I recently participated in the Mini Art quilt swap over on craftster, and my lovely partner SeamlessGem sent me this beautiful art quilt so I wanted to share it here as well.  It’s a beautiful piece she called Headspin it’s full of beautiful textures and varying rich shades of red with black accents.   Thank you so much Gemma!

I wish that my Grandpa were still alive to tell me about these photos.  none of them were marked.  But I know that they tell a story.  Some I can identify landmarks, others symbols, but in all I see the innate beauty within.  I felt they needed to become something, but would not dare ruin the originals, I did preserve them the best I could by not altering the scanned images in anyway.  there are others too all from the same era but these captured my interest in a way I cannot explain.

For those looking for creative ways that aren’t wasteful (eg non paper gift wrap) the seller emjdesign has a number of different fabric gift bags available at very reasonable prices, I think my favorites I’ve found are these aqua and brown bags, at $5 for 8 the price really cannot be beat!

This lampworked beaded bracelet from bm1coastsbeadworks would make a great gift for a good friend or the hard to shop for mother in law.  I love the flame like interior of the beads and how it combines natural colors with fire.  She has many other beautiful bracelets in her shop too

We all have that family member or friend who loves nothing more than to be in the kitchen cooking or baking.  Teristreasure has a number of  wonderful quilted goods for the kitchen, but my personal favorite so far has to be this whimsical retro design featuring polkadots and vintage style aprons.

adorable cannot begin to describe these gift tags from craftheart, pink and penguins, I never would have thought to combine the two but seeing it done makes me wish I had!  I envision these atop gifts under a tree decorated in retro style ornaments.  Just beautiful!

I think peppermint reminds us all of the holiday season.  From candy canes to discs there is something about the scent of peppermint that brings a holiday smile to the face.  Swanmountainsoaps has a wonderful product bringing two favorites together with vanilla and peppermint in a sugar scrub.  I am a personal huge fan of sugar scrubs they leave your skin super soft and touchable.  at $4 for 2 ounces you could easily afford to buy a few to give to co-workers this holiday season.

While on the subject of soaps,  from smokeymountainscents, we have the perfect gift for those on the naughty list, coal soaps. I can think of at least a million people I know that these would be fun to give to (ok, maybe I am exaggerating just a tiny bit).  These also just make me giggle, and anything that makes you giggle is definitely something you should have.

I will be the first to admit that the gift selection for the men is a little more sparse, but I found these key chains to be quite nice and I think they would make a great gift for the manly man on your shopping list.

And lets not forget it can get cold in most parts of the country, that means it’s scarf and hat weather for many, this scarf is both cute and fun

Ok I will call that done for now, I hope you’ve enjoyed shopping on etsy with me.  And until next time have a great weekend!

Crochet projects:

Knitting (less projects and less detail but I”m still real pleased with them)

I’ve also spun a few more yarns but haven’t yet had the chance to take photos of them.

carnivale – this is the 2nd yarn I spun using commercially dyed mernio with about 5% tencel and 15% new zealand top wool, approx. 50 yards

Ocean breeze 100% merino commercially dyed in shades of blues/greens mixed with cream  approx 65 yards

Frightful – 90% merino 15% new zealand top, commercially dyed, plyed with cotton thread approximately 65 yards

Autumn Fire, merino in red/goldenrod/harvest orange/espresso ply with a commercial merino/micro acrylic, 110 grams 106 yards,

I am sure we have all heard about the decision Hershey Company made to quit using cocoa butter due to the current economy.  If not, a quick summary it’ll no longer be Milk Chocolate you are getting, but ‘chocolatey goodness’  when you drop your $1.20 for a candy bar, because the company has decided to eliminate using cocoa butter to cut costs, and go to using vegetable oil as a substitute.

I know I cannot speak for everyone out there, but I must say when I spend my $1 for an indulgence of candy, I want to know that I am getting  something good, not something chocolatey.  But I have a tendancy to take things a step too far.

After catching a short bit on Adult swim about the profits that different companies make ‘per employee’ in gross sales, I decided to do a little investigating into the Hershey Company along these same lines.  While I could not find Gross sale (before taxes and costs) numbers, I did find net sale (after costs and taxes) numbers.  In 2007  The Hershey Company netted almost 5 billion dollars in sales, with approximately 13,700 employees they are a very large company making very large profits.  (for the adult swim and/or math junkies out there this is over 3.6 million dollars NET PROFIT to the company per employee they employ) Here is an exerpt from the 2007 report:

 For the full year 2007, consolidated net sales were $4,946,716,000 (source reuters Hershey report summary)

I cannot even begin to fathom that much money, but I can fathom the taste of the new chocolate formula, it is yucky (in layman’s terms)

It is said that the change was to increase profit margins due to the rising cost of cocoa butter and a struggling economy.  Even if the ‘rising cost’ was $500,000,000  a year in raised costs, that is still roughly a 4.5 billion dollar profit margin for the company.

Companies like Hershey’s that put profits before product quality need to realize that if the quality lacks the creamy goodness we’ve all come to know and love, they won’t have to worry about profits in the long run, because there won’t be customers to buy their products.  We will take our sweet money somewhere else.   It isn’t the stock holders they should be concerned about — it’s the consumers.

And that’s all folks.