Yarn Along {Orange Stripe}

Hey everyone! I'm joining the Yarn Along over at Small Things again this week. It amazes how quickly a week passes by. I didn't get any reading done this week (I know, horrifying right?) so I am still on Eggs, Beans and Crumpets - and I have been listening to a collection of Sherlock Holmes dramatized shorts stories I received for Christmas. Even though I did not read much this week I did manage to get some crocheting done. I finished the white and am on the final leg of the scarf, the orange stripe! I had hoped to finish this week, but we had a very busy week, so I didn't quite manage that. My mom and I have been having lots of fun knitting/crocheting with friends every week, which is where I manage to get most of my work done. We also went on a mini vacation to the east side of the Phoenix Metrop this weekend - though we never even made it into phoenix proper. Mom and I went to a delightful yarn shop and I got several more colors for my ripple afghan! Anyway, enough chit chat, here is my picture this week.

Much tea has been consumed while crocheting this scarf, so I decided my cup of Lady Grey deserved a cameo this week.

Have a fantastic week, Hopefully I'll have a new project to write about next week!

~Elissa

Yarn Along {Wodehouse and a White Stripe}

Hey there, I'm joining Ginny's Yarn Along again over at Small Things.
Today I'm working on the white stripe of my Ireland scarf. I didn't have much time to crochet this past week, we spent most of the week cleaning house after the holidays, but I did get some reading done and a little bit on my scarf. I finished the Darcy Cousins last wednesday and ended up really liking it. I also finished up The Inimitable Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse last week. I was about half way through that and wanted to finish before starting on Eggs, Beans and Crumpets by Wodehouse, which is what I'm reading this week.

Yarn Along {Irish Scarf and A Pride and Prejudice spin off}

This week I am joining the yarn along over at Small Things!
I've gotten back into the crocheting mood lately, after discovering a delightful little yarn shop in Tucson and visiting it several times, as well as getting together with some lovely lady friends and knitting and crocheting over a pot of tea. There is nothing like chatting and crocheting with friends on a winter day with a warm cup of tea to sip.


This week I am working on my "Irish pride" scarf - a skinny scarf in the colors of the Irish flag.So far I just have the green stripe, I am just about finished, maybe another five inches on this last row, and then I will go onto the white stripe.
I am reading a book called the Darcy Cousins by Monica Fairview. I really enjoyed the prequel to it - The Other Mr. Darcy which is a spin off of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. I'm not sure if I like this one yet, and I'm half way through. I don't dislike it, but I'm just not sure if I like it yet, if that makes any sense at all - but I am withholding further judgement until I complete the book. I don't really read fan sequels, I'm too much a purist, but I did enjoy the Other Mr. Darcy a lot, and I hope this one turns out as enjoyable!

Thanks for stopping by,
~Elissa

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas..

Every etsy store you go..
Or something.
Well my shop is decked out for Christmas anyway. I usually wait until Thanksgiving week to add a new banner and all, but I'll be super busy then, so I figured early is better than late right?



I've already sold some tags this year, but there are plenty more in the shop, and it's the perfect time to get your own. We have lots of new designs this year, and many more are coming soon.

Today I listed these adorable Nordic inspired tags. Sweet and simple, but oh so pretty. (and guess what, any time you order anything in the shop during the christmas season, you'll get one of these beauties free!)




My favorites in the shop however, have to be these silver jingle bells.

I L-O-V-E them! And other must like them too, because I've been featured here, and here, and here, and here. So much love, I am so thankful!!!

There are also new journals coming this week, they make excellent christmas gifts! Two years ago I made over twenty fairytale inspired journals and gave them to my friends. If you are trying to come up with a great gift, these would fit the bill.

If I can find time, I am also going to list a few of these nifty gifts for readers. So cute, and filled with customized bookplates and bookmarks. So great for the bookworm, and the perfect size for a stocking stuffer!

Remember, I love love custom orders, but my cut off date for filling them will be soon, so if you want anything special, be sure to convo or email me soon!

I know this is a shameless self promotion blog post, but never fear there will be a new "etsy finds" blog post up soon!

A few of my favorites

Here are a few of the lovelies from my favorites this week!

I love all things Irish, so Saint Patrick's Day is one of my favorite holidays,
I've been shopping for earrings to wear with my outfit this year, I've narrowed it down to these two!

Shamrocks by BudgetBling


Shamrocks - Green Czech Glass Clovers and Antiqued Brass Earrings by polishedtwo




I always have Irish Breakfast tea on the morning of St. Patricks day (and most other days of the year too now that I think about it... I'd love to have my morning cup out of this sweet cup
Vintage Royal Tara Irish Coffee Cup from Suesuegonzalas


Having just organized my nook area, I'm thinking these cute coasters would set off the area perfectly, just under my cuppa tea! (I promise, these are the only owls this time! ;) )
Letterpress Coaster Set - owls by luckybeepress


This scarf would be so cute with my new peasant blouses! So pretty and spring-ish!
Aqua Plaid Scarf by JANNYSGIRL


Remember me saying yesterday that I was in a "rainbow-ee" mood? Yup, still there. Isn't this Color Wheel necklace by tamar so pretty?


I can't say I'm a fan of elephants normally, but this teapot cozy is just too cute not to love!!
Dreaming Elephant Teapot Cozy by factory150


Have a beautiful weekend everyone, hope you enjoyed my finds this week!
~Elissa

Over the Rainbow . . .

I told my mom that I was in a "rainbow-ee" mood today. Meaning that I'm thirsting for color, so this is the card I made today, filled to the brim with bright lovely colors. Go check it out in the shop!

Multi Colored Scalloped Greeting Card "Rainbow"

A Few Etsy Finds . . .

Otherwise known as " I think I have an owl obsession. And maybe an obsession for mugs and cups."

Today I wanted to share some of the sweet things I love on etsy....


It's no secret, I love owls...
Gywn is my little owl on my bookshelf with doilies for eyes and wings (she's actually a pin cushion, but Shh, don't tell her!) and Cedric is a terra-cotta and ceramic owl on my bed (he is really a garden decoration, but I couldn't bear to banish him outside). :)

I am completely obsessed with Woolcrazy's *adorable* fuzzy creations. I first fell in love with Sparkle her little white owl, about a year or so ago, but Jelly Bean is my new love.... I mean, a fuzzy pale green owl holding a heart? What is not to love?!
oh if I only had the spending money!!
http://www.etsy.com/listing/67456602/green-jelly-bean-baby-owl-felted-wool




I also love love love mugs and cups, my mugs and cups fill my bedroom and pretty much every dish cabinet in our home. This is probably because I am a voracious drinker of both coffee and tea. Sometimes both in the same day.
Here are just a few of my favorites from around etsy

How cute is this? A teacup on a mug, perfection!
by mollyhatch
http://www.etsy.com/listing/67634945/cup-on-cup-blue-bird



*Squeal* This is SOO cute. I absolutely adore this cup, I think I've mentioned owls before. An owl mug? and Purple? I want this so bad! :D
By ArtHausCeramics
http://www.etsy.com/listing/67385987/hooter-owl-mug-mandy-in-plum-purple


(And look at the blue one, oooh so cute! http://www.etsy.com/listing/65607796/hooter-owl-mug-francis-in-stormy-blue )

This is the cutest purse ever, definitely going on my birthday list this year
By MsPIGGi
http://www.etsy.com/listing/60331035/blue-tweet-tweet-handbag-plus-matching



Another thing I really want, I adore these earrings, so sweet and simple and feminine. I need to get more pink in my wardrobe. Alysabeths shop is so lovely, I've shopped with her before and she is so sweet!
http://www.etsy.com/listing/65407266/pink-rose-filigree-with-daisies-and



Ha, you thought I was done with owls didn't you? Nope. :)
I absolutely love these teensy tiny owls from SongandBranch
http://www.etsy.com/listing/64243919/green-owl-sania-the-mossback



One last for today, (though certainly not least!) I must share these absolutely adorable fabric reusable stickers from lovemaestore
I love all things tea-themed - how could I not fall in love with these sweet fabric stickers? My mom and I host many tea parties, I would just love to make a tea-planning journal using these!!
http://www.etsy.com/listing/63655852/mini-teatime-reusable-fabric-stickers


Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you enjoyed looking at my "finds"! Do be sure to stop by their lovely shops!

Have a lovely weekend!
~Elissa

It's raining hearts!

Hey everyone! I thought I'd pop in and show some of the stuff I've been creating recently.

With Valentine's day right around the corner I've been making lots of things with hearts and such.
My newest umbrella card is a valentines card.

Whimsical pink clouds drop hearts instead of raindrops...


I made this cute little box about a week ago. I wanted to list it in the shop, but mom pointed out that we didn't have a box to ship it in and we didn't really know what to price it as far as shipping goes, so I'll probably be giving it as a gift or just keep it for myself :)


I found this cute vintage-valentine paper at hobby-lobby a couple months ago when we were in Phoenix. I used stickles glitter on the top to accent some of the cute images. I also took some vintage red ric-rac and wrapped it around the sides of the lid and completed it with my favorite red polka-dot ribbon.


This is another card I made a few weeks ago, it was originally for my shop, but we had heard that shipping square cards cost more to post, so I would hate for someone to buy a card and then have to pay more than usual to ship it, so we need to confirm that before we list any square cards. :) So I'll just keep this one to myself. The pink mini valentines in the shop match this card though!


Thanks for stopping by, I hope you have a grand day!

~Elissa

You make me Happy

So I know I promised a post way more than week ago, but then I got sick and didn't feel like doing anything. So here is the promised post, albeit a bit delayed.

I wanted to give you a peek into the newest card in the shop "My Sunshine"

A few days ago, I think it was Wednesday, I was too sick to craft, but after seeing a poster with some of the lyrics to the song "You are my sunshine" in bright sunny yellow, I had the inspiration to make this card. I've been itching to use our adorable new stamp set from PTI called "Scattered Showers" that has an adorable umbrella, so even though I couldn't craft, I grabbed my sketch book and roughly sketched this out.

eek. My umbrella makes me cringe. But give me some slack, I hadn't slept in a while, and I sketched it in about 10 seconds :)



Which a day or so later I cleaned up into this


That is not my normal handwriting, but I knew I wanted something simple and so I printed instead of my cutesy handwriting :)


I finally started to feel a bit better yesterday, so I whipped up this prototype, and while I love it, it wasn't quite shop worthy. I absolutely loved the rounded corners on the word box, So I decided to make the next card with rounded corners.
The Card in Progress. As you can see I'm a rather messy crafter. My scrap paper makes me giggle. A sideways owl silhouette, half- stamped umbrellas and yellow scribbles. :)




So after the sketches and prototype, this is the final result.

I went a little crazy on the clouds, there are certainly more than I intended, but I still love the card. I have another one in the works - the same design, only with a red umbrella with tiny polka dots!

I hope you enjoyed a look into the creative process behind my latest design!

http://www.etsy.com/listing/66938550/yellow-and-teal-umbrella-and-clouds-card

Have an Amazing weekend!

~Elissa

This is an original design and is the property of Delightfulhands Please do not copy this design to sell.

New items in the shop!

I'll be popping in later in the week for a more substantial post, but I just wanted to share some new items in the shop.

Pink Mini Valentines.


Fairy Tales Can Come True journal.



Shakespearean Buterflie journal.
Buterflie is the middle English spelling of Butterfly, so I thought since it was a Shakespeare inspired journal, that the title would be fitting.


My love is like a rose greeting card. This card was inspired by my favorite love song "My love is like a red, red rose." All I knew was that I wanted a big red rose card, and this is the result!


Butterfly Bliss Journal. One of my favorite journals I've made lately. In fact, I'm on my way to the craft room right now to make a similar one for a birthday gift.

After Christmas 20% Sale

Psst... If you read to the end, you'll be thankful! :)

I just wanted to pop on here to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, and to give you all a heads up on our after Christmas sale - 20% off all of the Coffee Cup Cozies in the shop starting tomorrow night (december 25).
If you recieve any Christmas money that starts to burn a hole in your pocket - you might just want to pop over and check it out! :)

To recieve your discount type in the code "COZY20" into the coupon code area at checkout.

*Code is only valid on Coffee Cozies.*

Code will expire at midnight on the 26th

Cozy section: http://www.etsy.com/shop/Delightfulhands?section_id=6110867
Merry Christmas Everyone!

~Elissa

P.S. A special offer *just* for our special blog friends, I'm also offering a 10% off everything else in the store
use code "BLOGFRIEND10" to recieve your discount. offer expires at midnight on the 26th

(please do not combine with the other code if purchasing a cozy)

We've been featured!

Samantha of Emarie Creations on etsy featured us on her beautiful blog Simple Delights as a part of her "Twelve days of {handmade} Christmas" series. Hop on over to check it out!
Thanks so much Samantha!

http://simpledelights-samantha.blogspot.com/2010/12/12-days-of-handmade-christmas-crafting.html

~Elissa

Christmas Planner

About a week ago mom made herself a delightful Christmas Planner for herself based on this lovely tutorial by Dawn McVey at her blog http://www.dawnmcvey.typepad.com/
She punched the holes wrong at first, so she doesn't think hers is picture worthy, but maybe she'll let me sneak it one little picture of it! :) I decided I wanted to be more organized this year - the last week before Christmas usually finds me scrambling to buy or make all my Christmas gifts, so I made one for myself, with the help of my lovely mother.

I have three dividing sections in mine - gifts, shopping lists, and a list of people I need to send out my Christmas cards to. Mom's has these sections as well as a misc. section, a baking list, and a cute envelope to keep her receipts safe.

The front cover


Gifts - I absolutely loved making this one, with all the cute gift boxes and phrases, and best of all polka dots! :)



Shopping lists... I just thought the 5 cent candy canes was perfect, since my planner is candy themed :)


And finally the Christmas card section! I love little little red reindeer, isn't he so sweet?


I'm not sure where the candy cane paper came from, but I believe it was hobby lobby. The pages between the dividers are printing paper, and the rest of the papers and stamps and the dies I used to cut some of the shapes are from Papertreyink.com

I hope you enjoyed a look at my recent project! It really came in handy this weekend as I planned out my gifts and when mom and I went on a big Christmas shopping trip yesterday. It's helped me get organized, and I have way more acomplished this year than I ever have at this point. I have all but one gift bought, and all I have left are the handmade gifts, which are actually the bulk of my gifts this year, especially for my friends.

Since I do have so many handmade gifts left to finish it might be a week or so until my next post, but I hope you enjoy the posts that are up right now.

If you love this planner but don't want to make one, I am accepting custom orders for these until the beginning of December. If you would like to order one, you can leave a comment here, or more preferably send me a conversation (convo) on etsy. You can do this by going to http://delightfulhands.etsy.com and click "contact" on the lefthand side of the page.


Have a lovely week and a wonderful Thanksgiving!
~Elissa

Don't forget to visit the shop on Friday!

An Etsy Christmas!

Okay, this isn't the Christmas project post I promised, but that is coming. I promise!

I wanted to share something with y'all that no one else has seen and will not be displayed in the shop until Thanksgiving day! My new shop header/banner! I would really like your feedback on this... thought and suggestions please! :)
I designed this a few days ago, and all the graphics - snowflakes, snow and penguin are my own original designs. My graphics program is ancient and isn't handling text so well anymore, so I used picnik.com to do the text. They have such fun fonts anyway, much better than the ones I have, so I'm quite pleased. The transfer from picnik to my computer did leave a lot to be desired, as it has compressed the quality, but overall I am quite pleased with the finished product.
This is the one that will be up in the shop before and during my black Friday Sale (10% off everything in the shop!)



And this is the one that will be up through the rest of the year and possibly January.



So, if you have anything thoughts, leave a comment!

I also wanted to share some adorable Christmas items from my favorites and from a friend's shop
If you are looking for beautiful handmade Christmas items or gifts, etsy is a great place to go!


Pretty Wit is a shop shared by a lovely group of sisters, and their shop is so fun, whimsical and colorful, and just love to sit and browse. You can their shop's blog right here: http://prettywit.blogspot.com/

Isn't this lacy stocking adorable? Too cute! I sure wish I had an excuse to buy a stocking!
Doily Snowflake Christmas Stocking by PrettyWit



And this lovely bracelet has been on my wishlist for a very long time... as you can see, it's even the colors of this blog and our shop! :) (Girls if you see that I just recently hearted it, it's actually been in my favorites for a long long time, but I un and re hearted so it would be nearer the front, and maybe my mom will get a "hint hint" :D)
Free Shipping Cherry Blues Bracelet by Pretty Wit



And just one more from these pretty ladies. Isn't it adorable?
I heart Christmas Patchwork Ornament by Prettywit


I would also like to share this adorable bunting from heidiadnum. She has a lovely shop filled with beautiful photography and bunting! You can view her shop here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/heidiadnum
Isn't the name of the bunting adorable? Too cute! I would love to hang this on my window, which currently is curtainless. It would be so cute hanging there, with my little tree that will be sitting under the window.

Candy Cane Christmas Handmade Good Will Bunting by Heidiadnum



One last thing I wanted to share was the treasury I made last night. I bought an adorable christmas mug for my ever growing collection yesterday, the colors are red and green and aqua and pink and it has sweet wintry and christmasy words and phrases all over it.... it was so pretty I made this treasury inspired by it. Enjoy!

Eggnog and Misteltoe
http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4ce8b01d0b4d8eeff85be530/eggnog-and-mistletoe


Well, that's all for now.

Right now I'm downloading pictures of my project that I'll be sharing, and I should have that post up tomorrow.

~Elissa