Cabin in the City

Books, cats and midwestern charm.

Embroidery

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Holiday Hoops 2023

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Selfishly, I don’t do a lot of holiday craft events. I like to save the month of December for staying home and snuggling up to make crafts for myself and my family. Last year, I spent many evenings stitching ugly sweater ornaments and it was my favorite craft all year.

But this year, I did manage to sneak a few holiday hoops into my roster! I’ll be selling at the Walker’s Point Makers Market and Bar Hop on November 18, and I figure mid-November is as good as the holiday season for most folks!

I stitched up a handful of holiday designs, including a few “impish or admirable” ornaments. I think my favorite, though is this sparkly holiday lights hoop. The idea to layer glitter paint over the watercolor came to me at 2:00 AM. I had to touch up these hoops the very next day. I love the results!

If you see anything you like—or want to see more of what’s to come—find me on Instagram at @kaminskihandicraft. I’m happy to hook you up with any hoops there. Everything is $5 to ship within the US.

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Picking Up Stitching After a Long Break

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For a while now, I’ve been working a very small side hustle. I embroider silly things and sell them. I dabble in Etsy but I far prefer selling at in-person markets. It’s just way more fun!

But when the pandemic hit and events were canceled, I put down my needle. I focused a lot on making masks and filled the rest of my time with puzzles, books, TV and worrying. Embroidery didn’t feel as pressing without events to sell at and people around to sell to.

Picking Up the Needle

And honestly, I didn’t miss it. Not once did I feel compelled to stitch up an original design (I did buy and stitch quite a few cross stitches, though). For a while, I thought that I might just be done with the stitching side hustle.

That is until I saw a call from Madison Makers Market for an upcoming event. I thought to myself, I’ll give it one more go. I’ve got lots of hoops hanging around anyway.

And just like that, I was back in the swing of things. As I drew up a new design (and finished off some WIPs from a year ago), I found myself enjoying embroidery more than ever.

Sometimes craft fair prep can feel stressful, but this time, I look forward to sitting down with my floss. It’s a good treat at the end of the day to pick up a hoop and cue up an audiobook. (Currently, I’m listening to The Personal Librarian.)

The Craft I Keep Coming Back To

Time and time again this is a craft I return to. And I honestly never thought of it that way. I always thought of myself as someone that got really into a project for a short while before moving on to the next (see: latch hook, paper flower and plastic canvas). It wasn’t until I went to my parents’ house weeks ago and saw a lot of my projects in their home that I realized holy cats, I’ve been doing this a long time and this is something I’ve always loved.

Proof: The cat cross stitch hanging in the upstairs hallway. The teacup crewelwork hanging by my parents’ bed. The “bite me” cross stitch on my mom’s dresser. The embroidery hoop I gave my dad for Christmas a few years back. The embroidered anniversary art I gave my parents. The cross stitch Christmas ornaments packed away in the basement.

That’s a lot. And it spans a long time. I remember making that cat cross stitch back in elementary school, the teacup piece in middle school and the infamous “bite me” art back in college.

So what’s the point: I am, as always, oblivious to my own nature. And I’m really happy to embroidering again.

You can find me at my first fair soon. The Madison Makers Fitchburg Mini Market is coming up on July 24.

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Stitchy Woman // Fall + Halloween Cross Stitch Plans

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via The Witchy Stitcher

While staying home, I haven’t been doing a lot of embroidery. Since in-person craft fairs are on hold, I decided to put my stitching business on hold (a few commissioned projects aside).

But I haven’t put the needle down! In fact, I’ve been working on cross stitch more and more while quarantining. I’ve finished up this cute Schrute Farms piece and made some major headway on this St. Basil’s project.

Since I’ve really been making some good progress on this slow form of stitching, I figured I could slate in a few seasonal projects for my favorite time of year: spooky season!

I downloaded a handful of patterns to keep me busy all through fall, and I’m organizing a virtual Stitchy Woman Club at work. Having Hocus Pocus or The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina on in the background isn’t mandatory but strongly encouraged.

via The Witchy Stitcher

Here are the patterns I picked up:

I’m so excited to get moving and grooving on these with a few spooky shows on in the background. Happy haunting, everyone!

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Taking a Break from Stitching by… Still Stitching?

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via Etsy // Cross Stitch by Anary

This November was a great month for Kaminski Handicraft. I had record-breaking sales at Cream City Creatives and a good show at Madison Makers Market. Results like these make all the time spent with needle in hand worth it.

But the second I was done with those shows, I knew I wanted to take a break until at least after the holidays.

Let me tell you, those first few days lazily watching The Crown without distraction felt amazing. But after a few weeks, I started to get antsy. I like to do. So I put together a puzzle (another grandma hobby). It was great, but I felt like one was enough. And I felt like just sitting wasn’t enough.

So I picked up cross-stitching.

Taking a break from stitching by still stitching? I know. It doesn’t make any sense. But it feels great! I downloaded a few patterns from Etsy (if you’re not doing this yet, do it now) and started stitching one afternoon with a friend.

And I can’t stop.

I made a few gifts (I’ll keep those under wraps for now) and made some good headway on this pattern from Cross Stitch by Anary. I also snagged this pattern on sale from Ritacuna (I’m on a bit of a Russia kick right now—just watched Anastasia and The Last Czars; also reading The Last Days of the Romanov Dancers).

It’s really soothing to have a pattern to follow and zone out a bit while watching The Kacey Musgraves Christmas Show and some holiday episodes of Bob’s Burgers. I think I found my off-season couch craft.

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New Tools of the Trade [AKA Why Didn’t I Try This Sooner?]

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Ever since I got my new light table, I considered my embroidery process to be 100% optimized. I was, as usual, wrong.

The sticking point this time: my tracing tools. Since day one, I’ve been using a marker with water-soluble ink to trace on most of my designs. This worked fine. It did the job, but sometimes the marks would come back and I’d have to rinse the fabric a few times. Plus, I had to account for drying time. Overall, though, it worked OK.

Then I started hearing rumblings of a pen that erased with heat. I was intrigued. This pen is just a regular erasable pen from Pilot. I scoffed. How could a pen not designed for fabric be good for fabric? The fools that use that!

So for months and months (years?), I avoided the Pilot Frixion craze because I didn’t think it was craft-worthy. I also didn’t want to gamble with this in case it made permanent marks. Yes, even though sometimes my water-soluble pen would occasionally leave permanent stains. I am a genius.

Finally, though, I saw the Pilot Frixion at Michaels. Armed with a 40% coupon, I grabbed a pack. If they were a bust, at least I’d only be out a few bucks.

After letting them hang out in my purse for a few weeks, I finally worked up the nerve to give these pens a try. I scribbled on a scrap of light colored fabric. I ironed over it quickly expecting some sort of faint mark. Nope. The ink was totally gone after just one pass. I was proven wrong (very common).

It’s been a few weeks since that little experiment and I am 100% on-board with this new tool. The old pens? Well, they’re gathering dust. And these new ones are my favorite stitching trick. (Not to mention they’re great for sewing, too!)

You can grab these pens just about anywhere. I snagged mine at Michaels, but you can get a better deal right at Target.

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Spring Fever + Spring Shows

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I’ve got some pretty exciting news, folks! Well, exciting if you’re a big fan of craft fairs and art shows.

This spring I’ll be selling at not one, not two, but three craft shows in Milwaukee and Madison. This is my busiest season yet. I can’t say I’m ready quite yet, but I’m getting there!

I’m looking forward to these events not only because I love a good maker event, but because they’re a great reason to get out of the house this spring. If you’ve got spring fever, come check these out!

MKE Local Market 414 Pop Up

Sunday, April 14

This will be my first time selling with MKE Local Market, but I’m pretty excited! This market is on 4/14 – AKA Milwaukee Day. I’m excited to celebrate my city and experience a new space. Third Branch Creative Studio looks pretty swank!

Madison Makers Spring Market & Pub-Crawl

Saturday, May 11

I had so much fun at this event last year (and at its Black Friday slot, too). I’m happy to be setting up at Old Sugar Distillery again. Grab their homemade cherry soda or a Cuba Libre and let’s chat!

Madtown Artisans Spring Event at High Noon Saloon

Sunday, May 19

Another new-to-me show! This one will be at Madison’s High Noon Saloon and will be hosting some of my favorite Madison-based makers like TacoCat Creations and No Coast Paper Co. And let’s be honest, shopping with a drink in hand is always a fun time.

Of course, you can always keep up with all my events over on the Kaminski Handicraft Facebook page. Hope to see some folks at these events coming up!

And, yes, that Mrs. Maizel hoop up top will be for sale!

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A New Look for Kaminski Handicraft

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Here she is! The new logo for Kaminski Handicraft!

I had tabled branding for my shop for a long time in favor of developing new designs. But a few weeks ago, I got the bug to give my shop a little facelift. While it’s not perfect and not too original, it’s a big improvement – and I’m learning more and more that done is better than perfect.

With a new logo under my belt, I decided to freshen up my product photography, too. It’s certainly nothing groundbreaking, but it’s an improvement and the style is manageable to me.

And I’m using my camera instead of my phone which makes an insane amount of difference!

My hope is that this small refresh gives my Etsy shop and business a bit more polish and makes people maybe slow down to take a peek.

You can check it all out my shop here for the full effect!

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Coming Soon // Cream City Creatives

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This one’s coming up fast, folks!

I’ll be at Cream City Creatives Holiday Market this Sunday from 10-3 at Turner Hall. It’s my first Milwaukee show, so I’m pretty darn excited! That was one of my goals for 2018 and I’m almost there!

You’ll find me and 50+ Midwest makers at this show. I’m personally excited to see what Renee Graef has to offer – she was an illustrator for American Girl! But there are lots of other folks, too, so you’ll find something for all those people left on your list!

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Celebrating 1 Year of Kaminski Handicraft

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Today’s a pretty big day for me! First and foremost – it’s my birthday! But April 4 is also the day I announced the opening of my Etsy shop Kaminski Handicraft. So between the two, it’s a pretty good day!

I keep you all pretty updated on the goings-ons of my little side hustle, but it doesn’t hurt to share a few pics of my favorite pieces once in a while! First up, I wanted to share some of my just-for-fun hoops. No one gets a kick out of these more than me, but I really love that other folks get them too. I mean, when a sweet customer bee-lined for my blerg hoops at my last show, my heart was totally warmed – someone else gets it!

Of course I can’t forget all the wonderful custom hoops I’ve gotten to stitch up over the last year. These wedding and anniversary pieces are super dear to me. I hope the couples that order them (or get them as gifts) love them as much as I do. And I have to say, I absolutely can’t get enough of folks’ custom color schemes. They give these patterns a whole new look.

To celebrate a whole year of selling on Etsy, I figured I’d offer a special in my shop – free shipping now until April 10, 2018. Just use the code 1YEAR.

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The Mini Crafty Fair

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I planned on writing this post immediately following the Mini Crafty Fair (that was all the way back on December 16!). But I’m glad I waited a bit to give myself a little perspective on the whole business of things. Also this is my third recap in a week. You sick of them yet?

But let’s start at the beginning! Back in December, I set up my first-ever booth at the Goodman Community Center in Madison for the Mini Crafty Fair. I’d been applying to fairs for a few months (after deciding to act on a longtime goal) and I was thrilled to set up shop with the Crafty Fair. It was a pretty chaotic ride, but I’m thrilled I did it. Here’s how the whole journey went:

The Days Before

Leading up to the big day, I was an absolute wreck. And by “leading up” I mean at least the three weeks prior. I was stressed to the max about hitting an arbitrary goal I set for myself. You see, I wanted to create at least 50 hoops to take with me and I was going to get to that number or die trying. While I sacrificed a lot of time and shed quite a few tears, I made it!

The Setup

During my extended panic period, I didn’t have much time to worry about my display. I had been looking for ideas online and was coming up empty. Instead of panicking about not having the most creative setup, I trusted my gut and drew up a pretty simple plan.

My dad, God bless him, made me two easels for displaying hoops. With those, I had a pretty good scaffolding for my setup. I just filled it in with a simple runner that I sewed, a felt letter board (#basiccraftingbitch) and some twinkle lights that I impulse bought at Target.

For how little time I put into planning the table (though, don’t get me wrong, I still put in some time). I was thrilled with how it turned out! It was pretty minimal, but it was easy to set up, easy to shop (hopefully) and a total breeze to disassemble.

The Fair Itself

The day-of, I was lucky enough to have the help of my mom. She picked me up at the crack of dawn (OK, just 7:45am) and drove me all they way out to Madison and helped me set up my table.

Since my booth wasn’t that elaborate, it took only a few minutes to set up and we had plenty of time to see what a lot of the other crafters were up to (and even buy a few things ourselves, like this adorable Old Fashioned ornament!).

The fair opened at 10:00 and I was lucky enough to get a sale in the first ten minutes! A sweet girl picked up a little blerg hoop and I was officially in business! Throughout the morning, I sold a few of my favorite pieces off to really great ladies and that really put me in a good mood. Well, that and being visited by my sisters, aunts, husband, mother-in-law and my oldest friend. Special guests are always welcome!

Admittedly, I kind of got down on myself for the last hour of the fair. I had made a handful of sales, but didn’t really make the splash I was hoping. Maybe my references were a little too specific (that’s what my mom said, but I stand by all my You go, Glen Coco! hoops); more likely, my expectations were way too high. Mostly I came to the uncomfortable conclusion that I spent so much of my free time making an absurd amount of hoops, and in the end, a lot of that work wasn’t necessary.

But I’m not going to get down on myself about that now, because at the end of the day, I set a goal for myself and I achieved it! Plus, if I decide to do another fair in the future, I’ve got a little experience under my belt!

The Cherry On Top

After a long day of hoop hawking, my family was sweet enough to indulge me at the Old Fashioned on the Capitol square. This place is one of my favorite restaurants, and they’re the only bar I know of (south of Wausau, at least) that sells brandy slushes. So I got to sip on one of those and enjoyed some beer cheese soup, onion rings and a prime rib sandwich. It was a good way to wrap up the day and it felt like a great kick-off to the holidays.

At the end of the day, this was a HUGE learning experience for me. And I sort of have the itch to do another!