Etsy Opinion, PLEASE!

Hey friends, 

Well it has been a long time coming, but I am finally working on getting my Etsy account up and running.  But before I full-speed ahead, I need your help. 

2 things:  What do you think of eMVie's new blog look?  

I have been working on the header for a few days now, and this is the best I can come up with.

I really hope it paints a colorful, clean, & creative picture for you.  

Please tell me what you think.  Be honest but nice if you truly hate it. 

 {keep the hating to yourself, and the love for everyone else}

Also, I am trying to pick my Etsy header & here are the options I have going for me right now:

As of now I have this 1st one up on my Etsy account. {Grey & Purple} I chose it because it doesn't give the blog "look" {completely} away... kind of leaves it for a happy surprise?  You think?

{So which ever one you like best, please tell me. Your opinion matters to me.

For these {Etsy Headers} I would like it if you mentioned why you prefer it over the others}

THANK YOU for your HELP!  It is difficult coming up with this stuff.  

Oh, and if anyone has a WAY cooler design they would like to make for me, I would LOVE to see it & possibly use it {of course giving you the credit}  :) 

1.

2.

3.  subtle difference between 2 & 3 : 3 is brighter

4.

5. 

www.eMVie.Etsy.com

I Am Second

I Am Second

I think I'm in love -

This video is dedicated to all my fellow crafters out there - it speaks the truth of all our hearts. HA!

Watch this video by Gem Sweater - Leslie Hall
Love it.
Click Here : Craft Talk

Pillow's Anyone?

(picture taken by Kevin)

I had a bunch of left over Zebra fabric - not wanting to make a bunch of small pillows out of it, I decided to make a big body pillow with the extra. I think it turned out great and it's super comfy too. The pillow even has a zipper on one side.

Kevin came in and started taking some random shots while I was working on the pillow.

He took some cool ones, so I thought I would post those pictures in this post as well. 

PS - I  had so much fun taking creative pictures of this pillow, please excuse the excessive amount of pictures taken on just one pillow. :)

a beautiful mess

(Here's the pillow pictures taken by me)

etsy

full etsy account coming soon - 

www.eMVie.etsy.com

i love zebra

I made this zebra pillow in order to add some flavor to this chair - 

I like zebra print a lot and could easily go overboard with it, 

but thankfully my husband lets me know when I start to take the zebra too far. 

A little zebra pillow never hurt nobody! :)

New Obsession

It has been a very long time since I posted my artzy-fartzy stuff on here - Lately I have been posting them on my other blog - http://www.vanwynsberg.blogspot.com/ Not sure why, but I am going to start posting the creative stuff on eMVie again-
Here is my most recent creations/obsessions- I REALLY like them, and am working on more of them. I bought about 7 different colored rolls of ribbon and now just need to buy more beads to get started. My goal is to make enough to be able to set up and sell this summer. We'll see. It makes it easier when you really like what you are making, and I really love these necklaces. Hopefully you all do to! Please let me know what you think about them. Your opinion matters to me. :)
Thanks for your support!

Bright Pink Ribbon Necklace

Black & Turquoise Ribbon Necklace

Put into Action

Where there is love, there is life.

-Mahatma Gandhi

Recently my husband and I had our close Friends Matt & Sarah visiting us from Michigan. Sarah and I decided we needed to have a girls day, so one of the fun things on our 'to do' list was to go pick out beads and each make a necklace. I had been wanting to try and make a chain necklace for awhile, so considering that the chains I wanted to use were on sale, I decided this was my chance to experiment. So here it is- this is my first ever attempt at making a chain necklace. It was really quite easy, the hard part was deciding on which pieces to use as the center pieces. As you can see this piece with a quote by Mahatma Gandhi caught my attention - "Where there is love, there is life." I love this quote because of the truth that it echos. I also added the sparrow to the necklace, because sparrows typically symbolize freedom. Freedom to me ties into Gandhi's quote, because no matter where you are in the world, no matter what laws or regulations you have to stand by, you ALWAYS have the freedom to love, which in a sense to me is greater than all things, because like Gandhi says, "Where there is love, there is life."

*Photo taken by: Sarah Smyczynski
You can check out her work @
www.sarahski.com

Puppy Love.

What can I say, I love my furry little friends. I have two wonderful dogs, Ashes Bailey Bubbles (who goes by Bailey most of the time) and Leonidas Winston Peabody (who goes by Leo most of the time). They are such little joys in my life. My husband and I plan on breading them, which is something I am happily looking forward to. I LOVE puppies!! It will be a really neat experience (SOON!). Anyways, We have been working hard on keeping them off our new couch, so in order to spark their interest in sitting somewhere else, I made them a big pillow/(doggy bed type thing) for them to lay on. I had a lot of extra fabric from the pillows I made (per-previous posts), so I decided to use the rest of that fabric to make the pillow/doggy bed for them.
Here are are a few pictures of my little loves and their new found spot to call their own. :) (Sorry my camera doesn't take the best quality pictures)

Pretty Up - Earrings

eMVie

Rings fingers, Fingers rings...

Here are many of the rings I have been making. Rings are my favorite piece of jewelry to make.
I recently tried something new with the rings, but I haven't taken pictures of them yet, I wanted to get all these posted first.

(Thanks Christina Reed for being my lovely hand model)

eMVie

Something to Adore... a Mother.

For Mother's Day, I made these pieces for my mother and my mother-in-law.

Enjoy!


I made this Black and White earring and bracelet set for my Mother.

(In honor of the most wonderful mother God could have blessed me with, Chantel Pandora Pearson. Thank You for your love, Your laughter, all your sacrifices, and for bringing me to know the greatest gift ever.. Christ. If it wasn't for you, I may have never come to know the Lord. Thank you for giving me not only life, but life eternal. Thank you God, for my mother.
I LOVE YOU MOM!)

I made this brown, green, and gold set of earrings and bracelet for my Mother-in-law.

(In honor of Christine Valeria Stryjak. Thank You for blessing me. Thank you for blessing me with the honor of marrying your wonderful son. I may have never found my soul mate if it weren't for you. Thank you for the gift of life.)

The Wife

I was inspired to make this Necklace the other evening, while making some Mother's Day jewelry.

eMVie

Cotton, Seams & the Most Fabulous Things

Nothin' like a comfy pillow and a nice cup of Joe.

So here's some pictures of the pillows I made (first time ever). I was really happy with how they turned out! I even managed to sew zippers in the pillows, which I was pretty stoked about, because I thought zippers were going to be more difficult then they actually were.


Here was the first one I made:

White with dark purple pom-pom things around the edge.

Here's the second one I made:

Black and White

Zipper

Awe, friends...

eMVie

Stitches, Seams, and a Hardcore Sewing Machine

I started my first ever sewing class on April 17th. I don't think I have ever in my life used a sewing machine before now, I have only ever sown by hand. I have been wanting to take a sewing class for quite sometime now, and was ecstatic to actually find a class starting up for a reasonable price. I jumped at the opportunity very quickly, I didn't want this chance to pass me by.

As of now, I have had 2 classes and have learned a ton. The first night of class Rebecca (the teacher, who is my age and has been sewing since she was 8), took me over some basics like threading the machine and simple stitch stuff, then she had me make a little purse/bag thing. If you know me, you know this bag is not really my style, but it's the only materials she had for me, so of course I overlooked the granny style of it all and enjoyed sewing a purse! It was actually really easy to do. Of course I needed some guidance but overall I had it figured out. Here are some pictures of the ugly yet still awesome purse/bag I made:











































As for my 2ND class I learned the following:

How to sew a,

• Basic Seam
• Stitched and Pinked Seam
• Zigzag Sean Open
• Surged Seam ( you use a totally different machine that is crazy fast)
  
• French Seam (for Shears, Satins)
• Flat-Felled Seam (Denim-Jeans)
• Top-Stithed (Casual Apparel-Jeans)
• Rolled Hem (Blouses, Formals, Lining)
• Hand Blind-Hemmed (Dress Slacks, Formal wear)
• A Zipper - (My favorite, but tough)
  

This isn't as easy as I wish it was though... their is so much to learn, though I learned a lot, that was only the tip of the iceberg. This following week I will be learning buttons and how to make PILLOWS! I am very excited about the pillow making, because it is one of the main reasons I even wanted to learn how to sew. I can never find the decorative pillows I want for a reasonable price, so why not learn how to make them myself. I get to bring in whatever fabric I want for these pillows ( I think I will be making two, with zippers). I looked at fabrics at WalMart but didn't find anything great, so my next stop will be Joann Fabrics, I am pretty sure I will find what I am looking for there.

I am also saving up to buy a sewing machine... I have my eye on one that's oh lets say, $200 something dollars. That's OK, eventually!

I hope one day I can make you some pillows too! I'll keep you updated on how this adventure goes. :)

-eMVie-

Giving Love, Love Giving..

Here are some updated pictures of my most recent jewelry creations of o8.

**Sorry the pictures aren't that great, I have a cheap camera... :( Oh well, least you can get an idea of what they look like.**

I made this piece as a surprise for a dear friend of mine. Her and I had been meeting once a week together for several weeks. She has inspired and helped me grow in so many ways. I love her very much. As our journey was coming to an end (meeting once a week together) I had to get her or make her something. Of course my mind went to jewelry as it usually does, so I went to Michael's, and picked the pieces that most reminded me of her. I picked pearls, because they reminded me of her. It might sound cheezy, but to me pearls are such a pure and rare item, and she is one of those rare people you don't meet everyday. I really like the length of this necklace and the colors and the beads.. OK everything!










































I made the next 2 pieces for a co-worker/friend. I was really excited about making them for her. She knew I made jewelry and one day randomly asked me if I would be interested in making her some. Of course I was ecstatic to do it! Her and I took ourselves a little trip to Michael's, and picked out beads to make some necklaces. Erin was so much fun to shop with, I really enjoyed how she was so laid back and was really open minded about everything. We picked out the beads, and she let me do what I wanted with them, which was really cool.. No restrictions, I like that. So, here they are and I think they look great on her!

Fresh Creations

Hello!

Well, here it is, the opening of my New Blog, all dedicated to displaying the handcrafted, handmade, artzy fartzy things I like to make/or at least try once. I am hoping that this blog will not only serve as inspiration to me, but also to you. Maybe it could give you yourself some ideas on how to color your world more beautiful. I believe that everything inspires something/someone. The things I make may be my own, but they usually always come out of some sort of glance or inspiration I happen to pass with my eyes. I love the fact that one little glance at creation can spiral a whole mountain of creativity. I enjoy being inspired by others, because I know their gift offers me something greater; that out of their greatness or messiness, I may pour out something that passes it's way along to the next.. and so on.
I believe we are all leaders in some sort fashion and to me a good leader, no, a great leader is someone who doesn't try to be the "best", but instead inspires the best in others. :0) So here it is. I hope this blog finds you well and ready to explore my world, your world, and so many others.

Sincerely,
just a girl-
eMVie