Catch Up

It's hard to believe that it's been almost a month since my last post. Let me assure you, my life has not been as boring as this blog; I've been so busy! Between family and friends visiting, traveling around Colorado and making time to relax, I've also found time to have the busiest month for simplejoys :)

This past month I had people stock up on stocking stuffers for grandchildren, made multiple hats and booties for newborns, did some custom blankets for friends and mailed a few packages to loved ones on California. Blogs are way more fun with pictures and unfortunately I have been lagging in that area, so here's some pictures, unrelated to yarn, but related to the simplejoys in my life :)

 Loved having my sisters and Court up here 

Hiking!

Roommates for the summer :) 

 Rockies Games

Kat Came to visit!! 

Hope you all are having a fabulous summer! If you have any orders or special requests shoot me an email: itsthesimplejoys@gmail.com

Love love love

Friday Market

Last Friday I packed up all my inventory and headed down to the Granby Friday Market. It was a cold, windy and rainy day so the crowds were light, but I think it was a good practice for the more crowded days to come. Here's some pictures of the set up and such :) Happy Friday!

 Baby Hats and Booties

 Baby Blankets

 Headbands and clips

 Broncos and Rockies Hats

 Mom and Dad came along as moral support- definitely appreciated! 

Mama Bear and I with the whole set-up

Life is about to get crazy in a wonderful kinda way. Grandma arrives on Sunday, Courtney arrives on Tuesday then the rest of the family trickles in throughout the week. It's been nice to have some peace and quiet, but I am SO excited for them to be here! 

ETSY

One big goal this summer is to figure out where the best place to be selling my items is. I've had about 20 people tell me I should try out Etsy, so today I decided to give it a shot! Etsy is a super cool website that is like eBay, but everything is either handmade or vintage.

Check out my shop here :)

Simplejoys of the day: getting to spend time with my dad- he is truly an amazing man and such a great person in my life. Truly blessed.

Big Brother

A few weeks ago my sister asked me to make a baby gift for our friend's newest addition to the family. They love all things sports so we decided on a Rockies hat for the baby (who is coming very soon :) and a Broncos hat for Aiden, the soon-to-be big brother. Tarah and Kyle went to see then last weekend and brought the gifts.

Seriously, does it get any cuter than this?

Along with the hats we sent one of my favorite baby blankets....

Congrats Mike and Sonja, I'm so happy for you and can't wait to meet the little one :) 

The Hair Bar

On our way out to Colorado Dad and I stopped in Glenwood to see Tarah and Kyle. The Hair Bar is the little shop that has been selling my stuff so we decided to stop in and see how things were going. We unfortunately did not get to meet the owner, but I did get to see my stuff on display and snap these photos... 

The place was absolutely adorable- a mini anthropologie. I'm on the lookout for some new stores this week so fingers crossed :) 

simplejoys of the day- learning to make lattes with my cousin's new espresso machine- im obsessed!

Colorado!

After a fun but long three days of driving I'm finally in Colorado! Sorry for the lack of blogging, things are about to pick up so I will have lots to share :) Here's some pictures in the meantime...

 Just hanging out on the Oregon Trail 

 IDAHO!!!

 Shoshone Falls- the most beautiful things I have ever seen 

My summer home!

Simplejoys of the day: sitting out by the lake, riding my bike around town and the ice cream shop!

Happy Birthday 21st AL!!

Today is my fabulous friend and roommate's birthday :) Al loves her birthday more than anyone I've ever known and I really love to celebrate other people's birthdays, so we make a great pair. We started the day off with a big breakfast, strolled around Pikes, got yogurt and are going out to dinner tonight! It's so fun to be up here and get to celebrate my wonderful friend.

Love you so much Al, you are an amazing friend and such a blessing to know :)

Part of Al's birthday present was some homemade stationary...Here's some pics.

Baby Blankets

This week I'm in Seattle and my yarn/inventory is torn between here, Ventura and Glenwood... It's a bit of chaos, but I've made some time to make some new baby blankets this week. I'm obsessed with these colors;  they are so fun and unique, some feel like baby blankets and some have a "sophisticated" flare.

Here are some of the favorites...

simplejoys of the day- walking around greenlake in the sunshine!

Granby Friday Markets

This week I sent in my application for the Granby Friday Markets this summer. It's a cute little market filled with fresh fruits, vegetables and, of course, crafts! Fingers crossed I get accepted :)

Simplejoys of the day: walking through the Freemont market to gather ideas for my booth, Theo chocolate samples and new flavors (seriously, salted almond is the bomb!)

Colorado Colors

In about a week, I'm packing up (again) and heading out to the most beautiful summer location I can imagine. As a Californian who poses as a Seattelite most of the year, I'm excited to live in a new place and be a temporary Coloradan. Colorado has always had a special place in my heart- a place that is growing as my sister and brother are out there, there is a beautiful lake that makes me feel peaceful and thankful, and opportunities for me post-grad.

In attempt to fit in this summer I have added a new "line" to the collection of hats....So here we are, Broncos and Rockies colored hats!!! They come in all different sizes and are perfect for staying warm and fashionable at games :)

simplejoys of the day: getting to see the adorable little girls that I babysit and getting to spend time with my wonderful roommates

stripped of beauty and purpose

Last week Courtney and I went downtown to look around and try to find some stands to hold my stuff for the craft fairs and farmer markets. After seeing adorable jewelry holders at urban outfitters, I decided that it might be more cost efficient to visit the thrift store. I'm a huge fan of thrift stores and love finding something that has been stripped of beauty and purpose and turning it into a fun project... and that's exactly what I did.

We found two items, one that looked like it was a DVD holder (definitely has seen better days) and a wooden thing that looked like a broken paper towel holder (no joke) I bought them, got some spray paint and $6 dollars later here we are!

Simplejoys of the day: breakfast and good talks with Alli G, MOLLY MOONS ice cream (oh how I missed it),

Chalkboards!

With craft fairs and farmers markets in my future, its time for some signs. I've typed up a few things to put in frames, but I thought it might be fun to make some chalkboards. So I did!

Got some cheap frames....

Then some chalkboard paint...

And bam! 

Overall I think they turned out really well, I made some bigger ones that can display sales and such. It's all coming together!

Simplejoys of the day: seattle and sunshine. reunited with roommates and best friends.

My Favorites

The best part about this whole thing is getting to make things for people that I love. I absolutely love giving people gifts and it's even more fun when you made it! Here are some of my favorite gifts given lately :) 

 My beautiful sister and "business manager/advertising guru/delivery man" I really appreciate all her help (she's in Colorado and I'm not yet!)

 Miss peyton is absolutely adorable- she tried a hat on one day and wouldn't take it off, so I made her one to keep! She wears it with everything, in every type of weather. So cute.

Miss Alex Gennaro modeling our new clips! She loves hair clips/accessories so I made this real quick before I picked her up from the airport last week. I'm so excited to see her and celebrate her bday next week!!

Hahah Ok this isn't for real, but too good to pass up. Matt came over the other day and wanted to try on a hat. He picked up a baby one and tried to put it on. He got some good laughs out of Tay and I (and also streched it out :) 

simplejoys of the day- giving gifts :) 

Colorado and Craft Fairs.

On Wednesday I'm taking off for Seattle, followed by a little road trip out to Colorado where I'm living for the summer. Since I'm going to be in the middle of nowhere, I stocked up on yarn before I leave.
The only problem is trying to pack it all up! It's been a little chaotic trying to get my act together before Wednesday.....

I've never been more excited to be in Colorado. Looking at my calendar I think it's going to go quickly- family visiting, friends coming up, trips to glennwood, horse shows, craft fairs and farmers markets.

Out of everything I'm most excited about this view and it people I get to share it with - it doesn't get much better...

simplejoys of the day- the opportunity to live in Colorado this summer!!