Fabulous Friday

This post is going to be full of LOTS of different things so please bear with me, OK?

Friday Linky Parties:

You can see the badges in the right sidebar, but part of the reason I LOVE Friday is all the fun linky parties around Blogland! I've linked to Friday Follow at One 2 Try, Follow Me Friday at Trendy Treehouse and New Friend Friday at The Girl Creative! Friday is a great day to make new bloggy friends!! Also a new one for this week, Spring has Sprung at It's FUN to Craft.

Finish It Friday:

I managed to finish a couple of really easy and rather fun to make tote bags and I finished them on MONDAY! Don't ask me why I waited until today to post about them. Well, actually, I was going to wait until April for a surprise but just wanted to share today before I give them away. The first one, I made with Mill House Inn fabrics that my mom purchased. She wanted a tote that was small and had pockets for her cell phone and car key. I just LOVE this pattern for the Desk Deli Tote. It's supposed to be a reusable lunch bag but I found that the size and pockets make it perfect for a carryall bag and I use mine as a purse. We don't have the pattern yet because it's super popular and actually on backorder with our distributor! We will be ordering it soon though. This bag is so easy because it's made with mostly fat quarters! OK, enough rambling I'm sure you want to see pictures, right?

This is the one I made for my mom with Mill House Inn FQs

I made this one for my friend Lynda who looves shoes.

Can you tell that the batik fabric has flip flops on it? She also LOOOVES pink!

I think the fun thing about these totes is the way the pockets are made. You can customize them to the size that you want for your cell phone, car keys, pens, etc. There are some skinny pockets that were intended to use for utensils (since it's supposed to be a lunch tote) but I use them for my pens! The larger center pocket was intended for an ice pack, but that's where I stash my cell phone. Well, I'll be sure to announce when we get this pattern in and you can bet we'll list some kits to go with it!

Store Update:

Guess what!? If you are subscribed to our newsletter then you should already know this AWESOME news! (If not, visit the teal box in the right sidebar to sign up. hint: You'll get coupons!) The great news? BUTTONS! We have some wonderful and super cute buttons in our shop! Have you ever seen buttons with POLKA DOTS!? I hadn't until now and we have them! I just LOVE the red ones with white dots!

Click the image to view item in shop.

I suppose that's it for now. Thanks for reading all the way to this point! Please do sign up for the newsletter because there are A LOT of great things in store for the shop (including the Fab Shop Hop in JULY!) and I am sure you want to be the FIRST to find out about them!

Happy Stitches,
Anna

P.S. I just watched Julie and Julia last night and LOVED it! How cute! Didn't really inspire me to cook though, just to blog and sew more.

Friday Webstore Feature and FABRIC!

Since it's Friday, I thought it would be a great time to point out another cool feature on our webstore. On any page, you can see a group of links on the left sidebar. The top is the Shopping links, which are categories for your shopping ease. The section under that is called "about" and this is where you can find some info about the Crafty Girls. You can click on the About link and read about Regina and me and what inspired us to start up Crafty Girls. The Events link will take you to a calendar and if you live in the San Antonio, TX area, you'll see any scheduled events we have planned for a particular month. The Contact link will take you to a form where you can send us an e-mail if you have any questions about our products or anythying. The Catalog is another way to search the webstore. The last two features are pretty pretty cool, I think. We have one called Web Site Links. This is where you'll find a link to join our e-mail newsletter, participate in our Crafty Girls photo sharing group, visit the blog, or even link to the sites of some of the designers of patterns in our shop. The last link is called Guest Book, which may be self explanatory, but I think it's a neat way to let us know you visited and add some input about our webstore (it's still growing and changing). We'd love to know where our webstore visitors are coming from. It may just be the computer geek in me but I feel these are features that make our webstore more personal for our visitors and customers. Something we didn't have as much of on the Etsy shop.

Now for something you'll REALLY like, FABRIC! Yes, Spring is approaching and that means we're getting some beautiful spring color fabrics in. Have you seen the Verna fabrics we've recently listed?

Wouldn't these make into some adorable little girl dresses or cute tote bags for SPRING!? It's time to get a jump start on those spring projects. Tell Mr. Groundhog that you aren't going to accept his assessment that Spring is not here yet and make this REALLY cute vintage jumper, perfect for Easter.

I've heard really good reviews of patterns from the Favorite Things line and I think this would be a perfect beginner project. I wish I had a little girl to make it for! Well, I hope I gave you something to think about for the weekend (and maybe grab one for a future project.) You can click any of the photos above to visit the listing in our webstore or just click the link. Thanks for visiting! I'll be linking this on a couple of linky parties today.

Have a great weekend!
Happy stitches,
Anna

Friday Follow Yippee!

I'm really starting to look forward to Fridays now because of Friday follow! Here is some information about it from One 2 Try's blog:

Here's how You can join the celebration:

--Link up your blog name and URL using the McLinking (on One 2 Try's page) Only need to add one blog to be see on all the blog hops.

--Follow the Friday Follow hostesses listed in the first 3 slots

--Follow as many blogs as you'd like

--Take a moment to comment on the blogs telling them you're from Friday Follow

--Follow back when you get a new follower through Friday Follow

The Blog Hop is the same at each of the three host blogs so you do not have to add your blog at each site. Just one - but you can follow each blog. Follow a few or follow them all.

The list is new each week. The links do not carry over. Please link up each week for new participants to find your blogs. The list is only open to add your blog lines on Fridays. It will be visible all week to visit the blogs listed.

Phew, that's a lot of info! But you should certainly check out One 2 Try, Hearts Make Families, and Midday Escapades because they are the lovely ladies who host this fabulous event every week! I can't believe it, it is barely even 8:45 am Central time and they already have 391 links!! Wow, can't wait to add mine!

Happy Stitches and welcome new followers!

Anna

Friday Follow Again!

I just totally LOVE Friday Follow! I love meeting new bloggy friends! Please say hi and check out my blog. If you'd like to know more about Friday Follow visit the One2Try by clicking the picture above to find out all the details.

Happy Stitches,
Anna

Friday Follow

Last week I found this nifty group of ladies who host something called Friday Follow. I added my blog to their list and amazingly over the course of the week had lots of new people visiting this blog! It was really fun to be "found" by so many people. So this week I'm really going to participate. I'm adding the button and spreading the word. Hopefully some will come by and bid on that quilt!

Happy Blog Hopping,
Anna