Afghan Scarf

Meet my new scarf! I suppose if I am going to introduce you I should give it a name. It is only the polite thing to do. I'll start over. Meet Miss Agatha! She looks like an Agatha don't you think?

This has been my project this week. It definitely took longer than I anticipated. It is so soft, and plush, and warm. And maybe just a tad heavy. I doubled up the strands of yarn and tried a new stitch called "Pineapple." Each bobble consists of 16 strands! It didn't turn out anything like the picture showed, but I love the result! Because of the thickness it is a bit like a portable afghan. Perfect!

It measures 100"x12"

Now if I only had somewhere cold to wear it! North Pole here I come!

Personalize your Mother's Day

Another great etsy artist I stumbled across----Polarity. She uses recycled auto parts to create unique lockets, bracelets and earrings. And as I love one of a kind and slightly off jewelry (see older posts) I am loving her style.

Follow this giveaway link to her blog for your chance to enter and win a personalized locket set.

Check out her other shop Uncorked for more awesomeness!

to create is to destroy

found this online. loved it. wanted to share.

A Sylvia-Louise Giveaway!

Win a headband and matching bracelet!

Contest ends April 30th.

A few weeks ago blogger Say Something Stacey contacted us about participating in a feature about handmade artists on Etsy. We've never had anyone approach us about a giveaway before. This is our very first. We are extremely excited. It will be interesting to see what kind of response we get.

For details check out her blog. Best of luck to everyone!

Earth Day Series Giveaway

This week I have discovered another AMAZING artist on Etsy. TheBrokenPlate. She recycles and makes beautiful jewelry pieces. Her thimble necklaces are my favorite. I would definitely wear one. A few years ago while in Kauai I found some hand painted incense burner holders. I fell in love with them and turned them into necklaces for myself. I've had lots of complements. I love the idea of taking something that doesn't belong and making it work out as something else---kind of my general philosophy of life.

Anyway, the rikrak studio is doing a series of giveaways in honor of Earth Day. This particular one features TheBrokenPlate.

Click here giveaway link to enter.

Emelia Jane Photography

My new favorite artist on Etsy is Emelia Jane Photography. I discovered her when I was searching out new artists to include in my "Oh . . . the stories I could tell" treasury collection. She is an amazing artist! And she's super nice. She created a write up about me and two other artists who included her work in their treasuries.  Her blog is fantastic and even has a "Thank You" section Sylvia-Louise is lucky to included in.

These are a few of my favorite Emelia Jane photographs.

Little Homes Have A New Home

One of my favorite artists on Etsy is thelittlereddoor. She makes the cutest little ceramic items. I've wanted to order something for a long time. I finally had a reason---DD was moving offices for her new position in financial aid and redecorating. I special ordered these 2 custom houses to match her black, white and red London theme. I've been watching the mail everyday for the past couple of weeks, and today they arrived! DD loved them, and since we were out and about we took them to her new office. Ta-da!

Even better? When I ordered DD's houses thelittlereddoor was having a buy one get one promotion. So I got a couple of houses for myself! Hooray! They are adorable. And I'm happy one of the houses actually has a little red door (because red is my favorite color).  They were too cute not to immediately take photos of and post.

You can make ANYTHING

Once my aunt told me, "If you can make a chinese dragon, you can make anything." Well, I have made a chinese dragon (Halloween 2007). And I pretty much try to make all kinds of things. When I'm out and about and see something I usually say to myself, and sometimes out loud,  "I can make that." The problem is usually materials. But when I can find what I want to use to create whatever vision I have in my head, the results are something like this.

I saw a necklace like this some time ago. I knew I could make one myself. I just kept forgetting to get the beads. I sat down one afternoon last week and figured it out. After only a couple of beads I had the hang of it, and the necklace came together quite easily. If I can generate enough interest I may add it to my Sylvia-Louise shop. But even if I don't sell them, I will enjoy wearing it and probably making more.

SPRING SALE

Sylvia-Louise Handbags Spring Sale!

04/06/10-04/20/10

Hop on over to

www.sylvialouise.etsy.com

and check out all the recently reduced items in our "SALE" section!

Handbags are 25-30% off!

(Some actually have a deeper discount because I rounded down to the nearest 0 or 5)

Take advantage of these lower prices before they are gone. 

A Childhood Dream Come True

Music was a huge part of our growing up. We were VERY creative as children. One of our favorite shows was Kids Incorporated. It was a show about kids who form their own band and perform on stage at The Place. We had our own place---anywhere we could set up the vacuum as a microphone and strap on racquetball racquets as guitars. We even called it "playing kids incorporated."

Our first performances were set to old Beach Boys records. Our first CD player opened up a whole new world to us. The Beatles quickly became a favorite, but we could sing to almost any song on any oldies CD. We each took turns singing lead vocals.

These performances evolved into a series of Family Favorites videos of us lip syncing in costume in front of sometimes elaborate backdrops or out on location.

As children, we were all required to take piano lessons. DD and Steele both taught themselves how to play guitar. And Steele can play electrical guitar too. I could never quite master the coordination it takes to play the right chords and strum---let alone picking.

Here's where the "dream come true" part comes in. Aside from ACTUALLY being a band we have formed our virtual band Kicking Piguens thanks to Rock Band. Disclaimer: I am NO good at video games. We never had them growing up. But Rock Band is sooooo much more than a video game. I'm still not very coordinated when it comes to playing pretend guitar or bass, but I'm not too shabby on the drums (on easy) or vocals. Steele is AMAZING at everything. DD is the queen of bass and more aggressive on the drums than me. And we have even persuaded mom and dad that it's fun! I guess we're all a little bit of a rock star at heart.

Our world of pretend has just gotten a little more real. And we can wail away to some of our favorite tunes. We've been known to play for hours at a time---switching instruments and positions for lead and back up vocals. It's a good thing DD and I live up north or we might never stop playing! ROCK ON!

Next time we're in San Diego, I'll take some new photos of the band to post later.