Before and After

When felting a wool item, you really need to account for the size difference. Here's a before and after example of the size difference of a child's size felted slipper.

Thank you! Thank you! NoonToTwo.Etsy.Com & HandmadeByAde.Etsy.Com ~ Adrienne

Tessa Ann Buttons

Some day these beauties will prettify my slippers just for you!

Maybe you'd like to have a set of buttons for yourself too. Tessa Ann will make them for you.

Thank you! Thank you! NoonToTwo.Etsy.Com & HandmadeByAde.Etsy.Com ~ Adrienne

Treasured On Etsy

On Etsy there is a section that lets the people make collections of items they love. 

I am feeling the love this week! 

Follow these links and check out these beautiful treasuries.

Find these at Marshmallow.

~click here to go~

Find these at Natural Patriotic..........

~click here to go~

*Double the love!* Find these at 6 PM Sunday Afternoon.

~click here to go~

Find these at Blossoming Forth,,,

~click here to go~ 

*Double the love!* Find these at American Woman.

~click here to go~

Thank you! Thank you! NoonToTwo.Etsy.Com and HandmadeByAde.Etsy.Com

Knitting Socks

          I love hand knit work. I love knitting until I mess up. I can't even count the number of times I have had to just start over! Yuck. Trying to 'back-knit' to my mistake often causes me more mistakes. So, I thought socks would be a wonderful project. Small, quick, easy . . .

          Here are two great book I am using. These are images from Amazon where you can purchase your own. I borrowed mine from the local library to test them out first. I do like them so much that I am going to have to buy both for myself.

          I like how the 'Toe-Up 2-At-A-Time Socks' knits with only one needle and both together. I tend to be a procrastinator. I think if I were to knit one sock, I might ever get to that second sock! She also does an excellent job in walking you through the steps.

          In 'Socks Toe Up' there are even more lovely designs. The best part I found to this book though is how the author gives you the basic blank sock and once you've figured that out you can then create your own sock patterns. I really liked that!

          Since this is a new adventure for me I tried to keep cost at a minimum. I bought my first set of circular needles and a quite inexpensive skein of yarn. Since I'm doing the basic pattern I mentioned, I bought a self patterning yarn.

          Once home with my yarn, I then had to unwind it to make two balls. Here's another smart tip from the book, 'After winding the skein into one large ball, then you start a second ball. Once the two balls are equal, cut, and continue winding the original ball to make another ball. If you do not continue winding you will end up with one self patterning going up the foot and the other self patterning going down the foot.' Here's my work so far.

          Remember how I said, "Small, quick, easy . . ." It is small. Can I just tell you that these two toes took me an entire day. So, ummm, not quick! But it's also not too difficult. I am enjoying knitting them and look forward getting back to work on them. Maybe I'll be able to post a finished pair of socks some day. ;)

          Side note, I love working from my beautiful piece of pottery here. I've been spotting some very cute yarn bowls Etsy. Maybe, if my knitting takes off, some day I'll splurge. Check these out at Darrielles Clay Art!

Custom Ordered Hats!

I have to share this wonderful experience with you.

I was contacted through my NoonToTwo.Etsy.Com shop again for a custom ordered hat. This time I met a wonderful person from FRANCE. Ohhh la la!

The desired hat was material used on a hat that had previously sold. It would figure that I couldn't get my hands on more of it.

She gave me a rundown of who she is, what she looks like, her likes and dislikes and a bit of her personality. You'd just love her! And so after many convos back and forth and online shopping for material together we came up with something she liked.

Unfortunately, we were cutting it close to the time line she needed it by. I suggested purchasing a ready-to-ship hat in my shop to guarantee she received it in time. Would you believe she took my advice AND still ordered a custom made hat?! How about that for making me feel good?

Of course I went right to work for her. I immediately sent out her already made hat, ordered the material, and then WAITED. It seemed like the new material was taking forever to get to me. As soon as it came in I washed, cut, sewed, packaged and shipped her new hat the following day.

This gets better! Would you believe that her second hat made it to her IN TIME?! She actually received it the day before her trip. And being as kind and generous as she is . . . she gave the second hat to her BOYFRIEND!

NoonToTwo hats for MEN! I love it!

Don't they both look AWESOME in their NoonToTwo hats?!

Here's a little sneak peak at what I've been up to lately . . . I opened a new Etsy shop called HandmadeByAde.Etsy.Com. I will have to post more on these sweet slippers later!

The Artist and the Critic

75th Annual National Juried Art Exhibition

Cooperstown Art Association

July 16th - August 20th

Best In Show

The Artist and the Critic - 2010 - Oil on Linen - 28" x 36"

My husband is the painter. These are our legs. Artist and Critic . . . husband and wife . . . what's the difference? : ) You can find this painting in Cooperstown, NY starting this Friday. Preview Party is Friday, July 16th from 5:00 to 7:00 if you are in the area. We'd love to meet you there!

Heads Up on Hats to Come!

I spoiled myself yesterday and went FABRIC SHOPPING!

I want to make myself a black cloche hat to go with my new black bathing suit. So, you know how it is . . . I HAD to go shopping. And then a few other hat ideas just came to me. (I don't think these picture do the fabrics justice, but . . . here they are anyway.)

Hope you enjoy them. 

You'll be able to find these cloche hats completed in my NoonToTwo shop soon!

Happy Endings!

Isn't it just wonderful when everything ends up working out just the way you wanted it to. 

I made a couple hats for my blogger friend Kerri in a week's time. In earlier posts you can see the materials I posted for her to choose from and the finished products. Her sister was coming for a visit and she wanted the hats by June 5th if possible. Well, we made it work!

Here are the sweet sisters sporting their NoonToTwo cloche hats.

Love it girls!

The Chosen Two

The material was chosen . . .

The hats were made . . .

 

I hope Kerri's sister and aunt loooove them!!!

*Adult size hats . . . obviously BIG for a four year old!*

Cloche Hat Request

When I started blogging, I consistently followed a few people's blogs for various reasons. I stumbled upon Kerri's blog, CK Farm Happenings, because I was living in suburbia dreaming about the country at the time. She has a very fun farm life blog. I was able to live through her and here we are today . . . blogger friends.

Kerri has also purchased one of my cloche hats. Here is her hat. I really liked this fabric combination as well.

The other day Kerri emailed me asking me if I would make a special hat for her sister who's coming to visit soon. I was thrilled. Not only was it thrilling that someone is interested in my hat, but a RETURN CUSTOMER is interested in my hat! Cool, right?

So, off to the fabric store I ran! Here are some fabric samples I came up with.

Brown hat with blue and brown flowers.

Blue hat with blue and brown flowers.

Blue cord hat with blue and brown flowers.

Green hat with sunflowers.

Brown hat with sunflowers.

Tan cord hat with sunflowers.

Brown hat with tan, black and white flowers.

Black hat with tan, black and white flowers.

Tan cord hat with tan, black and white flowers.

Green hat with green berries and foliage.

Brown hat with green berries and foliage.

Blue hat with blue and white knockout foliage.

If you were to pick, which one would you choose?

Find Friends on Etsy!

I was contacted through Etsy a while back. The message said that she liked my flowers at JustSewIt.Etsy.Com. She was getting married this summer and was wondering if I would be willing to custom make flowers to match her bridesmaid's dresses.

It also said:

"In addition to liking your work, I am asking you because Canajoharie is special to me. Growing up, my family would drive up to Canajoharie from South Florida to visit my grandparents, who lived on Front Street overlooking the Beech Nut building and the thru-way. I haven't been back since 1987. Having a bit of art from Canajoharie featured at my wedding would be a nice way to give a little shout-out to my grandparents."

How cool is that?!

First of all, I was flattered by the compliment. But then to make a meaningful connection for someone's wedding! Etsy has been such a wonderful finding for me.

Here's a sneak peak to what the flower brooches looked like with her fabric swatches. When she sends me the wedding photos I'll blog in more detail on that. I can't wait to see it come together.

 

We emailed back and forth for quite some time. I emailed her to let her know that the flowers were in the mail. I titled it "bittersweet." I can't wait for her to get them and actually see them in person, but that also meant the end of our working together. She emailed me right back telling me we'll stay in contact. 

(: Etsy Friends :)

To my surprise my new found friend then purchased one of my cloche hats. It was one of my personal favorites. I looove this color red. (Half my house is painted this color!)

Here she is in her new "honeymoon" hat!

Doesn't she look great in it?!?! I love it on her. I thought these hats would look great with long hair.

I only have my-short-hair-self as a model so I only get to see this ugly mug in my hats.

Anyway, I don't have to worry much about that, I asked her permission prior to posting her on here and she volunteered with enthusiasm. She also added this:

"My big wish is that you can have a billion-dollar hat making enterprise and that I can be your spokesmodel!"

I see a future happening here . . .  :)