angles in there but i forgot.


joy looking “editorial” in front of Panera in the SuperDorm™


we then walked down to the lake y’all recognize this? they finally turned it on over mother’s day


and then we walked down to millenium park. on the way we saw this anti-war demonstration on the Art Institute of Chicago steps


I have a little tradition of having my picture taken with my favorite chicago icon, i’ll have to dig up the ones of me in high school circa 1988, joy and i by lion #2




then we saw my favorite newish piece of downtown public art the bean


and this is just a picture of the pretty foyer of the chicago auditorium i love the circles

ok nothing all that exciting, except for nat smiling, but still..i was just out with the Duaflex II on a super sunny cool day and we walked around for hours. It was kind of fun going downtown.
I do wish y’all a good weekend. I’m planning on spending it sewing and who knows what so there should be new stuff in the etsy shop if you are looking for a summery pouch to hold your crafty things.
See ya monday, i wish all y’alls a great and productive weekend.

Posted by Jennifer on 05/31 at 11:06 PM ♥ Comments (9)

Stuff for a Wednesday

♥ Comments (1) ♥

I keep thinking it’s tuesday. I’m really thrown off this week.
Just a quick little post to say...for those of you who didn’t get a collaboration sock kit...you can get the pattern! Erin was inspired by Meg’s yarns enough to write this beautiful pattern featuring her yarn. You can use her yarn or not. She gave me the word document and i designed the great bright PDF for her. You can get your very own in our shop: here again as with all of our independent designers piddleloop always gives 100% of the cost of the pattern to the designer! Thanks for such a great summery pattern!

Also are any of you playing along? you can read about it here
here’s a peek at my list


I’m making it more challenging to myself for this game and i’m doing it all through the viewfinder style on the Duaflex II. So come on..give me some competition and join in her contest. (so i can beat the pants off you!)

Posted by Jennifer on 05/30 at 01:09 PM ♥ Comments (1)

The Dog Wash Is Open

♥ Comments (7) ♥

I have too many pictures. I think i took over 700 pictures this weekend. And at least 500 of them are thru the Duaflex II and that’s a lot of cropping in photoshop. But anyways i will go a little willy nilly on showing you some of the awesome weekend. This here will be Monday. Dad just got back from one of his week long fishing trips to Ohio. So that means not only grilled steaks, and veggies..but FRESH WALLEYE to eat. mmmm. there is nothing better than walleye that was just swimming days prior. So on monday the dog wash was opened. Samuel HATES a bath more than anything. She will HATE YOU for the whole day after you give her one. So anyways while i helped my sister wash i had nat shoot some pictures.

poor samuel you can see the look of OH NO A BATH on her face


must get the dirt off the ears


the ONE thing she does like after a bath is getting toweled off and running around doing this


see auntie jennifer i HATE YOU for giving me a bath...plotting some more HATING on you for later too..see it...SEE IT IN MY EYES


Lucy Dog was next into the baby pool


and then the de-crunch-ifying of her ears..you wouldn’t believe how crunchy those ears can get


shake shake shake


Witht he dog wash closed, a game of baseball was in effect. Lucy Dog always plays shortstop. She also did her job and stopped a ball!


here’s the catcher (doing what he does best in photos)

So since Samuel is usually cranky or off tracking i actually got some shots of her with the Duaflex II later so for more dog-a-palooza fun here’s more
see how much she loves Lucy Dog?


samuel in all her beagle-y glory




we are slightly annoyed at auntie jennifer for sticking that thing in our face cause i’m getting another “look”


tired of the hounds yet? ok one left to show off lucy dog’s pretty eyes, and how she sits like such a girly girl

i’ll have more of our weekend which included a craft fair, a neon jesus complete with red blood, the bean, an anti-war protest, and other crazy stuff that can only go on in downtown chicago on any given weekend. Y’all know just how much i love the piddleloop hounds, they are part of your sewing team too!

Posted by Jennifer on 05/30 at 09:59 AM ♥ Comments (7)

Memorial

♥ Comments (0) ♥

I wanted to sneek this in just in time before it’s over. I had a wandering weekend. I’ll have a nice big fat juicy photo post for those of you who love the big ass photo posts. but in the mean time…
i wanted to post some of these...from our walk downtown chicago, grant park saturday afternoon. 3pm.
These were just set down in the middle of grant park. seeing three-thousand pair of combat boots with various pictures, flowers, stuffed bunnie, and other tokens is one powerful statement.  one powerful visualization.  and i didn’t take as many photos as nat did, mostly because i saw photos that made me cry. so i just felt pretty somber while here.

Chicago Grant Park Saturday May 26,2007 3pm

Posted by Jennifer on 05/28 at 10:18 PM ♥ Comments (0)