All About Me :)

I'm really not used to talking about myself... I'm married and have 2 boys, so mostly just used to listening :)))

There are been a few people asking me when I was going to feature my own shop on the Promoting Creative Friends Team Blog. Didn't want to "toot my own horn" there, so thought I would write something about myself here.

I live in Southern Manitoba Canada, was born and raised here, married here, had my children here, will probably be here forever... :) Have done some traveling, and lived in other places, but this is home. My husband and I got married almost 24 years ago. We had known each other since elementary school, he's only a year older then my little brother - they used to hang out together. After high school we went in separate directions for many years, but both ended up back where we grew up. We were engaged 2.5 months after starting to date, married 6.5 months later (no - I wasn't pregnant, though my grandma was counting down the months....) We were both in our mid twenties - why wait? We have 2 boys who are 22 and 20 years old. Both have great jobs, love what they do (most of the time) and have moved out of the house! WOOHOO!!! lol Love my children, but it's nice to see them a couple of weekends a month - WAY less cooking, laundry and cleaning :) When our youngest was 3 I got my license to drive a school bus. It's the greatest job in the world! When the boys were little I was home when they were, I have 2 weeks of holidays at Christmas and my summers off :) 

What more could I want? Obviously the photo was taken last winter... 

So - how did I get into crafting? Now that's a funny story :) It's all my husband's fault. Really!!

When the youngest was 1 year old we saw an ad in the local paper for a Beginner Folkart Painting Class. Hubby convinced me to go. He thought it would be good for me to get out of the house and talk to adult women once a week. I was a stay-at-home mom and only got off the yard to get groceries. So off I went - and haven't looked back. There have been many times when the crafts were all over the house that hubby was sorry he every told me about that class :)

I don't paint any more, it's just so time consuming, though I would like to paint ornaments again. Every year the students on my bus get a handmade Christmas ornament from me. This year it will have to be a crocheted one, at least I can do that while sitting on the couch with hubby in the evenings :)
So my hand painted shop turned into coasters and cards -



How I got into crocheting - Was at the post office one day and the lady that works there mentioned that she knits in the evenings while watching TV with her hubby then donates the scarves to charity. What a wonderful idea!! We happened to have a small store in town that had a few crochet hooks and some yarn. Purchased a few things, then went to youtube to find out how to crochet... I had crocheted about 25 years ago, learned one stitch then, so getting back into it wasn't too difficult. 

Knitting and I just don't get along... my Grandma tried to teach me to knit when I was little, but I kept loosing stitches, or my piece would be a triangle instead of a square. She always told me it looked great - but by that point her eye sight was failing quickly, and I knew better. Grandma is now 96 years old, totally blind, and still knitting every day. She is my inspiration! I want to be just like her when I grow up :)

After crocheting boxes and boxes of hats and scarves for charity, I thought I might try to sell a few things on Etsy.



The model for some of my items is son2's girlfriend! Isn't she cute? lol

So now that the boys are out of the house, and hubby was working full time (lost his job 2 months ago), I had time to start a team on Etsy. Found that I got more views, fav's etc in my shops if I promoted, fav'd etc other shops. So the team Promoting Creative Friends was born. Never in my wildest dreams did I think it would ever have over 2000 members! Now I just have to figure out how to get all 2000+ to actually be involved in the team... hmmm....

The group that is active is amazing!!! The team would not be what it is today with out all the active members who post and promote faithfully every day. THANK YOU!

The team also on FACEBOOK. Trying to figure out how to get the FB page more active...

After trying an auction on the team blog, and having some success with it, I started another team last week. The Hand Crafted with Love Auctions team will host an auction each month on the team blog. Infact - the first one will start next Monday!! The HCL Auction team also has a FACEBOOK PAGE. Please "like" our page and join the fun!

Well - I should stop now before everyone falls asleep :) Just realized that this is getting a bit long... I hope to see you on Etsy!! If you follow my blog - I will follow yours back :)

PS - I still crochet 2 big boxes of hats and scarves for Charity - It gets really cold here in the winter!