My Favorite Christmas Song

My favorite Christmas song is a little silly. Before I came to love this song it was "All I want for Christmas is You" by one Ms Mariah Carey and I would blast it upon waking up the day after Thanksgiving. But then I found this: 

You go girl, dream the impossible! 

Peppermint Bark

     Peppermint is one my favorite things about the holidays. It just seems to be everywhere! So of course I love me some peppermint bark and no one on my opinion does it better than Ghirardelli.  As a DIYer I found myself wanting to try my hand at making some. With some help from Ms. Paula Dean ya'll, here is a tried and true recipe for peppermint bark.

What you'll need:


* Enough crushed candy canes to equal 1 cup.
     (If you are not up for crushing candy canes they now come in handy dandy bags, already crushed. I think it turned my bark pink and didn't quite give that satisfying crunch, but it works just the same )

* 2 pounds white chocolate...32 ounces.

***If you bought the pre-crushed candy canes, skip step one***

1.) Place candy canes in ziploc bag and crush into small bits.

2.) Melt white chocolate in double boiler. I don't own a double boiler but I do have pots and a handy heat resistant bowl. To create the double boiler effect, you will want to make sure that that the bowl can rest on the lip of the pot without touching the water. Here's what I used for reference: http://www.ehow.com/way_5240731_can-substitute-double-boiler_.html

3.) Fold in candy into chocolate. 

4.) Cover cookie sheet with wax or parchment paper. Pour mixture onto sheet and pop it into the fridge for 45 minutes or until firm.

5.) Brake into small pieces and EAT!

Super easy, very addictive. 

25 days of Christmas!

   



Welcome to the 25 days of Christmas blog series! I love Christmas. It's not about the presents but the feelings  of good cheer during the season. I thought what better way to celebrate the holidays than to share the things I love about the Christmas? From now until the 25th I will be showcasing my favorite decorations/crafts, treats and handmade/vintage gifts for the holiday season! Stick around!

A postcard's worth 1000 words

A postcard can make you feel professional. A postcard and can make you feel loved. A postcard is worth a thousand words.

WinchesterLambourne (http://www.etsy.com/shop/WinchesterLambourne) designed this postcard for me and I am such a fan of their work. I'm a little biased: the lovely labels I hand sew into each of my items is their desgin as well. What I love about Winchester's work is that it's always 100 times better than what I could imagine. I don't always go in with my plan fully fleshed out but somehow they draw out the details and create something simply wonderful. 

New Listing in le Shoppe

If you've been checking out my shop this past week you might have noticed some snazzy new items. My dear friend Sammy was kind enough to model some of my wares and I think that turned out quite lovely.  The first item I listed was my new mustache clutch. One of my teams on Etsy is Mom's Basement, a great team devoted to all things geeky, is doing a swap and I made the clutch for this occasion. The person I'm making this for wanted a bag/purse and like a good mustache. I have been dying to put a mustache on something so this was pretty exciting for me. I also had to put in a fabric lining which is new for me. I usually try to avoid those projects, as much as I love to sew. Something about meshing the 2 that irks me. Anyway, here is the finished product:

Happy Monday!

Blinded! By Science!

This is probably one of the top 10 geekiest things I will every blog about. I would say number one but I'm still a huge Doctor Who fan and let's be honest, the Doctor comes first. Any way, my co-worker today was telling my about how around the spring equinox, gravity get a little wonky (yes that's the technical term) and a broom will stand up by it's self!!!!!!!!! Just hearing this, I got geeked out. So I got home from work, puttered around, took a nap, went to the gym, started to make dinner and I remembered! It took me a couple of tries to get it to stand up but it worked! I started timing it around 10:25 and that was 50 MINUTES AGO!!!! My dad was not as thrilled as I was. This is totally cool. Maybe it's the teacher in me, but I really want to create an experiment around this.

How cool is this???!!!!!

Feature in Pregnancy & Newborn Magazine!

About 3 months ago, around my birthday I got a very intriguing convo on etsy. It was from a woman who worked at Pregnany & Newborn Magazine (www.pnmag.com). She had seen my Turquoise and bib on etsy and wanted to know if I would send it to them to me possible used in a baby fashion spread. 

After checking out they're site and magazine I decided to give it a go. The spread was due to come out in February and I wouldn't know for sure that it would be used until January but I was beyond excited anyway. Last week the issue came out and low and behold there was my bib! The lovely people over at P&N were very kind to send the images for my own use so with out much further ado, my first magazine feature (Check out the 4th photo)!

This is it! Check out the handsome gentleman on the left!!!

Buy the magazine! On newsstands now! pnmag.com.

New Year

I'm thinking of moving my shop in a different direction. I love making accessories and I love making baby stuff but I'm am ready for something different. I love kids and babies but for me it make more since to make those things when I have kids and know more about what I want them to wear. What I do know is that I love love love vintage swimwear. And that I have lately become interested in bulk yarn. I was looking at knitting patterns and I love how elegant and clean knitted projects look. Crochet I am sad to say doesn't always look the same. But this year I am going to try something new. I'm going to try some vintage inspired sun bathing suits and some clothing and see how that goes. Look out for something new!

Holiday Hand Knit Sweaters

I was driving home yesterday after hanging out with a friend and I saw a billboard that has stayed with me. It was an ad for a brand of liquor, claiming that their liquor goes well with those ugly Christmas sweater. And I was a little offended as someone who is trying to make a living making things by hand and who is planning on making some of her gifts for Christmas. I kept thinking "That sweater took a lot of time. Any one can buy a book or video game but this person sat down and made this thing out of love." Maybe I'm feeling a bit sensitive because I am making and giving gifts this year but still sometimes handmade gifts get a lot of rag.

This year because I am so in love with the idea of a handmade gift, I made an event on facebook, a pledge of sorts. Basically I am asking my facebook friends and etsy friends to join the event, but handmade and local and then tell their friends to do the same. I am trying to start a revolution. I can't be out with the protesters but I can spread the word and help out local businesses here at home and those artist through etsy. If you would like to join here is the event page: http://www.facebook.com/events/322162791134549/ .

Here is one of the gifts for my mother from a fellow etsy seller simplethingsbykathy :http://www.etsy.com/transaction/63668651



And the rest I am making. I bought a whole bunch of yarn Saturday, at a local yarn shop of course, and I will post pictures as I get them finished. Until then.

Where the Wild Things Are

I love this hat for many reasons. When I first started selling on Etsy I had no idea what I was doing (while I don't claim to be an expert, I now have a better idea). I started by selling things from pattern and there is nothing wrong with that but something didn't feel right. One saturday morning I was bored, so I adapted a beanie pattern and added ears. I took pictures and I asked my brother what the hat reminded him of and he told me Max from Where the Wilds Things are and he was right. And thus my wild things hat was created ha ha. I have come to really love this hat. It's my best seller for one, and I get this incredible sense of pride when ever I finish one. I have since then created a custom listing for the Wild Thing hat because other people's color combinations are simply amazing. To be perfectly honest, I don't always think the color combinations are that great but every time I have happily been proven wrong. I have created some incredible color combos and I can't wait to create more!

Meet Morgan

Hello all! This is the first post of my new blog. I'm not much of a blogger but I will try and post something once a week. I mean I think about writing blog post all the time when I'm in the middle of something else but once I sit down the brilliant idea I had is gone. So let me start by introducing myself.
   My name is Morgan and I will 25 this coming Wednesday, November second. I am the owner of Morgaine Le Fay (morgainelefay.etsy.com), a small shop with crocheted goodies. I started crocheting my sophomore year of high school. I joined the fiber arts club (yep I am that cool), my friend taught me a basic stitch and I was hooked. I graduated from college 2, almost 3 years ago with a BA in Theater and Anthropology and I currently work at my old elementary school which has been nice, but I do not want to be a teacher. I grew up dancing and then got into acting and theater in middle and high school so my dream is to continue with that and still have my etsy shop to help support my theater work. I hope to be on SNL some day :)
   The work in my shop is a little funky but made with love. Much of it is inspired by books, my childhood, musicals, anything that strikes me. My goal is to do well on etsy, but to be one of the few crochet artist on the etsy blog "Quit your day job".

Till next time!