Lending a Paw

Members of the NC Triangle Team have donated a special basket of handmade gifts to be auctioned by SAFE Haven for Cats at their Tuxedo Cat Ball!  The event is being held tonight, Friday, April 29, from 7-11 pm at the Marbles Kids Museum in downtown Raleigh, and tickets are still available online and at the door!

Thanks to the following team members for contributing to the donation!

anhartetsy                        LindaSearcyJewelry
BlueCuddly                     metamorphosis
Hermosa84                      OrangeCatArt

SAFE Haven For Cats (SHFC) is a no-kill shelter for cats located in the North Raleigh area. In addition to providing adoption services for cats and kittens in need of good homes, we also manage a foster program for animals requiring a little extra love and care. We further assist our community in providing feline spay and neuter services in connection with SAFE Care Feline Spay Neuter Clinic.

Craftland 2009

The Scrap Exchange, an 18 year old creative reuse center, and the North Carolina Triangle Etsy Street Team join together this holiday season to offer “Craftland: Handmade Goods by Local Artists” in the Green Gallery located in the reuse center of The Scrap Exchange. Craftland exists to provide customers and the local community access to sustainable gifts made from repurposed materials. The marketplace is open from October 16th-January 2nd. Items include stuffed animals made from tee-shirts, girl's skirts made from men's work shirts, metal sculptures made from typewriter and sewing machine parts, melted and fused glass items and much more! Many Etsy artists are featured including: ReVamped Creations, Nice Shirt Kid, Lucky Girl Trading, MegRNC, Fandragon, FlowerSoup, Janine Maves, and Donnie Wrights.


A huge thanks goes to Megan (MegRNC), Carolyn (Blue Cuddly), Jill (Orange Cat Art) and Tonya (ReVamped Creations) for all of their hard work in helping organize the 6th Annual Craftland.

bluecuddly on Parenting.com

bluecuddly found out this morning that her Boo! Jumper had been included in a special feature on Parenting.com titled 25 Click-to-Buy Homemade Halloween Costumes

Congratulations Carolyn!

Monthly Challenge #4 - Autumn Leaves

Challenge #4 will run November 5 - November 21 with the theme, Autumn Leaves, chosen by last month's winner Blue Cuddly.

------Monthly Challenge Rules----
* Participant must be an active member of the NC Triangle Street Team.
* One entry per shop/participant per challenge.
* You may enter something already in your shop or something made specifically for the challenge. The choice is yours!
* Your entry must be listed in your shop with the month's challenge tag (NCtriangleC4). If it sells that is fine, the link will still work and you are still eligible to win!
* Once your entry is listed, post its title, your shop name, and a link to the entry in the monthly challenge thread.
* Post only entries that are relevant to the monthly challenges. Entries not relevant to that month's challenge will be deleted at the discretion of the moderator.
* Each participant must post their entry by 11:59 p.m. on Friday, November 21.
* All of the entries will be compiled and voting will run November 22 - 30. Voting will be held via an open poll here on the team blog.
* The winner will be announced on December 1. As a reward: the winner's items will be featured on the blog throughout the next month, plus she/he will get to choose the next challenge theme. (See below for the added incentive this month!)

Note: You can also post a picture of your entry to the NC Triangle Street Team Challenge group on Flickr, but you still need to post your entry in the forums in order for it to be included in the voting process. Entries added to the Flickr Challenge group must be tagged with this month's challenge tag.

****You can win a prize!***
As a little extra incentive this month JennGee is offering up a prize to the winner of this month's challenge. The winner will receive their choice of one item from her shop - whatever you want!

Good luck everyone!

Handmade Halloween Challenge #3 Winner

The winner of our third monthly challenge "Handmade Halloween" is. . .

Boo Ghost Jumper by Blue Cuddly

Congratulations Blue Cuddly!

Blue Cuddly's shop specializes "in custom made clothing for girls and boys". All of the items are 100% cotton "and are made from ready made items or custom sewn pieces. Each item is embellished with any combination of hand embroidery, hand cut appliqué and/or machine decorative stitches".

As the winner of the monthly challenge, Blue Cuddly's items will be featured on the blog throughout the month of November, plus she will get to choose the next challenge theme. Please contact Crafts by Alice or Jenngee with your November challenge theme.

Thank you to everyone who joined in on this fun challenge and to everyone who voted. It was a lot of fun! If you missed out entering an item for this challenge you need not worry, we will be posting info on our November challenge soon.

Team Treasury; Purple People Eater!

AlloverArt created this peaceful treasury filled with purples from the team's shops...

Team Treasury: Moo goes the cow

AlloverArt had fun searching for the animals in the team shops when she created this...

Featured Seller: Blue Cuddly Designs

Who are you?
My name is Carolyn Kesler and I am the owner of Blue Cuddly Designs.

Where are you located?
Physically in Holly Springs, NC, but I can be found online via my Etsy shop and my own web-site. I also have some embroidered onsies at Padoodles Trendy Kids Boutique in Fuquay-Varina. I am a sponsor for Pink Christmas this year.

What do you create?
I make custom children’s clothing. My clothes are created by sewing one of a kind items, or embellishing ready-made items with appliqués and/or hand embroidery. My clothes have more of a classic style than a trendy one.

Why did you choose your company name?
I wanted my company to be a reflection of my son. He is the true inspiration behind it. He is the reason I am designing children’s clothes and not roadways and waterlines anymore. Blue Cuddly is his lovey. It’s a little blue dog with a blanket for a body. He has had it since he was about 3 months. Blue Cuddly has been through everything with him. He has comforted him on rides at Disney World, airplane trips, even a couple of late night ER visits. He is just a part of our family.

What is your favorite place to visit in the "triangle"? I enjoy visiting the libraries and bookstores. I am a bookworm and read voraciously. I will read almost anything. And I get great ideas from looking through books.

When did you start creating?
My mother and grandmother were always making clothes or afghans. In fact, I have an afghan and a sewing bag that my grandmother made for me 30 years ago. I suppose I grew up seeing people sew and stitch.

I learned to crochet and embroider when I was in Girl Scouts. I tried to teach myself to knit when I was in college, never got past the knit one purl one thing. I have always enjoyed needlework. I still have several embroidery projects in progress that I may finish someday. I think I like cross-stitching the most because it appeals to the engineer in me. There is nothing like seeing perfect rows of X’s.

I began making clothes for my son about 3 years ago. I was frustrated with the typical sports designs and drab colors that were available for boys. I wanted clothes that reflected his interest in space, dinosaurs, and all things science. I taught my self to sew and began by appliquéing overalls and tee shirts for him. The first thing I made for him was a pair of train overall. I appliquéd a train onto some great engineer striped overalls.

What is your next project going to be?
My current project is preparing for the upcoming holidays – Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Fall and Winter. This is my first holiday season and I am very excited about it. I have been sewing everyday to increase my stock of appliquéd tee shirts and jumpers for etsy and a craft show I’ll be at in October. I can’t wait to get some of the gorgeous Christmas fabrics and begin working with them. I have lots of ideas for cute Christmas overalls and jumpers.

My next project will probably be learning to smock. My grandmother used to smock matching dresses for my sister and me. I didn’t appreciate it then but now I see it as being a natural extension to what I already do. I don’t know when I will learn but it is definitely something I want to do.

What inspires you?
I am inspired by lots of things. Often my son will make a request for a shirt. It may take a few days but I will make it like he wants it. He has inspired me to make dinosaurs, pirate maps, volcanoes, and astronauts for tee shirts.

Sometimes I get inspiration from a piece of fabric. It may become a perfect skirt or fire for a volcano.

Since I joined etsy I have been getting inspiration from alchemy requests. Sometimes a buyer will request an item that I would not have thought of. Even if I don’t get the bid, I have a great design that will probably show up in my shop.

What do you do when you are not creating?
I am a full time mother and wife, so a lot of my non-creating time is spent with my family or at my son’s school. Our family enjoys having a weekly Family Fun Night. Each week is different - homemade pizza and a movie, a night at Frankie’s playing mini golf and skee ball, or just playing board games and working puzzles. An upcoming FFN will be at Crazy Glaze so we can have a craft night together. This is our time for no computers, no work, no school….just family and fun.

I really enjoy being with children. I volunteer at my son’s school, Southern Wake Montessori School. I can be found substituting in a classroom, listening to the beginning readers, or helping with whatever is needed. I am also the Vice President of the Parent Teachers Together. It’s pretty much a given that if I am not at home, I am at the school.

Team Treasury: FALL in love

AlloverArt portrayed her appreciation for the recent cool weather with this Fall treasury filled with items from team shops...

Team Treasury: Fall Colors

RippasCustomSilver has us all longing for the cooler days of Fall...

Team Treasury: getting paid 4 what they love

DinnerTimeChimes was thinking green when she created this team treasury!