Cabin in the City

Books, cats and midwestern charm.

Etsy

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Kaminski Handicraft: Open for the Holidays

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It’s been a hot minute since I’ve shared any updates about the embroidery business!

Shop on Etsy

Kaminski Handicraft is still up and running, and now I’ve got my hoops listed in my Etsy shop!

I’ve got a little more than a dozen of my best-sellers listed in my shop ready to rock and roll for the holidays. All of these hoops are made and ready to ship out the next day.

Plus, I’m offering free shipping when you purchase $35 or more from my shop.

Shop on Instagram

If Etsy isn’t your style, you can see what’s up in my Sunday Insta-Sales over at @kaminskihandicraft. Just DM me and I’m happy to take your order and accept payment via Venmo or Square.

Plus, if you live in Milwaukee, I’m offering free contactless pickup or delivery. Not a bad deal!

Now there’s my shill for the season. Happy shopping (I hope you shop small and local when you can!).

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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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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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Spooky Hoops // What’s New in Kaminski Handicraft

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It’s no secret that I’m all about spooky things here on this blog – or embroidery for that matter. So it’s not really a surprise that I’ve combined the two for a few scary shop updates at Kaminski Handicraft.

My first hoop is a real pride and joy piece for me. I dabbled with a new text style and new colors to make this Beetlejuice hoop. As a kid I loved Lydia Deetz, so this one is close to my heart. Plus, I feel like the red rose fabric (major heart eye emojis) and metallic black hoop scream Lydia.

For those looking for a more obvious Halloween-theme, I obviously had to tap into my 90s childhood for a Hocus Pocus hoop. It’s really a shame that this one doesn’t photograph that well, but I think it’s bewitching nonetheless. Bonus: the fabric glows in dark. Super cool.

And of course, Halloween would not be complete for me without some X-Files references. For those of you keeping track, Michael and I won a costume contest last year dressing up as Mulder and Scully. We’re way into it. And I’m way into these hoops! You can find them here and here.

For those interested parties, get these hoops now! I ship them out pretty quickly (within three days), but who doesn’t want to celebrate Halloween sooner than later?

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Small Goals // September 2017

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Welcome back to Small Goals! Let’s see how I did on last month’s goals.

  1. Get my summer reading list together. Done! I’ll let you know if anything is worth checking out.
  2. Get a few more designs whipped up for Kaminski Handicraft. Happy to report that this is also done! I added this Yes to staying in more! design, an X-Files hoop and a Beetlejuice hoop.
  3. Apply for the Crafty Fair. I applied for this, and unfortunately I didn’t make the cut. I also applied to Hover Craft in Milwaukee, but I won’t hear back until September 11.
  4. Get my stitching in order. Yes! My fabric and floss combinations are all in writing (finally).
  5. Clean, like really clean, my bathtub. Done. I’m pretty happy with how this turned out. The tub looks 95% cleaner and all it took was a half hour, some elbow grease and $5 for supplies.

5/5. I feel good about this past month! I had a whole week of vacation tucked in there and I still managed.

Let’s move on to September. I hate to see summer wind down, but I really love the fall. I’m going to take it easy on myself this month because – drum roll – I’m starting a new job! This is a task on its own, so I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself to accomplish a lot outside of work. Also, I’ll share more about that later!

  1. Find the perfect first-day outfit. I’ve bought a new interview outfit for every post-college job I’ve had – except for my new one. I’m going to treat myself to a new first day outfit instead.
  2. Clean up my wardrobe. Looking in my drawers and closet recently I realized that a lot of my clothes are under- or over-worn. It’s time to trim down my t-shirt collection and get rid of sweaters that have seen better days. I’m not going to go full-on Kondo by any means, but if I can get rid of a laundry basket full, I’ll be happy.
  3. Find a suitable 70th birthday gift for my dad. My dad likes simple things: new zip-front sweatshirts, Elvis memorabilia and anything he can take camping. Those aren’t going to cut it for a milestone birthday like this. I’m making it my mission to find something special for his 70th.
  4. Paint the cabin’s shutters. Our family cabin (OK – it’s a mobile home) is looking a little worse for wear due to its bleached out shutters. I want to spruce the place up and paint the shutters a fresh shade of Blue Midnight.
  5. End the mattress shopping saga. Earlier this year, I upgraded our full-size mattress to a queen. I was convinced after limited research and limited understanding about my own sleep needs that a Purple mattress was going to perfect for Michael and me. It was impossibly firm. So I ordered a Cocoon by Sealy. Still way too firm. It’s time to put this problem to rest. PUN INTENDED.

Alright, that’s all, folks! See you in October.

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A Great British Baking Show Shop Update

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In case you missed it, The Great British Baking Show is back on PBS! I’ve been biding my time watching Master Class on Netflix, but we all know that’s not the same as the real deal (though Mary Berry is a delight AS ALWAYS).

To capitalize on my own GBBS frenzy, I decided to whip up some hoops inspired by Mel, Sue and my girl Mary. I think they turned out really fun, and I am hoping that there are some folk out there that are living for crafties like these. Also, this fits along with my small goals for June – I wanted to get a handful of non-wedding hoops up in the shop, and I did it!

The most obvious option is, of course, the ready, get set, bake! I think it’s super charming, and I hope it finds a home in someone’s adorable kitchen.

My goal is to capture that cute English garden feel with the fabric choices. I pretty much thought to myself could this be a grandma’s handkerchief or tea towel? as I picked out the fabric. I think that guided me to some pretty good options.

So far these are the only hoops in my GBBO series, but I’m always open to more! If you have any Mary Berry-sims you’d like to see stitched, leave them in the comments! I’d love to expand on this idea!

P.S. I also have other new hoops in the shop (just not baking-related). Check them out!

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Wedding Season Wedding Hoops

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It’s that time of year, folks: wedding season! That means I’ve been busy stitching up a few custom hoops for lucky couples near and far.

The first wedding of the season was for a family friend’s daughter, and I love this charming little design. It comes together relatively quick and I think it has a bit of fairy tale flourish – perfect for this Disney-loving pair.

I also have a set of twin hoops! Two couples chose this design and color scheme, and I think they look really lovely. Sometimes a design just works, and this is one of them! The second hoop pushed me to my limits – I stitched it up in about three days – but I really wanted these newlyweds to get their wedding gift on time. The USPS pulled through for me, and it was dropped off the day before. Talk about timing!

The pièce de résistance, however, is this completely custom design that I worked on all the way back in April and May. I love working on the designs I have in my shop, but I was really crossing my fingers for a 100% custom request at some point. Lucky for me, this bride’s style harmonized with my own. The invitation she sent me was fun and packed with color – a super fun design to riff off for my sketch. And the style of the lettering and illustration translated easily into embroidery. It was a dream project, and I’m so happy with how it turned out!

Congratulations to all these amazing couples! And feel free to visit my Etsy shop to check out more wedding/anniversary designs (and a few just-for-fun hoops too!).

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Introducing… Kaminski Handicraft

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In my last post I made mention of new and exciting embroidery projects and how they were keeping me pretty busy. Well, it’s true! I do have some fun embroidery news to share!

After literal years of saying I would, I opened my Etsy shop! Say hello to Kaminski Handicraft!

Kaminski Handicraft sells custom embroidery pieces to celebrate life’s special occasions: weddings, anniversaries, new babies and more! I have a handful of standard designs that are ready to customize, and I’m also open to all sorts of design-to-order work to match invitations, websites and whatever else comes my way.

It’s a bit embarrassing to admit that I first wrote about this idea here all the way back in 2015, but that’s OK! I’ve got a few more hoops under my belt and a few more designs to pop into the shop!

Thanks for checking Kaminski Handicraft out. I’ll be adding more styles in the future, and – who knows – maybe a few non-special occasion hoops (looking at you, Golden Girls quotes). 😉

P.S. You can follow this new venture on Instagram: @kaminskihandicraft.