Etsy Front Page!

I was so fortunate to be included in this lovely treasury from softmelody recently. Reading through comments today, I learned the treasury was featured on the Etsy front page! Hooray! Though I missed the feature (it looks like it was around 6 a.m. Miami time), I did reap the benefits - lots of views and hearts for my little pink stripes and sage dot bags.

It's Carnival Time!

WE HAVE A WINNER! KAMEWHA
Please drop me a quick email at luckyduckdesigns@gmail.com with your contact information and I'll get your cards in the mail.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by!
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EtsyGreetings, the handmade greeting card team at Etsy is hosting a fun blog carnival all this week. I am participating and giving away a full set of 5 embossed peace cards like these from my shop.



To participate in my giveaway, just leave a comment below with your favorite item from my Etsy shop. I'll choose a winner by random number generator at the end of the week.

To enter to win other fun prizes offered by the many talented members at EtsyGreetings, stop by our blog for a linked list of all the giveaways happening this week.

Have Yourself a Recycled Little Christmas

Because we live far from our families, my husband and I always have to travel with our holiday packages. Despite the most careful packaging, we usually end up with torn giftwrap and squished bows when we arrive.

I love wrapping gifts, but am super excited about these bags. No more torn packages, lots of saved time and we can reuse them year after year, so no more piles and piles of wasted paper at the end of the big unwrapping!

Plus, they go great with these gift tags from my lucky duck designs shop!

Mini Holiday Notecards Coming Soon!

They aren't in the shop yet, but I'll be listing them this week. Just 2.75 inches square and perfect for attaching your warm holiday wishes to that perfect handmade gift.

Our Friendship Grows Better Every Year

Indeed. This card 'hit' me on the boring, boring, boring stationery bike as I pedaled to nowhere nursing an injured leg this weekend. Couldn't wait to see it to fruition.

Holiday Paper Preview

I had a delightful day in the studio today and was very much in the creative zone. A nice break from all the statistics of my usual school/work week. The listings for these tags are all lined up for the week, but I couldn't wait to share, so here's a sneak peek at what's to come in the Lucky Duck Designs shop.

Stockings! Stockings! Stockings! And warm collaborations!

So, you've wondered why I haven't posted to my blog lately? I've had my hands on knitting needles! Stockings are in the second shop!






I thought it might be fun to provide buyers with links to some of my favorite stocking stuffers here at Etsy! So, I contacted some of those folks and asked if they would mind if I linked to their shop in my listing, and if they would provide a similar link to my shop in some of their listings. The response was very enthusiastic!

We are just getting started this week, so not all the cross-links are yet posted, but mine are up! If you're looking for great stocking stuffers, check out these terrific shops:

Lip Balm from Morgan Street
Pocket Mirrors from Madison Craft
Felt Brooches from smeeta
Magnets from block party press
Glass Ornaments from Tanner Glass
Coin Purses from JPAT

A Beautiful Collaboration

Have you ever wanted to purchase a mix of coordinating cards from Etsy sellers, but was turned off by the prospect of multiple shipping costs? Here's your chance!

Six of us collaborated to put together a pretty stationery set that incorporated different designs while providing buyers the opportunity to buy the whole set with just one shipping cost. I'm so thrilled to be part of this talented group.

The shops that contributed to this collaborative effort are:
http://Tatsuko.etsy.com
http://Jmillen.etsy.com
http://Winemakerssister.etsy.com
Http://Inkspotworkshop.etsy.com
http://Luckyduckdesigns.etsy.com
Http://Justanotherday.etsy.com

If you are interested in purchasing a set (we have a limited number available), just click on the photo above to be sent to the listing in my etsy shop.

Friendly Fay

Tropical Storm Fay is knocking at our back door today as she drips raindrop after raindrop after raindrop across Miami. We've lost satellite reception and are living off internet information while we cross our fingers the power stays up!



For a little fun, I'm offering a Tropical Storm Treat in my Etsy Shop. Just mention Fay in the notes at checkout and I'll refund your shipping and include a fun little bonus gift in your package!

My Only Sunshine

Some Etsy sunshine for Monday morning :).

Shop Update This Week!

Finally some new designs in the shop! Pictured above are just two of the handful of new cards and tags that will be appearing in my Etsy shop over the next week. The 'sunshine' card was inspired by one of my Ducks in a Row clients who needs a birthday card for her husband this month. The little tags are an extension of some promos I did last week for a lovely vintage shop in California.

Your comments and critiques are welcome! I'd love to hear what you think.

Christmas in July!

Pop by the shop today to get a sneak preview of some adorable mini Christmas stockings that are currently listed. They are at an introductory price while I dream of cooler days (it's scorching in Miami this week!) and knit with wool trying to imagine hot cocoa, warm blankets, and snow falling.

The size of these stockings makes them perfect for gifting small items like candy, jewelry, or gift certificates. They are also darling as holiday table place settings and can easily be adapted to hang on a holiday tree.

Although my first love is paper, I have been slowly working my way back to some fiber work lately. I have a new shop opening soon which will exclusively showcase my knitting and crochet projects: ahnalee marie.

This Team Rocks My Socks

I was super lucky with the mouse yesterday and snagged a treasury, which I quickly devoted to our awesome Etsy Team: EtsyGreetings. Click on the image above to visit the treasury and see all the wonderful cards from my fellow team members.

Such a great group of artists, I gush just thinking about them. Want to know what we're up to?

* We've got a great Business Buddy program happening with the JET team.

* We have a cooperative purchase in the works to save everyone a little $ on, get this, ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY cello sleeves for our cards.

* The awesome brainchild of one of our members, Mission Soldier Support, delivers lovely handmade cards to our troops.

* Another incredible idea from one of our members: An ongoing pricing data collection to help us as a team figure out the magic behind pricing greeting cards at Etsy!

I can't say enough about this team!!

New in the Shop: Stationery Sets and More!

Bright, cheerful, and super functional, I have 2 new stationery sets available in the shop. There are more to come in additional colors (you can post requests in the comments if you'd like!). Each has 3 full-size greeting cards (3.5 x 5 inches) plus two gift cards.

Also just added are a new set of 10 adhesive gift tags and a great set of 6 cheery happy birthday cards.

Great to give your personal stationery box a little boost, or give as a thanks-for-dinner, thanks-for-babysitting, thanks-for-whatever gifts :).

A Perfect Scuba Day

We lucked out with beautiful weather, almost no winds, and super calm seas yesterday - perfect conditions for our second official dive in Key Largo. And for the first time, my husband DIDN'T spend half the trip sick on the boat.

We saw a good-sized nurse shark, a beautiful sting ray, the biggest lobster I've ever seen, and a shy goliath grouper.

Unfortunately, my cheap-o underwater camera does none of it justice. But, I did get some cool pictures of our gear, some lovely scuba bubbles, and Nick demonstrating perfect buoyancy (it took us a long time to master that!).

Sweet, Scented Sachets

Aren't these wonderful? About 5 inches square and filled with 1/2 - 3/4 cup of dried lavender buds. Our house smells delicious. And the images are proof positive that custom orders make sewing more fun. This client was delightful to talk with and had great ideas for colors. A few more finishing touches and these little beauties will be on their way to Australia!

Back in Business!

My beloved digital camera, the one I have cherished for more than 4 years, took it's final breath early last week. A photo of my darling husband turned out like this:



Definitely not what he looks like :).

So, a little wrench was tossed into my Etsy business with no way to upload new images. But yesterday our new camera arrived: Canon PowerShot A720 IS. It's a smaller sibling to my beloved (Canon PowerShot S1 IS), but I have to say I'm impressed. Terrific image quality, super easy to use, and delightfully lightweight. Plus, this one has a macro feature which I have thoroughly enjoyed these past couple of hours:



This image is a preview of a sweet little blanket and baby hat set that will soon be listed in my sister-shop: Ahnalee Marie. The yarn is a delicious organic cotton that is wonderfully soft (particularly for a cotton) and a perfect weight for naps, car rides and general carrying around. This new shop will be home to my non-greeting card items; essentially, where I will feed my need for bigger projects that involve yarn and fabric and sewing ... all my non-paper loves.

Shark!

Our first official scuba dive in the Florida Keys was a true adventure! We dove during a small craft advisory (translation: big, big, big waves), which was not easy, but we were well rewarded! Two nurse sharks and a HUGE goliath grouper made for a fun set of dives.

Ribbons in a Row

Though I can't say for sure, I think it was flipping through a Martha Stewart magazine in the past few months that I saw this handy little idea for storing ribbon.

Since my craft drawers are over-full, I decided to give it a try.

I pulled apart one of the many dry-cleaning hangers that seem to linger around our house for much too long (I hate wire hangers) and threaded these little beauties right on. I have to say, it's super handy to have so many of them all tidy in a row (there are still many more stuffed in a drawer in my studio), and they are within arm's reach now that they hang from my work-table.

So thanks, Martha, or whoever it was who published this great tip!

Domesticated

The only ironing I ever enjoyed was my father's hankerchiefs. Perfect white squares, easy to manage cotton, and fun to fold and perfectly crease. When I learned to sew as a kid, calico quilt squares were kind of fun too. But any other ironing, particularly men's button-down shirts, drives me mad. Until now.



I threw every Macy's promotion I could find at this thing, but it was still a splurge. Worth every penny. She arrived yesterday and is the best thing that's happened to my perfectly un-domesticated life in a long, long time. I've ironed three times today: once this morning in a mad dash for work, again when I got home (suddenly all those wrinkled shirts were no threat) and this evening I couldn't resist pulling out some fresh calico and sewing up a new batch of sachets. My husband is perplexed, and I think a little concerned.

Oh, Rowenta. Where have you been all my life?

Wonderful Project Wonderful

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you'll see I have re-instated the Project Wonderful ads. I hosted these ads in the past, but the code was incompatible with blogger and often failed. The folks at ProjectWonderful fixed this little bug and I'm happy to once again host ads here at Feathered Friends for just $.10 per day.

I'm also back in the game myself, with ads on a variety of Etsy-related blogs across the web. I've found success with my old ad, but recently designed a new ad that features more of my work. I think this might be a bit more 'clickable' and would love your opinions! The old ad is on top, the newer one on the bottom.

Underwater Inspirations

My husband and I have been learning to scuba dive the past couple of weeks and are hoping to complete our certification this Sunday. Although my focus has been heavily on BREATHING for the first dive last weekend, I did have a moment to look around and realize where I was (30 feet under at the beautiful Pennekamp State Park in Key Largo, Florida). It's BEAUTIFUL. The colors are a little muted and things appear surrounded in this yellow glow. There were fish everywhere, which I thought would freak me out, but frankly I have much bigger problems (like remembering to BREATHE).

We haven't been allowed to bring our cameras under with us yet, so I'll share a picture of Molasses Reef (last weekend's dive) taken by the folks at divespots.com. The colors and textures are inspiring, don't you think?

Windows

A few new-ish favorites to share with you from my shop. I have been trying to improve my skills with the exacto knife and found cutting windows was a good way to practice. Windows led to frames and frames led to, well, something to frame! The flowers and hearts held in place by embroidery floss felt just right. I hope you enjoy them too.