2011 Fall & Holiday Craft Shows

If you're local to the Corvallis, Oregon area, Ladybug Limited will be at the following craft shows this fall:

September 24 & 25 -- I'll be sharing 2 booths with Clover Green Design and La Petite Vie at First Christian Church's craft fair next to the Corvallis Fall Festival. Hours are 10 to 6 on Saturday and 10 to 5 on Sunday. I'll be in Booth 27 between the church and the Disciples House on Madison Street.

November 5 & 6 -- I'll be at the Philomath Frolic & Rodeo Holiday Craft Fair at Philomath Elementary School at 16th and Applegate. Hours are 9 to 5 on Saturday and 10 to 3 on Sunday.

November 11 & 12 -- I'll be at the 67th Annual St. Mary's Arts & Craft Bazaar in downtown Albany (706 Ellsworth St SW.) Hours are 10 to 7 on Friday (Veteran's Day) and 9 to 5 on Saturday.

November 29 (Tuesday) -- I'll be at Handmade NW's OHSU Heart Research 2011 Holiday Bazaar at the Center for Health & Healing at OHSU's South Waterfront District (3303 SW Bond Ave, Portland, OR 97239). Show hours are 10 to 5:30 and 10% of sales will be donated to the Heart Research Center at OHSU.

December 2 & 3 -- I'll be sharing a booth with Clover Green Design at OSU's 31st Annual Holiday Marketplace in the Memorial Union Ballroom on campus. Hours are 10 to 6 on Friday and Saturday.

Ladybug Limited Hits 500 Sales on Etsy!

Well, I mentioned it on my shop page on Facebook (where I post all my shop news now), but I'm so thrilled that I had to share the details here: I just had my 500th sale in my Etsy shop today!

I opened Ladybug Limited on Etsy in December of 2008, but hitting that milestone today has been worth waiting for. Oh, and in case you're curious as to which item was my 500th sale, the buyer actually bought 4 items: the upcycled retro cherry clips, the purple butterfly clips, my new Kimono Cutie clips, and my new (and very popular!) owl clips:
So how does an Etsy seller celebrate 500 sales? I started by refunding the buyer's shipping, but maybe I can talk my family into dinner out tonight as well :)

Ladybug Limited Model Shots by Anne Nunn Photographers

The shop has been long overdue for an overhaul, but I started with the blog -- there are now tabs at the top to keep me organized (or so one would hope.) In my overhauling, I realized that I had some beautiful model shots by Anne Nunn Photographers just sitting on my computer!
I first met Anne through her sister-in-law, Jessica, a fellow MOPS mom. Anne, out of the goodness of her heart, volunteered to photograph our family and said that she'd be happy to do the model shots of my Bug in some Ladybug Limited accessories as part of the shoot. Obviously I cropped them quite a bit for the collage above, but aren't they wonderful? A thousand times better than any model shots I've ever taken with my point-and-shoot!

Anyways, if you are in the Willamette Valley, I would highly recommend Anne Nunn Photographers. Our family's session with her last summer was such a delight. To thank her, I gave her a display board with lots of clips for her daughter, which led to the funniest "model shot" ever:

For a better sample of her professional work, head on over to my Who Is Ladybug Limited? page to see the precious shot she took of Bug and me or to her blog where she posted a great shot of the family from the shoot...

Beaver Believer Accessories Package

Now that I live in Corvallis, Oregon, it's practically mandatory that I'm an Oregon State Beavers fan -- I would be rejecting local culture to do otherwise! Good thing my son is such a sports nut...
For the school auction dinner fundraiser at my kids' school this year, I've donated this Beaver Believer Accessories Package -- just a little bit of everything I do. There's the fabric button ring (a craft show staple), the fabric button snap clips and ponytail holders in 2 other black and orange fabrics, the no-slip ribbon clippies in orange with black dots, and the button and flower felt headband. I hope whoever wins this auction has either a lot of Beaver Believers in their family or lots of girls to share with!

New Product Debut: Button 'n' Felt Flower Headbands

My poor little shop blog has been rather neglected as of late since most of the news and photos are now posted on the Ladybug Limited fan page on Facebook. However, I did want to post some photos from the Christmas bazaar I did at St. Mary's, Corvallis, this weekend as I got to debut a new product!
I'm branching off into the world of felt with these button 'n' felt flower headbands. I made one for my daughter for her birthday back in October, which quickly led to another, which led to another, and so on -- you get the idea!
I need to find a good source for headbands, but for now, I'm loving that Bug has something new to be excited about -- it's so funny to watch her choose her clothes according to the headband she's picked out for the day.
I also took this close-up shot of my ribbon clips -- I've finally changed the clip cards on them to match my other clips and ponytail holders. I had to create a card for the button flower headbands, but at least they're all stamped the same. Now I just need to change over the tags for the adjustable headbands!

Upcycled Fabric Flower Clips = Perfect School Uniform Accessory

So this was for another custom order: a friend of mine had fabric from her daughter's school uniform and asked if I would make some of my scrappy flower fabric clips to match. Once I figured out how to get as much of the plaid pattern showing as possible, they were a pretty quick upcycling project. Such a fun accent for a school uniform! If you need clips made out of a certain fabric, I'm happy to oblige...

Print Your Own Fabric at Spoonflower for a Truly Custom Order!

So do you know about Spoonflower? This awesome site lets you design and purchase fabric that's printed on demand. If you can't find that perfect fabric, this is the site to go to create it. And in the case of the custom order that I sold today, Spoonflower is also the perfect site if you're hoping for some truly custom buttons.
I had an Etsy shopper contact me earlier this year asking if I would make button accessories from fabric that she would supply since she was going to design it herself. Before she ordered from Spoonflower, she checked with me as to what size her design should be and what the maximum space needed to be between the design as it repeated on the fabric. As you can see, she had fabric printed with the school crest for a school in Georgia and I got to make the buttons into button snap clips and ponytail holders to be sold in the school store. We started with 40 buttons to see how they'll sell, but this one fat quarter has enough crests for another 90 buttons! Getting the text and circles just so was rather difficult, but I think the end result was worth it.

Shop Local: Shop Ladybug Limited!

If you're in the Corvallis area, I'll be doing two weekend bazaars for your holiday shopping pleasure. Some Ladybug Limited accessories (pins, rings, most of my no-slip clippies, and adjustable headbands) are only carried at these live shows since my Etsy shop has focused in on my fabric button goodies. So... for the best selection (and 3 for $10 deals!) come find me at one of the following:

• Thanksgiving weekend (Nov. 27 and 28) I'll be at the Benton County Fairgrounds Holiday Expo. Admission is free and shopping hours are 9 - 5 on Friday and Saturday. This is a big, fantastic show-- I did a lot of shopping there last year!
• December 11 and 12 I'll be at the Zion Lutheran School Christmas Bazaar (at the corner of 29th and Harrison.) Besides handmade shopping opportunities, this bazaar will feature pictures with Santa and a baked goods sale. Hours are 5 - 8:30 pm on Friday evening and 8 - 4 on Saturday.

Hope to see you there! Ladybug Limited accessories make great stocking stuffers...

Ladybug Limited as shot by Pascale Wowak: Wow!

So while doing the Fall Festival craft fair with Julie of ZozoBugBaby a couple weeks ago, she mentioned that she was getting an outfit ready to send to a photographer for a big project and invited me to send along a matching fabric flower clip for the shoot. New scraps in hand, I quickly got a scrappy fabric flower off to Pascale Wowak Photography for the shoot.

So can you see why I was thrilled to get these images from Pascale today? She posted about the shoot on her blog here, so you must click through for more great shots -- Pascale's daughter Ellie has so much spirit! And Pascale had such sweet things to say in her post: "Diana uses the same fabric as Julie to design matching hair accessories for Julie's outfits! And when I say matching, I mean PERFECT! How adorable is the barrette?! LOVE."

Thanks, Pascale! The photos are fabulous!

October 9 Update:
Julie has posted the big news on her blog! Her big project is that she'll be be releasing 3 patterns for P & B Textiles -- wow! This shoot was for her Rosey Tilt-a-Twirl skirt set -- isn't it adorable? You can't really see my scrappy fabric flower clip on the pattern cover, but I'm so happy for Julie and so thrilled with Pascale's beautiful images!

Pix from Corvallis Fall Festival 2009

Whew, that's a lot of accessories for lucky bugs on one table! Over 400 items...

The ribbon crochet no-slip clips and some of the adjustable ribbon headbands ("won't slip like elastic or pinch like plastic...")

The hand-stamped fabric button clips and ponies and more adjustable ribbon headbands...

The no-slip ribbon clips -- boy, were they popular!

The fabric button hair clips and hair ties -- the whole bottom spinner was fall and holiday!

My new fabric flower clips and fabric button goodies to match ZozoBugBaby...

My new fabric button bobby pins...

And I also debuted the fabric button rings and pins (in two sizes.)

Watch for a big Etsy shop update this week with new goodies!

Upcycled Fabric Flower Clips -- They're "Scrap Happy!"

I get so many scraps from ZozoBugBaby, that I was inspired to do something new with them. You can never upcycle too many scraps into buttons, in my opinion, but as you could probably tell from my Zozo post earlier this week, Julie's style can handle something a lot bolder than buttons! So this weekend at the Fall Festival Craft Fair, I'll be debuting my new fabric flower clips. I've got some in the shop, too, if you're outside the Corvallis area. These clips are made by die-cutting scraps which are then sewn on with a button to a standard silver snap clip. Simple yet fun!

Ladybug Limited LIVE with... ZozoBugBaby!

If you're local, then you know this weekend is the Corvallis Fall Festival, only the biggest arts and crafts event to happen in Benton County each year. This year, Ladybug Limited will have a booth in front of First Christian Church (on Madison) with ZozoBugBaby, my upcycling collaborator.
If you've never seen ZozoBugBaby's clothes, you won't want to miss this as it's the only show we're doing together this year. And for my faithful few blog readers, mention this post and I'll have a free toggle headband for you!

Etsy Love: Livvy Sue

If you've poked around the shop at all, then you probably know that I've had a long-time collaboration with ZozoBugBaby. Julie makes darling kids' clothes, sends me her scraps, and I make fabric button hair goodies out of them.

Well, little did I know that when I purchased this skirt for my Bug last spring, that it would be the start of a new collaboration. Livvy Sue makes adorable/affordable little girl skirts, as well as bibs and cute kimono sets. Over the summer, she sent me some scraps, and I'm now finally ready to lauch the Livvy Sue collection in the shop. Too cute! I'll have to see if I can resist going back for another skirt or not...

106 Fans!

Realizing it was time to finally get the shop onto Facebook, I set up a page on Facebook about a week ago. However, I soon learned that Facebook would not let me have a dedicated username unless I had 100 fans. So, it was time to get the word out. Thanks to some awesome mom friends like Tammy and Andie, http://www.facebook.com/ladybuglimited hit 106 fans today-- and yes, I got my username!

As promised, it's time for a drawing for those fans who helped me get that username. According to random.org, the random fan is (drumroll, please)...

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

49

Timestamp: 2009-07-03 04:38:10 UTC

Since I think Facebook lists the fans as the most recent fans first, according to my calculation, my 49th fan would be Valerie Wilson, who apparently found me through Dan Shipley, my cross-country teammate from my Concordia days. So, congrats Valerie, and thanks, Dan, for helping to get the word out!

Ladybug Limited as shot by Thea Coughlin Photography

One of the best parts about selling on Etsy is trading with other sellers -- it's almost like getting something for nothing, right? Awhile back I traded some fabric button accessories with Julie of ZozoBugBaby and she sent some of these clips to a photographer for a product shoot. Well, today, Thea Coughlin Photography has a post up of beautiful images -- click through for some adorable kids!

Ladybug Limited Around the Web...

Just a couple of new places you can find me...

• On the Dot Creations has a thing for polka dots! This month, some of my dotty items are part of her Polka Dot Parade
• You can now find selected Ladybug Limited hair goodies at online retailer Cat in an Apron, one of my first wholesale accounts. Click on through and see all the cuteness she has in stock!

Yay! Another Etsy Treasury!

Got selected for another treasury this week by Minnow by E who created a treasury with a "Mellow Mustard" theme with lots of yellows and blues. So what did she pick of mine to feature? My little Vintage Duckies! They're in the shop if you'd like your own, in your choice of clips or ponies (or one of each.)

She's Mine! All Mine!

It's not often I post my Etsy finds from my personal blog here on the shop blog, but since this one is for the shop, I had to double post!

If you've been around the shop lately, you may have noticed that I've gone a bit ladybug crazy. It all started when I got my long-lusted-after Shinzi Katoh fabric and made these buttons:First, I made that little ladybug my shop and Blogger avatar and then I worked her into my blog and shop banner. Well, that wasn't enough. I stopped by Craft Pudding, the coolest little stamp shop on Etsy, and asked her to make me a ladybug stamp of my very own. And here's what she came up with:Isn't she just the cutest ladybug ever?!?!?! I can hardly stand it and can't wait to stamp her on shop tags, business cards, and fabric for buttons. And while I was there, I also picked up a fat quarter of Craft Pudding's fabric from her stamp designs. Won't it make great fabric buttons?So, if you haven't checked out Craft Pudding yet, you are really missing out! Go now, but you can't have my ladybug-- she's mine, all mine!

I'm in an Etsy Treasury!

This is probably no big deal to most Etsy sellers, but it's my first, so I'm excited:
Yep, my little day-old Bug Buddies ponytail holders made it in. I guess this means my pix must finally be improving :)

And as I've been told in the forums, technically this isn't my first as I was an alternate for an Admin-curated Treasury that was on the front page in January, but this is the first one my goodies are actually pictured in!

Oh, and if you want to see it, go now because it expires on Thursday. For the direct link, click here.

My New Ladybug!!!

The Shinzi Katoh "Clover" fabric I've been lusting over for months arrived from Japan today! Isn't it so kawaii?
I immediately had to make Bug some ponytail holders with it:
And not only is it already listed in the shop in case you want your own ladybugs or bumblebees, I also had to make that Little Miss Ladybug my avatar (both on Etsy and Blogger) and she's in my new shop and blog banner.
I am in love!!!!